A Tour of the Garden

Expanding the garden subsistence style

You may have read about the problem we had with our raised beds — the mulch underneath the beds was holding water like a sponge making the beds too wet. We fixed that problem as much as we can, but decided to plant more crops around the perimeter of the garden. Then, we decided to expand the garden by about another 350 square feet. The original garden is about 22×20 feet, so we are almost doubling the size. Here’s the expanded garden. As you can see, we’re still preparing the soil on the new plot at the top of the original garden:

I started by tilling up the turf with my Mantis tiller, which works really great for that task. Next I raked out the plot and let the churned up turf dry in the sun for a couple of days. Then I raked the plot, clearing the dried up grass and roots. Then I started back with the Mantis, tilling the soil. But I didn’t like the outcome — the soil was being over-worked into a fine powder. The weather has been extremely hot and dry here, so the soil is very friable anyway.

Abandoning the tiller, I went back to hand-turning the plot, just like subsistence farmers do. I use a mattock to break the soil down to the clay layer, about 6-12″ inches depending on where I am in this plot.

As I am pulling the dirt toward me, I pick out the big rocks and other debris. Our house was built in 1897, and from what I’m finding, a shed must have stood here long ago. Here’s a photo of some of the stuff I’ve dug up:

Lots of rocks, a piece of cast iron pipe, a piece of an old plow, broken cast iron, and roots. So, a tiller would have a really hard time with all this junk underground. After I break up the soil and pull it toward me, I shovel it back onto the row I’m digging, effectively moving the soil from one spot to another. This is my version of double-digging, although I’m only going down 12″.

This has taken me about 8-hours, and I’m only about half-way through the task. But, there is something very satisfying about turning the soil by hand without the noise and smell of a tiller. I also have a new appreciation of subsistence farmers who work under very difficult conditions with much poorer soil than mine. At the end of the day, I’m dirty, hot, and tired, but the satisfaction of doing this by hand is good.

When we get this plot turned, I’ll add compost, organic composted manure, maybe a little peat moss, and a mixture of organic soil enhancers. Then, we’re ready. We’re planting a new garden with potatoes, beans, squash, tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, cucumbers, and who knows what else. Once this new plot is established, we will completely re-work the raised bed area by removing the beds, mulch, tilling, and rearranging the layout. We’re learning this year, but already we’ve got great plans for our fall garden. We’ll keep you posted. Stay simple!

Soap-making in 4 easy steps

We got tired of spending over $1-a-bar for soap several weeks ago, so we started looking around for ways to make soap at home. Most soapmaking was either dangerous — “lye can cause an explosion” — or too time-consuming — “let the soap cure for 30-days.” So, we kept looking until we found the perfect solution. Our 3.5-ounce bars of soap now cost us only $0.65/each, take about 30-minutes to make, and do not put us in danger of being blown off the face of the earth. All good reasons to make your own soap. So, here it is in four easy steps:

Buy pure vegetable glycerin bars. We buy ours in 5-pound bars from Clearly Natural Soaps. They sell 1, 5, and 25 pound bars of pure vegetable glycerin made without any animal by-products. Very important if you do not want animals killed so you can be clean. This is called melt-and-pour soap.

Melt the glycerin in a double boiler. We melt about 1.5 lbs at a time, which creates roughly 6 “bars of soap. Glycerin is really easy to cut and melt, so this is very simple.

Add essential oils, coloring, and whatever else you want. We keep it simple with essential oils like orange oil, lavendar, and eucalyptus (not all in the same batch), and yellow, purple, or green colors. We use food coloring, but there is a soap color you can purchase. Food coloring seems to work just fine, just don’t overdo it.

Pour and let sit overnight. We pour our soap into a silicone muffin “pan.” Because the silicone pan is flexible, extracting the bars of soap is easy. But, you could use soap forms, muffin pans, or any other form that can withstand hot soap! After the soap sits overnight, we wrap it, and put it in the bathrooms for all to use and enjoy.

After several weeks of using glycerin soap, Debbie and I both believe our skin is in better shape — pores smaller, skin smoother and more moisturized — than with commercial soaps. And we were using Dove! Which I am sure is a very fine commercial soap, but ours is much better. Plus, it’s a lot cheaper, too.

Square foot gardens sing the blues

You’d never guess by looking at our cheery herb garden that only a few feet away…our pretty square foot gardens are singing the blues! We finally figured out what went wrong when we pulled the mulch away from the boxes. And like most problems in life it was self-inflicted…not by the vegetables…but by the gardeners!

The problem is they’re not draining properly…they’re like plastic pots with no holes. We made our boxes this spring. When we placed them in the garden we realized that the ground wasn’t quite level. We decided to put a bed of mulch down under them to level them up. This seemed like a good idea at the time, but now the mulch is acting like a giant sponge. We’re even growing mushrooms along with the onions and squash!!

