How to build a grapevine trellis

It's supposed to be a really windy weekend, and I looked outside and sure enough the small 6ft steaks i've been using to "trellis" my grapevines are blowing all over the place in the wind.  It's been this way for a few days, but what can I say i'm lazy :).

Well today I finally decided to not be lazy, and I finally put together my grapevine trellis, and I must say it's working great.

Steps:

Step 1 - is to go to your local "buy all your home goods" store (lowes), and buy

• 4x4 outdoor post 6ft tall - you need 2 of these, one for each side.
• 4 eye screws (they're basically just screws with loops on the end)
• 200 feet of bailing wire (or multi-purpose wire), I got 16 gauge stuff, and 200 feet isn't important, just so long as you have "enough"
• 2 of These bad boys (these were where I was being lazy, and i'm really really happy it did) - If you don't get these, then get 9ft or 10ft tall posts above, and a shovel, and a strong back :).
• 2 Turnbuckles - I found these at lowes and just bought the biggest ones they had.  These help tighten up the wires

Step 2 - hammer in "those bad boys".  Give your plant at least 3 or 4 feet and hammer the posts in, try and get it straight up and down.  I would recommend getting a 6 inch piece of 4x4 wood so that you can sledge hammer it in easier.

Step 3 - Put the posts in, and screw them in.

Step 4 - Now it's time to use the eye screws, I used 4 so I could make 2 lines of wire, but you could easily do 3 lines, up to u (i might even add another one myself, it's pretty easy).  If you do 3 lines, make sure to get 3 turnbuckles.

Step 5 - Add the wire, and the turnbuckles.  I made the turnbuckles near one of the posts, but i'm sure it doesn't actually matter.

Step 6 - Tie the grapevines to the trellis, I used small pieces of bailing wire, and didn't make them very tight.  The 16 gauge is thick enough that I'm not too worried about them digging into the vines, but I also made them pretty loose.

Step 7 - Enjoy :), though if you're like me the next step is to find a good way to add netting to protect against birds.

Best Pictures I could take:

Notice the loops if you can see them.  Also see that I kept the
old posts I had and just tied them to the wire.

Other post on the other side. 

This grapevine is much happier now (or I am anyway)
Notice that i found the best vines to train along the wires, these will grow the
full length.  Also, you'll notice a little on the right the turnbuckles that I got.

All in all I have to say, for a couple hours of work this was much easier than I was afraid of.  Especially with the e-z post guards.

UPDATE:
If I had to do this again, which I'm sure someday I will, I'd have used one way anchor vices instead of the turnbuckles and eye holes.  Would have made things a lot easier.

If you're interested in growing grapes, This video series is simply amazing (dry :), but amazing)

Garlic Scapes :) and Garlic flowers

My Martin's Heirloom Garlic bulbils have been growing really well, and pretty much all of them have scapes (well, they did until I cut them all off and attempted to make garlic scape pesto).

I've been reading up how to get garlic to go to seed (not a normal process, normally they go to bulbils or whatever it's called).  I decided to take a few pictures of the process.

One of the things that I've found is that scapes are smaller than i thought, they're a little bigger than a spagetti noodle, but not much.  The heads at the end are about the size of an eraser when I pulled off the outer protecting and began pulling the bulbils out 1 by 1.  It's a hard process, especially with the mosquitoes, and often ends up in a few of the flower heads falling off.  But in the end the bulbils are plucked out and the flowers are left so that they can grow and become seeds.  I'm hopeful that they'll get better and better about going to flower so that i won't have to pull the bulbils out as much.

Anyway, here are the pictures:

Here you can see the scapes on all the garlic.  Note that
because they're bulbils i've been able to place them very very close together.

This is what it looks like before I start pulling
off the bulbils.  I have to cut through the outer
protective layer, and then pluck off the bulbils
one by one.

See how small those little flower buds are?  it's difficult to remove the
bulbils without pinching out the flowers as well.

This is the finished product.  There might be 1 or 2 bulbils deep in
there, hopefully some of the flowers still go to seed.

All in all it takes me about 5 minutes or so a garlic scape.  I've done about 9 of these, and I left on 4 or 5 to grow to bulbils and the rest I cut off to make pesto out of.  It's been a fun little project.

Pictures from the garden, early 2013 - radishes, onions,blueberries, and beets (going to seed)

Hey, I just wanted to get together a bunch of the photos i've been taking here and there in the mornings as I wander round the garden.

Newly planted blueberry bush from lowes (it's now got some
blueberries on it, though i'm not sure if i should pick them off or not, i'll have to look)

My other new blueberry bush

This is a new method i'm trying (lots of work, but it's fun).  The cardboard holds the cups steady, and they're inside a normal black planter box.  These cups have been growing really really well for me.  At some point i'll show you the tomato plants downstairs. These are green peppers, sage, and daisies.

Radishes always do great :).  You can see some of the red bulbs
if you zoom into the picture.  I'm going to leave as many as I can,
6 or 8, to go to seed so i can get radish sprouts.  Sorry about the shadow :) it's early morning

The spinach is starting to come up.  Will have to
thin them a little when I find out which ones are the strongest

I'm happy with the shallots, they're doing well.

