Learning about crops - Legumes

Legumes.  I don't know about other people, but when I commonly have heard nutritionists talk about legumes on tv, I lose interest and zone out.  I don't know what it is about that word, but for some reason I get the feeling that I'm being talked down to.  I think it's because when they say "legume" on tv or in articles, they're so used to the word they think of the type of plants and all that that term encompasses.  To this point, I've been pretty ignorant on that term, but my mind is opening.  Ignorance, while it may be "bliss," when you're talking about nutrition it can be dangerous.  After doing a bit of reading (4-5 books plus numerous print and online articles), I've learned that they're very useful plants for some important reasons.

Legume fruit grow in pods that split open along a seam.  Common examples of legumes are peas, beans, soybeans, and peanuts.  In my way of thinking legumes are very important for two big reasons:

• They're a good source of dietary fiber which helps keep diabetes (among other maladies) at bay.
• They're plants that perform nitrogen fixation in soil.

Nitrogen fixation is an important function in gardening, particular the organic variety.  "Fixing nitrogen" is a process where gaseous nitrogen from the air is absorbed by the plant which, eventually, dies and then is released back into the soil.  So, for the fixing to actually occur, the plant has to die and the roots to have some degree (I don't know how much) decay to release the nitrogen.  According to my reading (admittedly, my recollection of college chemistry is very rusty), atmospheric nitrogen that is absorbed is is compound whereas the nitrogen that's released through decomposition is singular from a molecular standpoint.  Nitrogen in soil is important for many things, but most obviously peppers and tomatoes love it.  That is one reason why crop rotation is important: nutrient replenishment.

Growing legumes (in my garden: peas or beans) is rather simple.  You plant seeds at the recommended depth (1" or so) and spacing (4"-6" apart), do some light fertilization, and water.  They come in two primary varieties: bush and pole.  Pole beans are grown up something, such as up a pole.  There are a number of ways of accomplishing this upward growth: poles, trellises, arbors, and a native way to do that is through companion planting around corn stalks.  While it's implied that bush beans have no need for trellising, my experience is that they still need trellising just something less impressive than pole beans.  2'-3' high vs 4'+ with Scarlet Runner Beans being listed as 10' long.

Companion planting was a mixed bag for me last year. I had read that marigolds assist with pest deterrence.  That may be the case, but Mexican Bean Beetles paid no attention to it other than, perhaps, thinking that mine were both plentiful and pretty.  Despite my attempts at using Neem Oil, my beans (red, green, and lima) were wiped out by the Mexican Bean Beetle.  I have since read that Summer Savory, Rosemary, and Petunias are good companion plants for beans.  In addition, Nasturtiums attract predatory insects which may also help.  I'll be planting all but Summer Savory - my reading indicated that it takes more constant care than my somewhat constrained schedule can support.  I'll apply insecticide soap to supplement, if needed.

Nutritional Information on Boiled, Unsalted Green Snap Beans

Green snap beans are an "excellent source" (20%+ RDA) of Vitamin K and are a "good source" (10-19% RDA) of Vitamin A, Folate, Manganese, and Fiber.  There are also notable quantities of Riboflavin, Thiamin, Vitamin B6, Niacin, Copper, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorous, Potassium, and a host of essential amino acids.  All are presuming 1 cup consumption.

65 degrees at the plot in January?

With a warm day today I took the afternoon off to get some work done at the plot.  I built two boxes for the site service hours.  I also put down some newspaper and mulch under the arbor.

It was great to see that some of the experimental onions are doing pretty well.

It's an actual Adirondack chair!

Work was delayed for a few hours due to a good bit of icing in the DC area this morning.  I split the time between spending some time with the wife and kids and working on the Adirondack chair.  Unfortunately, I won't be able to get anything done Tues/Wed/Thurs so I'll have to wait until Friday to do more.

Today I finished making the upright pieces for the seat back, made both armrests, made armrest supports, and mounted the mid-level seat back support.  That took a little bit longer than anticipated due to shearing off one of the bolts mounting the left armrest to the back support.  I had to remove what was left inside the armrest and then drilled out the armrest and support holes to a slightly larger diameter to avoid repeating that mistake.

I'm quite happy with how things are turning out.  The chair is quite comfortable.  The only downside is the footprint of the chair is approx 4' long whereas the arbor is only 3' deep.  That leaves an extra 1' to figure out what to do with it. 

Still to do:

• Mount upright seat backs to mid-level support.
• Mount the upper support.
• Curve the front of the armrests.
• Curve the seat back pieces.
• Evaluate need for a rear leg horizontal support.
• Sand everything.
• Consider applying a water seal to everything.

More progress on the Adirondack chair

I ended up with an early lunch break today.  As a result, I was able to make some significant progress on the chair.  It also helped that I didn't have to do a bunch of trig to calculate angles.  The hardest part was ripping a few of the 1"x3" boards for seat supports; most annoying was figuring out how high I want the back to be.

Here's what it looks like at this point.

