spring is sproinging

a full moon has passed since i sat with you last.  many days of moving, dreaming, growing, planting.
 also driving, eating, pooping & sleeping.
this may be a long post. Lemme hit the high points first, then allow me to ramble:

• disaster strikes slowly. be vigilant.
• P is for polyculture
• Plow Forward. . . but only once: they call it conservation tillage
• hugelkultur beds
• unfurling @Taproot
• how to make straw from strawberries
• first wave plantings
• alfalfa: teeny-tiny cover cropping for compost/soil building
• going in to business

The Vision

I've asked myself this question a lot: given complete freedom, how would i spend my time?  How would I fill my time if there were no bills to pay, errands to run, student loans to dread or the necessary "work" it takes to take care of those "necessities?"
   What would I do if I were truly free?

   I'd grow food. And eat it... and tinker & toy with the numerous projects that entails.

   There have always been hurdles barring the path to such freedom.  And like most humans, I'm prone to use hurdles as excuses.  But I'm ready to jump, wanna jump with me?

I'm not going to wait until we own land.
I'm not going to wait until there's enough start-up capital.
I'm not going to wait until someday in the future, because if I do I'll find myself hoping to retire into the life I wanted when I was young.
I'm not even going to wait until I'm out of the suburbs.
I'm ready to grow, wanna grow with me?

I want Backyard Beddie's to foster a network of local folks growing food in their yards, on their patios, in their kitchens.  I need us to come together, so we can show each other that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.  I believe a coordinated network of avid micro-growers can produce enough food to provide for their community and earn a living.

I'm ready to plant, wanna plant with me?

i heart winter-spring.

      Sometimes i almost wish that google put a chip in my head so i could keep yous guys updated on things as i'm doing them.  As i stands, i mostly just wanna play in the dirt so i find myself with a swarm of projects to update after a few weeks.
    Let's start with our impulse-ordered strawberries and see how far we get from there (the sun's coming up and i can feel the yard calling me...beckoning me.....).  If you recall, we were shipped 50 bare-root strawberry plants the first wk in january, and i was caught entirely unprepared.  A minimal amount of research later, i decided i would heel in the plants in a container and keep them in the shed to try and maintain dormancy.
   Let's talk about stacking functions, real quick, which is fundamental to finding the good life.  Function stacking is a permaculture principle that allows you to maximize output from any given task or object.  To me, it's a way of thinking about projects that helps me avoid unnecessary labor.

Low-Cost Raised Beds...

   Buenos Morning, Internet.
             I've found it's generally more productive to set up new growing beds over the fall and winter for spring plantings.  For one thing, it allows any soil amendments to filter their way into the dirt, and the alternating freeze & thaw seems to help open up the soil - a great way to utilize natural cycles to minimize human labor.  For another thing, it helps to keep me focused on my production goals through the winter, with the added benefit of keeping the winter blues at bay.

signs of life

     My little babies are breaking through the dirt...
I sowed some seed Saturday, eager to test my lil Seed Starting Station & hoping to get a jump on the fast approaching cool/cole crop season.  Resisting a chronic compulsion to plant everything at my fingertips was difficult, but i managed to start with 3 flats:

• Flat #1: American Flag Leek & Red Torpedo Onion:  this is my first year really breaking into alliums (this fall i planted German White and California Early garlic at me madre's, and perennial Egyptian Walking Onions[cool pictures through that link] in the keyhole bed). As such, i've never grown them from seed, but shoots came up today from the leeks and the onions. Really hoping these work out, cuz i think the joe-knee and i consume at least a pound of onions and a clove of garlic a week.
• Flat #2: Waltham Broccoli: i planted the whole flat and within 3 days nearly all the seeds had sprouted.  Which is good, cuz we love broccoli. All of it: stems, shoots & leaves. It's probably good for you, our tastebuds declare.  Barring some kind of cataclysm, i should have some extras for trade or sale by the time you wanna put em in the ground (around the 3rd wk of February)
• Flat #3: Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage & Red Russian Kale:  these guys have yet to emerge, but they've got some time left. We're overwintering a couple of each variety in our neighbor Randy's bed, so if for some reason they don't want to sprout, we'll still have some to CHOMPCHOMPCHOMP.

The next step is to build some kind of ramshackle cold-frame, to harden off the seedlings & free up more room to germinate my little seedlings. I'll need plenty in the next few weeks to start sprouting my celery, lettuce & tons of tomatoes...
the plan is to start lots of transplant tomatoes: Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter (click link for radio story), Amish Paste, Brandywine & Beefsteak.  These should be ready by the end o' March for trade, sale, and baiting potential gardeners... :)

in other news: i made the ... correct decision? ... and impulse bought 50 strawberry plants when i ordered my heating coil.  My logic was that if i spent $6 more dollars @ www.groworganic.com  i'd get two free seed packets (i picked Kentucky Wonder green beans & Southern Giant Curled mustard), saving myself around $5.  what i failed to factor in was the cost of shipping dormant strawberries across the country (nearly twice as much as the plants) and the fact that since they're shipped from the golden valleys of California, the berries would arrive on my door in January. Sheesh. They're in the fridge until I can figure out what to do with them.  All cuz Joani said she wanted some strawberries, not because i am a berry glutton.

So stay tuned to find out:

• if the shua keep his strawberries alive until their preferred pea-synched planting date
• which plants thrive in this suburban microclimate & which wilt like cabbage in the dog days surrounded by all this noise & all these people
• if catastrophic climate collapse affects our growing season in a good way or just a wierd one
• if shua will go crazy and live in a teepee in the backyard, scaring neighborhood children & neglecting to properly launder his loincloth
• or something else...

shakin off them winter blues.

it's easy to get caught up in the hodge-podge of suburban life, but i'm committed to maintaining at least some semblance of focus.  most folks sit through the winter dreamily leafing through their seed catalogs, wishing for warmer days.  admittedly, i've been doing more than my fair share of that recently.  never one to sit on my laurels for too long a stretch, i've gotten proactive and set up a seed starting station out back.

it's weirdly nice out today and i don't feel like sitting here nose to the keyboard, so i'll just show you:

space to work with

joe-knee sealed up the plexiglass windows and the roof

inside a 2x4box i laid a 1/2in of sand, and my heating coil attached to some chicken wire i bought for some other purpose

using a scrap 2by, i flattened the heating element and covered with more sand

and then...

...apparently our camera and i only see certain colors. ah well.

dinner from dirt

mesclun mix, baby brassica greens, cilantro and radish

Much is being touted these days about locavorism, farm-to-table, etc., etc...  Numerous studies have confirmed that the nutritional content of our food has an inverse relationship to the amount of time and travel it takes for said food to reach our swollen gullets.  And of course, there's the evidence of our tongues: fresh-picked just tastes better. 

   There's a growing market in the publishing sector for cookbooks designed to help us remember the lost art of enjoying our garden harvest. Before you rush out to buy one, dear reader, take the time to consider my favorite recipe and a few time-tested tips...