It’s been a l-o-n-g time since Kris and I gave an update on our garden project. I’ve been too wrapped up in writing a book to pay attention to anything else. Now that I’ve pulled my head out of the sand, I can finally devote some time to other projects — like the garden.
To be honest, we’ve done nearly nothing in the yard since October. Literally. We haven’t found time to cut back the grapes, prune the fruit trees, or train the berry vines. I’m not sure that Kris even plans to place a seed order, although the seed catalogs have been pouring in.
Fans of our garden project have been e-mailing us to ask for updates. I’m afraid y’all will be a bit disappointed in 2010. We’ll still be growing a garden, but we’ve made a conscious decision to make it simpler and smaller, and we’re going to take a year off from tracking our “income” and expenses. We have a lot of travel planned, which would make things difficult. (Though I guess we could teach our house-sitter how to track the harvest.)
The berries and fruit trees will do their own things with little effort from us, and instead of starting most of our seeds inside this year, Kris will be buying potted starts at the Master Gardener show. Last year, she noticed growers are now carrying many of the heirloom tomato varieties she prefers. This year’s garden will focus on fresh salsa and salad ingredients (tomatoes, basil, jalapenos, basil, onions, a few cukes, zucchini, peas, green beans and beets).
But while we won’t be tracking the financial side of things in 2010, we do intend to give brief updates throughout the year. We’ll give you photos of our young and maturing garden, crow about our first berry harvest, and share recipes to go along with our late summer bounty of vegetables.
And, as always, we love to hear what you are doing in your own gardens. If any of you are tracking your profits and losses, feel free to share throughout the growing season.
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Be careful not to burn out on travel.
(Speaking as someone who has burned out on travel this year. I don’t regret any of the trips, but I made a conscious decision to limit travel this semester, despite opportunities– I’m tired!)
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If you need help setting up a smaller garden, you might consider a square foot garden, or maybe container gardening. Also, there’s a no dig method called Lasagne gardening. I just made a post about it on my site. Hope you enjoy it. SquareFootGardeningTips.com/Blog
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Frugalista, I like that. Now I have a more feminine term to call myself. Though I support Pinetree Garden Seed Co. throughout the season, I was very happy to get a large supply of seed from the local convenience store for $.25 a pack recently. My first year here, I had deer problems, second year ground hog and after getting my fencing up last year it was bugs. Hopefully, this year I will get the bigger share and I will try to keep records. Let you know what happens if I can keep up with it. I do love spinach, I’m still getting enough from my raised cinderblock bed for sandwiches and salads even though it’s in the teens here. We’ve got a passive solar greenhouse half way done and hope to have it producing lots of greens, root vegies and herbs throughout next winter.
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I’m so disappointed. As an aspiring gardener, I really enjoyed those posts this last year. I was always impressed with the amount of work it seemed to take though. We don’t have a lot of space (we live in a townhouse, without a backyard) but I try to improve our “garden” every year.
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I am so excited about the garden this year!
My husband is going to help me build some beautiful permanent stone raised beds like we saw in Italy (Copia in Napa are the ones I’m envisioning)
We’re taking out the back lawn and putting down crushed limestone, very Provençal. (We’re going to barter for the job) Plant a couple of Plane trees for shade, 4-6 raised stone beds and a bocce court (basically sand!)
I could not be more excited and since we’re bartering it won’t cost much at all. (She said:)
The rest of our garden (non-veggie) is well-established after 20 years.
We live not far from Sunset magazine HQ and they’ve got some gorgeous gardens for inspiration.
I do a sort of improvised Square Foot Garden, I’m not so strict with the squares, sometimes play around with edibles mixed with ornamentals.
Check out the “Edible Garden” at the library, great photos…
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What does it mean to literally do nearly nothing?
Sorry to hear the garden posts won’t be so regular this year.
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A tip for seed starting. I like to use old cardboard egg containers for starting seeds. I cut the lid off at the fold and use it as a tray underneath. When it comes time to transplant you can just cut the 12 pods apart and plant them in the hole as the cardboard will biodegraded.
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I love the cardboard egg cartons too! although I usually put something more substantial underneath it. I like to save the plastic party trays that inevitably end up at work, rinse them out, and use them to collect water underneath the seed pods.
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Sorry to squelch your wife’s frugalista impulse, but the germination rate using year old seeds is going to be way down.
If you’re going bother to put the time into a garden, you owe it to yourself to spend 69 cents on a new pack of fresh seeds.
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Another frugal tip: I use cardboard paper towel or toilet paper tubes, cut in 2 inch pieces filled with seed starting mix to propagate larger seeds. When they root they can be planted directly into the ground.
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I don’t track my garden expenses very well, but I’ve decided that this year I need to spend my money on amending the soil & putting in some hardscape – paths and beds and such. The front yard looks really bad, and I think I finally know what I want to do with it (which will include edibles & also medicinal plants). I decided that buying plants and seeds and not having anywhere to put them is dumb, so I need to start with the basics. I’d also love to lay down some soaker/irrigation hose in my beds, that way I don’t have to drag the hose across the yard to water. So that’s what I am focusing on this year, in the yard…
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I’ve always liked the garden updates, and am happy to hear you’ll still be posting photos!
