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Flower Power Farm

Garden Update: Summer Harvest

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Sep 06, 2010 at 21:48:47 PM PDT

Summer has come and gone, with an eventful and often disappointing few months in our garden. We live in a very dry climate and it's been stressful to the plants to survive in such poor soil. This is our first year gardening, and I wasn't willing to pay for too much in the way of soil inputs, so we made due with what we could produce ourselves. We had a little bit of compost, some nitrogen from a cover crop, and that's about it. Despite that, we did get some food from our garden, and we had a lot of fun.

There's More... :: (27 Comments, 1187 words in story)

Garden Update: Slowing Down

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Jun 15, 2010 at 13:44:43 PM PDT

Within our garden, there are about four beds that we painstakingly dug up, loosened the soil, removed the boulders, and added compost to. Then there are other parts of the yard (the area we call "The Ladybug Patch" as well as a strip in front of the fence along the road) that, well, we just haven't had time or money to put in that much effort. But I planted stuff there anyway. And nature taught me a lesson. FOUR MONTHS after planting beets and chard, the chard is tiny and the beets are the size of baby carrots. Beets don't require much nitrogen and they can grow to maturity in about 2 months, so something is seriously wrong here.

Here's what I did.

There's More... :: (10 Comments, 676 words in story)

Garden Update: Lots of Tomatoes and a Squash That Ate My Yard

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Jun 01, 2010 at 22:08:21 PM PDT

So much has happened in my garden that I can't even provide a full update in one post. It's so exciting, and it keeps me busy every day. Today I received two ollas - clay pots designed for irrigation. I put them in with my tomatoes and I hope it will keep the plants happy and reduce my water usage too. This post will bring you up to speed on the garden up to where I added the ollas. Tomorrow I'll provide details on how to use ollas to reduce your water usage. I've also got some major news to share tomorrow.

There's More... :: (14 Comments, 1244 words in story)

Garden Progress, Pests, and Disease

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Apr 07, 2010 at 00:33:32 AM PDT

Introducing... the tomato patch!

The tomato patch

OK, so it doesn't look like much yet. But it will! Around the border, I planted borage, calendula, and marigolds, and I left room to plant lots and lots of basil. In the far right corner, I planted German chamomile and some leeks. And near each of the large poles, I planted tomatoes: Glacier, Green Zebra, Eva Purple Ball, and Matt's Wild Cherry. I plan to add 2 more tomato plants - Brandywine and Black Prince. Then I'll put my Romas elsewhere (for canning) and my sungolds will go in a container - I think.

More updates on my garden are below.

There's More... :: (14 Comments, 905 words in story)

Flower Power Update: The Ladybug Patch

by: Jill Richardson

Sun Mar 28, 2010 at 11:24:38 AM PDT

Yesterday, I worked in a section of our garden that we call the Ladybug Patch. Here's a picture of what I did yesterday, which I'll describe below:

There's More... :: (3 Comments, 1011 words in story)

Flower Power Update: Weather Change and Plant Mortality

by: Jill Richardson

Sat Mar 27, 2010 at 14:10:37 PM PDT

For the first several months, my garden had no problems. All the plants thrived and no pests appeared. My only complaint was the slow growth of the plants. Was my soil to blame? Or do seed packets routinely lie about how quickly the plants grow to maturity? As it turns out, the problem was winter. Specifically, it was the short day length during winter. With less sunlight each day, the plants grew slower. But still they grew, with no pests or other problems.

Then a few days ago, I went out to check on my lettuce. I had just planted a few lettuce plants and, to my surprise, they were gone. I looked closer and then found them. They were dead. In fact, they were positively crispy. It looked as though they'd been fried. What had I done wrong? I'd been so careful! Was the soil the problem? I don't think I forgot to water them. And then another gardener mentioned the few hot days we'd had recently. That was it! We had a few unseasonably warm days - just a few - and that's all it took to kill my lettuce.

In fact, all of my cool weather crops are having trouble. Some of the brassica plants got infested with aphids. Some of the pole peas began to flower early. So did some of the favas (which - despite their efforts to reproduce quickly before they died - were droopy and near death). I sprayed the aphids off my cabbage with water, but I tossed a few of the infested plants into the compost bin, since they were too small to realistically produce much before the weather warms up anyway. I also composted the favas, and I might do so with the peas as well (we'll see). As for the rest of the cool weather plants, I've been watering them at mid-day so they are cooled as the water evaporates.

