$15 DIY Garden Makeover and Permaculture Baby-Steps

Once upon a time, there was an ugly corner of yard that held a giant pile of dead nursery plants in their original, now broken, plastic pots.  It was weird and useless.

So I dumped approximately a million baby plants out of their planters (hey, I didn't want to waste good dirt! and it's not recyclable with the plastic pots anyway...) and started to envision something new.

Some digging, hauling, and compost adding ensued, and the ugly corner has been transformed!  Into basically salad.  To be fair, there's also a cabbage and a broccoli, and a few big herbs, but most of that green mess is lettuces, radishes, carrots, and spinach.  Enough for many, many salads or green smoothies.

The best part about this garden is the price: about $15.00.  The cinder blocks were just lying around the property, so all we spent money on were seeds and a few bags of purchased compost (I know...purchased! But my homemade compost is not ready yet).  And we are indeed hauling buckets of water down to the garden until we see if an existing water conduit works.  It is a fantastic workout.

My mom and I are teaming up on this garden, and I think she was a little horrified when I announced my planting strategy: "Let's plant everything all together, so the fast-growing greens make a 'living mulch' for the slower plants.  Then when we eat the greens, they will let in sun for what remains."  She has been gardening for quite a while, and her veggie gardens are usually very organized, with little charts drawn up of what's planted where, neat little squares of various things (square-foot-garden style), and not much chaos.  So thanks, mom, for playing along and embracing the chaos with me!  I am quite sure in one corner she gave my 3- and 4-year-old a handful of seeds and let them toss them wherever they wanted.

Now our big job is to figure out what everything is in that huge delicious mess - and to keep the toddler from yanking it all out.

In spite of the appearance of chaos, I am happy with the way the garden is progressing.  The greens really are "mulching" well for the larger plants, keeping the weeds down beautifully.  We are starting to harvest them now as the garden begins to mature, making room for sun to get to the things that will be there throughout the summer.

Although this garden looks pretty traditional, the planting scheme is my first attempt at a permaculture way of veggie-gardening.  I'm pretty dead-set against traditional tilled rows of identical veggies being an ideal way to grow, so the no-till nature of this garden is a start.  Also, I am sold on plants being mingled together with other species, both for pest confusion (like, if a bug wants to eat all the beans, it will have to search through a bunch of other stuff, rather than finding all the beans in a convenient row) and for nutrient reasons, like heavy nitrogen feeders being interspersed with less heavy ones so that they all get what they need.

I am also, for the first time, using the "chop and drop" method of composting in this garden, so that plant debris (like the bits of radish I know I'm not going to eat) gets torn/chopped into smaller bits and tossed right there on the soil to decompose, rather than being hauled to the compost bin.  Aside from being "how nature composts" and, well, nice and lazy, this has the advantage of keeping all nutrients and microbial activity there in the garden, where I want them, instead of under my compost pile, where it's not doing anybody any good.

So, in spite of just looking like a badly organized raised garden bed, there has been some permaculture-y thought behind this garden.  I am learning as I go, and starting small.

I have a few more pictures and permaculture projects to come, but I think they better turn into a new post, to come soon!

Posted at Homestead Barn Hop

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Getting to Work in the Oregon Springtime!

Spring is a glorious time when you are not pregnant (like I was this time last year...hugely, beluga-whale pregnant).  Instead of "It is beautiful and sunny out, but I feel like laying down and sleeping... who wants to watch Curious George?," this year I can say, "It is beautiful and sunny out - let's go dig in the dirt!"

This is an important difference, since I am coming to realize that Oregonians get very little sunshine from November 'til about...now.

Here is what the precipitation looks like at the town nearest us (sorry if you don't think graphs are as fascinating as I do):

You can see that October is when we lose all hope and become depressed after a glorious summer.

So instead of staying inside and, you know, doing dishes and putting away laundry like I should be doing, I keep dragging the kids outside with me to work on stuff.  Just kidding.  They love it.