Unfortunately, I'm about out of unpainted lumber for the project.  I'm hoping to take another trip to The Forklift in the next few days to pick up a few more 1"x3" boards, 1"x6" boards for the armrests, and probably try to dig up a 2"x2" board so I don't have to rip a 2"x4" for the topmost horizontal back support.

Progress on Adirondack Chair

For anyone reading this, I imagine this seems more like a carpentry blog rather than anything dealing with gardening.  For that, I apologize, but with very few things that can be done outdoors at this point in the winter I do what I can.

I've been working on the Adirondack chair that I intend to place under the arbor.  After much looking around for ready-made plans for chairs and finding nothing that I liked, I decided to design one myself.  As a result, sorting out a lot of the angles and ergonomic measurements has made things take a while.  Designing the seat/rear leg support and the front support took a while.  It took two days of tinkering to finish making cuts and to mount the first side together.

Today I made a good bit more progress during my lunch break. As a result, I have something worth sharing.

Learning about crops - Ground Cherries

I've never grown ground cherries before.

To be completely honest, I don't know that I'd ever even heard of them before stumbling across them while going through the seed catalog.  After reading the description, I decided to give them a try.  I figure that it's a worthwhile attempt considering I want to branch out from beans/tomatoes/peppers/cucumbers this summer, anyway, even if it really does make me feel like I'm wandering around a grocery store at 5:30 and picking things at random off the shelf....

After doing a bit of research, here's what I've found.  They're related to the tomato, more specifically - the tomatillo, so companion planting is similar.  As such, I'll be planting marigolds and basil with them.  I would also plant peppers nearby, but I'm working to rotate my crops this year and things just won't pan out that way.

The variety I picked, Cossack Pineapple, supposedly taste very much like pineapples and are a hit with kids.  Considering my son loved picking and eating just about anything from the garden this past year, I have little doubt that this will prove true, too.

What was news to me after I lined up the order is that ground cherries love free space and encroach on everything around them.  My research has shown that they could grow to 3' across.  Most websites recommend transplanting the starters 2-3 apart with one outlier recommending as little as 18" apart.  Since descriptors like "sprawling" and "they take over your garden" are commonly used, I'm planning on planting three in a triangular pattern in a 3'x5' box to maximize the space between them.  I also have a single box along the far fenced wall that is 20"x3' that I will plant a single transplant in the middle.  To try to deter them from taking over, I'm going to try to cage them and/or encourage them to trellis. 

Nutritional information on ground cherries.

Ground cherries are an "excellent source" (20% RDA) of Vitamin A and Niacin and a "good source" (10% RDA) of Thiamin given 1 cup intake, raw.  There is also protein (5% RDA), iron (8% RDA) and magnesium (6% RDA) along with other trace minerals and vitamins.

Something else worth noting.  I've read in multiple places that the leaves, stems, and unripe fruits are toxic.  Fruit shouldn't be eaten until the husks have fallen from the plant (hence the name "ground cherry") and that the fruit inside are a golden yellow.  I'll have to be very watchful when my son is in the garden -- don't want him eating unripe fruit.

A productive day at the plot

Today has been an awfully productive day even considering it's mid/late January and there's very little going on out at the plot site.  I already did a post dedicated to the bench going in.  I also went through a milk crate full of newspapers putting that and a wheelbarrow load of mulch down around the bench and part of the gate-ward side of the arbor.

I built a garden box (12"x4'x10') for the plot site for folks who don't have the ability or, perhaps, interest to manage an entire plot.  That's part of the 4 hrs of site service necessary to have a plot with the Columbia Gardeners association.

I also finished installing the rest of the deck screws to be used for weaving the string for the bean trellising.

A view from on top of the arbor.  The new bench is shown, too.

It's also pretty neat to see that some of the onions (Walking and the test variety) are coming up.  A few of the garlic cloves are showing above the winter layer of leaves (not shown).

 

Some of the test onions are growing.

A few Egyptian Walking Onions are sprouting

The bench is in

The weather today is nice enough (currently 57 degrees) that I've done a bit of work in the garden today.  Most notably, the bench is in.  Unfortunately, it's not true to the front face of the nearest box which makes it look a little bit odd when looking at it from the far side of the plot.  It does appear to be true vs the gate, though.

Regardless, it's level in two planes which I think is most important.  It's also just under 32" away from the nearest vertical support for the arbor which leaves a good bit of room to get by.

Doesn't look level in this picture, but it is!

I can also attest that after working out there for a few hours that the bench is quite comfortable for a little bit of a rest.

Building the plot bench

While working to make the garden plot efficiently productive, I also have an eye on.....well, hospitality, for lack of a better term.  The arbor provides a means for trellising beans, but also provides shade for the yet-to-be-made Adirondack chair that will sit underneath it.  Along those lines, I wanted to build a simple bench such that multiple people could sit while at the plot.  Also, by creating a simple bench, I can also use it as a bit of an elevated working surface if need be.

