Gardening buddies

My goal of creating an environment of positive energy was achieved over the weekend as 7 of my gardening buddies arrived to lend a hand layering compost, and working with me in the poly house. What I was most afraid of when I resigned as manager of the Farm was losing my connection to the people I cared about and who had become my close friends. It was great to see everyone and catch up, to spend time working outside, and being squeezed together in the poly house where we laughed and laughed.

We are all still trying to get used to communicating via the blogosphere. I found and posted all of your interesting comments and made some adjustments that should make it easier for you to post directly to the blog. It will take some practice, but I believe it will be the best way to exchange information. I will post the weekly chore list and my gardening  schedule which will help to eliminate multiple phone calls and emails.
One of the unexpected benefits of the garden's current location in my yard is that it is so visible to people in the neighborhood. I am finally meeting neighbors who I've lived close to for years. It is becoming a challenge to get work done with all the socializing that is going on, but I love that people have taken an interest in the progress of the garden. Many of my neighbors are gardeners themselves and we have been exchanging information and creating a dialogue about organic growing and healthy eating. I believe it is these small scale personal discussions that can lead to real change in the way we think about food in this country.

As you can see, the onions have germinated in the greenhouse. Lettuce, beets, cabbage, scallions, kale, and bok choy have also sprouted and are looking healthy and strong in their seed trays. I seeded eggplant, purple scallions, more onions, and golden beets, but it will be a few more days before the tops of their green leaves are revealed. I also seeded 7 trays of a variety of lettuces for a baby greens mix and all the trays have germinated. However, I realize that I am going to have to continually seed trays every couple of days so that there will be plenty of salad greens to go around. Please check your garages and sheds for black plastic trays (the kind that hold cell packs of vegetables and flowers.) The trays are not expensive to buy, but the shipping costs are out of sight. We also need seaweed for the compost if any of you get to the beach this week.

Cost: Fencing $78.00
Chores this week: plant peas (may wait until sunday, the best day according to the lunar calendar,) and carrots, divide dahlias, layer compost, seed trays of lettuce mix,
Next week: Direct seed: broccoli raab, h.salad turnips, arugula, and spinach.
Poly house seeding: basil, peppers and zinnias.
Garden time this week: Thursday (9-11), Friday, Saturday morning

Getting the heat right

I'm still hoping to move my seed trays from my friend's greenhouse to the 10 x 10 poly house that I've set up in the yard, but I'm having some issues with heating it. The daytime temperatures inside average around 70 which is plenty warm enough for germination, but I am concerned about the lower nightime temperatures which I can't seem to get much above 60 degrees even with the heater turned on full blast. Currently the outside nightime temperatures have been in the upper forties, but it is forecast to get close to freezing in the next couple of days and I'm not sure if I can achieve even 60 degrees on those days. Seedlings are resilient and can adapt to gentle swings in the temperatures from day to night, but they don't like wild fluctuations of more than 10 degrees or so. I may have an opportunity to borrow a friends propane heater which, together with the electric heater, will help boost the temperature a few more degrees. And, a small oscillating fan may help to better circulate the warm air. I want to make sure I have a good handle on the poly house temperature before I move all my seedlings back home.

In the meantime, I've set up four saw horses and lattice tables to put my seed trays on. I seeded more beets and some nasturtiums which I brought over to the greenhouse. Later, I seeded kale, bok choy, and more lettuce. My friends have been very generous about letting me use space in their greenhouse. I'm taking it over and there isn't much room left for their plants!

I went to home depot and bought three more rosemary plants for my herb bed. Rosemary is nearly impossible to grow from seed and I haven't had much luck taking cuttings either, so I buy new plants every year. These new plants have probably been growing in that hateful miracle grow potting mix, but I'll get them clean and chemical free once planted in my garden. I also bought a roll of poultry fencing. No, I am not raising chickens here although I would love to. Brightwaters has an ordinance against it. Hmmm, I'll have to see about changing that law. For now I will run the fencing along the base of the split rail fence to keep out the geese and rabbits. I have had one frequent visitor to the garden. My neighbor's Siamese cat has been using the cold frame as a secret fort and she startles me daily by peering at me with her intense blue eyes through the ethereal row cover. Once I put the seed trays in there, kitty cat is going to have to find a new hide out.