I am quickly learning that gardening in the Pacific Northwest (especially west of the Cascades) is about as idiot-proof as it gets, and extremely rewarding with very little effort.  Case in point: I accidentally killed a potted primrose when we moved here.  I put it on the back porch, it fell off and out of its pot, I didn't pick it up, and the plant magically came back to life as soon as it started raining.  Here, you have to fight off nature to keep it from growing out of control, as opposed to where we used to be (9000 feet, semi-arid), where you had to nurture growing things, pray, and beg them to survive.

Anyway, here are a few of my projects for this year.  If you think that all my projects look pretty redneck, please keep in mind that my monthly garden budget it $15... so I am doing everything as cheaply as possible.  

Project #1: Grapevines!  I am attempting to propagate some grapevine cuttings to grow along the huge trellis off my back porch.  Somewhere between cutting and planting, I lost track of which ends are the...uh...root ends and which ends are the growing ends, so we will see how this goes.  Note the classy 5 gallon bucket pot (with drainage holes on the bottom...my husband was thrilled that I ruined his bucket).

 The poor chickens who stand in mud during the rainy season have been getting lots of downed branches in their run.  It helps.  It is still muddy.  They now are allowed out of the run during the day to eat bugs and grass and poop all over our patio.  They are happy, fat, and gloriously healthy.  We are tired of stepping in poop and shooing them out of the house.  We are working on that.

 This is a mini, pathetic version of a sweet idea I saw somewhere, where the bottom of a chicken coop was all mesh, and things were growing underneath for the chickens to eat.  Also, this way the chicken poo just falls down to fertilize the plants beneath.  My version is just some rye seeds under a slightly protective mesh platform out in the chicken run.  We'll see how it goes.  At the very worst, the chickens will eat all the rye seeds and call it a tasty one-time snack, at the best, the seeds will sprout and grow, and the chickens will have something fun to eat in the run if we can't let them out for some reason.

Given the whole low-budget thing, I was super excited the other day when I found out that our Fish and Wildlife Department was giving away free native plants!  There was originally a limit of 3 per person, but we showed up late, and they gave us as many as I could carry without jabbing plants into the face of the squirming baby.  These fortress-fortified plants (chicken and husband-on-lawnmower proof) are mock orange trees and some wild roses.  The mock orange supposedly smells amazing when it blooms.  Right now it looks like a tiny dead stick.  Come on, Oregon climate, work your magic.  My husband thinks I am slightly crazy to be putting fortresses around dead sticks.

More free natives.  The purplish thing in front is a wild Oregon creeping grape, then the twig behind it is a red twig dogwood.  These guys are by the chicken run, and I am hoping when they mature, they will provide some bug habitat and fruit for the chickens (all the stuff I got has fruit or foliage or both that is edible for animals).

This is the last native.  It is a narrow-leaf buckbrush, which apparently thrives even in drought.  So it is way out in the garden where I don't water regularly during no-rain season.  It is a nitrogen-fixer (my permaculture-newbie self got excited about that), and I am excited to plant things around it someday that are cooler than the current dead grass.

 This is the southwest corner of our large, deer-fenced garden area.  It had previously been a bizarre plant cemetery where the people who lived here before us dumped a bunch of perfectly good stuff straight from the nursery and left it to die (I guess they got busy?).  Like hundreds and hundreds of baby plants.  The cheapskate in me was absolutely appalled.  So I dumped all the good dirt out of the pots, am reusing lots of the pots for growing seedlings, and cleared the rest out to make room for a little raised garden bed.  There are a bunch of left over cinder blocks hanging around the property that will become lovely little walls around this mound of dirt. Stylish, I know.  But hey, veggies don't care what their garden bed looks like!  The only thing I don't like about this raised garden plan is that because of its weird placement far from the house (it's the best sunny place that is fenced), I will be lugging bucket loads of water down to it in the summer.  Hopefully the little one will be walking by then?