This shallot only has 1 onion, but it's the largest stalk by far.
It's even got a little scape growing on it (that's what it's called
for garlic :) not sure what it's called for onions)

these 3 beets are getting ready to start the year

Notice this picture a week or so after the one before,
it's growing well.  These are beets in their 2nd year going to seed.

This is what the early stages of a beet flower looks like.  The beets
are full of these little flower heads getting ready to burst.  Should
get plenty of seeds out of these 3 beets.

Help, i'm a noob where do I start?

I was talking to a friend yesterday about some of the more basic parts of gardening, and although many people have written on where to start, it's not always easy to find.  So the goal of this post is to go over some of the basic details if you're just looking to start already.

This is the kind of cool stuff you get to see with gardening.

Where do I start?
Step 1 - What kinds of plants do you want to grow?  Most people start with tomatoes, peas, squash, and beans.  These are all great, they're easy to find, and there's a lot of info about them.  But are there other things you want to grow?  Asparagus, onions, :) garlic :), that's fine too, i'll show you how to look up the needed info. START SMALL - pick 2 maybe 3 things.  For sure pick tomatoes :), and if it's fall pick garlic :).

Step 1a - If you know you're going to want strawberries, blueberries, grapes, asparagus, any fruit trees, or most other kinds of fruits, you'll need to get these in this year too, because they take years to get fruit from.

Step 2 - Now that you have your 3 things go to Gardenate.com's Zone finder.  Find your zone.  Your zone helps you know when you should plant things.  So you need to find your zone.  In gardenate, click the zone that works for you.  Missouri is 5b.

Step 3 - Click on your zone on gardenate.com, and then click on the veges and herbs tab at the top.  Find your 3 plants 1 at a time.  In zone 5b, peas should be planted in march, april, and/or may.  So now you know right when to plant your plant.  I would also recommend that you read through the info on the page, it's pretty nice.

Step 4 - Deside if you want to do a raised bed garden, or just til up some land and plant.  Either is fine just depends on how you want things to look (there are other reasons to do each, but this isn't the post for it).

Step 5 - Get as much compost as you can get your hands on :).  There are often places on craigslist that sell compost by the yard.  If you have a truck get a truck load or 5 :).  You can't put too much compost (depending on if it's manure or not, you don't want too much manure) into the ground, plants love love love compost.

Step 6 - Plant, and make sure you keep it watered.  You should water, in general, at least 2 or 3 times a week unless it rains.  Don't let things get dry.

Step 7 - Pick food :).  No really, pick the food.  With things like tomatoes and peas, you need to pick the food as soon as it's ready.  The plants whole point in life is making seeds, they make seeds and then die.  The pea pods are the seeds, the tomatoes are the seeds, if the parent plants think they got the job done, then they feel free to die to allow their kids to take the place.  We don't want that.  So as the tomatoes get red and juicy pick them, if they get beyond juicy the plant may stop fighting to make more tomatoes.  So pick your food.  With peas, make sure to check them every day when the pods start coming.  And don't feel bad getting early pea pods for your stir fries.

Other things to consider:
Write down what you do, when things happen, and what days plants die.  Write down when they first let fruit, when the lettuce leaves first become big enough to enjoy, etc.  You'll want to know in the future how long things take in your garden, and a journal helps you year after year.  And, during the winter :) on days like today :) read more and learn more for the next year.

Planting Egyptian Walking Onions

I can here my friends saying, but Joe you don't live in Egypt, why would you want onions that walk there? :) Cause they're cool that's why.

What is an egyptian walking onion?
It's basically an onion that grows tall, and then grows bulbils (see my posts on garlic, bulbils are nearly seeds, but not :)) on it's scape (that's a garlic term, hopefully it's right for these too).  These bulbils get pretty large, the size of small marbles is what the pictures make them look like.  As these bulbils start to grow, right on the top of the other onion, they get so heavy that the onion falls over allowing the bulbils to get roots.  So they travel by growing tall, falling over, and growing their own bulbils, and on and on.

What are they good for?
EWOs are extremely hardy, they'll often grow in the dead of winter, frozen ground, pushing up through the snow even.  They make a slightly strong green onion basically.  As they get big enough, you can pick the bulbs which sometimes become as big as a shallot.  Also the bulbils can be used like pearl onions in soups and what not.  So why have them?  Because the provide lots of hardy onions that continue to grow without your attention, rain or shine, snow or heat.

This post will be where I keep my log.  I started the small bulbils (i was surprised at how small they were, we'll how :)) indoors, and I'll keep a log here of their growth, with pictures.

I bought them on ebay, of course, and they arrived on 12-05-12 and were promptly planted :)

Log:
12-05-2012: Planted 54 walking onions
12-09-2012 (day 4): First tiny sprout
12-10-2012 (day 5): #2
12-11-2012 (day 6): #3
12-14-2012 (day 9): #4, 5 and 6

Pictures:

Taken 12-14-2012
This is #2 (and you can almost see #4 below it)

Planting Multiplier or Potato Onions INDOORS

First, here's a link that people should read if they don't know what potato onions are.  It's a bit long, but it explains how the particular breed i'm trying to make came from.  This is Kelly Winterton's onions that he's been putting together.

Here's a google doc that Kelly is keeping up to date

On 12-03-2012 I planted 36 Multiplier Onion seeds, in a small seeding tray, and many of them are starting to show signs of life.

This is the post i'm using to keep track of the entire growth.  I'll show all pictures here and a log from day to day of what has done what.