Costs:

Heater 35.00

Saw Horses and plastic insulation 60.00

Rosemary plants 12.00

Poultry fencing 16.00

No arguing with results

"So the earth may be healed."

This is a quote on the home page of the Josephine Porter Institute of Applied Biodynamics, where I have been shopping lately. Biodynamic agriculture originated out of the spiritual scientific research of Austrian scientist and philosopher Rudolf Steiner in response to a concern by 1920's European farmers and soil scientists about the use of chemicals in agriculture and its negative effects on seed viability, food quality, and livestock and crop health. Steiner, in a series of lectures titled Spiritual Foundations for the Renewal of Agriculture challenges us to look at agriculture in a different way. Instead of looking at the soil in terms of its chemical makeup, we are asked to think in terms of cosmic forces and energies in addition to substances.


I became interested in biodynamics after visiting my friend K.K. Haspel who grows vegetables and flowers biodynamically at her farm in Southold, N.Y. K.K. grows the healthiest produce I have ever seen. I visited her farm in late september and it was remarkable how alive everything looked. Her plants were standing up tall and strong with sturdy stems, the leaves were a healthy shiny green, and the flower heads turned up towards the sun. Her plants looked vibrant and happy to be alive at a time in the season where most of my plants were looking decidedly tired and worn out. There was a noticeable difference between her plants and mine and I wanted to understand why.


Steiner introduced ideas for producing different preparations to be used in agriculture that are able to convey forces to enliven the soil and ultimately heal the earth. This does not mean we ought to discard all knowledge of soil chemistry, but instead, go beyond solely the chemical point of view. The earth is thought of as a living, breathing entity. The soil is an ecosystem that can be healed and the food that results can be dynamically endowed with spiritual and cosmic forces that nourish us and make us feel good. The practice of biodynamics is about balance, healing, energy, and spirituality.


K.K. plants according to the lunar calendar, she applies the biodynamic preparations to her soil, and she actually talks to her plants using diving rods. Her compost, which she never turns, is rich black gold. The preparations are made up of a combination of herbs including yarrow, chamomile, nettle, oak bark, dandelion, horsetail, and valerian in addition to beneficial bacteria, fungi, and enzymes that promote root activity, stimulate soil activity, and germination. They also enhance light metabolism of the plants, encourage the formation of chlorophyll, and stimulate overall soil health. The preparations which arrive in tiny amounts, must be diluted in chemical free water, stirred in a certain way and applied at the right time of day when the earth is breathing in. But biodynamics is not just about applying the preparations. It goes way beyond that. It is a belief that plants are affected by the energy that is around them. K.K. has created an environment of vitality, health and happiness at her farm. There is a positive energy that is reflected in the vegetables and flowers that she grows. I am just beginning to learn about biodynamics, and I am excited about the

promise of what it can bring to my garden.


Colleen stirring Barrel Compost preparation for 20 minutes that I sprayed on the garden later in the afternoon.

More weekend chores

While Larry was busy putting the finishing touches on the poly house, I started the day by seeding two more trays of leeks and bringing them over to the greenhouse. I noticed that the beets are coming up and tiny green lettuce has sprouted. Colleen came over to help empty out a small planting area nestled between the herb beds and the garage. When we first moved into the house the bed had two magnificent climbing roses climbing up the trellises surrounded at the base by tall green ferns. After two or three years, the roses failed to thrive. I believe it was a combination of not enough sun, too much moisture, and root crowding caused by the ferns. Last year, I dug out the roses and moved them to the base of the stairs going up to a small deck where they are now thriving. I transplanted many of the ferns to a small wooded area at the edge of our yard. I've decided to try and grow lettuce in this new area. I think it will do well in the partial shade and protected environment of the bed. I am going to have to put up a small gutter at the roofline, however, so that the rainwater is diverted to the side of the garage.

