The Great Bokashi Experiment

A topic that was a question from a friend in a composting class I took - you know what they say about curiosity and cats?

So the whole group of us was ready to start our composting class earlier this summer.  All of us anxiously waiting to hear how to begin composting if we had not started already, improve what we were already doing if we were composting, or add vermicomposting (composting with worms) to our "portfolio" of gardening skills.

And my friend asks "Will we be learning about bokashi?"

You would not believe how fast everyone was scribbling that word in their notes to look up online later!

What is bokashi?  According to all the websites that feature information about it, bokashi means "fermented waste" in Japanese.  This is not like most forms of composting, where food is broken down by fungi, bacteria, etc. aerobically, meaning in an oxygen-rich environment.  No no no.  Bokashi composting ferments your waste anaerobically, as in without oxygen.  Or as close to it as possible.

And yes, your food waste ferments.  Actually, it's cultured.  Like yogurt.  But with food scraps.

So I started doing my own research.  There are lots and lots and lots of sites online, and videos on YouTube.  I will warn you that some of these are produced by folks who grow - shall we say - "medicinal herbs".  SPH is a family-friendly show, so I just want to give you a heads-up on that one.

You can buy expensive buckets to contain your waste, and also bran, which is what contains the micro-organisms (EM) that will be fermenting your scraps.  I found this article that describes how to make your own from newspapers and water from rinsing rice, and I found a compromise idea for my own bucket.

Several weeks ago, I posted our own little trash experiment.  There is one number that didn't make it into the data I shared with you.  Newspaper.  We get our local paper once a week, and Hubby and I gladly take copies from others that would normally be recycled.  We use them as the "potty area" for our disabled rabbit who can no longer hop into his litter box.  In the spring and summer, I gladly reuse these pre-fertilized papers in the garden.  However, Northern Illinois really only has a 6-month growing season, which means for half the year, bags of soiled newspapers from our house head to the landfill.  While we only get rid of the bags once a month, these bags still weigh probably about 20-30 pounds each.  Because of the strong acid in our bunny's urine, I can't use them in the worm bins.  They cannot be recycled.  So off they go.

After reading the newspaper bokashi article, I knew we had a solution, and here's what I came up with...

Start with a 5-gallon bucket.  These are inexpensive and readily available.  You probably have one in your garage.

Measure up from the bottom about 2-3".

Fill that bottom space with newspaper.  I filled my bucket with bunny newspapers.  This will absorb any excess liquids from your food wastes.

Sprinkle bran over the top of the newspapers.  Just a couple of handfuls.  I bought my bran on Amazon.  Until I get more confident in this process, I'm planning on buying the bran.  For now.  But not forever.  It's not cheap.  Add your food scraps on top of the bran.

Which food scraps, you ask?  Anything and everything.  Meat.  Dairy. Vegies.  Bones.  Dairy.  Oily foods.  Salty foods.  In the photo above, I have leftover chicken pieces including bones from making some wings, vegie scraps, used paper napkins.  Like I said, anything and everything.

Then, cover your food scraps with another couple handfuls of bran, and another layer (@ 1/2") of newspaper.  For us, that's one section of bunny papers.  On top of the papers, I place an old ceramic plate, and press it down firmly to remove as much air as possible.  Remember, anaerobic means without oxygen.  To keep things packed down, I use an old landscaping brick on top of the plate.  And finally, I seal with a lid.  Managing that lid is the hardest part.  You may wish to invest in one of the screw-on types.  I will warn you that they are almost 4 times the price of a regular lid, so adjust your project budget according to your patience level.

Only open your bucket at the most once a day.  I've been "feeding" mine every other day.  And no, there's no real smell to it.  Remember, it's not rotting, it's fermenting.  The first few days, it smelled somewhere between sweet pickles and sauerkraut.  Yesterday, it smelled like mayonnaise.  Just keep covering with a few handfuls of bran and another layer of newspaper every time until your bucket is full.

We have been adding to our bucket for a week now.  It is only half-full.  When it's all the way full, we'll leave it covered and let it set for about 2 weeks, or until a nice white layer of moldy-type stuff forms across the top.  Before we seal it that final time, I plan on switching out the plate for a pizza circle and removing the brick.

And then, when that batch is done, I'll bury it in my garden.  The micro-organisms in the garden can then work their miracles, and incorporate this waste into the soil.

