when you're weary....

This time of the year has more garden tasks than there is time. Making new beds, planting seedlings, weeding, starting seeds for later in the season to name a few. I enlist the help of my little grandchild. There isn't much in the way of real help there.But the fun we have discovering worms or just looking at the plants' progress gets me back in that mellow state of mind that I garden for.

Weird garden wisdom: worm compost

Warning: those of us who garden can tend towards weird obsessions, and this is one of them: compost. Don't be alarmed, though. Compost is just stuff from the garden turned back into the garden to keep it growing. We want to get the soil healthy. Vital and strong soil leads to vital and strong plants, leads to vital and strong harvests, and leads to vital and strong people (see I warned you about obsessions)!
Anyhow, instead of going to the big box store for bags of costly and chemical full soil,why not make your own ? For practically nothing? Dare to be weird. Put worms in your kitchen. For the last few seasons, I have had a big mulch pile out back and did nothing much to it except add leaves and plant leftovers (plus coffee grounds and clean egg shells), turn it once in a blue moon, and wait. I still have one, but I am finding the kitchen worm compost bin so much easier. I don't have to make daily trips to the pile anymore. I just feed the worms my chopped up bits of carrot tops, pepper stems, egg shells, and onion skins, ect. They are feeding like champs and making beautiful rich castings I will soon be feeding my garden.Here are photos of my bin, made from (cleaned) cat litter containers. I sent away for the worms...so should you!
 

You say to-may-to, I say to-maah-to.

Here is a photo of the lettuce. Some progress, huh! I spent the morning planting tomatoes, and soon realized I have more plants than I can possible fit in the garden. What to do? I think I'll give some away and plant some in my flower beds. I have yet to figure out where to put the melons. Fortunately, my plants don't mind; they keep on growing in spite of my un-gardener like indecision. My garden has no performance expectations.

Garden tip of the day: transplanting tomatoes

I have been concerned lately about my tomatoes, raised lovingly from seed since March. They were green, alright, but had stopped growing. I have been feeding them a mild tea made from worm castings, so I was expecting more progress. Last week, I decided to transplant them into bigger pots and hope for the best. BOY did it work! After only 10 days, they have sprouted up so far I now can put them in the garden. Why did I bother instead of putting them directly into the soil last week? 'cause this is jersey, folks, and I know spring weather can get cold (and last week it was in the 30's!). Here's hoping the warm weather is here to stay now!

Garden tip of the day:getting ready for summer

Here in south jersey summer can get hot and sticky, and the  ocean beckons. One of the investments I made in the garden is a water timer, and it has been a treasure for the last few seasons. It attaches to the spigot, and waters the garden automatically . Last summer I set it to water at 5am for an hour, a setting which I only changed if we got two days of rain in a row. I water with a circular sprinkler. I tried drip irrigation one season, but found the hose degraded; after one season parts of the hose just fell apart. I have several lengths of hose leading out to the garden all attached to each other with "quick release" gadgets so I can detach them easily and move them for the mower. So easy, and inexpensive too.

An Easter Garden Meditation

What can Easter mean to the gardener? It's not just the usual cliche' about the renewal of the land, the return of the sun,the birds and the growing season (however profound they all are). When I struggle with the world's horrors and personal loss, the garden gives hope.  Sometimes the simple act of holding some earth in my hands is unexplainably consoling. A garden teaches me to wait. If I wait, and don't do too much, if the weather holds and the pests stay away, maybe, just maybe, a good harvest will come. A garden makes the Ultimate Invisible visible.

Can you can?

Today is bad garden weather, so I am posting about home canning.
I started to make my own jams years ago as an attempt at making Christmas presents when we were too broke to buy. This was an unusual thing for me to do, as no one I knew canned. The puzzled looks we got that Christmas were unforgettable, as the recipients were not sure if my efforts were o.k. to eat, since my jam did not come from a store. Now, my family begs for the stuff, and I can't make enough! I only do water bath canning (no pressure cooker) , which means that I can do jams,jellies,compotes, marmalades, pickles and tomatoes (no low acid veggies,no meat).

Starting canning is expensive at the beginning, because you will need to buy some things especially for canning. Some online companies sell "kits," which are convenient for the beginning canner. You can go to the library to read up on home canning, and youtube has lots of how to videos to watch.The best results come when you are able to get very,very fresh (picked the day you plan to can) local produce to work with. Be sure to check out my link list to start your research.

Garden tip of the day: unconventional garden materials!

 In keeping with my theme of frugal gardening, here are a few things I have done to save some cash:

• I have found that several materials usually used in construction are great for the garden. I use a concrete reinforcing grid to grow my peas on. It has lasted three seasons thus far . I also use concrete reinforcing rods to aid my bamboo tomato stakes. Sturdy and cheap. Part of my fence, as regular readers know, was donated by my generous neighbor, & was originally used by a construction company in a demolition project. Ugly, true, but it has lasted well and was free!

•  I have a plastic shelving unit in my shed. I divided it in half (two shelves each). The holes in the shelves are perfect for standing/storing rakes ect. I have large plastic buckets (again from construction)  to store things that won't fit in the shelves. 

• My outdoor mulch pile is bordered by some shipping pallets rescued from the trash by my patient son-in-law. 

• Every fall, I keep an eagle eye out for those huge bags of leaves people intend to throw out and I snatch them for my mulch pile.
• I save those little packets that come in shoe boxes. They are great for keeping seeds dry.

