Off-site gardening: Factors to consider before starting roots away from home

Joining a community garden or using extra space in a friend's yard is a great way to grow crops when you don't have room at your own home. You may also know a business or school willing to loan you an area for the summer. Another option is to do as reader Dave Bentz did and purchase vacant lots in his city to convert to gardens. 

I have done three different gardens away from home: a community garden plot offered to university students; part of my husband's grandma's yard, which we shared with his brother; and, most recently, a section next to our friend's cow pasture in our town. My kids called this the "cow garden". We lived in an apartment for the first two gardens, but raised a home garden at the same time we had space near the cow pasture. 

No matter what kind of off-site garden you pursue, maximize the experience by considering these factors:

1. Time. 

This is the single most important factor. Be realistic with how much time you can devote. Include travel time. We dedicated Mondays to take our children to the cow garden and work together. Without a scheduled commitment it is far too easy to say, "Eh, we'll just get to the garden later." Such was the case with our first off-site garden, the university one. Although I was super excited for the plot, the garden fell by the wayside behind our busy jobs and school, fatigue from my first pregnancy and the fact we had only one car. The garden was too far for me to walk when my husband used the vehicle on his job. Excuses, excuses. 

2. Location. 

Go close! If that's not feasible, find a spot that you pass during your regular commutes and routines so you can keep an eye on the garden beyond your scheduled days to work there. Use the same criteria as you would siting a home garden: Does it get adequate light? Fences, trees or other structures that cast shade should be north of a garden area. Afternoon sun (from the west) is harsher than morning light.

3. Space.

There is a space/time relationship just like there is a location/time connection. The bigger the space, the more time it will require to set up and maintain. If you are using a space larger than your home garden you may need to expand your thinking, too. For example, our first summer at the cow garden we planted veggies as close together as we do at home in their grow boxes. If we had known how ferocious the weeds would become, we would have allowed space between plants for a rototiller. 

4. Water. 

Does the plot have access to water? This is a must in dry climates. Will you pay for water? Is it a sprinkler system, hoses or both? If it is sprinklers, do you have a contact person readily available if something goes wrong with the pipes? (Another reason to check your garden regularly.) One of the biggest contrasts between my home garden and the off-site cow garden (raised simultaneously) was in the watering method. At home I use soaker hoses, drip lines or water plants by hand with a watering can. I seldom get weeds because the ground between plants is not watered. The cow garden's shooting sprinklers, however, watered EVERYTHING. The weeds went wild. The cow garden automatic sprinklers were high on stakes. This overhead water delivery, and the frequency of it, caused more powdery mildew and fungus problems in foliage than I ever had at home. Squash and tomato plants did not fare well, and the tomato skins frequently split.

5. Soil. 

Will it need extensive improvements? If the area has not been used for recent plantings, find out what was there in the past -- old leaky cars could suggest chemical leaching.  It may be worth your while to do a soil test first. At the cow garden, in spring our friend cleaned his barn and spread the manure into the plots. Since the cows had been feasting on weeds, those seeds simply got relocated. The weeds were bionic. 

6. Sharing.  

If you share the space with someone else discuss the division of duties at the beginning of the season. Maybe you work together to till the soil in the whole area and join forces again in fall to clean up. How will you set up traffic areas so that no one's plantings are trampled? Be courteous when planting your crops, remembering that tall ones, like corn, can cast shade or block sprinklers. Pumpkins, squashes and other vine crops will amble well past their boundaries. (There's a reason my kids called it the cow garden!)

Yum, banana squash. Moo.

7. Equipment.

Are tools, hoses and other implements on the property or will you need to bring your own each time you come to your garden? Consider keeping gloves, a spade and a harvest bucket in your trunk so you are ready for impromptu visits.

8. Commitment for the season.

Are you relatively certain the property where you garden won't change hands before the growing season ends? I appreciate that our cow garden friends didn't open up their property for gardening last spring, on the off chance they would need to sell. They didn't want someone to go to all that work without the harvest.

So there you have it. Off-site gardens can supplement your own backyard farm or give opportunities to people who have no space otherwise. I fear my disdain for the cow garden weeds and watering issues came through loud and clear in this post! Still, I am grateful for these new gardening lessons, and to have extra space to produce a harvest like the one above, all picked on a beautiful September morning.


Check out this site for a weekly roundup of ideas from fellow homesteaders.

Our favorite online seed-starting calculators and tools

Successful backyard farmers know that plants have different cold temperature hardiness and heat tolerances, and that the "plant the veggie patch in one day" approach of so many home gardeners doesn't yield as large and robust a harvest as staggering sowings throughout the growing season.

