Organic Pesticide - Ladybugs

If you see these rascals in your garden, their friend not foe for the vegetable gardener. These baby ladybugs will eat tons of aphids as well as other soft bodied insects including caterpillars.

Nasturtium Flowers



Lipstick Nasturtium Flower

 I'm a bit of a utlilitarian gardener you might say. However, I do want a pretty garden. My idea of pretty might not be everyone's idea of pretty, but I do try to keep that in mind. This year, I've tried to be utilitarian and a bit more pretty at the same time, thus Nastirtium flowers come into the picture. They're an extremely hardy edible annual. Leaves and flowers can be used in salads. Seeds can be used in place of capers. I'm going to try to be open minded and actually try eating these guys.

The leaves look like lily pads. The plants attract the aphids away from the veggies. They're supposedly blind simple to grow. Time will tell. We purchased the following:

1. Papaya Cream - compact, good for borders
2. Lipstick
3. Jewel - compact, good for borders



Nasturtium Ravioli Antipasto from CafeNilson.com



Seeds Arrived

Our seeds arrived today from R.H. Shumways. My daughter and I went to the Botanical Gardens where they had a large selection of seed catelogs. R.H. Shumways old school looks caught our eye, then the 5 free pack of seeds with $20 order won us over.

Almost time to start the cold hardy spring plants either outdoors or inside for later transplant. The experimental varieties were the freebies. They didn't indicate variety name on those, only descriptions. I'm guessing they don't have names yet. Strangely, they didn't ask us to give feedback on the "experimental" varities.

Plant	Variety
Pea	Experimental
Snow Pea	Mammoth Melting Sugar
Squash Medly	Butterstick, Clarimore, Goldbar, Sungreen
Tomato	Experimental Hybrid Med. Red Determinate
Tomato	Goliath Hybrid 'Pio' Large Red Indeterminate
Cucumber	Bush Pickle Monoecious
Bean	Experimental Green Bush
Arugula	Rocket
Kale	Dwarf Curled Scotch
Radish Medley	Sparkler, White Icicle, Easter Egg II, French Breakfast, Champion, Early Scarlet Globe
Carrots	Sweetness III Hybrid Orange
Basil	Experimental Dwarf Blend
Beets	Bull's Blood - Red, Round
Pak Choi	White Stem
Corn	Trinity Hybrid se+
Corn	Experimental Hybrid se+

Then here's some saved from last year

Oregano
Spinach Mustard
Cilantro
Okra	Heirloom (from Mark's uncle)
Okra	Stewart Zee Best (cajun)
Okra	Bowling Red
Corn	Silverqueen
Dill	Mammoth

Winter Garden

Ok, so now that it's the new year, it's a little too late to start a winter garden, but winter's on my mind, so winter garden planning I will do (for next year of course).

Here's a list of winter plants in order of cold hardiness according to Eliot Coleman. I plan to update this based on my personal experience once I've tested these specific varieties. In my experience though parsely belongs at top of list; turnips, mustards, collards above lettuce, and kale earns a high place on the list.

SEQ	CROP	CULTIVAR	SUPPLIER
1	Mache	Vit	J
2	Scallion	White Spear	J
3	Spinach	Space	C,J
4	Tatsoi		J,S
5	Carrot	Napoli	I
6	Claytonia		C,J
7	Sorrel	De Belleville	C
8	Chard	Agentata	S
9	Minutinia		C,J
10	Lettuce	Samantha	J
11	Beets	Red Ace	J
12	Arugula	Selvatica	C,J,S
13	Escerole	Coral	J
14	Endive	Salad King	J
15	Raddichio	Augusto	J
16	Chicory	Bianca	J
17	Parsley	Riccia	J
18	Mizuna	Forest Green	C,J,S
19	Dandelion		C
20	Turnip	Ameliore	J
21	Mustard	Hakurei, Red Giant	C,J,S

C = Cook's Garden
J = Johnny's Selected Seeds
S = Shepherd's Garden Seeds

Crop Rotation Sample Plans

This book contains many example crop rotation plans.
Haven't had a chance to review it myself yet.

