Eden Garden Update-Year 2

Lettuce and spinach reseeded itself among the broccoli

 It's been two full seasons since we completely converted our garden plot in the fashion described by a movie called Back to Eden. (See blog post Experimenting with Eden.) We have learned a lot since we started (See blog posts First Eden Experiment Update and Eden Garden Update-Year 1 Lessons), and we can now count the project as mostly a success.

As soon as the snow melted this spring, we began seeing signs that the lettuce and spinach seeds that we sowed in Fall and believed to be long gone were not only still viable, but had indeed germinated! This was our first positive sign from our previously unimpressive mulch bed.

I got a slow start on planting the rest of the garden due to a death in the family and a catastrophic knee injury that resulted in a 3 month lay up and surgery. It was all I could do to crutch through Home Depot to pick out vegetable starts in late May, and if Home Depot didn't have it, well, it didn't get planted this year.

I coerced the Hubby into putting my store-bought starts in the ground, and I laid, with icepack on my elevated knee, staring out my bedroom window at the rising tide of bindweed spilling into the garden from the pasture. I emailed friends and acquaintances my desperate pleas for help pulling weeds in exchange for harvest rights, at least until I could sit in a chair and pull them myself.

Summer came, temperatures rose, and I finally ditched the crutches. Other than the spring greens, which had by this time bolted and gone to seed, the only thing that was doing really well was the bindweed. "Physical therapy" became a euphemism for weeding the garden, and was actually pretty effective from a mobility and muscle development standpoint, and my surgeon was rightly impressed with my muscle tone by my 3-month post-operative visit.

By July, I'd removed at least 1000 pounds of bindweed from in and around my vegetables. I was ready to burn the entire garden to the ground because my paltry vegetable plantings were failing to provide food in proportion to the amount of work I was putting into keeping them happy and weed-free. I decided I'd pull out the remaining bindweed and then rake the mulch down to the dirt to rip any tiny shoots that may be running undetected beneath the ground cover. Then we got a good rain.

About a week later, I went out to evaluate the effectiveness of my bindweed destruction plot and discovered something very interesting. Volunteers. Dozens of baby tomato plants were thriving in the part of the garden I'd abandoned because of last year's vole infestation. And the lettuces and spinach that I let go to seed after they bolted, had re-seeded themselves everywhere. I even found them in my pasture where I'd pitched the dead plants when I replanted the row. Of course, some mulch made its way to the other side of the fence as well, along with the dead piles of bindweed.

Tomato volunteers

I now believe that all of those viable seeds were trapped somewhere in the mulch beneath the bindweed, and that by vigorously raking the mulch, I reunited the seed with the soil, and aerated the entire environment at the same time. This caused a flurry of growth in a way I hadn't seen to date in the garden.

Lettuce in the pasture

I discovered that last year's less-than-impressive mulch bed is now practically a living, breathing organism all on its own. Colonies of pill bugs are evident, along with all of the beneficial companion bugs that help compost and break down soil. Worms are abundant and healthy and the soil just an inch down is moist and dark black with organic matter. What a marvel!

Pill bug colony (I think)

Later research revealed that my nemesis bindweed is actually renowned for restoring fertility to an area. The website Home Remedies For You claims:

"Bindweed finds other uses in restoring the fertility of agricultural land that has been subject to the extensive use of chemicals and pesticides. It is researched and believed to eradicate chromium, copper, and cadmium from the soil.Bindweed also exhibits properties similar to that of nitrogen fixing plants. The presence of calystegins in the roots of bindweed act as a source of carbon and nitrogen to the rhizobacteria that is responsible for nitrogen fixation. Thus, the fertility of the soil is enhanced for agricultural use."

So to recap, the Eden Experiment does not work as advertised. It is not a solution to the problem of weeding, at least not in parts of the country where bindweed grows. It is, however, an excellent way to return fertility to your soil, create an optimal environment for plants to grow, and minimize water usage throughout the season.

Eden Garden Update-Year 1 Lessons

In our first year of implementing the Eden Garden program, (See blog post Experimenting with Eden) we experienced some ups and downs.

Successes
Year one's garden produced a humongous harvest. My cucumber yield alone was nearly commercial in scale as I was harvesting 10 pounds of pickling cukes per day. I was able to give hundreds of pounds away in addition to canning 3 cases of dill relish, 6 cases of garlic dill pickles, 2 cases of spicy dill pickles and a case or two of my new invention, "burger stackers". I also had great watermelons, peppers, and tomatillos, and a satisfactory harvest of potatoes and slicing tomatoes. I made several cases of different salsas and tried a great peach, pepper jelly recipe that I'm determined to repeat.

