Gardening: When Your Mind Just Knows

April 25, 2024 Sarah

The other day, I was out working on our homestead and went to do greenhouse chores when my mind clicked. I felt a mental push: it was time to start putting bamboo poles in the tomato plants. It was a strong push in my mind. The oldest starts were getting taller, and while supported as a group, if I were to separate the plants, they would start to lean. So, it was time to get them supported!

Yesterday afternoon, Facebook showed me “memories.” One was from last year when I had just started organizing tomato plants and putting in the bamboo poles.

Funny. Our memories will push us without realizing it’s the same day every year!

Last year, how the greenhouse looked. I had a section of larger tomatoes in the same sunny corner as I do this year.

I did note that my most miniature plants were smaller last year than this year (this photo is from the 28th of last year). So this is a better year for growing in some ways. It was colder last spring, so I still had more plants inside (they are outside this year, hardened off).

The biggest tomatoes always seem to migrate to the sunny corner. It’s just how I work; the photos confirm how I operate year in and out. Photo from yesterday.

I didn’t have enough pepper plants; I was unhappy with myself; I only had 13. I’ll be honest; I buy pepper starts. I have far more success with starts than seeds, especially as it buys me a few extra weeks of growing time in our cooler grow zone. So I went today and picked up a couple more red bell pepper plants, which I will pick up later today. I’ll bump up the numbers when I have time. I will grow them in 5-gallon buckets in the greenhouse until June when I will put them out along with the tomatoes. I leave them in the buckets to bring them inside in early September, where they will keep producing until the days get too short in late fall.

There are still many smaller plants, but as the days lengthen, they grow quickly. Soon, they will all need their support. We currently have 90 tomato plants; last year, we had 106. I have around another ten bonus starts to pot up later today (when after potting up a tomato start, I grew from seed, and an extra plant or two pops up.. I carefully transplant them into a gallon pot, and they quickly catch up).

My advice is: when your mind pops and pushes you, listen to it! It’s probably the right time to do what your mind is suggesting.

~Sarah

Gardening · Homesteading · Urban Homesteading

Gardening 101: Learn The Basics

April 15, 2024 Sarah

When you decide to start gardening, it can be overwhelming. Where does one start? How do you do it? We have many posts that can help you with each question, inspire, and help you learn. Wether you have a single pot on a deck, an urban backyard, or you are living rural with many growing areas.

Updated USDA Grow Zones

Know the average temperatures in your local area. They have changed in some places in recent years.

Make Your Own Seed Starting Mix

It’s far better and more affordable than buying tiny bags of seed starting mix.

Starting Seeds In Pots

Giving your future crops a hand up.

No Garden? Grow Dwarf Plants

It’s the easy way to have fresh veggies and fruit on a patio or deck.

Building A Garden Quickly

You can get a garden on the weekend.

Growing To Eat Versus Growing For Hobby

There is a real difference in how you will go at it, and how much space you need.

How To Buy The Best Seeds

There are so many options it can overwhelm you.

How Much To Plant?

This is one of the questions we get the most often asked. How much does a person need to plant, per person, based on whether or not you are eating for the summer or preserving for winter as well?

The Food Forest

Plant once, eat every year. Grow fruit and berries (and some vegetables) that come back yearly.

Using Reclaimed Logs To Build Beds

We have used this method a couple of times.

Grow Potatoes

Potatoes are one of the few crops that, even if they fail, you can use the failures to restart the growth cycle.

Garbage Can Taters

It’s a simple and effective method.

Building An Herbal Garden

Herbs are great for pollination, medicinal, and culinary.

5 Gallon Bucket Growing

A great method for pepper plants.

Growing Garlic

It’s the crop that flavors so much.

Planning A Fall Garden

In mid-summer, it is time to start planting fall crops.

Saving Seeds

How do you have next year’s seeds for free?

Making Seed Packets

How to create an easy paper envelope. Great for children to do.

Prepping For Early Frosts

If you want to extend your garden season, plan for it beforehand.

The Kinder Garden

Build a garden for your children.

Dealing With Microclimates

How to protect plants when it has a shorter season than a mile away does.

A Year Of Sileage Tarping

How to use sileage tarps to create fields ready to grow in.

~Sarah

Gardening · Homesteading

In The Garden: Rebuilding An In Ground Bed

April 7, 2024 Sarah

This bed has changed a lot in the past five years. Kirk tilled it for me with the tractor in our second year here, in 2019. He had removed the evergreen trees that were sprinkled on the land down low in 2018, leaving many craters behind.

I covered it with farm fabric and set to work.

Its first year was as a trial bed for strawberry plants. Fenced off from the deer. The orchard was to the left.

Eventually, the two areas would become one, and I’d install full fencing 6 feet high.

Then, in 2020:

With our Pandemic Chickens, we bought a coop and installed it where there was fencing. My strawberry bed lasted till mid-summer and the birds became adults. They would live there until the end of summer of 2023.