Example 1:
1) Peas & Beans-> 2) Cabbage -> 3) Corn -> 4) Potato -> 5) Squash -> 6) Roots -> 7) Beans -> 8) Tomatoes

Green manures started as undersowing for matching #
1) Clovers -> 2) White Clovers -> 3) Soybeans -> 4) Rye -> 5) Sweet Clover -> 6) White Clover -> 7) Vetch -> 8) Oats

Example 2:
Potato -> Peas & Beans -> Brassica -> Green Manure -> Onions -> Root Crops
Manure before potato. Lime before legumes. Compost before brassicas.

Reasoning:
Legumes benefit from loosened soil from potato. Brassicas benefit from nitrogen. Onions are ok to compact soil from brassicas. Root crops beenfit from loosening from onions.

Example 3:
Potato -> Squash -> Carrots -> Peas & Beans -> Corn

Reasoning:
Potatoes and squash are cleaner crops meaning they smother weeds. Carrots are poor competors to weeds so perform well proceeding cleaner crop. Root crops loosen the soil which legumes benefit from. Carrots are usually a negative preceeding crop but legumes are immune. Legumes add nitrogen to the soil which is good for the heavy nitrogen feeders such as corn.

Recipe Nutrition



Tortellini Soup From Pioneer Woman


Found a website for determining the nutritional content of home cooked meals. You plug in ingredients, then it calculates the nutritional content. I love it. Although a little time consuming, if you're health consciouse like me and like to keep all your favorite recipes written down anyway, this site is perfect.
Click below link to see an example nutritional content posting for this recipe then click "All Nutrients"
http://recipenutrition.com/MRBshowRecipe.aspx?recno=20122&bck=2&recname=Tricolor%20Tortellini%20Soup

Nice Quote & Architecture

Falling Water, Bear Run, Pennsylvania, Frank Lloyd Wright

"He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him. This falsehood of tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions." - Thomas Jefferson

Fall Garden - Onions & Garlic

Intermediate Day Length Onion Sampler 

Onions are one of my favorite plants to grow since they're available for picking scallions half the year, take up little space, and are practically pest free.  Although I plant all storage varieties, usually half my onions are grown for bulbs and half for scallions. We have scallions available throughout the winter, spring, and summer.

Although ACES, the Alabama County Extension office, suggests you just grow short day varieties, this year I plan to experiment with some intermediate day length varieties too. Short day onions are triggered into "bulbing" during the short 10-12 hour day lengths of winter while intermediate at 12-14. I'll post back how the intermediate's perform in central Alabama.

 

Garlic

For the last several years, I've just planted garlic cloves from the grocery store and purchased onion sets from the local hardware store (always simply referred to as "yellow" or "white"). Today, I branched out and ordered the short day sampler pack and intermediate day sampler pack. 10 dozen onions of the following varieties should be arriving very soon, I hope:

INTERMEDIATE DAY

• Candy (yellow)
• Super Star (white)
• Red Candy Apple (red of course)

 SHORT DAY

• Texas 1015Y (yellow)
• Contessa (white)
• Hybrid Southern Belle (red)

Detroit Beets

SPACE

Garlic and onion 2"X10" apart.

10 dozen onions = 120 plants = 240" row = 20' row

20 garlic cloves = 40" row = 3.5' row.



COST

The garlic was free since we used leftover cloves from last year's harvest. They've sprouted nicely already. Just today, ordered 10 dozen onions for $14.00 including shipping from Dixondale farms in Texas. Not bad.

Next year, I'll try to track down a nice garlic sampler pack and maybe even some leeks although I've been pretty pleased with the grocery store garlic variety so far.

