Garden planning, soil, and compost

I am fearing the garden planning and layout process. In the past I was the typical gardener that would plant wherever it felt right, and sometimes come home with more plants than I could find space for.

While I will not be planting every type of seed I have this year, I will need to actually go through and make a list of what I will plant, when, what to plant after that, and make sure not to plant the wrong combination of plants at one time that would cross pollinate to plan for proper seed saving.

My brother and husband have offered to help me measure the yard space, and then help sketch out the layout. Numbers and I have a love hate relationship… I am sure it is something I could not do so easily on my own and I am happy for the help.

This will be the first time I have designed a garden layout as well. I will most likely map out the full yard, and then start planting on just the slope area to start.

Worst case scenario, I have to stick to just the slope, and plan out as best I can as I go.

My biggest concern is making some kind of stair steps for the slope in certain areas where the ground is quite steep. I have slid down the slope many times due to poor footing or loose dirt.

Another thing I am trying to do is make a list of all the garden projects I am considering. That way if I end up with the right materials at random, I can reference my list, and know what project it should go to.

I will have to narrow down the list of projects, such as if I want a fire pit, solar oven/dehydrator, rocket stove, pizza oven, outdoor canning stove, etc.. Because having all of those is unneeded and would take up a lot of space. I could also combine some ideas into one unique one.

One project I am working out is my seed starting shelves. Part of my urban homesteading quest is to try and find ways to do things for little to no cost. I feel a garden should not cost an arm and a leg. Even if I had a lot of money, which I do not, but if I did, I would still go about it this way.

Right now I am trying to see if building the shelves would be more cost efficient or if I could find low cost or free shelving that would work for that purpose. I am also looking into where to find good lights that don’t cost an arm and a leg. So far Aquarium lights seem to be the best option with the lowest price. I am still researching though.

This is the first time I have lived in a home with all electric heat. Our heating bill last month was $81, and this month was just shy of $200… I am used to a much lower bill due to having gas heat. This unexpected rise in our electric bill does mean the budget for the garden will be tighter unless something changes.

We are looking into what it would take to get gas ran up to the house and convert to gas heating. We have a wood burning stove out in the shop that used to be in our house, but we aren’t sure what it would take to hook it back up, costs involved, and if our insurance would be ok with it. Previously our insurance company had made a remark about the stove. I don’t think we could have gone through them had it been hooked up, but I do plan to ask them. Downside of course is if we did go with a wood stove, we would have to store a large amount of wood… Using up garden space, and I do hear there are some pretty poor suppliers for wood here locally. Still, we are looking into various options, since even with level budget pay becoming an option around April, the bill will still be quite high due to Winter usage.  Next month they expect the bill to be $225. I only mention this all because this is apart of starting a urban homestead. You have to account for unexpected rising bills and change plans accordingly.

I think we will also be trying the bubble wrap trick with the windows to help with the escaping heat in the house. I hear it works quite well.

Other things I will need to tackle are the bug and soil issue. Pill bugs, earwigs, box elder bugs, and ants are a big problem I hope to naturally get rid of before it becomes as big of an issue. I was not able to harvest one ear of corn this year due to infestation.

The soil needs a lot of nutrients added. I am sure the soil and bug combination made for slow growing plants. I am not sure if my compost will be ready in time but I will at least have mulch, coffee grounds, egg shells, and I will most likely pick up some compost tea. If I can get my hands on some manure from friends who have cows, horses, or chickens, I will add that to the compost pile to age. I really do hope to turn my soil into something people tend to call black gold.

I am very new to composting and I find I am not always able to turn the pile by hand every day. If I had a tumbler (Which I am considering making at some point) It might be easier to do before work. I like the idea of layering it and leaving it, but I don’t always have enough of one thing to make each layer. I am still trying to understand how that would work. Maybe I will get lucky and having neglected my compost pile will be fine.. One can hope.

Thankfully with the big silver maple tree I have, leaf mulch will not be a problem. I didn’t rake the yard this year either.

Being that the snow hit us randomly with over 7inches, I also didn’t get a chance to cover my grape vines in time, so I am hoping they will be ok. I do plan to plant those in the ground in the coming year.

Seed packing party

So I have been finding ways to find seeds without spending copious amounts of money (as I so very easily could if I were not careful) and I happened upon a seed packing event for a local seed company.