In the meantime, my warm weather plants are loving the warm weather. The next 3 days will be close to 80, and then the weather will go back down into the high 60s again (and we might even get some rain). Today I went outside and killed my cover crop (purple vetch) in an area of the garden and then mixed it in with the soil along with some sand. We've got clay soil, which forms a hard cap on the surface, so hopefully the sand will prevent that from occurring. In that patch, I set up a trellis and then planted beans (pole and bush) and 4 types of cucumbers - pickling, slicing, Persian, and Armenian. I also planted a few nasturtiums and a watermelon.

I realize that my problems are all weather-related but it's taking a toll on my ego as my poor little plants wither up and die!

Discuss :: (11 Comments)

Celebration: Carrot Cake!

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Mar 22, 2010 at 23:47:40 PM PDT

Yesterday we celebrated our carrot harvest (and my boyfriend's birthday) with a carrot cake. We planted our carrots over 3 months ago, so this cake has been a long time coming.

The recipe (below) was actually pretty healthy - except for the massive amounts of sugar. Other than the sugar, it was carrots, whole wheat flour, homemade yogurt, local organic eggs, and applesauce. Not too bad! Too bad that there is so much sugar in the cake that you can't eat it and consider it a health food.

There's More... :: (7 Comments, 218 words in story)

We Have Peas!

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Mar 22, 2010 at 23:25:58 PM PDT

89 days after planting an entire packet of sugarsnap peas, we had our first harvest! Here's a slide show of our peas' growth:

It's amazing to think about how far I've come since I first planted the peas. I didn't know the difference between pole and bush varieties then. Pole varieties get rather tall and must be supported by poles, as their name suggests. They take longer to produce peas because they spend so much time just to reach their full height. In our case, the peas were expected to reach over 6 feet tall and they did. We measured and graphed their growth and they reliably grew about an inch a day until they reached their full height. Only then they began to flower and, later, produce peas. The peas develop a few at a time. As you pick the ripe ones, new ones form. The upside to this is that you get peas over a long period of time. The downside is that you don't get many peas at once unless you planted an awful lot of plants. Bush varieties produce peas quicker, and they produce the peas all at once.

As you might notice from the pictures, I did a silly thing by going cheap on the poles. At first it was hard to believe the plants would actually reach 6 feet or more. I put a few branches in the ground and hoped that would take care of things for a while. When the sticks were too short, I began tying the peas to the fence. Then I purchased 1 set of 10 bamboo poles (6 feet tall). Except I probably have about 50 plants. The peas were far too heavy for the poles, which are all leaning over, weighed down by peas. I've got a big tangle of peas in several spots, and while trying to untangle them and help them each find supports, I bent several plants. Not to be deterred, one of the bent plants actually continued growing til it reached the ground, latched onto a cabbage plant, and then started growing up again. In another part of the yard, the pea plants took over the lemon tree. Next time I grow peas, I'll invest in a trellis. Or several.

Discuss :: (6 Comments)

A New Garden Pest: Cabbage Butterflies

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Mar 18, 2010 at 21:05:16 PM PDT

I really do not know how the pests find our garden and yet they do. Today I was on my way out to plant some chard when I saw a pretty white butterfly fluttering around our brassica plants. And I remembered a very memorable line in a book on pests I've been reading: If you see a white butterfly near your cabbage plants, admire its beauty for a moment and then kill it. So I did.

Cabbage butterflies are easy to spot. They are white butterflies with two dark spots on their wings. It's not the butterfly that's the problem - it's their larvae, the imported cabbage worm. These are green caterpillars that hang out on the underside of brassica family plants, feeding on and damaging the plant leaves. Then they chew their way into the cabbage heads.

Parasitic wasps will prey on imported cabbage worms, but I don't know that we have any parasitic wasps in our garden and I'd rather not assume that we do. You can buy some but I don't plan to at this point. For now, I made a pepper garlic spray and sprayed it on the plants (including the undersides of the leaves). To do this, blend 1 qt water with 2-6 cloves of garlic and 1-2 tsp of cayenne pepper. Let your mixture soak overnight if you have time. The strain it through a cheesecloth, put it into a spray bottle, and spray your plants. Re-apply about once a week or as frequently as every 3 days. You can also check the undersides of the plant leaves for the caterpillars and remove them by hand. This is easiest if you plant purple cabbage (which I did) because the caterpillars are bright green.