This may seem like a lot of steps for composting.  And you're right, compared to regular composting with leaves, lawn clippings and vegetable peels it is.  It's even more involved than composting with the worms.

But...

This process will take at least 25 pounds a month of trash from our house out of the general waste stream, and turn them into compost for my garden.  To me, that's a big deal, and totally worth it.  It's no different than hauling that heavy bag (and the smaller kitchen bags) out to the trash, or our compostables outside to the compost pile.  Especially in January when it's (usually) cold and icy.

Do your own research and check this out.  You'll be surprised and amazed like I was.  Find your own solution.  Maybe it'll be the premade buckets with premade bran.  Maybe you'll go totally DIY.  Maybe you'll find a middle-ground, like I did.

No matter what, give it a look, and give it a try!

Garden Party - UPDATE

Sorry, folks.  No photos today, but I wanted to update you on the progress of our garden.

The heat and drought are taking a terrible toll on all the plants.  Everything from the grass up to the trees is stressed.  We lost a beautiful sand cherry bush to fire blight.  Of all the beet seeds I planted, only about a third of them even germinated, and of those few, only 3 have formed bulbs.  We planted some hot pepper seeds for Bubba - nothing germinated.  Princess' flowers are struggling, too.  All this is in spite of adding compost to good soil and watering.  And I mean watering every other day for a half hour with a lawn sprinkler.

If you are a first time gardener this year, and you are experiencing similar results, please stay encouraged.  We are currently experiencing the hottest, driest summer on record where we live, and apparently, the whole eastern portion of the US is the same.  Don't think you have a "black thumb" because Mother Nature is being uncooperative.

So let me give you some good news.  Now is a great time to start planning what to do with your garden in the fall.  Do some research into drought tolerant varieties of plants for next year.  Build a compost bin for the leaves that will be falling in a few months.  Get your worm bins started for indoor composting over the winter.  Keep watering and adding compost to those plants that are toughing it out.  In other words, don't give up and walk away - it's just a really bad season, and those things happen despite our best efforts.

Have a great day!

Garden Party - Worm Composting

We have new pets!

This was the hands-on activity at the end of my composting class.  Inside are dozens of red wrigglers, happily munching on a couple of banana peels and some leftover tea bags.

Worm composting is not only great for the environment by helping to limit the amount of trash we send to the dump, but the castings (aka worm poop) are PHENOMENAL fertilizer for your garden.  And, BONUS - keeping a worm bin is also a great educational activity for your kids!

So how do you make a bin?  My bin is a plastic storage container, 15" long by 12" wide by 9" deep.  You can see the holes in the lid - three rows, roughly equally spaced 1/4" holes that were drilled.  There's also one row around the top edge of the container itself.  About 5 holes per long side and 3 on the short sides.  No holes on the bottom.

There are loads of other worm bin designs online, along with other information about how to start them, etc.

Mine was started with about 1/3 of the container filled with moist shredded newspaper.  Moist like a damp, wrung out sponge.  If you squeeze it, only a drop or two of water should come out.  On top of the moist paper, my worms were added with some of their "native" soil.  More shredded moistened newspaper on top of that, then a solid layer of moistened newspaper.

We are on week 2 of this grand experiment.  I brought them home on a Saturday, and last Saturday, I added a couple of peels from bananas that had gone bad.  I've also added a few tea bags throughout this week.

If you'd like to try this experiment at home along with us, here are some really great links:

http://www.wormfarmingsecrets.com/blog/

http://www.sfenvironmentkids.org/teacher/lesson_plans/Worm%20Diner%20K-4%20July2010.pdf

http://www.sfenvironmentkids.org/teacher/lesson_plans/worm_bin.pdf

http://www.sfenvironmentkids.org/teacher/lesson_plans/worms.pdf

http://www.recycleworks.org/compost/wormcomp.html

Hope you'll join us!

Garden Party - Organic Weed Control

Yes, there were a few weeds in yesterday's photos, but here's how you can zap'em without harsh chemicals.

Let's take a quick moment to discuss the scientific method.  First, you see a problem or ask a question. Next, you want a solution or an answer.  Then, you figure out a way to test out an idea you have that will solve/answer the problem/question.  And then, you test it.