Grand Rapids Lettuce & Rabbiteye Blueberry

Stem Rot

This disease seems to be spreading across the garden and killing indiscriminately (tomatoes, peppers, beans, ...). The picture below is exactly what it looks like (with tiny orange dots below the ground) and kills the plant completely and quickly. As soon as you notice you have it, the plant is dead, if it's a small plant. A giant productive tomato plant takes a few days to kill. Major bummer.

What's the cause??

Nice Quote and Art

Looking Down Yosemite Valley,California 1865 by Albert Bierstadt onn Display At Birmingham Museum Of Art

"Above all things, lose no occasion of exercising your dispositions to be grateful, to be generous, to be charitable, to be humane, to be true, just, firm, orderly, courageous, &c. Consider every act of this kind, as an exercise which will strengthen your moral faculties and increase your worth." - Thomas Jefferson

Crop Rotation Concepts

If you are a home gardener, then chances are you won't want to always be growing the same exact vegetable, year after year. Then why not take advantage of the ancient practice of crop rotation?

Practically every gardener has heard of this (probably something they were taught in middle school history class, like me). But do they really know what it means? If they know anything on the subject, it's probably that pest problems can be reduced by consecutively planting vegetables from different families, but there's more to it.


1st there are several benefits to crop rotation:
1. Growing multiple varieties of plants at once is more maintainable by fewer people (the small farmer or avid gardener), because the plants needs are timed differently. All plants don't need to be planted or harvested at once.
2. Improved soil structure: root depth and dug in plants at end of harvest change soil structure in various ways
3. Improved soil nutrition: some plants add nutrients, others move nutrients around, and others just consume nutrients
4. Improved disease, weed, and insect control
5. Reduced dependence on expensive pesticides and fertilisers
6. Reduces soil erosion
7. Unexplained benefits: Some plants just simply grow better following other crops and the reasons aren't completely understood

2nd, it's important to know the plant families:

Family	Common names
MUST HAVE ROTATION
Crucifer (Brassica)	Arugula, bok choy (petchay), broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale, kohlrabi, mustard, radish, rutubaga, turnip, watercress
Solanaceous (Nightshade)	Eggplant, potato, pepper, tomato
KEEN ON ROTATION (excluding leeks)
Allium	Chive, garlic, leek, onion, shallot
Umbelliferae	Carrot, celery, cilantro, dill, fennil, parsnip, parsley
LESS FUSSY
Aster (Daisy)	Artichoke, chamomile, calendula, dandelion, echinacea, endive, lettuce, marigold, sunflowers, tarragon
Chenopodiaceae	Beets, chard, spinach
Cucurbit (Gourd)	Gourds, cucumber, pumpkins, squash, zucchini
Legume	Beans, peas, clover, peanut, soy
Poaceae (Grasses)	Barley, corn, millet, oat, rice, rye, sorghum, sugarcanem wheat
???
Convolvulaceae	Cassava, sweet potato, taro, water chestnut, yam
Malvaceae (Mallow)	Cocoa, cotton, okra
Tetragoniaceae	New Zealand Spinach
Valerianaceae	Mache

3rd, there are several aspects to consider with crop rotation:

1.STRETCH IT OUT:

• Stretch it out over as many years as possible with as many different vegetables are possible
• This becomes easier the larger your garden is and the more parcels you can divide it into

2.GREEN MANURE:

• Rotating in a green manure is beneficial
• Examples: mustard greens, legumes, clover, vetch, alfalfa, buckwheat, oats, rye-grass, barley

3. COMPOSTING:

• some prefer same year composting
• others prefer prior year composting
• when composting is scarce, green manure can be substituted 
• manuring helps offset (but not necessarily eliminate) the damages of negative preceding crops)

