Seed Saving: Chives

I cut off the flowering heads where I could see the seeds, saved them in a paper bag to dry, then shook the bag like hell. Seeds!

Green Beans

Seed saved from last year's garden:

Seed from last year's packet:

Planted the same day and time, two feet apart. Photos taken within seconds of each other. 

Beginnings

I love Spring. If you asked me, I would tell you that Fall is my favorite season, but there is something so soothing about Spring's arrival. I know the season itself can be hot, cold, rainy, dry, unpredictable, and altogether not exactly soothing, but when the first green shoots start showing in all the dead brown, it soothes. Hearts weary from winter know the season is drawing to a close. The cold is a little easier to bear when the trees start budding and the daffodils are nodding. It soothes, knowing time marches on into greener things. And when those greener things really burst forth, in the glory of blooming magnolias and lilacs, in tender bleeding-hearts and sturdy hostas, in green leaves and greener grass, it's easy to forget the depths of winter. 

There is a little parkway in the neighborhood, maybe twenty feet long and five feet wide, that blooms each year packed full of tulips, rampant in a kaleidoscope of colors. And I know that bright flag of spring is soothing to everyone else in the neighborhood too--there is always someone crouched at the little fence, taking a photo. I have too, of course. 

It's even more splendid now, with more blooms open. 

Around the condo, the perennials we planted are doing well so far. It's a delight to walk by and see the progress the tiny ferns are making, or how many hosta leaves are sprouting from each bulb, or even the little bleeding heart begin to bloom. I just picked up the remaining plants to complete the design. Well, this year's design. I won't be able to resist adding to it each year. 

In my garden plot, the radishes had sprouted, as had the green beans and peas. I got the rest of the black beans in today, as well as the calendula and borage and thyme. I am currently waiting for the threatening line of thunderstorms to arrive in town and give the garden a much-needed drink. The city has not yet turned on the water at the garden, so I have to haul it along in my little granny-cart, or let Nature do her thing. Today was a nature kind of day. 

Peas:

Green beans:

My calendula self-sowed the hell out of itself last year. Lots of sprouts where the plants were last year. I might not need to sow as many indoors next year--there were some strong, healthy starts. My seedlings get a little leggy (and take up space). 

Time to make like a tree and leaf. 

.....

Sorry. 

Garden: 2015 Edition, The Beginning

The community gardens are now open for the year, so I gathered my seeds and trowel and headed on over. 

Actually, I brought my little granny cart because the water is never turned on at the beginning of the season, so I had to bring two containers of water. And my kneeling pad, of course. And I just brought my whole seed container along, because I was too lazy to pick out the packets first--and yet still forgot my black beans. And, for that matter, my birdhouse. 

At any rate, I still got quite a bit done. I pulled all the weeds and raked the top few inches of soil. I tilled three squares for the carrots and parsnips, really loosening the dirt so their roots would grow with less resistance. I re-twined the plot so the squares were laid out again, then pulled out my garden plan. Time to sow:

-2 squares of carrots

-1 square of parsnips/radishes

-2 squares of green beans

-1 square of black beans (2 more when I bring back my saved beans!)

-2 squares of cucumbers: 1 square each of a bush kind and double yield. Since my cukes die every year without fail, I planted four in each square, in hopes that there is safety in numbers, or that the chances are higher for them to survive. Something. 

-2 zucchini and 1 delicata squash. They are all in a row, so I am considering putting them under the plastic hoop to save them from moths/squash bugs. 

-2 squares shelling peas and 2 snow peas, with a little pea teepee. I had hoped to plant lettuce under the teepee once the peas got going, but I didn't leave room. Too greedy with the peas. 

-I also sowed a row of bunching onions that a kind fellow gardener was giving away. Wasn't planning those, but I tossed some seeds in next to the squash. 

Just for funsies, I sowed my saved seed and the packet seeds in different squares, as a mini experiment. I want to see if there is any difference between the two seeds. My hope is that the plants that did well in the garden last year are more likely to come back strongly this year, but we'll see. As a note to next year, I did not save enough seeds last year. I got about a square each, except snow peas--about a third a square. 

And as a fun little note--my chives came back! I didn't expect them to overwinter, but they did so nicely and were growing along with no help from me. I pulled two new little chive volunteers that were out of place, but left the two established plants. 

And so Garden: 2015 Edition begins. 

Ahem. I forgot to bring a trash bag, so please excuse the pulled weeds piled in the corner. 

Canopy

Greens are growing. As usual, trying to find the right amount of light so they don't bolt or just stop growing. 

My solution for the windowbox? Rigging up a canopy out of branches from the fake tree the previous owners left behind. We'll see how that works. 