I have a perfect example of this scenario for you today.  Recently, in a composting class I was taking, one of the members of the class mentioned using vinegar as a weed killer.  Now, despite my best efforts and cultural practices, weeds still find their way into my garden.  It happens.  Usually, I can pull them when they are small, but if I've been lazy or they are the mean-nasty-thorny weeds, it's a bit more complicated.  The vinegar idea really appealed to me.

I did some online looking, and found several articles about using vinegar.  Some used plain household vinegar, some used horticultural vinegar.  This article with Grandma's Recipe for Weed Killer really was the best.  The author did his own testing with various variations on the formulas that may have been handed down through the generations.

Based on this information, I prepared my own experiment in my own garden, and here are the results:

These grasses grow in between our garden beds.  In spite of weed blocking fabric and mulching.  They need to go!  The test group was sprayed with undiluted regular white distilled table vinegar.  You know the stuff you buy at the grocery store.  I used Great Value brand from WalMart.  It costs about $2/gallon.  I applied it with one of those little spray bottles you can get in the beauty section - the ones that cost about a buck.  I sprayed on a day that I knew it would be scorching hot and that we wouldn't see any chance of rain.  That morning, I filled my little bottle with vinegar and sprayed the holy heck out of the test patch.  The photo shows results after 24 hours.  I'd say they're pretty well dead.  Now, they'll be easy to hand pull and throw in the compost pile.

So what about those meany-nasty-thorny weeds, the ones with the deep tap root?

This is one instance where our drought has worked in our favor - even the weeds are really thirsty!

Using information from the chart in the article mentioned above, I made a larger quantity of weed killer (we have some other big nasties hanging around in other areas of our landscape).  I used about 1/2 of a 1 gallon jug of the vinegar, and added 1 cup of kosher salt.  It's what I had on hand.  You can try other table salt if that's what you have.  I gave the jug a good shake, keeping my thumb on the lid.  Then, I filled my little spray bottle again.  For each weed, I sprayed about half the bottle on the leaves and poured the remainder straight onto the spot where the stem meets the soil.  Again, hot scorching day with no rain.

And this is what the weed looks like now:

You're not so big and tough now, are ya' pal?! Gardener-1 Weed-0.

Just a little FYI here:  I did test some of the other formulas in the chart, but these two worked the best for me.  Feel free to try the other formulas in your yard.  Find what works best for you.


Also, be sure to only spray the weeds.  The vinegar will do the same thing to plants you want to keep.  That's the benefit of using the smaller spray bottle - it will make it easier to apply the solution only where you want it to go.


So get your mad scientist hat on, laugh your best wicked laugh, and go kill your weeds!


Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Garden Party - Companion Planting

Remember WAAAAAY back when, in the post about planning your garden?

I'm sure you'll remember the diagrams with the fun colored dots.  Well, this is what they look like in my garden...

And here's another one:

You'll notice I don't have any photos from the tomato/marigold/basil/pepper diagram. We have had such record heat here, coupled with amazing drought conditions that none of the seeds I planted for these plants grew. Not one. Not even the marigolds! I have even resorted to watering our beds with a lawn sprinkler. It's a set-it-and-forget-it kind of thing. The sprinkler can water for a half-hour while I do something else semi-productive in the air conditioning or take 4LPA for a walk. But still no plants...

The good news is that we have no Japanese beetles in the garden gnoshing on my potatoes or anything else. None. The geraniums are doing their job. Also, we have minimal cabbage leaf looper damage on the kale. Way to go, zinnias!

So, yes, companion planting really does work. It's a cheaper, prettier alternative to nasty chemical bug sprays.

Now if we could just get some rain...

Garden Party and **SPECIAL GUEST STAR**

Good morning, all!  My dear friend, Sarah, from Hope in Every Season, is guest posting for us today.  She's brought us a special treat - how to freeze basil!



I met Sarah through her blog hop, and have followed her for a while now.  She is an a wonderful mother and an awesome crafter.  Be sure to visit her blog when you're done reading her post today, and now, here's Sarah!
*******************************************************************************************************
I'm super excited to be guest posting here at Suburban Prairie Homemaker today!  Ann is a sweet and talented lady and I appreciate her invitation!

I am a busy homeschooling mother of eight sweet kids.  I love to read and write and create beautiful things.  I must admit that I definitely need some help in the area of gardening, but there are a few things I've picked up along the way.  I hope you enjoy this tutorial on freezing basil!

