The Mini-Greenhouse: Beans Need Protection!

What do birds, slugs, mice, and snails all have in common?

Duh!  They are garden predators.  These pests want to eat your young sprouts and will destroy them quickly and efficiently.  Bean sprouts are especially prone because the 2 halves of what was your bean seed become the cotyledons.  In other words, the first two leaves that the plant forms upon sprouting out of the ground are still viable edible material for these plant assassins.

Bean Sprout With Cotyledons

So, logically, we must protect our young beans from attack so that their initial growth stage is strong.  This is something I knew going in, as I remember mom and dad covering the pole beans with milk jug halves implanted 1-2 inches into the ground.  This will lead to stronger bean plants and a better harvest.  However, I was lazy and took my chances with uncovered beans.  Lo and behold, half of them were destroyed within a couple of days, and I was left to replant, having learned my lesson the hard way.

Now, my second crop is just peeking out of the ground, and technology is in order.  Humans, be smarter than nature; Use your tools!  As I've made clear, I'm poor, and a poor-planner, so I don't have 40 milk jugs on hand with which to protect my young tender sprouts.  Therefore, I have used my engineering talents to MacGyver some proper replacements.  Actually, to be fair, this isn't really science....just using what's sitting around the kitchen.

Ball Jar "Devices" (hope this works!)

Had I the money, time, and initiative, I would certainly consider laying a long clear plastic sheet over the whole bed of beans.  This would definitely protect against the birds.  However, it looks like slugs are the main concern here.  As I just learned this morning, they will attack your bean sprouts AS SOON AS THEY PEAK OUT OF THE GROUND.  So don't put it off another minute.

Appeasement Strategies Aside: Ways To Kill The Bastards.

If you have other cheap or easy solutions to this problem, please share in the comments section.

When Thinking Tomatoes, Think Different.

Tomato Varieties Found at North Portland Grocers:
(an informal survey)

Fred Meyer: Red Vine, Cherry, Grape, Undetermined Beefsteak Variety, Roma, Organic Red Vine

Safeway: Hot House, Roma, Yellow Orange & Red Vine, Org. Red Vine, Org. Hot House, Org. Cherry, Romanita, Cherry on Vine, Grape

New Seasons Market: Org. Red Vine, Org. Roma, Org. Undetermined Beefsteak Variety

This is a pretty sad reflection on the state of the American food system, considering the incredible wealth of heirloom tomato varieties. The following website claims to offer 600 different tomato varieties, and although I counted only 121 on the order form, this is still 113 more than the best local grocer is likely to offer.

Heirloom Tomatoes - Online Store

The focus, however, is not the lack of choices found at the grocery store.  The idea here is to create a good impetus for growing your own.  I surely hope that names like Yellow Pear, Black Brandywine, Jersey Devil, or White Beauty will be enough to get your taste-buds flowing and your gardening itch.....itching.
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So, now that we're all online ordering four or five or fifty seed varieties, the question becomes, how (and where) the eff do I plant these things.  And this, my friends, is where creativity comes into play.  The following article got me super-excited about growing The Wolf Pear, because I'd never seen tomatoes grown this way before.  Growing up, mom and dad tended toward the fairly common round wire types....BOOOORIIINNNGGG!

Greenhouse Vine Tomatoes 

(Full Article is HERE)

So, this is the type of trellis I've chosen to adopt for the summer growing season.  The idea of training tomatoes up 6-9 feet of twine is intriguing to me, and allows them to put more energy into reproduction and fruiting.

Another growing idea that has become somewhat popular is growing tomatoes upside down.  Of course, there are the brand-name Topsy Turvy upside down planters.  But I much prefer the build-your-own ideas found HERE.  This type of planter may be helpful for those without much space in the yard.  Just hang those planters from the eves of your house on the south side, and see what happens.

So there you have it.  Buy seeds, build some cool growing system, plant, and enjoy.  Please let me know if any of this stuff actually works out for you.

Lessons Learned, Success!

As a follow-up to yesterday's post about gardening failures, here are a couple of the grand successes that I have achieved thus far:

1. Hardy Plants = Happy Gardener. To reap the rewards of a vegetable garden quickly and with ease, I suggest planting those vegetables which are so easy to grow, a caveman could do it. About half of the veggies that I've planted have sprouted and grown with gusto, and I've had to pay little attention to them, besides a little watering and a little weeding. Hardy winter greens are the staple here....think kale, collards, spinach, chard, and cabbage. I planted these very early and they've done great. Others that have done well include peas, beets, kohlrabi and potatoes. Furthermore, radishes can handle cold weather and are ready to eat in less than a month. If you're looking to get started quickly, plant a bed of greens and a bed of beets, kohlrabi, and/or radishes and then sip on some whiskey and relax that troubled mind. These plants will do the work for you.

