Urban Farmer

It is now official:

My soil in the veggie and tomato beds is really and truly exceptionally poor.

I haven’t done a soil sample – that comes next – but what the plants are telling me is that the soil really needs help.  The brocolli, cauliflower and eggplant have grown very spindly and tall and the leaves have been stripped before any budding could occur.  The squash has suffered from something that has knocked it out at the root.

So, what next?

Build the soil!

Will start with a soil sample then add compost – lots of it!  Meanwhile I applied another dose of manure compost tea from Annie Haven.  The instructions that came with the tea said to apply four times per season, but I noted on my friend Chuck’s blog that he applies it once per week!

Next question then becomes, where will I get the compost?

Simple answer:  Make it myself – fresh, effective.

But how?

With the help of a compost tumbler, of course, friend Robert O’Donnell’s Do It Yourself Compost Tumbler.

This afternoon I got out the plans (an ebook downloaded to your computer for only $7), made a list of hardware and parts I needed and headed for the hardware store.

An hour later and hinges, screws, nuts, PVC and screen later the project began.  I purposely bought all the parts to see what the worst case price would be.  So far I’m up to a whopping $35, including the barrel!

About two hours later (part of which was making the video) and here’s the barrel with the door cut out with hinges and handle on:

Compost Tumbler Phase 1

There will be a video, hopefully, available at the end.

Till next time,

See you in the garden!

Jon

More days of lots of heat and humidity here in St. Louis.

The herb garden has taken off, at least those that are doing well.  Those that are over stressed are just kind of hanging in.

Here’s what it looks like, though the sun is a bit bright:

Herb Garden 8-22-10, East view

The veggies are not doing really great, except for the squash.  Actually got my first Winter Squash a few days ago!  There are lots more coming, also.  However, one of the squash plants has been hit by the worm that eats it at the root:

Squash Bed 8-22-10

The rest of the brocolli, pepper and eggplant plants are rather spindly and “moth-eaten”.

Squash Bed 8-22-10

The tomatoes are getting bushy and having some blossoms but not much else yet.  The foliage is weighing down the strings holding it up.  Need to bolster the stakes used to support the fences.

Tomato Bed 8-22-10

Actually I’m OK with that.  This year the intent was just to get the project going.

The results so far point out what I have known all along – the soil needs a LOT of building.  It was not even good grass when I started and there was no chance to put a lot of amendments into it.  We’ll take what we can get and spend a LOT of time and effort adding compost and nutrients over the winter.

Speaking of compost, the compost tumbler project has begun!

I went on Craigslist, plugged in plastic barrels and had several possibilities pop up.  Left messages and followed up with the first one who answered.

$10 got traded for the beginning of a MUCH better garden:

Compost Tumbler 8-22-10

Until next week,

See you in the garden!

Jon

The St Louis weather, like much of the rest of the country, continues to be VERY hot and VERY humid.  I watered the garden a couple of mornings ago but then we were blessed with some quick but quite plentiful showers the last couple of days.  Seems it has been enough to really keep things growing.

Here are the current pictures.

Herb Garden 8-12-10, West

Those that are deciding to do well have started to flourish.  The others, I think, have decided to give up the ghost!

Herb Garden 8-12-10, East

Here is the Herb Garden looking East.  You can see the mandala lying in the right foreground.

The mandalas are laminated but allow some water in, running the ink.  That upsets the geometry of the pattern which I am sure renders the energy effect useless.  Need to find a way to make a waterproof version.

The vegetable beds are taking off.  The tomato support strings need to be tightened and “beefed up” due to the heavy weight.  The one variety that was looking poorly is much improved.  Perhaps the compost tea is beginning to show some effect?

Tomato Bed 8-12-10

The blossoms are beginning to come as well.  In spite of the late planting the plants are doing will.

Squash Bed 8-12-10

Here’s a close-up of the squash blooms:

Squash Buds 8-12-10

Here is a close-up of the mandala in the squash bed. This one has kept an intact pattern.

Squash bed Mandala 8-12-10

It is becoming pretty obvious that a huge project/need for next year is to get some compost into the soil to build up its health.  One major problem with compost, however, is the logistics of how to make it.

One solution commonly applied is to use a barrel which can be turned, allowing the entry of air to aid in its “cooking” and to provide an easy way to contain it.  The problem is, most of these are quite expensive.

It turns out one of the readers of my blog has designed a similar device which can be made easily by materials found locally.  He has also added an improved means for both ventilating and breaking up the ingredients.  Both actions will make the compost “cook” more quickly and effectively.

Here is what the DoItYourself Compost Tumbler looks like:

Homemade Compost Tumbler

You can get the plans from the website here.

