Building Raised Beds Using Hugelkultur

September 26, 2014 whatthymeisit 2 Comments

The Snarky Gardener built raised beds using hugelkultur

The new bed joins 3 previously prepared beds. The green plants are a cover crop of turnips with a volunteer dill plant in the foreground. South is to the left of this picture.

Same hugelkultur beds the following March. This is the first area in the garden to shed its snow mulch and will be planted with peas, onions, and spinach before anywhere else. Note: the south is to the right of the picture.

Hugelkultur is the German term for garden beds made with buried wood. The wood breaks down over time, providing garden vegetables with nutrients and moisture (as in you don’t have to fertilize and water as much, if at all!). The wood does not have to be brand new as rotted wood is actually better is some ways.

This fall, I decided to utilize this technique to build four 8 foot long by 4 foot wide by 3 feet high raised beds. In general raised beds are beneficial as they warm up earlier in the spring, keep humans (but not my dog) from compacting soil, and allow plants better drainage. Usually raised beds are built with a frame around the soil, but my beds have no borders. After completing each bed, I planted cover crops (turnips, spinach and clover) to minimize winter soil exposure. My long term plan is to convert more of my garden into hugelkultur beds, but wanted to perform a trial first, as putting these beds in is labor intensive, with all the wood gathering, moving, and burying.

The middle of the hole is filled with heavy logs

Branches, and bark fill in over the logs

Dirt from the surrounding area is put on top of the wood

Many thanks to Paul Wheaton for his inspiring and detailed hugelkultur article – http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/

Gardening, How To

Save the Beans

September 22, 2014 whatthymeisit 1 Comment

The Snarky Gardener is managing his herd of Jacob’s Cattle beans. Learn how to save bean seed.

Jacob’s Cattle beans before the herd was split up

Saving bean seed is really easy. Allow your bean plants with the beans still attached to turn yellow and die off. Collect the seed pods. Open up the pods and there are your seeds. You will want to let these dry out completely before putting them in an airtight container (I use old vitamin bottles though glass jars will work also). Make sure to keep an eye on them over the winter as they could mold up if there was any moisture in them.

After I do my “shelling”, I like to divide them up based how they look. Some will be deformed or have some flaw that makes them less than perfect. These will be put into the “eat me” pile. Jacob’s Cattle beans are specifically “dry” beans (think kidney or black beans), but I do eat some green.

So, you might be asking “Why does the Snarky Gardener bother with saving bean seed when it’s so inexpensive to buy at the store or online?” In a word, adaptation. These plants grew up in my garden with it’s specific conditions. Plus beans make the soil better, especially through their nitrogen fixing nodules.

Gardening, How To

How to Save Tomato Seeds

September 1, 2014 whatthymeisit Leave a comment

The Snarky Gardener shows you how to save tomato seeds using a 5 step process

1. Let the tomatoes ripen. The riper, the better. I usually seed save from tomatoes that are too far gone to eat. Remember, every year tomatoes fall off into the garden and “volunteer” the following season. What we are doing is speeding up the process by fermenting them in the house.

2. Cut open the tomato and scoop out the seeds. A spoon will be of good use to you here.

3. Put the seeds (and the pulp that will be with them) into a glass, mug, or jar. Add water. Cover with something that will let a little air in and keep the fruit flies out. For me, that means plastic wrap with a few holes poked in it. You will also want to mark each vessel with a label or write directly on it with non-permanent marker. It’s really easy to mix up multiple cups with tomato seeds in them.

4. Let sit for 3 days or so on a windowsill or somewhere else warm, swirling the “gunk” around once a day. You might notice some mold forming on the top. That’s to be expected.

5. After the 3 days, pour the liquid through a strainer and rinse the seeds carefully with water. Put the seeds at the bottom of the strainer onto a plate to let dry for a few days. For me, this usually takes a good “smack” to get the seeds onto the plate. I use plastic covered paper plates so the seeds don’t stick and so I can write on the plate what the seeds are. Again, it’s very easy to mix up your seeds, especially when you have 5 or 6 plates going at once. During the drying phase, you may want to break up any seeds globs that form so they don’t all stick together. The end result should be seeds that look like the ones you buy from a commercial seed house.

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Gardening

Fairly Snarky

August 24, 2014 whatthymeisit 3 Comments

The Snarky Gardener entered his vegetables in the local county fair. Now the Snarky Girlfriend will never hear the end of it.

