Tag Archives: GrowVeg

Contained Chaos

18 Mar

My gardening style is what I like to call, Contained Chaos.  I like the look of wildflowers growing in nature, but I also like neatly arranged plants, like using boxwood as a border, or rows of plants like grown in a farm field or orchard.  I think that’s why when I designed the culinary garden at My Urban Farmscape, I wanted my veggies to be planted in raised beds.  Each raised bed is laid out in neatly arranged patterns providing several individual sections to grow my veggies, fruits and herbs.   But that doesn’t mean that when the plants start growing outside of thier boundaries I want to hold them back.  They are allowed to wander and intermingle as much as they like.  It’s like, I try to control them, but then I give up because I know they will grow where they want.  Plants have a mind of their own right, or maybe, the instinct and desire to follow the sun.

When I decided to make my raised beds, I researched the options and chose to make them with 2” x 12” pine lumber.   DO NOT use treated lumber of any kind for growing anything edible.  I looked into options for preserving the wood, but then realized that the wood I chose will last a very long time, and by the time it was rotted, I would have gotten my money’s worth just using the plain pine and it wasn’t worth the added expense.  So, here is what I did.

April Garden

This is the space between my house and the driveway.  It is the sunniest space in the yard, which is what I needed for the culinary garden.  So…..out with the old and in with the new!  I didn’t remove the lawn though.  No need, since 10” of soil would be on top of it, it won’t grow any more.  I did have to transplant the shrubs and cut down an ornamental tree. 

The 2” x 12” boards were cut to the desired lengths.  If you don’t have a saw, you can ask your lumber store to cut them to the lengths you want.  They will typically do this at no charge.  It is easy to ask them to cut a 2” x 12” by 8’ board in half.  Do this for two boards and you will end up with a 4’ x 4’ garden.  I chose to use 3” deck screws to screw them together.  There are fancy type corners you can get, but it was getting a little too expensive for my garden.  Some of my beds are 2’ x 8’ or longer, so I added a board in the center for additional strength and/or to keep it from bowing.

Autumn Garden Showing Raised Bed Design

Once the boxes were made, they were place directly on the ground.  I filled them about 3/4 full with topsoil.  If you don’t have access to free topsoil, then try to purchase it by the yard.  It is cheaper.  Otherwise, you will have to buy it by the bag.  A 4’ x 4’ box takes about 1/3 yard of topsoil to start.  I then mixed in compost to the remaining portion, ending a couple inches from the top.   My cost for a 4’ x 4’ garden last summer was about $25.00 each.  That is the wood and the topsoil and compost.  You can make these any size you like, and they will fit in most every Urban Farmscape.  These will last for years.  If the ends start to come apart or the boards warp, I will make small adjustments as they come.  I just found this method to be the most practical and affordable. 

September Garden

The first year I was able to harvest a bushel of tomatoes from a 2’ x 12’ raised bed.  I spaced the tomatoes diagonally about 2’ apart.  So in a 2’ x 4’ space I was able to plant 3 tomato plants.  They were indeterminate types which I pruned and staked them.  I will talk about that more when I write about tomatoes.  I also planted blueberries, corn, cucumbers, carrots, peppers, squash, beans, garlic, parsley, oregano, basil, sage, thyme, and several edible flowers.  I planned space for cold frames also.  I overwintered carrots under straw (see poem on Winter Carrots).

Winter Garden

This will be the second season for the culinary garden at My Urban Farmscape.  The warm weather we have been experiencing has made it EASY to clean up and prep my gardens, but the only thing I am planting are my cool season crops such as spinach, arugula, lettuce, carrots, beets, and radishes to name a few.  And that is still in my cold frame (open ends and tops off for now).  Don’t be fooled by Mother Nature!  Our frost free date is about May 15th, still a long ways away.  For now, continue planning and if you like your garden chaos contained like I do, start building your raised beds!  Before you know it, it will be time to plant for the summer!

Coming soon to a garden near you…

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Spinach

4 Mar

Spinach, Spinacia oleracea L., belongs to the Chenopodiacea family, a.k.a., Goosefoot family where it originated in Central and Southwest Asia. An annual in our garden where it prefers to grow during the cooler seasons of spring and fall. The leaf types of spinach are either “smooth” which is somewhat flat like in this picture, or “savoy” which is wrinkly looking. In the warmer months it will “bolt” which means it will quickly produce it’s flower to make seed, thus slowing down leaf production, which is the part of spinach we like to eat. If you choose to collect seed though, summer is the best time to do that. Whether prepared fresh (my preferred method) or cooked, Americans consumed about 1.8 pounds per person per year in 2004. As far as world production of spinach at that time, China grew the most, followed by the U.S. and then Japan. Spinach is made up of about 91% water, and nutritionally, per a 100 gram serving, spinach provides about 2.9 g of protein, 0.4g fat, 3.6 g carbs, 2.2 g fiber, 99 mg calcium, and 2.27 mg iron. Go Popeye! Long ago in England it was said that spinach was used as a dye for Easter Eggs.