Here is what is going on with a bunch of those salvaged plant containers.  They are housing seedlings!  Hooray!  And yes, the seedings live on top of the trash can.  That is the only place on the sunny back porch where the chickens can't eat them and the dog can't knock them down with his tail.  We currently have baby tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, broccoli, and impatiens.  There were nasturtiums, but they were taking over and blocking the sun from the other seedlings.  I killed them.  My 3-year-old cried.

This is the beginning of project number... 3 dozen?  I've lost count.  Leaning against the trunk of the badly-pruned tree are a bunch of branches that I pruned off the apple trees.  They are going to hopefully become a little bean tipi for the kids to play in.  I always knew my tipi building experience at my last job would pay off! And... is tipi building knowledge the kind of thing I can put on a resume someday if I go back to work?

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Cream of Bogey Chicken Casserole

Tip of the day: don't put too much arrowroot powder in your chicken casserole and serve it to your family thinking, "I'm sure they won't notice the slimy texture."

Just don't.




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Feel Happy in 4 Minutes

And now, to cheer you up if you recently read about how Mars, Coca Cola, and McDonald's are sponsoring the American Dietetic Association,

please, go and watch the shameless tearjerker that is "The Man Who Couldn't Walk."  I promise, you will be happy and motivated after you watch it, unless your heart is made of iron ore.

Do you want to go work out now or what?! Pin It

Should Coca Cola, PepsiCo, and Mars Sponsor the American Dietetic Association?

Aren't we supposed to trust Registered Dietitians?  There's no way nutrition or dietetic associations would be swayed by the influence of "Big Food" industry giants, is there?

I may have a good answer for that question, and it involves (surprise!) money.

Eat Drink Politics (which is author Michele Simon's website dedicated to "Countering Industry Harm to Improve Public Health,") recently released a very thorough report about the corporate sponsors of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (the new name for the American Dietetic Association).

The report's main point is that notorious industry giants (like Coca Cola, McDonald's, and Nestle) are influencing the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (or AND), mainly through direct advertising at Academy conventions and "continuing education" courses sponsored by particular companies.

I strongly encourage you to at least browse through the summary of the report (see the tab "Executive Summary" on the Eat Drink Politics' home page).  Although it appears that many Registered Dietitians (RD's) do not approve of some of the corporate sponsors, these huge companies are still in a position to drastically influence the opinions of the dietitians who attend AND events.

Some of the more disturbing items in the report:

• Coca Cola and other companies can pay to conduct "continuing education" seminars at the AND's annual conference, where they, among other things, defend the safety of sugar and aspartame consumption for children and claim that the federal guidelines for school lunches are really too restrictive (what?!).
• At the AND's annual conference, the expo hall (you know, the big room where you can wander around and sample things from the corporate sponsors) was dominated by "big food" companies, while tiny booths with real food representatives were squeezed into corners and along the edges.
• Since these companies are sponsors of the AND, they can put its logo on their products, along with proud claims about how they are partnering with the AND to help support healthy lifestyles.  I'm sure you can picture that kind of label on a box of cereal - this report paints a vivid picture of what that corporate sponsorship actually looks like from the perspective of RD's.

Now, dietitians are intelligent grown-ups who are free to make their own choices about whether McDonald's is really a "healthy choice" for children.  But this type of ridiculously blatant corporate manipulation helps explain the dire health of our nation today.  Dietitians receiving "continuing education" from Coca Cola?  And we wonder why we can't beat childhood obesity?

Fortunately, the report lays out some very clear suggestions for the AND, which, if followed, could drastically improve the credibility of the organization.  In the meantime, please share this information!  In ethical health and nutrition, as in so many things, the first step toward recovery is admitting that you have a problem.

What do you think about "Big Food"'s influence on dietetics and nutrition?  Do you think removal of these corporate sponsors might possibly urge the AND toward accepting more Traditional Food/Real Food values?

Posted at Simple Lives Thursday, Healthy 2day Wednesday, Your Green Resource, Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways, Thank Your Body Thursday, Fresh Foods Wednesday, WFMW, Fight Back Friday, Small Footprint Fridays

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Make a Compost Bin in 5 Minutes

This is my kind of project, folks - it seriously took me 5 minutes, start to finish, even though I was accompanied by three pint-sized "helping" children.

