Injuries side lined us for much of 2021 so things I wanted to do didn't happen.  We did get a nice crop of potatoes so will try them again this coming year.  Some of my other attempts didn't work as well...  Groundnuts need more shade and moisture.  I think the squirrels ate my sunchokes,  Runner beans were another winner.  Among my tomatoes Dwarf Pink Passion and Black and Red Boar were both winners but few others were as outstanding.  And those injuries meant that potatoes, tomatoes, and runner beans were about all we got planted... 

Hopefully 2022 will be better.  We really liked the fresh potatoes so will be growing them again.  In fact we have already ordered our seed potatoes.  We are bringing back AmaRosa a late red fleshed fingerling I really liked and Adirondack Blue a mid season blue fleshed potato that we both liked.  Then I added two yellows that are new to us Natascha which is an early season and Daisy Gold a mid season potato.  For storage I added Kennebec a white fleshed favorite in the US.

AND I once again joined in the MMMM seed swap.  Got my envelope mailed in today and of course now I get to wait and see what shows up.  I asked for more varieties of Runner Beans to trial as I liked what I got last year.   

Runner beans are a different species then regular bush and pole snap beans.  They prefer cooler soil conditions so I can plant them earlier and if I do a combo of regular snaps and runners I should pretty much have continuous bean production. That of course depends on the local insect population as unlike normal snap beans runner beans require insects for pollination.  But any pods I get can be eaten as snaps, left to mature and eaten as fresh shell beans or left to dry and cooked like dry beans in the winter.  Plus of course they have lovely flowers and are often grown for the flowers alone. 

My tomato plans for next year like much of my garden will be up in the air until I get my returned package from the swap but I do have a few will be grown already picked out...  I will post about those later

Ever hear of a step over?

 Neither had I until this week.   A stepover is a form of espalier.  They are only about 15 to 24 inches tall so you can easily step over them...   and work best for apples, pears and vines.    They are also used in cold areas as a way to provide protection for figs.  Since the trunks are under 2 ft tall you can easily mound  mulch and dirt over them to provide protection for them.  This lets them be raised as far north as parts of Maine!  I still think I will stick with a pot for my fig tree(s). 

So back to a stepover.  They are often used alongside walkways as a way of defining a yard.  I would have to figure out where the safest place would be to plant the trees but I can visualize a step over on the east side of the front yard with two trees planted 8 ft apart.  That would give me the pollination I need for a crop of apples.  AND make a nice little barrier for the public

Lots of changes happening in the back garden. I added my tumbling composter and was thrilled to discover it fit perfectly into a formally unusable corner :)

While I liked last years design there were some things I wanted to improve.  I had thought of moving the south box up in line with north box making a U that faced west.  And moving my narrow box next to the trellis that was in the wider box I moved.  While I liked how this worked the amount of effort involved in moving that one box and me worried.   

New idea hit me yesterday.   What if I move the north box instead.  Leave the east and south box in place, turn the north box so it runs north to south and line it up with the edge of  south box so I am one again making a U but this time with the open end facing north.    And leaving my narrow box in place.   Tried it in real life today and it looks like it will work EXCEPT the narrow box will interfere with the arch I want over the gateway...  AND for some reason I don't seem to have as much outside room as I did the other way...  I will have to give this some more thought but I do like the fact that would have 3 boxes running north to south giving my garden boxes better sun exposure.  

I need to get out there with a tape measure and a notebook and make sure I really have accurate measurements for the area and my boxes.   I need room for my potato grow bags, my asparagus bed, my short perennial vegetables I wanted to get started and my cherry tomatoes and peas...  so that will take a bit of work to figure out. 

A what?

Jerusalem artichoke aka sunchoke aka sun root is a type of sunflower that grows a tuberous root that can be used as food.  They are HIGHLY invasive in most area but can make a nice windbreak or privacy "fence" as most varieties are about 10 to 15 feet tall.   However there are some varieties that are down around 5  to 8 feet tall, those are the ones I looked at.  Oikos Tree Crops has a a variety they call Saint Charles that sounded just like what I wanted.  Shorter at about 8 ft tall, it takes only 90 days to produce chokes that can be harvested and has shorter stolons and smaller chokes just right for soups and stews.  4 tubers of that one hopped into my cart... 

The next a what? thing I got is called a groundnut.  Apois Americana is a vining plant that forms small tubers spaced out along a long stolon like beads on a necklace.   The vines can get up to 10 ft!  Again Oikos Tree Crop to rescue.  The have a new variety they call Clusternut Groundnut.  It is another early cropper perfect for our shorter growing season. And like the name says instead of long stolons with beads strung along it this one produced shorter stolons with the beads very close together.  It also is a shorter bushier plant.   Yep 4 tubers for that one hopped into the cart. 

