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20 Feb ’12
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2014? Already? Say it ain't so!
Where does one garden season end and another start? So much of what is done this year is really in preparation for the next. While it is 2013 for a while yet it is a bit sad to see the garden go. In the spirit of looking ahead, maintaining positive momentum, and staying on the hunt, I am proud to present our garden for 2014!
Major changes for 2014 include at least an additional 24 square feet of raised bed in addition to the 84 already in place, as well as the use of lights for starting/growing our seeds. I've also heard rumours of a bean and pea wall, but more will have to come on that later.
A quick state of the union:
The straw in place for the 2013 growing season was turned into the top few inches of each bed and then we mulched with our remaining straw in preparation for winter. I was careful to leave as much of the soil structure as possible in place.
We cleared out the non-square foot garden area which is planted in some edibles as well as ornamentals.
And we mulched it over as well.
There are still a few hangers on, so one bed in front of the house is not turned in and mulched just yet. The kale and rosemary still reign supreme, at least for another week.
I made a new friend today as well.
From tearing down the garden we managed to get a good bit of mass in the compost.
And then the highlight of the day, I put in 30 cloves of garlic in the empty bed in front of the house. I would have preferred to have this in a couple weeks ago but this is the first weekend I've spent at the house in about 4 weeks. We planted Russian Red I bought from a local grower at the farmers market near my house. Dude knows his garlic! It's nice to hard dirt under my nails again.
3 Nov ’12
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phenominal work, KE! Ive still got Kale growing that I planted in March, too! That stuff is amazing. Good luck with the garlic, as well
15 Feb ’12
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Bump for KE, I made it a sticky as well so you don't lose it again 
20 Feb ’12
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Many thanks. I guess with the sticky I will have to actually plant a garden and then post in this thread now.
15 Feb ’12
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that's pretty much why I made it a sticky,
no pressure 
20 Feb ’12
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Lay of the land, however small!
So I am already a bit behind in updating things here, but lots has been happening behind the scenes! Last frost here is early May, so we are in prime time planning/germination season.
2013 was a great experience all around, with lots of success and learning and not many catastrophic failures. Aside from a few things that did not germinate I can't think of much that did not work out. Selective memory is great that way! If you are interested in our 2013 shenanigans they can be found here: http://thehomesteadi.....rden-2013/.
2014 brings with it additional growing space and a few modified approaches based on getting learned last year.
To get things started here is a rough lay of the land. Not exactly to scale, but you get the idea. Note the rough north in the top right hand corner for context.
Our property is just over 30" wide, and 130" deep, and unfortunately for growing (fortunately for privacy and ambiance) the back yard is largely in shade due to maples trees so we have to head out front where the sun is.
Our front yard faces south-west. I had originally thought it more southern, however after watching the sun a lot last year I have realized I was in incorrect. Due to our orientation our front and side yards offer good growing areas with the front yard getting unobstructed sun from not long after sunrise to well into the evening. The side yard gets shaded by our house a bit in the morning, and by the neighbours house in the afternoon, so only about six hours of good sun is available there.
Our grow areas fall out as follows:
Fedge - New for 2014. In ground 3 by 50 garden bed. Mainly shaded due to maples trees.
Bed 1 - Raised 3 by 6 square foot garden bed. Roughly six hrs of sun a day.
Bed 2 - Raised 3 by 6 square foot garden bed. Roughly six hrs of sun a day.
Bean wall - New for 2014. Raised 1 by 15 square foot garden. Roughly six hrs of sun a day.
Mixed herb and ornamental area - In ground 3 by 12 garden bed. Total sun.
Bed 3 - Raised 3 by 8 square foot garden bed. Total sun.
Bed 4 - Raised 3 by 8 square foot garden bed. Total sun.
Bed 5 - New for 2014. Raised 3 by 8 square foot garden bed. Total sun.
Blueberry zone - In ground 3 by 15 or 20 garden bed. Total sun.
