Get More From Your Garden

 Here are some ideas to get more from your garden, whether your home garden is large or small.  Some of these ideas work even in a balcony garden full of potted plants!  I used this outline to lead a round-table discussion with other gardeners.  I asked them to feel free to blurt out or jump in with questions or comments.  I ask you to do the same, although in this internet format, we will have to make-do with Blogger's comment feature.  I would love to hear what YOU are doing to get more from your garden and to make the most of your harvest. 

Get more from your garden through soil amendments, such as 

 ·    Manure

¨          Side dressing during growing season

¨          Top dressing before cultivation

·    Potash

·    Compost

·    Aeration through shallow cultivation

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Get more from your garden through crop rotation - Even for small gardens

§ Here’s one way to approach it:

·    The harvesttotable.com plan is a good one for a small garden

¨          TOMATO FAMILY

¨          CABBAGE FAMILY

¨          BEAN FAMILY

¨          ONION FAMILY

·    But does not include cover crops so, one more row or section allows that healthy addition to soil…

¨          Grasses or fallow row

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Get more from your garden through soil-friendly pest reduction

§ Another benefit to crop rotation: soil borne pests or disease will not have easy access to the same crops as in previous season

§ Row covers or other insect barrier methods

§ Organic spray or deterrent

·    Garlic onion cayenne spray

·    Close inspection that emerges from that spraying process

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Get more from your garden through practical planting methods

§ Square rows for predictable cultivation

§ Balance close spacing, intended to increase maximize yield,

with sufficient room and to cultivate

§ Templates to reuse from year to year with optimal spacing

§ Space Saving Structures, such as trellises, to maximize harvest in

Minimal space

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Get more from your garden through perennial crops that extend the season

§ Asparagus

§ Egyptian (or Walking) Onions *

§ Good King Henry (similar to spinach) *

§ Ground Nuts (Vine plant) *

§ Horse Radish

§ Ostrich Fern *

§ Ramps/Wild Leeks (Naturalize) *

§ Rhubarb

§ Scarlet Runner Beans (20 years!) *

§ Sea Kale (Ornamental & Edible) *

§ Sorrel

§ Sunchokes

(smallfootprintfamily.com/20-perennial-vegetables.com)

(* These are perennial vegetables that I am just learning about, and have not yet tried. )

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Get more from your garden through using all edible parts of the plant

§ Nasturtiums

·    Leaves, flowers, seeds

§ Radish green soup/using the greens

§ Celery

·    Leaves

·    Stalks

§ Many root crops have edible greens:

·    Beets

·    Carrots

·    Turnips

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Get more from your garden through using old favorites in new ways

§ Pansies or either edible flowers as a garnish

       or salad ingredient

¨Pea blossoms

§ Radish green soup/roasting the radish

§ Rhubarb as a savory

§ Squash blossoms

·    In a frittata

·    Sauted

·    Stuffed

·    Tempura/deep fried

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Get more from your garden through  more ways of preservation

§ Drying

§ Freezing

§ Canning

§ Fermenting

§ Root cellaring

·    Then preparing or freezing in batches before quality deteriorates

                        

“No two gardens are the same.

No two days are the same in one garden.”

~Hugh Johnson

http://www.quotegarden.com/gardens.html

Wherever you are, whatever the weather, I wish you joy in the garden.

Once Upon a Moonlight Farm

there was a metal-working innovator who wanted to be more self-reliant,

and a vegetarian teacher who wanted to walk barefoot on the earth.

So, like others before them, they cultivated the soil,

sowed a few seeds, and tended their rows most diligently until the harvest.

Over time, they added a coop, a few black and white hens,

and a rooster named Sherlock Holmes.

The innovator up-cycled an old school bus into a rabbit-hutch on wheels.

As years passed, the root vegetables surpassed all expectations.

Giant globe onions, flavorful heads of garlic, and enormous knobby rutabaga were savored, and shared, and stored in the cellar.

While the innovator tended to the soil as responsively as he did to the plants, the teacher kept notes and wrote their methods into a little gardening book.

At first, this book was for their own use, so they could work more efficiently through each new growing season, and not “reinvent the wheel” each year.

The Moonlight Farmers wanted to share the joy and satisfaction of growing food at home, so the little collection of lists and notes became a book that other gardeners could carry into their own garden, to record their ideas, to celebrate their successes, and to chronicle their learning process.

To this day, the Moonlight Farmers continue their quest to get more from their garden each year.

This was part one of my recent talk at a local gardening center. Their event was called "Every Garden Has a Story" so I began with this simple version of how our garden got started, and what led me to write my book. Most of these photos were taken by my daughter and are featured in my book.  I will post part two of my talk , Get More from your Garden, soon.

Where ever you are, whatever the weather, I wish you time in nature.

Busy!

Of course we are exceptionally busy here on our farm... It is spring!  Asparagus is coming up... a handful at a time so far.  We are prepping rows for planting.  Onion sets have gone into the ground. We are eating fresh herbs every day and getting enough eggs to sell a few.  We have also been processing honey (we lost some bees over the winter, so we are going to save this honey and start over.)  I am trying to learn to render the beeswax for candles and other applications.  Always something new to learn!

Along with that, today I had my first speaking engagement as an author, and a book signing.  What fun!  Though it wasn't a large crowd, I loved the "round table" discussion that I had with the gardeners that came to listen.  I have as much to learn from them as they do from me.

Perhaps over the next couple of days, I will put my presentation into digital form and share it here.  

Wherever you are, whatever the weather, I wish you joy and good company!

Signs of Spring

Where ever you are, whatever the weather, I wish you joy in this season.

Spring Chorus

It stopped me in my tracks as I approached 

the chicken coop in the center of the garden this afternoon.

 There was singing in the woods, 

a song so joyful and exuberant

that it urged me to hurry down the trail.

I did, with Mabel trotting at my heels.

"Spring is here!" the little swamp singers proclaimed. 

My heart sang along

and my steps were lighter,

 as I returned to my chores.

Where ever you are, whatever the weather, 

I wish you a spring in your step

 and somewhere pleasant to spend your time.

April Seventh in these Northern Hills

Instead of April, there is winter outside my window.

From where I sit, I see the sun setting into the steel blue lake,

Sassy little waves stomp and toss their foamy white hair.

Spring hovers nearby... unseen.

Wherever you are, whatever the weather, I wish you comfort and joy.

Book Review

The blogger and photographer behind Out on the Prairie recently posted a review of my book. 

 If you have a minute to check it out, please do.  

While you are over there, scroll down through some of Steve's other posts. 

 His photos and commentaries make me feel like I am wandering the prairies

 with a knowledgeable naturalist.  

You will love the peaceful respite that his blog offers; I know I do!

Still working on maple syrup here.  It has been a long, dragged out season... and yet not a remarkable yield.    We just keep plugging away!

Where ever you are, whatever the weather, I wish you joy.