The bench is made of  the following items:

• Five bench top pieces that are 2"x4"x3' long
• Eight spacer pieces that are each 2"x4"x6" long
• Two 4"x4"s that are 41" long
• Two interface support pieces that are 2"x4"x13 3/4" long
• Two 13 3/4" long pieces of 1/2" diameter all-thread
• Four 1/2" inner diameter nuts
• Four 1/2" flat washers (1 3/8" outside diameter)
• Four 1/2" inside diameter lock washers
• 3" long deck screws

Tools used:

• Power drill
• Circular saw
• Hack saw
• Tape measure
• 24" carpenter's square
• 9/16" wood drill bit
• 1 1/2" counterbore wood drill bit
• Bench grinder
• Masking tape

First I cut the eight spacer pieces to size and drilled 9/16" holes holes in the middle.

I cut the five top pieces to size.  I then drilled 9/16" holes mid-way across three of the boards and 7" in from each end.

The other two top pieces, got a special treatment.  In order to recess the assembly hardware, I bored holes to be able create counterbore areas.  Similar to the other three top boards, I centered the 1 1/2" counterbore bit at halfway across the board, and 7" in from either end.  I bored 3/4" into the depth of the board.  In order to easily gauge 3/4" on the drill bit, I measured in 3/4" from where the flat piece of the bit begins and marked it off with a piece of masking tape.

Once the blind holes for recessing the hardware were bored, I drilled a 9/16" hole through the center of each of the counterbore holes.

Next I measured the stacked-up assembly of the bench top and marked a cut line on my two pieces of all-thread with masking tape.  I cut each piece to 13 3/4" (the width of the bench top) and used a hack saw to cut through the all-thread.  I used the bench grinder to smooth the ends of the all-thread and to ensure the nuts would thread smoothly onto the ends.

Now that all the pieces for the bench top were made, I assembled everything.  The counterbored top pieces went on the outsides with the bores facing outboard.  The assembly hardware had the flat washers inboard, followed by lock washers, then finally the nuts.  All hardware is tightened until slightly more than snug.

Lastly, the support structure is made.  I measured and cut the 4"x4" vertical pieces to a length such that 2' of them would be under the ground and 17" would be above ground.

Note: My desired total height from bench top to walking surface is 17".  When you add the thicknesses of the bench top plus the 2"x4" interface piece to 17", that would be too tall to comfortably sit on.  I have 4"-6" of newspaper/mulch above the ground, though, so my total height between bench top and bottom of shoe sole should be  approximately 17".  If you follow my directions, adjust the height of your 4"x4" verticals to your needs.

After cutting the two 4"x4" pieces, I cut the two 2"x4" interface pieces.  To protect against the backs of people's calves possibly being scratched, I made diagonal cuts along the face of each of the interface pieces.  The diagonal cuts were 1/2" from the ends at the bottom of the board.  I'm sorry I didn't take pictures of these cuts, but you can see them in the next subassembly picture.

Then I drilled pilot holes then mounted the splice pieces to the ends of the two 4"x4" pieces with the interface pieces centered.

Lastly, I centered the interface pieces along the path where the 6" long spacer pieces are (underneath the all-thread), drilled pilot holes, and installed eight deck screws per interface piece.

Thus, the support pieces and bench top are created and assembled. I also sanded down the top surface, ends, and the front and back surfaces.  If I was taking particular care throughout the process, I would have sanded everything down before I assembled it, but since I didn't care, I waited until the end.

Total cost: Approximately $20.  All lumber was salvaged and was purchased from Community Forklift.

Next up: Sink the bench at the garden plot.

Learning from past mistakes - Seed Starting/Tomatoes

I successfully started tomatoes from seeds last year for the first time.  Since I'd had no success in 2009, I was concerned that if I tried starting tomatoes from seed when you're supposed to (6-8 weeks before last frost) and failed, I'd have to buy a bunch of plants from stores.  I was trying to avoid that.  So I started a test batch with 2009 seeds in mid-February to improve on the failed method from a few years before.

The method worked so I had a lot of "test" plant starters.  After they grew, I transplanted into 2"x2" peat pots.  Then I started the "real" batch and they came up great, too.  Soon, I had over 60 tomato seedlings to nurture and find homes for.

Lesson learned: Don't get attached to your seedlings.  They're not your babies even though they depend on you for food, water, and they sure can look cute!

When I transplanted my plant starters, I used potting mix that I had sitting out in the garage.  Big mistake.  What I used was almost entirely peat.  While being nice as an addition to soil, for some reason this stuff didn't hold moisture.  As a result, I started watering every other day because the plants would dry out. 

Lesson learned: Choose a good soil mix to transplant into.  Otherwise, you could have moisture and nutrient issues.

Choosing the wrong soil mix caused many problems for me.  Because the plants couldn't hold water, I had to water all the time.  As a result, there was a lot of water running through the peat pots and collecting in the trays I had below them.  Then I had standing water which is a problem.  The combo of too much water, standing water, and no air movement resulted in fungus problems showing up in the plants.  Fungus gnats also became prevalent.  Having little gnats flying around your plant setup is a fantastic way to try the patience of your significant other.

Lesson learned: Don't tick off the wife with gardening.  She's wonderful, but there are bounds to patience with my hobbies.