The plants were doing fine for a while, but now are looking pale and some of the stems are rotting. The purple Italian beans in the square foot bed are a pale color and the leaves are small. The same bean I transplanted from the square foot garden to the dirt is lush and green and growing up the bamboo tee pee.

So early this morning before the sun hit the backyard, we started digging mulch out from around and under the boxes. The mulch we pulled out from under the beds was soaking wet…the veggies were drowning. Chuck left for work and I spent the morning digging and hauling the wet mulch to a nearby flower bed. The heat and shoveling sent me inside before lunch but at least air can get under the boxes now and they can dry out. We’ll keep at it in the cool of early mornings till we get the mulch all out. Hopefully, balance will return to our plants before it’s too late.

They say if you’re not making mistakes, you’re not doing anything. Well, we’ve made a lot of mistakes in our first attempt at vegetable gardening…but we’ve learned some valuable lessons, too. And you know, even when things aren’t going well in the garden, we can’t think of any place we’d rather be! Maybe soon the square foot gardens will be singing in the sunshine again! Stay simple…and may your worst gardening problem be what to do with all that zucchini!!

Taking out the AC seemed like a good idea in February

It’s hot here in Southside Virginia. Right now at 10:18 PM, Scott’s Funeral Home Time-and-Temperature display reads 84 degrees. Which is actually not that bad, but inside the old Victorian it’s 90 degrees! Either that or the thermostat is stuck, but I really think it might be 90.

Last February, in a rush of save-the-earth, live-simply enthusiasm we jerked out the two big window air conditioners downstairs. We left the window AC units in the upstairs bedrooms, just in case we had company or succumbed to the heat in July. In February when the temperatures ranged from the 20s at night to the 50s in the day time, taking out the AC seemed like a really good idea. Tonight, it’s just plain hot.

Our house originally had “sleeping porches” upstairs, we think. Lots of old houses built at the turn-of-the-century did. Our next door neighbor’s house still has the upstairs sleeping porch in tact. But, ours were long ago incorporated into the upstairs master bedroom and bath, so no cool screened porch to sleep on for us.

The good news — last month’s electricity bill was only $76.40, the lowest it’s been since we moved here four years ago. Typically, the AC units run the e-bill up to over $200 per month in hot weather, so the savings is significant. Our hope is to get the electric bill down to about $50 a month, which means using the solar clothes dryer (clothesline), and figuring out how to cut back the hot water heater. I’ll keep you posted. How many months until February?

“I’m too tired to go to the grocery” salad

They say, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” She’s probably also the mother of a lot of last minute dinners! I needed to take a salad to church, but it was late and I was too tired to run to the grocery. I had lettuce from our garden, but was missing the tomatoes, carrots, oranges and avocado I usually put in it. I looked in the fridge and all I found were the leftovers from the night before…brown rice and some roasted vegetables. Hmmmm….maybe it won’t be so bad. I added the leftovers to the salad greens, drizzled some olive oil and balsamic vinegar and a sprinkle of Jane’s Crazy Mixed up Salt. It was really pretty and delicious!

So, tonight we had “I’m too tired to go the grocery” salad again…this time on purpose!! Here’s the recipe– such as it is.

Cook 1 cup of brown rice according to directions. I use 2 1/4 cups water. Takes about 50 minutes. Cut and cook veggies while rice cooks.

Roasted veggies–preheat oven to 450 degrees

6 or 7 red new potatoes cut in quarters

1 or 2 summer squash halved and cut in 1/2 inch pieces

1 red pepper sliced

1 vidalia onion cut in chunks and separated

1/2 cup whole baby carrots

1/2 cup frozen cut green beans

2 tbs olive oil or to taste

Cut the potatoes and steam for about 10 minutes

Cut the other vegetables, add the carrots, green beans and steamed potatoes and toss with olive oil in large bowl.

Line cookie sheet with parchment paper. Spread veggies evenly on cookie sheet. Cover loosely with aluminum foil and cook on 450 degrees for about 20 minutes. Remove foil and cook another 20 minutes or until the veggies brown and caramelize. You may need to turn them with a spatula.

The first night we eat the veggies over the brown rice. We have quite a bit left over in the fridge. So the next night we can make a bed of field greens on a plate and top with cold rice and cold roasted veggies. Tonight I added some sliced almonds on top…almonds make everything taste special! Drizzle olive oil and balsamic vinegar over the salad –season–and enjoy!

Raindrops are falling…in my rain gauge

Okay, so it’s not as catchy as “raindrops are falling on my head,” but the rain gauge has become an important fixture in our garden. Last Friday, May 22, it rained 0.3″ but now it’s Tuesday and the weather is warming up. We needed another shower.

