On this brilliantly sunny February Saturday, we ordered chicks and ducklings from the feed store, and discovered garlic, crocus, vibrant-pink rhubarb emerging from the soil, and soaked up the first hints of spring-to-come.

In a week in which we had a lot of sickness and stress, and grief, I am doubly blessed that we are learning to make our home a haven, a place where we can witness birth, and rebirth, and celebrate life.

We’re back!  I can’t believe I haven’t blogged in over two months!  Morning sickness is finally (mostly) gone, and life is getting back to normal a little bit.  So, let’s call this a fresh start, shall we?  We’ve decided to make a concerted effort to use this space to document and reflect on what’s going on in our lives,  especially our lives in the garden.  We’re still knitting, baking, homeschooling, spinning, making crafty messes, but the focus of our service at this point is the BCS Teaching Garden, so expect to see and read all about what’s growing in our yard.

The garden year is just kicking off – in the past two weeks, our friend Scott added wood-and-wire gates so the chickens and children can safely roam the backyard.   We planted several more dwarf fruit trees, as well as more currants, blueberries, silverberries, huckleberries and thimbleberries from One Green World (and boy, it’s doubly hard work when your pregnant!).   The planting plan for the year is all set, we even managed to seed the eggplants this week. (Although, we’d better get the grow lights set up before they germinate!).

Earlier this week, the free load of wood chips I ordered from the power company finally came (the order had been placed in early October, but better late than never!).  Your electric utility is a great source of FREE wood chips for mulching garden beds and paths.   All of the trees they trim out of the power lines are chipped up and thrown away.  If you call and place an order, they will gladly dump them in your yard instead.

You can see how large the load is compared to my two year-old – it’s a very large truck and it dumps a lot of chips.  It may seem like you could never use that much mulch, but we have gone through 4 loads so far on our 1/4 acre, and from now on, will probably use about 1 load a year to keep paths and beds replenished with mulch.  We could never have afforded to purchase that much mulch, so this is a great economical choice for us.

If you’re interested in mulching your yard to conserve water, suppress weed growth, reduce muddy patches, and add biomass to your garden, now (before the growing season gets going) is the time to place an order!

A few tips/tidbits of info when ordering chips from the utility company:

1)If you’ve never had a load delivered from the power company, please be aware that this is NOT the neat, uniformly shaped pieces of wood you might get when buying bagged wood chips from the garden center.  It is chipped-up tree trimmings, and it will include large pieces, twigs, possibly leaves, pine needles, and chips of several different species.

2)If your yard is like ours, you can make it work no matter what they bring you.  If, however, you need mulch specifically for plant beds, it’s good to check that a load isn’t 100% before they drop it on your driveway.  Pine is far too acidic to mulch beds, unless they happen to be blueberry or currant beds.  It does, however, work great in pathways.  Our first load was almost all maple – and we used it all on planting beds, and waited for a less-perfect load to mulch the paths.

3)If you want mulch free of leaves, order chips in the winter, when deciduous trees will be bare.  Chips full of leaves are more difficult to shovel and spread, and don’t look as neat.

4)If your load has long sticks as this load did for us, put them off into a pile and use them for pea brush and other plant supports.  Or, place them underneath the cardboard when sheet mulching a new section of yard.  Over time, they will break down and add biomass to the soil.

Next up: seed starting!

Blessings on your as you start your garden year,

Angela

This afternoon, while the children built a fort on the driveway out of spent sunflower and cosmos stalks, I spent a good two hours in the front yard, harvesting Golden Hubbard and Buttercup winter squash from the bed closest to the street, and removing and chopping the dead and dying vines for the compost.

Overall, not a bad harvest from a small bed!  And the front of the house looks much cleaner and nicer now that the dead vines have been pulled up.

Buttercups are considered by many to be the perfect winter squash, and we’re looking forward to enjoying some this winter.  I think they’re absolutely gorgeous.

The Golden Hubbards will keep for months and contains a tasty, rather dry, orange flesh that is perfect for Moroccan tagines or beef & barley stews.

