Never Stop Chasing New Ideas

June 24, 2024 Sarah

A few weeks back, a long-time permaculture instructor gave a free talk on the island. She has decades of experience, and why wouldn’t we want to explore it? It was enough that after attending the discussion, I attended the first two days of her 2-week long permaculture certification class. Taking the entire class wasn’t within my realm for now, but the first two days were where the basics of permaculture were opened up to us. She graciously opened it up to people wanting to take day one and day two before they delved into the deep part and started working on an actual site assessment to earn their certifications.

The biggest takeaway is that, intuitively, we have been practicing permaculture without realizing it on our land. We are repairing the forest, balancing nature, and filling our land with animals and pollinators. Even how we grow food reflects this. There is a huge difference between how we grew food in our last two homes and how we grow food on the land here. My goal has always been to have a food forest with many layers connected in their own way. When the land is bare and open, it is hard to envision it. Even in winter, it is hard to see. But as spring passes into early summer, watching it all come together, my happiness increases rapidly as the plants grow, covering everything.

Knowing we had been doing the right thing all along was a feeling of happiness. Allowing the land to practice rewilding in areas was positive. It was letting the land “garden” itself reclaiming how it should be naturally.

But it opened my eyes to what we could also be doing. And I came out very inspired.

The other huge takeaway for me was working with zones.

And I realized that for our land, we do have issues.

For a while, we had Zone 1 in the first two years here; as we opened up the land in Zone 2, I turned my back on Zone 1. Zone 1 needs so much love. It needs to be used more to have more “kitchen garden” space so that we can walk out and have food easily to harvest, which can be used within minutes of harvesting.

But it also made me realize that Zones 1 and 2 are disjointed. They need to be better connected.

Zone 2 sits 1-2 acres below our home, which is Zone 1. To walk there, one has to take the driveway. If the land is wet or hot, one is less likely to want to go down for extended periods. Walking outside the house and just being there is sustainable. Again, it opens the mind to think and dream of what we can do. We have plenty of Zone 3, 4, and 5. But we need more use of Zone 1. Be it a small greenhouse that encourages me to grow more citrus in winter and more raised beds out the doors to fanciful projects like an herbal spiral, I came out inspired to start planning.

Just dipping our toes into permaculture was well worth it.

~Sarah

Two Easy Garden Hacks To Keep You Organized

May 28, 2024 Sarah

Anytime I can make my life easier when working in our gardens, so much the better. Call them gardening hacks, if you will.

The first one has been in my possession for at least 8 years, and it still functions well.

The used plastic coffee container:

I got the tub for free, used. Washed with soap and left open for a while, the coffee smell dissipated quickly. Just ask on Facebook if any family or friends use these, and “can you save me your next empty one?”. Pople love not having to toss stuff in the garbage can.

With its tight-fitting lid, I usually use it to store my plant ID tags and Sharpie markers. If I am working on seeding but need to take a break, I will also tuck seeds in it.

It’s watertight, and eight years out, no animals or rodents have bothered it. I primarily store it in my greenhouse, but it’s been left out in the potting station, even in the rain.

These coffee containers are great for storing small items such as irrigation parts, clips, rolls of twine, and more. Keeps items clean, not dusty, and away from UV damage. This is also helpful if you do not have a shed or greenhouse to store items in; the tub can be stashed under a potting table.

The Grow Bag Second Use:

A week or so back, I saw a great deal on 10-gallon-sized grow bags ($12.49 for ten of them, meaning $1.25 each!) (They are normally $31.99 for the set, so $3.20 each). We bought two sets because you never know when you might need them. I have used multiple of them to plant bell pepper plants, so they are getting used.

But it struck me that they’d also work well for stashing weeds in.

This ended up being better than using them to plant in.

They fit between my rows in the beds and have a wide, flat bottom. I find the bags easier to use than 5-gallon buckets, and the wide handles make picking it up a snap.

I price compared to the same size bags sold locally. $7.99 a bag! Shopping online and watching sales can go far in affording more gardening gear. And also cheaper than buying new 5 gallon buckets, but more so, once done using, they flatten up for easy storage.

~Sarah

Gardening · Homesteading · Urban Homesteading

Gardening: Getting The Tomatoes and Peppers In The Ground

May 24, 2024May 24, 2024 Sarah

In theory, Mother’s Day Weekend is the typical tomato and pepper planting time in the Pacific Northwest. That depends on the weather, of course, but by then, we have passed the last frost date weeks before.