 

spinach seed

You can plant spinach as soon as the soil is workable or right now if you have a cold frame or low tunnel. Seeds will germinate in 5-6 days with soil temperatures about 70 degrees, 12-23 days with soil temps at 40-50 degrees, and up to 63 days at 32-39 degrees. I like to start my spinach indoors to ensure quick germination and then transplant outside about 2-3 inches apart in rows 8-12 inches apart. When the soil temperature gets above 50, I’ll sow seeds directly in the soil. Lately it has been hovering around 40 degrees in my cold frame.

 

Spinach prefers full sun but will tolerate some shade. Maintain a soil pH of 6-6.8. Spinach prefers to grow with an air temperature ranging from 40 degrees Fahrenheit to a maximum of 75. It is not susceptible to chilling injury which makes it a good pick for a fall/winter/spring crop. When grown under ideal conditions, you will be able to harvest leaves when mature about 37-45 days. It is best to harvest in the morning, wash, and store what you don’t eat in the refrigerator. In Eliot Coleman’s book, Four-Season Harvest he recommends the varieties “Tyee” for spring, “Steadfast” for summer, “Space” for autumn, and “Space” or “Winter Bloomsday” for winter. I have grown “Space” and “Tyee” and have been very happy with them both.

Starting to plant my early spring crops means that the gardening season is beginning! Even though we are experiencing the coldest temperatures and the most snow we have had all winter, my head is busy in the garden. I wonder if this is a disorder of some type. My family would say so. If you haven’t already, make sure you check out the garden planning tools at GrowVeg.com

My Urban Farmscape Winter Garden

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Online Garden Planning Tools

12 Feb

There are several online tools available that would help make your garden planning easier.  You can find some for free; others are available for a small cost.  Play around with the free offers before you buy to make sure that the program will do all of the things that you want it to do.  The free planning tools may be good for a simple layout but the more involved you get with your garden, the more you should expect the planning tool to do, which may come at a cost.

Last year I used the Kitchen Garden Planner from Gardener’s Supply Company.  It was free and allowed me to plan rows any size or width.  There are 50 crops to choose from.  You can create an account and save your garden information on their website or print it out.  They also offer pre-planned gardens for you to follow which might be the best choice for a beginner.  This planner works well to get a general layout for a new garden.  http://www.gardeners.com

Vegetable Garden Planner is free and has more to offer.  You must register to become a full member giving you the ability to create your garden, a journal, upload photos and keep track of your information.  They also have smart phone apps.  I downloaded the app for my iPhone which provides a lot of plant and gardening information.  What I found most interesting and useful was the “Family Feeder Calculator”.  You can select a “vegetable”, “herb” or “rare”, and then how many people are in your family, and it tells you how many plants to grow.  I chose from a drop down menu two people in my family and then selected pole beans for the crop to grow.  The recommendation I was then given was to plant 40 plants! Most experience gardeners know that bean plants produce a lot of fruit so would make an adjustment, but for a beginner, you may become known around your neighborhood as the bean person, which might not be all bad if you are really into beans.  There is mention on the bottom of the page that it does now account for succession planting.  Up to 90 crops are available with this program.  http://www.vegetablegardenplanner.com

            The Interactive Vegetable Garden Planner from GrowVeg is what I will be using this year.   Go to GrowVeg.com  and sign up to use the 30 day free trial and if you like it, you can purchase an annual membership for $25.  With this program you can plan your garden to the inch or chose metric measurements if you like.   You have the option to design your garden using traditional rows or by the Square Foot Garden method.  I will go into further detail about the Square Foot Garden method in a future post.  I use a lot of this in My Urban Farmscape.  The program can select from 5000 geographical locations which will allow your garden plan to be specific to your growing region.  This is important because different regions will grow and plant different plants.  GrowVeg will e-mail you updates for planting reminders based on our growing region twice a month.  What!  Once the gardening season is in full swing, I am so busy, I could use all the reminders I can get!  You can select from 130 vegetables, herbs and fruits.  They even provide information regarding crop rotations and warns you when you are about to place a crop in a location that might not be suitable based on last year’s plan.  This is important in order to prevent diseases and deter pests that may harbor in your garden from the previous year.  You can undo, copy and paste allowing you to create and re-create your gardens.  I’m sure that once you get started, you will love everything GrowVeg does.  When your garden is all designed, you can click on the plant list button to get your complete list of plants and quantities.  Awesome!  All you need to operate the program is Adobe Flash Player.  Try it free for 30 days and you will probably be able to plan your initial garden in that time.  But gardening doesn’t end in 30 days and neither does garden planning!  It will be worth the twenty five bucks to become a member.  GrowVeg has just launched their version for the iPad and expect their iPhone version be available toward the end of the year.  I draw and sketch my gardens initially,  then I finalize with a digital plan using all the tools and resources available to me to ensure a successful planting and growing season.  It’s almost time to start planting so finish up your planning with your favorite online garden planning tool.  Be sure to check out GrowVeg!

Online Garden Planning Tool

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