The Sweet Meats, more Buttercups, and many, many Delicata squash will be ready for harvest in the coming weeks, as the garden yields forth its final offerings for the year.

Temperatures have been dipping down into the low 50s and high 40s at night, and there’s been a crispness to the air that says Autumn is on her way here. 

Many plants are waning, having set seed and beginning to shut down for the year.  So, this afternoon, in the bright sunshine, we cleaned up many, many wheelbarrows full of biomass for the compost. 

Cosmos and sunflower stalks have to be chopped into small pieces to break-down well, but the chickens feasted on heads full of sunflower seeds. 

Most of the sunflower seeds were set out to dry on the picnic table, so that the chickens can have them for snacks throughout the winter, and we’ll have seeds to plant next year.

As we pulled up spent flowering plants all over the yard, we carefully collected their seeds as well, so we can replant them in the spring, and share them with friends:

Calendula seeds, still in the seedhead.

A bucketful of nasturtium seeds, in various stages of drying out. 

Coriander seeds.

Sadie’s Horse Beans (a rare heirloom similar to a Scarlet Runner Bean, but with immense beans – I purchased them through Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds many years ago, and have been saving the seeds each year.)

The patches of amaranth are almost ready to harvest as well – there isn’t enough for chicken treats this year, but we’ll save the seeds and plant a large patch next year just for the hens. 

We’ll continue to harvest green beans, summer squash, tomatoes and tomatillos as long as the weather holds, and look forward to bringing in the winter squash, kale, chard, leeks, and some remaining herbs. 

Are things winding down in your garden?  Or still going strong?

The tomatoes are starting to ripen!  Can’t wait to take them in to BCS on Friday!!  Families have been asking for the last month when we’d have fresh, ripe tomatoes.

90 percent of the tomatoes are still green, including many gigantic beefsteaks, like this Brandywine (look at that sucker in my hand! HUGE!).  If you’ve got a moment, say a quick prayer that they’ll all ripen before the cooler weather sets in, or I’ll be sending out lots of green tomato recipes with the week’s harvest (green tomato chutney, green tomato pickles, fried green tomatoes…).

The first of the tomatillos are ripe as well – these are the DeMilpa, which have  a purple blush, and regular old green tomatillos mixed together.  We have ten tomatillos plants, so there will be many MANY pounds of tomatillos to harvest in the next two or three weeks.

How to use tomatillos?  Well, there are several uses, but after removing the husk and washing these sticky little cousins of the tomato, I like to make them into the best salsa verde ever:

Larksong’s Super Simple Salsa Verde (this is sort-of a recipe – just wing it!)

Two to four double- handfuls of ripe tomatillos, husks removed and washed (how many did you pick in the garden today? Use what’s on hand…the amount is flexible!)

(optional – if you like it spicy!  I leave it out for the kids) 1 small jalapeno, whole

3 or 4 cloves of garlic (add more or less, to your taste), crushed

lime juice, to taste

sprinkling of sugar

flake sea salt.

Directions:

1)Line a broiler tray with foil, and oil very lightly.  Place tomatillos (and optional jalapeno) on the tray and broil, checking every 1-2 minutes, until blackened.  Remove tray, and with tongs, flip tomatillos (and jalapeno) over.  Place back under the broiler until all are blackened on the other side.  Remove from oven and let cool.  (Remove stem and seeds from jalapeno and slice, if using.)

2)Toss whole tomatillos and any accumulated juice into a blender with the garlic (and optional jalapeno slices – sometimes it’s best to put in half at first, so you don’t get it too hot).  Blend, then add sugar, lime juice, and salt to taste, blend again to incorporate. (My kids like a bit more sugar, and depending on the source of your tomatillos, they may be pretty acidic and not need much extra lime juice – so just taste as you go!)

3) Serve!  Enjoy!  Make lots, because it goes fast!

A few quick shots from the garden this evening at sunset.  It’s changing so much every day – the paths are disappearing, the dahlias have begun to bloom, and there will be the first of the pole beans to harvest by the end of the week.