Pictures (i'll keep these up to date, hopefully at least weekly)

Right now they look like normal onions :) just wait a couple of years.

Log (i'll keep this up to date):

12-03-2012: Planted 36
12-09-2012 (6 days): First sprout (this one since isn't doing so hot, too bad), later that night, #2 and 3 came
12-11-2012 (8 days): #4, 5 and 6
12-12-2012 (9 days): #7
12-13-2012 (9 days): #8, 9, and 10
12-14-2012 (10 days): #11

Growing Wheatgrass

I'm making my 2nd attempt at growing wheat grass.  I know the title says 1st attempt, but I tried once before, except that really what I did instead of grow wheat grass was to grow rotten wheat :).  This time however things are going great, so I figured I'd blog about it.  I'll talk a little bit about why i'm growing the wheatgrass, and then go over the step by step process i'm following.  Hopefully by the time i juice my first shot of wheatgrass i'll have good pictures of the whole process for you.

Why in the world would you grow wheatgrass?
Not too long ago I watched the movie fat, sick, and nearly dead.  It's a great movie, and I highly recommend it.  I happen to be fat, and I get sick often enough, so I decided to follow the diet the guy does on the diet.  Well, at least I plan on it, it's not the easiest thing to start on, possibly I'll post my experiences here, but I might start up a seperate blog so that this one doesn't get overrun with juicing.

So why wheatgrass, and have I crossed the line into the crazy health people?  First off, I haven't really, however I've seen several posts about people having wheatgrass and loving it.  I've had it a few times at jamba juice, and although it's some crazy tasting stuff it makes me feel better throughout the day, so why not grow it :).  It is extremely cheap, especially if u already have the peat moss and wheat (if not just go buy a bag of wheat, it isn't that expensive).

Steps

Day 1: Tuesday march 14th 6pm
The first time I tried to grow wheatgrass I tried it in a jar.  I must say it didn't work out well at all.  Nothing grew, and after about 4 or 5 days it really started to stink.  Not impressed.  A friend of mine suggested I look into sunflower sprouts and showed me this sprouter:

You can find it on Amazon for $12.  And let me tell you what :) it's great.  I tried 1/2 cup or so of wheat for my first shot, and soaked it overnight for 12 hours in the dark (i'm not 100% sure this is why i was making fermented wheat, but I believe it was, mine wasn't in the dark).

Day 2: Wednesday march 15th ~7am 
Strain the water, rinse with warm water.  Leave it in the dark.

Day 3: Thursday in the morning
Little sprouts are formed, looking pretty good.  After work, the sprouts are pretty long, time to plant.

I planted the 1/2 cup, which was now closer to at least 1cup.  I put some peat moss down, and put the seeds all spread out on the moss.  1/2 cup is probably only 1/2 as much as i need at least :), but this is the first test.

Day 4: After work, friday
Looking at the little plants:

They're doing really well, the roots are doing awesome.  Notice that i have the 1 black tray covered by the other black tray.  This helps keep all the light out while the roots grow together and the grass covers them up.  I added a little more peet moss on top of the roots, and watered it with some seaweed extract water (i happen to have it laying around, not sure it'll really help :) we'll see).

UPDATE:

This batch did terribly :).  They got all moldy.  The only real difference in my current batch (a good year later almost to the day) is that I have better trays.

You have to use 2 trays, one with tons of holes in it, and one without.

Here is my latest pictures, I think i'm on day 7 today and here are my pictures:

It's important to add water every day, notice how thick and
green this looks.  I add water now from the bottom.

This tray has tons of holes on the bottom, so the roots can
easily go below.  This allows the roots to pull up the water,
without having to have the dirt sit in the water which
caused mold last time.

These are the trays i use, with about 3/4 inch of dirt and
then the seeds.  They let all the water through so it
never gets moldy.

We'll see how this set does :).

Building a hoop house

Well, I broke down and bought the stuff needed to build a hoop house.  There are several diy type things you can do to build yourself a hoop bender, and some of them are pretty cool.  I however decided to buy an Offset Bending Guide which I found at lowes for about $30.  I bought the 1/2" one, there is a 3/4" one that is $40 that you should use if you want a stronger hoop house.

I also bought about 10 1/2" electrical conduit pipes.  They're about $2 a piece.  I didn't need 10, you need about 1 every 3 feet.

And I bought 10' x 100' of clear 6 mil plastic for about $50.  That's enough to do 5 4ft x 20ft growbeds.  I only need 3, but this gives me 2 replacements.

So.  Total price: $100.  However if you live near me you can save $30 :).  And that gives you enough to do several grow beds (though you'll need more than 10 pipes

To bend the pipes: (finding these measurements took me several pipes.

1) Measure 29" from the end, and 57" from the end (near the middle)

2) do the same measurements from the other end.  so in the middle you should see 2 notches about 6" apart.
3) Bend by placing the bender right on the right spot :) see the picture.

Zoom in on the picture if needed.
4) Bend til it hits the 60 degree mark.

5) Bend all 3 spots.  Remember though that you want to bend the same way on both sides, and then only once in the middle.

Bend all the pipes that you need.

I happen to have a few 3/4" electronic conduit around.  Cutting this in 2' increments allows me to hammer these into the sides of the grow bed, and slide the 1/2" conduit into them so that I can add/remove them easily.

