Raking's Not So Bad

Three days after our big snow storm, temperatures soared to 65+ degrees and have statyed there for the past five or so days. It has been heavenly. Sipping drinks on the back deck, reading in the sunny back yard, and raking. Yep, raking. I’m not the biggest fan of raking. I treat it much like I treat laundry–wait until the last possible moment to do it and then complain the entire time it’s being done. This year I’m trying to have a more positive attitude about it though. I bought some new gloves (review forthcoming) and a new rake (which broke in half after a half-hour of use; then got another new rake), and I have used the time outside to gather lots of ideas about some neglected areas of my yard.

Most people rake in the fall. I know this. These people are smarter and more disciplined than I am. Most people also bag their leaves and let the city throw them in a landfill. I know this as well. These people, while smart for raking in the fall, are crazy. Crazy for letting all that goodness go to waste. Which leads me to the title and focus of today’s post: Raking’s really not that bad.

Reasons to like raking:

• Raking is exercise, and exercise is good.
• Raking can be therapeutic because it gives you time to think.
• Raking makes your yard look nice and clean.
• Raking neglected areas reveals landscaping elements and borders you didn’t know about (e.g., stone paths, old lumber used to define spaces, etc.).
• Raking provides free mulch, and lots of it.
• RAKING PROVIDES FREE MULCH, AND LOTS OF IT!

Mulch (noun) a material (such as decaying leaves, bark, or compost) spread around  or over a plant to enrich or insulate the soil. (Source, dictionary on my iBook G4)

Quiz time: What is the most important word in that definition? That’s right, “enrich.” Mulch enriches the soil. Don’t believe me? Go outside (right now) and rake around a shrub that has been there a few years. Once you reach the dirt, you will see the most beautiful black dirt. Where do you think that came from? Mulch. And if you’re smart, free mulch in the form of leaves.

Mulch is most often used to supress weeds and to make borders look pretty. These are great benefits, but the best reason to use mulch is to enrich your soil. Buying  $3-4 bags of mulch from the garden center can be quite a costly enriching exercise, but using last year’s fallen leaves and pine straw is absolutely free.

Do decaying leaves make as pretty a flower-bed mulch as pine bark or wood chips or pebbles? Well, no, which is why I don’t suggest you use your leaves for everything. For the pretty flower gardens or areas you want to look manicured, spring for the expensive stuff, but for mulching shrubbery, trees, or the vegetable garden, use the leaves. The vegetable garden is exactly where I plan to use my leaves this year. As noted in previous posts, I have a pretty big garden area, and buying landscaping mulch would just be silly for such a large space. Last year I used some mulching paper, which was great for part of the season, but I didn’t have enough real mulch to cover the paper (because I chopped the leaves up with a mower, or rather I asked my husband to). This year I will use all my leaves, and I have quite a lot. I expect to be able to cover most of the garden with a 2-3″ layer of leaves. Combined with the paper mulch underneath, I expect those nasty weeds and grass sprouts will be held at bay.

And true to Mother Nature’s nature (hardee har), those leaves won’t just supress the weeds. They will decay over time and help enrich my garden soil, making it just as black and healthy as the soil was where the leaves came from. If that doesn’t make Mother Nature a badass, then I don’t…well, it does.

Growing Garlic for the First Time

Garlic is one of the most used items in most any country’s or region’s cooking. It is widely used in Asian, European, and South American foods. In fact, I’d be hard pressed to find a culture that doesn’t use garlic to flavor its food. Garlic can be spicy, sweet, or pungent depending on its preparation, and it can flavor anything from crusty bread to pasta to stir fry to collard greens. In short, garlic is a must have for any cook and, therefore, a new addition to my garden this year. Well, to be technical, I planted it last year, but I will eat it this year.

Last fall, I ordered two varieties of garlic from Seeds of Change–the softneck variety Mother of Pearl and the hardneck variety Music Pink. If you click the links, you’ll see how pretty the bulbs are, and I must admit that had a little to do with my choices. When tasty plants can be pretty, why would you pick anything else? SOC sent me three bulbs of each variety, and each bulb had somewhere between 7 and 10 cloves, so there’s a lot of garlic growing out there. I’m hoping to get some flower spikes out of the hardnecks, but I’ve read these aren’t guaranteed.

Mostly, I’m loving the garlic right now because it is sticking out its brave neck and not being deterred by all the cold weather we’ve had lately. Shortly after planting, in November, the garlic started to sprout, and it has remained green and healthy looking since. The shoots of the hardnecks are about 4 in. tall and have about 3-4 tops each; the shoots of the softnecks are about 5-6 in. tall and have about the same number of tops. Most were completely covered by the snow Wednesday night, but I was able to capture a few peeking back out when the melting began yesterday.

Don't they just look determined?

Rows of garlic

Garden Plans #2: Drawing a Garden Plan

Looking through seed catalogues may be the fun part, but organizing a garden is definitely  more important. Otherwise, you end up like I did last year–way too many seed packets and no idea where to put them as I stared out at my huge brown spot. After doing a few sketches, I began to see some ways to group my plants, and I think I had mild success with keeping them in their respective areas when planting.

