Green Thumb

So I went out to check on the garden at the property the other day and discovered that the plants weren’t growing at all (or at least not so as anyone would notice). Of course I’m not expecting much from a garden this year as this soil has been growing trees and isn’t really suitable for garden plants yet (too heavy, and nowhere near enough nutrients in the soil). Still I was hoping for something….

I realized after a bit of reflection that the culprit was probably an extreme lack of nitrogen in the soil despite the amendments I had added before planting. The yellow and pale green leaves of the plants helped wih this diagnosis.

Of course, now I am faced with a classic garden quandary- do I write off this year’s gardening effort and till everything in? Or add chemical fertilizer in an attempt to get at least something?

Normally I REALLY dislike chemicals but…….

What do you think?

The Gardening Girl

One reader posted this question recently:

Just a bit curious why the back one third of my garden always struggles. My garden from front to back is about 100 feet long.The back 30 feet or so struggles every year.I have about the same compost mixture in the whole garden and the percentage of sunlight is about the same in the whole garden.The only difference is the back of the garden tends to stay soggy for a long time.The back is prone to standing water.I have a clay based soil so the water tends to puddle on top and it takes forever to dry.I have a good mixture of compost so the soil is organic.The plants in the front and middle of the garden are full and green whereas the back one third the plants are short and yellowish green.The plants in the back are hardly growing.I can wear shoes in the front and middle of the garden.It is moist but not really muddy.The back one third I need boots because I tend to sink in the mud.It seems like as soon as it starts getting muddy is where the plants start struggling mightily.Do you think the oversaturated clay soil is the entire problem? Because other then being soggy there is really no other difference in the way I planted or in the percentage of sunlight.The back one third of the garden does look like the ground is a bit lower also. This is the same problem year after year. Maybe I could heep up where I plant each bed and that might help. Thanks.

It sounds like you are doing all of the right things but that back third of your garden needs some extra help. Oversaturation of the clay is undoubtedly the culprit and is causing two related but different problems.

First: when soil is too wet it compacts and becomes hard. Clay soil is especially notorius for this. In addition to being to hard for roots to spread through easily, compacted soil has little or no air in it. Roots need to be able to take in nutrients out of the soil and when air spaces are missing there is no way for nutrients to gather in those little spaces.

Solution: I would till or dig into your soil a large amount of dry organic matter such as straw, woods chips etc. What you want to do is mix in enough other material that the clay particles are kept apart from one another. Covercropping can also help with this problem.

Second: Your second problem is that the soil is losing its nutrients because of the moisture leaching them away. Yellow plants almost always need nitrogen in some form and your soil doesn’t have enough.

Solution: As part of your adding of dry material to the garden add lots of grass clippings, manure (rabbit and chicken are both high in nitrogen, and rabbit doesn’t smell much). This fall (if your growing season allows) plant a cover crop of some legume (vetch, clover, a bean crop) and spray it with the innoculant that is recommended to help it fix nitrogen in the soil. Till this crop in the spring as soon as you can work the soil. You can also mow the covercrop quite short and “Lasagna Garden” over it for a couple of seasons.

Happy Gardening!

At long last the septic guy called and said that the system is being inspected today! This is great news as I’ve been waiting for him to finish so I can plant the garden.

With two of my in-laws coming up next week I’ll have extra help on hand too and can make good progress provided my back cooperates:-(.

This weekend I’m going to the Antique Rose Festival at Old City Cemetery and am hoping to pick up some roses to put around the house and porch.

The house-raising went very well and we will probably have a roof on and wiring complete by the end of next week!

In other news I had a dream yesterday that we had three sets of twins! Four year -old girls, two year- old boys and infant girls, I’m exhausted just thinking about it!

Anyway time to go do a bunch of errands!

Happy Gardening!

Yesterday I finally got the strawberries planted. I got 50 plants in the mail about three weeks ago and have been keeping them in water until I got a chance to plant. Normally this would onnly be a temporary (two or three day expedient) but as the property is all woods and has no tilled soil I had to prepare a bed before I could actually plant.

Of course if I had been a little more on the ball I would have gotten this done sooner, but between a heavy summer cold and a week of rain it wasn’t until yesterday that I rented a tiller at our local hardware store and prepared a 15 x 15 foot bed.

