Megan's Container Herb Garden - Sowing the Seeds

I have to be honest - this year I thought we were going to have to forgo the garden altogether because I've got a baby coming in two weeks and then we are moving in mid-June. I have been so bummed because we found ourselves in EXACTLY the same situation last year - this last year has been crazy! But I just couldn't stand it...the buds coming out on the trees, the state of the economy, my nesting instinct - they were all screaming to get my hands in the dirt and sow something! So, I decided I'd try a container garden with the hope that I can take it along to wherever we end up.

This isn't my first time trying a container garden - but hopefully it will be my most successful attempt. I have tried to grow things in pots before but always found that I was over or under watering, burning my plants, or just forgetting about them. Having your plants in the real ground affords a little more complacency than a pot. But I'm determined to make it work this year - with all of you as my witnesses!

Every spring I pour over my seed catalog and dream of what I will plant and even though I knew we weren't going to have a garden - this year was no different. So a few days ago when I decided to try growing my little garden in pots I knew I needed to resist the urge to have an elaborate array of heirlooms and instead keep it simple. We went with an Italian herb garden with Basil, Rosemary, Oregano & Sage. I bought one of those seed starting kits at the store to keep it simple and sowed every single one. I promised my 7 year old he could sell the extra ready to plant herbs in the parking lot of the local grocery store.

So we no have 72 little pellets of peat holding our herb seeds - 12 of each type. Since I decided slightly last minute to do this, I did not put together one of the ingenious seed starting shelves and instead am opting for a southern facing window with a bench placed in front of it.

My kids are ecstatic and I feel much more at peace. And if all goes according to plan, midsummer we should be up to our elbows in homemade tasty pesto! I'll keep you posted!
Megan

Surprise....Carrots!

Michael and I have started preparing our garden plot, in doing so, we turned some of the soil and added some compost. To our surprise we had a small crop of carrots that didn't get harvested last year.

They may be small and stubby, but they are still delicious!

Pruning

It's pruning time, especially here in Utah with the warmer air and as trees, shrubs and flowers are all preparing to bloom. We are learning a lot in my arboriculture class about good pruning techniques and the more I learn and practice the more I realize it's pretty much common sense with a little bit of an eye for art/ balance and some basic technique. I will just share a bit of the things I've learned that you can use in your own yard or helping out a neighbor who needs some help.

1. For everything you prune, the first thing you need to do is to set a "goal" for the tree.

Where do you want it to grow? What do you want it to look like today when you are done? Next year? How much fruit/ cleanup do you want from it? etc.

2. Assess potential problems: Are there power lines above the tree that it could grow into soon? Is the tree touching any power lines currently? (If so get professional help, some trees that hold lots of water are great electrical conductors and could give you a nice shock!) Is it headed towards a fence/ house/ roof/ too close to a sidewalk, etc.? Are there crossing limbs/ branches?

3. These factors will determine what you do with your pruning, so once you have assessed the situation.... go for it! Start making some cuts... but remember some important things..

4. Trees don't heal... they seal. You will often see the results of poor pruning when a tree struggles to seal off an improper cut. The desire is a perfect circle exposure. The more oval shaped the cut, the more surface area, and therefore the more energy required to seal the wound. So when you make your cuts, angle your loppers, saw, etc. so that the blades are perpendicular to the stem or branch. If you see a donut shape overcoming your cut in the next year or two... nicely done! You have made a quality cut.

5. Keep your cuts close to a lateral. There is what is called a bark branch ridge on every new branch. Your cuts need to be just outside of the ridge and as close as possible. A tree is full of starches (energy) to keep the tree growing. When you make a cut, all of the energy that was being sent to the cut branch now can be used elsewhere! If you leave a long stub, the starch will continue to shoot down the stub and it will be wasted. If the cut is close to the lateral branch, it will thrive and receive the extra energy you want it to gain.

6. Step back after 5-10 cuttings. It's really easy to get excited and make lots of cuts, but if you don't step back and see the big picture, you may be stuck with a gaping hole or unbalanced tree. So be patient and take a few steps back and look at the tree from all angles. If you are unsure about a cut, have someone watch the tree and shake what you will be cutting. They can tell you what it will do to the overall appearance of the tree.

7. Keep moving. Don't get stuck in one spot. Keep moving around and taking cuts from all sides of the tree and it will quickly thin out.

8. If you need it to grow a certain direction, cut just above a bud facing the direction you would like it to grow. The burst of energy will force the bud to shoot.

9. If it's too tall, use the rule of 3rds. Although many of us were fans of the flat top back in the 90's, it's not a good look for a tree. Pull back 1/3 of the taller limbs 1/3 of the way. Another 1/3 pull back 2/3 and the last 1/3 you can remove.