Zucchini Winner — The Snarky Gardener with his award-winning zucchini

A little while back, the Snarky Girlfriend picked up this year’s Portage County Randolph Ohio fair book. She thought it would be cool for us to enter some items just for fun. She had some photos she wanted to enter, including one of my dog River. According to the rules, our entry forms had to be in by 8/5 even though the entries needed to be onsite when the fair started two weeks later. Telling the future is hard with garden produce, though I did have the option to enter and then just not have them. Going with a conservative first-timer approach, I perused the book, looking for viable vegetable categories.

Vegetables not quite ready for the big show:
1. Tomatoes and peppers – behind all year with cool wet weather
2. Corn – a few weeks off, not sure they would be ready by then
3. Beans – they wanted a quart of beans and I didn’t have that many.
4. Swiss chard – would rather eat it then enter it
5. Carrots – not enough and/or too small

Showable Vegetables:
1. Red potatoes – Red Chieftain
2. Golden potatoes – Yukon Golds
3. Kale – Red Russian
4. Turnips – Purple Top
5. Zucchini Under 10 inches- Sure Thing from Burpee

We dropped them off on Sunday 8/17, the day before the first day of the fair. Right away I realized something was amiss. People with kale and Swiss chard were using jars of water to keep them hydrated. The fair book said to do this, but somehow I didn’t pick up on it (oh well – lesson learned). On the plus side, we didn’t see any other turnip entries, so I knew I had a good chance of winning something in that category. The turnips I entered were far from perfect, as they had pits and marks on them. From the Internet articles I read after the fact, fair entered vegetables should all be little clones of each other and as close to retail sale quality as possible.

On Thursday (a long 4 days later), we attended the fair with some friends to see how I did (at least that’s how I saw it). They seemed to be interested in other things first, like seeing the Snarky Girlfriend’s pictures (she won a second place ribbon for a flower picture), and eating fair food. Finally we arrived at my vegetables and lo and behold, some had ribbons! Two firsts and a second (yeah). My red potatoes didn’t win (3rd place out of 3) as they were noticeable smaller and less uniform than the other competing entries. But my Yukon Golds won second place (out of 4) – not bad at all. My sad turnips garnered a first place ribbon as they had no competition. But the topper was my zucchini which earned 1st place out of five. Mine seemed to look the most like the ones you see at the grocery store. Now I just have to figure out what I’m going to spend all the prize money on. I wonder what I can purchase for $5.50?

Zucchini 10″ and Under – First Place out of 5

Root Vegetables – Turnips – 1st place out of 1

Gardening

Groundhog Love

August 8, 2014 whatthymeisit 4 Comments

The Snarky Gardener discusses not his love for groundhogs, but what groundhogs love to eat from his garden.

For the garden, groundhogs are very destructive. They have great appetites and can wipe out a whole season’s productivity. Fencing does help, although groundhogs are known for going under or over to get at the buffet the Snarky Gardener has provided. After seasons of experience, the SG has developed a strategy to mitigate vegetable loss. Below is a list of groundhog favorites and another list of those that have never been touched. Some of the “groundhog safe” plants have even been grown outside the fence with no munching, including garlic, onions, turnips, and various herbs. Going forward, more of these will be planted outside the fencing and efforts will be redoubled (more fencing!) to keep these little guys out of the good stuff.

Groundhogs have never munched on:
Turnips
Garlic
Onions
Leeks
Herbs (lemon balm, thyme, sage, basil, rosemary)
Tomatoes
Potatoes
Peppers
Zucchini (bush)

What groundhogs really love (in order):
Broccoli
Carrot tops
Sunchokes
Peas
Beans
Cucumber leaves
Kale
Spinach
Lettuce
Corn (pulled down the stalks to eat the cobs!)
Pumpkins (the outside of the fruit)

Gardening

Abundance

July 4, 2014 whatthymeisit 2 Comments

The Snarky Gardener writes an abundance of words about abundance. Imagine that.

snowpeas — Too many snow peas? I think not.

To the Snarky Gardener, abundance means having plenty (even too much) of a thing. Often people are concerned with what they can’t grow or what’s not doing well because of pests, lack of sunlight, or poor soil. But if you take this “problem” and turn it on its head with abundance, your mindset totally changes. The question, “What can I grow a boat load of?”, offers up all kinds of possibilities. I believe food growers should build upon their successes, with new and experimental plants taking only a small amount of total resources, and removal of those that produce poorly. At Snarky Acres, that means growing more sunchokes, turnips, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, peas, kale, garlic, onions, greens, zucchini, corn, Swiss chard, comfrey, and herbs (especially perennials like mint, lemon balm, oregano, and sage). It also means growing less (or no) broccoli, watermelon, peppers, eggplant, spinach, and beets. It’s hard to stop trying with those fruits and vegetables we love to eat, but not everything grows well everywhere, even in the same relative climate.