The beautiful blue-green foliage in the lower left of this front-yard shot are squash vines from some delicata seeds that Firecracker saved from a soup we made back in January and then planted (wherever she had the whim!) in April.  They have set several squash on fairly compact vines.  Delicatas are some of my favorite eating squash, but we had never grown them before – I had no idea their leaves were so handsome, as well.

This is a Golden Hubbard, which is larger than a football at present, but will grow much larger and weigh about 15 lbs at harvest time, with deep orange skin and flesh that is perfect for soups, stews, and baking.  (But look how much it’s grown since I photographed them less than two weeks ago!)

Oh, the tomatoes!!  Just a few of the smaller slicers have begun to ripen, but most of the plants are loaded with green fruit.  We’re holding our breath an in anticipation of fresh tomatoes!

This is a shot in the backyard, where the summer squash have finally caught up and filled the beds – the patti-pans in particular are really cranking out lots of fruit.

The little rhubarb crown I acquired in March when I traded a fellow permaculture-hobbyist in exchange for some pear butter has grown enormous!  I was told I shouldn’t expect any harvest-able ribs for two to three years, but I had more than enough for a batch of sour cherry-rhubarb jam.  When it’s in full production, we’ll have lots of deep-red rhubarb to deliver to BCS.

The Royal Burgundy bush beans are still blooming and producing really well.  I love their purple blossoms!

This is one of my favorite corners in the garden right now – up near the front steps, with  some of the poppies still blooming and a big patch of thyme and rosemary right behind, there – Buttercup squash spilling out of the coldframe (which once held baby artichokes and summer squash).  They’ve begun to wrap their way up the artichokes (on the left) and have set several beautiful green fruit, which will ripen into what many cooks and gardeners consider the finest-tasting squash in existence.

And I think that’s it for tonight!  Happy gardening!

It’s late July in the BCS Teaching Garden @ Salt of the Earth Urban Farm!  The pumpkin vines have taken over!  The runner beans are finally climbing their poles, and we have summer squash setting on every plant!

The garden is really changing – we pulled all of the garlic and shallots from our family beds and will expand the Teaching Garden this fall (we’re planting fava beans there).  All of the peas are gone, and this week, we’re sowing fall crops like rutabagas, beets, and cauliflower, in their place.  The peas in the front yard will be replaced with leeks and a fall planting of broccoli.

Look look look!!  There are about two dozen little Golden Hubbard winter squash that have set in the front yard!   The vines are attempting to migrate out into the street, and I have to turn the vines back toward the house every morning.  (Yes, I have paint all over my hands – I was painting trim (ugh) upstairs right before taking photos.)

The center of the backyard is really taking off – our family bed of potatoes is almost finished, and we’ll be replacing it this fall with a few fruit trees.  The BCS potatoes  (planted a little later) are growing nicely, and volunteers have been mulching them every week with more straw.  The cold-stunted summer squash there are finally catching up -

Patti-pans, crooknecks, and zucchini are all setting fruit!

And, after much babying and coddling, and swaddling in plastic during our bitterly cold May, the tomatoes have decided to show their gratitude.  The plants are loaded with little green fruit, and a few cherries are already turning red!!

What exciting changes are taking place in your garden this summer?

We’re harvesting 8 types of hard and softneck garlic this week (and shallots, and pulling up spent pea vines).   Despite some of the garlic struggling with rust due to the rainy weather, nearly all of the bulbs are big and well formed and beautiful.

Garlic is so easy to grow, and heirloom garlic come in such an amazing range of subtle and sharp flavors – nothing like grocery store garlic (80% of which is grown in China, btw).  And shallots – which easily run $6/lb for organic shallots in the store – are even easier to grow (I buy the bulbs for planting at the Asian market for about $2/lb (much more economical than the $10+/lb for planting shallots at local nurseries in the fall – it’s not organic, but then I save some of the harvest for replanting, which, of course, were grown organically.)

We’ll save the best of the bulbs to replant this fall and expand our harvest for next year,  and also have some to share with BCS Teaching Garden volunteers, so that they can start a garlic patch of their own (the garlic planting class is coming in October – keep an eye out for more info this September.)

And a reminder – we’re having a workshop this Saturday from 9:30-11:30, followed by a potluck lunch – check the info out here if  you’re interested.

