Category: hobby

How My Garden Grows: Winter 2010

It has been about a month since we put in the winter garden and things are finally starting to grow, as you can see.  The bok choy and lettuce are coming in the fastest but everything seems to be moving along nicely.  So far, the biggest problem has been slugs, much more so now than they were in the summer.  I’ll be putting in new, and perhaps additional, beer traps but am considering using coffee grounds as well.  The acidity of the grounds prevents the slugs from crawling over them, it can also burn your plants too though.  I suppose I could purchase a pesticide of some sort but we’re trying for an organic garden and I don’t want to see it come to that.

notice the holes in the leaves? slugs!

D thinks we can start harvesting lettuce from the garden now… I still think the heads are a little too small and Id like to give them a few more weeks.  The arugula and carrots both seem to be doing fine.  We didn’t lose much seed to birds or other granivores and it looks as if we’ll have plenty of both by harvest time:

arugula
carrots

I didn’t take any pictures of the celery or onions but they seem to be doing fine, especially because it appears the slugs are uninterested in them.  Not enough leafy greens I suppose.  The only other plant we have growing is cauliflower and while they seem to be doing fine they’re a long way off from harvesting.  Seeing as they have to flower first and then be germinated and then… Well, you (should) know how plant sex works.

In general, despite the pest problem, the winter garden seems to be progressing well.  As long as these plants don’t stall on us like the tomatoes and zucchini did in the summer garden and we don’t have a cold snap this season should be a success!

It Came and soon I will Brew

 

Will this be awesome? It will... It might also be smelly...

 

I don’t know when I first thought about brewing my own beer…  I’ve known for a long time that brewing it wasn’t that difficult and that humans had been doing it for thousands of years.  The history of brewing is, like all histories, fascinating and worth your time even if you don’t drink.  One thing that struck me about its history that struck me though was how domestic the industry was, by that I mean people brewed their own beer for their own consumption.  Perhaps I don’t write about it much here but I’ve been holding an extended discussion with one of my dear friends about self-sufficiency and moving from consumption to production.  I think this is a direction that our nation as a whole needs to move in order to get its economic house in order but, right now I can’t do anything to direct national policy what I can do is learn a useful skill and try to pass it on to others, and hope that it inspires them to take action in their own life to consume less and make more.

This isn’t a post about my own philosophy, it’s a post about beer brewing.  I purchased the one-gallon brewing kit pictured above from the Brooklyn Brew Shop who also sell five gallon kits, several recipes packs, and other brewing accessories.  Obviously, I haven’t had much business with them but its been good so far and they came highly recommended by friends.  They have a several mixes and seeing as I’d never tried one I went with the one that sounded most delicious:  Apple Crisp Ale.

I’m currently scheduling the actual brew next weekend.  I was initially worried that I’d have to muck through this alone, but it turns out that not only is the internet full of resources (google: beer brewing), but my local community has numerous resources:  a restaurant that lets you brew your own beer; a local brewery with a its own brewers group that meets monthly to discuss all things brew; and, my Fraternity also has a Zymurgy committee.  With all that help at my fingertips I’m hoping my first batch isn’t a dud.

Of course, I’ll be blogging more about this as I move forward, as well as other projects I’m undertaking to shift from consumption to production.

Vermiculture, or still playing with worms

J constructs a vermilculture box thereby making him responsible for 300 odd squirmy, slimy lives…

When D and I ordered the composter a year or so ago we had some trouble with the shipper not sending the the thing out for a month or so…  After numerous emails and a few calls to Amazon’s customer support people the composter finally arrived and with it, to make up for its delay, a worm composter or vermiculture box as well.

The Vermiculture box has been sitting in the garage in its shipping box since then.  Until today.  D had a pond to make and since she would be going to Ace and working out in the yard I figured now was a good time to finally get the thing put together and going.  Worm poo is fantastic apparently and I desperately wanted in on that action!

RANDOM FACT:  Worms can eat as much as their body weight in a 24 hour period!

So while D was picking up wife a wine barrel, some fish and a papyrus plant I got some worm take-out.  Once home I opened up the box and took at look at the box…  Everything looks the same here… and I only have half the instructions…

So what we have there is a water, or worm tea, collection tray, the bottom feeder tray, three additional feeder trays, a lid, two weed filters, and coconut coir.  Oh and a spigot for draining out the worm tea.  Once I found a complete set of instructions on the manufacturer’s website it wasn’t too difficult to assembly during which I soaked the coconut coir in some water.

RANDOM FACT: Worm poo is more commonly known as worm castings and worms can eat it too!  The more they eat it they better it is for whatever plants you decide to put it on.  Also, GROSS!

Now to add the damp coconut coir, mixed with some potting soil and food.  I put in some tomatoes, apple cores, leafy greens, and some figs.  Mix it all together and then add the worms!  I forgot to take a picture of everything mixed together with worms in it so you’ll have to use your imagination.

After I filled up the first feeding tray and added the worms I put on the second feeding tray and partially filled it with soil.  This vermiculture system works by slowly having the worms eat their way up through the boxes and then pulling out the lower ones and emptying them before placing them back on the top of the stack.  I’ve got to take care not to drown, cook, freeze, starve, or acid burn the poor beasties though so I’m sure micromanaging this all will be fun…

RANDOM FACT:  Worms will eat human hair?!

Finally, with all 3 feeder in I put in the last weed filter, which keeps the worms from getting out and other things from getting in and put the lid on it and placed it by the side of the house.  Where it should stay warm without getting too much direct sunlight.  I suppose during the winter if it gets too cold I can bring it into the garage.  The bins aren’t supposed to produce any odors.

Garden meet Dog

I’ve been gone for a while…  Real life has a way of making demands on one’s spare time and during the last month I haven’t had much time for anything, even my own life.  August is over though and not only do I have time to catch my breath but to update this blog too!  Lucky you!

So what has happened over the last month or so?  Not much personally, because I haven’t had time to do anything.  I did experiment with letting our dog Jake stay out in the backyard while I was at work.  Jake usually stays in his kennel during the day but I wanted to see if we could trust him out in the yard…  turns out we can’t!  I kept him out for three days for around eight hours a day and the first two he was an angel.  That third day, not so much.  It seems Jake got bored with lying around in the yard and chewing on his toys and moved on to exploring the garden…

See those large gaps in the greenery?  That is where a zucchini, cucumber, and pepper plant used to be…  Jake also ate several tomatoes and eggplants as well.

Luckily, Jake didn’t get his mouth on everything in the garden.  I still have plenty of heirloom tomatoes and some good-looking basil.  If the weather stays mild I believe we can get another dozen or two tomatoes out of the summer garden before it has to be torn out and the winter garden put in.

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