Picture of the Day

A baby ladybug!

So young it doesn't even have its spots yet. We love ladybugs and are going to build a ladybug house for our garden. Hopefully, this little one is just the beginning.

Fried Catfish, Jell-O Molds and a Sunset

There was a big par-tay at the farm on Saturday and all plot-owners and plot-owners' families were invited. Attendance was roughly 150!

A local catfish restaurant supplied the fried fish, chicken, beans, coleslaw and hush puppies while dessert was potluck.

Here's the thing. Despite the fact that I was born in Arkansas, have a very strong southern accent when I drink and have been known to belt out the lyrics to country music songs, I have never in my life been more southern than I was at this party.

For dessert, I brought a Jell-O mold.

In my defense, it wasn't really a mold. It was just a cake pan. But it was Jell-O. With fruit in it. And, if you took a poll of the people in attendance, they would say it was actually a "salad" and not a "dessert."

On account of the fruit, of course.

But it was good. And I don't even like Jell-O.

And farmers sure know how to party. I think we were the only people there who did not bring a cooler full of beer, wine, liquor or a mixture of the three. And that was only because we don't have a cooler.

I lamented with the man next to me about weeds - crab grass in particular. I saw some enormous hats on the more genteel-looking women. A man behind me had a corncob pipe. We talked about the bandits who had attacked some plots earlier in the week (a jar of twist ties, a watering can and our citronella candle were among the missing.)

Needless to say, Adam and I were the youngest people there by half (not counting the kids of some of the plot owners) but we had a good time.

We took a quick walking tour of the farm after the party. It is interesting to see the trends that take hold in certain sections. One section of the farm is all about black plastic as a weed deterrent. In that same section, farmers use a substance called Sevin heavily on all of their plants.

In another section, plot-owners have doubled-up on the fencing in order to make it extra high. This section is closest to the surrounding forest and, according to rumors, has a higher deer population.

And, I'm proud to say that in our section several plot-owners have used bamboo poles intermittently throughout their fence to add strength. (And, as it turns out, a roosting point for red-wing black birds.)

After the party and farm tour, we were reluctant to go back to our un-air-conditioned apartment so we went to nearby Pinnacle Mountain instead.

And got there just in time to see the sun setting over Lake Maumelle and the Ouachita Mountains.

Roots

Things have slowed down a bit at the garden after all of the spring plantings. We are in that in-between time after the planting but before the harvesting.

So, we're spending a great deal of time weeding, watering and waiting.

Seems like a good time to back up a bit and tell you more about ourselves. I rummaged around and found some old pictures to help tell our story. I'm still missing some but will add them as soon as I find them!

You might want to take a few moments to let everything load. Go get a cold beer or something.

Erin was born and raised in Little Rock.

Adam was born and raised in Auburn, New York.

They met at Southampton College in NY where they both majored in Environmental Science.

Erin and Adam started dating and did an internship at an organic farm in North Carolina.

During college, they traveled to Costa Rica

and Brazil

and Australia

and the Solomon Islands

and New Zealand.

After graduation, Erin moved to upstate New York to live and work.

She got a cat named Moo Shu.

While Adam moved to Mississippi to work at a State Park.


Another year passed and Adam and Erin moved to Portland.

They loved the Pacific Northwest.

They got another cat and named her Junebug.

Adam and Erin had a garden in Portland too.

Eventually, after 6 years of dating, Adam asked Erin to marry him.
On a cliff.

She said yes.

After three years in Portland Adam, Erin, Moo Shu and Junebug moved to Little Rock.

And got married.
(on a cliff)

And honeymooned in St Lucia.
(also on a cliff)

Once settled in Little Rock, Erin bought Adam a garden plot for Christmas.

And they started a blog.

And they lived happily ever after.

Everybody's mulching for the weekend

Adam and I went in search of mulch last week. Apparently, when "weekend farmers" such as ourselves decide to take the weekend off, the weeds come out of hibernation and create a ruckus in the garden.

Since neither one of us likes to weed, and Round-Up is just not an option, we knew we needed to get some mulch down soon to prevent this from becoming a weekly problem.

However, we are cheap. After several years of living paycheck to paycheck we still cringe at the thought of spending money on something we can get for free. So, we went around our neighborhood looking for bagged leaves.

Through FreeCycle, we heard about a guy who had some yard waste on his curb. But it seemed his yard waste included waste-waste as well, judging by the amount of flies in the vicinity.

We were about to call off the search when we saw two (two!) houses with several beautiful black bags out front. We hesitantly stopped at the first one, peeked in one of the bags, and were delighted to find leaves.

Magnolia leaves.

Quite possibly the prettiest leaf around, if this southern girl has anything to say about it.

We filled our car to the brim and made our way to the farm.


