The Resilient Gardener

Here's an awesome book:  The Resilient Gardener:  Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times, written by Carol Deppe.


We are living in some very uncertain times.  The weather is uncertain, with the result that our food crops for the next year could also be very uncertain.  Massive droughts in California are threatening a huge chunk of the U.S. food chain for the next year. 

In a time when people are becoming concerned about the source of their food: organic or conventionally grown,  GMO or heirloom, and unique dietary challenges facing more and more people, the one way to make certain that you have total control over what is in your diet is to grow your own food.

I was fascinated by the in-depth look at gardening methods.  I am by no means a new gardener, but I learned a lot of new tricks that gave me insight into how I planted my garden, and how I intend to maintain it this summer.

Not only does the author look at the entire garden, she looks at how to garden with special dietary guidelines in mind, and provides recipes for the gluten intolerant.  (HOORAY!  I can't wait to try her corn bread recipe!)

I originally checked this book out at work, and read it through once.  I returned it, and two days later, I found myself pulling it back off the shelf to find out how best to plant and maintain a garden when you have a bad back.  Put it back, pulled it out again a couple days later to find out more about fertilizing with grass clippings.  Put it back on the shelf, and checked it out again earlier this week to research potatoes a little bit more.  I know, those potatoes should already be in the ground... I'm hoping that it's not too late.

If you're interested in gardening, and supporting your family's budget by growing your own food, it's worth checking this book out from the library and giving it a read through. 

Keyhole Gardens

I ran across an article about Keyhole Gardens this morning in Herb Quarterly.  The Spring 2014 edition arrived in our box at work.  I took a stroll through it before putting it on the shelf, and I found a fascinating look at Keyhole Gardens.

Image: http://www.inspirationgreen.com/keyhole-gardens.html

These gardens are an idea from Africa.  These gardens are designed to conserve water and nutrients, and to help nurture a garden in even the most challenging of garden climates.

The idea was brought to the United States by Dr. Deb Tolman, These nifty little gardens combine a raised bed, a lasagna garden, and an active mulch pile to help nurture plants in even the hottest and driest of climates.  Dr. Tolman grows her gardens in the Texas Hill Country... a very hot, dry, and inhospitable place for gardens under the best of conditions.  Remarkably enough, these keyhole gardens grow thriving vegetables!

image: http://keyholefarm.com/

The secret to these gardens is twofold: first, the gardens are constructed in a circle.  A small keyhole, or access area extends from the center of the garden to the exterior.  The soil is layered with manure, green stuff, brown stuff, and potting soil.  Second, a circle is left in the middle of the garden.  This circle is maintained with chicken wire, and this is where a working compost pile is kept.  Vegetable scraps, lawn clippings, and manure are layered in this center circle.  When you go to water your garden, you water through the center hole, so that the nutrients from the compost pile go out into the garden.  Because of the small, compact nature of the garden, it is easy to mulch the garden as needed.



image:http://www.inspirationgreen.com/keyhole-gardens.html

These keyhole gardens can be any size that you wish.  Dr. Tolman's gardens are 6 feet across. 
They can be made of any materials that you have laying around.  The ones I've shown here are all made of stones and bricks.  But, when I was looking through the website at http://www.inspirationgreen.com/keyhole-gardens.html, I noticed that they were made of just about everything, from rocks to landscaping bricks to wine bottles and beer bottles.  The gardens in the U.S. and the U.K. tend to be a little higher.  Those in Rwanda tend to be shorter and closer to the ground.  As the organic matter in the garden rises, the walls also rise.

It's a fascinating concept!  Since I have yet to plant my gardens this year, I'm looking at the keyhole garden and thinking that it looks like a fantastic idea.  It looks easy to manage, and it looks as if it can be made of recycled  materials that I already have laying around the house.

So, I've been researching all afternoon, looking to see how feasible this idea is for a garden, and I'm liking what I see.  I will be building one of these in our back yard this year.

Take a look at the websites I've been visiting and take a look at what I'm talking about.  This is an exciting idea for sustainable gardening!

Keyhole Gardens
http://www.inspirationgreen.com/keyhole-gardens.html

Keyhole Farm
http://keyholefarm.com/

Deb Tolman
http://debtolman.com/

Horticulture Magazine
http://www.hortmag.com/weekly-tips/garden-design/the-ins-and-outs-of-a-keyhole-garden

What does your garden grow?

We are very close to the first week in March.  On Saint Patrick's Day, I will plant my peas, and soon after that, I'll start tossing some other cool weather veggies into the ground.

In the meantime, I've been perusing seed catalogs, the grocery store, and the nursery, looking for foods that my family will eat.  It won't do me any good to plant stuff nobody will touch!

