The Modern Victory Garden

It was drizzling rain this morning, so I spent several hours in the shop making progress on the planting jig construction project.    Last week, I completed the 2-inch planting jig, which was the prototype of the design.   Today, I completed most of the assembly of the 3-inch, 4-inch, and 6-inch planting jigs.   They need to sit over night now to let the glue dry and set before I can complete them by attaching the handles on the back.   I did change one thing with these 3 planting jigs from the first one I constructed.   I went up to a 5/16th inch dowel pin, which is a little bigger and should make a larger hole impression in the soil.   I used a 5/16th drill bit to widen the holes in the pegboard where the dowel pins would fit.   That worked very well.   Easy to drill and the pegs fit in quite snugly.   Here’s the 6-inch planting jig - fully assembled with the exception of the handle attachment.  

By the time I wrapped up with the project work in the shop, the rain had stopped and the sun was making a partial appearance.   Took advantage of the break in the weather and got a start on some early spring bed prep work.   There are several beds with a green manure crop of crimson clover growing in them that need to be turned over in the next few weeks, in order that the plant material can sufficiently decompose prior to planting up the beds.   I like to get this done at least six weeks before I expect to be planting up a bed.   Most of the early crops are scheduled to be planted in mid March, so the green manure crop needs to be turned over by the end of January.   It’s not that hard to turn over crimson clover, but I have enough area planted up in it that I try to break it up over a period of several sessions to avoid over doing and hurting my back in the process.   I have one big 40 foot long by 4 foot wide bed that will need to be turned over.  

And I have a 12 foot by 4 foot wide bed that needs to be turned over as well.   The back most portion of the bed has compost on it instead of the green manure crop, because it had cabbages growing in it until very late in the fall and missed being planted with crimson clover as a result.   I decided this bed was the better one to get started with today.       

I use a garden fork and just turn a fork full of the clover and soil over on itself – such that the roots and soil are facing up and the vegetation is turned down into the dirt.   I work my way down one side of the bed.      

And then I work down the other side until it is completed.                      

In about two weeks, I will need to come back to this bed and use a hoe on it to cultivate the top few inches and chop up the few clover plants that will manage to get roothold and attempt to grow again.   Using a green manure crop reduces the amount of compost I have to use each year to add organic matter to the soil.   Given the number and size of beds that I have in the garden, if I were to use strictly compost I would have to have a huge compost making operation to keep up with it.   By using a combination of compost and green manure crops, I keep my garden sufficiently replenished with organic matter without having a monumental sized compost system set up. 

While I was out in the garden, I also did bed prep on the adjacent bed to the one I just turned the cover crop over in.   I added a thin layer of finished compost and then emptied out old potting soil from containers into the bed and raked it smooth.                                                           

I use potting soil in containers for at least two years, rejuvenating it with the addition of compost and organic fertilizers.   However, after several years of use, I recycle it into the garden beds and replace the container soil with a fresh mix.   I had several containers that had old soil mix in them that I have been holding through the winter with the intention of adding to the garden beds this spring.   Both the 12 foot by 4 foot beds are now initially prepped for spring.     

Before they are planted up, I will use the broad fork to aerate them and will also broadcast a general-purpose organic fertilizer over the beds.   For now though, they are basically prepped for the season.   I have lots more to go over the course of the next several weeks.   First priority will be to turn over that large 40-foot bed of crimson clover.   I will need to break that up into several work sessions.   If it does not rain tomorrow, I will try and get one part completed then.               

Have a dinner engagement to attend this evening; so no harvesting was done today.   Well, I should say that I did not “intentionally” harvest anything today.   During the course of turning over the crimson clover, I unearthed over 3 lbs of Butte potatoes!   This was one of the potato patch beds last year and (as usual) I managed to miss quite a few spuds when I harvested them last fall.   They overwintered in the soil nicely and are really good looking potatoes.   Probably have them for dinner tomorrow night.

I hope you are having a good weekend and managing to get some time in on some garden related projects.