Somewhere between the roach crawling across my arm and the realization that we literally could not see the forest for all the leaf bags, we discovered the importance of owning a truck.

Not right now of course.

But some time. The future farm of our dreams includes a future non-gas-guzzling truck. And, while I'm populating our dream with specific items, I'd like to include a dog.

Several dogs actually.

And I want one of them to be tall enough that, when he is standing next to me, I can rub his ear without bending over.

Lunch Break Gardening

Over that last few weeks I have been speeding out to the garden during my lunch break everyday. I usually get about 30-45 minutes of time to poke around in the garden in my office clothes. While I sit at work I usually find myself thinking about the garden: weather, water, soil, creatures and all the gray, white and brown of the garden turning green.


This is an example of what I did during my lunch in the garden the week before last:


Monday:

-Planted Melons
-Watered


Tuesday:

-Planted Red and Romaine Lettuce

-Fertilized Tomatoes and Peppers (I fertilize every two weeks)

-Watered (I water whenever I plant seeds, sprouts, seedlings or established plants)


Wednesday:

-Planted Black Beans and Swiss Chard
-Mulching with Dead Leaves (Ongoing process as we continue to collect them off our neighbors curbs)
-Watered


Thursday:

-Fertilized Sunflowers
-Spotty Weeding (I usually focus on the weeds that are closest to my young plants that would compete the most for resources)


Friday:

-Planted Carrots (I plan on planting a line of carrots and radishes every two weeks to provide a continuous harvest)
-Watered

Black Beans that look like ancient reptilian aliens emerging from the earth!

Powerful little lettuce seedlings breaking through the very crusty soil.

This is an example of what I did during my lunch in the garden last week:


Monday:

-Planted Chives, Dill, and Green Onions between pre-existing plants throughout the garden.
(I plan on peppering the garden with these to ward off pests, attract beneficial and fill empty spaces with deliciousness)
-Watered Seedlings


Tuesday:

-Put up Trellis for row of Purple Pole Beans made from flattened tomato cages, electrical ties and 4' wooden stakes (We are using corn and sunflowers as a natural trellis and bamboo tripods for all of the other beans)
-Watered Seedlings


Wednesday:

-Photographed the garden
-Spotty Weeding


Thursday:

-Removed Aphids from Asparagus Beans by hand. You can use a jet of water to knock these little guys off your plants or you can run your finger tips along the stems and leaves to remove/squish these little squashy guys. Ants had placed them on the plants and were "farming" them for their honeydew. Check this out!

These little Fire Ant tended cuties have been deforming the new growth of my Asparagus Beans and have to go.

-Removed beetles from my Kentucky Wonder Beans that had been turning these plants into Swiss cheese.

Friday:

-I surveyed the damage and looked for any remaining or replaced Aphids but there were very few and the beetles may be a continuing problem.
-Planted Dill and Cilantro
-Watered Seedlings


I am fascinated by all of these creatures and I hate having to squish them but my bean plants are too young and wimpy for me to allow there first leaves to be munched and deformed. Every bean plant has been affected by beetles or aphids except for those growing amongst the Sunflowers. Hmmm...interesting. All in all I think the Asparagus Beans and Kentucky Wonder Beans, aside from being a little perforated are going to be just fine. Erin and I plan on losing at least 10% of our plants to pests so a few holes here and there is nothing to freak out about but I'm keeping my eye on you aphids.

I love these 30 minute trips, and in the future I hope that I can spend my entire work week in the garden.

We have Growth!

We have potatoes...

...and radishes...

...and peppers...and a pepper blossom...

...and corn...

...and corn n' beans...

...and okra...

...and collards...

...and wildflowers and zinnias!

Night Farming

Tonight we went out to the garden after work to plant garlic.

In the dark.

Luckily, planting garlic is pretty easy so we were able to complete the task without much light.

To plant the garlic, we dug a whole in the ground about 2 inches deep. We spaced the cloves about a foot apart all along the fence. We didn't even bother with fertilizer, etc.

We planted them along the fence because the smell of garlic can ward off garden raiders. Now we have more garlic planted in our garden than any other plant.

Which is a good thing, since we love it.

And if we ever fancy a vampire-hunting career we won't have much to worry about in the garlic-supply front.

Before planting, I took this photo of the sunset. If you look closely, you can see a partial outline of Pinnacle Mountain to the right.


Adam's current place of employment is relatively close to our garden plot so he likes to spend his hour-long lunches out there on some days. This afternoon, he was alone on our little 25' x 50' plot when a woman drove up and rolled down her window.

Since most community farmers seem to be very friendly and curious about other's garden plans, it isn't particularly unsusual for people to stop and chat. But this woman rolled down her window and asked, "Is this the Garden of Hope?"