After doing that, putting the hoops into place is easy, my kids helped me and loved it.  You then unrole the plastic the length of your hoophouse, giving an extra 4 to 6 ft on the ends so that the ends can be closed as well.  And here's the final pictures:

When to use a hoop house
There are several reasons to use a hoop house, and several times.  The main point though is that you offer your plants another month or so on each side of their growing window.  This allows for earlier spring plantings, and later fall plants.  Which could allow you to grow plants that may not otherwise be possible.

What does that mean?  Well, if the 1 month thing is right (i'l be testing it over the next few years).  Let's look at tomatoes (since that's what we all like anyway).  This would allow tomatos to grow an extra 2 months.  Rather than being planted on may 15th, you can plant on april 15th, and rather than it dying in october on first frost, it would die in november.  Or, you could plant more spring/fall plants by having it on for february, but taking it off in march or april as it starts to warm up.  So depending on what type of food you like, use your hoop house accordingly :). And, if nothing else you can add a radish planting for free on both ends :) if you like tons of radishes.


UPDATE
I've come up with a new way to work on the plastic, this way was annoying :).
Improving on the hoop house 2013.html

Composting with Worms - Vermicompost

I'll admit, the first time I learned about using worms to compost old veges and fruits and what not I thought "That's neat, and something I'll never do".  I didn't really understand what it was, why I'd want to do it, and let's be honest, worms are all the things that people think snakes are (slimy).  So why, now after a few years have I decided to start up vermicomposting?  Because it's way cool :).

Why would I want to vermicompost?
From my studies, composting with worms has a few benefits over normal composting, especially for a small garden.  The main problem with composting in piles is that you need enough material to actually get a good cooking going on.  Normal compost requires mass (amongst other things) to start an aerobic reaction so that the heat and microbes break down the materials.  But this only works if you have sufficient amount of mass to really get it going well.  Worm composting on the other hand is the opposite, you put the food in the "worm den" and they eat it.  You don't want to put too much in or they won't be able to, but that's just perfect if you have a big enough bin for what you do eat.  So why vermicompost? because it offers a great solution for a small garden where you don't really have the materials to get a good compost pile cooking.

Doesn't it stink?
No.  Ok, so that's the short answer, and I don't really know that yet.  What I do know is that if you're doing it right it's not supposed to stink, and the end result is supposed to be a very fine compost

My first build
My first build is made from a 55 gallon windshield washer container.  Probably not the best starting point, but it's what I had, and they'll likely survive :).  I'm building what's called a flow through bin, because it's the most perfect solution there is :).  Ok that might be an exaggeration, who knows.  What I do know is that to me it seems perfect.  You set a good amount of wet (like a sponge) bedding, shredded newspaper or cardboard or coco coir etc, for the worms, and then you add some food, fruit or veges or horse manure etc, and then a little more shredded newspaper or bedding on top.  Add the worms, and they'll travel on down and get themselves acclimated.  After a few weeks, add more food as you see them really breaking down what's in there.  Eventually you can just add, depending on the size of the bin, your scraps as they come.  They break down while the worms travel through the whole system eating what they want, meaning the bottom stuff is always the most decomposted and the top stuff is less so.  Meaning, as the system starts to fill up, the bottom is ready to harvest.  In a flow through bin the bottom has a "false" bottom, which allows you to harvest from the bottom, and put scraps in the top.  This makes it so that harvesting, isn't a messy process like it is in normal vermicomposting.  You practically don't need to know that worms are in the bin (though it's best to know, because you're really taking care of them).  You just put food in the top, adding moist bedding now and then, and get amazing compost out the bottom.

Pictures

The Lid

 The bottom hole - where I harvest

The bottom grate - what holds up the compost

Can't get this picture to work, as my phone doesn't have a flash, it's made out of the weed wacker cord you see woven in above.

The Bedding (pre moisting)

The whole system

Conclusion

I'll keep you up to date on how the whole system works out.  Many people have tried it, and say it's amazing, so we'll see.  The worms get here tomorrow.  Oh, the other main benefit - the vermicompost works awesome for soil blocks :) so that's a huge plus for my setup.

Saving Seeds - and why you might want to

What is it?
Saving seeds is nothing more than saving seeds from your plants so that you don't have to buy more next year.  It's easier than you might think, especially for some of the plants.  In general all it requires is letting the plant go to seed (it's normal process), and then harvesting the seeds at the right time.  Very simple, but of course there are a few caveats.

Why would I want to?
Well, if saving a few bucks doesn't seem like reason enough :), the reason i'm planning on it is to create a plant that is more tuned to my personal garden.  When you save seeds you pick the ones that did the best, or lasted the longest, or tasted the best, etc.  Doing so, means that their children should have those improvements as well, and then saving their best children, and so on, means that you're fine tuning a plant that is perfect for you.  It's basically small evolution, survival of the plant that you think is the fittest.  For some plants, it's easy to do, so why not :).

How do I save seeds?
This section will have to be split up by plant, and i'll add pictures and videos as they're taken/found.  I find that pictures and videos really tell the story.  However, like other sites have done, I'm planning on splitting the plants into difficulty levels.  There will likely be some copying from other sites, i'll try and link whenever I do, but a lot of what i'm coming up with comes from having learned from the sites and just writing down what i remember.  The basic organization is taken from http://www.seedsave.org/issi/issi_904.html.  And I give them tons of credit, because they go over much everything that you'll need.  So why do my own?  1 - to simplify what's on that site, and 2 - to add my own pictures and experience to the picture.

