Midwestern Garden

Here you can see I removed the manure I had been storing in my pit. Then I began to fill , water and tramp it down as I went. The hot bed is 3 feet by 12 feet. It took three pick up loads or three cubic feet of manure. Then I took compost and screened it through hardware cloth. It took about half a yard to fill it with 4-5 inches of compost to start the seeds in. I raked it smooth and put the covers on top. What I have read is that in 7-8 days the weed seeds will have sprouted. The bed will have heated up and cooled down to a temperature suitable for seed germination. After the weed seeds sprout, they can be killed and the garden seeds planted. So some time next week I should be able to start seeds. Today it is snowing very hard and we might get 8 inches, so I finished just in time.

I went and got a second load of manure today. It is now covered and protected against the elements. I don't really need it for about another ten days, but now I am about ready. When the time comes to water it and pack it down I will probably need about one more load. It is just piled loosely, with the cover it won't be frozen when i need it no matter how cold it gets in the mean time. It is so much easier to do this work when there is no snow, so this week was a good opportunity. Now I have to hook up my electricity. You can see the romex I ran from inside the house. Also I am going to hook up a vent fan and install a vent for fresh air to enter.

I went and got a load of manure and straw from some race horses yesterday. It will take at least one more load. I am stockpiling it, so I have it ready to "charge" the bed on February 26th. I will have to dig it out of the pit, water it and tamp it down as I go.

We have an ice storm coming and I wanted to build the hotbed structure before the lumber got covered with ice and snow. Right now the ground is dry here but it was about 25 degrees outside. The official soil temperature is 26 degrees, and next week it is supposed to be pretty cold. I covered both sides of the windows with plastic to have an insulation layer. I still want to run electricity to it, and have a vent fan to keep it from overheating, and a little electric heater for back up heat. I have an insulated blanket to cover it on real cold days or nights. The insulated blanket is what concrete workers use. About February 26th is when I want to fill it with manure and soil.

Spring has sprung or is about to spring in some parts of the U.S. and some are wondering about what is the best date to plant plants. Often time seed packets have suggested months and dates or certain vague timing related to frost averages. The true determining factor is soil temperature. All plants have temperature parameters in which they thrive. 50 degrees F. is a basic benchmark for plant growth. Below 50 degrees and above 32 degrees many plants can survive but will make very little active growth. To bring a little science into planting equations and less guess work, one needs to buy an inexpensive soil thermometer. You might have a meat thermometer with a probe in the kitchen already. Begin to monitor what is happening with your soil. As they begin to approach 50 your getting close. On the internet you can observe ten day weather forecasts. Begin to combine the highs and lows. When the soil temp hits 50 and the ten day forecast averages 50, put your plants in the ground. If the ten day forecast is "good" except it might show one night with a hard frost, watch out. Some plant varieties require 55 and some 60 degrees before they should be planted. Lima beans need 65 degrees to germinate. Where I live at this moment soil temperature is 26 degrees. Do a little research regarding the various varieties. This concept affects hoop houses as well. Even with auxiliary heat, surrounding soil temperatures outside can be 20-30 degrees. This cold soil mass surrounding the hoop house will migrate, perhaps three feet into the hoop house rendering the perimeter area unproductive. It probably is recommendable to dig a 2 to 3 foot trench on all 4 sides and put in vertically panels of insulation foam 2-3 inches thick around semi permanent structures to eliminate migration.

So far with the old doors I bought and the lumber I have $80.00 invested in the project.

I don't like starting seeds indoors, it takes up to much space, all the lighting etc., problems with damping off, and memory's of children filling cribs with plants and dirt during nap time. So I am working on this years hotbed, in a different location and dimensions that last. I made mine 4 feet deep last year which is too deep to reach in safely. So this year it will be 36 inches deep. Also I bought some old screens today for $15 that I will cover with two layers of plastic. Last year I used glass windows. Some broke, and I thought they were dangerous. I only dug 2 feet deep last year, and I have gone 30 inches this year. The length is 12 feet. I plan on using a squirrel cage fan for ventilation, and perhaps a small auxiliary heater connected to a thermostat. I found on the "net" a rather simple design for the frame.

