Giddy About Garlic

 

Mmmmmmmm... Garlic!!!

     I started some garlic in my window the other day. Yes, I know I said I wouldn't start anything new until after the move but I just couldn't resist. They were sprouting anyways so I figured why waste? I grabbed a tiny glass jar and stuffed them in root side down with a quarter inch of water. They seem to be doing great! We will see what comes of them in the near future.



     The green onions I had been keeping in a vase on the window sill did well until I ate them all. I guess it's time to go fork out another 60 cents for my next 2 month supply. It's worth it though. The last batch kept fresh (adding new growth each day) with no refrigeration and had me making amazing eggs the whole time I grew them. My husband even got fond of chopping himself fresh green onion on top of anything he pleased. I do keep scissors near the green onions to make it that much easier to just cut them whenever and I change the water everyday to prevent the roots from rotting. A little bit of work will have you eating better in a jiffy if you decide to try this.


If you would like to follow me on Pinterest I have over 2700 pins at this time of which over 150 are garden specific ideas. Check it out and let me know your thoughts!

Sloppy Dead Greens

I find myself needing to post and not wanting to. This month has been insane. I've been helping my family clean my grandfather's house on top of cleaning my own. I'm trying to wrap up a charity event I led during July, get the donations ready for the August event, and not forget the big yearly donation due in October. I have my hubby's birthday this month and I just signed a lease on a new home that starts September. Oh and did I mention I want to take on more projects after the move?

I moved my plants to my lovely green room and watered them every morning. It didn't take long for me to figure out which plants needed more light, they died. The survivors are my chives, the basil, a few radishes that sprouted after replanting, and a couple carrots. The spinach is gone along with the parsely (it held on for a while). I have decided not to start anything new for now and to instead focus my efforts on moving. I will have a greenhouse at my next house so I feel my efforts will perhaps be better rewarded. Should the greenhouse be unfit to use (it has been unloved and unused for many years) I will start on ideas to make my own.

I'm sorry for the absence. I promise next month will mark the start of a new garden (with my hearty survivors) and posts with better detail. I failed the first attempt but I will not give up!

Someday, I hope to feed myself like this and harvest it all from my yard...

Dig Your Roots in Deep

Ladybug in my Garden Window

     My lease will be up in under 2 months where I am currently living. My husband and I will not be renewing it as we hope to be able to move into a house with a large yard. Either way, my gardening will continue year round. The house we hope to get has a greenhouse in the backyard that the owners may leave for my use. Just thinking about the possibility of having an actual greenhouse makes me smile ear to ear. My limited space would be a thing of the past.

Basil

     With all the rain we've had the past week I've had plenty of time indoors to spend on my plants. I finally got my first round transplanted into the recycled 2-liter containers and hung up in the grow room. I learned that hanging more than 3 per vertical strand is too heavy so I will keep making them in sets of 2 and 3.

     Making the recycled planters is quick and easy (not to mention cheap.) Rinse an empty soda bottle (any decent size plastic bottle will work), turn it on it's side and use a rotary tool (or whatever tool you like) to cut the round top opening where the plants grow. Directly opposite the hole you just made drill 4-6 small holes for drainage. These drainage holes will face the ground and prevent your recycled planter from collecting too much water (which will kill your plants.) I drilled 8 holes total to tie strings that hang the planters. Two on the top left, two on the top right, and 4 holes directly opposite those on the bottom.

     Before putting any soil in them I covered the holes on the bottom with rocks. Not doing this results in soil running out the drainage holes over time. I used rocks that I found around my house. Most of them were about quarter to half dollar sized. Minimal amounts of soil will wash away now.

     When I water I start on top and let it run down before watering the lower containers. In this way the garden is very efficient on water. The only waste is what comes out of the bottom container of each column. This of course is slowly being eliminated as I stack metal canisters of carrots and radishes under them. My garden consumes about 12 oz of water per day right now.

      As I am trying to do this on a budget I have been looking around for ways to make my own fertilizer at home. I accomplished this by using vegetable waste that would normally either be thrown away or fed to my worms. For my first batch I boiled the odds and ends from all the fresh produce used in a chicken and vegetable soup. I had the green vine from tomatoes, the peel of 1 yellow onion, celery tops, bell pepper core, and garlic peel that I threw into a pan with some water. I simmered this vege waste for about 2 hours then transferred it to the fridge to cool overnight. The process of cooling will help leach some of the nutrients from the waste as well. The liquid should be a mostly transparent amber color.