The plants are split up into 3 main groups.  1- Beginner, 2 - Experienced, and 3 - Expert

Beginner are basically those plants that you can harvest the seed without any real planning.  You grow the plant, and either just harvest the seeds (in the case of tomatoes), or do a basic step (like leaving the fruit on the vine, in the case of peas, beans, and peppers).  These seeds are simply easy to harvest.

Experienced is mostly just those plants where you have to worry about cross pollination.  Meaning if you're growing 2 different types of cucumbers, you can't really save the seeds, because the children will be a "mut" of the 2 types, and will be unpredictable.

Expert is, for the most part, those seeds that are biennial, requiring 2 years to get the seeds, and sometimes special procedures to keep the plant alive over the winter.  These also require you to be mindful of cross polination, so, for example, you wouldn't want to save cabbage seeds the same time you're saving brussels sprouts, because they are in the same species.

IN ALL CASES YOU SHOULD SAVE SEEDS FROM 6 OR MORE PLANTS IF YOU HOPE TO SAVE SEEDS "FOREVER"


How do I store seeds?
This section really should go after the saving seeds for each plant, but I figured I'd put it here as a reference for saving the seeds from below.  Seeds germinate by being in a nice toasty place with good moisture (in general).  Which means, that in order to store the seeds you need to do the opposite.  You want a nice, cool, dark, dry place to store them.  There are 2 perfect places in every household, though if you save a lot of seeds it may not be practicel.  It is?  The fridge and freezer.  Storing them in the freezer will make them good for many years, the fridge as well (though technically not as many years).  This is the optimal place, but not always doable.  Just remember that the colder it is, the better chances it has of leaving good seeds when you go to plant it.  So a basement would work better than a garage (unless it's winter, in which case maybe the garage is better).

Saving Seeds - The individual plants




Beginner:
Beans and Peas
Leave the beans and peas on the vine/bush until they grow brown and the outside is brittle.  Then, simply pull the seeds out.

Lettuce
Most people don't like when their lettuce "bolts" meaning it gets really tall and flowers.  However, this is basically the plant just going to seed.  To save the seeds, wait til the plant flowers, and then the flowers close up and get a white cotton end looking.  Then, either pull up the whole plant, and harvest the seeds, or cut off the groups of flowers that are ready and let the rest finish.

To get the seeds, take the little flower pods, and rub them in your fingers, and 6+ seeds will come out.  Kinda messy :), and a little tedious, but you get tons of seeds.

Note - the trickiest part here is that you want the lettuce that bolts latest (at least usually that's what people want), or the one that is ready to eat the earliest, which is also usually the plants you want to still be eating :).  Maybe you can grab the 2nd to last :).

Pepper 
Leave them on the vine a little until they're fully ripe.  Usually that means they turn red (even green peppers), once they are, open them up and save the seeds.  The seeds have to fully dry out, just leave them on a plate with some dry paper towels or you can make a small screen which is better but more work.  Let them dry out for a week or so somewhere out of the sun.

Tomato 
There are several ways to do tomatoes, some easy, some with better results.  In all cases you gather them when the tomato is at it's best.  Which, to me makes tomato saving the easiest.  When the plant is at it's juiciest, and best flavor, is when you want to pick it anyway.  And that's when the seeds are ready.  The cheater way :) that doesn't get as good of results (not sure the specifics here), is to simply wash them off as best you can, and dry them like pepper seeds.

The more advanced way, which has better results, is to put them in a jar, with all the pulp and everything (everything that's left over when you slice up the tomato for your sandwich) the pulp goo and the seeds, with plastic wrap on the top (with a hole or 2 in it so air can get in/out).  Leave that for 3 or 4 days til it molds really well :) yum.  then, wash them off.  Put them all "under" water, and the ones that don't float are good to be dried.  Then just dry them like normal, and they're ready to go.  Just make sure they are completely dry.  This method removes more of the goo, and makes the seed better at germinating in the following years when the seed is used.


Experienced:
Here's a group of links to seedsave.org for each of the experienced plants:  Or view my shortened version below.  These links are useful for experienced, because they go into what plants are the same species as what.  Very useful with squash and muskmelons.
Corn, Cucumber, Muskmelon, Radish, Spinach, Squash/Pumpkin. 


Corn
Other than worrying about other corn plants around, which if you're worried about genetically modified plants is a real worry, corn is easy.  Simply leave a cob on 6 or more plants, until they get completely dry.  Then pull off the cobs, pull out the kernels, and save them.  Corn is really really bad at cross pollinating.  If you live within a few miles of GMO (genetically modified) plants, then chances are that you aren't going to be able to save them without getting those modifications in yours.  Sorry.


Cucumber
This is a lot like peppers.  You do need to be sure that there is only your 1 type of cucumber around, within a few hundred feet at least, but other than that you simply leave a cucumber on the wine per plant until it gets all yellow.  Then save the seeds from that cucumber by cutting itup (using a knife all the way through the plant will likely cut up some of the seeds, which isn't ahuge problem, but it means you have to pick those out, which can be annoying), and then just wash the seeds and let them dry.