While I do not like having these pests around, I am glad that I've been able to spot and recognize them so far. Pests are much easier to deal with when you actually know which pest you're dealing with.

Discuss :: (12 Comments)

Our Post-Harvest Celebratory Dinner

by: Jill Richardson

Sun Mar 14, 2010 at 22:50:23 PM PDT

Dinner tonight was divine. We ate the carrots, stinging nettles, and spring garlic we harvested earlier today, along with rice and black beans. See our pictures and recipe below.

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Harvest!

by: Jill Richardson

Sun Mar 14, 2010 at 15:09:57 PM PDT

We've got our first real harvest this week! Behold, carrots and spring garlic:

I also plan to pick a bunch of stinging nettles, to round out tonight's celebratory meal. And there will be much more to come in the next few days. Tuesday, I noticed our very first baby sugarsnap pea:

We've now got several peas this size, but none are ready to eat yet. Still, they are getting close and I'm getting excited!

There's More... :: (16 Comments, 127 words in story)

Garden Progress Slide Show

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Mar 01, 2010 at 23:31:57 PM PST

I'd like to share with you our little garden's progress. I've been creating slide shows showing each plant's growth, mostly for my own reference. It's fascinating watching each plant develop, but when looking at a tiny little plant, it's impossible not to wonder how and when it is going to get big enough to eat. See a few of my slide shows below. They are not finished yet (as the plants are not mature yet) so this is just a preview of more to come.

There's More... :: (5 Comments, 54 words in story)

The Ups and Downs of Fruit Tree Propagation

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Feb 15, 2010 at 14:27:50 PM PST

A month or so ago, I attended a fruit tree propagation workshop. Fruit tree propagation seems to be both easy and tricky at the same time. It's incredibly simple to cut off a branch of an existing tree, plop it in a pot of vermiculite, water it, and wait for it to take root. And it's tricky because the tree won't always take root. There are a few things you can do to improve your chances of success, but mostly you just have to wait and hope.

After many weeks of telling my cuttings to "grow vigorously" a few of them did:

The growth of leaves is not an indicator of success, but one of my pomegranate and one of my blackberry cuttings look like they have new branches growing! Hooray! I asked my friend Ian (my go-to fruit tree expert and the instructor of the fruit tree propagation workshop) what to do next. If they took root, he said, I can re-pot them and then start to ease them into moving outside. Don't put them in the sun just yet. Put them in the shade.

I lovingly got a pot ready to go with lots of worm poop and bat poop and all other things plants like. Then I pulled up my pomegranate cutting, hoping to see roots. And... nothing. Same with the blackberry. Nothing. So I put them back into the vermiculite. I'll just have to keep waiting and hoping.

Discuss :: (9 Comments)

Flower Power Update: We Have Flowers!

by: Jill Richardson

Fri Feb 12, 2010 at 12:20:13 PM PST

After months and months of attempting to grow my own food, I have a new development to announce from Flower Power Farm (my family's name for our garden): WE HAVE FLOWERS!!!!

Fava beans take 80-100 days to grow to maturity, so I'm told. We planted ours on November 11. It's been 94 days. And until about yesterday, the plants showed NO SIGN of doing anything that would result in fava beans. Fortunately, these plants are doing a double duty as wonderful cover crops, so even if they end in failure as far as fava beans go, they are still helping the soil - and the plants will be very welcome additions to our compost pile.

Then, yesterday I decided to take a look at our usually very boring fava beans. And here's what I saw:

For anyone who is keeping track, that is our FIRST FLOWER on any of our very many plants here in the entire garden. Hooray!

More updates below...

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Flower Power Update: The Broccoli Has Not Seen the Spreadsheet

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Feb 10, 2010 at 13:28:51 PM PST

To coordinate the large number of plants I've got growing, and to figure out what I'll be harvesting when, I've created a large spreadsheet. I've listed every single plant that I am currently growing or intend to grow, organized by family. Then I've listed how long each plant takes to sprout and to grow to maturity, as well as how many weeks of harvest to expect. Here's a picture:

Key: P = Plant, S = Sprout, T = Transplant, H = Harvest

Well, I've got quite a bit of broccoli growing at present. And according to the spreadsheet, it should be pretty darn close to harvest. Twelve more days or so, and I should have some ready to eat broccoli. Only, the broccoli does not seem to think so. Here is a picture of the broccoli: