Companion Planting and a Flashy New Trellis

The tomatoes are in. The bed in the photo is 4' by 18'. There are eight tomato plants (a little less than half our stock) in the bed, which I know isn't very many, but they will be sharing the space with four varieties of poling beans, red onions, leeks, and a shit load of basil. Well, maybe not a shit load, but a fare amount none the less.

We're really happy with how well our new trellis turned out. The design is mostly from something Meg found on the internet and in the latest issue of Organic Gardening. However, the modifications are all Future House. It did take us a few hours to build, but it's nothing more than bamboo from our property and salvaged string (the whole thing didn't cost a cent). I'm certain that by the end of this year I'll be able to tie knots like a sailor (which is fitting, because I tend to curse like one).

Squash Beds

An executive decision was made last year that all of our squash and mellon type plants would be direct seeded this year. They are now all in. We spent the better part of the day clearing out all of the beds to hopefully get rid of any lingering squash bug larvae. The grass has been cut for the first time this year and we used the clippings for mulch. This photo gives a pretty good view of the five beds we planted (they're the green fuzzy ones). In each bed we also planted a few nasturtium seeds to help deter pests and eventually add some peppery zing to our salads. This now marks that 18 of our 22 beds are planted. All that's left are our peppers, tomatoes and some random last minute herbs.

Thinking Way Ahead

In the world of "What ifs," Meg and I have contemplated the possibility of renting for another year or two and what that would mean for the garden. The idea we are tossing around is joining the herb garden with the vegetable garden to create what would be a 3,000 square foot backyard market.

I took this photo from the far edge of the herb garden furthest away from the vegetable garden. If you look to the far right of the photo you can see a little concrete pillar (it's a stand for the birdbath), that marks where the herb garden ends. (I know it doesn't look like much of an herb garden now, but Meg, myself, and Steveo have big plans for it's rejuvenation later this month.) The grass area from the concrete pillar to the garden fence would be double dug and fenced in. It would be a shit load of work for someone else's property, so I hope we can get out of here before it gets to that. Like I said, it's a "What if."

Our pool isn't usually that green.

Earlier today I was playing around on Google Maps, trying to figure out the location of a random windmill we can see from upstairs in our house but not from the road. I never found the windmill. Instead, I got distracted by looking at satellite images of the area.

Google must have updated their aerial photos recently, because the last time I looked, our house had been photographed in the winter—everything was brown and dead. This new image is from the spring, and since the trees are all filled with fluffy new leaves you can really see how little of the 3.5 acres are actually usable for gardening. I envy those neighbors across the street whose yards get great sun all day.


The coolest thing about the new map, though, is that if you zoom in all the way you can actually make out the individual raised beds in our garden. In the picture below, I highlighted some of the prominent garden-related spots in the yard.


The herb garden and the current garlic and onion patch used to be well-tended gardens, but they turned into giant weed pits over the past year. We're attempting to reclaim them both, as we'd like to be able to spread our plantings around a bit. Kelly is going to stick most of his hot peppers in the herb garden, and after reading Patrick's advice to us on this post, we'll probably relegate our wild tomatoes to the herb garden as well. The two red Xs mark the trees we chopped down last fall, and the chickens were relocated a bit to the left—their yard now shares a fence with the southern edge of the garden—but other than that, this is pretty much what the yard looks like right now.

Inventory

We're getting close to the point where we need a more concrete garden plan, so this afternoon I hauled out all our seeds from last year, rounded up the new arrivals that have been deposited all over the house, and printed out the order confirmations for the stragglers that haven't shown up yet. I grouped everything roughly by type and started making lists.

The end result of all this is that we're slightly more organized, and we've also realized that we have accumulated a hell of a lot of seeds.

Below is a complete list of everything we've got going on this year; there are about 90(!) varieties in all. Varieties in bold are new to us, and those with an asterisk behind the are things we acquired randomly and don't know the names of. We still need to get corn, a red potato, parsnips, and some more carrots.