Muskmelon - I don't grow these :) you'll have to look it up.  The link above splits these into all the species, which is really excellent.  

Radish
These are basically the same as peas, if you can believe that.  But that's actually something really awesome about radishes, that I just learned.  Radishes when they "bolt", kinda like lettuce, grow splindly little vine things that have tons of seed pods on them.  These pods, when they are green, are actually supposed to be very tasty, basically a pea pod with a slight radish flavor to it.  When the pods are allowed to grow brown, then you can simply harvest the seeds like peas.  Though the seeds are tiny.

note - because we're supposed to save seeds from 6 or more plants, this makes a perfect compromise.  Because that means you save like 10 or 20 pods per plant, and eat the rest as green pods. Meaning very little waste.  I'm actually tempted to grow a few radishes this year specifically for pods, simply to see what the yield is like, and how good they really are.

Another note - radish, as well as most other plants that bolt, get really tall, and take up much more room when you let them go to seed.  You should give them a good sq ft per plant, which will require a little planning depending on how/where you plant them.  I'm only planning on 2 sq ft, so this might prove to be a little of a challenge.  I'll see how it works to let 4 go to seed in the same sq ft :).  And let you know.

Spinach
Spinach works just like lettuce, the only thing to worry about here is that there is only 1 type of spinach because they cross pollinate.  I'm not sure what the site means per sey, but it also says that you should have 1 male plant per ever 2 female plants.  Not sure how to tell the difference if there is one.  I'm assuming that just means leave groups of 3, and give them at least 8" of space.

Squash/Pumpkin
View the link above to find out which plants mix with which.  Evidently acorn squash and zucchini mix :( so I won't be able to save seeds from them this year.  Other than that these are saved a lot like cucumbers.  They need to be allowed to fully ripen, depends on the plant, and then cut open and washed and allowed to dry.

Expert:
I left the links here too to determine species that cross-pollinate.

Beet/Swiss Chard, Cabbage Family, Carrot, Escarole/Frissee, Onion,Radicchio/Endive, Turnip/Chinese Cabbage

I'm not going to list each of these out til i've actually tried them.  There are youtube videos for most, and some, like carrots, are actually quite easy to do.  However they grow to be extremely tall, which can make them difficult (being that usually they're not placed in the garden with height in mind).  However they can be moved.  

For the most part these are simply bienniels which means that they need to be left in the ground.  However, some, like cabbage, are better to dig up, and store in a root celler or garage over the winter so they don't freeze.  The next year the plant will go to seed, and you can collect them like any other.

One thing to note is the cabbage family.  It includes broccoli, brussels sprout, cauliflower, cabbage and kale.  So you may have to worry about what to grow what year.  


Most all of these you save your fall plantings, since it needs to go through a given number of hours below 40 degrees.

Basic Succession Planting - Attempt 1

For those interested, here is my Crazy Spreadsheet :) where you can see how I got to the numbers below.

If you're interested I think you can download a copy from there, and just put in your own seeds, and own data.

--

How to get a basic set of "free" plantings

Step 1 - Find out when things need to be planted
I've been collecting data and building a cool spreadsheet specifically for my neighborhood (well, specifically for my zone).  While doing so I found specific dates where things are supposed to be planted.  You can also do this based off the first frost date, but Missouri's extension of the Department of Agriculture did that for me :).

Step 2 - Find out when things can be harvested
On the back of the packet, gives me days til harvest.  Using this and the planting date gives me the "harvest" day, or the date where I can pull it out of the ground (give or take).  Note - This isn't a guaranteed date or anything, you may have to leave them in and plant later or just harvest young plants to plant.  Only thing lost though would be the seeds (assuming you compost the plants :)) if you pick them too early to eat.

Step 3 - Put them together
Find the latest date that things get planted.  For example, for me tomatoes are planted 5/10 (tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, peppers and squash).  That's the last thing that I plant (other than my fall crops), and so 5/10 is the date I'm looking for.  I use this date to find anything that will be harvested before that date.  Which included things like radishes, spinach, and lettuce.  So i can get a free crop of any of those plants, by using the space that will be used by the other.  If you look in my lists below I'll give you an example.  I then look for the first thing to be harvested, which is of course radishes, and get all the plants that need to be planted after that day (see the list below if this is confusing).  I have 2 groups, one things that are harvested early, and one list where things are planted late.

Example: Corn is planted on 4/25, and radishes and mustard greens are harvested on or before 4/24.  So i can fill that 4ft x 4ft section with radishes and mustard greens.  Rather than just leave the space to waste.  I would probably also plant some blacked seeded simpson and just either way a little to plant the corn, or harvest it a little early.  Or just plant the corn with the lettuce still growing, since lettuce like shade anyway.  Tomatos are planted on 5/10, so I can plant anything in my top list (i'll probably do the bok choy) and they'll be out of the ground in time for the tomatoes to go in.