After much thought and deliberation, I've decided that this is what will be going in the ground this year:

Peas
Onions
Potatoes
Green Beans
Black Beans
Tomatoes: Plum, Cherokee, Siberian (all heirlooms)
Peppers:  cowhorn (an heirloom), jalapeno, and I'll give the bell peppers another shot.
Celery (New to me.  I've heard this one is tricky)
Summer Squash: Yellow, Zucchini, Patty Pan
Butternut Squash
Cantaloupe (New to me.  I've heard this one grows very well in our area.)
Spinach
Lettuce
Swiss Chard
Sunflowers

I'm still debating another attempt at Sweet Potatoes.  I tried them two years ago, and they were a miserable failure.  I'm also debating beets.  I really like them roasted, and I hear they are really good raw.  I've also looked at Kohlrabi.  Nifty little bulbs of awesomeness.  They taste great in a stir fry.  I'm not sure exactly how to describe them.

I already have:
Strawberries, and I did not move them in the fall!  Rats.  I'm going to try to move them this spring as soon as the ground is warm enough.  They've spread all over the yard and really need a box of their own.

Blueberries, I need to trim back the branches.  They didn't produce well last year, and it looks as if they have been overtaken by wild grapes.  I may have to give up on the blueberries and stick with the grapes.

Grapes.  These things grow like weeds.  I need to give them an arbor to grow on, and tidy them up a little bit.

Garlic.  Planted in the fall, harvest in early summer.  The garlic scapes (where the flower bud is housed) will come up in early spring, and they need to be cut off so that the garlic bulb will plump up.  Garlic scapes are tasty!  They taste just like garlic, but look like a green onion stem.  They don't taste quite as strong as a bulb of garlic will.

Rhubarb.  It's an annual.  It grows strong all summer long, and I cut off what I need, as I need it.

Asparagus.  Love asparagus.  It takes years to get a decent bed going, and then harvest only lasts a few weeks before they leaf out into ferns.  (And by a few weeks, I mean two, maybe three, tops.)

Apple tree.  One tree.  I need to get out and trim it back soon - you know, like as soon as I can walk across the yard without sinking knee deep in mud.

Raspberries.  Again, the canes really need to be trimmed back.  The birds like to keep planting wild grapes in my raspberries, and it's a continual battle to see which of us will win-- the birds with their grapes, or me and my berries!

The last thing I'm debating is planting a tree or two.  I attempted to plant almond trees a couple of years ago, but they both ended up dying.  They really aren't native to Maryland.  I'm not sure what I was thinking.  I've been looking at pecan trees.  There are varieties that will grow well in the fluctuating temperatures we have in Maryland.   I've been researching them heavily this winter.

Last but not least, I've been looking at Meyer Lemon Trees.  I'd have to pot it and bring it inside in the winter.  It's a small tree, so it shouldn't be that hard.  I just need to check and make certain that I have the determination to carry through with hauling that tree inside and out again twice a year.

What are you going to plant in your garden this year?

Plastic Bags

It all seems so simple.  You go to the store,your groceries are put in a plastic bag, and you take them home.  Most times, I remember to bring my reusable grocery bags in from the trunk of the car.  

Except when you go to a place where plastic bags have been outlawed.  We are in Seattle this week.  One of our cousins is getting married, and we are here a little early, exploring the area.

Seattle doesn't allow those thin, flimsy grocery bags.  You either bring your own, or you pay $1.50 for each bag.  We stopped by Safeway last night to pick up groceries on our way home, and we don't have our bags with us.  We ended up paying for plastic bags.

Admittedly, these are really nice bags.  They are a heavy duty plastic that will last for quite some time.  I just wasn't expecting the additional cost of the bags!

However, in my quest to cut expenses and live more sustainably, I do need to become more aware of the costs -both the obvious and the hidden - of everything I consume.  

So, besides the $4.50 we laid out for plastic bags, it made me think a little deeper about the nature of plastic bags a little more.  Here are these bags, used to help me get my groceries home.  They are made from plastic -a by product of oil.  Oil prices are going through the roof. 

We really don't think about the consequences of using a non-renewable resource for a one-time grocery run.  We casually toss them away.  I know when I'm home, I see those thin bags wrapped in the upper branches of trees almost everywhere I go.  I know that there is a long term consequence to using those bags. 

But, I need to pull myself back to my original point.  Plastic bags.

So, this morning when we left the hotel, I folded up the plastic bags and stashed them into our backpack.  When we stopped by Safeway on the way back tonight, we pulled them out and used them.  

We were still using plastic bags, but I can honestly say that we've used these bags twice now.  I feel morally obligated to use these until they fall apart.