Gardening Principles

We grow only useful things. We grow food in preference to lawn. The average suburban home has around 2500 sq feet of lawn. We have about that much "lawn" in the back yard that now serves as "pasture" for our poultry flock. The front lawn, however, has been turned into raised beds for veggies. There are also avocado and citrus trees out front. We are planning some planter boxes and trellises out there for even more plantings. We have some ornamental and foundation perennials here and there, but for the most part everything we plant has more than aesthetic value.

Homegrown food tastes better because homegrown food is fresher, and in season, which delivers better taste. (Read about tomato harvesting--commercial vs. homegrown.) Homegrown food is also healthier because we can pick, eat, and/or preserve foods when they have their highest nutritional value, that is, when they are ripe and just picked. Homegrown food is safer for our family because they are handled less than supermarket food and have not been exposed to any contaminants--no chemical pesticides, herbicides, growth- or ripening-enhancers, or preservatives. We pick what we need on a given day and bring it in to be prepared. No E. coli.

Where we garden matters. In our Mediterranean climate, most seed packet and catalog info doesn't apply. For us, it's not so much a question of what to grow, but rather what to grow next. With proper planning and crop rotation, we can garden literally year-round. A garden paradise, right? Well, mostly. The increased growing brings increased demand on the soil. Nutrients are constantly used up, and so need constant replacement.We have relied on Pat Welsh's Southern California Gardening: Month by Month to guide us on what to grow and when and how.

We are continually building our soil. We are constantly making and adding compost to our soil. We also mulch heavily. We avoid tilling the soil so that the soil food web will remain in tact. "I am starting to believe you about this compost thing," said one of our Kids Garden Club moms a few years ago. She had tried gardening with and without  mulch and compost and was learning that compost and mulch make a huge difference in weeding and crop yields.

We water deeply and less frequently rather than shallowly and often. Seedlings and transplants need to be watered just about everyday. The soil around them should never dry out. However, once they are established, they can be "trained" to send roots farther down into the soil for nutrients and water. We accomplish this by watering deeply once or twice per week, depending on the summer heat. Our plants develop deeper root systems and are less susceptible to wilting in the heat and are pulling up nutrients from deep down that would otherwise be unavailable.

We try to work smarter, not harder. Sometimes work makes more work. Tilling your soil every year or every time you plant a new crop makes more work. For one thing, weed seeds that were buried deep in the soil are brought to the surface and sprout. Now you have weeds to pull. A better plan would be to mulch your garden beds regularly, and when you are ready to plant, pull back the mulch and put in your seeds or plants. Little chance for weed seeds to get the sunlight they need to sprout. The soil microbes will be happier and healthier this way, too. When they're happy, your plants will be happier--they'll have fewer pests and other problems. In other words, work with nature instead of against it: you won't have to work so much.

We try to pay attention to our plants and keep notes. We have notebooks in which we have kept notes and diagrams of some of the gardens we have tended. Detailed notes help you to plan future gardens. These days, more and more of our garden notes are on computer spreadsheets. What ever your method, keep good notes on which varieties you plant, what pests or problems the variety has, how much harvest and how soon, and also how the harvest tastes. Some varieties may not do well in your climate, or you may prefer one variety over another for greater harvest or better taste.

We try to keep in mind that failure is part of the process. "Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently." --Henry Ford

July in the Garden

    Set out fall tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants late this month.
    Sow Halloween pumpkins.
    Clean up the garden, then mulch the bare soil to conserve moisture.
    Tend the compost pile so it will be ready to work into the soil in preparation for fall planting.
    Add 2 to 3 inches of mulch to retain water.
    Keep roses well watered to promote bloom into late fall.
    Early in the month, cover fruit trees with nets to protect fruit from birds.
    Protect peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, and lettuce from sun scald by providing partial shade.
    Start seeds of collards, okra, eggplant, southern peas, and heat-resistant tomatoes.
    When working outdoors in heat, take frequent breaks and drink plenty of water.

Good Food from Fresh Ingredients

We agree with Julia Child, who said, "You don’t have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces – just good food from fresh ingredients."  Tonight we enjoyed the kind of supper we strive for, one made with fresh ingredients from our mini-farm. The main dish was duck from our flock with a side dish of green beans picked this afternoon from the garden, and for dessert, peach sherbet made with peaches picked this evening and this morning's milk from our herd.