Here are my lists:

Plant Type Date to Harvest

radish cherry belle  4/6
radish icicle, short top  4/12
spinach mustard tendergreen  4/24
lettuce black seeded simpson  4/29  
extra dwarf bok choy bok choy  5/4
spinach bloomsdale  5/7
beet detroit dark red 5/13 (included just because hopefuly i can get a crop in, and i like beets more than most of the others :), they're easy to can if I get too many all at once)


Plant Type Date to Plant


garden bean top crop  4/15
peppermint/spearmint  4/15
corn golden bantam  4/25
bean - string blue lake (bush)  5/1
cucumber ashley  5/5
zucchini black black beauty  5/10
eggplant black beauty  5/10
tomato rutgers  5/10
green pepper california wonder 5/10
tomato super boy hybrid 785  5/10
squash waltham butternut  5/10
squash table queen  5/10
tomato beefsteak?  5/10

So my plans are to get a few extra things of spinach, and bok choy,  and mustard greens, and probably learn how to freeze the greens.  But most of the space, for the tomatoes, squash, green peppers etc, will go to beets.  So may will hopefully prove to be a large canning month :).

This is my first year, and hopefully i'll get this more fine tuned.  Things for me to look into.  I keep most plants in my soil blocks before I plant them, and this time probably bumps back their harvest date.  This means that in theory several other plants can be planted and harvested in time.  So hopefully next year I'll get a better variety of extra plants.

Where to go to get local information

Someday I hope to write a gardening website that gives awesome local information.  One that helps you plan your garden, ask and answer Q&A, swap seeds, etc.  Someday :).  Until that point, where do you find local information?

http://extension.missouri.edu/main/DisplayCategory.aspx?C=67

That's where :).  There are several forums, some good and some spammy, but the local extension of the department of agriculture, at least for missouri, is an awesome resource.  That link above is for Vegetable gardening, and right at the beginning there is a link for a vegetable calendar.

Here's the pdf

This pdf is 8 pages, and extremely awesome :).  If you don't look at anything else, this is where to start.  It basically just goes through every vegetable that people normally plant, it shows which varieties do best in missouri, and what the average plant dates should be.  Very very excellent way to "just plant a garden".

If you don't live in missouri, sorry I have no links for you.  But look up your local extension and it should have plenty of information for you.  Also there is always a place you can call to get more info.

Digging in the garden

This post will explain a few tips and tricks for double digging a plot that is currently covered in grass.  I just started digging today, and would like to go over some of the things I've learned.  Several months ago I started trying to dig a 4ft x 4ft x 4ft hole for an aquaponics project I was trying to do.  I quick while digging the hole :).  In the project I learned that when people say that Missouri has clay dirt, they're not just joking around.  The clay sticks to the spade, making the process much harder.  So for the last few months i've had a 2ft x 4ft x 4ft hole :) hey I made it half way, and today I finally got all the dirt back into the hole.  In the process I learned that there are different types of shovels, and they're not created equal.

What's in a tool?
The shovel that doesn't work:

This is the only kind of shovel i've ever owned.  Long handle, pointy

The shovel that does work:

Notice the flat bottom, and D handle

I also added on another piece that was just wonderful.  Technically I have a broken back (long story), and so the work really gets to my back, but with this handle, it was much much more bearable.

Adds a handle to the middle of your shovels, racks, etc.  Very amazing.  I found mine in walmart, you can find them on amazon or at http://www.backsavergrip.com/.

I found the handle at walmart for $10, and a version of the shovel for $10 (though I bought it at lowes for $20 first :( oh well, hopefully it's better quality).  All in all, this garden spade vs the other shovel is a completely different tool, and much much better to work with.

So far, after about 2-3 hours of work (with breaks, i'm not really built for this stuff) I've gotten a 4ft x 10ft section dug.  Note, if you're digging grass into your beds, it's easiest to use a fork and break the grass off on the row, and then put the grass in the next trench upside down, then dig the rest of the next trench on top of the grass.  This does 2 things.  First it requires the grass to try harder to reach the surface, and hopefully die in the process, and Second it requires you to wait at least 3-4 weeks before you plant (or at least the nitrogen in the soil is being used to break down the grass until then).  Doing the grass this way unlocks the nitrogen that's in it, rather than having to compost it (which I don't have my compost bin's setup, or purchased, yet).

I've finished the first 4ft x 20ft, and let me tell you, it's a lot of work.  I now need to finish making the frame for the first one, and getting it in place.  I'll try and take pictures to update it.

I'll keep you up to date about the other digging sessions I have.  I still have 2 more 4ft x 20ft, and the 2ft rim (which is going to be interesting to say the least).

Soil Blocker Update, and Weed Cloth theory

Soil Blocker Update
With this first set of blocks i'm really pushing the size of what these things should grow.  Normally I should have transplanted these a long time ago (to a 4" blocker if I had one, or outside).  However I'm just trying to see how things do.  I took some pictures:

Remember, each of these blocks are 2 inches.  The whole tub is about 14 or  so inches wide with space on the sides for a small water reservoir.  I probably gave these too much room to be honest, in videos i've seen them much closer together.

Those lettuce plants are like 5 inches around

So the soil blocks are doing well, obviously the plants are getting too big for their britches, but we'll just let them grow til i need the space again.

The point though of this blog is a thought I had about the strength of using soil blocks to start all your plants.  I know that starting 1000 plants is going to be a bit crazy in little blocks, but it's doable, and it saves on work latter (is the hope).