I adore basil. It is my most favorite herb! In fact, I love it so much that the name Basil has been on my "names for little boys" list since 1999!

I recently finished putting some freshly picked basil away in my freezer and thought my readers would enjoy an easy tutorial!

It's only within the past couple of years that I've begun to use fresh basil, and while the dried-in-a-jar variety is fragrant and delicious, it doesn't hold a candle to my homegrown!

You will know that your basil is at it's best "picking state" when it gets buds on it and begins to flower.  
Clip as much off as you want but leave a few leaves to soak up the rays for more plant growth! Something to keep in mind with basil: the more you clip, the more you get as basil grows back two new stems for every one that is clipped!

Pick off the big leaves and carefully wash each one. Be aware that little bugs like to hide in the shady places under the dark basil leaves. Wash both sides and run your fingers along to wipe off any dirt or baby snails!

Take a moment to look for any that might be trying to get away!!
When you've washed all the leaves, place them in a colander and shake or use a salad spinner if you have one. Then lay them out in a single layer on paper towels or napkins and pat dry--soaking up as much water as possible.

  Next, place the leaves in a food processor, if available, and pulse until they're the size you prefer. I don't have a food processor so I used my Pampered Chef Food Chopper.

You'll want to add a little bit of olive oil to the basil to keep it from turning black in the freezer. (It doesn't affect the taste...just helps the appearance)

If you are using a food processor, you can add it in as you're chopping the basil. I just poured some in the bowl when I was done chopping with my food chopper and mixed it up with a spatula. The amount you'll need will vary depending on what you plan to do with your basil, but I just used enough to cover each piece.

Finally, you'll want to decide how you're going to divide it up to freeze. It is wise to freeze each recipe size separately. I divided mine up to have a couple good spoonfuls in each container. I plan to put it in pasta sauce and my pasta sauce must feed a family of 10!

You can freeze your basil in small containers, if you have them. I used these two:

Notice they're not fancy! I got one at the Dollar Tree for my daughter's baby food and the other is a little Rubbermaid-type lunch box one. You just need something that will be airtight to avoid freezer burn. If I didn't have these two containers, I would have used sandwich bags and then just placed all the bags into one large freezer bag.
 
You can also measure your basil out into ice cube trays and freeze it that way. Then, once it's frozen, pop all the little cubes into a freezer bag to be taken out individually for soup, sauce and more! I will be designating a tray specifically for this as I imagine the tray would eventually take on the wonderful aroma and color of basil! (Though that little taste of basil in lemonade or iced tea might not be too bad??)

Herbs will keep for many years but you'll get your best flavor if you use your basil within the year. Here are a few facts about basil:

**Basil comes from the Greek language and means "king". Basil has been called the "King of the Herbs"

**Basil is highly poisonous to mosquitoes, (Yay!) but safe for rats (bummer!)

**Basil is thought to be a great treatment for arthritis and has antioxidant and anticancer properties.********************************************************************************************************
Thank you so much, Sarah!  By the way, for our newbie gardeners, basil is one of the easiest plants you can grow.  It'll grow pretty much anywhere, even in a container on a patio or deck.

Garden Party - Building your Raised Beds

So you've started your seeds, and double-dug your bed area.  Now what?

Now you build a raised bed.  I know it sounds really scary, but actually it's not.  There are lots of how-to's online, including this one.

So, here's my personal opinion on this matter.  You can build a basic raised bed garden, and fill it with amended soil, or Mel's Mix from All New Square Foot Gardening.  You will get vegetables to grow, and they will do pretty well.

But...

By double digging under the bed space, you create a pathway for worms to migrate.  These unsung heroes of the gardening world digest organic matter and give you worm castings (aka worm poop) which is AWESOME fertilizer.  The spaces they create within the soil as they move around also allows the passage of water and nutrients through the soil, which makes these more accessible to your plants.  Worms - they're not just the breakfast of champion birds!

By building a raised bed, you can also control the environment in which your plants grow.  This will allow you to get in the dirt sooner in the Spring, and play in the dirt later in the fall.  Raised beds provide better drainage if you have a "wet" year.  By filling the bed with amended soil or Mel's Mix, the soil in a raised bed generally retains moisture better in a "dry" year.  A raised bed makes it so you can add hoops, and cages, and trellises, and all easier than if you had a flat, on-the-ground bed.  And hey, it's easier on your back, too!

