My poor plants!

The peppers and strawberries seem to be fading fast in the heat, and I think the peas are already goners. Despite keeping them in the shade during the hottest parts of the day, and making sure they are watered deeply, the heat is shriveling them up. And we haven’t even hit the hottest part of the summer yet.

Mulch is supposed to be good to keep moisture in, so I plan to try a little around the tops of my containers. I may also buy some of the water bulbs to help make sure the water is getting deep into the soil before it evaporates. I may even see if I can create some sort of sunshade out of an old sheet I don’t need anymore.

But other than that, I’m stumped.

There is not enough room in this tiny house to bring them in. Well, there is, but it would mean getting rid of the kids and the cat. Hmmm, the plants are a lot quieter ….

Yesterday was the local food coop pick-up day, and along with some yummy foods I also walked away with a collection of plants. Four small strawberry plants, and one large thornless blackberry plant. Tomorrow they get to be moved onto the back patio with the rest of my container garden, where they will hopefully make good friends.

I know it is a little (or a lot) late in the season, but when I saw that a local farm was selling them I could not pass up the opportunity. I loved picking fresh berries at my grandmother’s house when I was a little girl. How could I not want to pass on a tradition like that?

The blackberry plant is already two years old, which I was told was the perfect age. It is just getting ready to produce, but will not go into shock at being moved and transplanted. The strawberries are younger, so they will probably not give me much berries now, but they should take to being handled well. I have always had bad luck with strawberries in the past, so I have my fingers crossed that at least one of these will survive.

I only have one hanging basket though. I doubt all four plants could go into one, so I am still trying to decide what to do with the other three. I considered my soda bottle planters, but everything I put in them have died so far. Maybe an empty milk jug would be better?

Whatever I use, I’m just excited to add some berries to the garden space. Grow baby, grow!

Sometimes you just know something can be reused, even if you don’t just how yet.

We like green onions around here. They go in soups, in rice, in casseroles, and pretty much anything I think to toss a handful in. But silly me, I’ve always tossed the bulbs into the compost and bought a new bunch. Then yesterday, I stood holding the bulbs in my hand and had a thought. What is cutting them up isn’t killing them?

I know, some of you may be rolling your eyes at me now. How can something keep staring you in the face every day and not sink in? A quick Google search later confirmed it, I can replant those bulbs and get at least 3-4 more batches from them before they can’t take anymore.

So my sweet little bulbs went into a pot and joined the rest of my containers on the back patio. They’re in good company, as the peas are really coming up and the tomatoes and peppers are starting to peek through. Unfortunately, my herbs have yet to materialize. I’m afraid that all the rain we got may have drowned them.

So, how many of you have suddenly been hit by the realization that something could be reused in some way? Have you suddenly looked at something and saw it in a new light? Share what your green realizations have been in the comments!

Wow, has it been a long, strange several months! Things happened, like moving again. This time across the state, and into a much smaller townhouse. My big backyard has been replaced by a tiny patch of dirt that doesn’t seem fit to grow anything.

So as I waved my garden goodbye, I made plans to grow a new one. A greener, smaller one. OK, so I won’t be feeding my entire family on everything I’m growing (sorry Backyard Homestead), but I can at least make a mean salsa from the tomatoes, peppers, and herbs.

Since my actual plant pots are limited, and I’m trying not to buy any more, I went with what I had. Soda bottles. Yes, I know how bad soda is in so many ways. But at least I’m only polluting my body, since I can reuse the bottles for my herb garden.

This is just the beginning of it. As more bottles become available I’ll plant more. For these I cut them in half, poked holes in the bottom for drainage, and glued small screens to the top opening to keep the dirt in and allow drainage. I nailed them to my fence, and viola! Of course, you can make a cool rack for the bottles instead.

My next plan is to figure out carrots and onions. I can’t plant them in the ground, and I don’t want to stunt them with short containers. I could do one onion and maybe two carrots per bottle, but I’ll need a lot more bottles!

photo credit: mckaysavage

Food has a life, a story. The environment it grew in, the people who produce it. And usually it’s traveled an awefully long way to get to our plates. I’d like to know these things.

There’s a moment, when you realize that the apple you are biting into was probably picked several days ago in a foreign country, that hits you. The moment is a collision, a crash of this new fact and the memory of picking an apple off the tree in your own yard and taking a bite.

I don’t remember when I realized that the food I was eating wasn’t from some nearby farmer. I do remember a bit of a panic, of fear, and horror. Why was my food being shipped to me when there was perfectly good land right here to grow food on? Of course I hadn’t yet heard of the locavore movement, or even considered such a movement might exist. It seemed natural to me, that food would come from nearby.

I blame my naivety on childhood. We had an apple tree, a pear tree, and several plum trees growing freely in my yard. The back yard was nearly all garden space where everything from peas to corn grew. Even when I moved on and no longer had a garden in my backyard I just assumed that someone, somewhere, had one.

In a way I hope my kids have that same naive assumption, because it means they’ve become normalized to food growing in the backyard. And the front yard. And some on the side vining up the fence. And maybe a few more in pots where I can fit them. Food, from my own backyard, eaten the same day that it was picked.

Nothing compares to eating your veggies ten minutes after being harvested.

