Invasion of the Squash Bugs!

Okay, I admit it . . . I haven't always been an organic gardener.  I know, I know.  Gasp!  And, like a reformed smoker has certain triggers that make him crave that smoke again, the appearance of a squash bug in my garden tempts me to reach for the ole' Sevin dust and just go to town on the critters, bathing my garden in deadly, white dust.

They make their appearance every year, so I knew it was only a matter of time.  I'm refusing, however, to resort to Sevin, so I've got to use other methods.  My go-to gardening book suggests that you lay a wooden board near the plant. Bugs will gather underneath it during the night, so a quick check in the morning should reveal all the bugs, ready for disposal.  As far as "disposal" goes, the book suggests dropping them into a bottle full of soapy water. But, I just pick them off the plants and squish them between by gloved fingers.  You may think that makes me sick, but I HATE squash bugs, so I actually enjoy the satisfying crunch.  :)

I've not actually tried the board method yet.  Since I handwater the garden each morning, I water the plant heavily then put down the hose and watch for movement.  Squash bugs do not appreciate getting wet, so they usually try to move to dry ground.  I just pick them off the ground or leaves when I see them. 

They lay eggs on the undersides of leaves in nice, neat rows.  The eggs are coppery in color.  If a leaf has a ton of them, just cut it off.  If it only has a few, like this one, just remove the eggs and squish!  Satisfying, huh?

So far, these methods have kept the squash plants from suffering any major damage.  It does require a dilligence on the part of the gardener, but the fruit of that labor is organic and wholesome. :)

Garden Goodness: Now and Later

It's like Christmas around here.  Today, I used my pressure canner that I got for Christmas for the first time!

When you're hoping your garden will provide as much of your family's diet as possible, tough choices are involved.  This is our first harvested mess of green beans.  We won't be eating them fresh, though.

We currently have zucchini coming out of our ears (keep checking back for more zucchini recipes).  And, (other than freezing a few shredded cups for future zucchini bread), we tend to eat our zucchini in ways that rely on fresh-picked zucchini.  I've blanched zucchini and squash in the past, and it just sat in the freezer until I eventually threw it out because we just don't eat our squash that way.  

So, zucchini now.  Green beans later.   We may eventually eat some fresh green beans, but since we tend to use our green beans as a replacement for grocery-store canned beans, most of our green beans will find their way to the mason jars and feed us this winter when garden-fresh zucchini is a thing of the past.

The instruction booklet was a little overwhelming, but once I'd read it through, actual operation was pretty easy.

Food for later!

A Sunflower for Your Saturday

Remember this pic from last week?  The plants were huge but not yet blooming.

Now, they look like this!  Gorgeous!

I chose sunflowers as a garden flower because they attract beneficial insects (you know, the ones that eat the bad guys) in larger amounts than other smaller flowers.  If you can get a good a enough look at the center of the flower, you'll see several of the good guys crawling around the edges of the circle.

Other (less impressive looking) flowers sprinkled throughout the garden this year are marigolds and candytuft.

Something There Is That Doesn't Love a Wall

Don't you just love Robert Frost?  I no longer have a captive audience for my poetry lessons, so please indulge me.  A few lines from "Mending Wall":

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the upper boulders in the sun;

And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

Yep.  It seems Nature dislikes a wall.  She seems to know no boundaries. 

Consider the picture above.  I take such great pains to put in a perfectly positioned trellis for the green bean vines, and what do they do?  They jump over and grow up the tomato stakes!  Can't they see that I have this garden perfectly mapped out?  Don't they see the white boards delinieating their space?  They have no respect for my boundaries!

Or, take this zucchini plant.  I have allotted it 9 square feet, as per my gardening book directives.  So, why must it encroach upon my lettuce.  9 square feet -- that's all you get, Mr. Zucchini.

But the beauty of the garden knows no boundaries.  Who am I to reign it in? 

And, what of fences designed to give our animals more space but keep them out of neighboring yards?

In "Mending Wall," the speaker meets his neighbor for their annual fence-line walk wherein they mend a year's worth of damage to the fence separating their properties:

There where it is we do not need the wall:

He is all pine and I am apple orchard.