In addition to water problems, I was contending with the volume of plants.  As they grew, they needed more and more space.  I ran out of space as the plants needed to be transplanted from the 2"x2" peat pots to something larger.  I had nowhere to put them to continue growing.  If I transplanted larger, I'd have even less space.  So I tried to limp them along.  Some died as a result while others became root-bound.

Lesson learned: Be realistic about the number of plants you need.  While some seeds will not germinate or die in transplant, don't start so many that you can't care for them as they grow.

Compounding my space issues at home was that I also was thoroughly weeding the garden, building the garden boxes, sinking them, filling with soil/compost, and trying to begin the pathway work.  As a result, I got the tomatoes into their boxes at some point in mid-June which is about a month after the last expected frost.  That's a long time for them to be needing transplanting and dealing with the aforementioned water/fungus/gnat issues.

Lesson learned: Don't bite off more than you can chew.  There can be trickle down effects from poor decision-making.

Once I got them into the ground, I made more mistakes.  In following the square-foot gardening method, I planted my tomatoes with one foot of space between them.  Also, since peppers are companion plants to tomatoes and also need a square foot of space, I interplanted them.  As a result, my tomatoes all fought for light and grew very tall (approx 7') and spindly.  In addition, the peppers never matured, likely due to lack of light caused by living in the shadow of the tomato plants.

Lessons learned: 

This year, I will be segregating the tomatoes from the peppers but will keep them nearby to benefit from companion planting.

Adjust the spacing of tomatoes to deter upward growth.

I figured out that I was overwatering at some point in mid to late July.  In addition, I was watering too late in the day which leads to fungus problems compounded with Maryland's notorious summertime humidity. 

Lesson learned: Research water requirements for plants.  There is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

Hopefully, in adjusting from all these mistakes, my tomatoes will be much more productive in the future.

Plot progress in 2012

I was thinking back yesterday (sadly, weather was too nasty to work outside) about progress that's been made since the beginning of 2012.  I know a good bit more about vegetable gardening than I did a year ago.  I like to delude myself of that, anyway.  From a tangible standpoint, though, the plot is far more advanced than a year ago.

I took this picture June 1, 2012.  At this point, only about 1/3 of all the boxes were in, paths hadn't been weeded and no newspaper/mulch weed barrier installed, just the paltry bit leftover from 2011 where we didn't know what was the "right" amount.  The arbor may not even have been a dream at this point.  The only crops doing anything were snow peas (front right box) and a small number of the English peas (back right box).

Taken inside the gate - June 2012

I really don't remember the details, but apparently there was a lot of progress made by mid/late June.  Tomatoes, peppers, and basil had been transplanted.  Cucumbers were coming up.  I also had started lashing together an arbor of bamboo poles.

Lesson learned: Natural fiber twine breaks down very quickly in the environment.

Lashed cucumber arbor - June 18, 2012

 An update from November, 2012.

The left photo is from about the same place as the picture taken June 1.  An initial layer of the newspaper/mulch can be seen.  Far more boxes are in.

The right picture shows a combination of bare earth, old newspaper/mulch from where it was placed in the summer, and newspaper/mulch that was freshly laid.  It looks to have been taken a little after the left picture judging by progress made.  A second layer of mulch can also be seen on top of old mulching in and around the middle of the picture judging by the amount of the boxes visible (1"-2" vs ~6" with little to mulching). 

Inside gate - Nov 2012

Next to compost bin - Nov 2012

An update from December 2012.

More pathway newspaper/mulching, most boxes were winterized.  Onions (both varieties) and garlic were in.  The two boxes in the foreground with all the mess were being used as a collection point for weeding I was doing in paths near to the gate (foreground).

Inside gate - Dec 2012

Looking Back at Fall Planting - 2012

Sometime early this fall (October?) I resolved to branch out from the standard May-September stuff and try out year-round gardening.  While I did manage to get some stuff into the ground, by the time I really had that realization, healed up enough from an October knee injury, cleaned up the bulk of remaining weeds, and looked a little into options it was too late to do much.

My plant list:

• I planted some organic garlic that I sprouted from a purchase at either My Organic Market or Trader Joe's.  
• I tried some onions that were a birthday gift from the wife.  That is one heck of an experiment, though, since they were around 6 months old at the time of planting.  Many of them were very dried out.  I sorted through what wasn't mummified and used what was left.
• I discovered Egyptian Walking Onions by reading a great blog out of Massachusetts, Skippy's Vegetable Garden.  They seemed like a good experiment and the idea of planting multiplying onions appeals to me.  I like things that provide a lot of produce for not a ton of space or labor.
• Given that I didn't discover the Walking Onions until Thanksgiving, they weren't readily available from sources I was familiar with.  I discovered O.G. Roots Produce at LocalHarvest.org.  They were very helpful in correspondence, the onions were inexpensive, and they shipped promptly which was important given my very late planting time.  Thankfully, the weather and soil were both warm still.

When I planted the old onions and garlic, I tried experimenting with pre-fertilizing the "seeds" before planting.  I put the quantities of garlic and onions in separate containers with some old organic fertilizer pellets and some warm water.  I can't recall the exact proportions of the warm water and pellets offhand.  I had done a search online and found an article about using a seaweed emulsion and water for similar effect.  I think it was around 7 cups of warm water and 1/2 cup of the pellets.  I mixed up the water/pellets, put in the garlic and onions, and let that stuff soak for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.  I then planted the onions and garlic.