Perennials

I live in a condo building in the city. It sits on a corner lot with a small front yard and small patches of grass between the sidewalk and the road. No backyard--just decks and a swath of concrete. It's a great place, but not exactly a homesteading paradise. When we first moved in, there was a bed of lava rocks all along one side of the building. We removed the rocks and added mulch, and formed a new bed on the front of the building with the leftover mulch. The mulch was certainly an improvement over the rock, but I thought we could add a little green. So I decided to learn a little about flowers. 

A very little. 

We wanted something relatively low-maintenance (no yearly plantings), so I focused my search on perennials. Since one bed was on a north-facing side, and the other was shaded by trees, I looked at shade perennials in particular. Hostas are a popular, easy choice for shade perennials, so I relied heavily on those for the design. I added some lily-of-the-valley, a flower I have seen in many of the beds in our neighborhood. Bleeding-hearts are also popular in the neighborhood, but I was concerned about blocking windows, so I found one little spot where I could tuck a bleeding-heart against a wall. I love the look of the tall, feathery astilbe blossoms, so I found a spot for them where the height wouldn't be an issue either. I also love hydrangea and lilacs and desperately wanted to fit them in the beds. Unfortunately, lilacs don't really do shade. Hydrangeas, however, do! So I planned one right against an empty spot of wall. Add a few ferns, a few bugloss plants, and a couple of dead nettles, and I had a fifty-plant perennial plan. 

I ordered the plants online and the majority arrived this week--some bare root, some in containers. I put them in the ground today, with the help of another resident.  We scooped aside the mulch, dug holes, and planted the bulbs. I am already itching to see them pop up. 

I know many back-to-the-farmers advocate growing food in any free space you've got. However, don't forget that bees need blossoms in order to eat, and flowers can help fill in any veggie-garden blossom gaps. I am not going to guilt anyone for enjoying flowers in a growing space. 

Plus, I live in the city. Anything edible I plant along a sidewalk is liable to get stolen, eaten by squirrels, or peed on by the neighborhood dogs. 

Only a few weeks away from the garden opening!

Lettuce

I really think the key to my lettuce success is starting indoors. I just can't get a strong start on my seeds when I sow outdoors--I've stubbornly tried over and over again with sad results. So this year, I went back to the indoor starts. 

In little chobani containers, I started:

Frizzy-Headed Drunken Woman

Flashy Trout's Back

Pot and Patio blend

Wild Garden blend

Heirloom blend

Wild Garden Kales

Purslane

The purslane and wild garden lettuce blend didn't do so well, but the kale started impressively. The others did pretty well. 

Since three weeks have passed, I put the seedlings out under my mini hoop cover (this whole setup is a little janky, since I rigged the cover and hoops to fit something they honestly don't fit). I am hoping to harden them off and get them in my window box in the next few days. Then I want to start another round of seeds for succession planting--every three weeks is recommended. 

I am out of Drunken and Trout seeds, so I might try letting a few of the later bolts go to seed and see if I can't collect some. I haven't tried to collect lettuce seed yet, but why not learn?

I started a few spinach and chard seeds outdoors--some in the window box under the cover, some in an uncovered container. They are just starting to show little green faces. 

Can't wait to start eating salads from my own back deck!

March

I knew this was coming, but it is still a little cruel and unusual. 

At least I have these:

Spring has raised its little green head, even if it hit the snooze button and went back to sleep. 

PS:  The calendula is from last year's seed!

Garden 2015

So it begins. 

I have a spreadsheet, a sketch, and my seedbox full of seeds. 

I have tomato, pepper, borage, and thyme seedlings already showing their green throats. Lettuce, kale, spinach, and strawberry seeds are waiting to stir. 

The temperatures climbed above freezing and the mounds of snow are slowly disappearing. (I think I got a little sunburn on my face biking home from work this week!)

I only bought two extra packages of seeds at the garden center, despite my vow to abstain. 

It's nearly spring, which means it's time for the garden. 

So it begins. 

Winter Update

There is so much snow on the ground and I am already dreaming of greener things. I am currently knee-deep in my garden spreadsheet, planning seedings and plantings and spaces. I think the spreadsheet is easier to use than a hastily scribbled piece of scrap paper and makes it easier to see the dates for starting and transplanting, as well as the sheer number of things I plan on growing. 

I made more sourdough--four loaves this time. The starter got gloriously bubbly and grew and grew and grew. So I think I did it right. I aimed for a little more water than recommended, and it seemed to make a better consistency for the starter. The loaves are less dense but more crumby. I forgot the vital wheat gluten, but they turned out well anyway. I have to be careful of shaping my loaves--the dough didn't  combine, but rather folded, creating pockets that made my slices fall apart. Otherwise, I am pretty proud of myself, and I have three loaves left in the freezer. And I'll be damned if this bread doesn't make a mean grilled cheese sandwich. 