I'll get off my raised bed, I mean soap box, now.

To build our beds, we used leftover lumber from a neighbor.  It cost us nothing.  We also used posts and pipe from other friends.  Also $0.  If you need to purchase lumber, be sure it is exterior grade.  Also, be sure it is not treated.  This is especially true if you are upcycling scrap.  Pressure treated wood, until fairly recently, had been treated with all sorts of interesting things.  Like arsenic.  That's the last thing you want in your carrots!

So here's what makes our beds really unique.  As you can see from the photo above, our garden is on a slope.  Our house is built into a hill, and we have a goofy patch of yard that gets full sun.  The flat part of our yard doesn't.  So guess where the garden went?!  They are also about 4 feet wide and 16 feet long.  That's 4 SFG beds side-by-side.  And we have 3 of them.  If you are doing the math, that's 192 square feet of garden.  If you were to plant that all in beets, think how many beets that could be using SFG!

If you have level ground, the raised bed is a piece of cake.  Really simple construction.  But, I want to share with you about how to compensate for the slope.  And this is a "do as I say, not as I did" life lesson type moment.

Here's why - and honest, I held the camera perfectly straight up and down.  To account for the weight of the soil as gravity pulls it down hill, our beds should be wider at the bottom.  We're fixing that issue over the summer as we can.  You can also see in this photo how we started our framing.  Just 2 x 4's, staked into the ground every few feet.  Then, flat boards were nailed to the stakes, with metal stakes on the outside for reinforcement.

This year, we are leveling out one bed with the curvy steps, and the center bed is being raised to a full 2 feet in height.  We had all the beds tilled this year (I don't normally like to do that, and I'll explain why another time).  Here you can see what they look like now.

On top of this tilled soil, I will generously sprinkle "bunny beans" (aka litter box leftovers from our pet rabbits), along with the newspaper from one of the rabbits' cages.  The newspapers will help suppress any weeds that got tilled in (and trust me, there were plenty), as well as serve as food for my worms.  The new composted mix (which comes this week) will be dumped and spread on top.

Once that's done, I'll top the new compost with more newspapers and a thick layer of straw mulch.  I'll poke holes through the straw and newspapers to transplant seedlings.

The bed you see on the left will be mostly potatoes, and geraniums as soon as it's safe for them.  The bed on the right will be in Princess' hands this year to grow her prize-winning flowers.

So that's what's next for now - stay tuned for transplanting and direct seeding!

Garden Party - Planning Where It All Will Go

Green gardening for St. Pat's Day!

So how does it all fit together?


I made some pretty diagrams for you today.  We're going to combine what we've learned in Square Foot Gardening and the Louise Riotte books.

Let's say, for sake of example, that you've made a true Square Foot Garden, which is 4 feet x 4 feet.  You've built the boxes, and even gone so far as to fill them.  Here's how you can combine the two principles, easily I might add.

Here's example one - a tomato bed.  Everyone loves to grow tomatoes.  They are easy to grow.  Everyone eats them, and when grown in your own backyard their flavor is so superior to what you'd buy in a store.  By the way, if you've never gardened before, this is a bed I would HIGHLY recommend starting with.  These are all plants that are pretty easy to grow.

This looks almost like a pizza, doesn't it?!  Allow me to explain what you see, and put things in perspective for you.  The big brown box is your Square Foot Garden.  The smaller squares within it are 2-foot sections, roughly halves.  Tomatoes need a lot of space and sun, and they are the big red circles.  Cage them.  You'll thank me.  SFG recommends trellising them.  Cages are easier and cheaper.  Cage your tomatoes the day you transplant them (these plants all prefer transplanting over direct seeding).  Put a tablespoon of epsom salts in the bottom of the planting hole because tomatoes love the extra magnesium.  Then, we have the dark green circles.  These are peppers.  Stick to either sweet or spicy - don't do both.  They will cross-pollinate each other and you will have all spicy.  Our pretty polka-dot border is where we are getting some natural pest protection.  The gold circles are marigolds, which keep pretty much anything out of the garden (there are a few exceptions, but VERY few).  To add interest, and to maximize our space, the bright green circles are basil.  You can also do parsley instead, or do both.  Think of how beautiful this will look mid-July!