My apple trees will never get across

And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.

He only says, "Good fences make good neighbors."

Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder

If I could put a notion in his head:

"Why do they make good neighbors?  Isn't it

Where there are cows?  But here there are no cows.

Before I built a wall I'd ask to  know

What I was walling in or walling out,

In our case, we're walling in goats and walling out the crazy dog down the street and any other creature that could harm our precious herd.

Here are the goats on their first day in the field.  Yes, that's the chicken tractor out there, too.  We're going to have to rethink that, though.  Honey sent the ladies into a flurry of panic when she made it half-way into the chicken coop earlier this afternoon.  I'd opened the coop door to throw the chickens some goodies, and Honey apparently thought it would be a good time to introduce herself to her new neighbors.

The chickens, it seems, like their boundaries just fine!  ;)

Just a Walk Around the Yard (with commentary)

This sunflower is enormous!  I am 5'10", and it now towers over me.  It's an Evening Sun variety and is loaded with what should soon open up into blooms the color of a sunset.  Pics to come soon.

Okay.  I know I talked big about pulling out the broccoli plant, but in the end, I just couldn't kill it.  I transplanted it to a pot on the porch.  This way, it still gets to live but isn't casting too much shade on the surrounding veggies. It still hasn't produced any flowerets, but we'll continue to keep an eye on it.

The fence is coming along nicely.  If the weather cooperates, we should be able to turn the goats out onto fresh grass within the week.

The little pickling cucumber vines are covered with blooms, and I've even cut a few of the earliest cukes over the past couple of days.

The only problem with that is that I've seeded the organic dill several times and nothing has come up.  I really don't want to have to buy bunches of dill from the grocery store come pickling time, so I bought some small dill plants to put in.  Hopefully, they'll have time to get a bit bigger before I'm ready to pickle.

Zucchini has been going crazy lately.  While my back was turned, this one got a bit too big to be tasty.  The chickens didn't seem to notice, though.

While I was feeding the zucchini to the chickens, these guys were sticking their heads out of the pen and eating my shorts (literally).  We like to move the chicken tractor right around the edge of of the goat pen as bug control.  When the goats first came to us, we noticed a few ticks, but since the chickens have been circling the pen on a regular basis, we haven't seen anymore. 

Our soil around here gets so compacted that I had never dared attempt to grow roots in the ground.  Now that we're using our own soil mix in raised beds, I am able to try out roots.  I have, however, no experience with growing them.  Luckily, the carrots, beets, and radishes help me out by peeping their heads out of the ground to let me know they're ready to be harvested.

Our kale sure is happy.  We only planted two squares with it, so I thought we'd eat our way through it pretty quickly.  Turns out, everytime I harvest it, more comes back in its place.

Some pickings from today.

Beauty You Won't Find at the Supermarket

Since the primary goal of the garden is to produce edibles for our table, it's beauty is often overlooked.    As I've never before grown potatoes, this is my first encounter with a sweet potato bloom.  Isn't it beautiful?  Apparently potatoes aren't only about what's going on under the soil!

The bees seem to like them, too.

And, how about these!  We gathered these from the garden and set them in a vase on the kitchen table.  Can you name the garden plant they come from?

What to Do with Rainbow Chard?

Confession time . . . Before growing it in my own garden, I'd never before tasted Rainbow Swiss Chard. 

In my defense, have you ever seen the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Catalog? 

When the girls get their allowance, it seems to burn holes in their pockets.  They virtually chuck it away at the first quarter machine that crosses their path.  So, we instituted a new rule.  They're only allowed to spend money on items they went into the store intending to purchase.  That has seemed to solve a lot of problems for us.  Want gum now that you're seeing it in the checkout line?  Have a look.  Decide which kind you want so that you can buy it next time we're here.  

I think I need to go by similar guidelines myself when it's time to shop the seed catalog.  Before I open the catalog and indulge myself in those glossy photos of heirloom fruit, I should make a list of the items I know I want to grow.  Then, and only then, should I open the catalog and make my selections, sticking to the list, of course.  