The ducks were our Khaki Campbells. We chose this variety of ducks

Khaki Campbells

because they are prolific egg-layers, not a meat breed. However, some of us cannot eat the eggs. So we are now culling our flock of these. Though they don't have a lot of meat on them, they are very tasty. Today, we slow-cooked two older ducks, expecting them to be a little tough as older birds tend to be. We were pleasantly surprised! Tender and tasty. One drawback to using the slow-cooker is that the skin is not browned and crispy, unless of course it is browned in the oven first or to finish or both. We skipped this part. Yummy anyway. We'll let the drippings cool and skim off the fat to use for future cooking.

Purple, green and yellow pole beans

The green beans didn't start green. We grow a pole variety that produces purple pods. This makes them easier to pick--they contrast with the green leaves of the vines. When cooked, the beans turn a dark green--letting the cook know that they are heated through. So these beans show you where to find them and show you when they're done! Easy.

Our latest oberhaslis, Ilsa and Inga

The milk is from our oberhasli goats. These Swiss goats are compact, quiet, and good milkers--perfect for our situation.

The peaches for our sherbet are from one of our three peach trees. We grow three different varieties that ripen at three different times, extending the harvest. We also planted all three trees in a space less than four feet square. In this small space the trees compete with each other for water and nutrients, slowing the growth of the trees. This helps us to keep the trees pruned and trimmed to a manageable size. We prune them after the harvest to control upward growth, and then in the winter to encourage the most fruit possible. Read more here at Dave Wilson Nursery.

 Peach Sherbet Recipe

Peach sherbet in the ice cream maker

4 cups ripe peaches, chunked (you can leave the skin on)
1 1/2 cups milk
1/3 cup honey (more to taste)
pinch of sea salt
juice from two lemons

Put everything into the blender. Blend until smooth. Chill in the fridge for an hour or two.

Once mixture is chilled, freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions.

We served ours right away and it was perfect. You could spoon it into a container and let it firm up in the freezer for a couple of hours.

This is the electric ice cream maker we use. We like the old-fashioned crank-style better, but this one does pretty well and isn't as much to clean up. We're not too keen on some of the recipes that come with it, however. The internet has plenty of yummy recipes--just about any combination of ingredients you can think of is out there.

More Muscovies and Fewer Campbells

Today our mama Muscovy brought out fifteen ducklings from the nest! And they are very cute. As we posted earlier, Muscovies make great mini-homestead livestock. They are quiet (they don't quack), good foragers (they eat grass, weeds, and bugs), and provide plenty of eggs and meat.

One day old Muscovies.

Watchful Mama Duck

Following Mama

We also have Khaki Campbell ducks. These are great layers, but they do have some drawbacks for us. First and foremost, we can't eat the eggs--they are yummy, but they upset the tummy. They are also noisy--constantly quacking. We have had two hatches of them this spring, eleven in each hatch. We'll be harvesting all the adult Campbells in the next week or so, and will grow out the ducklings for harvest in a few months. Although they are much smaller than the Muscovies, and therefore, don't give us as much meat per bird, we do like the taste. It is worth the extra effort of preparing and extra bird for each meal.

Mama Campbell and her ducklings

Harvesting Tomatoes

Depending on which variety you are growing, you can expect to begin harvesting your tomatoes 55 to 100 days from the day you set them out in the garden. The small cherry tomatoes tend to ripen the fastest while the big slicing tomatoes take longer typically. (Check the seed packet for the number of days to harvest, and for what color your tomatoes will be when ripe.)

Commercial (supermarket) tomato harvesting goes something like this:

Pole-grown (indeterminate-type), fresh-market tomatoes are harvested when fruit is not quite pink in color (a long way from ripe). Bush-grown (determinate-type) tomatoes are harvested when about 15 percent of the fruit is red, that means that 85 percent of the fruit is still far from ripe. The tomatoes are then sorted and packed into cartons. The cartons of fruit are typically placed in temperature-controlled storage for up to 10 days and are subjected to an ethylene treatment (to "ripen" them) prior to going to market.

Harvesting in the garden goes something like this:

It's a Saturday in June and you're making a sandwich for lunch and need a slice of tomato. You go out to your garden and pick the reddest slicing tomato out there.

Later, you're making a dinner salad and need some cherry tomatoes and some yellow pear tomatoes and some purple Cherokee tomatoes to go with what was left of the slicing tomato you used at lunch (provided there was any left after you ate a slice or two with a sprinkle of salt). You go out to your garden and you pick handfuls of the ripest, yummiest cherries, yellow pears, and purple Cherokees out there (you pick a few extra to eat on the way back to the house).

Pick your tomatoes when they are red (or whatever color they are supposed to be) and firm. Those you don't eat fresh off the vine can be stored in a cool place (optimally 60°F) -- that is, not in the refrigerator and not in a plastic bag.

