Are You Up for a Challenge?
I get a lot of questions and comments from new gardeners. Growing your own food is becoming more and more popular and more people I know are taking the plunge and putting in a garden. After much thought, I decided it would be easiest to have a separate small garden and to start a series chronicling each step of the process, what to plant, when to plant, how to weed; everything a beginner needs to know for a successful edible garden throughout the year.
I’ll be putting in a small garden in my yard somewhere off by itself. This spring, it will be started in the sod just like a new gardener would. A few vegetables will be grown, nothing too exotic, things that will be chosen for ease of growth and delicious eating. Each week or two (let me know how often you want to see an update) I’ll post an update to the blog with chores you need to be doing in the garden, things to look for, how things are growing, etc.
This is where you come in. If you are a new or an experienced gardener please answer the following questions:
Would you be interested in a series like this?
Would you join in by planting a garden?
Would you be willing to participate as mentor if you’re an experienced gardener?
What size garden do you think is a good manageable size for starting out? I’m thinking 5 foot by 5 foot
How many different kinds of vegetables should be planted? I’m thinking 5
What kinds of vegetables do you think are best for beginners? tomatoes, zucchini, lettuce, and peas are among my top choices so far.
Do you think it would be easiest to choose a seed collection from a seed company (like the EZ to Grow Rainbow Kitchen Collection from Renee’s Garden?)
Do you think any herbs and flowers should be included? I was thinking basil & marigolds for companion planting
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Empty Shelves
What would happen if you went to your local grocery store the shelves were empty? How long would you continue to go back looking for food? Once, twice, three times or would you go back at all? The same things holds true in the garden, if you’re constantly ridding your garden of “bad” insects, the good insects will never show up because the grocery store shelves will be empty. There will is no food to sustain them and they will move on to greener pastures.
I refuse to classify insects as good, bad, pest, beneficial, etc. In my mind, they’re all beneficial because each one plays an important role in the garden. Even the insects most people classify as “pests” provide valuable food for birds as the insects we typically classify as “beneficial”. Sure some insects are a great annoyance (mosquitoes) and sometimes they decimate our crops leaving our plates bare. If we want to build a balanced ecosystem in gardens, we must learn to sit back and let nature work.
Here at Chiot’s Run, I have noticed the benefits of not stepping in. Each year there is a greater variety of insects in the garden. Those labeled as pests are starting to become less pestiferous because the predatory insect population is growing. The less I step in, the more nature can balance itself out.
Here’s a great example. Last Summer I noticed asparagus beetles on my asparagus. I could easily have picked them off, put them in soapy water and “dealt” with the problem myself “organically”. Or I could let nature run it’s course and hopefully attract the parasitic insects that feed on these “baddies”. I left nature to it’s own devices and closely monitoring the asparagus to see what happened. In a few weeks, the population of beetles exploded, they seemed to be everywhere. “Infestation” would have been the correct description for my asparagus patch.
Not longer after the sudden increase in beetle population, I noticed a wide variety of other insects hovering about the patch: flies, yellow jackets, shield bugs, thread wasted wasps, tiny green wasps, ladybugs and a few others. I even spotted a bird or two flitting about.
After doing some research, I found a great article detailing the life cycle of the asparagus beetle at the University of Minnesota University and it stated:
A tiny (less than 1/8-inch) metallic green wasp, Tetrastichus asparagi, parasitizes asparagus beetle eggs (Fig. 6). You may notice these wasps when working in your garden. They can sometimes provide very effective control, parasitizing up to 70% of the eggs. Lady beetle larvae and other predators may also be active, and will consume both eggs and larvae. Most insecticides, however, will also kill beneficial predators and parasites.
I was happy to see the warning about insecticide killing both beneficial and pestiferous insects!
When you notice insects you don’t want in the garden, instead of hand-picking or spraying, add a few plants that will attract the insects you need to control them. Herbs are especially beneficial for this. Oregano, dill, fennel, catmint and most herbs will attract a wide variety of those insects we like to classify as “beneficial” to our gardens. What can we do to increase the population of those insects we really want?