Thanks, Bob, for figuring out how to do this and for spending the time writing the manual, shooting the great photos and doing the technical stuff to make it available for the rest of us!

This will be my fall/winter project, for sure!

See you in the garden!

Jon

Since last week we have had near record temperatures and humidity – still.  It has been an unusually hot summer so far.

We got some rain Friday overnight and a couple of days thereafter with temperatures in the low 90′s.  That was enough water, with the mulch in place, to keep the beds moist even with the subsequent hotter and more humid days that followed.

Here are the updated photos for the herb garden:

Herb Bed 8-4-10 West

Herb Bed 8-4-10, East

These photos, and the ones below, were taken near nightfall so I used the flash.  Doesn’t give great depth of field.  You can tell they are kind of just holding their own right now.  The compost tea applied last week certainly hasn’t hurt, however.

Here are the veggie bed photos:

Tomato bed, 8-4-10

Squash and Brocolli

The tomatoes as you can almost see are mostly doing well and outgrowing their supporting strings.  Need to add some higher support.  The first row closest to you is the row that had the yellow leaves and is not doing so well.  That variety I’ll avoid next year; it just has not taken off like the others.

The squash is outgrowing its fence, coming right through and onto the lawn!  The brocolli is getting big as well.  Expect to see some fruit budding soon.  The tomatoes are beginning to blossom as well.

Although little or no activity by me has been done on the outside this week, I read Don Elwood’s book on using Pyramids in the garden.

This is a bit of a hard read since Mr. Elwood is a NASA scientist and writes like one.  However, what he has to say is great stuff.  More than just pyramids, he really talks about a variety of subtle energies including color, water, sound, pyramids, crystals, reiki, prayer and others I am forgetting.

It got my mind to racing and thinking and I’ll have to start experimenting and applying some of the principles he points out.  Turns out the more “primitive” cultures were into many of these things.  Native Americans, for example, used the “tepee” (pyramid) over beans, and corn that was prayed over – their medicine men were Reiki masters.  Their results still are far better than those obtained by all the newest and best chemical fertilizers and genetically modified strains.  Who is surprised??

Enough for now.  Rethinking the water fountain location.  More about that next time, and hopefully there will be some progress made in that direction.

See you in the garden!

Jon

Wow! This week has been REALLY hot and humid!

I mean, REALLY.  Was out mowing with son Philip on Friday and Saturday and just about went into heat exhaustion on Friday.  Was smarter and took better care of myself on Saturday, but this kind of weather is really exhausting.

So how is the garden faring?

Actually, pretty well, thank you.

The brocolli is growing.  The squash is spreading out.  The tomatoes are getting tall.  The cauliflower and cabbage are a little slower but coming along.  The tomatoes that were getting some yellow leaves have had a couple more, but not drastically so.  Fortunately, in the middle of all the heat and humidity, we had some decent rain which was perfect for the plants.

The herb garden has also done pretty well.  One of the dill plants has succumbed.  Two were in one starter pot and when planting them I separated them.  In hindsight that was probably a bit too stressful and they never really quite recovered.  The borage, a survivor from my first fertilizer fiasco, also finally gave up part of its ghost.  What remains is doing OK but it is a lot less of a plant than it had been.

Regardless, the beds need fertilizer and that brings us to the exciting part!

I got my compost tea bags from Haven Brand (see last week’s post) only two or three days after I ordered them!

Their compost tea comes from either cow manure, horse manure or alfalfa which you can get separately or in combination.  They send you a “tea bag” which you then brew.

I got the combination.  The horse and cow varieties are for veggies and garden plants, flowers or grass.  The alfalfa is specifically for roses.  Since we have a bunch of those (one is in the center of the herb garden) I had to get that, too.  So the combination was a no-brainer choice.

I put the tea bags in the 5 gallon bucket of water on Saturday and let it brew for the prescribed three days.  Then tonight I dipped from that bucket this wonderful, deep rich brown nectar, diluted it in a pitcher and poured it on the plants.  Can’t wait to see the improvement!  (I have this sense that my soil is really lacking.  Should do a soil analysis and will before next spring but needed just to get the whole project going this year.)

I’ll also put some more mulch on the beds this week; will help keep the water in with all this heat.

With all the heat and extra mowing, the other projects have been on hold.  Haven’t spent any more time on the pyramid array book.  Haven’t been up to working on the fountain, either.

Here is the link, though, for the mandala, as promised:

http://www.crystalawareness.com/mandala-charger/index.html

There are lots of other ways listed on that page to use a mandala.  Be sure to come up with your own as well!  (And let me know).

Next week I want to talk about a compost maker one of my readers has designed.  Really neat – you’ll love it.