Since I didn't follow these guidelines, I have a lovely crop of Rainbow Chard and no idea what to do with it.  When leaves were young and tender, we used them in fresh salads.  I've tried a few recipes (like the previously posted soup) and a more recent Chard with Pinto Beans and Goat Cheese (pictured below) that was lackluster at best.  

I mean, it was beautiful in the catalog, in the garden, on the cutting board, in the casserole dish, on the plate.  But, other than the soup and salad, I'm just ill-equipped for getting this beautiful green to the table.  Suggestions? 

Good Help Is Hard to Find

Those who know me, know that I've got 3 adorable rugrats running around here.  The older two are in school most of the year while Little Boy is my constant sidekick.  Now, though, we are all at home for summer break.  Together.  All day.  And I'm trying desperately to redirect them every time I hear, "Mom, can we watch a show?"  My aversion to television is a whole other post altogether, though, and not the point of this post.  What was the point of this post again?

Oh, yeah.  The point is, that I've got a whole lot of farm/household chores to get done around here and lots of "helpers" right now.  Let me explain why "helpers" needs to be in quotation marks.  ?Take this morning, for example . . .

Girl 1 decided this morning that she would like to earn an extra quarter by cleaning out the goat pen while I weed the strawberry patch.  Great!  Go to it!  Meanwhile, Girl 2 would like to help me weed the strawberry patch, only she can't find her gloves.  "Mom, will you help me find my weeding gloves?"  I find the weeding gloves by the swingset, where Little Boy would like a push, or two, or 100.  I return to the strawberry patch, gloves in tow, just in time to hear that Girl 1 needs help wrestling the hose into the goat pen.  I help her finish up the goat pen cleanout only to return to the berry patch and find that "weeding" to a 5-year-old apparently means uprooting every living thing.  Oh, well.  Little Boy would like a snack.  Everyone would like some water.  Looks like we're headed back inside, and the strawberry plants that survived their run-in with a 5-year-old still haven't been properly weeded. 

Sometimes, it would be easy to get frustrated with them because they don't get the work done as smoothly, quickly, or efficiently as I could do it.  But, then I remember, my 7-year-old asked me if she could clean the poo from the goat pen.  My 5-year-old asked me if she could help pull weeds.  So what if it takes twice (or maybe 5 times) longer to get the job done?  My kids are learning the value of work.  They enjoy seeing the finished product of a job well done.  They are learning what it means to be part of a team. 

And, if we're patient about teaching them how to do these things, one day, Girl 1 really will be able to clean out the pen all by herself.  And, I'll be able to trust that Girl 2 knows the difference between Bermuda grass and strawberry vine.  In fact, last week, I mused to my husband that for the first time ever, the kids and I actually cleaned the entire house faster than I usually do it on my own.  Seriously.  Now, it's taken us awhile to get to this.  For example, there was the time that I refilled the dusting spray bottle, put Girl 2 to work in the living room then came back to find the bottle empty again and all surfaces with standing liquid.  And, sure we've had a few mirrors that looked worse after they were cleaned than before.  But, now, here we are -- cleaning faster as a team than I can do it as an individual and having fun as we do it. 


For the sake of honesty, I should reveal that I am the kind of person who would much rather do a job myself so that it will be done up to my standards than delegate, so this type of patient teaching ending in below-par results doesn't come naturally to me.  I am constantly having to remind myself that the ultimate end result is not the result of that individual job --we're working toward something so much bigger -- and that end result is worth my own inward struggle.

  Ultimately, we may not be nearly as productive this summer as just Little Boy and I are during the school year, but we'll be having fun and learning valuable lessons all along the way.

Broccoli? Seriously?

What is up with the broccoli?  Seriously. 

You can't really get a feel for how large this is from the picture, but the width of the garden bed is 4 feet.  It's enormous and still shows no signs of what we think of as broccoli.  It should form in the center but so far just keeps producing big, showy leaves.  I'm going to give it another couple weeks, then it'll become chicken food.  It's creating a bit too much shade for neighboring plants and seems like a lot of fanfare for the whole lot of nothing it's produced so far. 