How to create abundance:

1. Grow a lot more of what grows well.
2. Look for alternative resources (weeds, trees, native species)
3. Create environments where abundance happens naturally (perennials and self-seeding plants)
4. Save seeds, plant extra starts (tomatoes, etc), and start new plants from cuttings.
5. Grow in non-optimal spaces (shade, poor soil)
6. “Invasive” also means “Abundance”

How to utilize abundance:

1. Find trading partners (food swaps, seed swaps, time banks, neighborhood barter systems)
2. Learn to preserve (canning, freezing, drying)
3. Find other uses (dynamic accumulators, medicinal)
4. Learn to create products from your produce (extracts, salves, pesto)

Gardening, Kent Ohio Food Not Lawns

You Had Me At Shiitake

June 20, 2014 whatthymeisit Leave a comment

The Snarky Gardener is looking forward to Shiitake and Chicken-of-the-Woods mushrooms in 2015

The Snarky Gardener had to cut down a maple tree for inoculation. Notice the lack of safety goggles or ear plugs – very professional.

The Snarky Gardener read a TimeBank ad for mushroom inoculation and jumped at the chance. For only 2 Time Credits (equals two hours of my time somewhere else), a mushroom expert came to Snarky Acres and put on a demonstration. I read up online to get the basic idea. First, I had to have fresh wood – 3 weeks or less old. And the wood had to be a hardwood like oak, maple, or black cherry. The timing was perfect as I’ve been wanting to cut up a pile of pine logs near my garden for a year or so. So I found a local tool rental place and rented me the biggest chainsaw they had (24″ inches) as the logs were quite big. Of course this was only the second time I’d ever used a chainsaw, so the Snarky Girlfriend watched to make sure I didn’t cut anything off my body (and to apparently make fun of me). As you can see by the photo, I’m not using ear or eye protection, but I was sure to wear the traditional lumberjack polo shirt. Fortunately, the logs and a six inch wide maple tree were cut without any injury to the Snarky Gardener or his ego.

Tom (aka the Mushroom Expert) is putting wax on top of inoculation holes

On inoculation day, process went like this :
1. Use fresh wood that’s been cut between fall and late spring (for nutritional reasons).
2. Drill holes into the wood.
3. Insert pre-treated plugs into the holes.
4. Wax the holes to protectively seal them.
5. Wait until next spring, keeping the logs in the shade and moist.
6. Eat mushrooms for the next 5 years or so.

So now we just have to wait nearly a year before mushrooms will be eaten.

Gardening

Top Late Planted Garden Crops for Northeastern Ohio

June 6, 2014 whatthymeisit Leave a comment

The Snarky Gardener lists the top vegetables to plant in July and August

Just because you didn’t get around to planting a garden in May and June doesn’t mean you have to go without for the rest of year. The secret to planting in summer is knowing that the first frost of the year (usually in early October here in NEO) is your limiting factor. So you need either vegetables that will be done fruiting by then or that can handle a little cold. I’ve kept this list to direct seeded plants as it’s hard to get starts by the time summer starts. Seeds can be obtained online, garden stores, and from friends.

Here’s my list:

1. Bush Green Beans

Many green beans are bush varieties, meaning you don’t have to have a pole (or corn) for them to go up. The bush bean will usually produce within 60 days of planting but will only have beans for two weeks before the plants die off.

2. Carrots

Carrots are a good choice as they can be planted through out the year and can handle frost. Make sure to keep them watered until they germinate.

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3. Short season corn

Believe it or not, there are short season varieties of corn which give you ears with 62 days of planting (like Early Sunglow). Just make sure you get them in by the first of August to assure they have time to develop before it gets cold.

4. Zucchini

Bush zucchinis (like Burpee’s Sure Thing) are great for a short season with days to maturity in the 48 to 60 day range. Just plant them in mounds and let them go.

RedRussian

5. Kale

Kale, which is related cabbage and broccoli, is a versatile plant that loves the cold but will grow will in the summer also.

6. Peas

Peas are a spring and fall crop, so it’s best to avoid growing them during the hot months of the summer. To get them going in August, you’ll need to shade and water them diligently until temps cool down. Starting them inside first and then transplanting them in September is also a possibility.

As you have noticed in this list, bush varieties of vegetables are the way to go for a short season garden. Just remember to read the number of days to maturity and count forward to your first expected frost.