4. PLANT SEQUENCING IS IMPORTANT:

• Peas and beans are considered "nitrogen fixing", "green manure" adding good structure and nitrogen to the soil (nature's fertiliser). Most plants perform well after it, especially corn since it's a heavy nitrogen feeder.
• Negative preceding crop: Most plants don't like being planted after carrots, cabbage, beets, or chard
• Deep rooted plants: assist in pulling nutrients from deep in the soil up into shallow sections of the soil. They tend to assist in breaking up compacted deep soil.
  Shallow rooted plants: benefit from being planted after deep rooted plants. 
• Corn, peas, and beans don't suffer the same effects after negative preceding crops.
• Corn and brassicas are heavy nitrogen feeders
• Brassicas don't perform well in loose soil and tend to pack the soil.
• Potatoes tend to loosen the soil. They don't like lime.
• Brassicas and legumes like lime.
• Peas and beans like being planted in loose soil.
• Onions are happy to be planted in firm soil.
• Potatoes perform well after corn.
• Cleaner crops - perform well against weeds. So well in fact, they reduce weeds for the subsequent crop planting. Examples include potatoes, sweet potatoes, and squash.
• Root crops perform well following "cleaner crops" since they aren't good competitors with weeds
• Tomatoes prefer to not rotate in that they like to always be grown where tomatoes have grown before. Doesn't mean they don't benefit from a cover crop in the winter or lots of compost though.

Great Gardening Book(s)

In a previous post, I have already recommended Eliot Coleman's book, Four-Season Harvest. And while it was insightful, it's predecessor, The New Organic Grower, is inspiring. It might not be for everyone, but would be great for the following people:

1. anyone dreaming of providing home grown vegatables for their family's needs, year-round
2. the would-be small multi-vegetable organic farmer (around 10 acres)
3. the person interested in understanding the science and/or reasoning behind what works and what doesn't work with organic vegetable growing
4. the organic gardener interested in learning something that could benefit them
   

The book is, basically, an instruction manual on how to achieve the most effective small multi-crop organic garden. It's very detailed and specific going into great detail about crop rotation, green manuring, and composting logic. Many comparison's are made between the American vs European style of farming.

This is the writer's website: http://www.fourseasonfarm.com/. He has been a great inspiration to me.

Breakfast

We had a spend the night wedding weekend for about 40 folks. Since people were waking up at all times, we decided to go for a temperature insensitive breakfast: homemade sweet breads and muffins. Mmmmm.

Wedding Festivities

Since the wedding is a weekend long event, there will be some festivities...entertainment... A few musically inclined people are coming, so we'll be playing a little guitar around the campfire. Dad likes and wants karaoke, so he's in charge of that.

There's a rather large creek, lots of board and card games, and a canoeing company a mile upstream. There will be lots of cooking on the grill and a few kegs of homebrew.

http://terrapinlodge.net/activities.htm has more information about canoeing.

Below are just a few additional ideas:

Guitar around the camp fire:	Frisbee:
Horseshoes:	Darts:
Croquet:	Badminton:

Seed Storage Tips

Plants that self pollinate are the easiest to collect seeds from and replant. Examples of this type plant: non-hybrid tomatoes, peppers, peas, endive, chicory, lettuce (somewhat) and beans.
If a plant freely cross pollinates or requires cross pollination and has another same species/different variety plant nearby, then the offspring is likely to be untrue to parent unless special precautions are made during the growing season. Examples of this type plant: corn, squash, zucchini, eggplant (most plants fall into this category).
The following tips are intended for the collection of "pure-blooded" aka "Open Pollinated"  seeds:

• Allow the seeds to mature fully on the plant. Usually this means allowing the fruit/vegetable to over-ripen or possibly even dry out (depends on the plant).
• Separate seed from vegetable where applicable
• Allow seeds to dry at room temperature in a low humidity preferably breezy environment for approximately one week. A screen works nicely for this, particularly with a nearby fan or in the shade outside where covered from rain.
• Remove any remaining non-seed matter. Sometimes it's as simple as picking the seeds out by hand. Other times, not. Examples of helpful tools and methods:
• Winnow - Sheet of paper-bent into u-shape. Blow non-seed matter off with your mouth or with a hair dryer on low at an angle. This works great with basil.
  <
• Sieve - Old window screen or wire mesh screen. Sift the matter to separate seed from non-seed
• http://www.seedsofchange.com/ has similar type professional tools:

• Package seeds. Don't forget to label and date them. Here are a couple of free downloadable seed packet designs:

  Cute little seed packet design #1	Cute little seed packet design #2

• Once the seeds are dried and packaged, place them in an air tight container that blocks out all light. Add a silica pack to keep things dry. You can save silica packs from old vitamins or order them online. Silica packs have to be replaced every 6 months but can be recharged by microwaving for 3-5 minutes or backing at 275 F for a couple hours. Mylar or foil lined bags inside a rigid container or a Ziplock freezer bag  inside an opaque container.
• Seeds can be stored in the freezer if they are sufficiently dry (less than 8% moisture in the seed). If not, freezing will kill them. Refrigerator storage is a safe method for one year's storage. Crisper drawer is best (lower humidity). Typically, the cooler and drier a seed is kept, the longer the shelf life.

This article barely touches on the complexities of seed saving. It seriously takes a book to explain it all and Seed to Seed explains it nicely.

Cool Coop Designs

Ok, so I don't have chickens anymore. The neighborhood dogs won that contest. But I still can't help but obsess over chicken coop designs every now and then.

This coop is what I tried to model mine after (I failed miserably, you can't even tell the relation, still working out mind-over-matter). I got the idea from Backyard Chickens: http://www.backyardchickens.com/coops/images/playhouse-coop-2.jpg




This one's also from backyard chickens: http://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=16313-maurice-chicken-coop-car and is just too clever & creative for words.

This is just a photographer person's personal coop (I believe it's personal) at http://jodieotte.com/?tag=americauna

These coops are from design sponge: http://www.designspongeonline.com/2009/11/coop-homes.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=coop-homes







This coop's prebuilt and can be purchased from http://moderncoops.weebly.com/index.html. It's a bit pricey at $525, but it's cute.

Wedding Meals

We're actually having two dinners (and a lunch) since folks are spending the night Friday & Saturday. The lodge has these great outdoor grills (2 of them), so we're going to basically keep a fire going the whole weekend. Friday night we'll grill hens. Still trying to work out the side dishes. Hoping Gramma will make her German potato salad. Mark's mom agreed to bring lots of bread type foodies for breakfast. Saturday for lunch we'll use leftover chicken to make chicken & chicken salad sandwiches.

Saturday for dinner, a whole lamb will be cooked. For those that can't stomach lamb, there will be a little beef brisquet too. Again, side dishes? Maybe a giant plate of rice and salad.

Here's the actual menu:

FRIDAY NIGHT:

-Herb Grilled Hen

-German Potato Salad

-???

SATURDAY BREAKFAST:

-Muffins, Cereal, Sweet Breads

-Rice Pudding

SATURDAY LUNCH

-Chicken Sandwiches

-Chicken Salad Sandwiches

-Chips

SATURDAY DINNER

-Lamb over bed of rice

-Salad

SUNDAY BREAKFAST

-You're on your own. Probably some leftover cereal and pastries

Flowers & Bouquets

Here's a couple of pictures of some pretty flower bouquets. Have no idea what will be in season come wedding time. Hopefully lots of free wildflowers.

Rustic Wedding Decor Ideas

• I only wish I knew the name of this flower:
  
• Old wood makes nice rustic signage
• Antique cake stands are beautiful (and hard to come by). Old wine crates could also work
• Twine strung with old family photos


• Random drink dispensers: galvanized buckets, glass urns, a wooden canoe, old milk jugs, mason jar serving glasses,...


• Lighting: mason jar tea candles, table lamps (already at the lodge), strung lighting







• Fall like decorative items: pumpkins, corn stalks, fruits (lemons, limes, apples)