Vertical Garden Idea

Curbly.com's DIY Vertical Garden Idea

Though I'm not maintaining my own garden at the moment, I still get excited about neat ideas for future gardens- for myself and for you, too! This one has potential, but I'd be careful about the origins of any reclaimed wood used in or around your garden, especially if you're growing edibles. Reclaimed wood can harbor evil little insect goblins that can kill your garden and even invade your home! Also, you're not going to want to grow your food in cans previously housing toxic paints- you might, instead find unused tins or buckets, or ones that you know didn't contain nasties...this includes BPA from the linings of food cans, which One Study indicates plants may be able to absorb! OHNO! don't eat'em, please and thank you- I don't need you getting all sickly in your quest for food independence!

We are prepping to leave the house in favor of a life of adventure and travel, so I am coming to terms with  the fact that I won't be doing any more planting at our little patch of green. Doing my best to be content with the Collards, Sweet Potatoes, Mint, Lemon Thyme, Basil, and Rosemary that persist from seasons past. 

I found this fabulous little poster this morning - a repost from Homesteading/Survivalism- and tracked it to it's source: http://www.rootologyhealth.com/

Hope it helps!

Here's another, from Green Tidings

Rosselini as a Bee?!?!

Green Porno Series: Bees with Isabella Rosselini

It's been a bit since my last post, but I just found this video through Ecouterre. What can I say? Isabella Rosselini graces us with a hilarious account of the lives of bees in Bee Porno!!!! Check it out, please and thank you!

And you can learn more about the Sundance Channel's 'Green Porno/Seduce Me' series here: 
http://www.sundancechannel.com/greenporno/

Oh, and if you're interested: the garden's a hot mess right now. I'm letting it advance on its own to see what happens...seems sweet potatoes and watermelons, as well as the Rosemary bushes totally dug the rainy wonder that was Tropical Storm Debby!

Hello, Tomato Bounty!

Our tomato crop has arrived, 24 buxom beauties picked just today, and the culinary creativity has begun!
-Tomato & eggs in the morning
-Tomato & mozzarella salad with basil for lunch
-Grilled tomato & eggplants for dinner
-And snacking on tomatoes while making a pot of tomato sauce!

"Hello, I'm Crick. Who the heck are you?"

Some of the tomato plants in the garden (like the bushy lil' guy above) are mystery plants, too...they're definitely tomatoes, but I know I didn't plant them where they are cropping up! Guess I'll just thank Ma Nature for her generosity and eat up!



In other news.... my Harvest of Randoms post pondered whether the pea flowers wrapped poignantly about the blue garden post would produce a proliferation of plump pods perfect for picking when we're feeling peckish. Here's your answer: Yes!
We've got organic, non-GMO soy beans...not a ton, but at least a few snacksworth. They even survived cold storage in the fridge before I retrieved them from the veggie bin to see if they'd sprout! We are excited to have enough for a meal or fifty!

Lesson: the beans, the seeds, the fruits, the veggies you buy at your local market can be all you need to start your new backyard garden!


And, finally....

a sneaky little 'weed' has popped up amidst the Swiss Chard and Green Onions this week. As luck would have it, it is....(*insert drumroll)...LIME BASIL! Ojala! It all died last season and I was rather sad to see it go. It must have felt my yearning, cuz it's returned to fill my meals with tangy amazement! Thanks again, Ma Nature...you pretty well rock!

Kid's Gardening Workshop Comin' Up!

Jihyun Ryou's "Save Food from the Fridge" Project!

 

Shaping Traditional Oral Knowledge

Storing root vegetables vertically keeps them fresher longer. The glass funnel is used to add water to keep the sand moist.

I just found this great video on ways to store your fresh produce without using the big electricity-sucking coffin called 'The Fridge'. Take a minute to take a look- it makes perfect sense! Your fruits and veggies don't grow in refrigerator conditions, so how could they need the refrigerator to keep them fresh?
Jihyun Ryou kindly shares traditional knowledge (you know, the stuff your grandparents told your parents, but your parents thoroughly ignored) about food storage.

Try this and enjoy fresher-tasting foodstuffs without the huge electric bill!

The ethylene gas produced by apples makes other fruits ripen, but keeps potatoes from sprouting. Storing apples separately from other produce prevents your other fruits and veggies from over-ripening as quickly!

Fruit vegetables like zucchini, eggplant,  peppers and cucumbers can be stored outside the fridge, placed above a tray of water! A few grains of rice can be added to spices to absorb water so they don't get all clumpy.

Nope, your eggs don't need refrigeration, either...think about it. Chickens don't live in a fridge! A fresh egg will sink to the bottom of the water in the glass, remaining horizontal, but a stank egg will float.

 You can find the original post here: Jihyun Ryou on Mocoloco

Grow Your Own...

Harvest of Randoms

This garden is definitely my handiwork. I took a long look at it from the kitchen window and, from here, it just looks like a neglected corner of a slightly unkempt backyard.So haphazard! I love it! Left to their own devices, the squash vines have steadily marched their way through the tomatoes, Cuban Oregano, and random beans 'n peas and are trying like hell to climb over the little white garden boundary...I wonder where they're off to!