Featured Plant, Gardening

Cold Weather Corn Salad

May 19, 2014 whatthymeisit Leave a comment

The Snarky Gardener shows you that some food plants love the cold.

I first heard of corn salad (aka mache) while reading Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long, 2nd Edition by Eliot Coleman. He discusses how some food vegetables can handle cool and cold weather. Many of these are greens, like spinach, Swiss chard, arugula, and parsley. The one that stuck out to me was corn salad. This green was originally cultivated by European peasants who would forage for them in their spent wheat fields (corn is a common term for staple crops). It seems to me this plant thrives in the cold, which is counter how many people see garden vegetables.

wpid-img_20131222_102757.jpg (3264×2448) — Corn salad – 12/22/2013

Two years ago I naturalized corn salad in my garden so now it grows as a self seeding “weed”. It starts to grow from previously dropped seed in August or September when we get a bout of cooler weather. Once it grows up to a decent size, its edible in salads right up until the temperatures drop below freezing for highs (usually after Christmas in Ohio). Then instead of dying, the corn salad will hold its own (without any cover). Once the weather warms up in March, growth begins again and by May it’s sending out flowers and going to seed. Of course, with protection (be it row covers or cold frames), the corn salad would be even more productive with the ability to reap any time over the winter.

Gardening, How To

How to Plant Tomatoes

May 9, 2014 whatthymeisit 3 Comments

The Snarky Gardener shows you how to plant tomatoes

With spring looking to summer, thoughts turn to planting frost sensitive tomatoes. The best time to put these little guys into the ground is when the soil has warmed up and all chance of frost has passed. Of course, one cannot tell the future, but mid-May on is generally considered safe. If you do plant and then there is a freeze or frost warning, covering the plants with straw/leaf mulch or blankets should give them enough protection.

Tomatoes are special in that their stems will grow roots if they come in contact with soil, so dig down enough to cover the stem up to the first set of true leaves. This will allow the tomato to receive all the water and nutrients it needs. Plus it will be easier to cover them if the weather turns cold (being shorter and all). I usually dig my holes ahead of time and plant either on a cloudy day or in the evening so not to stress them.

As you can see above, I use the “Terrier” digging method, but you can also use a shovel, Before placing your plant in the hole, you may want to add some extra fertilizer or other materials to the hole. Some experts recommend adding Epsom salts as they contain magnesium and sulfate. Others recommend egg shells with their needed calcium. I tend to use “dynamic accumulators” – plants that collect and store minerals. My favorites are comfrey (pictured below), dandelions, and mustard greens. I just remove the leaves I need and bury them.

Comfrey - a dynamic accumulator — Comfrey – a dynamic accumulator

Tomato planted so first true leaves are almost touching the ground

Once planted and watered, you should add some support, whether it be a tomato cage, fence, or stake. Some tomatoes (called determinate) don’t need much as they only get a few feet tall (like Roma for example). Putting in support now means you won’t be piercing roots later as the plant matures. As you can see below, I make my own cages out of steel fencing. These totally surround the plant and are 6 feet tall, providing support for most varieties of indeterminate tomatoes. The other positive of this system is that peas can be grown up the cages to give more food production plus nitrogen fixing for future crops.

Steel fencing cage around the tomato plant

One other technique I stumbled upon is to grow tomatoes on the north side of an east-west steel fence (behind the caged tomato in the above picture). As the plants grow up, I weave the branches in and out of the wire, thus eliminating the need to use ropes or other bindings to keep the plant from falling over.

The Snarky Gardener built raised beds using hugelkultur

The Snarky Gardener is managing his herd of Jacob’s Cattle beans. Learn how to save bean seed.

The Snarky Gardener shows you how to save tomato seeds using a 5 step process

The Snarky Gardener entered his vegetables in the local county fair. Now the Snarky Girlfriend will never hear the end of it.

The Snarky Gardener discusses not his love for groundhogs, but what groundhogs love to eat from his garden.

The Snarky Gardener writes an abundance of words about abundance. Imagine that.

How to create abundance:

How to utilize abundance:

The Snarky Gardener is looking forward to Shiitake and Chicken-of-the-Woods mushrooms in 2015

The Snarky Gardener lists the top vegetables to plant in July and August

As you have noticed in this list, bush varieties of vegetables are the way to go for a short season garden. Just remember to read the number of days to maturity and count forward to your first expected frost.

The Snarky Gardener shows you that some food plants love the cold.

The Snarky Gardener shows you how to plant tomatoes

Northeastern Ohio Food Gardening