So here's another one.  These are brassicas - the cabbage family.  You'll notice that it looks pretty similar.

The large, dark green circles are head cabbages.  The smaller green circles are collard greens (which are so healthy for you and easy to grow).  Our pretty polka-dot border is alternating onions and zinnias.  The zinnias keep out cabbage worms.  I watched this happen first hand at the community garden.  The beds that had zinnias in or near them had practically no worms.  No zinnias - stalks.  Like almost to the ground stubs.  Really.

So here's what we do with our beds when they are potato beds for a season.  Remember our beds are 4 feet x 16 feet.

The brown ovals are the potatoes.  The pink dots are geraniums.  Now here's the really neat part about this bed.  While the geraniums are growing up, the potatoes are growing down.  When the potato plant starts getting really tall, it's usually the dead heat of summer, and the geraniums are glad to have the shade to get a break.  To thank the potatoes, the geraniums scare away the Japanese beetles, which also seem to appear nearly the same time.  See how this works?  And isn't it so cool?  Direct plant your potatoes, but transplant your geraniums.

So let's make you a bed that you can start with in Northern Illinois, in early spring.  Just remember - be ready to cover at a moment's notice!!!!!

Wow - that'll get your attention!  So many colors!  Here we go:  the red dots are beets.  Most beets finish by 60 days, so if you plant them mid-April, you will have beets by mid-June.  You can do  16 beets a square foot.  The purple dots in with the beets are kohlrabi (we grow purple kohlrabi, so the dots are purple).  They require roughly the same spacing as the beets.  The neat thing about the kohlrabi/beet interplanting is that the beets bulb below the soil, while the kohlrabi bulbs above the soil.  Ok, moving on.  The magenta dots are chard. Rainbow, Swiss or green - you choose.  We eat a LOT of chard in my house when it's in season.  It requires about the same spacing as the beets.  The bright green squares are snow peas.  Grow them in a tomato cage.  That will contain the vines.  When you consider a standard tomato cage that has 3 posts that go into the dirt, you can visualize this a bit better:  plant 6 sets of peas/cage.  One set of three goes next to each post individually.  The remaining three go between the posts.  In early June, when these babies start to put on pods, we eat them for breakfast.  They are that sweet and delicious and healthy. Last, but not least, those little white dots are radishes.  Now, I'm not a huge radish fan.  But Bubba is.  And so is Grandma.  He takes her radishes that he grows.  They crunch away contentedly and bond.  Life is wonderful.  Before I forget - all the plants in this configuration prefer direct seeding.  Also, in an early spring bed, you can start spinach and lettuces - direct seed.

Did I set your head spinning with ideas?  Well, the best rule to remember is to only plant and grow what you know your family will eat.  Start there, then look for ways to interplant to conserve space and benefit the plants.  Start seeds now for planting in your summer garden, and in a few weeks you can start your early spring garden right in the dirt.  When your summer is hitting its peak, start thinking about what will enjoy the cooler weather of fall before frost.  Spinach is a good choice, and so are lettuces.  Both will grow quickly because of the warmer soil, but the cool nights and shorter days will keep them from bolting (going to seed).

Here's your fancy word of the day:  succession planting.  That's what it's called when you follow this type of crop rotation.  You can now impress all your neighbors and co-workers by telling them you are developing a crop rotation schedule for your garden.  And trust me, they'll be impressed!

Something else to remember - add plenty - as in lots and lots - of organic matter (i.e., compost) to the soil between plantings.  You can also use organic fertilizers, applied per package directions.  Here's why:  your beets will "eat" the nutrition from the soil, and whatever they use up is now on your plate.  The plant going in the soil behind those beets or snow peas or lettuces needs that nutrition, too.  Be sure to work it in thoroughly so you get good production from those that come behind.

To make your own garden plans, use some graph paper and a PENCIL (have an eraser handy).  Think about how much space each plant needs, then sketch it out.  Read the books to determine which plants will play nicely with others.  Add visual interest and pest protection with flowers and herbs.  Put larger, taller plants in the center, then work down and out.  Have fun with it - embrace it as a creative challenge, not a chore.

So instead of dreaming tonight in black and white, or in color - dream in dirt!

Garden Party - Homemade Seed Starter Pots

When your seeds finally arrive (whether you purchase them locally or online or through a catalog), they will need a place to go...