The soap shop is going well. I managed to sneak in a few more editions, and the sales have calmed enough that I can ignore it for the moment. However, there has been a call for lotions and body butters, so I am testing things there. I've investigated getting a business license, but holy crap is that shit complicated. I have to decide if I want this to be more than a hobby, because the process and cost of securing a license is a pretty big investment. In the meantime, I enjoy experimenting with scents, colors, and molds. Also, as a reminder to myself, write down everything I do when making a batch! The first batch is always the best, while any re-creation tends to be less perfect. Write it down. Write it down!

At any rate, this is the time for dreaming and planning. All the doing will happen soon enough, when the spring comes. 

Sourdough, Continued

The loaves were awesome.

I will just start there. I've never made real bread before (breadmaker only) and I've never touched sourdough before. I had no idea what I was doing most of the time. But the loaves were awesome. 

I decided to follow a no-knead recipe, and because I only use whole wheat flour in my kitchen, I wanted whole wheat loaves. Most WW recipes are actually half AP, half WW, but I go whole hog. I just added some vital wheat gluten to balance it out, and, like I said:  awesome. 

I fed, I saved discards, and I fed some more. I made pizza dough and bread dough. I kneaded (pizza only). Everything rose and rose again (jesus bread!). I shaped, slashed, and tossed both loaves on a pizza stone. I sliced and I enjoyed. 

Things I Learned and Ideas for Next Time:

1) Sourdough breadmaking is a lengthy process. Two loaves seemed more efficient for all the work I was putting in. Next time, I might try turning discard into another starter and staggering two loaves and two loaves, making more to freeze. 

2) The whole wheat loaf was dense but delicious. I have no qualms continuing to make all-WW loaves. I just want to become more familiar with how sourdough yeast and WW interact--it can move faster through a feeding, so times might be different between feedings.

3) Further research confirmed that a feeding consists of about 1/2 cup water and just under 1 cup of flour. My starter was very thick, so I would like to see if a thinner starter affects the density of the bread. 

4) Shake the starter all you want, but don't put it in an airtight container. 

5) I think I should have split the dough, shaped it, and then let it rise again, instead of shaping and putting it right in the oven. It didn't rise much while baking. 

6) The pizza dough was meh. I put it in the fridge after the first rise and found it difficult to work with the dough upon retrieval. Not much rise, and not a spectacular taste. I froze the second half of the batch, so we'll see if it is better than the prior batch. 

I am hoping to pull the starter out of the fridge, procure more flour, and get 4 more loaves in the fridge/freezer this week--but in the meantime, I give myself a +1 to sourdough. 

Sourdough Starter

Back around Halloween, a friend of mine gifted me with a jar of sourdough starter. I have a little kit for  sourdough, but the activation instructions were a little daunting. I didn't feel ready to invest time in the process and I hadn't yet gotten around to making it, despite my interest. I did, however, recognize how much time, care, and effort went into my jar and how generous the gift was. I was incredibly excited.

So excited that I went home, put the jar in the fridge, and promptly didn't feed it for two months. 

That's not how to do it. 

With some time off, I thought I would get back to the starter so that I could make and freeze a few loaves. I pulled the starter out of the fridge to feed it. It had a thick layer of liquid on top, so I shook it to incorporate. Then I started to open it. I noted the lid was convex, and heard the pressure noises as I eked open the lid. Sourdough shot up to the top of the jar and started to overflow. Stupidly, I figured I just needed to vent it more. The lid shot off and the starter shot out, landing all over my shirt, pants, countertop, floor, and eyeball. 

Everything was covered in tangy flour yeast water. 

I didn't take pictures of the carnage, but it was impressive. I cleaned it up, saved 4oz of starter, and proceeded to feed it. Research indicated that the liquid is normal and I can pour it back in. Or that the liquid is hooch created by starving yeast, so I should pour it off and feed my starter more often. So, I am not sure. Three  sources yielded different instructions on how to feed:  by weight or measuring cup, which means either 1:1 ratio water and flour with a measuring cup, or 1:2 water and flour by weight. I added a second half cup of flour, convinced that I was feeding it wrong, but most sources seem to say 1:1 ratio. It's a little dry, so I am inclined to agree. I even found differences in how often to feed refrigerated starter:  every week, every month, every 1-3 months. I am going to try to trust my Mother Earth News article and work from that. 

At any rate, I am hoping to bake two no-knead loaves on Friday, provided I havent't killed my starter. I will be sure to post any updates to Project:  Sourdough.

But maybe don't shake your starter. 

Beans and Potatoes

I learned an old bit of wisdom the other day:  put the beans in between the potatoes and you won't have any issues with bean beetles.