The weather gave us a bit of a break the past two days.   It has been overcast and cool but no rain, and it has been warm enough for the past few days that the soil is now unfrozen.   I took advantage of the respite and got outside today to take care of a few things in the garden.   The primary objective was to clean up one of two beds of carrots that have been plundered by our marauding rabbit.   I only tackled one this weekend because it is too cool to spend more than few hours outside at a time.   If the weather cooperates, I will similarly clean up the other bed next weekend.     

The bed I worked on was the newest of the vertical grow beds.   It had Mokum carrots growing in the front 1 foot of bed area – down the entire length of the bed.   This variety of carrot is particularly nice for fresh eating and we have been using them from mid summer up until just recently for that purpose.   As a consequence, there really were not too many carrots left in the bed by the time the rabbit found his way to it.   What was there though, he has been damaging with abandon.   I used two large 5 gallon buckets for the job.   One was for the damaged carrots and debris, which were destined for the compost heap.   The other was for carrots that looked to be in good condition as I pulled them from the soil.   A garden fork was used to then work my way up the bed, loosening the soil and then removing the carrots.                                                                             

For every 1 carrot that looked good – 2 (or more) were damaged.   The bucket on the left is the “looks okay” stash, and the bucket on the right is the clearly damaged group.                                          

The carrots were washed by swirling some water in the bucket until the bulk of the dirt was removed.   The muddy water was poured into the compost pile and then a further cull was made pulling out carrots that had insect or rot damage that was not readily apparent when covered with soil.   When all was said and done, I ended up with just over one and half pounds of good carrots salvaged from the bed.   Probably had about four pounds of carrot debris that went into the compost pile.                                  

I raked the bed smooth after the carrot removal process and then dumped 3 full buckets of really good finished compost across the surface.                

I then smoothed the compost out over the surface so that it provided about a ½ to 1-inch layer over the entire bed.                       

This bed is now empty and amended.   I also did a little weeding in a few other beds and put away some hoops that had been left in place but were not being used.   I have several other beds that are now empty and also need compost added to them.   Over the course of the next several weeks, I hope to get to each of these and get them taken care of too.   It was nice to spend a few hours outside today.   However, I was ready to come in and warm up by the time I wrapped up for the afternoon.   There may have been a break in the weather today, but it IS still winter out there!

I am way behind everyone else this year in getting our leaves raked up.    Things seemed to be conspiring against me to get it done timely.   First, the trees seemed to hang on to the leaves for a prolonged period of time this year, only letting go once we had a major windstorm event.   That windstorm was part of a series of storms that rolled through one after another bringing heavy and soaking rains.   The leaves were matted down and completely wet as a result.   This weekend was actually almost dry (a few sprinkles), so this afternoon I took advantage of the weather break and spent a few hours doing the annual leaf raking and composting process.   They were still very wet and hard to rake up but the top layer had dried out somewhat making the task at least possible to do.   The leaves were transported to the compost piles where I topped off the two current bins and got a good start on a third bin.                                                             

Another chore I tackled today (before getting to the leaf raking) was to remove the fall crop of broccoli.   They have provided some good harvests including a lot of side shoot production, but they had essentially quit producing and the weather forecast is calling for freezing nighttime temps next week so there really is no hope of any further harvests.                    

 Half gone.                                                         

All gone!   I need to layer some compost on to this bed next weekend.

The kale, brussel sprouts, various cabbages, swiss chard, celery, and root crops (carrots & parsnips) are doing fine in the fall/winter garden.   I have some lettuces in the outside beds as well but they are looking a little rough.    The steady cold rains have been hard on them.   The January King cabbages are particularly nice looking and are starting to form heads. These are such pretty plants with their purple and green coloring and ruffled leaves. 

The fall season is wrapping up and winter is fast upon us.   The heavy cold rains are beating down several of the semi hardy fall crops - the outside beds of lettuces and spinach for example, are all but done at this point.   I will be pulling them up and composting them soon.   Luckily, the swiss chard and lettuces in the unheated greenhouse are doing quite well.   I also noticed today that the mache (corn salad) has begun to germinate and emerge in the greenhouse as well.   There are still several more harvests left on the brussel sprouts before they too will be done for the season.   I harvested a nice bunch of them for tonight’s evening meal.                  