List of Spring and Fall Veggies

2. When starting seeds indoors, give ample space and ample light. I found great success with my seed starts using 16oz. red keg cups (picnic cups, for the young at heart) in place of the small 4oz. peat seed starters. The seeds in keg cups flourished with the added space to grow a large and strong root system. Furthermore, make sure that your starts are getting all sorts of light. Place near a south-facing window, and if the weather is gloomy, I suggest adding artificial light as well. I happen to have old fish tank lights that I used, but if you're rolling in the dough, you might even splurge on a larger indoor full spectrum grow light. I think it's well worth the time, effort, and money to ensure that your seed-starts come up big and strong. The early maturation will lead to even greater success when transplanted into the garden proper.

If you want more in-depth and technical information on starting seeds, I suggest asking your good friend Google. Google knows.

Lessons Learned: Failure.

Back in the day, when people like you and I were actually required by circumstance to grow their own food, gardening technique was passed down from generation to generation. From neighbor to neighbor. From friend to friend. (This is the way I imagine it anyways). Therefore, I'd like to spend a couple of posts recounting my various successes and failures this spring, so as to share what little I have learned. Today, (and this is a highly non-technical report) I'll focus on some of the failures:

1. Follow the directions on seed packets. Being slightly cocky and slightly stubborn, I decided that things would sprout when and where I (god) wanted them to. As it turns out, it actually works MUCH better to wait until say, the weather is warm enough, and the sun is out. Planting seeds at the correct time and in the correct conditions will save you a lot of stress and disappointment as a gardener. Lesson learned.

2. I read about a sloped-bed technique in Four-Season Harvest, by Eliot Coleman. The supposed advantage to adding a 15% southward slope on a garden bed is capturing 20% more warmth from the suns rays. Unfortunately, when it rains heavily, as when planting much too early in the spring, a sloped bed only serves to swamp the seedlings in the lower half of the bed, creating poor growing conditions. Just this week I hoed up, evened out, and replanted these lower halves of my sloped beds, adding more drainage by raising the soil level relative to the upper halves. I have no doubt that these sloped beds can be beneficial if built correctly, but you have to provide proper drainage. Lesson learned.

3. Do it right or do it twice. There have been many areas where the saying applies, but the best two are these: Pea Trellis and Fence. The Pea trellis I built is composed of stakes on each end with twine threaded back and forth throughout. I didn't build it very well, and as the peas have grown bigger, it has begun to sag under the weight. Furthermore, I didn't build it tall enough, the wind and rain have had their way with some of the taller stalks. And what of the fence? Well, it quickly became clear that the dogs were not going to leave my poor garden alone. So I threw together a flimsy three foot tall chicken wire and wooden stake affair. The dogs went under and over and around. So, I added plywood at the base, dug six inches into the ground, added a foot in height, and reinforced the ends with plywood and staples. The hounds have been held at bay. Lessons learned.

Tomorrow: The Successes!

A Proper Fence

Sagging Pea Trellis

Trellis 2.0: Tomatoes

Ups 'n Downs & A Few Pics

Hi Everyone,

So I've been building a small veggie garden in my new backyard. I started work in mid-February, and as many first time gardeners are prone to do, I jumped the gun on planting many of my veggies. The itch of spring got to me, as did some tricky Portland weather. Oh well, oh well. I have a new alter-ego: The Haphazard Gardener.

Most everything came up alright, but then I had to put a lot of work into building a fence to keep the dogs out. Replanting some of the seedlings that they trampled took some time. And now, in mid-may, we've had three straight days of 30 mph winds and about 2 inches of rain. This bent several of my snow-pea stalks in half, and I hope it won't cause seed-rot for the beans, radishes, leeks, and brussels sprouts that I planted earlier this week.

Below are some pictures of the current state of affairs. I also included one picture of the area before I went to town. The quality is a little poor because I'm using my blackberry. If anybody wants to contribute a digital SLR to the effort, you're more than welcome. Yes, digging up the sod was 15 hours of b&*ch work with a pulaski and a shovel. And yes, every little garden bed I dig requires half an hour of turning the soil and chopping up grass root clods.

More posts and pictures to come. Enjoy.

The Calm Before The Storm

Side View

Front View

Snow Peas In Bloom

Potatoes (Reds and Yukons)

Compost. Important....For Next Year...

Rosemary Rooted From Cuttings

Tomato Starts With Trellace

Kale Going Nuts

Collards Going Ape-Shit

Mixed Greens (Super Excited For These)