See you in the garden!

Jon

This week saw more spectacular growth in the tomato and vegetable beds in the backyard garden.  Pruned again the tomatoes and added more string up higher.  One variety of tomatoes is really growing tall; the others are more “conservative” in their approach to expanding their height (in other words, they are staying shorter).

One variety of tomato is also getting yellow on some of its leaves.  This prompted a big search on the internet for the reason why.  Guess what I discovered?  Nobody really knows why!

The options included: deficiencies of magnesium or calcium or iron and all kinds of various pests such as worms, viruses, and blight.

Here’s what I took home from this:  rather than trying to figure out exactly what one thing is the problem, find a broad solution that covers all the problems.

(This is exactly how I approach medical problems as well.)

For the ground/garden, the fix-all solution is (are you ready?) – COMPOST!

I tried the natural fertilizer and we saw how that worked out – too hot, too concentrated the way I did it.

So this time I took the suggestion and followed the link from my friend Chuck: Haven Brand Compost Tea.  On Sunday ordered their assortment pack that includes Cow Manure, Horse Manure and Alfalfa that comes in tea bags.  You let brew for 3 days in 1-5 gallons of water then apply up to 4 times per season.  You get 3 bags, either of each type or one of each, for $12.95.  This is unbelievable!

And on Monday I had an email response that the tea bags were on their way.  Amazing customer service!

Can’t wait to see how the tea works.  I’ll let you know in future postings.

Besides the compost tea, I decided it was also time to explore the use of subtle energies in the garden beds.

First I took a mandala and used my pendulum to test its most effective spot in each bed and in the herb garden.  Then I placed the mandala on the site where it was tested to be.  Will see what happens.  (A mandala is an energy antenna.  I’ll find the link from where I got mine and share it next time.)

I also did a search and found Don Elwood and his work on subtle energy.  Bought his book on phased pyramid arrays in the garden and am working my way through it.  Expect to build some pyramids in the near future and watch to see what happens.

This is exciting stuff and harkens back to my days on the organic farm in Virginia.

Enough for now.  That will keep me chewing for a while.

See you in the garden!

Jon

Since last time I wrote, I pruned the tomatoes and they took off.
Over the weekend, as part of some other projects around the backyard, I took two fence gates that I have collected over the last little while (from part-time landscaping/fencing jobs) and stood them at each end of the tomato bed.  Used tomato stakes down through the chain link to hold them up.  Then ran string through the chain link at the appropriate places and heights to get the same effect as Chuck’s “Florida weave” (see his DVD on growing tomatoes).  Here is a picture:

Tomato Bed with String for Support

 You can just see a corner of one of the gates. I need a wider shot picture to show you how the gates work.  Try this:

Tomato Bed, 7-14-10

That should give you a much better look at how it works.  Looks kind of cool, too.

With some decent rain and hot weather, the other vegetable bed is also starting to take off.  Eggplant, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, squash all showing signs of early production.

Vegetable Bed 7-14-10

Meanwhile, back at the herb garden,
One of my weekend projects was to chip up some brush collected from my own clippings and from helping a friend take down a tree.

The chipper I have makes some really nice mulch and that mulch I put on the herb garden.  Looks really nice, if I do say so myself:

Herb Garden, 7-14-10, West

Herb Garden, 7-14-10, East

A couple of comments offered the education I so sorely need.   One suggested I peruse manureteas.com, the other offered a source for a manure tea that is ready to go.  I’ll be checking into both and not trying to reinvent the wheel when it comes to feeding my plant.  At the same time I want a quality, organic way to do it.

I also this week checked into some options for the bubbly fountain.  Stopped at a “pond store” and looked at some of the options, got some ideas.  Meanwhile, had another idea for where to put the pond/fountain that I may actually like better.  So that project is still in the ponder stage, even though some digging has started.

Trust your garden projects are doing well also.  Until next time,

See you in the garden!

Jon

(Wrote this 6/29 but due to some technical difficulties wouldn’t post till 7/4. Thanks to my host, Mark Hultgren, at MKW-ind.com for helping with the fix!)

Since last week we’ve had some really hot weather and some rain over the weekend; makes for great growing weather.

In the vegetable garden we added a fence to keep out the varmint dogs (our pets).  I also received the DVD from my friend Chuck on Growing Tomatoes (on sidebar) and watched.  Got some great ideas, particularly with regard to pruning and tying up.  He prunes quite severely, especially early, to force solid root growth for the end result of increased fruit instead of foliage.  There’s got to be a grander lesson in that.

He also does what is called the Florida weave as a tie up method.  Very practical and handy.  Plan to incorporate that idea into the garden bed.