Speaking of the garage, I spent some time in the afternoon reorganizing it. The garage is more than adaquate for storage purposes, but it feels a bit tight as a work environment. Now that the poly house is up, I can spead out a bit. Even though the garden is right in my own back yard, I am still getting used to working in this new space. I was at my previous garden for nine years and I knew where everything was. Here, I feel a bit disoriented and I'm wasting a lot of time searching for misplaced tools, seed packs, planting instructions and my to do list. Perhaps it is just my excitement at creating something new that has me preoccupied and scatter brianed.
I put up stakes and fishing line to protect the garlic plants from a flock of Canadian geese who have been grazing on the lawn and inching closer and closer to the perimeter of the garden. I need to purchase some good wire fencing to put at the base of the split rails to make sure the geese are discouraged from getting into the garden where they will wreak havoc if given the chance. People in the neighborhood have been coming up with innovative ways to handle the goose problem for years and I could never quite understand what all the fuss was about until now. On a positive note, chasing all those honking birds off my lawn is keeping me in good shape!

Cleaning up the herb bed

Thank you to friends Dona and Nancy who spent a couple of hours saturday morning cleaning up the herb bed. Actually, I have two herb beds side by side enclosed by boxwood hedges. The boxwood is threatening to take over the entire area so I will have to be ruthless with the clippers this year and trim it back hard. There are mostly perennial culinary herbs in the beds, including sage, thyme, tarragon, oregano, mint, and chives, but there is also a fragrant lavender plant, velvety lambs ear, silvery santolina, and grey green nepeta. The nepeta, aka catnip, is beautiful in the spring, filled with tiny bright blue flowers, but it also attracts the neighborhood cats who get high from rolling in its scented leaves. Rosemary is not usually winter hardy on Long Island, but I see some new growth on my only plant and there is a chance it may have survived. I will purchase some new rosemary plants to fill in the area around it. There is a rue (ruta graveolens) nestled into the corner of the back bed. I planted it because I like the look of its small blueish leaves, but rue is poisonous if eaten and I am going to remove it now that others will be picking from the bed. I have started cilantro seeds in the greenhouse and will also seed parsley, basil, and dill, herbs that no kitchen garden should do without. I ordered a new herb this year called stevia. According to information on the seed packet, stevia is nature's sweet secret. Used in Japan since the 1970's, Stevia extracts are 200-300 times sweeter than sugar. Stevia is low in calories and has been approved by the FDA as a dietary supplement. I'm thinking the leaves might be useful for sweetening iced tea, but we'll have to wait and see. There is nothing better than being in the middle of the herb bed, brushing up against the fragrant plants. It is an exercise in meditation and therapy for the soul.

My own poly house

Larry put up the poly house on saturday. It is 10 x 10, but it seems bigger because it is tall. It is quite spacious when standing inside and will be more than enough room to grow all my seedlings. It is constructed of metal pipes that fit together like tinker toys and is covered in an opaque plastic. It warms up quite nicely during the day but cools off quickly when the sun disappears behind the trees. I have a couple of options for heating it including electric and natural gas, but I'm still unsure what is best. My electric dish heater does not have a thermostat so once I turn it on, the heater would be running all night long. I would have no way to control the temperature and the cost in electricity may be high. My other option is heating it with natural gas. I could ask a friend to run a line in the basement, but I would have to purchase a gas heater which may be costly. I also have to set up tables and benches for the seed trays and I need a work area as well. I'm hoping that I can get it all set up within a couple of days so that all I have to do is walk out the side door to seed and water and work with my plants.