The back side of seed packets is full of information, yes, but there's an easier way! Thanks to online interactive tools, mapping out when to start seeds indoors and when to transfer seedlings outside has never been so fun. These calculators use decades of horticultural study and weather data to personalize your planting calendar. Here are some of our favorite online tools.

The first order of business is to establish the last frost date in your area. Undoubtedly the best resource is a sage gardening neighbor who knows all about the microclimates and quirks of your hood. Lacking a neighbor almanac, the website Dave's Garden (click here) will provide frost information when you enter your ZIP code. 

Logo and materials from johnnyseeds.com used with permission.

Armed with your last frost date, you can now access the fantastic calculators at Johnny's Seeds. This is a screen shot that shows the results for my last frost date of May 15. The table lists crop name, a range of when to start indoors, and when I can plant outside. On the full webpage you will see a note attached to the asterisks (*): Usually direct-sown, but may be started indoors. The table continues far beyond the crops in this view, with flower listings as well.

Click web address by image to go to the site and generate your own table:

http://www.johnnyseeds.com/e-pdgseedstart.aspx?source=W_InteractiveTools_122014

Johnny's also as a feature to determine how many seeds or plants you need to fill your space. You enter crop and row length. Click here for seed-spacing calculator.



If you want to hone your garden planning process even further, check out Johnny's tools for succession planting and target harvest date. Both are available here. The latter would be especially helpful, say, if you desire to finish canning tomatoes before a scheduled trip. (Definition of travel: the thing I hear other people get to do!) These calculators open as Excel spread sheets.

What are your favorite seed-planning strategies?

I wish all of you happy planting, indoors and out. Isn't spring glorious? Here's a parting shot of the first bloom from my soil-less indoor tulip project. See, they will grow!

Scheduling backyard farming projects

Hello, everyone! I hope this last month has felt more productive for you than it has for me. Talk about settling down for a long winter's nap!

I started the new year with grand aspirations of how I was going to be better (diet, exercise, sleep, finances -- you know the drill), but it was too many goals all at once, and my will broke like a tree branch after heavy snow.

I know I do better when I pace myself and identify specific goals for a month at a time. I decided to do this same approach with backyard farming projects. There are many things I'd like to learn about this year -- such as bee-keeping, espalier trees and cold frames -- so I will plan now when to study them. I will also schedule specific projects instead of saying, "Oh, I'll get to them someday." Here on the blog I will share with you what I have studied and present my projects. Perhaps that's my biggest reason of all, to have this kind of accountability. Some of the goals, such as the one I have in November to feature homegrown food at the Thanksgiving table, will inform the choices I make earlier in the year.

Here are my backyard farming goals for the rest of the year, above and beyond the usual projects of tilling and planting the garden:

February 
1. Decrease food spending and food waste through better meal planning. Evaluate all of January's food expenditures (including eating out) for a comparison.
2. Learn about bees in my area, including if city permit is required.
3. Determine planting schedule and quantities for upcoming garden. Remember Thanksgiving dinner goal.

You may wonder how I count food spending as a backyard farming project. Simple. My garden endgame is to provide food for my family. Thus, I hope that patterns of efficient meal planning and avoiding waste will carry over into the months of fresh harvest. Maybe I can even sock away money saved on winter food costs to invest in fruit trees or other plants.

March
1. Actually set-up indoor seed-starting rack this year! Start veggies from seed.
2. Rejuvenate strawberry patch by digging out plants, culling the strong ones and replacing in improved soil.
3. Learn about espalier methods for fruit trees.

April
1. Install soaker hoses around raspberries. (I've meant to do this for a decade!)
2. Prune/remove trees, particularly those that infringe on garden areas.
3. Learn about rain collection methods.

May
1. Make parking strip (land between sidewalk and street) into a garden area.
2. Start more grape vines from cuttings.

June
1. Learn about increasing tomato yields through pruning.
2. Design and implement a more workable compost area.

July
1. Study food dehydrators and drying methods.

August
1. Learn about a worm bin.

September
1. Do not let produce go to waste. Process the day it is harvested, or give to a neighbor right away.

October
1. Find a better place in my home to grow herbs indoors.
2. Create a better spot for longterm storage of squashes.

November
1. Make something for Thanksgiving dinner that came from the garden.
2. Make infused vinegars with herbs.

December
1. Learn about, and build, cold frames.


I would love to learn of your 2016 garden projects, or what resources you've found valuable for my areas of study this year. Let's all teach each other how to make this year a fantastic one.

Storing bulbs for next season

If you happen to come across spring bulbs as you dig in your garden this summer, don't discard them in defeat. Instead, selectively set aside those in good shape to plant in the fall.

Tulips and daffodils are among my favorite flowers and I love them in profusion. Yet I don't worship the ground they bloom on; once they're done, I need the space for something else. In some areas of my yard I've mixed early bulbs with perennials that emerge later in the season. I also plant annuals after bulb flowers die back. In these cases I just leave the bulbs in the ground all year.