It was a cool but enjoyable day working in the yard and garden.   Finally got the leaves done for the year – better late than never!

Many people view October as the month where their garden comes to an end for yet another season.   In some respects this is indeed a time where plants complete their annual cycle and either die or go dormant.   However, as I stand in the fall garden (dressed in layers to keep the damp chill from seeping in) I see the foundation of next year's garden.   October is a perfect time to improve soil structure, return depleted nutrients, and encourage minerals in the soil to become more readily available to plants.   Nature uses this time to do the same thing as well.   Leaves fall and litter the forest floor.   There they molder and decompose through the damp winter and spring - producing rich humousy soil that sustains the diversity of life that grows there.   Taking a cue from nature, if my garden beds are not in production with fall and winter crops then they are either planted up in a green manure crop or layered in a deep blanket of rough finished compost.                  

Fall is a great time to create new compost piles as well.   The last lawn mowing of the year, fall leaves, and the garden clean up debris all combine to provide a really wonderful mixture of compostable materials.   The leaves have yet to really get falling but the garden debris from pulling down the vine crops and spent bush beans have helped to finish filling two of the wire compost bins.   There are more vines to come and the fall leaves combined with them will fill another full bin once the trees have finished their annual drop.   Today I emptied out the compost bin that was assembled late last fall - comprised largely of last year's leaves, lawn clippings, and some kitchen and garden debris.   Generally, since I do not constantly turn my compost piles, it takes approximately one year from full assembly until I have a pile of good rough finished compost.                                   

This bin is now empty and ready for the current year's leaves and final garden clean up debris.   The compost from this single bin supplied a heavy layer that was placed on the oldest vertical grow bed.                   

This bed is largely empty now with the exception of some celery and some swiss chard (recently harvested so they do not show very well in this picture).   In addition, there was enough compost from this single bin to also heavily layer two of the large beds in the newer section of the garden.   The compost was dumped into the beds using a wheelbarrow and then spread with a pitchfork.      

Next spring, I will use the broad fork to loosen and aerate the soil, add some organic fertilizer, and then lightly cultivate the top few inches to mix and break up the soil - preparing the bed for another year of high production.    Since these two large beds are new, they will benefit greatly from the large addition of organic matter.   They were double dug and amended this spring with compost and rock minerals but it takes several years of organic investment in garden soil to bring it up to a truly high performing status and health.                                                         

Rather than view October as the end of the garden season, I see it as the start of the coming year's garden cycle.   What steps are you taking this fall to improve your soil?

It was a cool and overcast day today and it felt more like November than October.   The chill put the move on my husband and I to get the annual stovepipe sweeping completed so we are ready for another season of heating with our woodstove.   We have the necessary chimney sweep brushes and are getting fairly good at this annual task.   The only glitch we seem to run into each year is reassembling the stovepipe inside the house, which has to be removed to clean (has an elbow).   It did not help that I had accidentally vacuumed up the screws with the shop vac while cleaning up the debris knocked out of the stovepipe by the brush!   The screws are actually quite small and were difficult to find in the powdery soot inside the shop vac container.   Eventually we found them and got the pipe reinstalled.   Good to go for yet another year.                                                      

Once that was completed, I shifted my attention to the garden, which was in need of some fall clean up.   Here is a picture of the older portion of the garden.       

The center beds have the vast majority of our winter crops growing in them - carrots, parsnips, winter cabbages, brussel sprouts, loose-leaf cabbage, broccoli, and kale.   This afternoon, I removed even more of the lower leaves on the brussel sprouts to encourage the sprouts to continue sizing up.   I also harvested the Cascadia sugar snap pea seeds and pulled down those dried vines you see in the back right portion of the picture.   The Sunset runner beans were also harvested and the seeds were removed to dry along with the sugar snap peas.   I removed he runner bean vines and the cucumber vines and composted them along with the pea vine.   I also pulled up all of the bush bean plants and laid out a large number of them to finish drying down for seed saving.  The rest of the bush bean plants were composted as well.   By the end of the work session, I had topped off two of the compost bins.   I now have just one empty bin available for the rest of the fall leaves, kitchen scraps, and all other late season garden debris.                    

