Making the Bed
This past Thursday I cleaned out one of my raised beds. I harvested the carrots and cabbage and gave up on the broccoli that was growing in it. The carrots were teeny-tiny, which means I need to add more compost to the bed.
Since I plan on growing some Napoli carrots in this bed for over-wintering, I added several inches of compost and some Dr Earth Starter Fertlizer.
After smoothing out the soil I planting seeds late into the night (until I could no longer see the seeds or the holes in which to put them). So far I have planted 192 carrot seeds and I still have at least twice that many more to plant (I’ll be busy this evening). I’m looking forward to the sweet crunchy carrots this winter. I’m optimistic since this is my first time planting for winter harvest. I’m also growing kale and spinach for the winter. Wish me luck!
Have you planted anything for winter before?
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Great Gardening Books: Front Yard Gardens
Lately I’ve been thinking about my front flowerbeds. I would like to make them bigger and includes few more bushes for structure. I can’t really decide what to do, so I checked around to find a few books for inspiration. I came across Front Yard Gardens: Growing More Than Grass
Liz starts off with a history of the lawn as we know it in the U.S., I was fascinated with the history. She then shows many different front yard gardens and shows tons of photos of each. I’m a HUGE fan of tons of photos in gardening book, so I loved this book. She has examples of all different kinds of gardens: cottage, minimalist, woodland, prairie and more. She also shows her own garden and has photos throughout the years and explains all the steps she went through during her transition from lawn to gardens. It is nice when garden authors show their own gardens, I’m always curious as to what their gardens look like and if they are as nice is they the ones they are featuring in their books/magazines.
This is a great resource for anyone wanting to expand the flowerbeds and take back your lawn. I would highly recommend this book for the photos as well! It’s definitely an interesting read.
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Is it Worth It?
It’s interesting to me that we all want to receive fair pay for the things we do, yet we want to buy things as cheaply as possible. We complain that food costs are rising and yet we don’t care that the people harvesting the food can’t afford to buy what they’re harvesting for their families.
I came across a great article on Slow Food Nation about the plight of the farm worker. Here’s a short quote from the article, to read it in full visit Slow Food Nation. The photos with the article are very moving, check it out. You can also see more of his images and more information at: The Farm Worker Project.
Rick Nahmias doesn’t equivocate when he talks about our cultural response to farm workers. “There’s something about our society…we don’t value or respect the people who are harvesting our food,” Nahmias told me over the phone recently from his studio in Los Angeles. “It’s not just that they’re sleeping on uncomfortable beds. These are people sleeping on cardboard mats under overpasses for three months at a go, and that’s so we can buy our grapes for 98 cents a pound. What are those grapes worth if that person has had to do that? I can’t see that. It doesn’t add up for me.”
This is one reason I try to buy a farmer’s markets, where I can talk to the people that grow & harvest the food. I’ll have to look into more fair trade items while shopping.
Are you willing to spend more on food so the farm workers can get better wages?
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Here Comes the Harvest
Every day I have more and more tomatoes coming ripe. This year I’m growing only 2 kinds of tomatoes: Viva Italia and Lemon Boy. I have picked 4 lbs of Viva Italia so far and only 1 Lemon Boy.
So what am I doing with all these tomatoes? I’m planning on canning them later on, but right now we’re eating them as fast as I can pick them. We love them grilled and tossed with pasta or on top of a pizza.
What are you doing with all your ripe tomatoes?
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Inspiration
While reading a book a while back I came across this photo.
I love the sapling fence! I can’t imagine how much work it is to cut all those saplings to the proper length and attach them. This would be a good fencing option for my garden. I have an ample supply of saplings around so it would be inexpensive. But would it be worth the time and energy to cut them all? I’m not sure.