     The next morning I strained the cooled vegetable water poured it into an empty 2-liter bottle. My bottle was about 1/4 of the way full so I mixed it to the top with tap water. When I use this mix to fertilize I cut the strength down even father by mixing it 1 part fertilizer to 3 parts water. By the time the fertilizer is fully mixed and ready to use it has barely any color at all. There shouldn't be any large chunks of waste matter in your mix when finished. Cheesecloth, nylons, or a very thin old t-shirt can all help strain the mix to get chunks out. The finished watered down mix can then be used to water your plants like normal. I plan to fertilize once a week with this to start. I will adjust as needed and let everyone know if this worked well or what changes need to be made.

Recycled Planter hung with 2 nails

    To make sure my planters didn't fall I stuck two nails in the wall an inch apart. One planter hangs off both. This allows me to hang 3 recycled planters per column without worrying about the weight making it fall. If I need to hang more I will simply have one column of 3 hung above another column of 2 or 3.

     At this point in time I have Radish, Carrot, Basil, Chive, Parsley, and Spinach in large containers and all of those except spinach started new for the next rotation. I'm beginning to see which plants need to be started in advance and which ones work better if they aren't transplanted. Spinach, Basil, Chive, and Parsley work fine to transplant. Radish and Carrot I will most likely start directly in the large planters from now on. If I have excess of anything I plan to make use of it by bartering with people I know for other things. One of my friend's mothers likes to cook with fresh herbs and has already expressed interest in fresh or dried from my crops. My own mother will take spinach. The carrot and radish will be used in my house no question. Excess vegetables are a blessing. Even half rotten is of value to me now that I have a working vermicompost.

Full Double Rainbow in front of my house

Momma Left Her Babies Behind

My husband and I went away for the weekend. We decided to spend some well deserved time relaxing with family in Beaver Creek (Avon) Colorado. I was so excited I had our bags packed two days in advance. My parents came over twice a day to check on the mutt and water my plants. I was sure everything was taken care of but I came home to proof that only mama knows best how to care for that which she loves.

We had some great views while mountain biking.

When I left I had 5/6 Radishes sprouted and healthy looking, 1/4 of the carrots sprouted, and 1/3 of my spinach going. I came back to 2 dead Radishes and a worm bin that had been over watered somehow. I guess this Environmentally friendly stuff isn't as easy for my parents as it is for me. I could let it aggravate me but I'll just start a few extra plants to compensate on the next round. I did get free dog sitting and plant watering after all.

Worm bin before I left... nearly no gnats.

My instructions about the worm bin were to sprinkle the top with a few ounces of water every morning and to throw extra soil on top if there seemed to be a lot of gnats. There was no extra soil and the fruit flies were having a hay day when I got back. It only took me about 2 days to curb the flies by tossing extra soil on top and I still have yet to water the worms as the bin is recovering from the somehow excessive watering. I put a fan near the bin to keep constant air flow around it and help even out the moisture to the correct level. My worms are fine, it's just that happy balance I had when I left that is still missing. I really miss waking up to that earthy fresh rain smell in my kitchen and I hope it comes back soon. That was the biggest sign to me that I had achieved the perfect balance in the vermicompost. Yes, my worms are still in my kitchen in and I plan to keep them there. When the balance is right in the bin it acts like an air freshener (in my opinion.)

My herbs are doing great and need to be replanted soon. My green onions are growing faster than I can harvest and I'm about due to start another round of veges to keep the cycle going. I'm just thankful I was only gone a few days or I might have been in worse shape.

Parsley looking very pleased.

Rearing Radishes

Recycled Paper Towel Tube

The 6th of this month (6/6) I planted 6 Radishes, 4 carrots, and 3 spinach in recycled cardboard cylinders. On the 9th the radishes sprouted. Carrots are slow to germinate and the spinach I expect any day. I was very pleased to see the first little radish poke it's head out so quickly. It looked vibrant and full of life catching the rays of the morning sun.

Radish Sprout

My other herbs are looking lovely despite being dropped yet again during an attempt to open a window. Luckily they are rooted well enough now to keep themselves mostly in place. The chives that were so slow to sprout are now so tall I had to move them out of the greenhouse. I decided to move the basil and parsley too so I could store my little plastic container for later use.

Chive Basil Parsley

I'm feeling Green Onions

Green Onions growing in water

I bought some green onions the other day while I was getting groceries. I love anything in the onion family for cooking. I had seen where people were keeping their store bought green onions in a glass jar with just some water to keep them going. It's a really neat trick if you use green onions on a near daily basis like I do. You simply put the remainder of the white ends with the roots in a vase with water like you would flowers and change the water / trim off any dead parts every other day. I keep 2-3 inches of water in the vase for them and they give me about 3/4 cup of the green tops every week.