One of the many gardening lessons I learned last summer at the community garden was that plants that can be started from seedlings should be.  You will have increased vigor (meaning your plants are healthier and grow faster), and you will have increased yield (meaning you get more produce).

To save some money, and ensure the quality and safety of your transplants, do it yourself.  Seeds are cheaper than seedlings.  Also, you can't be sure that the seedling you purchase is disease or insect free.  If there's an unseen problem at the greenhouse, you are bringing it home to your garden.  I want to be sure that you enjoy as much success as possible in your garden, especially if you are new to gardening or you believe you are cursed with a "brown thumb".

So let's make some starter homes for your new seeds, and let's do it with some items you have around the house.

Here's one that we call a water jug greenhouse.  This is what you use to start your seeds by broadcasting them (sprinkling them all over) on your seed starting medium (which I'll get to in a minute).  This way, you will be able to choose the best growing seedlings to transplant for further growth in your garden.  If you have a bunch that are doing really well, you may be able to swap with family, friends and neighbors.  Start with a humble water or CLEAN milk jug.

Take a Sharpie, and using a ruler, make a straight-ish line on three sides of the jug just below the handle.  I start where the vertical plastic seam line meets the thicker plastic just below the base of the handle.

I mark around three sides, leaving the fourth side as a hinge.  So I can remember which side to leave whole, I DO NOT MARK the side with the label.  Oooooh - very clever!  Actually, it just makes it easy for those of us who suffer from over-40 memory loss.

Once you've marked your lines, you're going to cut them.  If you have kiddos helping with this project, this is definitely something for the grown-up to do.  You can use an Exacto-type knife or sharp scissors.  Poke your sharp cutting object into the center of one side of the jug on/close to the line.  Then just keep cutting around the jug as close to the line as you can.

When you get all the way around, bend the jug towards the fourth side.  Remember, that's our hinge.  If you need to, feel free to snip along the line a little to get an easy fold.  Just remember, we need that side to stay as whole as possible.  After you bend it, give it a good press with your fingers to crease it.

Poke holes in the bottom to allow for drainage.  I did this with the point of my scissors, but you can use a sharp knife or large nail.  It will be pretty flimsy, so be very careful.  I braced mine by making a V in my fingers on the underside of the jug.  Then, when you poke your (sharp object of choice) through, make sure you aren't going to puncture your fingers or hand, too.

To use as a seed starter, fill the bottom with a good single layer of fish tank gravel or small rocks.  The layer just has to be thick enough to evenly cover the bottom.  Then, fill the bottom section most of the way full with a good quality (and organic if you can get it) seed starter mix, which is generally peat moss, vermiculite and perlite.  This is also called soil-less mix.  Give the starter mix a good soaking with water.  It should be consistently wet all the way through from top to bottom, but not completely waterlogged.  Lightly sprinkle seeds over the mix, pressing in gently if required by the directions on the seed packet.  I never push in deeper than about 1/2" inch, which is about half way to the first knuckle on the top of my index finger.  Yes, you will get a dirt manicure, but in some circles, that's highly fashionable!  Also, you don't need as many seeds as you might think, so sprinkle sparingly.

Read this article to determine which of your seeds to start indoors.  It has some great advice for beginners.  And for the record, this year, I'm starting my viney things (like watermelon) indoors first.  Also, the back of the seed packet will tell you if you should start your seeds indoors or not, and when.  You can find your location to determine your frost date on the hardiness map provided on the backs of most seed packets or at the USDA website.

As your little seed babies begin to grow, you can flip the top down after giving them a good water (secure with masking tape if you need to), and set them outside in a sunny place.  We often mark off a portion of our driveway, so delivery drivers don't accidentally crush our future plants.  By setting them out to sunbathe, you are warming the soil and getting some much needed sunlight to your little plants.  If you are expecting a warm, but gentle, rain, leave them outside to get some natural watering.  Bring them in at night to keep them warm.  We have the bottom of a large box that holds about 15 jugs, and when we expect significantly lower temperatures, we even cover the jugs with a blanket at night to help hold in the heat.

Also, these need to stay moist, but not soaked.  Watering the first few days, and even a little bit after those first leaflets appear, can be done with a handheld spray bottle.  You can get these at any dollar-type store, or in the personal care part of the pharmacy section of a supermarket.  Fill with warm water, then mist the soil (NOT THE PLANT) until it is moistened at least once a day, preferably twice.  This is a fantastic job for littles!