I fertilized the bed the walking onions were planted in, but didn't do the fertilizer soak.

I hope to do more Fall planting in 2013.  I'm planning on doing a Fall crop of Snow Peas in addition to some onions and garlic at the least.  Perhaps I'll try out Brussels Sprouts and Broccoli.

2013 variety list

Here's a list of what I'm growing this year at the plot.  Minus the marigolds, all are heirloom organic seeds.

Vegetables
Beans - Potomac (Pole)
Beans - Scarlet Runner (Pole)
Beans - Jackson Wonder Butterbean Lima (Bush)
Beans - Contender (Bush) - added 7/31/13 
Carrots - Scarlet Nantes
Cucumbers - Edmonson Pickling
Peas - Sugar Ann Snap
Peppers - Carolina Wonder Bell
Peppers - Long Red Cayenne
Radish - Cherry Belle
Tomato - Old Virginia (Slicing)
Tomato - San Marzano (Pasting)

Fruit
Ground Cherry - Cossack Pineapple
Watermelon - Blacktail Mountain

Herbs
Basil - Bolloso Napoletano
Borage

Flowers
Cosmos - Mona's Orange
Marigold - French
Nasturtium - Jewel Mixed Colors
Petunia - Balcony
Sunflower - Teddy Bear Ornamental

Much of what is listed above is new to me this year.  I'm trying to find "stand-by" varieties of plants.  However, Sunflowers, Nasturtium, Ground Cherries, Petunias, Scarlet Runner Beans, and Borage are all examples of plants I've never grown before.

It's alive! It's alive! - Arbor

After a few more days' work, the arbor is in the ground.  Painted the last two legs Thursday, assembled the gate-side tower on Friday, sunk it and joined the two towers together Saturday.

Since, by definition, this arbor is to support green growth, I need to mount something for vines to climb.  I'm running in deck screws on vertical and horizontal members along certain surfaces then weaving synthetic string/rope along them to create a grid.  The screws are left out approx 1/2" to give the string something to be woven around.

I decided on that method instead of purchasing or building lattice material because I figured that my idea would be somewhat cheaper and so I could simply throw out my trellis (ie woven string) if removing vines became too cumbersome.

I installed the screws on the box-side tower yesterday.  I have them spaced 4" apart both vertically and horizontally. 

Learning from past mistakes - Watering crops

Somewhere along the way I learned that when you make a mistake, it's best to admit it, try to learn from it, and do better in the future.  I've made a lot of mistakes (and there'll be more, I'm sure) since I started monkeying around with organic vegetable gardening.  Remember that scene from Zoolander where Hansel and Derek finally realize, "It's in the computer........!"  That's reasonably close to how things have gone for me with trying to work toward sustainable, self-sufficient organic gardening.

Rather than have a number of incredibly long post threads, I'll do a series of, hopefully, shorter ones on a variety of topics where I've screwed up and what, I think, are ways around them.  Or, at least, my attempt to improve in the future.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Plants need water.  No doubt about that.  The question -- and it's an important one -- is how much do they need?

As I mentioned before, my parents have a 20'x20' garden.  My father waters faithfully when they have something they're trying to grow.  Grass, veggies, household plants, it doesn't matter -- that stuff is getting W A T E R E D.  For the garden, it seems like it's 7 days a week for 1/2 hour via a pulsating sprinkler head.

With my garden plot (and also when I was doing square-foot gardening in the backyard), I tried doing the same.  I found that there are right and wrong ways to water.

Lesson 1: Be careful when you water
Last year when I was screening the soil and sinking my garden boxes, I didn't want to work in mud.  As a result, I held off on watering in the summer (I didn't have spring crops) until I was about done at the plot.  1/2 hour before I planned on leaving (generally at dusk), I pulled out the hose and started watering.

Many plants (notably tomatoes) developed some fungus problems.  After doing some research, I learned that watering late in the day gave insufficient time for above-ground water to evaporate.  Water still on plants themselves can create fungi.

Lesson 2: Don't overwater.
As I said, my dad faithfully waters his plants.  He and I have joked about it: if in doubt, water it.  I learned that that doesn't work in my back yard or plot, though.

This past year, it took me a long time to identify my problems at the plot.  Complicating matters is that I had a lot of issues compounding one another.  One baffling problem, though, was why my tomatoes and cucumbers did very little and looked very sickly.  The cucumbers grew to approx 1' tall then stopped.  The tomato plants always looked yellowish.  A number of people at the plot would walk by and "helpfully" boast that I was doing it wrong and that I had _________ problem.  The most common diagnosis was a nutrient deficiency.  Well, I tried a number of different organic means of fertilizing in addition to the already well-aged plant compost I'd mixed into the soil when I first populated the boxes.  No improvement.

The proverbial light bulb lit up, however.  In reading up about my plants, I found that many of my problems could possibly be attributed to overwatering.  I was watering each area in the box with a wand (water the roots, not the leaves) for approx 30 sec a nervous minimum of three times a week.  If your hose puts out even 10 gallons of water per minute, that's a lot more water than the plants really need.