And the details on each:
Fedge - For privacy and to make use of a shaded area we are going to try and grow a food hedge with shade tolerant perennials. Currants and raspberries will likely make up the fedge. Given the length of the area we might start out with a smaller section of the property line to test it out and see how it goes.
Bed 1 -
Spinach/Spinach/Chard/Chard/Kale/Kale
Spinach/Spinach/Chard/Chard/Kale/Kale
Lettuce/Lettuce/Lettuce/Sorel/Sorel/Sorel
Bed 2 -
Cherry Tomato/Cherry Tomato/Cherry Tomato/Cherry Tomato/Cherry Tomato
Cherry Tomato/Cherry Tomato/Cherry Tomato/Cherry Tomato/Cherry Tomato
Bean wall - Given the orientation of the house, and the fact that it is brick, our south and west facing walls soak up a ton of heat in the summer and our poor insulation gets easily overwhelmed. In an effort to stack function in space we will build a raised bed and trellis system for a mix of beans and peas so we can run them up the wall of the house and offer some shade in addition to delicious produce and pleasing aesthetics. I think this is the thing I am most excited about this year!
Mixed herb and ornamental area - We have some tulips, catnip, mint, chive, and of course our beloved hardy kiwi in this area. This area will likely stay as is but there many be some shuffling around and additions. We are planning to re-do our step this year so if that happens some of this area will likely get disturbed.
Bed 3 -
Roma Tomato/Roma Tomato
Roma Tomato/Roma Tomato
Roma Tomato/Roma Tomato
Black Pear Tomato/Black Pear Tomato
Black Pear Tomato/Black Pear Tomato
Ground Cheery/Ground Cherry
Garlic/Garlic/Garlic
Garlic/Garlic/Garlic
Bed 4 -
Cucumber/Cucumber
Sweet Pepper/Sweet Pepper/Sweet Pepper
Sweet Pepper/Sweet Pepper/Sweet Pepper
Hot Pepper/Hot Pepper/Hot Pepper
Leek/Leek/Leek
Onion/Onion/Onion
Cilantro/Cilantro/Dill
Rosemary/Parsley/Oregano
Bed 5 - Very sparse due to the type of plants. We will go a bit vertical here but we do not want these guys crowding out other plants so we will try the less is more approach here.
Watermelon/Spaghetti Squash/Zucchini
Watermelon/Spaghetti Squash/Zucchini
While our plans will likely change as circumstances do that is our rough outline to work off. In addition to the above we will have pots for basil and a few other herbs.
With the technical stuff out of the way, let us get to the good stuff!
20 Feb ’12
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Let there be light!
Last year we did not have grow lights when starting our seedlings. We wound up with tiny plants by the time they were ready to head outside. In a effort to maximize yield this year we setup a sweet hatchery in the basement.
We grabbed an old table, and after having an "Oh crap, the cats will eat the seedlings" moment I took some leftover wood and chicken wire and build what we hope is a cat proof barrier.
I hung some chain from the ceiling so our lights would be of adjustable height.
The table was large enough to hold six flats which means with the cups we are using we have room for 108 starts.
After drilling holes in the bottom of the cups we set up the first wave of seeds.
And made sure to label everything. Rows got an on table label, individuals are labeled on their cups.
I had originally planned on four lights, but after some thought we think two will cut it. If things look to be going poorly the infrastructure is in place to add two additional sets of lights. Once all the seeds were in their homes we setup the lights.
And adjusted the height so when seedlings popped out the light would be ready to greet them. I think I dropped the light down a chain link after this photo was taken.
Our peppers did not germinate last year so we picked up a heat pad to help them along. The high maintenance little buggers now live in their own custom bubble wrap greenhouse!
I am really excited about these two additions this year.
We received some Ground Cherries in our CSA two years ago and my gf made an awesome pie, so we had to give them a shot for ourselves this year. The Scarlet Runners are great looking plants and taste awesome as well, so they will bring something awesome to the bean wall.
The first wave of seeds went in on March 4, which is a little late, but oh well. So now we wait for them to pop up, and we will be putting a few more seeds in to start shortly as well. Hopefully early next week we will have a tomato forest growing in the basement!
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