At first I did not think I would make the event with the times listed, but then realized they had a afternoon and night time event for the three days the event was taking place.

I loved the concept of being paid in seeds to pack seeds.

The event was 4 hours long. I would have gone to the others but I had to work those days. Still, so very happy I was able to make the last night event.

SO many seeds! Oh dear I have never seen so many seeds in one place before. It is pretty awesome. We packed up so many different seed packets I lost count.

Someone brought pie, another person brought soup, and so we got to have some wonderful treats in between seed packing.

The deal was that we would be paid 5-8 seed packets per hour worked, roughly $15-$24/hr when you account for the retail price of the seed packets.

I had an absolutely lovely time, and managed to come out with 32 seed packets. Only one of which I got 2 packs of. I got to pick what seeds I wanted from I think it was something like 175 varieties? I honestly cannot recall the number she said it was.

 
The seeds I ended up taking home with me.

The wonderful thing about these seeds, is all of them are grown locally, all do well here, and I can save seed from all of these.

I hope to get good at saving seeds from any variety I plant that allows for it, so my seed bank will grow, and make up for any bad planting years to come.

I also got a chance to talk with the lady running it about a part time apprenticeship on the farm. I explained a bit about my situation, she explained a bit about the apprenticeship, and how I might apply. It is no for sure thing, but it would be nice to get some experience from someone who knows much more about farming than I, not to mention make some friends who love the same things I do.

If nothing else, they will probably have this seed packing party going on again, and I certainly don’t mind the work.

The funny thing is, only a few of these were on my wanted list. Sometimes it is hard to know what you want until you have a bunch of varieties in front of you. I got things that were on my list first, then added other packets from there. I think I came out with a really good variety if I do say so myself.

Here is what I ended up with:

Armenian Cucumber
Watermelon “blacktail mountain”
Green nutmeg melon
Popcorn “Glass Gem”
Zucchini “Black Beauty”
Soybean “Beer fried”
Aunt Mollys Ground Cherry
Parsnip
French Breakfast Radish
Waltham Butternut Squash
Scallion/Bunching onion
Tuxana Sweet Corn
San Marzano Tomato
Dr Carolyn Cherry Tomato
Red Zebra Tomato
Garden Breadseed Poppy
Mammoth Grey Stripe Sunflower
Blue Flax
Shungiku Edible Chrysanthemum
Motherwort
2pks of Broadleaf Tobacco
Purple Orach/Mountain Spinach
Winter Giant Spinach
Wrinkled Crinkled Crumpled Cress
French Sorrel
Heirloom Lettuce Mix
Smokin Hot Basil Mix
Dwarf Scottish Blue Curled Kale
Salad Party
Arugula
Cilantro


Here is a list of things I still want, minus what I have gained thus far:

 

Fruits:
Thornless raspberry
Wineberry
Salmonberry
Plum
Rainier Cherry
Golden Delicious Apple
Another apple type (Something like honeycrisp)
Muskmelon (Like cantaloupe)
*Other melons I have yet to discover** working on that
More grape varieties. I have 3 now, I want a few more types possibly.
Orange
Lemon
Dew berry
Salal
Porcelain gem vine *Edibility still questionable*
Peach
Nectarine
Asian Pear
Huckleberry
Blueberry (3 varieties)
Elderberry
Honeyberry
Wonderberry aka sunberry
Jostaberry
Mouse melons aka Mexican Gherkins
Lingonberry
PawPaw *Possibly*
Persimmon *Possibly*

Veggies:
Artichoke
Miners lettuce
Snap Peas
Brussels
Asparagus
Mushrooms
Potatoes- fingerling, red, gold, yams/sweet potatoes
Garlic (Has to come from a certified nursery here or it could cause white mold soil rot)
Cabbage
Celery
Banana peppers
Jalapeno
More winter squash varieties
Rhubarb
Horseradish
Sweet onions
Turnip
Sweet yellow onion

Herbs/Plants/Flowers:
Cleavers
Pineapple weed
Lemongrass
Bee balm aka bergamot
Red clover
Aloe Vera
Burdock
Ginseng
Comfrey
Wood Betony
Goldenrod
Vervain
Tea, Camellia sinensis
Passionflower
Damiana
Gardenia
Goldenseal
Jasmine
Day lily
Watercress
Goldenseal
Starry False Solomons Seal