A good start to the weekend

Friday was a glorious day to be working outside! I happily completed chores on my to do list, including fertilizing the garlic and daffodils, constructing a cold frame, pruning the roses that climb up the railing to the back porch, and layering my compost pile. It is my goal to get a handle on the compost pile this year, as my attempts at creating compost in the past have usually ended up in huge unmanageable piles that did not heat up properly and were filled with weeds. I plan to create thin layers of nine different materials including horse manure that my friend Dana has been delivering to me from the barn where she rides, kitchen scraps that I have been collecting, leaves and grass from the yard, seaweed from the beach, wood ash from the fireplace, seafood scraps that I will pick up at the local fish market, sawdust from the many downed trees and branches in the neighborhood, and garden debris. In between the layers I will apply a biodynamic compost starter, a mixture of beneficial bacteria, fungi, herbs, and enzymes that will stimulate the soil organisms needed to the create vital compost. If done properly, I should not have to turn the pile which will save time and stress and strain on my back. I will continue layering the pile until it is about four feet high, cover it with a final layer of leaves and then let it cook until the fall. Hopefully by then I will have a pile of dark, crumbly compost to use in replenishing the beds. I'm thinking that I will have to make several piles to ensure that I will have all the compost I need next fall.

I put together the cold frame using plastic electrical PVC pipe, wood 2 x 4's, and metal stakes that I bought at Home Depot. Then I covered the frame with 10 foot wide fabric row cover that I bought at the Long Island Cauliflower Association in Riverhead. Once you have all the materials, it is simple to put the cold frame together. Drill holes in the 2 x 4's at three foot intervals throughout the length of the boards. I used four 10 foot boards to create a 20 foot long cold frame. Lay the 2 x 4's in two parallel lines five feet apart. The metal stakes are pounded through the holes in the 2 x 4's and then into the ground to anchor the frame. The plastic hoops are hollow and fit over the stakes. They are pliable and can be bent in a half moon shape that reaches across to the stake on the other side. I used plastic clips made from cut PVC pipe to attach the row cover to the hoops and to close the ends. The cold frame is not heated, but it does warm up during the day and offers protection from the wind. It is where I will put my trays of lettuce mix to grow once the seeds have germinated and also where my other seedlings will go to harden off before planting in the ground.

Unfortunately, when I went to the greenhouse to water this morning I discovered two of the seed trays upside down on the floor. The scallions which were about two inches tall and the cabbage which hadn't yet germinated were a tangle of roots, shoots and soil mix spread all over the place. Even though both the window and door were shut, a small rodent of some kind had burrowed up through the floor and climbed up onto the trays which then tumbled off the shelf. Even though I was aware of the hole in the floor where an animal could get inside, it was still disappointing to have to seed the trays again. I repositioned the trays so that they are sitting more securely on the shelf and I covered the hole in the floor to discourage any more nocturnal visitors. I'm hoping that it is enough to keep unwanted visitors away.

Back in the loop

I believe that voluntarily unplugging yourself from the real world for a few days is a healthy mental and physical exercise. We spent a week recharging our batteries in Florida where it was generally warm and sunny. However, we arrived home just ahead of a powerful nor'easter that knocked out our power for an additional four days which left me feeling seriously out of the loop. What? No blogging? No emails? No American Idol? I tried to imagine myself a pioneer, but reading in bed to the light of a candle and sleeping in my thermal ski wear quickly loses its appeal. Anyhow, after waiting patiently all winter for the skies to clear and temperatures to rise, all of a sudden I am scrambling to catch up. What a difference a week makes. Looking carefully, you can see small signs of activity outside in the garden.
Tender green shoots of chives and daffodils are coming up through the leaves, the garlic has grown a couple of inches, and most amazing of all, the tulips which were planted in the soggiest part of the garden and sitting in pools of water after every rain are showing signs of life. Seeds of onions, scallions, leeks, and thyme have germinated in the greenhouse. I love working in the warmth of the greenhouse and watching the seedlings develop. I am lucky to have found such a good place to start my seeds. I feel a positive energy when I am there and the plants seem happy. This week, I seeded a tray each of beets, Napa cabbage, and lettuce and several small pots of cilantro.
I put up a trellis in anticipation of sowing pea seeds around April 1st. I am still flipping through pages of seed catalogs and ordered several more interesting varieties of tomatoes and several packs of lettuce and early greens. My plan is to try growing a baby lettuce/ greens mix in trays, first in the greenhouse and then outside in cold frames. Apparently, the seeds can be sown in a mixture of compost and peat moss and can be ready to harvest in 14 to 21 days. If true, I can potentially have fresh garden greens to eat by mid April- very exciting! Plans for the weekend include staking out an area to grow dahlias and zinnias, dividing the dahlia tubers, cleaning up the herb bed, starting the compost pile, putting up my own greenhouse, and contacting my gardening buddies to come over and help me! A weekend working outside in the garden- I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing!
Costs:
More seeds 94.00
Plastic trays 50.00