Actually this was twice the amount of bed that I needed but I have other things to plant as well (potatoes, jerusalem artichokes, and gladioli) so I did some extra tilling while I had the machine.

I chose a nice sunny spot under the power line that crosses the farm. This was mostly because right now that area is the ONLY sunny spot, everything else is fairly heavily wooded. A week ago I went out with ax and shovel and dug up all of the little saplings that were in the area I wanted to plant. This included chopping out as much of the roots as I could and removing all the rocks I could find (and it is really strange to be gardening somewhere where ROCKS are a problem!).

Then yesterday I used a little Honda Mantis tiller to break up the top of the soil to a depth of about three inches. After tilling for about half an hour I stopped and used the shovel to loosen the soil 6-8 inched deep then tilled again. It would have been faster with a bigger machine but I’m not big enough to lift something heavier out of the truck and this worked ok (although my shoulders are feeling it this morning - I’ll blame any typos on this).

Anyway the strawberries are planted and the asparagus is up (planted a couple weeks ago). The houseraising is Saturday and IF I REMEMBER to get a camera I’ll post pictures next week!

Happy Gardening

The Gardening Girl

Yesterday we poured the footings for the house….I really need to get a camera so that I can post pictures of the progress….Next weekend we are having a houseraising and two weeks later will be the wiring. I think about 6 weeks more in the apartment and then we’ll be at Haven Farm!

O this is so exciting!

The Gardening Girl!

On Saturday I awoke to a mix of snow and rain but now just two days later it is sunny and warm! Who can figure? I’m torn between hoping that we get a bit more winter moisture and being very anxious to get my garden started.

On the good news front Septic Guy is finally getting started this week, which means I can probably order 20 tons of manure from Manure Guy this weekend and actually start planting!!!

In the meantime I’ve been inventing ingeneous (and probably useless) methods of keeping the deer out of the garden and working part-time in a very cool health food/coffee shop here in Lynchburg. I only work about ten hours a week but I’m baking and cooking and meeting all kinds of interesting people like Science Fiction Writer who spent about an hour debating what makes a good writer/fantasy novel with me this morning ( and invited me to join his writing group) and a bunch of students from RMWC which is about a block away.

All of this should be enough to keep me busy but here I am blogging away and working on the website (sadly neglected lately) in hopes that some of you might want to read it or get new gardening plans or something….

Anyway get out and enjoy some sunshine, buy a packet of flower seeds , or visit your local farmer’s market!

The Gardening Girl

House Bill 982 was passed in the Virginia Senate yesterday with the following amendement:
D. For the purposes of this section,

(i) “live-bird marketing system” includes live-bird markets and the
production and distribution units that supply live-bird markets with birds;

ii. “live-bird markets” includes any facility that receives live poultry to
be resold or slaughtered and sold onsite, not including any producer or
grower that prior to the sale of his own birds slaughters or processes them
on site, or at an approved slaughter facility, or any producer or grower
that sells live birds exclusively grown on his own premises and is not a
“production unit” or “distribution unit” as defined herein;

iii. “production unit” includes a production facility or farm that is the
origin of or participates in the production of poultry offered for sale in a
live-bird market; and

iv. “distribution unit” includes a person or business such as a wholesaler,
dealer, hauler and auction market engaged in the transportation or sale of
poultry within the live-bird market system.

This is a huge victory for the small poultry producers of Virginia. The bill will now go back to the House of Delegates where Delegate Lewis has agreed to include the Senate amendment in the House version.

If this bill passes the house I will be able to raise chickens (both for meat and for eggs) which will make a big difference in how quickly Haven Farm is able to support us.

Thanks to all of the farmers, consumers, Senators and Delegates who worked on this bill to make it acceptable to both sides of the issue!

The Gardening Girl

It’s been about a week since I had anything to post (that’s not strictly true I’ve had things to say but since I have to go to the library to post I haven’t thought of the things to say when I’m near a computer but when I’m washing dishes or something).

Anyway the weather has been doing crazy up and down stuff - seven inches of snow on Saturday 65 degrees on Wednesday which is making me nearly crazy as I ought to be out digging garden beds or something but all of my tools are still in Richmond.