So tonight I pruned my tomato plants as he teaches; we’ll see how it works out.

Next, I am resurrecting the herb garden.

Over the weekend I dug out the criss-cross path a couple of inches deep and put in gravel salvaged from a landscaping job.  The dirt from the paths was added to the planting areas.  Here’s a picture, sorry the shadows make it a bit hard to see:

Resurrecting the Herb Garden

I really like the look of the path setting off the planting beds; this is what I had planned originally and hadn’t been able to do as yet.

This evening I went by the nursery and got replacement plants for most of what died from the original planting.  When I got home I spent some time replanting according to the original design.

There was one exception.  While at the nursery my eye fell on a Lobelia plant which I purchased.  I added that to the herb garden in quadrant III.  Will plan to make a tincture at harvest; lobelia is great for lung problems.

Here are the update pictures of the resurrected herb garden:

Starting over in the Herb Garden

Starting over in the Herb Garden

Now I need to add some mulch and go really easy on the fertilizer!

See you in the garden!

Jon

After last week’s fiasco with burning up the herb garden, I spent some time this weekend doing damage control.  Took up the mulch and will put some more dirt in and stir it all up to dilute the fertilizer.

Checked on availablility of herbs to replace the burnt ones and they are still out there, so hopefully this weekend we’ll get some replacements and resurrect the nearly dead (agonal!) herb garden.

Good news is, the soil under the mulch was nice and damp.  It was doing its job!

While at it, took the time to do a good weeding job as well.

Here’s what it looks like tonight:

Spent more time on the vegetable garden.  After getting all the plants last week, they needed to be put into the ground.

Early last week I dug up one garden bed, about 4′ x 8′ and added some dirt to make a nice mound.  Put in tomatoes as I noted in last week’s blog.

This weekend I dug up a second bed the same size, aligning them along the fence line with room to walk between them and the fence, and room to get between them where they meet in the corner.

Went searching for a companion planting chart and found a nice one at GardensAblaze.org.  Put brocolli, cabbage, cauliflower and onions in the tomato bed. 

Put squash in the second bed on one end and filled up the other end with the left over plants.

Placed some salvaged landscape timbers around the edges just to mark out the borders.

Here are the pictures:

Has been really hot here the last few days and scheduled for more of the same this week.  Will try to get some mulch on these beds this week.

Had some bad news in the garden this week.  The redbud tree in the center I was trimming and planning to make a central shade-producing feature got blown over!  Turned out it didn’t have a stable root structure and a quick, brisk wind storm toppled it.  Cut it out and will turn it into mulch.

Until next week, will see you in the garden!

Jon

P.S. Be sure to check out my other blogs listed on the sidebar!

Bad News in the Backyard!

Last week I applied some homemade manure tea to the herb garden.

Woops – was way too hot and I burned up almost everything.  The Borage, Chives, Parsley and Oregano survived – the rest of the herbs are no longer with me!  Never imagined a low nitrogen, organic fertilizer made of manure and similar would be so potent.  But it was.

Bad news is I screwed up my herb garden.  Good news is never again will I worry about low potency, slow releasing organic fertilizer not working!

Besides the herb garden, a couple other things are going on in the backyard.

First, the day lilies are blooming.  Thought all I had was the standard small-bloomed orange variety.  However, it turns out I have a larger maroon colored bloom and a lighter reddish bloom as well.  They are really pretty and a pleasant surprise.  Here are some pictures.

Yellow, small

Maroon, large

Red, large

Second, my wife and I went off for the weekend to celebrate our 34th wedding anniversary.  We were in a farming community (almost anything outside of metro St Louis is farming) and stopped at a local grocery.  They were unloading some plants at almost give-away prices so I spent $10.  Thought I would get about 20 plants but I got 20 packs of 4!

Came home and started on the raised beds so I could get them in the ground.  Got one bed scuffed up and put some dirt in from the old garden area which I want to level out and where I want to make my labyrinth.  Monday I then planted 16 tomato plants, 4 each of 4 varieties.  Got to make another bed for the rest of the plants.  Also plan to pack more into the tomato bed to do some “ecological gardening.”

And while I was planting them, with the ignominy of not knowing how to make manure tea fresh in my mind, I decided to get an education about tomato growing – even though I’ve grown them before.

So I came in and ordered my friend Chuck’s DVD on Growing Tomatoes featured on the sidebar to the right.

Don’t plan to be stupid twice in a row!

Third, the pool/fountain project is on hold until the vegetable beds get going.  It’s getting late and time to get some plants in.  While we were gone, though, we stopped to see some friends who happen to have a pond/waterfall and I asked how they put theirs together.  So I got some more ideas for when that project gets going again.

See you in the garden!

Jon