Needless to say, Adam was a little dumbstruck by this question. Because, yes, to us our garden is like a garden of hope. As I've said before, this garden is a test run for our future dream farm.

So, yeah, Garden of Hope sounds about right. However, it does not serve this purpose in any official capacity so Adam was forced to admit that, no, ours isn't the Garden of Hope.

The lady continued to drive down the lane and eventually found the "official" Garden of Hope, a 4 plot site operated by a local church.

And we're okay with that. They've got the moniker and, apparently, the money.

But we've got a garlic fence.

So there.

What did we NOT plant today?

It was a full day at the farm today. Lots of sunscreen, lots of water and lots of planting. We were grateful for the near-constant breeze that wafted up from the river but, needless to say, that breeze will be gone (and sorely missed) come the summer months.

Alright, down to business.

Here is a list of what we planted today:

sweet corn

pole beans

sunflowers

peppers (bell, jalapeno, chili and banana)

tomatoes (cherry, Roma, beefsteak, heirloom brandywine)

wildflowers

zinnias

cucumbers

zucchini

okra

carrots

radishes

red onions

Sadly, I don't have enough pictures to correspond to all of this activity. Once I remembered my photography duties, the sun had already begun to set and the light was no good. But I did manage to get a few off before the sun fully set.

But, as you can see, our shadows were l-o-n-g when we finally started packing up.


Here is one of our corn/bean rows. The corn seeds are in back and were placed every 6 inches or so. The beans are in the front part of the row and placed in-between the corn seeds. Also, the sunflowers were planted in the row directly behind the corn/bean row.

Next up is one of our beautiful little bell peppers. We probably have more bell peppers than any other plant in the garden. Which is good since we eat them ALL THE TIME. We eat them more often than we eat tomatoes.

Most of our pepper and tomato plants are ones we grew from seeds. However, some of our seedlings just didn't look hearty enough for the great outdoors so we hedged our bets and bought some plants at a local nursery.


And here is one of our lovely tomato plants all warm and snug in its cage. The cages, lest you accuse us of tomato cruelty, are strictly for the tomatoes' benefit. They send their little stems out the openings and, as they grow, the cage provides support for those (hopefully) tomato-laden stems.


We prepared all of the beds today in the same manner as before. Hoe and rake the bed to break up clumps. Scatter peat/compost mixture. Water afterwards with the liquid fertilizer/water mixture.

You may have noticed that many of our plants have depressions around them. We made those in hopes that during the next rain, which is sure to come any moment now, some rain will gather in these little "volcanoes" instead of running off the side. We'll see how that goes.

Oh the way home, I quizzed Adam about what plant he is most excited to be growing/harvesting/eating and he, of course, said the chili peppers. He wants to make hot sauce.

My "top plant" is definitely my lovely okra! I l-o-v-e okra and simply can't wait until they are ready to harvest.

We have plans for most of the vegetables. But some of them (ahem, radishes) I'm at a loss of what to do with. Especially in such large numbers. I am excited about learning to can and sharing that (possibly harrowing) process with you. Any tips, pass them along. Please.

Naturally, we are pretty tuckered out after such a day. Off to bed we go....with visions of homemade tomato sauce in our heads.

Lettuce, Herbs, Successes and Failures

Today's List:

rosemary

thyme

basil

oregano

chives

cilantro

red leaf lettuce

mint

stevia

Stevia is a natural sweetener that we plan to use this summer when we make sun tea.

All of these plants received the same treatment as the zucchini, potatoes and onions: compost/peat mixture in the soil and then a quick watering with the liquid fertilizer/water mixture.

We also planted marigolds at the ends of most of our rows because they are pretty and they serve as a natural pest deterrent.


Our garden design has a seating area in the center with two circular beds surrounding it. We planted the herbs here so that it would be nice and aromatic in the summer when we are relaxing in our chairs. Flowers will be planted later in the back portions of these beds.

We also did an inventory of our garden since Little Rock had experienced another major storm after our last planting.

Some of our zucchinis did not fare too well. Many of them were pretty beaten down after the storm, especially since they were weak to begin with. But, we re-watered them and put them in homemade plastic bottle cloches to protect them from yet another impending storm. Cross your fingers that it works!

In happier news, our onions are starting to sprout.

And our potatoes? Well...just see for yourself:

Product Placement

I've been talking a lot about the organic liquid fertilizer we use whenever we plant so I thought I'd give it some props here.

It is called John's Recipe and is distributed by The Lady Bug Brand, a division of The Natural Gardener. It contains a blend of seaweed, humic acid, molasses and fish emulsion. So far it's been working pretty well. We dilute 1 Tbs in 1 gallon of water whenever we plant so it goes a long way.