This isn't technically hot sauce as we commonly know it. It is really hot oil. You take your hot peppers and soak them in Olive Oil for a few weeks or a month. Don't fill the jar to full to the top because they swell up and will overflow. I went to the Mexican store and bought some Habanero's, Pequin, and Serrano. The idea is to make it as hot as you can then dilute to how you like it. Then filter out the peppers and throw them away, and rebottle your hot oil. Be sure it is clearly labeled, you dont want children to have access to it. You should only have to make this once a year. If you want you can put garlic etc in it. I like it pretty pure fire, and put just a few drops on my food.

I planted some seed from storeboght popcorn we had in the kitchen. As you can see it did fine.

Pretty much all of the garden is planted with French Grey Griselle Shallots, Egyptian Onions, Red Janice garlic, Calcot Green Onions, and Spinach. I have a few unplanted areas where I can plant potatoes and Sugar Snap Peas, whenever we get a thaw.

I ordered these seed from England and planted them early last March. Considering how hot and dry the year was, they didn't do too bad.

Some you can see I heeled on. I dug a trench and pulled them up and replanted them so I can dig them this winter. The nice big plant I have left, and placed a insulated rose bush cover over it. If it survives I am going to try to grow vegetative cuttings from it next year. I tried blanching them as they grew with black drainage pipe, which about cooked them on hot days. I will just blanch them with dirt next year.

I dug up all my plants in August, dried the plants and bulbs , and replanted them September 1st. I think next year I will dig them up as soon as the bulbs are ready. Then I will immediately replant the bulbs and newly separated roots.

They are much easier to grow compared with scallions grown from seed. You have 100% germination and they grow much more rapidly. So I have them ready all fall, winter and spring. I am really starting to like them as a concept. You can plant them fairly deep and pull dirt around them to blanch them as they grow.Ii can see why the old timers liked them. I think they should be in every garden.

This was the first itme I've ever grown Celeriac They aren't as big as the ones at the store, but it basically never rained all summer long. I will probably try them again They like moist soil, and plenty of sun. I interplanted them with my tomatoes, which like pretty much the same conditions. I grew them from seed..

Peppers in there natural habitat, are almost small trees, and grow for years. I tried this years ago, but in the regular part of the house with heat and a window, and they got taken over by whiteflys. About November 1st, before the first real frost I pulled them out of the ground and potted them up. I found out, that quite easily 4 or 5 would fit in a bucket. I pruned them back quite aggressively and then put them in the buckets. I didn't poke holes in the bucked because you want them to be pretty dry. The are in a cool place in my basement where they get a little light.I put them down there and forgot all about them until about a week ago.

They have began to poke out a few little leaves. Really you just want them to hibernate and not do much of anything. Then in late April or early May maybe pot them up and start giving them some sun.Ii will plant them directly in the garden in May for the second season. I have read that some people keep them alive for years this way. Supposedly they become much larger plants and fruit much sooner. I wish I had kept many more plants. The variety's are Carmen, Chimayo, and Melrose.

I have a steep hillside which is way to steep to till. So every year I put about 12 inches of leaves on it in the fall. I am going to grow Moon and Star Watermelons in it this spring.

I think this is the third year I have grown this Garlic. I planted it September 1st. I like it because it gets done early, about May 1st last year, it has a good flavor too, I think I have about 100 cloves planted.

I planted these from seed last March, and they grew slowly all summer long, and finally were ready to pick at the end of October. They are a very long season cabbage.

I let my Spinach go to seed last Spring, and saved the seed. It was easy and I will save more this year. I replanted about September 15th, and these are the little plants that are out in the ice and snow right now. As soon as the snow melts they will begin to grow, and I can start to pick them in March. The variety is Bloomsdales Long Standing Winter Spinach.

I grew this Thunbergia from seed. It was easy to sprout and get going last spring. It made a nice shade house for my grand kids to play in. It grew in the shadiest part of my garden, the only problem I had was rabbits chewing them down early on.