So Wednesday I went to Lowes and bought a little planter - one of those long skinny ones that you put on a porch railing- and I filled it with dirt and planted some herbs and flowers in it. It really is too cold yet for the things I planted so the planter is on a windowsill in the apartment.

I’m not at all sure it will get enough light but getting my hands dirty sure felt good!

In my last post I mentioned that I was thinking about getting a hoophouse and I am in fact going to have one this year courtesy of my father-in-law who has one he’s not using this year. 8 feet tall, 50 feet long and I’m not sure how wide - plenty of room for lots of plants!!!

In other news: The Virginia Senate Agriculture Subcommittee agreed Wednesday to add protective language to HB 982 “avian flu” that will specifically exclude small farmers from the bill!

This is great news if we can get it past the full committee- it will go to the full committee either on the 20th or the following Monday. You can read more about it here and here.

Hopefully I’ll get a better chance to post next week!

The Gardening Girl

Today is supposed to be Moving Day but as it’s raining and mattresses don’t like water we are waiting until tomorrow. I should be helping Gardening Guy sort through his clothes and figure out what to give away and what to turn into gardening clothes etc. Instead I’m window shopping in my seed catalogs and poultry catalogs and trying to come up with a thorough justification for investing in hoophouse.

So far I’ve figured out that I could use a hoophouse to start seedlings in the spring, raise chicks in the summer, and raise lettuces and herbs for sale in the fall. Nine or ten months of use from one building is pretty good vertical integration (using one capital investment for multiple product lines often simultaneously).

Of course, this is one of my favorite parts of the winter months, shopping and planning and projecting. At least mentally I’m in a sunny garden on a perfect spring day- low humidity- blue sky- just the right level of warmth and moisture in the soil and that sort of indefinable scent that is made of dirt and sun and growing things.

It’s a nice break from political strategizing and packing and sorting of stuff for the Nest (our tiny (12×14) apartment ) that we are moving into temporarily……

And if you are a regular reader of these pages you know that I am a big believer in garden plans, so I am not really wasting time (except of course when I sit staring at the page of strawberry plants and dream)

So go ahead, pick up those catalogs, get online, and dream!

The Gardening Girl

HB 982 is being promoted as a bill to prevent the outbreak of avian flu which might mutate into a form of flu which could be spread between humans.

In reality this particular bill is an attempt by the confinement farm industry to restrict their competition (free-range farmers) by making it illegal to keep poultry outdoors.

I have included below a press release written by a fellow farmer and urge you to call and write your representives.

The bill may be read here.

PRESS RELEASE (recieved via email)

DATE: Jan. 27, 2006

RELEASE DATE: Immediately

CONTACT: Joel Salatin 540-885-3590

RE: HOUSE BILL MAY OUTLAW BACKYARD CHICKEN FLOCKS

RICHMOND–A house bill authorizing the Commissioner of
Agriculture to license backyard poultry flocks without “public
participation” has raised the hackles on many small farmers and
poultry enthusiasts.

House Bill 982 titled “Control of Avian Influenza” empowers the
commissioner to “adopt regulations to prevent and control avian
influenza in commercial and noncommercial poultry” and to “establish
by regulation a registration or licensing system to regulate . . .
all persons who operate a live-bird market, production unit, or
distribution unit.” The bill specifically exempts the regulations
from “public participation guidelines” and the “Administrative
Process Act.”

The “registration or licensing system may include, but not be
limited to, the granting, denial, suspension, or revocation of any
registration or license,” according to the bill.

Submitted by Del. Lynwood Lewis Jr. (D) from the Eastern Shore,
the bill originated from Secretary of Agriculture Robert Bloxom.
When asked who wrote the bill, Bloxom responded: “I don’t know.”
When asked where it originated, he answered: “It just appeared on my
desk.”

Today, Del. Lewis received a faxed letter from Christine Solem,
spokesperson for the Virginia Independent Consumers and Farmers
Assocation (VICFA) citing three sections in the Code of Virginia that
authorize emergency regulations involving an “imminent threat to
public health and safety.”

When asked about these current provisions, Bloxom said that the
Virginia Board of Agriculture may not be able to convene a quorum in
a timely enough manner to deal with the emergency.