In nature there is always an ebb and flow. The population of one species will boom while their predators slowly increase in numbers. Patience is really the best pest control in the garden. The only time you should step in is if the natural predators will not control the problem. Generally that is not the case for insects but more more for rodents, deer, groundhogs and other pesky large garden creatures.
I love these two definitions of ORGANIC:
a : forming an integral element of a whole : fundamental
b : having systematic coordination of parts : organized
Too often in our current system, organic is not much different than conventional except they use different methods of controlling weeds and insects. What we really need to do is to become real organic or beyond organic. To see our gardens as a complex system and each thing as an integral part of a whole. You can’t remove one thing without affecting the system as a whole. The more we shift our minds toward enabling diversity and natural order and away from controlling our garden, the more beautiful and diverse our gardens will become. We can shift the time we used to spend dealing with insect to watching the intricacies of the natural web.
When I talk about this, people always ask “have you ever lost any crops entirely to pest?”. The answer is yes, but in subsequent years I noticed fewer and fewer of those insects and a higher population of those that prey on them. A year or two without a certain vegetable or fruit is worth having it on my plate for years to come. We need to realize that we are not gods in our garden, we are not in control, the more we try to control it the less power we have; we are simply there to nurture and learn.
What’s your biggest insect “pest” in the garden? What’s your favorite “beneficial” insect?
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Cultivate Simple 14: Small vs. Far
An honest and unrehearsed discussion about trying to live a more simple life. This is episode 14 and today we are discussing Small vs. Far.
Small vs. Far
Homegrown/raised/seasonal
Local small farm if possible
Local Organic
Local non-organic
Small farm organic USA
Small farm USA
Small Company Organic (peanut butter)
Chart from Cornucopia Institute about who owns organic labels
Best Raisins EVER!!!!
Chaffin Family Orchards – Where we buy our olives. Watch their YouTube video. They are the real deal when it comes to permaculture on a large scale.
Geeky Corner w/ Brian
Dropbox – Get Susy some bonus space
- Keep files in sync on multiple computers (home to work)
- Backup files to the cloud
- Share folders and files (even large files)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:26:46 — 60.3MB)
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Quote of the Day: Carol Deppe
“One of the most joyous things we can do is to find our place, the land we fit into, the land where we belong. Having found our place, we snuggle into it, learn about it, adapt to it, and accept it fully. We love and honor it. We rejoice in it. We cherish it. We become native to the land of our living.”
Carol Deppe (The Resilient Gardener)
I was thinking about the quote the other day as Mr Chiots and I were doing something outside. We have pretty much settled into this new place. It’s starting to feel like home, more of that will come with some painting and a few other projects.
We are firmly planting ourselves into this new landscape and community. Every Monday afternoon we head down to our neighbor’s for coffee. A New Year’s party was hosted at our home. Another neighbor came for Christmas dinner. We’ve been curling, gone to farm party’s, visited farms, talked to people and have made many new friends. Maine suits us perfectly, I certainly hope the feeling is mutual because we’re here to stay.
How many different places have you become native to?
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Shelf Life of Seeds
As I’ve been sorting through my seed stash, I’ve been pulling out seeds I know are no longer viable. While some seeds may last for a long time (like tomatoes), others start to lose their oomph very quickly. I have found that with onions it’s best to purchase new seeds every other year. In general, fresh seed will have better germination rates than older seed. Tomato seeds seem to be the exception, I have great germination with old tomato seed. Beets do better if they’re only one or two years old. Onions need to be fresh. Here’s a handy guide to download or pin. Here’s the large PDF download of this chart: Shelf Life of Seeds
If you’re new to gardening it’s especially important to start with fresh seed. You don’t want to start off on the wrong foot.
How do you store your seeds? shoebox? fridge? scattered around the house? in the garage?