Eventually, I moved the chickens out, and it became a nothing zone. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it. I let it rest over fall and winter.

This spring, I decided that, with it being a chicken area, the soil would be very rich. So I weeded it and tilled it up, using a light tiller, to just open up the top inches of soil.

We laid out the fabric on the edges to suppress weeds and pinned it down amply.

I kept extending the fabric. We have a real issue with Stinging Nettle under the peach and pear trees. The chickens had pushed it down, but it returned once they were moved.

I added in 3 hog panels, with each one being held up with two T-posts. These will be used for growing cucumbers, beans, and such, which need about 3 feet of height to grow.

I still have plenty of rocks to move, to fill the walkways. In a month it will look so different.

~Sarah

Gardening · Homesteading · Urban Homesteading

Grow Zone 8b: 2 Weeks Till Last Frost

April 1, 2024 Sarah

It’s April 1st.

With the recent changes in the USDA Grow Zones, if one searches for the last frost date for grow zone 8b, one might get the results of April 1st. I’d say this, though, based on years of watching the weather: That’s a huge April Fool’s joke; you’re risk-taking.

Why so?

Weather can be fickle. While the days are warming up, the nights are still cool. And come mid-week, the weather is predicted to have a chillier day with rain. Rain is not your friend in early Spring. It can drown the seeds, move them and cause havoc if it is hard rain, and seedling have just sprouted.

It’s one thing to have plants outside hardening off (that is a good thing to do!), but the soil in the ground or a raised bed is still cold.

(And I have a lot of plant starts outside now, getting ready to go in the ground)

It needs the nighttime temperatures to be higher than 40°:

While yes, many seeds will germinate at 35°, if nighttime temperatures are higher, they will germinate and grow faster. You will be on less of a struggle bus. Waiting just two weeks will make it much better. As we enter mid-April, the rains get gentler and less often. If you can wait until nighttime temps are near 50°, without dips, your plants and seeds will love you so much more.

And by April 15th, we will be over 13 hours of daylight—every minute counts in activating plant growth.

Instead, take the next two weeks to work on your garden beds:

Weed
Till as needed (I use a very light hand tiller to break up clumps of grass and weeds that are then hand removed)
Shape the rows
Lay down weed fabric to suppress growth on the edges if needed
Do pruning that is needed for any plants that are taking over spaces
Start more seeds inside or in your greenhouse – do this often!

We spent the last two days working on this beast. It isn’t entirely done, but I am nearly there. The story on this bed is that it was once raw land. Kirk ran the tractor over it five years ago, breaking it open (it had evergreen trees on it) and removing stumps and a lot of big rocks. Then, it became a test bed for plants and a chicken coop for a couple of years. Then, it sat empty last year and got covered in weeds. After weeding, doing a light till on top, laying down fabric, and making lines….it will soon be ready to plant.

I am working on another large bed this week as well. The fence is fixed, and weed suppression is in place. The final is removing the weeds and shaping the rows.

And removing rocks. Constantly removing rocks as they float up.

All to keep me occupied so that I resist the urge to plant everything…..

PS: And remember this sage advice, don’t plant tomatoes and peppers outside till at least mid-May in the PNW. They need warmth!

~Sarah

Gardening · Herbalism · Homesteading · Urban Homesteading

The Value Of White Sage Plants

March 25, 2024 Sarah

White Sage (Salvia apiana) is a sacred plant native to Southern California and the northern part of Baja, Mexico. It craves an arid existence. Seeing it wild is pretty amazing, and well worth traveling to see it (no touching though, do not harvest wild).

I always try to grow at least one White Sage in our greenhouse. I picked up a new one as soon as the plants showed up at a local plant nursery this winter. I view it as an every-other-year purchase here in the chilly PNW. I get 2-3 years out of each plant before we get a deep freeze/or water-logging episode. It just happens. Thankfully I can replace them.

The local plant nursery got a lot in this year. At around $25 a plant, it’s a money maker for them.

My other White Sage, it is a few years old, and lives full time in the greenhouse.

A fresh cutting that I delivered to a friend who was in need of it. I never sell my White Sage; as an herbalist, I believe it must be given freely. To those who need it. Blessed with love.

When working in the greenhouse, I periodically take cuttings and let them dry inside. The pungent aroma clears the air, especially nice in winter on rare blue-sky days when it warms up inside.

Why You Should Grow It:

There is much angst over buying commercially dried White Sage, as much of it is taken illegally off public and private lands, leading to issues with the plants’ futures. By growing your own, you can know your supply is ethical. Provide for yourself.

Deer don’t like it. It is too intense with essential oils.

The large plants grow to between 4 and 5 feet tall and are covered in beautiful seasonal blooms; during bloom time, they put on arms that can grow 10 feet high. Bees cannot resist visiting, so it is a great plant that encourages more bees.

There are many medicinal uses for the leaves. It is consumed as a tea when needed.

It is used in sage smudging.

The seeds are edible. By both humans and birds (quail love them).

~Sarah