Planted Beans & Peas 2/16/13

We're expecting a frost tonight, but other than this unexpected fluke the weather has been exceptionally warm and nice.  I am taking a chance here, but I moved forward with planting some beans and peas today, in hopes of an early crop in the next 2 months.  I've never grown plants up the chicken coop before, but my theory is the vines will climb up the wire and the extra nutrients from the chicken manure in the coop will leach into the soil where the seeds are.  I'm also going to try growing Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans up the 4x4 fence posts.  Again, I'm hoping they will climb the posts, but only time will tell.

How to Save Broccoli Seeds (With Pictures)

Broccoli is probably one of the most loved vegetables on the planet.  Of course I don't know if this is fact or not, but I've never met a kid who doesn't love eating "baby trees" and with it's mild flavor even the pickiest adults I know enjoy it.

Let's talk about HOW TO SAVE BROCCOLI SEEDS

First, grow some broccoli.  As difficult as it is to NOT harvest it, leave it alone.  

After the head starts opening you'll see shoots with pretty little yellow flowers come up.

Aren't those pretty, happy flowers?  

When all of the seed pods that develop where the flowers were swell, cut down the stalks and place in a brown paper bag.  There was a mishap with my GrowBox and I had to chop the stalks down earlier than I would have liked to.  Hopefully the seeds are still viable.

After the pods are dry and crunchy pick them off.  I suggest doing this over a bowl because I had broccoli seeds flying everywhere.

When you've loaded up your pods, smash them.  I used my hands to do this.  Just crunch and smash.

To separate the seeds from the pods I got out my two favorite kitchen tools...The colander and the bowl.  

I placed the colander inside the bowl.

I gave it a gentle shake and swirl and the seeds fell through the holes.  Ideally this was a perfect plan.  I didn't account for (a) some of the pods going through the holes and (b) not smashing enough so there were still some unopened pods.

As any OCD Gardener would do, I picked through the pile one by one to make sure I didn't miss any seeds.  There were also a few pods that weren't fully dry.  I would have let them sit longer but we're hosting a party this weekend and I needed to get the bag of seeds off my kitchen floor.  The green pods went into the container and will be tossed into the compost.  Who knows, I may get some volunteer broccoli out of it.  

When I finished searching through the pods this is what was left.  I bin for the compost and a bowl of seeds to grow.

My finished broccoli seeds.  Some folks are extra OCD here and remove all the little bits of chaff from the bowl.  I figure it's just some extra organic matter for the garden so I leave it.  

The next step will be testing germination of the seeds, but I haven't gotten that far yet. 

The seeds I originally planted were purchased from MyPatriotSupply.com.  This specific variety is called Green Sprouting Broccoli.

First Egg After Molting

I recently wrote about my hens molting.  Heavens to Betsy was I getting aggravated at not having fresh eggs. Yesterday I noticed Ming Ming squatting, a behavior they started just before they first started laying.  Being the Mother Hen I am I decided to put their nesting box back in the coop last night.  I was rewarded with an egg today.  54 days with no eggs and the wait is finally over.  I am so excited she may as well have laid a Golden Egg!  Yahoo!

The Discouraged Gardener

There is so much gardening information available.  Websites, forums, books, friends, farmers....it seems everywhere I turn there is someone who thinks they know better than everyone else.  Some things I've heard:

Your plants will burn in the hot Florida sun, so make sure they aren't in direct sunlight all day.
Your plants need direct sunlight all day.  They won't grow in shade.
Grow your veggies under trees so they get filtered sunlight.
We have pests so you can't garden organically.
Grow your soil organically and you won't have pests.
Intercrop.
Plant in rows.
Square foot gardening.
Use manure.
Don't use manure.
Use fertilizer.
Don't use fertilizer.
Keep laying layers of wood chips.
Only use goat, rabbit or llama manure.
Add all the organic matter you can get your hands on.
Use Miracle Grow.
Grow in the ground.
Only grow in containers.
Plant by the lunar cycles.
Watch for volunteer plants.


...And the list goes on and on.  Not only is it overwhelming, it is also discouraging.  It seems like no matter what I try to do there is someone always telling me I'm doing it wrong (of course they are offering "helpful suggestions" but they may as well be saying nanny-nanny-boo-boo).  If things were growing out of control and over productive I might laugh them off and tell them, "well it's working for me so I'm not changing it."  The reality is I see pictures of lush, beautiful gardens and I get so jealous of those folks because my garden isn't producing anywhere near enough to provide one meal for my family, let alone sustaining us through an entire year.  I really, truly, desperately want to grow enough food for my family so I've thought long and hard about how to remedy the issues I'm having.

Invest in good quality seeds.  This means going through all of my 150+ varieties of seeds, doing germination testing, tossing old seeds and getting serious about planting the remainders.  In the past year the most success I've had with any brand or supplier or seeds was a single pack of Organic Heirloom Italian Genovese Basil from Botanical Interests.  The plants were huge and super productive.  I don't have the income to order more seeds from Botanical Interests yet, but when I do you can be sure I'll be switching over to their seeds 100%.