Failures
The corn was a total bust as we got corn smut (didn't know it was a delicacy until after we threw away the infected ears), and we wound up trapping 5 pillaging raccoons, but by then, they had consumed every ear of good corn left. The zucchinis never survived the squash beetle infestation and the monstrous cherry tomato plants turned into habitat for voles, which threatened to take over the rest of the garden. It's hard to tell at this point in the experiment how much of our failure was due to the 80 degree temperatures starting in March and the historic drought conditions, and how much was related to growing pains in the new system. We do know that we definitely made a few mistakes that affected our success rate. This is what we learned.

Mistake #1: Installing the new mulching system in the spring.
While it kept the weeds at bay, the new mulch began composting at the soil surface and robbed the soil of the nitrogen it needed to feed our seeds, thus, most of the seeds we sowed directly did not germinate. In hindsight, we should have plowed our old garden under in the fall and installed the irrigation and mulch then. That way it would have had the entire winter to compost under the snow and perform its necessary nitrogen exchange, leaving the ground fertile by springtime.

Mistake #2: Mulching over the seed.
After sowing our seed, we covered the newly planted seed with the mulch, not even considering that the same mulch layer that inhibits growth of weeds would surely be a barrier to our new vegetable shoots as well. To combat this problem in later plantings, we left rows open until the shoots were above the mulch line, then pushed the mulch around the new greens.

Mistake #3: Over and under-watering.
With the mulch present, it's difficult to tell when the plants need water, because you can't just observe the dry soil. When we planted our starts, many of them shocked right away so we gave them plenty of water. They snapped out of it, but then looked droopy the next day so we watered again. We just kept watering any time one of the plants looked limp and droopy, and ultimately, many died. When we dug the poor plants up, we discovered they were sitting in a pool of water. We finally bought a moisture meter and used it each time we thought we should water. Mostly, we were completely wrong about when the garden needed irrigation and when it didn't. The majority of the plants snapped back when we used science, rather than passive observation to determine if the poor buggers needed water.

End of year one
At the end of the year, we put the garden to bed by pulling the large dead plants, and letting anything that fell off join the mulch to compost naturally over time. That means that frost damaged tomatillos, tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, etc, were left on the surface of the soil to decompose throughout the winter, and the plants got pitched over the pasture fence.

Exhausted from an epic year of planting, harvesting, canning and freezing, we sowed just one row of lettuce and spinach in the fall, and built a row cover for the top, but one blasting windstorm ended our row cover, so we just left the poor seeds on their own until spring. Hopefully year two will reveal more success from the Eden Experiment.

Wild Asparagus Hunting

In December of 2011, we lost an 8-month long battle with the Town we live in over property rights. We endeavored to defend our farm's 100+ year agricultural use in the face of a 20 year-old zoning code that allows horses, but not cows. After the town judge found us guilty of "possession of cattle", we began to search for cow pasture, which resulted in God leading us to a very unique property, with some wonderful new friends, just 4 miles away from our town.

Our new friends, SS & FF offered to house our cattle in their pasture in exchange for us doing a little work around their 140 acre farm. As their farm is outside of city limits, they experience all the freedom and autonomy we only dream of having on our place. They can lawfully hunt, fish, farm, shoot, grow, house livestock, and do whatever else strikes their fancy. So it's probably no surprise that for the last 3 months, we have spent nearly every weekend at our cows' new home, building fences, planting trees, cultivating garden areas or just sharing meals with SS, FF & their kids.

Last weekend when we visited the Farm to work on a new section of fence, I found SS down at the edge of the lake with a bag and a knife harvesting wild asparagus. I've only ever heard tales of asparagus growing wild in ditches and along waterways, and had never hunted it myself, but I grabbed a bag & headed over to see if I could participate. SS turns out to be a legendary asparagus hunter, spotting the tender new shoots amidst the dead marsh grass & old gray stalks. A total novice, I had to identify a stand of live, leafed-out stalks to recognize the emerging harvest, but got better at spotting our quarry toward the end. I've scarcely had so much fun and I think hunting produce actually fulfilled some ancient primal gathering instinct that has long been ignored.

 We came back to the house with two grocery bags overflowing with asparagus stalks. I brought mine home and soaked them in cold water to minimize the bugs and grit, and then prepared them by snapping off the woody ends, drizzling them with olive oil, and then sprinkling fresh minced garlic and salt over top. After soaking for around a half hour, I threw them on the barbecue until they were tender, but still crisp. This is my new favorite way to prepare asparagus courtesy of another friend and culinary genius, LP.

The kids were a bit put off by the much stringier texture of the wild asparagus, but I found the top 4 inches of the stalks to be sweet, tender and better than any bruised, wilted asparagus hailing from the grocery store.

A few stalks were too mature to eat, so I threw them in a glass of water to see if I could force them to seed. If I'm successful, I will plant my own perennial asparagus in my garden.

Wild about rhubarb

This year, I discovered rhubarb. Gorgeous to look at, too sour to eat by itself, this amazing perennial adds a spicy tartness to a variety of yummy confections.