I cut back on watering to twice a week and the plants improved markedly.

Building garden boxes

As I've said, the garden plots at my site are generally loaded with weeds.  In my attempt to avoid being overwhelmed by weeds, I try to eradicate them and isolate my crops from exposure to the weeds I've missed through screening.

To cut down on cost, I've gone to using salvaged lumber.  Here's an example of potential cost savings.  Wednesday, I purchased four 2"x4"x8' boards from the Forklift for the arbor project.  The cost was $5.09 after tax was included.  In a search I just ran on Home Depot and Lowes websites, boards the same dimensions would cost me $11.66 and $13.44, respectively.  There are generally similar levels of cost savings for other sized boards, as well.

There are two obvious problems with using salvaged lumber:

1. Items are often in less-than-prestine condition.
2. You don't know the history.

Salvaged wood can be painted, mashed, split, drilled, cut in any number of ways, warped, partially rotted, and pressure treated. As a result, being patient when visiting a salvage yard (it can take multiple trips to get what you need for a single project) and being careful of what you're buying are necessary skills to have.

The sides of my garden boxes are built from larger boards whenever possible.  One of my professors in college once said to the class that engineers are, by nature, lazy.  We try to avoid work whenever possible.  That's why we continually try to increase efficiency and save work all the time.  The same goes here.  I'd rather not have to cut down two or three smaller boards to create a side, cut down two or three smaller pieces to use as splice pieces, align everything, nail the sides together and then say, "whew!  One side done.........three more to go."  If I can get a 2"x12" that'll do the job, all the better.

Lesson learned: Don't make more work for yourself than you have to.  The garden will ensure you will never run out of things to do.

I've experimented with different means of assembling the boxes.  While nailing is convenient (although somewhat dangerous if your aim stinks), it also creates problems in that wood that becomes swelled can and will begin to push the nails out.  That causes a number of problems.  I've gone to using deck screws to assemble the sides of my boxes.  I still use nails when I have to splice pieces together to create sides, though.  Those nails don't seem to get pushed out for some reason.

Lesson learned: Drill pilot holes for where you intend to run in screws for box assembly.  It helps prevent the wood from splitting.

I didn't build bottoms to my boxes.  I suppose bottoms would further isolate my plants from potential weed propagation, but I figured that screening the soil of weed roots, using weed fabric at the bottoms of my boxes, and sinking the 1/8" plastic around the borders of my plot would be sufficient.  Having bottoms would also potentially cause drainage problems (even with holes drilled in the bottom) while also adding to the expense of the project.

I'll try to dig up some old pictures of boxes being built and upload sometime later.

Arbor progress

During my lunch break today, I got some more work done on the arbor prep.  The goal is to put the remaining leg assembly into the ground and mount the two top rails this weekend.  All that would be left is to run the nylon rope to create the grid work and the arbor would be functional.

The horizontal pieces for the gate-side leg assembly and top were cut.  I also painted the vertical pieces that are going into the ground to deter rot.

The plan is to assemble the end piece during lunch tomorrow so I can accomplish as much as possible in the time I have to work this weekend.

My eyes! The goggles! They do nothing!

Alright, I think I have the picture thing figured out.  At least I can see them.  No word from anyone else if they show up.

Since the pictures are hosted through Flickr, only the small-sized versions of pictures may be linked to externally with the free account version.  To link to the full-size stuff requires a paid account with Flickr.  For now, I'll do the free stuff.  If this blog "gets legs," I'll look into the paid version.

So, as far as I know, there are 5 pictures that are displayed on the blog now.

Ermagherd! Vernished perctures!

Looks like my pictures vanished overnight.  I'll look into that when I can.

----------------------------------------------------------------

After a little reading at Flickr, I found a few things.

1. I'm a noob at Flickr, too.  I didn't actually publish what I had uploaded last night so the links were temporary.
2. I need to set rights for the pictures so I can link to them.  No time to really dig into that right now.

The beginnings of the arbor

Late last week I started working on the arbor.  I constructed one of the tall sides and painted the bottom 3' of it.  The idea was to sink the bottom 2' into the soil for stability leaving one painted foot above the ground to accommodate thicknesses of newspaper/mulch.  I also constructed and painted a short piece that looks somewhat like a hitching post that will go on the far side of the runner bean box.  I'm going to install either nails or deck screws approx 4" apart and create a gridwork lattice for the bean vines to climb.

I sunk the tall side Sunday and sunk the hitching post today in rain that the DC area forecasters somehow missed until after I was in the truck on my way home from the plot.

Sadly, didn't make any progress with sinking the plastic today.  Trying to avoid getting sick and didn't want to push my luck beyond the 1hr I'd already spent in the rain this afternoon.

More pictures

Since the previous picture showed, I'll include a few others to establish the baseline.

Here's what I call the "far side" of the plot.  They're the last four boxes I built.  As you can see, I put in the newspaper/mulch in the paths on the right side, but haven't yet on the left.