When your seedlings start to develop true leaves (leaves that look like what a mature plant would have), it's time to transplant them into their own individual starter pots.  Here's a quick and easy way to make them.  This is also a great one to get the kidlets involved in.  All you need is some newspaper.

Cut one full page of newspaper in half, then fold one of the half-pieces in half.

Now fold it in half again.

To make this into a pot shape, roll the folded paper around the bottom of a glass.  Place the glass about 1" from one of the long edges, and wrap and roll.

When you get to the end, secure with masking tape.

Tip your glass so it is standing up with the newspaper on top.  Fold the edges, a little section at a time, toward the center.

When you get all the way around, secure with a piece of masking tape.  Your finished product will look like this.

Making these is a great way to entertain the under-10 crowd for a while on a rainy afternoon.  Believe it or not, rolling these becomes very meditative after a very short time, and if you are not careful, you may be surprised by the pile of them sitting at your feet!

So, the next step will be the actual transplanting.  I'd love to show you this RIGHT NOW, but we've got to let our own seeds do some growing.  In the meantime, start with your milk jug greenhouses, get your own seeds going, and when we both have something worth transplanting, we'll talk about this some more.

Are you getting excited?!

Garden Party - Part 2 - What Comes Next

Did you dream of strawberries and asparagus and chard and watermelon and beets and cabbage and potatoes and dirt?  I hope so!  That's the fun of being a gardener!  So here's what comes next after you read the books from yesterday...

So  if you live in Northern Illinois, today is a really good day to get yourself started.  Map out where you could make your garden in a sunny spot in your yard, or plan on what you could do in containers on a deck or balcony.  Then, decide what your family will eat.  Trust me, those seed catalogs will make you want to grow 200 different kinds of tomatoes, 400 kinds of peppers, and then some!  Once you narrow it down, order your seeds.  Here are the sources I use for my seeds:

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

And yes, we've actually grown this type of watermelon!  It's the only watermelon I'll eat - Moon and Stars.  It really is as pretty as the picture.

Seed Savers Exchange

A great resource for some really rare varieties.  This is where we order our pole beans from, among others.  I especially love the fact that they have very similar growing conditions to our own backyard, so I don't have to worry about whether or not stuff will really grow here.

Wood Prairie Farm

This is where we get our seed potatoes.  We've grown red, white and blue potatoes successfully for 4 years now.  This year, we're going to try some new varieties.  We're also ordering some clover from them.  This will not only help feed the bunnies, but also replenish the soil in one of our beds that's been used pretty heavily for the last few years.

If you are a first time gardener and you have small kidlets (mine are teenagers now, and seasoned gardeners), here are some plants I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND growing:

• Sunflowers - great for measuring both the plant and your kiddo (take photos of your little one standing next to a Mammoth Sunflower - what a memory); they also attract lots of bees for pollination which you need to grow your other plants.
• Pole beans - plant these in between your sunflowers and watch them climb.  We use Hidatsa Shield Figure beans from SSE - they are endangered, and are probably the beans eaten by Lewis and Clark on their grand expedition when they hung out with the Mandans over the winter.  Great history lesson!
• Pumpkins - generally easy to grow, and once they get going in July, they REALLY get going!  You can compare the size of your child's head to the leaves, measure the pumpkins as they grow, use describing words (adjectives) to tell the colors of the fruit and flowers.  All kinds of educational fun!

Now, the even-more-coolest part of growing these three together is that they are companion plants for each other, as well as part of a traditional Native American garden.  You may have heard of The Three Sisters.  Well, sadly, sunflowers were the Cinderella of the Three Sisters family, and they typically get left off the list.  The most common of the three is corn.  We don't do corn.  We've had really bad luck with it.  When it does grow, it tends to attract earwigs.  I hate earwigs.  Like I really hate earwigs.  Somehow, we've managed to get the magic jumping earwigs into our sweet corn.  So we stay away from corn.  If you want to try it, feel free.

Here's a hint of what's coming next - start saving your milk cartons/jugs (well washed and rinsed), egg cartons (plastic and cardboard are both ok), and newspapers.  Once those seeds come in, you'll need a place to put them.  That's what's next - and we'll tackle that next weekend!


Have fun with your seed catalogs today!