I wrapped up the garden chores by watering the peppers in the greenhouse thoroughly - using rain barrel water.   Because the temperature is supposed to get quite chilly tonight, I closed up the greenhouse early so that the passive solar would have a chance to warm up the interior before the sun went down.   I still have quite a bit of pepper production happening and I would like to keep them going as long as I can.   The last thing accomplished was to harvest a head of Ruby Ball cabbage, some ripe mini bell peppers, and a mess of good-sized carrots.         

The carrots and peppers will be used for snacking and cooking over the next several days.   The cabbage was combined with a small onion to make coleslaw for tonight's dinner.   The evening meal menu was crispy roasted chicken thighs, mashed potatoes and gravy, and purple cabbage coleslaw.   I brought in some Yukon Gold potatoes from storage to make the mash potatoes.   While I was in the storage area, I pulled out the very last of the Viva Italia tomatoes that I have been ripening off the vine.                            

The tomato plants were pulled at the end of August due to blight infection.   I set many of the tomatoes aside to ripen off the vine and they have been providing us with a steady supply since that time. These are the very last ones.                

It was a productive day and I am glad to get the annual stovepipe-cleaning chore completed.   The only other major winterizing chore yet left to do - is the cleaning out of the gutters.   Probably get a start on that this weekend as well, but it is a task that has to be broken up over time - as it is just too much to do all at once.             

Is your garden and home ready for the coming colder days?

The weather is supposed to start warming back up today.   Which is really good news because the cool night time temps over the past several days have really slowed down the beans and tomatoes - just when they were poised to overwhelm me with produce.   I actually have one ear of corn ready to be harvested and several that are very close, so a warm day would give me our first corn harvest of the year.   If the forecasts hold out to be correct, it is likely that could happen on Sunday.   I can't wait!                        

My pumpkins are amazingly plentiful this year and several are ripening already.   The new section of the garden is really a much better location for them, but I think much of the success can be attributed to the warmer summer we have experienced (up until just recently).                   

Today I have an engagement that will last all afternoon, so I only have very  limited time to do anything in the garden Saturday.   However, Sunday I am trying to keep open so that I can take advantage of the nice weather and spend some quality time outside.   Here's the tasks I am hoping to get done this weekend.   The biggest is the first item, as it takes a few hours to get through the whole garden area and do a really good job.     

• Use the weed whacker and clean up the garden walk walks (Done 8/16/09)
• Turn the compost piles (Done 8/16/09)
• Turn over the buckwheat green manure crop (Done 8/15/09)
• Start Walla Walla onion seeds.   This will be an overwintered crop of sweet onions. (Done 8/16/09)
• Cut off the withered tops from the storage onions that have been drying/curing, weigh them, and then store in a large mesh bag. (Done 8/16/09)
• Do some weed clean up in the greenhouse (grows around the containers) (Done 8/16/09)
• Harvest whatever needs attention - preserve anything that is too much for the weekend meals (Done 8/16/09)

I will update this post periodically to let you know how things progress - along with my usual blog updates throughout the weekend.

Had a visit from my sister and brother in-law this afternoon and we are heading out this evening to go see the new Harry Potter movie, so my garden time was pretty limited this Sunday.   I did get out this morning though and took care of a few items.   Here's largely what I did today:

• Watered the remaining garden beds not covered on Friday or Saturday, excluding the potato beds, which I will catch later this week.
• Mixed some shredded paper into the current compost heap. I have been adding a lot of fresh garden and kitchen trimmings and it was getting too much nitrogen (greens) without enough high carbon additions (browns) to balance it out.
• Sprayed all of the cole crops (cabbages, brussel sprouts, broccoli, and kohlrabi) with Bt solution. It has been two weeks since I last got to this and I noticed lots of white moths fluttering around the brussel sprouts and cabbages last week.
• Hand pollinated some more pumpkins and winter squash.
• Hand pollinated the current ears of corn that are silked.