I mentioned my two White Aster Dahlias in the last post, those will arrive about April/May just in time to plant them.  Not sure when the 8 new tubers from Oikos will arrive but I do need to start working outside this weekend if our snow is melted enough... 

My asparagus plants will also arrive about mid April so that bed needs dug and prepared for them.  Those of course a long term project with our first very small harvest in a year or two... 

I also settled on my new fruit tree.  I will be looking for a Mormon/Chinese apricot for the front yard.  They are hardy, late flowering, small at about 15 feet tall and best of all they are self fertile so I only need one not 2 like most other fruiting plants I looked at.   

Today is also another seed starting day or rather yesterday was supposed to be but I forgot to plant them even though everything is ready.  I will need to do that tonight before I go to bed... 

I saw this video last month so yep I got a tumbling composter like him and plan on doing this...  the tumbler is here but I need to wait for the snow to melt so I can set it up in the garden and get a batch of compost going...   I also got us a little bucket for the kitchen for our coffee grounds and tea bags plus any vegetable scraps so those can be saved to go outside in a tumbler.  

I will be a busy girl if everything goes as plans...  

Oh my what have I done...

 That asparagus bed will have to be made for sure now as I just ordered a 6 pack sampler.  It will get here about mid April and will have 2 Sweet Purple, 2 Mary Washington and 2 Millennium plants.   I also have some plants here from Lowes that are 3 Mary Washington and 2 Purple Passion.  Not sure how those will do I think I need to open their boxes and get them in a pot to keep them alive...  If they all survive I will have more then the 10 plants  I planned on my bed.  The 6 new plants are 2 year old crowns and the Lowes plants are 1 year old crowns so this bed is a long term project and it will be 2 or 3 years before I really start to get a nice harvest.  Of course the asparagus will go into the garden so I can keep an eye on it and protect it from things like Pronghorns... 

AND for the front yard bed I bought two White Aster Dahlias. These are considered the oldest known variety still in existence AND it makes a tasty tuber you can eat...  I want to get a few more Dahlia varieties for that bed but not sure what I will get. Most of the ones I like are all sold out so maybe I will just wait and order for next year... 

In the mean time I am weighing my options for things like a clumping type Jerusalem Artichoke versus one that runs,  looking for the groundnut vines at a price I can afford, etc.  But I do feel like I have made a few steps in the right direction... 

 

Big plans, little steps...

I discovered permaculture this winter so still have a lot to learn.... but I want to start incorporating some of it into my yards.  Which means "food forests" and perennial food sources, fruit or nut trees or bushes, etc. 

My garden in back is small.  I have at max a 20 ft by 20 ft area for it but it will be getting a couple of changes this year.  I rearranged my square ft boxes to leave room for an asparagus bed that I will be starting this spring.  I will be trying to grow mushrooms in mulched paths and beds.  And I am looking for places I can tuck away smaller perennials like Claytonia and purslane and maybe a horseradish bush.  On the other hand I want to grow more vegetables that I can put by or store for winter so the garden plan has seen a few tradeoffs but I am happy with it. 

My front lawn...  sigh.   This area has some challenges.   The house faces north and the road in front is a major road.  We have an old sidewalk that splits the lot in half that runs from the public sidewalk near the road to the house.   To the east is an alley with a single row of bridal wreath Spirea running from the road towards the back of the lot divided by two middle aged cottonwoods. These bushes are over 50 years old so will remain...  Also on the east half of the yard is the brand new water main.  That main runs from the road to the side of the house making it just a bit east of center, closer to the alley bushes then the sidewalk.  

The water main means nothing big or with invasive roosts can go on that side.  And those old bushes have to stay for now.  AND is another good reason to take down those Cottonwoods.  The other reason is they are both dying and becoming a hazard to us, our house and anyone who uses the alley.   

So step 1 is actually a big one - get the cottonwoods removed

Step 2 turn the left hand side into a "flower bed" with a cattle trellis covered in runner beans(good snap or shelly size), and dahlia's (these have edible tubers)  in front of them plus some low growing marigolds... OH and put in a single summer squash plant or maybe two..  This would look very much like a flower garden not a food garden. 

Step 3 Plant winter squash in the right hand size and let them sprawl within reason

Step 4 Remove the grands pine tree.  This will not go over well with DH but the tree is in the wrong spot and will need severe trimming as it grows. Plus it currently has broken branches from the record snow.  The branches are not clean breaks but rather took sections of bark with them leaving open wounds that make the tree vulnerable to any bug or diseases. 

Step 5 Plant more appropriate sized fruit bearing bushes along that corner.  I am thinking of Golden Current a native well suited for this area but I am still exploring other options.  This could be the start of a food forest made up of plants that fit our tiny lot...  

Eventually I really would like food bearing plants on both sides of the yard with some space left for people... 