Nothing beats fresh!!!

 

 

Green Onion Roots in a vase

This is Home for now   :)

I've Got Worms

I'm so happy and excited I'm giddy today! All because my mother in law sent me worms from her vermicompost to start mine. My husband walked in with worms (red wrigglers - Eisenia fetida) wrapped in shredded paper and balled up inside 3 plastic bags. I immediately unwrapped them and layed the mass on top of the bed I had prepared for them. I poked around a bit to see if I could find the worms and I did but they quickly burrow into the bedding when the light hits them so they aren't visible long enough for a good photo. Here are my next step by step instructions on preparing a vermicompost.

Fill cleaned plastic bins with water and let soak for a few hours

1. After obtaining my two drawer plastic storage container I washed it with some lemon window cleaner and then rinsed both drawers. I wanted to make sure the plastic didn't have any chemicals or foreign matter since I bought them used so I filled both drawers with water and let them soak in my tub for several hours.

You can see how I did the holes in the bottom of the drawers in this picture.

2. I dried my plastic drawers once I was sure they were clean and grabbed my rotary tool for the next step. The top of both drawers is open to the air so I eliminated the holes on the sides that most plastic totes say to make. Instead I made two 1/2" wide by 5" long cuts in the bottom for drainage and to act as a portal when I'm ready to migrate my worms. I also drilled 4 small holes around these just to be sure I have enough airflow.

Arrange cardboard in your drawers anywhere light might come in.

3. Once I had the holes in the bottom of the drawers I cut up a cardboard box and line the clear plastic with it anywhere I thought light might come in. Worms don't like light so giving them a dark drawer to live in will make them happier and less likely to escape.

I shredded enough paper to fill the drawer 1/3 when wet.

4. My next step was to prepare plenty of shredded paper which acts like bedding for the worms. I don't have a shredder so that nice pile in the picture was cut by hand. If you have access to a shredder I would recommend that but cutting by hand isn't too bad if you have sharp scissors. Another trick is to fold the paper in half a couple times so that it takes fewer cuts to make one strip.

The paper bedding is moist but not soggy.

5. I added the shredded paper a little at a time so that I could wet each layer with a water bottle. I used a bottle with a sport type lid on it so that I could spray the paper faster than a mister but not as fast as just dumping water right on. I used a bunch of junk mail I had laying around (provided it was the non-glossy paper), scraps of paper I had jotted notes on, dry paper towels (clean - no meat, chemicals, or fat on them), and a few brown paper bags. I think having diversity in the compost will create a higher quality end product.


6. This damp paper bedding was left overnight (I wanted it ready before the worms arrived) to allow all the pieces to come to an even moisture level. The next morning I added a little more water since the top felt drier than when I went to bed. I had a couple handfuls of soil to add to the top since worms need "grit" to help digest what they eat. I'm holding off on adding food until I'm sure I created a proper environment that will aid their reproduction. My fear is that if I add food before the worms are acclimated to my bin then the food will start to rot and attract other pests.

Closeup of moist paper bedding with a handful of soil on top.

7. When the worms arrived I simply unwrapped the plastic holding them in a wad and laid the mass on top of my moist shredded paper. I spread the wad o' worms out a bit and left the drawer open so the light in the room would drive them into the bedding I had made. I was a bit worried since I had read that worms can sometimes crawl out of their bin and my compost bin is still in my kitchen, but I haven't seen any escape artists yet. I figured my kitchen was actually a good place to start them for a variety of reasons. I always leave the light on in the kitchen which is a great way to discourage the worms from leaving the drawer, the temperature is always around 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and the floor is linoleum in case I have a mess.


8. The last step in the setup of a worm compost is just to maintain it. Check it regularly to see that the moisture is appropriate and the temperature is right. It is recommended that you feed them your kitchen scraps about once a week. Remember that worms are basically vegan and won't eat any meat, dairy, or fat and adding these things will cause a foul odor and attract pests.



In the coming weeks I will post more on this topic. I plan to give more info on the length of time it takes to establish my vermicompost as well as time to complete one bin. I would like to observe what the worms prefer to eat and give instructions on making a "holding bin" from mostly recycled materials. The holding bin will give me a place under the kitchen sink to store food scraps for the worms without letting off odor.