Annoyingly, the 2nd box in on the left isn't true to the fence line making it look bad.  Unfortunately, the plastic I was using the the weed barrier there was a reclaimed carpet protector purchased from the Forklift.  When I rolled it out, it insisted on keeping some bend to it. The choice was either to have the box not parallel to the fence but close to the plastic or have it parallel, but make the path narrower.  You can see what my choice was, aesthetics be damned.

Here's another picture of boxes that were winterized as well as a few that hadn't been as of the taking of the picture.  The mess in the foreground shows my progress with weeding/newspapering/mulching near to the gate.  I collected the weeds and roots there before transferring to the compost bin.

Does picture linking work here?

Test to see if picture linking works.

This picture (if it actually appears) shows the plot after the tallest of the weeds were pulled in November.
 

Sorry for lousy resolution.  Pictures taken were via my cell phone.

A history about my recent foray into gardening.

2008

• Gained entry to Columbia Gardeners in ~March '08.  Thrilled to death at the possibilities of our very own 20'x25' plot!
• Tried strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, garlic, onions, zucchini, broccoli, watermelon, corn, green beans.  Failures included:
• Overwhelmed by weeds in July.
• Broccoli went straight to flower.
• Zucchini, corn, peppers did nothing.
• Don't recall garlic or onions (both in Spring) doing much.  I've since learned that that's typical of Spring planting.
• I think we got some tomatoes, but it's hard to recall.  My lasting memory was of the wife and I hacking through the weeds to get at anything.
• Beans did well, though.
• Used insecticidal soap as a deterrent.
• Wife became pregnant mid-Summer and was unable to assist with substantial gardening.  Being a first-time parent, I also stopped doing much in August.

2009

• New son!  Not being established as a gardener and as a first-time parent, we rapidly became overwhelmed with everything.
• Planted more or less the same stuff as 2008. 
• Tried starting plants from seed (heirloom) after doing a little research on prices of starters of organic starters available at Home Depot and other stores in the area.  Started by using a seed starting kit w/ clear plastic lid from HD.  
• Failed due to not removing the lid early enough.  Everything molded.
• Gave up our plot at the end of that year due to frustration and needing to focus on the family.

 2010

• Decided that while we still wanted to garden, we needed to do it on a smaller scale.  Decided to try it in our townhouse backyard.
• Purchased the square foot gardening book and researched the methods to increase efficiency.
• Built a number of square foot boxes to array around the perimeter of our back yard.  Planted a few types of tomatoes (purchased as starters as well as inheriting some extras friends/family had), peppers, and basil.  Had some success.
• Failures:
• Blossom end rot in pasting tomatoes.
• Discovered that parts of the back yard are poor for sun-loving tomatoes due to proximity to the trumpet creeper I have growing on one wall of our fence.  Tomatoes stretched for the sun and grew to 8' tall.

2011

• We decided that our son was getting to the age where he may enjoy doing some gardening with us.  We reapplied to regain a garden plot.
• Hearing nothing from the plot until sometime in June, we started a back yard garden again.  We were more careful with what we grew near to the trumpet creeper.
• Since our back yard was pretty well established, we experimented with the new plot.  Grew cantelopes, muskmelons, small watermelons, cayenne peppers, bell peppers, zucchini.
• Trying to learn our lesson from previous failures with weeds, we covered the bulk of the new plot with a thin (3/8") layer of newspaper and mulch.  This was at the recommendation of the manager of the site who does organic gardening.  Weeds were less prevalent, but still came on.
• Lessons learned: 
• Didn't put down enough newspaper
• Beyond tilling the garden once, didn't actively remove weed roots.
• Zucchini produced a single fruit, then the entire plant rotted.  Fine with me since I'm not a huge zucchini fan.
• Bell peppers never did much, potentially due to late start.
• Melons spread well.  Musk melons fruit never reached an appreciable size.  Watermelons produced a number of them, but never ripened entirely.  Cantalopes.......didn't recall what happened with them, but never ate any fruit from them.