This year has been special. For being in a “drought,” it’s been cool and rainy this May. Today, as the Memorial Day Weekend starts, it is slated to rain much of the day, and the other day, we got nearly an inch of rain. The plants have liked it, so who am I to complain? Maybe a bit warmer would be nice, but I’ll take the cool weather in the mid to upper 50s for now. Soon enough, the sun will get hot. Honestly, the wind coming up the Salish Sea on our island can do the worst damage; it taxes the plants when that happens. And finally the wind has tapered back.

Years ago, I stopped growing tomato plants under grow lights. I had a couple of reasons why, and the biggest was that when we moved to our homestead here, I did not have electricity to the greenhouse, as I had at our previous place. Then I noticed my plants were stronger and denser and barely needed hardening off time before planting. After that, I didn’t look back. I found that I had to start bell and hot pepper plants from the starts I’d bought, as pepper seeds seem to really need the lights. I was OK with that “cheating”. 11 to 15 pepper plants are plenty for us anyway. On average, I grow about 150 tomato plants and plant around 120 in the ground (or dwarf plants, into large pots).

The other is I quit worrying about when I planted my tomato seeds. When I first started, I was a January seeder. Then, I did a test grow for a known seed company that sent seeds out across the USA to see how they grew. I got those seeds in early April. I planted them, and at the end of summer, those plants were exactly the same size and producing heavily compared to the early seeded ones. Tomatoes didn’t need the early start as peppers did.

So I quit worrying. I started seeding tomatoes in March. In the PNW we don’t have enough light to grow until March, when the sun begins to return, with the spring equinox.

Earlier in the season. As the seeds sprout and start to grow, I pot them up into gallon pots, and let them grow int he unheated greenhouse. The biggest ones go to the left, where they get the most sun. Those will always be the first to be set out to plant.

From big to small.

Peppers growing.

By May, though, at least 50 tomatoes are usually getting too big. The greenhouse can reach 120° on a sunny day in the mid-60s. This leads to plants I must water 2x a day, as the soil dries out quickly.

The first blooms will start happening as well.

And yuck, aphids on one pepper plant. That’s definitely time to kick them out and stop an infestation in the greenhouse.

The peppers and dwarf tomatoes go into 5-gallon buckets and other large pots filled with well-aged compost.

50 tomato plants or so went out of the greenhouse to get fully hardened off. These were the biggest plants.

The bed I am using this year was cut in the summer of 2018, the first growing area I built when we moved here. It has changed over the years in size and how I do rows. This fall we are going to deep till it, remove yet more rocks, then put down a silage tarp. It has a lot of weed issues, being so close to the edge of the woods. It was nothing but weeds after this past winter. I put myself to it, and kept digging weeds. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Tomatoes don’t mind weeds, really.

My idea this year was to suppress the weeds on the edges, using a roll of low-grade yard fabric I had on hand. On that I placed all the pots.

Then I started the first of 3 rows of tomatoes.

I grow field style, using cages. Yes, I could do them under cover, but it isn’t an issue to me. Once summer is here, it will be a thick jungle of tomatoes. I also tend to grow shorter plants as I like smaller tomatoes.

First row mostly done. I found a roll of farm fabric, and cut it in half, forming pathways to walk on. Normally, you’d burn holes in the fabric to put the plants through, to suppress weeds. But I had other ideas. It’s to just get me through these months, so I can fully change the bed.

Second row in, with another walk way.

I then moved out the rest of the tomatoes to let them finish growing/hardening outside. I am slowly planting the third row; as I feel the plants are ready, I put a couple in the ground. The last 30 were last seeded, so will take extra time.

Some of the tomatoes were definitely taxed by getting too big in the greenhouse. They needed a good dose of fertilizer and water (these plants were getting root-bound). This is a real issue if you have to wait 2-3 weeks longer to plant outside because it is still too cold. In the greenhouse, it is summer. All the watering drains them of nutrients.

In the coming week, it is supposed to finally be warmer and sunnier, so the plants will double in size. We are sitting at just over 15½ hours of sunlight, with another hour to gain, before the Summer Solstice in late June.

~Sarah

Gardening · Homesteading · Urban Homesteading

The Garden Dilemma: To Use Coco Coir Or Not

May 8, 2024 Sarah

A few weeks back, I attended a ladies’ night at a local hardware store. A couple of vendors came out to talk about their products. Even after years of growing and making my own soil, I learned something new. That was highly troubling to me.