A few things from this morning’s harvest.  Carrots, beets, 3 types of kale, lots and lots of chard, and buckets full of sugar snap and snow peas.

So grateful for the constant stream of Teaching Garden volunteers today.  Folks were working hard from 9:30 am straight through to 4:30pm.    We’re feeling very, very blessed.   A big thank you to all of the helping hands!

It’s late June at Salt of the Earth Urban Farm (home of the BCS Teaching Garden)!  Finally, some warm weather (mid-upper 70’s) has settled in (the tomatoes,  summer squash and bush beans look much happier) and everything is flourishing. 

The harvest is increasing – every week, we are taking a few dozen cartons of organic snow and sugar snap peas, as well as boxes and boxes of lettuce, chard, kale, bitter greens, and a few choice boxes of herbs and strawberries to Birch Community Services.  We are still looking forward to the coming months and being able to take in more and more food to share amongst the families at BCS (loads of organic bush beans, tomatoes, potatoes, and summer squash will be coming soon!).

Here are a few shots from around the yard – mostly in the front yard -

A few shots of the front yard, here.  Can you believe just a few short months ago, it looked like this? —>

(And a day before this, it was just weeds and lawn!  Taken late-February 2010.)

Front to back in this shot – variegated land cress, beets (with a few Butternut starts peeking thru on the right and a crate of potatoes to the left), Italian kale, cardoons, salad greens, Oregon Sugar Pod II peas, California poppies and De Milpa tomatillos.

Tomatoes in the front are underplanted with beets and cosmos.  In the backyard, with nasturtiums and lettuce (the shade from the tomatoes will keep the lettuce from bolting in the July/Aug heat.).

Mature artichokes and cardoons take up a lot of space, but while they’re still growing, I’ve underplanted them with daisies, nasturtium and chives (winter squash, dahlias, sunflowers, fennel, and wildflowers are visible in the background.)

Not shown – I planted an herb bed in the front yard – three types of lavender (two culinary, one for sachets), three types of rosemary (I love rosemary!), tangerine sage, tricolor sage, lemon verbena,and curry plant from starts (when pinching pennies, get the 4-inch pots – they were $3 each, versus $9-10 for the next size up, and $30 for large rosemaries and lavenders in gallon pots.  They’ll grow big, too!  Be patient!)  I also transplanted in two types of thyme, oregano, Greek basil, Thai basil, and Genovese basil that I started from seed a while back (for a savings of about $15 over buying potted starts).

Much of the back isn’t so pretty yet, but here’s a shot of the linear beds near the house  -front to back – garlic; parsnips, kale, chard, carrots; peas and poppies underplanted with kale.  I didn’t take any shots of the bush bean, asparagus, potato and squash beds, which make up about 60% of the backyard.

Out back, we’re still doing the fairly miserable work of ripping up bamboo (rhizomes and all) for a future raspberry patch (to the left in this picture) and quince and pear stand (where the current volunteer hazelnut currently resides.)  The far NW corner of the yard (not pictured), which will eventually be our Zone 3 fruit orchard,  is currently overrun with weeds.  I did manage to get three apple trees and a Desert King fig planted back there, and my husband expanded the chicken run (while protecting the young trees), so the hens could make short work of the weeds and give me room to underplant the trees with red clover and more lavender.  We are still hunting for a persimmon, a dwarf apricot, and black currants to put back in that area.

More shots from out back in the coming month – the rows of bush beans and summer squash are quite small, and the limas and runner beans are barely reaching up their poles).

If you’re interested – we’re having a free hands-on workshop on  Saturday, July 17th here at the garden from 9:30-11:30 and follow up with a potluck luncheon from 11:30-12:30.  We will be doing a garden tour, discussing high-summer garden needs and prepping for a fall garden.  We will be starting seeds for fall crops (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, etc), possibly harvesting potatoes, and doing regular garden maintenance.   Bring your garden gloves, shovel, and a dish to share.  Children are welcome.

Contact the garden coordinator for Birch Community Services, Tiffany, at  tiffany.mach@yahoo.com to sign up.