2012

• In Dec '11/Jan '12, I resolved to do the garden right.  I realized that we commonly had a lot of problems with weeds (the site is a reclaimed field with many varieties) and that we often bailed on the garden plot in late July or early August due to being overwhelmed with all the weeding necessary.  I started planning.  
• My solution, derived from the Square-Foot Gardening book, was to build boxes for the garden.  I decided that I would isolate my plants from the soil medium which is rife with weeds.  I resolved to turn over the entire plot and screen the soil by hand to remove meaningfully-sized weed roots beginning in the Spring and continuing until complete.  Boxes would have a weed fabric barrier underneath and the paths would have greater thicknesses of newspaper along with the mulch applied.
• Buoyed by the warm winter, I got the itch for gardening around the same time I started doing a garden layout (I'll scan and upload the initial plan at some point).  I also decided to try seed starting again.  I'd been doing more reading (subscription to Mother Earth News, purchased and read The Heirloom Life Gardener, websites) and grew more and more suspicious of how truly "organic" started plants were from stores around me.  I decided to try it again.  That turned out to be a tremendous undertaking that I wasn't prepared for.  Also a lot of lessons-learned from that effort.  More on that some other time.
• In an attempt to gain efficiency, I decided to only grow high-efficiency plants.  Cucumbers, tomatoes, beans (red, green, and lima), peas, and peppers.  I started the tomatoes and peppers from seed at home.
• I researched companion planting.  In my initial foray, I interplanted tomatoes and peppers and basil together, planted radishes with the cucumbers and let them go to flower, and planted marigolds at least two to a box.
• After building my first 3 boxes out of 2x12's I purchased at Home Depot, the wife said I needed to change how I got my lumber.  Simply too expensive.
• Thankfully my brother and sister-in-law recommended I try Community Forklift, a fantastic salvage yard close by.  I've obtained the bulk of the lumber for my boxes from there since then.
• I've attempted to avoid using pressure-treated lumber due to the likelihood/certainty of chemicals being leeched into my food crops. 
• It was a ton of work to build the boxes and weed the entire plot (actual area is 18'x24').
• Failures:
• Tomatoes developed some sort of fungus and yellowed.  Also, most would develop a blush then rot on the vine.  
• Peppers were stunted and didn't produce much.
• Cucumbers initially did very little, finally produced somewhat toward late summer.
• Beans did great initially, but were eradicated by the Mexican Bean Beetle.
• Lessons learned: 
• I overwatered initially.  Initially being defined as May through mid-July after I did more research.  After cutting way back, the tomatoes and cucumbers did a good bit better.
• I overdid it with all the weeding.  I strained something in a forearm which made me have to bail on much of the gardening in late August.  Too worn out.
• Need more research into companion planting.  Cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers were left alone by bugs.  Surprisingly, neem oil was laughed at by the Bean Beetles.
• Start far fewer tomato and pepper seeds.  I'll elaborate on seed starting at a later time.
• Natural fiber twine breaks down too quickly in sunlight.  The cucumber trellis I lashed together disintegrated rather quickly.
• Need to diversify a little more.  If all my tomato and pepper plants produced as planned, we would have been buried even if the wife had canned and frozen most of them.
• My wife had become pregnant again in the beginning of April. I had the realization in early October that I would really need to get started with preparing the garden for Spring immediately if I want to successfully garden in 2013.  I went back to the plot and started tackling the few areas I hadn't weeded or done the newspaper/mulch barrier.  I was pleased to find that what I had done previously greatly reduced the weeds that did appear.
• Progress at end of December:
• The entire plot has been weeded.  A one-foot-wide swath of the common path outside the plot was also weeded.
• Four new boxes were built with two of them having been sunk into the plot.  They are where a few spindly and non-productive raspberry plants used to reside.
• I purchased some 2x4's to build an arbor adjacent to the gate into the plot.  Nothing too laborious or elaborate, but still functional and serviceable.  The plan is to build the arbor adjacent to where I will grow scarlet runner beans to provide shade, food, and beauty.  I also intend to build an Adirondack chair to place under the arbor.
• More paths have been newspapered/mulched.  Only spaces left to get that treatment are around where the last boxes went in (installed in the 1st week of January '13), the entryway into the plot, and area underneath the arbor.
• I purchased a lot of 1/8" plastic to sink along the fence line with the rationale being that they would help deter vining plants from entering the plot from the outside.  On my four borders, I have a lady whose plot is very weedy, a family who kindly planted asparagus on our shared fence, the common path (loaded with mowed weeds and crabgrass), and a gentleman who has some mint that likes working its way into my/our plot.  The plan is to sink the plastic ~8" deep to prevent the bulk of exterior weeds entering in.
• Seeds for 2013 have been identified and ordered.
• The best thing to mention -- our baby girl was a Christmas gift for me.  I hope to be able to introduce her to some of our crops late in the summer as she begins eating solid foods.

And so it begins!

If you're reading this, you have my condolences.  Surely you must have something better to do, no?

My name is Greg and I'm relatively new to vegetable gardening.  My parents had a 20'x20' garden growing up and while I earned the Gardening Merit Badge through Boy Scouts way back when, I never really paid all that much attention to the hows and whys of gardening.  To me, until relatively recently, you put stuff in the ground, watered it, and it grew and did great.

Many years after living with my parents' garden, my wife and I decided we wanted to do some vegetable gardening for ourselves and found a Community Garden Plot near to us.  Little did I realize that the ease with which my parents garden grew was due to many factors (pesticides, chemical fertilizers, lots of compost, 30 years of twice-yearly tilling, and grass clippings laid down around plants to deter weeds) that were invisible to me and were, in some cases, things I didn't want to partake in after doing some research.

So I decided to start learning how to do organic gardening.

I'm now on my 2nd garden plot (punted on the 1st and regrouped for a year before getting our current one) and am about to start year 3 in there.

This blog will record the progress I've made in learning about gardening (both general and organic) as well as recording progress made in the plot, lessons learned, failures, and will hopefully help others to avoid the mistakes I've made. 

A big caveat for anyone checking out my blog.  I know less about blogging than I do about organic gardening!  I promise I will try to improve things as I go.


Regards,
Greg
Will Seed For Food