Suggestions?  Insight?

Onion Harvest

Today, I finally got to harvest the onions.  They are smaller than I'd hoped for, but once the tops start to die back,  it's time to harvest.  I should've taken a picture of what they looked like before I pulled them up, but, basically, they just looked like a strong wind had blown them over, and they were beginning to brown. 

You know what they say about hindsight, right?  Well, according to my reading this morning, my bulbs may have been bigger if I'd laid off the fertilizer for the past 7 weeks or so and reduced the amount of water. 

The onions that bloomed are mostly still standing and seem to have bigger bulbs under the soil.  I will give them a few more weeks to show signs of dying back.  If they don't, though, it'll be time to harvest, and we'll have to eat those bulbs first as they likely won't keep as well as the ones that die back on their own.

To prepare the onions to last awhile, I cleaned them up and laid them out on the porch (any warm location will do).  They'll stay there for 2 weeks (unless they're all eaten up by then) and will then be ready for cooler storage.

The Silver Lining of Mosaic Disease

It appears that a couple of my potato plants have developed Mosaic, an easily-spread disease that can be caused by a variety of viruses and lead to stunted plant growth.  Mosaic can present itself as mottled yellow and green leaves, puckered leaves, or blisters. 

If infected plants are not removed early in the growing season, aphids will feed on infected plants and fly the disease to other locations in the garden.  In fact, the disease is so easily spread that gardeners should wash hands and tools that have touched infected plants in a strong soap solution. 

Interestingly, smokers may pick up the tobacco mosaic virus by handling infected tobacoo products then then spread the disease to their plants by gardening without washing hands after a smoke.  (Yet another reason to quit, if anyone is still looking for a good one:)

Tomatoes, pepper, potatoes, squash, cucumbers, melons, lettuce, spinach, and more are all susceptible to Mosaic.  Though they probably won't die, diseased plants will yield fewer fruits and squash-family plants will usually produce small, mottled fruits that have an off-taste.

So, I bit the bullet and yanked out these potato plants.

And, look what I found!  Yep, these guys came out with the two plants I pulled out.  I had been waiting for my potato plants to bloom like my garden guide had suggested.  But, I was forgetting that if I wanted new potatoes (as this variety is intended to be), then I should actually dig them up earlier. 

If not for the Mosaic, these would've outgrown their new potato phase.  See, silver lining!

So, I cut off the remaining plants and will leave the rest of the potatoes in the ground for 2 weeks to develop their tough skin that will help them last longer in the pantry.   The kids are especially excited about digging for potato treasures in 2 weeks!

Beet Juice!

Our organic backyard beets are ready for juicing! 

This morning, John and I (no, not the kids) enjoyed a beet and apple combination that, according to Natural News, boasts these health benefits:

1. improves blood structure by building red blood cells

2.  improves circulation

3. cures diseases of the large intestine and digestive system

4. dissolves stones in the liver, kidneys, and bladder

5. lowers blood pressure

6. improves HDL levels (good cholesterol)

7. increases the number of CD8 cells in the colon, which are cancer-destroying cells

To borrow a line from the article:  "Not bad for a common item found in most grocery stores."

:)

Eat Local; Eat in Season

Yesterday, a County Extension agent held a meeting here in town to help us coordinate the upcoming Farmer's Market.  It will begin in June, run for at least 6 weeks, and be located right on Main Street.  Now, we are trying to get the word out and get local farmers to commit to being there once (or possible twice) a week for the duration of the 6-weeks.

In our small town, lots of people have backyard gardens and other small-scale farming operations.  Many growers produce far more than their families can consume yet have no good outlet for their extras.  This market will serve the farmer by allowing them a way to earn some cash while unloading surplus and will serve the community by providing us an opportunity to eat food produced locally and support our own local economy. 

In keeping with eating locally, did you notice the new gadget on the right sidebar of the blog?  It automatically updates to show you what foods are currently in season in Arkansas.  This can be helpful when meal planning and will help you know what to expect to find when you show up on Saturday  morning at the Farmer's Market.