This evening Debbie and I sat in the rockers on the front porch and watched it rain steadily for about 20-minutes or more. The temperature dropped as the rain fell gently on the garden — and everything else. I thought we probably got at least a 1/2-inch or so.

But just before dark I checked the rain gauge. Barely 1/10 of an inch registered. I’m grateful for that, don’t get me wrong, but my point is that our perception can be misleading. I’m paying attention this year, and my rain gauge is part of my new awareness. I’m told the garden needs an inch of rain per week. So far we’re short, but it’s only Tuesday. However, if I ever get our rain barrels fixed and hooked up, I was told that 1/10″ of rainfall can fill a rain barrel (55-gallons), when it’s placed under a downspout. Talk about multiplying your resources — that’s a great return on a small investment. I’ll let you know when I get the barrels fixed. Until then, stay simple. (I had promised you soapmaking today, but that will have to wait until Thursday.)

Back to the rhythm of ordinary

What a week this has been!  Last Saturday, after picking up some homegrown strawberries and honey from the bees of our friends, Carson and Jean, we spent the afternoon working in the garden.  That evening we checked our bluebird box where a bluebird couple was raising a batch of 4 new babies.  As Debbie peeked into the bluebird house, her eyes were met by the steely, cold stare of the eyes of a rat snake.  I’ll spare you the gory details, but the snake had already swallowed the baby birds.  We dispatched the snake, who was only doing what snakes do, cleaned out the bluebird box, and will put a baffle on the post so future bluebird families will not suffer the same fate.  You can read the whole story on Debbie’s blog, Goodthoughts.

This past Monday and Thursday we had the opening events at the new community center.  I’m president of the non-profit, Chatham Cares, that’s building the center, so it was a very busy week.  But, both the open house on Monday, and our first annual fundraising gala on Thursday were roaring successes, so it was really good.  You can read more about the community center on my other blog, Confessions of A Small-Church Pastor.

So, finally we’re back to our regular routine.  Yesterday we worked in the garden for the first time in over a week.  Plus, we did a lot of yard work — mowing, planting, putting up bird-netting to keep birds off our new blackberry plants.  Tomorrow on Memorial Day we’ll do more of the same.  We have lots to plant, tend, and shape up, so we’ll enjoy a beautiful day in the yard and garden, again.  Here’s a shot of the herb garden and the square-foot garden.  Coming up next:  soap-making!  Stay simple.

First harvest of the season!

Today for lunch we had some fresh spinach from the garden. Not a lot, but enough to stir into the pasta sauce and ladle over our green organic spinach pasta. For dinner we harvested lettuce — 4 varieties — and 4 of our radishes transplanted weeks ago from our neighbor. Fresh radishes have an almost-peppery taste to them, with a little kick at the end.

Debbie and I spent most of the day weeding our labyrinth. This has become a twice-yearly affair, since we stopped using Roundup and other weed killers. Our labyrinth is about 42′ in diameter, with seven circuits. It’s the classic-style labyrinth, and we located at the back of our yard. Each spring and fall we pull all the weeds, add more mulch, and we’re good for another 6-months. This time, however, Debbie planted Creeping Jenny, thyme, and a plant recommended for rock gardens. The idea is to cover the labyrinth paths in a living carpet of green, rather than brown lifeless mulch. You can read more about our labyrinth at Debbie’s blog, Goodthoughts. We see the labyrinth as a metaphor for our own spiritual journey, and we try to pay attention to these real paths because they represent the spiritual paths in our lives. Weeds are not a good thing to have clogging up your spiritual highway!

While we were weeding today, a black snake joined us for a few minutes. The sun was out and he was stretched out in the grass between the labyrinth and the compost pile at the very back of the yard. We caught him as he slithered away. We’re glad to have black snakes, as long as they stay away from the bluebirds. Thankfully, the gardenside bluebird house was a good football field away from our slinky friend. Stay simple…and watch out for snakes in the garden of life!

Gardening with bluebirds

We’re growing bluebirds along with our vegetables this year! The fence of our vegetable garden runs right beside one of our bluebird houses.

Sometime between Sunday night and Wednesday morning the 3 blue eggs in the nest hatched and we now have 3 featherless pink bluebirds! They sleep with their very large mouths open and ready. Daddy bluebird is working overtime bringing worms and insects to his hungry brood. We haven’t seen Mom today, but maybe she’s out looking for something special for dinner.

Dad’s wary of our presence, but doesn’t seem to mind us watching as long as we are inside the fence! We’ve never been this up close and personal with the bluebirds before and it’s been a treat to observe their lives as we go about ours in the garden.

Getting to know the birds is another good reason to go organic in your garden. It’s always good to be kind to your neighbors. Maybe they’ll return the favor by eating whatever is munching on our beans! Stay simple…and enjoy God’s world around you.