Fox Farm products, both soil and fertilizers.

Fox Farm’s rep was a lively man who knew his stuff and was more than willing to talk about soil building.

I asked him about what was in their soils (we avoid certain ingredients that some companies use, so Alistaire won’t have an allergic reaction, as he often fills pots for me and mixes soil blends). Out of this conversation, we talked about the use of coco (coconut) coir, which has become a popular alternative to peat moss. Coco Coir is sustainable as it is a by-product of the coconut industry, whereas peat moss is carved out of the ground and won’t soon be replaced by Mother Nature.

A few years ago, I started using coco coir in my soil mixes, thinking I was making a better choice.

Well….

He stopped and told me about the dark side of cococoir if you are not careful about using it. And suddenly, some of my issues in past years made so much sense.

Coco coir can be high in salt. To lower the salt, it must be soaked and rinsed multiple times.

Their company triple washes it before using it in their products, but many brands don’t with the solid bricks. (For example, Fox Farm Bush Doctor mix uses washed coir.)

Coco Coir can be attractive because it is so compressed that 2.5 cubic feet is a tiny brick with a carry handle. It’s easy to shop for and get out of your car.

Thankfully, I had been rinsing it without knowing I was supposed to. To get it to expand, we have a huge stock tank our ducks used to swim in; we toss the brick in and hose it well; slowly, the water soaks in, and you can hack it up with a shovel, adding in more water. Often, I forget about it in late winter and just let the rain soften it. I’ll come out and drain it, then mix it up and later, it gets rained on again. So, this year, I wasn’t having issues with it. But a few years ago, I broke it up and didn’t rinse it, and my seedlings struggled mighty.

I had no idea I was salting my plants. Yikes.

Lesson learned. And I wondered how many other gardeners have no idea how salt-infused coco coir is. The issue is that the coir is processed using salt water because the processing is often done right at the beach, where the seawater is free and plentiful.

It doesn’t mean you should not use it; know you have an extra step (or three steps) to take before using it.

~Sarah

Gardening · Homesteading · Urban Homesteading

The Quick Pallet Raised Bed

April 29, 2024 Sarah

I first made raised beds out of wooden pallets in 2015, when we were in our first years of urban homesteading. We were living on a lot 1/3 of an acre in size, so I fit in beds where I could amongst the permanent beds I had built. At the time, I had heard about building from pallets (oh so long ago!) and got to work. I needed a quick solution because we had extra tomatoes and peppers to plant.

When you pick up pallets (and it’s very easy to source them for free; ask at locally owned hardware stores and such; they often have them outside to pick up), you will want to look at the side of the pallets to ensure you are using basic ones, without treatments. See here for an easy breakdown.

The good news is that the “bad” pallets (chemically treated) are usually expensive to make/very durable, so the companies often return them for reuse. They are not often left out for free.

The project we started:

Using a sawzall, I cut off the top boards (now we have a pallet wrecker that pops the boards off). I left the center rib in while stacking two pallets to make a deeper bed.

WIth a staple gun I attached yard/garden fabric to the bottom, then the sides. I trimmed the excess fabric.

I flipped it over and attached the fabric on top; it was done. I found a spot between bushes and beds.

It was filled with a light blend of potting mix and compost, and then I planted tomatoes and pepper plants in it.

I used it for about two years before it fell apart. When that happened, I discarded the fabric, tossed the soil in the compost bin, and burned the wood in our fire pit. Not long after, we moved, leaving urban life behind in 2018, and my raised bed idea was long forgotten.

I saw a photo on Facebook posted on a gardening page the other week, and I remembered that bed long ago.

I looked around the property and found a well-used pallet holding a tarp on a compost pile.

With the work I am doing in the fenced berry bed (it’s a vast garden plot), I have lots of room to add raised beds here and there. I don’t want permanent structures, so this worked.

I had a bit of yard fabric left over, so I stapled it onto the wood.

This time, I decided to leave the boards on the pallet for rows.

I filled it up with deeply broken-down compost (it’s four years old) and let it settle.

Then, I seeded it with various vegetable seeds.

We shall see how it works this year in this sunny bed tucked in between 2 blueberry bushes.

Minimal cost, as the fabric was a leftover piece and the soil was paid for long ago. I like it when a quick homesteading project happens easily.

~Sarah