The Pain of Pruning

If you're a regular reader of my blog, you know that I love my Knockout roses.  I love them so much that I hate to take the pruning scissors to them.  In fact, a few years back, I refused to cut them, even when the blooms had dried up.  You know what happened?  They grew spindly and didn't continue to bloom that year.  Then, I learned that when the blooms dry up, it's time to trim them back so that they can bloom again.   And, again.  And, again.   I know this is the case, but it still hurts me to cut back these blooms!

BEFORE

AFTER

While God as gardener of our souls is not a new metaphor, my pruning session was a reminder to me of how God works on us.  When necessary, He prunes us.  As master gardener, He knows how to grow us into the most beautiful versions of ourselves.  Sometimes, He may have to cut parts off.  Other times he may have to add things that he knows will benefit us but that seem stinky to us (like the rabbit poo I dumped all around the roses after their trim today:).  But, He is a careful and loving gardener and loves us far more than I love my roses.  It may pain Him to make the cuts, but He knows the end result, a more beautiful bloom, for His glory.

Happy Mother's Day to Me!

Among several other well-chosen gifts, this was one of the gifts I unwrapped on Sunday morning (my husband does such a good job!)  Has anyone ever been so excited about receiving a compost pail?  Apparently, John picked up on my not-so-subtle hint (click here for that post) that I'd love to have this pail.  He even got the exact model I'd linked to in the previous post.  I know, I know.  He's a keeper. 

Moving into it was almost as exciting as moving into a new handbag.  :)

For size comparison, here it is sitting next to our previous model.

So far, the charcoal filter in the lid is definitely doing its job, which is to keep odors in check.  Here, you can see it's got about a gallon-ful of orange pulp, coffee grounds, green onions, and more.  Still, you'd never know when the lid is on that it's holding all of that yuck!

I love that my husband knows me well enough to know that I'd rather receive a compost pail for Mother's Day than a vase-ful of flowers!

Ever Met a Cabbage Looper?

For the traditional gardener, early detection may not be so important.  Notice a pretty advanced pest invasion?  Put on the mask and douse the garden in Sevin dust.  But, we organic gardeners are playing a different game altogether.  I'm pretty sure if there were such a thing as the 10 Commandments of Organic Gardening, this one would be somewhere high on the list:

Know Thy Garden

I water my garden by hand most every morning, rather than using a sprinkler (though I do think this is for the best, it's not entirely by choice as I don't currently have a working sprinkler).  Then, while the kids are playing in the evening, I take a walk through again, just looking and plucking weeds as I go.   So, when I saw the tiny holes in the broccoli leaf that I knew weren't there that morning, I turned it over to discover this guy.

Yep, he's a cabbage looper.  This tiny, green caterpillar eats leaves of cabbage-family crops for dinner.

On this leaf, he's not so difficult to spot.

But, on this lettuce, he's well camouflaged.  Can you spot him?

To repel loopers, use a garlic spray.  And, when you spot loopers, handpick them and crush eggs.

Isn't this lettuce lovely?  It's the aptly named Little Gem, a Romaine variety.  It's almost too beautiful to eat!  Maybe the loopers agree -- they've left this variety untouched, so far.

I'm Expecting . . .

 Yep, I'm expecting . . . God to do something pretty amazing in my local community. (Now, don't be mad about the shameless ploy to get you to click on the link.  I just really wanted everyone to hear about this!)

 Here's a riddle for you:  Who is better poised to minister to the needs of a community than a local church? 

The answer:  THE local church, meaning not one community church but ALL of them, working together toward a common goal.  I am so proud to be a part of  The Bethany Project, a new mission, uniting local churches to minister to the needs of our community.  I love to see churches working together to accomplish God's commandment to love Him by loving others and feel blessed to be serving as our church's representative.