“Because the bill empowers the commissioner to enter ‘other
premises subject to regulation hereunder’ and does not define
‘production unit’ it could easily extend registration requirements to
any home flock in the Commonwealth,” said Joel Salatin, president of
VICFA. “And then to specifically exempt all this new power from
public participation, without even a Governor’s signature, is
incomprehensible. After all, this isn’t a police state—yet,” he said.

Dr. Richard Wilkes, Virginia State Veterinarian, said although
he did not write the bill, he conceived it as a protection against
“live bird markets” that exist primarily in ethnic quarters of New
York and New Jersey. “We do not have any of those in Virginia and I
don’t expect we will have any,” he said.

“Then why authorize the Commissioner, free from public input, to
outlaw any and all poultry flocks in the Commonwealth?” an
incredulous Salatin wants to know.

Actually I think its more like moving weeks….. Gardening Guy has to work in Lynchburg two days this week so we are going out there for a whole weekend and moving some stuff with us.

Today I am spending a lot of time packing while the back of my brain is busy with thoughts of chickens, and seedlings.

I went through the seed catalogs the other day and marked the varieties I wanted and made a garden budget. That is I figured out the cost of seeds and trellis materials, but now I have to go back through and figure estimated yields so I can make a prediction of how much money the garden will save us in the long run.

Hopefully this weekend we can go back out to the housesite and start marking the areas that will be vegetable garden, herb garden etc. That way I can start making plans of what goes where, what soil ammendments are needed and what the planting schedule should be.

Gardening in general ( and market gardening in particular) goes so much better with a well thought out plan.

For seeds I am going to Gurneys and Henry Fields, some trees will come from a local orchard while others will be ordered, probably from Stark Brothers.

You too should be looking at catalogs and planning your spring and summer work. Now is the time to be sure that compost or manure is spread on the beds so the winter rains can work it into the soil.

The Gardening Girl

The Virginia Independent Consumers and Farmers Association is meeting on Wednesday to address various members of the Virginia General Assembly with concerns about the ways that the government and big agriculture are making it difficult for consumers to have Freedom of Choice in their food supply.

Below are some of the things we will be bringing up (copied from an email sent by a VICFA member). We plan to meet at the Capital at 8:30 am on the 25th of January and spend all day.

Talking Points:

1. Freedom of food choice should be legal. Virginia consumers are denied raw milk, homemade pies and cakes, on-farm processed meat and poultry. The freedom to opt out of government-licensed food is certainly as important as the freedom to opt out of government-licensed education or government-licensed medicine.

2. Food safety is subjective and based on faith. Virginia encourages hunters to gut shoot deer on a 70 degree day, drag it a mile through the sticks, rocks and squirrel dung to display it prominently on the hood of a Blazer and parade it around town in the afternoon sun, then bring it home and string it up in a backyard bird-roosting tree to hang for a week before cutting it up to feed their children and friends. But jams, jellies, pies, canned items, beef, pork, poultry, rabbit and dairy products require government-approved processing facilities. Ultimately, the food safety issue comes down to trustworthiness: a local farmer or government agent.

3. Selling food does not make it harmful. So far, Virginia allows complete freedom for food items to be given away. If unregulated food were as inherently unsafe as bureaucrats and industrial foodists allege, then donated food should be prohibited as well. Clearly, these current regulations are contrived to destroy market access rather than protect the public welfare.

4. Freedom from licensure is granted to small components of other heavily regulated economic sectors: elder care (three), child care (three), farm use vehicles (within 40-mile radius), home education (religious exemption). Recognizing inherent accountability in relationship-based commerce and small-scale transactions enjoys both legal precedent and common sense. To deny one tablespoon of milk from a dairy farmer’s mother is simply tyrannical and nonsensical.

5. Government-licensed food has a questionable track record. Irradiation, pasteurization, genetically modified organisms, pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, gas-ripening, factory farming, MSG, rBGH, feeding chicken manure to cows: these are all government scientifically proven safe. Yeah, right.

6. Decentralized and locally-based food systems are less vulnerable to bioterrorism. Every government report on this topic agrees in the weaknesses of a centralized, long-transport, far-flung food system. Giving neighbors the freedom to interact in food commerce creates the ultimate food security.