Weed control

Ok, I admit it, I hate to weed. Today's tasks in the garden include me on the business end of a hoe, trying to clear the outside edges of the garden. Our grass has always included more creeping weeds than actual grass, and when the growing season kicks in the @#$%^& stuff  creeps right into my garden.I hate it so much I was even thinking -very briefly- of using chemical weed killer! I opted instead for using cardboard (as weed block) in the gaps between my rows and around the garden edges, but I am finding I don't like stepping on it. I like the feel of the earth beneath my feet. So it's high hoe-ing for me.Oh, well, it's another free workout, right?

Garden tip of the day: container gardens

This is for you out there who don't have the time, land, or desire for a full fledged garden....do a container garden! Get a big something....anything will do, really,(and free is best) but aim for a container that will stack, that is will fit on top of something else so that you don't have to bend down too far to tend it. Try for something non-toxic (no car tires, railroad ties ,ok?). It doesn't have to be very deep. Plan where you will put it...because once you fill it it will be a bear to move. Drill or punch holes in the bottom for drainage (not too big or the dirt will fall through). Get some stones, or broken pottery to put in the bottom. Then fill it up with a mix of peat moss (comes in a big square), top soil, and compost. For most people, these will have to be purchased. DON"T buy pre-mixed "potting mix" . Fill up the pot where it will reside.
Now for your plants. IF you do a tomato or two, you will need room enough in the container to support it as it grows...either by a stake or a tomato cage. Remember that whatever you plant will get (hopefully) a lot bigger...the label will tell you just how big. Water well, then let it be. Good Luck!

Garden tip of the day: where to begin?

If you have never gardened before, and live on the East coast, now is the perfect time of year to begin. If you are luck enough to have a patch of earth you call your own, hooray! If not, I'll post tomorrow on container gardens.
For everybody, here's where to start. Tomorrow morning, look outside to see where the sun is. Walk around your whole house/apartment/whatever (free workout,no gym time needed) and just see where the shadows or shade are, and where the sunny spots are too. When you come home from work, make the same trip again. Then see if there is a spot with dirt in it (no concrete)  that had pretty good sun at both times. That spot is your best bet for a successful veggie garden . Next:  the soil.

Why Garden?

Why do I garden? Previous posts may have given the impression that I garden to get healthy, fresh, organic food (true), or because I am concerned about the environment (true), or because I like getting food less expensively (true). But the real reason is this: I love playing in the mud! A day like today, after huge rain storms, is almost my favorite time to be in the garden. The earth is soft and squishy, and the whole garden has that fresh after-the-rain smell...take a deep breath and be joyful, it says. Let down your hair,close your eyes, take off your shoes, and feel,really feel the earth beneath you. Who cares if your hands and feet get muddy? Some fools pay to have mud treatments, right? And we gardeners get to do it for free.

Garden tip of the day: deer repellant

Here's a tip by way of my Dad, who has a garden in a part of his five acre woods. He struggles every year with the deer who come from the woods and ravage his garden plants down to the roots. He has tried mechanical owls ( break easily) , wolf pee ( washed away) , electric fence (they leaped over it) , all to no avail. This year, he is trying a new approach. He set up a motion sensor in the garden, and is connecting it to a radio at top volume and tuned to talk radio. He hopes the talk will fool the deer into thinking there are people around.. Either it will work, or the deer will all turn up.at election time to vote Republican!

Garden tip of the day

Here's a new feature I'm going to try: my garden tip of the day. I used yards of cheese cloth (paid about 30 dollars all together) held up by old garden stakes (free) to create my own row covers. I used clothes pins (cost 2 bucks ) to hold them on the top, and garden pins to hold them to the soil (the kind usually used to hold down weed block fabric, cost for a large box 12 bucks). I hope these will serve to keep out rabbits.
Cost for 32 ft of store bought version: 38 dollars plus shipping.
My cost for the entire garden, over 108 feet, 44 bucks.

garden tip of the day

cheap raised row covers

Why non-gmo seeds?

I grow most of my veggie garden from seeds that have no genetically modified organisms. Why? In my garden and yours, there should be a variety of plants, most of which have ancient origins from our own region. These plants have natural defenses against diseases native to our soil.  Our garden soil should be enriched with compost, worm castings, and cured cow manure. Our plants should come from seed grown organically, and contain no animal dna. This results in healthy plants that produce food rich in trace minerals,  which you can eat with confidence, knowing that you have supported a healthier earth. Need more? See Why not GMO next.

Another garden day

Although today seems filled up with errands galore, I am still lucky enough to go into the garden! Latest news: I dug raised rows for this year's garden. I follow "you bet your garden," a radio show on whyy radio every Saturday....he advises raised beds (using wood or or brick to create a bed and filling it with soil). I tried that last year, but honestly, I do almost all the garden work myself, and found establishing raised beds too taxing. Hunting for free wood, trying to fit it in my honda and dragging it to the garden...ugh! So this year I am just creating straight rows, building each up by digging. Much easier!

Baby plants

Here's a photo of my seed starting efforts. I got a plastic shelf unit a couple of years ago. I bought regular shop lights and 40 watt bulbs. They hang from the bottom of the shelves on little hooks, and can be adjusted for height. I buy non-gmo seeds (more on that later)...Here's a photo of some seedlings in March...some of these are now in the garden!

Welcome! to lizzy's backyard garden!

Welcome to my garden blog! I am experimenting with this blog as a way to brag about my garden, and share tips and ideas to all you weekend gardeners out there....I will be posting photos of this year's garden: enjoy!

The disaster after the storm.

The Beginning

This year's garden almost didn't happen! We had a series of weather disasters, one particularly wicked storm blew down several trees and knocked down my garden fence, and scattered debris everywhere. Thanks to the weeks of hard work by me, my son, and hubbie, we eventually cleared most of it away in time for spring!