Weed Fabric
I went to the store and bought a 4' by 100' thing of fabric.  Cost about $25, $40 once you add the staples to hold it down.  i'm hoping I can save it for next year, but who knows.  but that's enough to cover all my grow beds, without having to do anything funny (the 3' was just not the right ones even though they're easier to find).  The trick behind the weed fabric though is that it has to be used with transplants.  Which makes it imperfect for a lot of people who seed directly in the ground.  This is where the soil blocks really shine.  If you soil block every plant you plant, then you have a transplant (even if it's just a 3/4 seedling).  So bring out a simple knife and a you can cut the fabric just enough to plant your plant.  What does this mean?  1 - less water needed, 2 - warmer dirt (it being black and all), 3 - virtually no weeds (they can grow right next to the plant but that's it, and it's pretty easy to weed), and 4 - easy planning (explained later).  These benefits, to me, made it worth the investment.  I do however want to find a good way to pull them out year after year, probably right before I plant my green manure plants at the end of the year.

Easy Planning
I mentioned earlier that this makes for easier planning, which honestly is just a theory not based on trying yet.  However, this fabric is black, meaning that it should be pretty easy to use some chalk to write on it (or anything else I can find that's worth while, and more weather resistant :)).  So the idea is, to unroll some at a time, and mark the X's where plants go, mark off the area that each set of plants will take up, etc.  This lets you know exactly what your garden will look like, in the winter before you're ready to plant.  It also lets you know exactly how many seedlings have to survive (which means you want an extra 10+% above that many just in case.  In the end this should save on seeds, save on weeds, save on water, and really save on planting stress in the end.  I just need to find the perfect way to mark the fabric.  Let me know if you think of a way.

Videos that have taught me something

I was perusing through youtube, what can I say, it's winter time and I wish I was planting.  I decided that I'd start up a post containing every video I watch that I want to remember for later.  So here goes:

Training Tomatoes
Training and Suckering Indeterminate tomatoes (most heirloom tomatoes are indeterminate).  This is an excellent video that shows you several examples of what to do, how to do it, what to look for, what not to do etc.  Very Excellent.

Building Hoop Houses for Raised Beds
This is a great video for creating some simple hoop houses for your raised beds.  Very cheap, quick and easy to put up, and take down.  Should extend the life of your plants on both ends of your garden season

I'll keep adding more and more as I find them, don't worry :).

Soil Blockers - Test 1

What are Soil Blockers?  Why would you use them?  How do they work?

Those are all the questions I had when I first heard of them, and being who I am, I wasn't able to leave it at that.  The people who sell them, swear by them.  So I was at least mildly interested.  Soil blocks are supposed to work by allowing the roots of the plants to be "pruned" by the air rather than to fill the entire space available and cause a big block of roots, like what happens when growing transplants in the little black plastic egg carton things :).

Pros:

• Transplanting shock is supposed to be non existant
• You don't have to pay for new transplant containers each year (or sterilize the ones you used this year).
• Very very easy to move a transplant up to the next size (repotting).  Soil blockers are built to just dump one block into the next step larger block (which is what talked me into them).
• Buy the blocker once, and use it for thousands of blocks
• Enjoyable to do with kids

Cons:

• $30 for the 2" model, $30 for the 3/4" model, and $100 for the 4" model. 
• Watering isn't a walk in the park
• kids like soil blocks :), and they're easy to drop on the ground

I read up on them, and decided to buy the 2" model.  It's the most popular because it's small enough to be good as a seed starter, and large enough that with most plants you won't need to repot them to the larger size.  If you get the 3/4" model you'll want the 2" one as well.

Using the Soil Blocker

There are several resources on the internet on how to use the soil blockers, but I figured I'd give my own experience as a new gardener.  I tried several different techniques, and still have 1 left to try.  I made the blocks out of normal potting soil from walmart, I used soil to cover the seed, I used vermiculite to cover some of the seeds, and I used seed starter soil and vermiculite for another set.  So here are my findings :)

• Soil wetness

My first problem was getting the proper amount of water.  Very little was actually needed, and I went way over board :).  I was trying to get a peanut butter consistency, and as such there was water everywhere :).  Fun for the kids, but not the best to make actual soil blocks.  I also found that just using the soil without water didn't work well either.  There is a middle ground, and you simply have to slowly add water to figure out what it is.

Notice the healthy root coming out the side

• What to top the seed with

I've seen 1 video that I still want to try out about using a plastic sack, and checking it regularly until the seed has sprouted.  But I tried a few ways myself.  At first I was just using potting soil for my blocks (not the best answer at all), and I just used a little more soil to plug the seed in.  From my tests this was by far worse than any other method :).  Some of those seeds never made it out.  Instead I used vermiculite to cover the seeds, and then used a tsp of water to wet the seed, and this worked wonders.  The seeds have had a really excellent germination rate (except for the cantelope which never did come up) and they come out very very quickly.  

Notice the vermiculite

• What type of soil to use

You want light fluffy soil.  When I got the seed starter mix from walmart I was surprised at how light it was, the potting soil felt more like normal dirt.  I have lettuce growing in each, and the difference in size is astounding.  For my next set I'm going to try the mix from the websites, but just normal seed starter soil from walmart will work and is much better than potting soil.

Plants growing, week 1

Conclusion

I just got the 3/4" model and will be testing them out as well.  So far I'm impressed by the growth of the plants, and we'll just have to see how they do in the ground.  One thing is sure, it's nice to not have to thin out plants or use multiple seeds per spot.  Instead I can just plant my small transplants into the soil, and keep a few extras in case they don't take.