But face it, landscapes change so much in the season that it's hard to remember exactly where a bulb may lie. My shovel inevitably finds a few!

Here's the most important tip of bulb storage: Only save healthy, whole ones. See my picture? Split happens. Don't save such a bulb. You know how you can save a whole onion for weeks and weeks, but once you slice it it spoils quickly? It's the same idea with bulbs. Cut surfaces invite mold and rot.

If your dug-up bulb has foliage, keep it on until it fades from green to brown. (Confession time: while I know that bulbs derive nourishment for next year's bloom from this year's leaves, I'm not positive if they get the exact same benefit once removed from the ground. It's easier, though, to detach the bulb for storage once you let the foliage die out. No matter what, they can bloom again, I promise.) Besides, if you accidentally dug them up what do you have to lose?

Remove excess mud or dirt from roots, then spread bulbs out to dry (they will have some moisture from being in the ground). A nursery flat is ideal for this. Let any foliage go brown. You can ignore them for a while, then eventually pack the bulbs in a paper sack, separating out any that are blemished. I haven't been too fussy about where I store them -- basement, shed -- it hasn't seemed to matter much. Probably more important (at least for me) is making myself a note on the calendar where I put them!

You may wonder, what do bulbs have to do with running a backyard farm? I have had great success for several years with bulbs as place-keepers in my vegetable garden boxes. When I pull out tomatoes at the end of fall I plant the garden box with bulbs. They brighten my days when they bloom in the spring, and also take the space away from opportunistic weeds. Once the flowers fade I pull each stem and bulb from the ground; when the ground is just right I don't have to use tools for this, just my hands. The tenancy and removal of tulips seems to aerate the soil, too.  In a matter of weeks my box goes from this:

to this:

I'll revisit this topic in the fall with other tips for planting bulbs. Oh, better put it on the calendar!

PVC Drip System Update

This has been a a really good year in the garden so far. We have had some battles with squash bugs that I will blog about in the near future. Other than that, everything seems to be producing.

In a previous article I contemplated setting up a pvc drip system. I actually went through with it and have been very pleased. I wanted a more efficient way of watering the garden that used less water. Most of my information for setting up the system came from my go to website for garden help, the Utah State University extension. This article was my main source of inspiration, and the process is pretty easy to figure out. Here is a picture of the garden in its glory with the pvc pipe running down each row. I have shutoff valves every three rows so I can divert water to specific rows in order to improve water pressure, or to water specific plants.

The drip system seems to work very well. The pipe are hooked right into my hose and I manually turn it on when I want to water.  This system seems to be very efficient. Utah has had one of the hottest summers I remember. Even with the heat, this past month I have only watered each row once a week for 20 minutes and our plants are green and producing well. This system has also cut down on weeds as only specific areas are watered 

As I talk to gardeners in our area, it seems that it is a good year for gardening. How are your backyard farms doing. Let us know in the comments.

~Michael~

Planting Schedule By Zone

Veggieharvest.com has a good graph that lets you know when to start your seeds, transplant to your garden, and then harvest.

Find your hardiness zone here by typing in your zip code.
Choose your zone from the list here to find your planting calendar.

We are a zone 6-7 so here is our calendar. Make sure to keep track of when you start each step in your garden journal so you can develop your own specific schedule.

 

~Michael~

No Dig Gardening

I grew up on a potato farm and remember riding in the tractor with my father as he tilled the earth. The smell of freshly plowed dirt still takes me back to my youth. I also gardened with my parents as a child and all of my life we would add compost to our garden and till it in.

A few years ago I started researching no till/no dig methods of gardening and it intrigued me. I thought about the beautiful forests here in the Wasatch mountains and the fact that they never needed to be tilled to get new growth. The no till method seemed natural to me, and my back liked the idea of not having to till or dig up the earth. I started a no till portion of our garden and it has worked really well.

The main feature of the no dig method is found in it's title. The earth is not tilled or dug. Manure, compost, straw, and other organic materials are added directly to the surface. Proponents of the no dig method argue that digging can displace nutrients and compact the soil, harm beneficial microbes and life in the soil, and bring weed seeds to the surface causing more weeds to exist. As always you can also find literature to negate these claims.

I am of the belief that there are a lot of ways to successfully farm and garden. I am not against tilling personally and I still own a tiller for part of my garden. I wanted to mention this method to give people and idea of another method to use to be more self sufficient. If you don't like tilling, digging, and weeding then the no till method might be something for you to try. The videos in this post are done by No Dig Gardening. Their site has great information on the no dig method and the videos are awesome.

What are your thoughts on the no dig method. Have you done it? 