Plants I would like to try:

Dahlia - these flowers have edible tubers AND make lovely displays also

These two are both very invasive so I may keep them in containers...

Jerusalem Artichoke - sunflower relative with edible tubers 

Chinese Artichoke - this is a mint that produces small crunchy edible tubers

Hosta - eat the new growth in spring treat like asparagus ( I would need to establish a shaded area for them)

Ground Nuts (Apois Americana) - vine that produces edible beans and tubers. This one could go on that cattle trellis in place of some of my runner beans.  

Horseradish- this one you can eat the leaves also not just use the roots for horseradish sauce.  It is an early green so could be well worth setting aside some room for it. 

There are of course many others but some like Claytonia and purslane are small enough for the garden while others don't sound that intriguing/good to me

I have been a busy girl...

 Day before yesterday I planted seeds.  For the garden I planted 2 kinds of onions, leeks, shallots, 3 kinds of sweet peppers,  Batac eggplant and some rosemary seeds.  The alliums should have been planted last month but it took a while to get seeds, seed starter stuff and of course the energy to do something.   The rosemary seeds gave me a single weak plant last year and I hope I get at least a single healthy plant from them this year but rosemary is notoriously hard to start from seeds.  Most you see for sale are from cuttings.  

Yesterday I transplanted 16 of the 17 seedlings from the 172X F3-C5 seeds.  I also transplanted the 2 seedlings from the 6 seeds of the possible crossbred seeds.  Sadly these look like micro seedlings so that cross probably didn't take.  

AND today I finished the requirements to apply for a badge bit in the Permie forum.   This one is for sprouting seeds.  I used some Einkorn, an ancient form of wheat, which is actually only grown out until the roots form.  Then you dry the grain and use it in a number of different ways.  I made porridge from my today and YUMMY that was very good.  Filled out the submission for the badge bit including a photo.  Now I have to wait until the admins look it over and decide if I fulfilled the requirements or need to start again.  

Badge bits, seeds and oh my now what?

What, you may ask, is a badge bit?  It is a step towards earning a badge from the permaculture forum I have been hanging out in lately.   They have a list of skills you need to demonstrate(pictures or videos) to earn different badges at different levels.  Many requirements are designed for folks actually living on acreage but they recently started a new badge track for folks living in apartments.  Their PEA track has given me goals to work towards.   

So I want to get some badge bits for the PEA gardening sand level badge (ie the first level)  Some of them are simple like grow sprouts, or grow micro greens.  Others take a bit more planning like grow a polyculture of 5 plants (3 different species) in a pot/container that is NOT  plastic, cement, porous terracotta or Styrofoam  pots/containers. 

This same restriction on pots/containers extends to all their seed starting/ plant growing which makes it a bit harder.  All my seed starters are plastic or they are plastic trays with peat pellets in them.    So I am hoping putting my peat pellets in a metal or glass tray will be acceptable.  Edit: I asked in the forum and was told this was acceptable for my badge bits.

I want some herbs so my first badge bit will be Grow a table herb garden from seeds  So remembering the constraint above on pot material... 

I must start my garden from seed

It must include 4 different Herbs and they can be in different pots. 

To qualify my plants must at least 2 inches tall or showing true leaves. 

I picked Greek Oregano, Greek Dwarf Basil, Summer Savory, and Thyme for the project but I will also plant some Rosemary and hope it grows.  Rosemary is notorious for not growing well from seeds which is why I didn't include it in my set of four for the badge bit.  

Other bits are Grow a vegetable(this is easy it will be a micro tomato), Grow a fruit (thinking strawberries but... ) Grow a vegetable protein (thinking tom thumb peas), Grow a tuber (this can be flowers or vegetables, and I have lots of potatoes) Grow a grain (I can use my Einkorn to grow "wheat grass" for this one)

After looking at those badge bits I pulled out seed packets for the herbs,  micro tomato, and  Tom Thumb peas for the badge bit and set them aside. 

However I do have many garden plants I need to start that don't have to meet badge bit requirements.  Those seed packets have also been pulled and my regular seed starters have been gotten ready for planting.  For this week I have 2 kinds of onions (one eating & one storage), leeks, Diverse Shallots (swap seeds), 2 kinds of sweet peppers and an eggplant.  Those will go in my regular seed starter either today or tomorrow.  

More seeds will get started next week and then again the week after.  Even with close to 30 inches of snow on the ground I am starting to feel like spring is here. 

More snow!?

Yes the forecast is for 2 to 3 feet of snow over the next 3 days.  So indoor projects are in the works.  

My first attempt at sprouting grain in a jar got started last night.  I am actually not growing big sprouts like for radishes or alfalfa but rather I am just growing these until a small tail appears, something like malting barley.  Once those appear I will spread the grain on a cookie sheet to dry.  Once totally dry I can store it like any dry grain and use in soups, stews, etc for more flavor OR even cook it into a whole grain porridge.   I only used about a cup of einkorn wheat last night but that should be enough to let us decide if we like the flavor... 