So, if you've never composted before, and it sounds kind of gross and messy, or like something only serious gardeners do, why would you want to try it?  Well...

• If you are composting, a lot of what used to go in the kitchen trash now goes in the compost, so you can take out the trash less often.  And the trash won't smell like stinky veggie scraps.  
• If you pay for your trash service by how much you throw out, you can save money by not having as much hauled away.
• Compost isn't just for fancy gardens - it is like black gold for houseplants or a tomato in a pot on your patio, too.  And if it comes from your kitchen scraps, it is FREE.  We like free, right?

Materials Required: 

• Chicken Wire (about 10 feet of it if you want a bin 3 feet across)
• Wire cutters
• Pliers

Instructions:

1. Cut chicken wire.  I wanted my bin to be about 2 feet across, so I cut a section of chicken wire about 6 feet long.  (The experts recommend piles to be at least 3 feet across so the center can properly heat up for fast, "hot" composting.  But I am in no hurry, my compost contains no weed seeds, and I don't care that much how hot my compost gets.)
2. Form wire into a tube.
3. Use pliers to bend loose ends of wire into place to hold tube together.
4. Set tube on end and start filling with compost materials!

Posted at Waste Not, Want Not Wednesday , WFMW, Simple Lives Thursday, Small Footprint Fridays, Eco Kids Tuesday, Your Green Resource, and Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways

What do you do with your kitchen scraps?  Have you ever thought about composting, or ever done it?  Leave a comment and tell me about it!

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"Homesteading" Goals for 2013

I love to use the word "homestead," although it's a bit of a stretch in my situation.  It just sounds pleasantly old-fashioned.  Do a garden and chicken coop (and dog the size of a cow) count as a homestead?

I know people generally do this kind of goal-setting around New Year's, but hey, we are non-conformists.

Here's what's been accomplished so far this "rainy season":

• Compost "bin" made from chicken wire

• Chicken coop thoroughly mucked
• Fallen evergreen branches placed as floor of chicken run (you can see that the kids ran out of patience about halfway through, and I have a bit more to do, but 50% mud is better than 100% mud)

• Apple trees pruned, plum trees sort of pruned, grapevines sort of under control
• 30% of Himalayan blackberries hacked out (pure evil, those things).

• Leaves raked and placed over veggie beds for mulch

And here's what I'd like to accomplish in the next few months.  This may be a bit ambitious since, ya know, the kids spend most of their time in the garden saying things like,  "I'm bored," I want to go inside," "Can I play with the hedge trimmers?" and "Mommy, the baby's eating grass!"  But if I don't make a list, then nothing will get done.  This way, if I accomplish 1/3 of what's on the list, at least something happened.  

Chicken-y things to do:

1. Fix garden fence so deer can't get in, chickens can't get out.
2. Tinker with chicken coop to make cleaning and egg collecting easier (add one wall, add hinges)
3. Create some type of very simple paddock-shift system for chickens, where they get out of their sad, muddy run to eat grass, then a week later, I rotate them to fresh grass to give the old grass time to recover, etc.  Also, I'd like to reseed their run once I have a way to keep them out of it long enough for the grass to sprout.
4. Get the chickens into the fenced-in garden so they can eat some bugs before it's time to plant.

Plant-y things to do:

1. Prune the peach trees in February
2. Finish pruning the other trees
3. Hack out the remaining 70% of the blackberries
4. Get the grapes a little more under control so they don't attack the fruit trees anymore.
5. Plant some comfrey under the apple trees to replace some of the grass (did you know that grass under trees competes with the trees for nutrients, since both are surface-feeders?)
6. Plant early cool-season veggies in my established veggie bed
7. Start tomatoes and peppers from seed indoors (unfortunately, this should be prefaced with "clean out place by windows to sprout seeds).
8. Find some sort of seed to plant as a living mulch in my veggie beds once veggie seeds get established.
9. Make a "bean tipi" for the kids to play in in the garden.

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