This was our plant's second season so I was finally able to harvest its beautiful ruby stalks. The hubby informed me it was now or never, so I hunkered down and searched out some recipes. In addition to the usual strawberry rhubarb desserts, I found a lovely rhubarb muffin recipe that wowed even my mom when she visited!

Rhubarb Muffins

(from www.allrecipes.com, revised by Well Armed Housewife)

Batter:

• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup finely diced rhubarb

Topping:

• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup crushed sliced almonds
• 2 teaspoons melted butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, combine wet ingredients. In a second, larger bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add wet to dry and fold in rhubarb. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tin so each cup is approximately 2/3 full. Combine topping ingredients and spoon on top of batter, patting down gently. Bake for 40 minutes or until cake springs back to the touch.

First garage sale of the season bodes well for the year!!

I hit my first garage sale of the season this morning, and I'm still breathless with anticipation about what that means...a whole new season of super deals, finds, and bargains!

The sale didn't look like much when I pulled up, but I hopped out anyway, checklist in mind and went straight for the kitchen supplies. Lo and behold, there was an oil lamp with wick and glass chimney in perfect condition...asking price: 3 bucks. I grabbed my wallet from the car and pulled out $2.00, and the oil lamp was mine.

It's not just the great prices at garage sales that excite me, its mostly the thrill of the hunt itself that sets me aglow. Idling up to a driveway stacked with crap and recognizing whether it conceals a treasure trove of goodies or just washed up 80s paraphernalia. Spotting the one item the seller is just as excited to get rid of as you are to give them 50 cents for it.

There's a euphoria to be had from recognizing genuine value in something lost, dust-covered and discarded by a prior owner, and getting it for dirt cheap. It can also be pretty lucrative if you can pull it off. I'm just an amateur at it, but even so, one year I made enough to pay for 2 years of garage sale shopping by buying a couple of pieces of nice furniture for dirt cheap and reselling them on craigslist. Oh, the joy of coming home and telling the hubby that I had earned my own garage sale money!!

I'm no garage sale expert, but I've picked up a couple of tricks that minimize hassle and maximize my results. First, if, like me you have to bring your kiddos, it's best to bribe them with either a trip to McDonalds for breakfast after (if they're good) or a 25 cent book or toy from one of the sales. Second, go on Friday morning for the best selection...this is a no-brainer, but I will do almost anything to avoid a crowd and being a stay at home mom gives me the advantage (for a change) over other shoppers. Third, I keep a list of the stuff I'm looking for in my glove box so I can stay focused on the priorities. Here's the stuff I'll be hunting out at the sales this year:

• Camping or backpacking gear
• Oil lamps
• Hunting/fishing supplies
• Firearms reloading supplies, books and gun parts
• Animal/farming tools & supplies (harnesses, halters, boots, bridles, farrier equipment)
• No-electricity-needed kitchen gadgets (wheat grinder, meat grinder, egg beater, food processor, etc.)
• Cast iron skillets
• Dehydrator
• Canning supplies
• Pressure canner
• Oversized stockpot
• Kids clothes, shoes & books

I hope you'll share your garage sale secrets, stories, successes, and shopping lists in the comments...I'm always looking for new ways to save and I'm as thrilled to celebrate a great find or deal as the next person. Here's to the joys of a great garage sale season for all!

It's Spring!

Spring is...A cloud of dust behind our 7-month-old Angus heifer "De-calf" as she runs ripshot through the pasture after jousting with the fence post.

Spring is...Pink cheeks and smiles on the kids' faces as they dig their bare toes in the sandbox for the first time this year.

Spring is...Curry combs chock-full of fly-away horse hair

Spring is...The ecstatic grunts of muddy, rolling dogs as they emerge from their maiden dip in the freshly-thawed water trough.

Bubbles and sidewalk chalk, robins and bumblebees...could it possibly get better than this?

This week marked the first week of spring, and I'm brimming with excitement and optimism as I've already ticked several "to-do's" off the checklist. The 6-week-old pullets are in the hen house, the garden is tilled and weed fabric rolled out, the spring veggies are in the ground, and the layers of winter chaos in the landscape have been peeled away to reveal the earth bubbling with spring bulbs.

In my home state of California, I never appreciated the true beauty of this restorative season, because how can you know the delight of rebirth if nothing ever really dies? Every winter here in Colorado I mourn the last dangling red leaf on the burning bushes and every spring I boil over with excitement as the brown transforms to green. I know what I have in store: weeding and mowing, harvesting and preserving, the labor and chores of summer all lie ahead, but I'm undaunted, ready to take on the challenge, and excited to see where God's perfect plan moves me.

It's with this same sense of giddy anticipation, excitement and suspense that I launch my new blog. So welcome, enjoy, partake...I can't wait to get to know you.