There is a drawback, however. It is our intention to farm organically and, many organic farmers, use animal manure as fertilizer. However, since at least one of us is vegetarian, we shy away from animal manure-intensive farming.

Taking a cue from the Indians, who put a whole fish in the ground with their corn seeds, we thought we'd try this product to start our plants growing because it gets its nitrogen primarily from fish emulsion. Fish emulsion is made by taking the waste products from the fish industry, grinding them up and mixing them with water. Since it is a by-product of the industry, the industry itself does not profit from its use.

And, unlike cow/horse/pig/chicken manure, it does not contain the many antibiotics, pesticides and other chemicals that course through factory farmed animals every day of their lives.

It does, perhaps, contain mercury. And other heavy metals.

That is a concern for us.

We've been looking into it and, from what we can tell, it contains negligible amounts of mercury, if any at all. The term "negligible" is cold comfort but we take what we can get.

In a previous garden, in a somewhat more progressive city, we used a vegan fertilizer that worked wonders. We are on the lookout for a similar product here in the great city of Little Rock. Living in a small apartment with no backyard, we obviously cannot keep a compost or worm bin. So in the meantime....

We do what we can. And, as I've said before, this farm plot of ours is an experiment. A dry run for the future farm of our dreams.

We will see what works and what doesn't work.

We may change our mind about what we support and what we rebuff.

For those of you who are looking for the "perfect" fertilizer, check out these websites when doing your research:

Washington State Pesticide and Fertilizer Information Page
Extremely Green's Organic Fertilizer Guide
Wikipedia's page on Nitrogen-Fixing Plants

Potatoes and Onions

Potatoes

I'm not much of a potato person - except for when it's in the french fry or sweet form. However, being married to an Irishman, I guess it was inevitable that potatoes would be a part of our garden.

Turns out, planting potatoes is easy! Here's how we did it:

1. We bought some potatoes with every intention of cooking them. But we forgot about them and, when we next looked in the paper sack, we saw they had many, many eyes. So, we decided to plant them.

2. We cut up the potatoes, ensuring that each section of potato had some eyes on it.




































3. We prepared the potato beds with a compost/peat mixture and then dug holes about 4-inches deep.


4. We planted the potatoes (eyes facing up!) in the holes and covered with dirt.



5. We watered around each potato with the organic liquid fertilizer mixture. Then we mulched with leaves and watered some more!


UPDATE: Adam tells me that the potatoes did not have eyes. They had eye-buds. Eyes are normal on a potato but when those eyes start sprouting buds the time to eat the potato has passed. When the eyes start sprouting buds, it is time to plant!

Onions

If planting potatoes was easy, planting onions was practically mindless.

First we prepared the bed by raking over it to break up any clumps. Then Adam made "rows of holes" by sticking his finger into the ground. I went along behind him and dropped an onion into each hole.

We covered the holes with dirt, fertilized with the organic liquid fertilizer mixture, watered the whole bed and called it a day.

First Planting!

While Adam worked on re-tilling our rows, I set about preparing the "round mounds" that would be the home for our squashes, melons and cucumbers. The soil may look hard and cake-y on the top but it is so soft that working it with a shovel and hoe is no problem.

First of all, I broke up the ground surrounding our previously formed mounds. I took this dirt and added it to the mounds. (We have 4 mounds in each section x 4 sections = 16 mounds.)


After forming the mounds, I then sifted through the dirt by hand and pulled out the grass weeds. This sounds a little crazy, but it was actually a lot of fun! I always loved to play in dirt when I was a kid and not much has changed since those days. Plus, I got a good look at all the little bugs and critters living in our dirt.

At the end of the day, I had a bucket o' weeds.





Before I continue, I should say that I'm not a crazy weeder. It isn't something that I necessarily enjoy and it isn't something I think is always important. Overall, I don't think weeds are "bad" and Adam shares this sentiment so I can't see us spending a lot of time weeding. However, our little zucchini and melon plants were raised from seedlings and weren't doing too well....so I wanted to give them the best chance possible.

All that being said, this garden is, in many ways, an experiment for us. We certainly don't know everything there is to know and we hope to learn a lot along the way. By mid-summer we could be reformed anti-weeders with an arsenal of Round-Up at our disposal.

But I doubt it.

After preparing our "mounds" with a compost/peat mixture, I gingerly put our little plants in the mounds. As I said before, these had been raised from seedlings but had started to get weak and spindly in recent days, despite being put out in the sun for a good part of the day. I planted them pretty deep so that their weak bits were under the dirt. A storm was coming in a day and I didn't want them to be torn to shreds.

We made little zucchini "volcanoes" in the middle of the mounds and watered them with a mixture of liquid fertilizer (organic) and water.

Then we wished them luck and headed home.



Next up: Potatoes and Onions!