The Bethany Project, founded in honor of Bethany Roebuck Etheridge, seeks to provide love, hope, and care to our community through various missions.  First, we are hosting Hello Baby, which will be held on June 2.  On this day, anyone in need can come to First Baptist Church and stock up on baby items free of charge. Donations to stock the event are being accepted now at all area churches.  Items we are collecting include the following:

new or gently used children's clothing, sizes birth-5T, diapers, diaper bags, baby wipes, baby shampoo, baby powder, baby lotion, etc, baby blankets, crib sheets, baby laundry detergent,  baby bottles (basically anything "baby.")

If you live locally and would like to donate, you can drop off items at a participating church or drop them on my doorstep.  :)  We are accepting donations through May 27th.  If you live further away but would like to be a part of what's going on here, you could make a monetary donation that I could use to fill in the gaps once I see what we need more of before June 2. 

Later this year, The Bethany Project will be hosting missions to provide school supplies and coats to those in need. 

Now, as for the title of this post. . .  (With my right hand in the air,) I do hereby solemnly swear not to title any future blog post with this title unless it bears the exciting news which you would expect to discover therein.  ;)

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day, everyone!  This is the day set aside to celebrate the beautiful earth God has entrusted to our care.  On this day, millions of people will join in the celebration by committing to do acts of green.  The  most popular act of green commitment is switching from standard to CFL lightbulbs.  We went on a hunt and found one standard bulb in this fan upstairs that we could switch out (wouldn't you know, it was already burned out!).  We do still have a few standard decorative bulbs in our bathrooms, but otherwise, I think we're entirely switched over now.

Also, we walked to church today.  We do this nearly every Sunday as it is right next door.  In fact, the kids think it's really funny when we drive to church on rainy days.  When we get to the end of the driveway in the car, John announces, "Okay, kids, we're going to church."  Then, about 3 seconds later, as we turn into the church parking lot, "Okay, kids, we're at church!"  It's a joke that never grows old.  They crack up every time!

Another act of green that we committed to do is to eat more local food.  It hardly gets more local than your own backyard!  This, our root box, has the most things in it right now.

Here's what the garden looks like today.  Lots of things are now in and growing. 

How have you shown kindness to our earth today?

An Afternoon Walk Through the Yard

 These are our two Eurasian Collared-Doves.  I think they've set up nest in one of our trees.  The last several days, we've been able to hear the mating call as we eat breakfast.  (As Barbara Kingsolver says, April is the sexiest month!)  Today, as they preened one another, I was able to catch a glimpse of them up close.  Aren't they beautiful?

Also, this guy was out hunting for a mate today.

And, things are blooming.  These blooms are about 8 inches in diameter.  Love them!

And, the Knockout rose bushes are covered up.

All things green are growing strong.

Asparagus has grown tall and gone to seed, already preparing for next year's harvest.

And then there's the "fuzzy plant."  It's blooming!  Who knew?

And, my favorite sight of the afternoon: the school bus pulling into view. :)

Slug Traps

A walk through the yard the other day revealed lots of tiny berries on the strawberry plants AND lots of irregularly-shaped holes in the foliage.  Most likely cuprit= slugs.  I hadn't seen any gooey trails, but I still had my suspicions that they were there, lurking beneath the mulch.  It was time to set some slug traps.  I didn't have any beer, but my FaceBook plea ("I need a beer!") was answered with two cold ones on my doorstep within the hour.  What an awesome friend! 

So, I used 2 old yogurt containers (the traps will only lure slugs from about a 3 ft. radius, so I needed two for my patch).  Any container with relatively straight sides will do.  I cut 3 or 4 small openings like the one pictured above around the upper edge of the container.

Then, in the strawberry patch, I dug a small hole and buried the container deep enough that the holes were ground-level.

Pop the top and fill container with about 1 inch of beer.

After I replaced the lid, I sprinkled some mulch atop the container to (mostly) hide it from sight.  Can't have any vunsightly plastic garbage visible in my beautiful strawberry beds!

In the morning, I found that only one little slug had gone on a bender last night.  It was a pretty cold night for slugs, though, so I suspect I'll have more as it warms back up.  For best results, the traps should be set and emptied each morning (slugs are most active at night).