If, on that rare occasion in the winter, frost threatens and there are a dozen or so still-green tomatoes on the vine, go ahead and pick them, wrap them loosely in newspaper or a brown paper bag (not plastic!) and store them in a cool, dark, dry place. Better: fry them up at once! Fried green tomatoes take the sting out of having to pull up your tomato plants.

Storing Fruits and Veggies So They'll Keep

This post is also available at The Swanson Family Web Site: dcs1225.com

The average American household throws out almost 500 pounds of spoiled produce every year. That's a huge waste considering that the produce-gone-bad is about one-seventh of the food the average family buys.

That's a lot of brown-black bananas, wilted spinach, and mushy peaches! If we could keep these items fresher a little longer, we might not have to throw out so much.

Chemistry is part of the answer. No, not more preservatives--we have way too many of those in our food supply already. If we learn some important aspects of the natural chemistry of the produce we keep, and make storage arrangements accordingly, we'll have more time to be able to use more of what we store.

Our Anna Apples

Like all other living things, fruits and vegetables breathe. Respiration continues long after harvest. Some produce gives off ethylene gas, a ripening agent, while others are sensitive to it. Those sensitive to it will "over-ripen" quickly in its presence. If you put ethylene producing apples in a drawer with ethylene-sensitive kale, the kale will yellow and wilt almost overnight. One thing we can do to help keeping everyone happy in the fridge is to keep the two groups away from each other--the ethylene-makers on one side and the ethylene-sensitives on the other.

Temperature also has an effect on the longevity of produce as well. Typically, the warmer the air, the faster the decay. Respiration is slower the lower the temperature. But slowing respiration too much is not a good thing. If you keep your produce in an air-tight bag, it will suffocate and spoil all the faster. 

Also, just as some produce is ethylene-sensitive, some is cold-sensitive--refrigeration will ruin them. Potatoes, onions, winter squash, and garlic, for example will last much longer in cool (not cold), dark, dry conditions.

KEEP THESE ETHYLENE PRODUCERS COOL

Apples
Apricots
Blueberries
Cantaloupe
Grapes
Green onions
Honeydew
Mushrooms

 

KEEP THESE ETHYLENE PRODUCERS OUT OF THE COLD

Avocados
Bananas, unripe
Nectarines
Peaches
Pears
Plums
Tomatoes

KEEP THESE FRUITS AND VEGGIES AWAY FROM ALL ETHYLENE PRODUCERS

Asparagus
Bananas, ripe
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Cabbage
Carrots
Chard

Cauliflower
Cucumbers
Eggplant
Kale
Kiwi fruit
Lettuce
Leafy Greens

Parsley
Peas
Potatoes
Spinach
Squash
Sweet potatoes
Watermelon


Sources: http://www.nysipm.cornell.edu/organic_guide/stored_fruit_veg.pdf

June in the Garden

Replenish mulches around plants; it reduces weeds, conserves moisture, and prevents disease.

Work compost into beds, then plant fall crops of peppers and eggplant.

Direct-seed collards and tomatoes for fall harvest.

Continue to plant vegetables and herbs -- cantaloupes, corn, cucumbers, okra, peanuts, southern peas, summer squash, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, and bush beans. Also plant basil, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary and thyme and other heat-lovers. Continue planting sweet corn in small blocks, every 2 weeks for continuous harvest through fall.

Thin fruit on trees early in the month, after June drop; mulch root area with a thin layer of compost, topped with 3 inches of organic mulch.
    
Look for slow-moving bugs in the cool of the morning; hand-pick them, then dust below the plants with diatomaceous earth (be sure to use a dust mask so you don't inhale the dust).

Water plants in the morning so they don't become susceptible to fungus and insect infestation.

Stop watering onions and garlic grown for bulbs when leaves being to turn yellow. Dig bulbs when tops have fallen over and place in a shady, well ventilated area to cure.

Wash fruit trees periodically with a forceful spray of water to remove dust, honeydew and pests like aphids, whiteflies and spider mites.

Kill pests and disease in vacant beds by covering moist soil with clear plastic for several weeks.

Harvest your summer vegetables as soon as they are ready. Don't let them rot and drop to the ground. This can bring insects and disease. See our harvest guide.

Prune back perennial herbs like rosemary. Continue to harvest as herbs mature.

Continue to feed avocado and citrus trees. Check for pests and diseases. Irrigate as needed to maintain adequate soil moisture.  Watch for chlorosis (yellowing of the leaves between the veins, a sign of iron deficiency). Feed with a good iron supplement such as Ironite.   

Fertilize Plumeria with a low nitrogen fertilizer. Plant new or re-pot plants to replace old soil with a fresh mix.