Also later tonight I will set up my first micro greens!  I found a little kit complete with dirt, trays, seeds and instructions at Home Microgreens.  I also ordered a couple of other types of seeds while there so I could try them.  If all goes well in the next few months I should have Sunflower, Lettuce and Mesclun micro greens... 

And yes I am still fiddling with the garden plan. I have 4 Asparagus plants to start my little bed with.  I know I really want more but 4 is better then none...  I also paid some attention to the varieties I got.  I have two Martha Washington and I hope at least one is a female plant as that would mean I could get seedlings that could be used to expand my bed.  I also got 2 Purple Passion plants.  These are a mostly male variety so the chance of seedlings are slim... 

Mushroom spawn was ordered for us to try growing them in a bucket.  Later I will order a different species of mushroooms to grow in the garden as a soil amendment.  Yes you read that right.  By adding mulch (straw or aspen chips or hardwood chips) and inoculating it with mushroom spawn I will get it broken down in record time releasing nutrients into my soil AND giving us yummy edible mushrooms at the same time.  Sounds like a win win situation :)

Wednesday will be seed planting day so I am still rearranging and making room for all the seedlings I need to raise.   

Herbs that I should be getting started soon... 

Thyme, Rosemary, Oregano, Sage, Chives Garlic Chives 

 These need started or actually should have been started last month.  

• 8 Dakota Tears onions 
• 4 Elisa Craig onions  

The good news is these will go out about mid April when I need to be starting the third batch of seedlings...  

These are a bit more problematic as they need started now but have to stay in until mid May... 

• 10 leeks  
• 2 sorrel

These are just hitting best days to plant and need to be kept inside until mid May..

• 2- 4 eggplant
• 3-4  sweet peppers

These can wait until the first part of April and notice that this is my big batch.  I will be starting 50 plants that will need to be raised until mid May... 

• 3 or 4 leaf broccoli I got in the swap- have to try this
• 6 Kale 2 per variety 
• 8 collards
• 4 swiss chard

AND then come the tomatoes

10 bucket tomatoes for the front yard, 16 tomatoes for the backyard, 

and umm I think that is it what has to be started.. how many plants is that? Besides too many I mean... 

Dreams on a winter day...

 Seeds are ordered, and more were ordered and even more arrived due to a seed swap...  somehow 7 varieties of micro dwarf became about 100 varieties of tomatoes, plus broccoli, beans, squash, greens, and somethings I had to look up.  I can say that I am set for seeds for this year and possibly the next few years.  So many seeds I had to make a database for them...  and I am still filling it up and filing seeds away...  

Then I stumbled into "permaculture" oh boy now I really want out of the city... but on part of the culture is bloom where you are so I have been looking around my lot and deciding on a few small things I can do this year.   One of course was to rearrange my garden AND to move to the front yard for some of my growing. 

Current plans for this year include starting that asparagus bed I have constantly nixed because I felt I had no room for it.   Well, well, well, look at that it won't be a big one but yep we can squeeze in a bed right there. Oh and put some strawberries that bed also. Lets put an arch over the gate way and grow cucumbers up one side and tomatoes up the other.  Peas grow up and look there is room next to the peas for some of my runner beans.  Potatoes in grow bags make use of space that is still too compacted or trashed to grow directly in the soil. Herbs and flowers along the fence line.  OH I almost forgot the most important part.  Everything will be covered in mulch which will be used to grow mushrooms :) Not only will I get better soil quicker I will get yummy mushrooms to eat fresh or dry for winter.  

So how does this look? 

Yes hopefully there will be lots of potatoes and dried beans, plus snap beans, greens and tomatoes to can or freeze.  Cucumbers for pickles and fresh eating.  Not actually a lot of onions, collards, etc that are all new plants or varieties for us but enough to let us decide yea or nay for next year.  No asparagus this year and not much if any next year but it will be in the ground and getting established. Same with the strawberries. 

Now to design the front gardens... 

WOW has it been that long!

 Lots has happened since 2017.  We found a way to pay off the balance of the balloon payment on the mortgage in payments.   Some things are still being done to the inside of the house but with much less pressure. And much less money since I have joined DH in retirement this past year. 

DH had more back surgeries.   We have dropped from 4 standard poodles to 2 poodles and a small terrier.   AND my weakness in my hands, lack of feeling in my lower leg and foot are finally being investigated. 

More importantly we have both had the energy and desire to get a garden put back in.  Actually we started last year.  First we pulled out of the the rotting mismash of boxes I had put in many years ago.   Made new boxes that actually increased my space and were set up in a fairly nice manner... 

This worked well last year but as you can see we have a bit of a shade problem...  So this year we are making some changes to get our plants more sun...