What I discovered last year: I had too many packets of each variety but not enough varieties to fill up the garden spot. What I ended up with: 30+ tomato plants, 20+ squash and zucchini plants, etc. The deer beat me to the tomatoes every morning (as they beat me to everything last year!). Enter fence. They didn’t like the prickly squash plants and left them alone. Result? My husband and I ate so much squash we haven’t touched the stuff since last July when the stink bugs invaded (we were happy to see them go). We picked on average 5-10 squash a day. It was a bit much. And, yes, we’re nice, so we gave lots away as well.

This year, I’ve decided to diversify. A lot. I have drawn up what will be my final plan. Well, mostly final. I haven’t put it on graph paper, so my areas are approximate, and I expect that some may be too large for what I have in them (e.g., the carrot, beet, radish square). Basically I’m saying that I may have to make some adjustments, but this is what I’m going to base my purchases on.

Here is my highly designed, ultra straight-lines, patent-pending garden plan for 2011:

Have you ever seen something this professional? Didn't think so.

What you need to know to justify the above monstrosity:

• I have a pretty big garden for a home garden (25×50 feet).
• I have a really big garden for someone as new to gardening as I am (same size).
• I’m trying to minimize the amount of visible dirt.
• Visible dirt was my enemy last year because I battled spontaneous grass sprouting all season long.
• My garden is entirely too large to hand weed for sprouting grass.
• My garden is also too large to hoe sprouts by hand.

What you need to know to understand the above monstrosity:

• I have divided it into four semi-equal sections of 12 feet each.
• I have devoted the top portion to perennials (I realize 12 feet of asparagus may be a bit too much).
• I have reserved the outer portions for summer crops and some perennial flowers.
• I have reserved the middle for early crops and then fall crops.
• I will grow cucumbers and beans on the fence.
• I have interspersed flowers and herbs with the vegetables for two reasons: 1)Why waste space? and 2)They invite nice bugs and repel mean ones.

A word on bugs: Overall, I like them. They fascinate me. Last year a cicada (maybe more?) burrowed a quite large home in my garden among the many grass sprouts and my eggplant. He didn’t bother me, so I didn’t bother him. I quite enjoyed watching him fly into the hole and go deep underground. I was impressed with his ability to build a mound from underneath the soil simply by pushing it up (unlike ants who build it from on top. So easy.). Nice bugs.

I was also mesmerized by these never-before-seen-by-me bugs that were always flying around my tomatillos. Then the fruit started rotting on the vine and the whole plants turned yellow and died. I am not a fan of these bugs. I will plant nasturtium and marigold near my tomatillos this year and see if it helps. Mean bugs.

I will plant a few things from seedlings (tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant for sure) but most from seed. I also plan to sow most seeds in the ground. I just simply do not have the time, space, or motivation to start all seeds indoors and then crawl around on my hands and knees for hours planting each tiny little seedling. No thanks.

So this is what I’ve got. My next task is to make it official. I know, you’re thinking, “But that is the absolute most official landscape drawing I’ve ever seen!” I know. Just wait until you see the one I hand draw on graph paper.

What about you? What are you planning for your garden? Or what advice do you have for me about anything I’ve got planned for mine?

Garden Plans #1: Which Seeds to Buy?

January is the perfect time to order seeds and begin to plot out garden plans, and it’s so beautiful outside today here in Mississippi that I have no objections to doing just that.

I’ve been thinking and talking about what vegetables to plant for several weeks now, but I haven’t really written anything down or drawn any potential plans. I have looked through my Seeds of Change annual catalog, the Seed Savers Exchange Web site, and various other magazines and Web sites, and I have come up with a few ideas of heirlooms or rare varieties to order, and I know I’ll grow some standards, but I need a good list.  My main garden is 25′ x 50′, so I have quite a lot of ground to cover (hardy har). I haven’t decided how I’m going to lay out my garden this year, but here is what I’m considering so far:

Perennial Area: strawberries (already there), asparagus,and artichoke

Heirloom Area: Cherokee Purple and Zapotec tomatoes, rattlesnake beans, Boston pickling cucumbers, and Tennesse Red Valencia peanuts

Main Crop Area: crookneck squash, green zucchini, white scallopini squash, grape, roma, and slicing tomatoes, okra, eggplant, slicing cucumbers, tomatillos, cabbage, turnips, bell peppers, and other sweet and spicy peppers

Fall/spring area: broccoli,  Brussels sprouts, lettuce, chard, bok choy, beets, radishes, and carrots

I’m also considering interplanting flowers and herbs in the vegetables to deter unwanted pests, invite pollinators, and look pretty. Though I haven’t yet decided which ones.

What about you? What are you planning for your garden this year? And what suggestions of other vegetables, herbs, and flowers do you have for me?

I just might need a few of these quirky caterpillar plants too!

Photo credited to owner. Click on photo for source.