7. Community-based food commerce stimulates local economies by keeping dollars circulating nearby, creating rural and agricultural value, and providing superior nutrition for the populace. This is true rural revitalization and farm preservation.

Hope to see you there! These are not just issues for Farmers, they effect us all.

The Gardening Girl

Yup, I’ve gotten married and the Gardening Guy and I are moving out to Western Virginia to start a real market garden on twelve acres of forest land.

No buildings of any kind on the property so the first thing to do will be to build a cabin (we’ll rent a tiny and I mean TINY apartment for six months) and start clearing trees and hauling manure to make compost and garden beds.

There’s a good Farmer’s Market about twenty minutes away, very busy and if the farm legislation for on-farm sales goes through I’ll be VERY busy.

Of course I’ll be teaching classes again, and publishing a regular newsletter as well.

I’m so excited, having a real piece of land to work with has been a dream for a LONG time and I really look forward to Eco-farming it and raising a family etc.

The Gardening Girl

The gentleman with the beard is my father-in-law who is also quite a horticulturalist.

HB124

No rule or regulation shall prohibit or restrict any person from selling food or food products grown or processed on his farm to any customer provided that: (i) the food or food products are sold on the farm on which they are produced; (ii) the food or food products are sold to the customer for personal consumption and shall not be sold for reuse, including restaurant sales; and (iii) the food or food products are marked with the following: “Not for Resale, Produced Without State Inspection.” Any customer who resells food or food products bought at the farm under this section shall be guilty of a Class 4 misdemeanor.

I’ve just copied the text from the Legislative website here for reference.

Here are the questions we need to ask (IMHO):

No rule or regulation shall prohibit or restrict any person from selling food or food products grown or processed on his farm to any customer provided that:

1. What is the definition of a ” food product” Does this include raw milk and raw milk products?

2. What is the definition of processed? Can I sell jelly that I made (for instance) even though I did not grow or produce all of the ingredients?

3. Can I sell another farmer fruit which they combine with their own fruit and sell on their farm?

the food or food products are sold to the customer for personal consumption and shall not be sold for reuse, including restaurant sales;

4. Am I AT ALL responsible for enforcing “no resale”? If someone buys 50 cases of something am I AT ALL required to report them as probably planning to resell my product?

the food or food products are marked with the following: “Not for Resale, Produced Without State Inspection.”

5. Is this the only labelling I have to use or do I have to list ingredients on the label as well?

I think this law is a good start. We would probably be wise to support it especially if the answers to Questions 1-3 are yes, Question 4 is no and Question 5 is yes.

I would like to see this combined with some kind of limited liability law covering both people visiting a farm and the products bought on a farm.

It would be nice if we could sell off farm too but that I think is a second level of legislation which it will be easier to pass if this one passes first and the public is educated to support easier sales of better food/farm products.

What we really want is for the PUBLIC to demand a change in law to better support the small farmer and this bill will help us to get there by making it easier for the PUBLIC to be reached and educated in the importance of supporting small farmers for the PUBLIC’s own better health etc.

Kyndra

The other day I was reading about some of the ways that animals are raised for the market. Did you know that you can see a cloud of manure dust over the feedlot? The animals breathe in this dust and often fall ill which causes them to need antibiotics and to be generally less healthy than their grass fed counterparts.

The difference in quality can even be seen in eggs. I buy eggs from two old ladies at the Farmer’s market in Richmond and they have deep orange-yellow yolks, clear whites and firm shells. The taste of these eggs is also superior to those that I occasionally buy at the grocery.

Of course the ladies that I buy eggs from work very hard for not much profit. Too often the consumer finds it too much “trouble” to visit a Farmer’s Market (even one that is downtown like Richmond’s). Buying Local is a great concept but most people find it much more convenient to run to the grocery and buy confinement raised, innoculated, irradiated foods with less flavor and nutrition than to support the small farmer who raises crops with respect for creation.

Sadly this attitude of convenience may eventually be responsible for the demise of the American Family Farm. Think about this the next time you “run to the grocery” .

Last week OH stopped by our favorite orchard and bought several bushels of apples…

This weekend we started canning them….