The Swiss Chard I bought on a whim from the local Home Depot (just to see how it would fare) is doing fantastically. Planted it in a sunny corner of the garden/yard (yarden?) and we've been clipping leaves daily for the last month or so....tender and delicious!


A few weeks ago I planted some random dried beans I found languishing in the bottom of the refrigerator - just to see if they might come alive. Yeah, they did. And they're quite happy, it seems. Like so:

I wonder if they will actually produce edibles! If I had thought they would take off, I would have planted them at the back  of the garden, but I didn't expect them to do anything, so they're smack in front of everything else and I've had to design a bamboo-pole jungle gym of sorts to guide them out of the way. Planning will be involved in my next garden, I assure you.

What else? I counted 62 unripe tomatoes in the TomatoWonderland quarter of the garden! That's a good amount of tomatoes, I should think! Seven varieties! And 15 eggplant buds!

 Not bad for a single bush! Can't wait to git 'em!

TED Repost: Growing Fresh Air

I just saw this Ted.com video about effective houseplants that scrub  the air super-efficiently...thought I'd share. Get yourself a few of these badboys and breathe easy...

I don't own this video, found it at TED.com. It's pretty useful, though!

Tomato Time!

I've got ants in my pants over our upcoming crop of tomatoes!Every day I think, "ripen NOW, you little bastards, so I can eatchoo'. But, alas, they have their own agenda. I suppose this is a great time for me to adopt a greater appreciation of nature's slow and steady wins the race attitude. At least, that's what my brain tells me- i think. I mean, I can barely hear it over the commotion my belly and tastebuds are making as I stare longingly at the giant rat's nest of tomato vines trying hard to obscure their nutritious bounty amongst green leaves and tiny yellow flowers.
Every day I peer into the tangled maze, and every day my heart sinks at the site of the hard, green harvest not yet ready for human consumption....That is, until today, when I noticed two plump, maroon Black Ethiopan tomatoes have *nearly* ripened to perfection! Finally! Ojala! I am so excited! Tomorrow, we will feast upon the products of my labor and my watchful eye! A salad! Yes! A salad made from garden goodies! Tomatoes! Swiss Chard! Green Onions! Basil! Eggplant! Oh, yes!
The last time a tomato was born of my somewhat garden, it was a loner. Solitary in its existence, but delicious all the same! Observe:

Come on, tomatoes! Ahmunna eatchoo!

Damn You, Fruit Flies!

Soooo.....snails have been a pretty big problem in the garden lately. I came outside this morning to discover all but one leaf on one of my Sweet Potato vines eaten down to the nubs by these little bastards! I've had little trays of beer set out in the garden and, as it turns out, snails get pretty excited when you offer them beer- like college students and those guys in South Tampa whose biceps are bigger than their torsos...Anyway, they just LOVE drinking and they fall into the beer and drown. Bye-bye snaily. Unfortunately, I'm a pretty absent-minded gardener, so I forget to change out the beer in the traps with regularity, which brings me to the new plague sent to me by the gardening gods- fruit flies. There were thousands of them in the garden this morning- hanging out in the big yellow flowers adorning a couple of squash vines and, disturbingly, in the rancid beer (not dead, mind you, just drunk and a bit ornery)...Now how to get rid of 'em without spraying nuclear waste all over my food producers?????  The answer can be found, apparently, in a solution of Apple Cider Vinegar, Water, and Dishwashing Soap (for viscosity, not flavor!). Check out this little instructional vid from The Urban Farming Guys...

 In fact, check out their YouTube page- tons of videos on their awesome project in Kansas City- they're creating community in a pretty rough urban area. Urban farming, off-grid energy, etc. Seriously, look them up. Every city could use this kind of help!

The Verdict....

 I forgot to cover a big pot of Cuban Oregano for last night's frost. It's not looking very healthy today...only time will tell if it will bounce back. Poor, delicious, somewhat-hardy, formerly green herb!

sad little Cuban Oregano needs a sweater!

Lesson 1: Cover the Cuban Oregano, it's tropical!

On the other hand, the tomatoes, squash, and eggplants seem to have fared well under the "Planket" (overpriced plant warmer).See below for proof! Bright, shiny, and bug-free! I guess I should thank freezynight for helping me out!

tomato flowers made it through the night!

snail-free, caterpillar-free!

Kabocha Squash Flowers going strong!

happy collards take whatever the weather throws at them! 

So here it is, the first hard freeze of the season. 10pm to 9am. That's too cold! And for too long! And, of course. Three days after the backyard tomato jungle proves viable, yet not quite ready for harvest. Two days after a pile of new eggplant flowers open - yes, the Ichibans, the Chinese, the little white ones- they were all in full crazy-warm Florida winter bloom. Who will survive? Who will die and agonizing, wilty, early-morning death???? I certainly don't know. I read somewhere that collards are frost hardy, so I suppose we'll see about that...I'm out of sheets for my haphazard garden!

Hell's bells, the anticipation is killing me! Wish me luck!