10. Every tree is a bit different. You have a different goal for each tree and they will each respond according to your actions. Keep fruit trees, for example, open in the middle, they like to branch out with an open center.

Tree care is a long term, low intensity process. Be patient and be smart about your pruning. Quality pruning will give you a well balanced and quality tree or shrub, and maybe you'll enjoy it now, maybe next year!

Broilers at Two Weeks

Rites of Spring

Several events signal Spring is here. Crocuses, the first flower of Spring dot our landscape. Our Spring crops are planted. Our broilers have arrived. Each year we grow 40-50 broilers for our Sunday dinners. We roast them or rotisserie them, but first we have to raise them. It is exciting to get the call from the Extension office to come and pick them up. We raise them as a 4-H project for our children. We brood them in a box with wood shavings for bedding. We then move them into the chicken coop for a couple of weeks and then out to the pasture pens. We feed them out to heavy weights; 7-10 pound carcass weight. We have a big family to feed. We hope that 45 survive. Broilers are not very hardy. I don’t suggest broilers for small back yard farms. They are not worth the effort to grow just a few. Stick with layers which are easier to keep and a lot more economical. (See my other articles on chickens.)

Crocuses, the first flower of spring.

The spring crops are planted. The compost pile in the middle of the garden is for summer crops.

The broiler chicks are here!

Seed-starting rack update

When my husband built me a seed-starting rack, we encountered doubting questions about our use of standard fluorescent bulbs. We did not, after all, use "grow lights" marketed specifically for starting seeds, but sold at a higher price than regular tubes. We decided this after reading several state extension service articles promoting the use of standard fluorescent bulbs for this purpose.

Blah, blah, blah. How about some voila instead?



These are salvia seedlings a week after I planted them. They sprouted after four days, which was awesome because the package said it would take at least 14. I also have black-eyed Susan and verbena flower seedlings so far from this same time period.

As further proof of the lights' effectiveness, the thought-for-dead houseplants I moved under the fluroescent rays are now putting out new growth. The lights work! With the flowers making a successful test run, it's now on to tomatoes and peppers and other great veggies.

This is my first year with lights, but I've done seeds for years next to windows. I enourage you to try seeds, no matter your set-up. Click here for tips.

What seeds have some of you already started indoors this season?

Jennifer

Backyard Farming Disasters – Pumpkin Apocalypse

NOTE: This is another in my series of articles on backyard farming disasters. When a friend read it, he said that some people will take issue with my actions. After considering this, I decide to go ahead and share it with you anyway. In the context that we use fauna for our purposes, I consider myself a pragmatic animal welfare advocate. For example, I am critical of industrial layers houses which I consider cruel – see my article Liberate the Layers – but I accept industrial broiler houses which I feel are reasonably humane. I have been in both. I think we need discussion to moderate the extreme viewpoints on both sides of the animal welfare debate. I much prefer the phrase “animal welfare” to “animal rights.” Judge for yourself my actions below.
We decided to get into pumpkin production. The first year was great. We grew about a quarter acre. The pumpkins were beautiful and they sold quickly out of the pickup bed following soccer practices. They second year promised to be just as successful. But in mid October we didn’t check the patch for about a week. When we finally went down to start harvesting for the Halloween market, we found half eaten pumpkins and deep tooth marks and gashes on all the others that were still intact. Hardly one was spared. We soon discovered the culprits, a family of groundhogs. There was hole right in the middle of the patch and several around the periphery. As we were assessing the damage, a ground hog came out of the hole and our Labrador retriever “Cinder” drew first blood. She is normally very docile & lovable but when she saw that ground hog she went after it with a vengeance like she sensed our emotions. It was a real fight for a couple of minutes before Cinder prevailed with us cheering her on. It was Herbert Spencer’s “survival of the fittest” in action. We then hooked up our irrigation system - a pump and a 2 inch hose delivering 50 gallons of water per minute out of the creek. We shoved the hose down the ground hog holes and flushed the rest of the family out in seconds and dispatched them quickly. It was very aggravating to see a whole year’s crop of pumpkins worth $500 for the kid’s hard work destroyed. Ground hogs present another more serious hazard. Their deep holes in horse pastures sometimes go unnoticed. When a horse runs across the pasture and plants a hoof in the hole, the leg snaps requiring that the horse be euthanized. If a horse has a rider, they can be thrown and seriously hurt. It is usually not practicable to trap and relocate groundhogs like it is a black snake out of a chicken coop. In my area, groundhogs thrive in natural habitats – and there are plenty of both to perpetuate the species.

Dale Johnson