Garlic: Georgia Crystal
Garlic: Russian Giant
Garlic: Music
Garlic: Italian
Garlic: German Extra Hardy
Garlic: Bogatyr
Garlic: Chesnok Red
Garlic: Spanish Roja
Garlic: Emmaus Farmers Market*

Onion: Sweet Yellow Spanish
Onion: Red Burgermaster Hybrid
Leek: American Flag

Celery: Utah

Broccoli: Green Goliath
Brussels Sprout: Catskill
Cabbage: Golden Acre
Cabbage: Ruby Perfection Hybrid
Chinese Cabbage: Wong Bok
Kale: Dwarf Blue Curled

Potato: All Blue
Potato: Yukon Gold

Lettuce: Red Velvet
Lettuce: Oakleaf
Lettuce: Red Sails
Lettuce: Buttercrunch
Lettuce: Black Seeded Simpson
Spinach: Pinetree Garden Seeds Mix
Chard: Five Color Silverbeet

Bean: Good Mother Stallard
Bean: Cherokee Trail of Tears
Bean: True Red Cranberry
Bean: October
Bean: Rattlesnake
Bean: Jade Green
Cowpea: California Blackeye #5
Edamame: Butterbean
Pea: Green Arrow
Pea: Oregon Sugar Pod II
Pea: Mr. Big Pea
Pea: Cascadia
Pea: Amish
Pea: Capucijner

Hot Pepper: Lemon Drop
Hot Pepper: Hinkelhatz
Hot Pepper: Beaver Dam
Hot Pepper: NuMex Joe E Parker
Hot Pepper: Cayenne
Hot Pepper: Jalepeño M
Hot Pepper: Tobasco Greenleaf
Pepper: Red Bell

Tomato: Brandywine
Tomato: Grandpa's Mystery Big Tomato*
Tomato: Grandpa's Howard German
Tomato: Amish Paste
Tomato: Red Heart-Shaped*
Tomato: Matt's Wild
Tomato: Black Tomato*
Tomato: Green Sausage
Tomato: Small Green Tomato*
Tomato: Yellow Peach Tomato*
Tomato: Yellow Brandywine Tomato*
Tomato: Yellow Plum Tomato*

Cucumber: True Lemon
Cucumber: Bushy
Summer Squash: Lemon
Summer Squash: Striata D'Italia
Pumpkin: Connecticut Field
Watermelon: Mickylee
Winter Squash: Waltham Butternut
Winter Squash: Burpee's Butterbush
Winter Squash: Table King Bush Acorn
Winter Squash: Delicata
Winter Squash: Sweet Dumpling

Carrot: Tochon
Carrot: Danvers 126
Turnip: Purple Globe
Radish: Sparkler White Tip
Beet: Gourmet Blend

Basil: Genovese
Basil: Thai
Rosemary
Parsley: Giant from Italy
Cilantro: Santo
Oregano: True Greek
Thyme
Sweet Marjoram
Russian Terragon
Dill: Mammoth
Sage
Chives
Stevia

Garden Cartography

This is a map we drew of the garden at the beginning of last season. We'd built all the beds and planted some spring things, but the rest was left empty for summer stuff. We wanted a map of what we planted so we could remember for future seasons. Unfortunately, for a map like this to work, you have to actually write things on it. We were pretty good at first–I even marked different varieties of flowers!–but but we soon became bored and stopped keeping track. Consequently, the end of the summer was filled with moments of, "Hey! Parsley!" and, "Did you plant these carrots?"

We figured it would be best to finally finish the map, so we could think about crop rotation and things for next season. I Photoshopped labels onto the picture (which you can probably only read if you click it to make it really big) and upped the contrast so the pencil became more clear. Here's the garden:


The gate is right at the top of the picture, and it faces east. That's the only way in right now, but we're planning to add another gate on the north side (left side of the picture) for next summer. Nearly all of the rectangular beds measure four feet by eight feet–the exceptions are the looong bed to the left of the gate, the blob-shaped bed to the right of the gate, and the two little beds below that. The garlic, in the southwest corner, is long gone–that was last year's crop. It's been replaced with four-by-eight beds, two of which are currently planted with cold weather vegetables.

We're going to make a map on the computer that we can muck around with. The seed catalogues are rolling in, and we are already counting down the days until we can sow potatoes and start the spring crops under the hoop houses.

Better Than a Red Ryder BB Gun

In todays mail we received an early Christmas gift. Although we are trying to save our own seeds to use from year to year, nothing beats a good seed catalogue to add variety to the winter planning. As is the same for the most of you I'm sure, we receive a healthy collection of catalogues from all sorts of purveyors. The one that has been the most reliable and feel the best about supporting is the Seed Savers Exchange. They are an independent company, we respect their methods of gardening and seed saving, we're members, and we're definitely looking forward to the 200 page catalogue in February.