Now I know that some of you will think that it would be much easier for me to buy spiced apple rings and applesauce at the grocery store - and you would be right.

The difference is that I know that the nutritional value of the foods I make is much higher when I make them than when they are processed and preserved in a large factory. Then too the flavor of the things I make is better - and its the flavor I want- not just a bunch of sugar to cover up the fact that the apples used had the flavor and consistency of styrofoam!

The apples we used for apple rings (actually we made slices cause it’s a bit easier) were avintage variety called Shockly. Small very firm fruits with a sharp tart taste that make excellent firm spiced and canned apple slices. We did 28 pints last night and another 7 pints of apple pickles. I’m not kidding there really is such a thing and I’ll post the recipe in a couple of days.

One of my favorite sights of fall is pumpkins and squashes piled up at the farm stands. I often buy a number of squashes and then have to figure out what to do with them!

Fortunately they will keep for several weeks (or even months) if stored in a cool dry place. I stack them in my back bedroom (which I keep closed off to save on heating bills) and check on them occasionally to make sure they are still good.

From time to time I will try a new recipe out and thought I would post a couple of those in case you also are afflicted with an attraction to winter squash!

Roasted Winter Squash

This works well for almost any winter squash but I particularly like to use Acorn and Butternut….

Cut the squash into halves or quarters lengthwise and scoop out the seeds and pulp. Lightly prick the flesh with a fork and sprinkle with pepper. Place the pieces flesh side down in a pan with about a 1/4 inch of water and bake at 350 until the flesh is soft (20-30 minutes).

Serve with butter.

Chicken and Squash:

Butternut Squash
Medium Onion
Chicken leg quarters
Sliced mushrooms
Sliced black olives

This is an easy one dish recipe that takes about 15 minutes to prepare.

Slice a butternut squash about 1/2 thick and place in the bottom of a baking pan. You should have one layer of squash in the pan. Next slice an onion and layer it over the squash. Then place Chicken leg quarters on top of the onions, sprinkle with salt and pepper and cover with mushrooms and black olives.

Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes or until juices run clear.

Serves 1-8 depending on the size of the pan and number of pieces of chicken used.

I have a bug sitting on my desk…..one of the other teachers brought it in for indentification…. It’s about 1.5 inches long, light brown with wings folded to the body and two digging claws. Rather an impressive looking bug really.

Southern Mole Crickets are particularly destructive to lawns in the South. Most of the destruction is caused by their tunneling after other insects, unlike some of their cousins they are mostly carnivorous.

Control methods include: introducing benificial insects such as wasps which hunt the crickets, applying grub controlling products in the spring, and regular feeding and mowing of lawns.

In rural areas the insects may also be controlled by allowing hens to roam the yard as the southern mole cricket spends a significant amount of its time on the surface.

As with most pests regular inspection and treatment of problem areas is the best form of control.

I stopped at the local farmer’s market the other day and was amazed by the variety of fall vegetables available……I’ve been trying to make my eating habits reflect the kinds of foods that are available locally and was able to get the following fresh vegetables:

Winter squash: three different kinds of acorn type squashes, pumpkins, and butternut squash

Sweet potatoes: a particulary good variety called Hernadez which I will cure and store for the winter

Onions: yellow ones which again I will store for the winter

Beets: Not everyone’s favorite food but with cold weather I’ll make a pot of Borsht and eat off it all week…..

Turnips: which I use like potatoes and also in a number of Irish dishes….

There were also lots of greens which I didn’t get as I have about 40 pounds of frozen kale in storage at the moment!

Eating seasonally makes my diet interesting as I have to develop/learn new recipes to use those foods which I’m not familiar with.

Of course as I recently got a copy of the Rodale Natural Foods Cookbook at a sale I’m sure I’ll have lots of recipes to try!

So once again I have moved and once again I have no place for a garden! This time I am in a little Potomac River town for the school year, renting a small place with no real place to plant anything. I’ll have a few houseplants this winter I guess - some herbs for the kitchen and perhaps some African Violets if I can get some slips from my mother.

The good news is that I am getting married in December and once the school year is over will probably be moving to the western part of the state where we will be able to have a real garden and eventually even a small farm!

In the meanwhile I’ll continue to post about agricultural and gardening topics…

The Gardening Girl.