Grow only the foods my family loves.  I'm a sucker for a seed catalog.  I can spend countless hours reading every.single.description from cover to cover, sharpie marker in hand, circling away frantically at all of the things I "must have" for the upcoming season.  I don't actually place orders for them and always feel boring with my green beans, squash, tomato and pepper plants when I could have had things like Calypso beans, Purple and Green Artichoke or Tonda di Parigi Carrots to grow.  *sigh*  My family eats green beans, tomatoes, squash and peppers.  I do try to add at least one new variety each year, which is how we found Mibuna Mustard Greens.  Delish!  I have also tried growing several varieties of radishes, and no one in my family eats them!

Succession plant.  I can't stress this one enough.  I get all gung-ho about gardening, don't see results as quickly as I'd like, then I get discouraged and give up.  I need to stay on top of succession planting this season.

Plan the garden layout.  It seems I never have enough space in the garden.  I'm probably trying to grow too many things to have a decent harvest of any single crop.  What started out as one main garden bed has grown into planting edibles in all of my border beds and in the front yard.  If I start with a better planned layout maybe everything will benefit.

After losing my job 3 years ago I finally have the time to garden, but I don't have the income for it.  I know there are lots of ways to garden on the cheap, but here in Central Florida we need LOTS of amendments, more than a person can seemingly add successfully.  By the time I amend and get the seeds in the ground all of my organic matter is gone.

My toddler is almost 3 now and it's nearly impossible to find the time to get out there alone to garden.  I love that she wants to do it with me, but she generally just goes behind me digging up the seeds I planted or washing them away (she calls it "watering the seeds").  I know she will grow up too fast and she won't be doing this forever, but when you're trying to be self-sufficient it is really hard to sit back and watch it happen.  I have built her a bed of her own, but she likes to dig in the main bed more.

What struggles do you face in the garden?  Do you ever get discouraged?

Growing Salad in the GrowBox

I've been contemplating what to plant in my GrowBox and this morning I decided I wanted to plant a salad garden.  Here's a diagram of the seed placement.  Not sure how well multiple crops will do in the limited space, but giving it a try anyway.  Figured I can eat fresh baby salads and small (finger sized) carrots as I thin plants to give them more space.

When will my hens start laying again?

Back in mid-December the hens started slowing down egg production.  While that was expected, I did not expect them to molt at 8 months old and stop laying all together.  We collected our last egg on December 21st.  I was really missing the taste of farm fresh eggs, but am lucky enough to have a wonderful friend who has many pet chickens and who happens to be a vegan, so she is keeping us with a supply for the time being.    While this is all well and good, I do miss the whole process of keeping things simply self-sufficient.  

I've been doing a bit of reading online and it seems I may have poor layers who are also slow molters, where the molting process can actually take up to 7 months.  SEVEN MONTHS?!?!?  Yikes.  They didn't even start laying until September. :(  A fast molt only takes 2 - 3 months.  Anyone know of a chicken that doesn't molt?!?  Lol.

I've also read the molting process typically happens once a year for adult birds.  Pullets, or immature hens, go through one full and three partial molts prior to coming into lay.  Does this describe my young gals?  8 months old and molting???

It has been mentioned eggs become higher quality after a molt.  I guess that's something positive to keep in mind, huh?

It's often suggested you add extra protein to a chicken's diet during a molt.  Feathers are made up of protein after all.  I have been adding mealworms, some scrambled eggs, more table scraps and veggie garden plants.

Guess all I can do is keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best.  

Garden Tour: February 2013

Beets and Thai Peppers in my EarthBox

Dill and Cilantro need to be harvested and dried

Ghost Pepper Plant looking better

Mibuna Mustard

Failed attempt at spreading veggie and flower seeds in my flower bed.  Cleanup added to my To Do list.

One of my daughters gardens

Cabbage almost ready to harvest

More Mibuna Mustard.  This stuff tastes AMAZING!

My other daughter's garden.

Potatoes planted today in grow bags.

This is the GrowBox.  I don't like it nearly as much as my EarthBox, but hey, maybe I got a defective one.  This one does not wick water.

Broccoli seeds ripening

Key Limes

Main Bed, freshly clean and amended.

Hardin's miniature tomatoes.  

Celery trench

Another shot of the main bed

Meyer Lemon Tree

Pinecone Ginger not doing well.  On my To Do list is to move it to a wet, shady area out back.

Bed 1 of the front yard garden. Pumpkin, kohlrabi, bibb lettuce, tomatoes, chard and a watermelon plant.  This bed is filled with leaf litter topped with horse manure.

Bed 2 was a failure.  I used leaf litter and bulk potting soil from the local nursery and nothing else.  To Do:  Amend heavily and grow asparagus here.

Bed 4 is my tomato bed.  Can't decide if I want to add supports or let the plants sprawl, but I need to figure it out quickly.  Bed was filled with leaf litter, shoveled soil from chicken coop and topped with wood chip mulch.

Bed 3 - Strawberries, nasturtiums and kales.  Bed was filled with leaf litter, shoveled soil from the chicken coop and topped with wood chip mulch.

Surinam Cherry

Bed 5 has garlic and onions growing.  Bed was filled with horse manure and topped with wood chip mulch.

Another Meyer Lemon Tree.

The Moringa Tree got a haircut.  Patiently waiting for it to re-grow.

Meyer Lemon tree.