 ~Michael~

Our Favorite Heirlooms

If you use heirloom seeds like we do, it's time to order your seeds. I have started to see heirloom seeds available in the local big box stores the past few years but you can't beat the variety available through your favorite seed catalog. We buy a lot of our seeds from Seed Savers Exchange. If you are new to gardening, or just want to try other varieties, here are some of our favorites. All images are from seedsavers.org.

Beam's Yellow Pear: These small, pear shaped tomatoes are great fresh. Our kids eat them like candy. They also are good in a tomato salad adding color and variety. We have grown these for 4 to 5 years now and we never have issues with them. They are very prolific and your friends will be amazed at their shape and color.

Black Beauty Zucchini : I recommend zucchini to new gardeners as it is really hard not to be successful with them. They are very hardy and two plants give our family more than we can handle. Many zucchini are hard to grow in smaller gardens as their vines tend to spread out, but this variety is bushy and stays compact.. We grew it last year in our flower garden. Great sauteed, pickled, or even as a main ingredient in fritters or bread.

Burpee's Golden Beet : We love beets raw and roasted in our house but we hate stained clothes. These beets have the taste we desire but the nice yellow color doesn't stain. These are good to plant early in the year as beets can withstand colder temperatures. If you play your cards right you can get a spring and a fall harvest from these.
 

Summer Crookneck Squash: Like the Zucchini, if you are a new gardener and your main goal is to have something that actually produces, this is a good bet. They are hardy, grow in many different climates, and you won't believe how many squash you get from one plant. Many types of crookneck spread vines all over but this one is more bushy and compact. These are best picked young, before the warts start to appear.

What are some of the heirloom varieties you like? I would like to try some new ones this year.

~Michael~

The Art of War Against Weeds

"For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill."

 

From "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu

If you have taken any classes in business you have probably heard Sun Tzu quoted. I like to use "The Art of War " as a guide on how to fight the evils that we find in our gardens. If our plants or the protagonists in the war stories of our gardens then certainly the biggest of many antagonists is Mr Weed.

I think there are two main philosophies in the war against weeds, proactive, and reactive. A person employs a reactive method when they go outside and see that their garden has been overrun by morning glory and dandelions. The action that is taken is to start pulling weeds. It works but it can be labor intensive.

I like to use Sun Tzu's philosophy by being  more proactive and subduing the enemy without fighting. There are a few methods that come to mind for subduing weeds before they can get a foothold in our garden. 

• Cover your naked dirt: I think the best method for limiting weeds is to make sure they don't have a place to grow. Once I know where my plants are growing I make sure to cover the ground so weeds are less likely to get a foothold. 
• Mulch: I like the idea of putting down mulch that will eventually break down and add to the composition of my soil. Straw is my personal favorite. I also like to use grass cuttings. Be sure that your grass cuttings are weed free if you are going to add them to the garden. 
• Landscape Fabric: Landscape Fabric can be used to cover your dirt so weeds can't grow. I don't use fabric or weedblock but I know people who find them to be effective. I don't like a lot of them as many are plastic and not biodegradable. If you are going to use landscape fabric, find one that is biodegradable and it can break down into the soil. 
• Other covers: We have used newspaper in our garden in the past and it works great, you can also use cardboard, bark, sawdust, and probably other things that I have not thought of.
• Gardening methods: Certain gardening methods inhibit weed growth. Many square foot gardeners or vertical gardeners don't have as many weeds because they have so many plants in a smaller place and weeds just can't compete very well. The desirable plants choke out the weeds. Raised beds also help reduce weed growth.
•  Watering Methods: the use of drip irrigation methods helps inhibit weed growth.Since the drip lines water only a small area around the plants, many weeds will die of thirst.

In the fight against weeds, try to employ some of these methods so you have less weeds. These proactive methods will require less work than letting weeds getting established.Which of these methods work for you? What are some of the things you do to stop weeds in their tracks. Share your ideas and help others find success in their gardens.

Michael

Destiny Brings Them Together

Some things are destined to be together; chocolate and peanut butter, Scully and Mulder, politicians and corruption, bacon and ....well....er.......bacon and everything. Even some plants are destined to join together to make each other better, stronger, and like bacon, tastier.

In past articles we have discussed the benefits of companion planting. Companion planting is the practice of sowing plants together in order to increase yields, and to help reduce pests in the garden. In our garden we love to plant tomatoes with marigolds. The marigolds repel pests that are attracted to tomatoes.

I found a good article about companion planting on The University of Florida's extension site. It has a great list of plants and their companions. It also notes which plants don't do well together. Check out the list below. Introduce companion planting into your garden plan this year. It is a natural way to help improve your garden.

Let us know if you companion plant, and if so, what works well for you?

~Mike ~