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I’ve worked in 3 different greenhouse businesses and we used the seed for years. Pepper seed was the one thing we bought in new, it had very low germination after one year. Tomato seed could be 10 years old and it would get a good germination rate. The seeds needs to be kept cool, in the dark and dry until used. This could be the reason for low germination.
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I thought you and your readers would be interested to read “In uncertain times, growing your food is fashionable again” today in the Seattle Times online…
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/pacificnw/2010845906_pacificpfootvictory31.html?cmpid=2628
Also, the plastic containers that grape tomatoes and other fresh produce come in, is especially good for starting seeds. they also come with a top, which essentially makes it a mini greenhouse. Here in Mohave Valley, AZ, we are harvesting a lot of lettuces, and our tomatoes are just now coming to ripeness (they are in a “cold frame” type structure over a raised bed.)
Happy gardening, everybody!
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Hello, everybody. Sorry to skimp on the garden posts this upcoming year– you’ll have to fill the void by sharing stories of your own gardening victories.
I always store my leftover seeds in an airtight bag or jar in the fridge. I haven’t noticed a problem with germination the second, or even third, year.
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I had such a downer year of gardening in ’09. I planted some GORGEOUS heirloom tomato plants, very hardy, looked like they were thriving during the first part of the summer. All died of blight, all tomatoes rotted before even getting near ripe. So sad.
This year, I’m going with a farm share CSA program for most of our greens and veg, and will try planting something I love and have never grown before – brussels sprouts
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The blogger’s wife is smart!
I bought a ton of seed packets last year, and probably used about 1/3 of the seeds in the packet in my garden.
This year, I plan to use some of those seeds, PLUS the seeds I harvested directly from the garden at the end of the season.
Free is good!
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@ fairydust – We lost a huge crop of pumpkins this year to the blight. It was just too damp this summer. Very frustrating!!
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Last year the garden took a crap just when we financially needed it the most. Infuriating weather, nothing we could do.
I hope this year will be better.
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We bought our first house last summer. I’m just starting to make some sense out of the backyard and I sort of have a plan for the front. The back is not very productive because it’s where the dog plays. The front is roses, herbs and vegetables. I’ve got thyme and sage going well but the lavender I put in has died. I have three artichokes that are going buckwild and I plan on putting in asparagus and tomatoes and perhaps some green beans if I don’t burn out.
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JD,
Can you post the details of the Master Gardener Show in Portland? I was thinking of starting fewer seeds. We are simplifying our garden this year too but more along the lines of “grow only what is worth growing”. Last year we had failures growing corn, broccoli, plus got a ridiculous amount of cherry tomatoes that are only good for salads and snacks.
I understand your limited posts as you try to balance your time. Random posts about your garden are good.
Kris,
I have a question about seed starting. When they say for example cucumbers cannot be transplanted, do they also mean I cannot use a bio-dome or jiffy where I can transplant the whole pod? I don’t think I am disturbing the roots.
Thanks!
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@Charlotte!
Cherry tomatoes are great for much more than salads and snacks! Slice them in half, saute w/ a little olive oil and add some onion, garlic, whatever, and you have a great pasta sauce. I love to mix yellow and red cherry/pear tomatoes this way.
Freeze them whole and then when you rinse them (frozen) under warm water, the skins slip right off. Put ‘em in a sauce pan just covered with water, mash ‘em a bit, and you have the beginning of a great vegetable soup – white beans + italian seasoning + green beans + italian sausage = italian wedding soup. w/ Black or kidney beans + chili powder, cumin, onion, corn, garlic = awesome chili soup.
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I have a veggie garden, but I have to say that I’m more of a fan of the permaculture sort of stuff. I like perennial herbs, fruit and nut trees, berry bushes, etc. Once you get them started, they take very little effort to maintain and within a few years, you’re getting awesome crops. It’s like passive income with food, heh. This year I’m adding asparagus and some more apple trees to my yard. And I’m taking a beekeeping class. It would be a blast to get my own honey and make mead.
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Thanks for the tips Kim!
I did roast some in the oven too. Sliced in half, drizzled with olive and salt. Roasted flat side up until caramelized. Yummy. Is it summer yet?
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@charlotte
I didn’t think about roasting them. I am just starting to get into the roasted veggies thing (made two big pans full last night!) YUM!
I have to laugh when you ask if it’s summer yet: here in AZ we are starting to harvest our tomatoes and have been eating salad greens out of the garden for weeks already. I know, we’re lucky now; but I can’t grow a thing in June, July and August.
@Lindsay: I love it: passive income with food! LOL
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@Lindsay –
I love planting perennial herbs, too! Basil makes great “background” greenery in a flower garden, and smells fantastic. Tarragon and sage (also beautiful greenery) tend to be hardy in my zone (border 7-8), too.
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I’m not sure about my summer living situation yet, but I hope to be somewhere that I can garden. If I am, I will likely do a container garden so that I can move my plants if needed. I’ll likely just do tomatoes and some herbs.
I do dream of eventually being stable enough to live in a place throughout a year so that I can put in a big garden. I had a pretty good garden last year. I did have to leave in mid-August, but I still got some good crops.
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Last year’s garden was almost a total loss for us – the tomatoes fell to blight, nothing else gave fruit. All in all, it was pretty depressing, and a bit of a money sink. The herbs did well, though.
This year, we’ve got a real plot of dirt instead of patio pots, and I’m optimistic for another try. Plus, starting with dirt means less expenditure on potting soil!
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