I should probably take some photos of the hand pollination process, particularly for the corn as it is simple to do and allows full pollination if you have a small patch where wind pollination may not give full coverage.   I will need to do this again with the later maturing plants and will try to remember to take some pictures when the time comes.                             

I noticed today that the bees were back working the squash patch more actively. They were conspicuously absent during the past week or so and I did some hand pollinating to ensure a reasonable fruit set on the pumpkins and winter squash.   I have been doing hand pollinating for several days now and will probably wrap up and let the bees take over (now that they have made a return).  The results of these efforts are that I now have several good-sized pumpkins and winter squash growing.   Here's one of the pumpkins - it's about 5 inches long and 4 inches across.              

Luckily, the pepper plants are self-pollinating (a little shake now and then like tomatoes) and are fruiting prolifically in the greenhouse with little or no intervention on my part.                                     

The brussel sprouts and early cabbages are really putting on a growth spurt right now.   The Primero cabbages have formed nice firm softball sized heads.              

These are one of two red/purple varieties I am growing this year.   The other is Ruby Ball, which is also forming heads but are not quite as well developed as the Primero plants.   The Steins Late Flat Dutch cabbages (green) also have a good beginning on their somewhat flat shaped heads.   All of the cabbages and brussel sprouts were sprayed with Bt solution today (1 Tablespoon in 1 gallon of water in a pressure pump sprayer).        

Before heading in to clean up for our coming guests, I pulled some Nantaise carrots from the second oldest carrot patch.   Most of the pictures I have been showing lately of carrots are of the variety Mokum, which is planted in the oldest patch.   The Nantaise are somewhat bigger, lighter orange in color, and are slightly more tapered in shape.   These Nantaise carrots came from the second planting of the year and are getting very niced sized now.                               

Off to see the new Harry Potter movie and enjoy an evening out.   Hope you had a good weekend in your garden too.

The weather has been cooler this week but unfortunately it did not bring any rain to speak of - so no let up on the watering is in sight.   It is supposed to warm back up considerably starting today.   While that is NOT good news as it relates to my escalating watering chores, it IS good news for the first tomatoes that I have ripening at the moment.   My first ripe tomato is almost there but I am leaving it on the vine to get really sun ripened before I enjoy eating the first tomato of the season.   A little warm weather will push that to conclusion quickly.   It will also benefit my mini bell peppers in the greenhouse that are now getting quite a good fruit set on them.         

This morning I did a quick walk through of the garden to assess what should be my priorities for the coming weekend.   I noticed that the garlic appears ready to pull and cure and that the multiplier onions have started their dry down process as well.   I also noticed that the "Bodacious" corn is starting to tassle.   These corn plants are not as tall and robust as I would expect - but they seem generally healthy and appear to be moving to ear production soon.   The "Precocious" corn is following about two weeks behind the "Bodacious" crop.              

I also noticed that the cole crops enjoyed having a few days of cooler temps.   The brussel sprouts are getting some good size on them.           

These plants have the first tiny sprout buds forming at the stem/leaf junctures.   The "Ruby Ball" cabbage is looking good too, with the main head forming well.     

So after my Friday morning garden walkabout - here is what I think I need to put on the priority list of maintenance tasks for the coming weekend:

• Pull garlic and lay out to cure (Done 7/11/09)
• Pull multiplier onions and lay out to cure (Done 7/11/09)
• Water everything (again) (Done 7/12/09)
• Amend and prep the bed the peas were in previously - compost and fertilizer (broccoli and kohlrabi starts to go here) (Done 7/11/09)
• Plant broccoli and kohlrabi starts that have been hardening off outside this week (Done 7/11/09)
• Start a new compost bin going (Done 7/11/09)

I will update this as the weekend progresses to note progress on the list of "to do" items.

Today was another warm and sunny day.   This morning I finished watering the last of the garden beds.   Everything was quite dry so I took extra time this weekend to do a deep soaking - particularly in the potato patches.   By the end of the three-day weekend, I had managed to get through all the beds with a thorough soaking.    