Of course I can’t grow it all in my backyard. For one my landlord and my town have put their feet down to chickens. I can’t see a way around it that doesn’t involve heavy fines and finding a new place to live quickly. Luckily there is a local farmer that sells eggs from her chickens. For other things there is a great Oklahoma food coop where I can get almost anything we want. Literally, anything I want. Sure it costs a bit more, but I’ve found there’s money to pay for the extras once we stop buying the empty calories.

And if I can’t grow it, and we can’t find it locally, then we just do without. That’s a huge thing in our society, doing without. With 24/7 stores and online marketing it’s hard to believe anyone choosing to go without something as simple as pineapple. I’m still a bit shaken by the idea of giving up good Swiss chocolate. But we’re going to try at least. The trying will make it easier.

Quotes from Home Is Where The Food Is

At my local library I found a copy of The Urban Homestead and have most of the weekend reading it. I’m not sure what I’m going to do when I have to give it back next week. There may be a few tears in my eyes.

Though winter is almost here I’m getting my gardening plans ready, and my gardening areas. I want to try a few ideas from the book, like raised beds. Especially since we are renting and I don’t know if my landlady would be pleased with big areas of the yard dug up. The former flower bed (picture above) in front has bee dug up, covered with newspaper, and mulched with leaves. I’m going to try to keep it mulched down and hopefully kill any remaining flower seeds. There were also some decorative bushes planted in there with roots too deep and long to dig out. Hopefully by spring they’ll be dead, or at leask weak enough I can get them out.

Next I’m putting a few raised bed boxes in my backyard. My first one I’m using some old wood I found in the garage gathering dust. The Urban Homestead says not to use treated wood, which I’m pretty sure these are. But the reuser in me just can’t stand the idea of letting these perfectly good pieces got to waste.

Besides, swinging a big hammer is a great way to get out some frustration.

I’m also making plans for my garage. There is a huge south facing window in there just begging for hanging plants. Right now I’m thinking strawberries would be great, but tomatoes would also be a good choice. The built in shelves in the corner are the perfect place for some herbs in little pots. I was planning on a window box, but all of my windows have heavy screens on them. I’d rather not try to take them off and risk hurting something on the house.

Next on my list, vermiculture. I’ve got a big plastic storage tub that I’m not using right now, and there is a great set of instructions for using a plastic tub in The Urban Homestead. As soon as I find a warm place for them…

With my garden plans this spring I’m making an effort to compost our food scraps as much as possible. I keep a little ceramic bowl in the kitchen that I fill up and dump back out in our big barrel outside.

Composting has several benefits, all of which I’m enjoying.

• less garbage to toss out
• happy plants in my garden
• sweet hippie cred

My DIY composting system is pretty simple, and cheap. I bought the ceramic bowl for a dollar at a thrift shop and found the barrel that someone tossed out free. When I’m ready to get a second one there’s a local man selling several for only $6 each. That’s certainly much cheaper than the fancy bins I found at Lowe’s for $70. And it’s less likely to get complaints from neighbors than a heap in the backyard would.

My compost barrel consists of all the organic garbage from my yard and kitchen. This includes leaves, grass, leftover food that won’t be eaten, or newspaper (no more than a fifth of your pile should consist of newspaper, due to it having a harder time composting with the rest of the materials). I expect my barrel to fill up within several weeks. Then I can start getting it to compost.

After I get a large assortment of materials in my compost bin, I need to moisten the whole thing. This encourages the process of composting. The experts also say to chop every piece in the barrel into the smallest pieces possible. As the materials start to compress and decompose I need to frequently head outside and aerate the barrel. If you have a heap or open bin you can use a shovel to mix it all up, or an aeration tool to poke dozens of tiny holes into it. With my barrel I simple need to spin the barrel over several times (there’s a great video on spinning a compost barrel here). Doing this will increase the oxygen flow to each part of the pile, and oxygen is required for any decomposition to take place.

Let it compost down and Voila! All the stuff I would have thrown away becomes top grade fertilizer for my garden.

photo credit: Nessa Land

Yesterday I bought a shovel.

There’s something empowering about walking through a huge Lowe’s, carrying a shovel that’s nearly as big as I am. Slung over my shoulder, the shovel started whispering in my ear that I needed power tools and one of the big wheelbarrows outside. Somehow I managed to escape with only the shovel.

In my front yard, next to the porch, there is an old garden plot marked off with bricks. Weeds have taken over, along with some sort of small tree grouping. I spent the afternoon digging out roots and tiny tree stumps, which is not quite as easy as it seems. Those roots can travel down for what feels like miles and are tough as leather. At one point I had to get my garden sheers and try cutting through roots so that I could get the rest of the stump out. Slowly I cleared it, making it ready for my coming vegetable garden.

Once I get the plot cleared I’m going to turn it over, cover it in mulch, and let it rest all winter. The weeds and fallen leaves are filling a big barrel that I’m using for a compost bin. When spring comes I’ll mix the compost into the area and start planting. Carrots and onions are on top of my list, along with tomatoes and peppers in containers. I’m also thinking of some kind of berries, though I haven’t decided which yet. The back fence would be a great place for some vines.

Right now my focus is digging in the soon-to-be garden. Feeling the mud on my hands, carefully moving the worms out of harms way, and the satisfying crunch of weeds being chopped into pieces. Every time I work the shovel into the dirt I feel less small, less weak, less less. I don’t have a thing grown to show for my work yet, and yet I’m ready to take on the world with my super gardening powers.

I just might get those power tools after all.