Why thank you, Mr. Mayor

This morning I was out in the garden incorporating the recommended amendments of sulfur and boron into the soil when the Mayor of Brightwaters parked his car in the road and walked over to the garden fence. I think he came over to tease me about being the first gardener in the neighborhood to be marching happily about in my work boots, bits of leaves and dried grass clinging to my sweatshirt, big smile on my face. We chatted about his growing up in Pennsylvania, and his understanding of my strong desire as a gardener to get outside and working. He has enjoyed watching my garden take shape from the inside of his car as he makes his daily rounds of the village. It is nice to know that so far, he is a fan of my backyard project. Hhhmmm... I wonder how friendly he will be when the big white tent/hoop house goes up.......

Anyhow, I took the tilther out of the garage. It is a great tool for the home gardener, lightweight and powered by a rechargeable power drill. Unlike a roto-tiller, the tilther turns over just the top 2 or 3 inches of soil and was perfect for mixing in the amendments. It is also a great tool for using between plantings as it chops up the roots of the previous plants and leaves the bed clean, smooth, and ready for the next crop. Eliot Coleman, author of "The New Organic Grower" and "The Four Season Harvest" designed it for Johnny's Seeds where you can purchase one for $425.00. You have to purchase the power drill separately, making it a rather costly investment for the home gardener. I used (and probably abused) my tilther at the farm (which was one acre ) for at least 6 years and it is still going strong. It's a great tool if your budget allows.

I added sulfur and boron to the garden this morning as per the soil test results. Having somehow avoided taking even a single chemistry class in school, I know virtually nothing about soil additives and must rely completely on the results of the test. Apparently sulfur is involved in the defense mechanisms of the plants and low sulfur will invite the invasion of insects and disease- yikes! Good thing I got it into the soil before the swarms of locusts arrived. Sulfur is also necessary in the formation of chorophyll. Boron plays an important role in photosynthesis, seed setting, and the viability of pollen.

By the way, remember all the leaves that I chopped into the bed in the fall? Gone. It seems the worms were busy feasting, as there is just loose, crumbly, dark soil left. Boy, am I happy that I did most of the prep work for the garden last fall.

Seeding

I seeded a couple of trays of onions and leeks and a half dozen pots of orange thyme today and brought them over to my friends greenhouse where they will remain until I get my own hoop house put together. I use Speedling syrofoam trays that I bought several years ago. They are sturdy yet light weight and can be reused over and over again. The tray I used has 128 individual cells that I filled with soil mix and two seeds each of the onions. The packet of leeks had only 50 seeds, and I am certainly going to want more than 50 plants so I reordered more. I am still waiting for the scallions and parsley seeds that were backordered. It seems that every day I am calling up the seed companies to replenish my original order. I am used to seeding in much bigger quantities and so seeding just two trays this morning seemed odd. But it felt good to be working with the seeds and soil and I could have spent hours watering the trays in the sunny, warm, humid greenhouse. I'll be away for a few days, but will seed beets, early lettuce, and cabbage as soon as I get home.