I was really impressed with these. I grew the round ones. The were very crisp with a very good flavor. I will definitely grow them again.

I think I planted them about the third week of August.

Here is a picture I took October 6th. I had Radishes, Leeks,Chard,Green Onions, Celery, and still peppers.

I planted my Kale early last spring and let it grow all summer long. I have never grown Kale before, and the plants haven't really got as big as I expected them too. but they went months with out a drop of rain. They seem quite foolproof to grow, The Lacinato or dinosaur Kale are more tender, and I would probably grow them next year, they seem to have gotten crowded out by the Red Russian which is a larger more robust plant/

I grew a few of the round black Spanish radishes and was really impressed with them, They got about as big as tennis balls, and had a really good flavor. Early on they were too hot, but by the end of October were very good. I had some friends that liked them as well. I would like to grow more next year and the want to try the oblong ones also.

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I would highly recommend planting Bright Lights Swiss Chard, because it is so pretty, and the stems add nice color when you are cooking. It doesn't get quite as big as some of the other varieties, but I think it is a little more tender. I also grew a white stemmed variety called Argentum. This is how my patch looked at the end of October. I picked it over and over this summer, even when it was one hundred degrees out. I never watered it and it did great under semi desert conditions. I have really developed almost a craving for it cooked. I brown turkey sausage in a frying pan, with olive oil and water, so it doesn't burn. Then I put a tablespoon of peanut butter, and a teaspoon of fermented fish sauce in the pan. Also a pinch of hot pepper and black pepper. Then put in the Chard and cook until it is wilted. Serve it on rice or boiled, or steamed potatoes with some soy sauce.

This is my one plant of Calabrese Broccoli Rabe that made it some how through the summer, and rabbit attacks. The plants keep getting bigger and more productive as the season goes along. Really we couldn't keep up eating the broccoli from this one plant. I decided that I am not going to plant the conventional broccoli anymore. You only get one head basically and that's about it. If you planted 3 or 4 of these you would definitely have some to freeze. What you get is lots of small heads.

The plants never quite reached 16 feet. I did hit a solid 15 1/2. At the end they came on strong. I still have quite a few ripening in the house to eat. However it was a terrible year for tomatoes with excessive heat and drought. This was the first year in my life that I ever watered tomatoes. I intended to do so from the beginning of the year. I am not sure that I will again next year, given the expense of city water, and the time required. I am sure the water increases volume of production, and if one is attempting to grow giant tomatoes will help in size and quality of fruit. Really tomatoes desire much more water than is commonly imagined and also the roots go down much farther also. Under proper conditions as much as five feet. AsIi write this I think I have convinced myself to water again. I watered daily, and as much as 15 gallons a day, per plant. I was impressed with the Purple Cherokee, Brandywine, Radiator Charlys, and Gold medal.

At times the mattock comes in handy.

I don't have a picture to go along with this note, however I discovered one evening that I have been misrepresenting myself as double digging my garden, when I have actually been Bastard Trenching it. Apparently here are the differences. In some soils or locations, you can dig down and remove two spade lengths (spits) of soil from your trench before you hit subsoil. I use both a Round Point Tiling Spade, a Square Point Shovel with a short handle, and at times a Mattock. The subsoil imagined, as soil not remedied with organic matter and undesirable to mix it in the topsoil. Then having removed approximately 24 inches of topsoil, the underlying subsoil is broken up once again by the Round Point Tiling Spade. Then one takes a potato fork and works in manure or compost in this layer which is three feet down from the surface. However Bastard Trenching is used,( such as in my case where the subsoil is pure wind deposited clay), and only 12 inches down from the surface. The good soil is only 12 inches deep. So it is removed and then the second layer, broken up amended and so forth. In this case one inches deeper over the years until the soil can be properly doubly dug. Sorry if I have misled any one on this point of distinction.

I tried to get a sweet potato I had bought in the organic section to take root in a jar of water. This is what we used to do when I was a kid

It was obvious that it had been treated with something, and it took weeks and weeks to sprout, it finally did and this is what I got off of one plant.