In addition to finishing up the watering tasks, I also pulled the last broccoli plants and harvested the remaining side shoots.   They were pretty well gone by and there is so much more coming on in the garden right now that eeking out a few more side shoots just is not worth the effort or bed space.   I lightly cultivated the soil in that section and then broadcast seeded some buckwheat for a green manure cover crop.   Buckwheat is one of my favorite green manure crops but I rarely get to use it because it is a tender plant that can only be grown in the warm summer months.   Typically, I have very few open sections in the garden during the summer - since I regularly plant succession crops.   However, this bed is in an area that does not get good fall/winter sun exposure so it will not be used again until next spring.   I will follow the buckwheat green manure crop with a fall cover crop planting of crimson clover, which should get the soil in prime condition by next spring.   I keep a 1 lb bag of buckwheat seed and about 3 lbs of crimson clover seed on hand because I like to use green manure/cover crops on a regular basis - particularly in the fall with crimson clover.                                   

None of these tasks took too much time, and my husband and I took advantage of the beautiful weather and headed to Point No Point beach during the mid-day low tide and had a lovely beach walk.   Played in some tide pools, day dreamed about what it would be like to live in the lighthouse, sat on the driftwood and soaked up sun, and generally just spent a few hours watching the world go by and enjoying the sea air and grand Puget Sound views.   This County Park is just a short distance from our home and is one of our favorite beach destinations.           

On the way back from the beach walk, we stopped at Port Gamble, which is an old timber town and Washington's oldest surviving company town.   Port Gamble is just 4 miles from our house and this charming location is a fun place to spend a Sunday afternoon.   We had some lunch at the General Store cafe, which is located right next to the beautiful Walker-Ames House (reputed to be haunted).                           

After a yummy lunch of cucumber salad and blue cheese/grilled onion burgers, we made one last stop at the old livery stable.   This old carriage barn and stables has been converted into an antique barn - where I found a great old compost sifter!         

I have been meaning to make myself a compost sifter using Dan's (Urban Veggie Garden Blog) directions/example, but this old farm implement will do nicely instead.   It will get many more years of use in my Modern Victory Garden.     

I hope you were able to enjoy a relaxing summer Sunday too.

Last Sunday, my husband and I did some work on the last bed to be constructed in the "garden expansion" project.   This last one to be built is actually a rework of a planting area in the existing garden footprint.  While productive, it was not working optimally because of the sharp slope to the area.  Last year I grew my zucchini, acorn squash, and pumpkins in this spot.  Here's a couple of pictures -  I think you can see the pretty dramatic slope to the terrain. 

Part of the garden expansion project this year was to rework this planting area making it a large retaining wall bed that levels the planting area and provides much greater (usable) planting space.   The approximate dimensions are 6'x12'.  Because the bed is so wide (6 feet), it will require a wide board walkway down the center to allow for planting and harvesting. 

On Sunday, working together, we got the timbers all cut, the foundation areas dug and leveled, and then placed all the timbers into position.    My husband did all the saw work and I did all the lifting, digging, and leveling work.  This is how it looks at this time. 

What we did not get done Sunday (because we knocked off early to go relax and enjoy the gorgeous sunny afternoon!) was to drive the large stakes into the ground to secure the timbers to - nor did we get the metal fastener plates screwed on to tie together the lengths of lumber.  There is a chance I will get this done on this coming Saturday but it is not likely since we have a variety of obligations and family gatherings to attend over the Easter weekend.  Once we do get the bed fastened and secured into position, I will finish filling the sloped area in using a large pile of rough finished compost I have on hand and some top soil from another portion of our property.  This bed is scheduled to be planted in corn this summer.                                               

The swiss chard transplanted out this weekend is doing well.   There is another spear or two of asparagus poking through the soil.  It won't be long now until we have enough asparagus for the first cutting. The tomatoes are  continuing their hardening off process and are thriving.          

Obligations or not, I MUST get the second round of broccoli seedlings into the ground this weekend - they are getting huge!