Halfway Thru May In The Garden

May 16, 2025 neverfreefarm

It’s been a learning month for me in growing in the ShenandoahValley of West Virginia. I’ve had some big success, but also some losses, where I had to tell myself to cut my loss, pull, and replant something else better suited. Learning a new grow zone is worth it, but it’s also a huge and sometimes painful/pricey set of lessons.

The start of May had me doing various seeding. It was time to start my new herb garden.

Potatoes just starting to come up. I planted the first two grow bags of potatoes 🥔 back at the start of April.

I got a lot planted around May 1st, visiting a couple of local nurseries as the westher heated up.

We are in grow zone 7a, for reference. The last “frost date” is around May 1st, but that doesn’t mean you are safe necessarily. Optimism is a powerful force for sure.

In early April, I had planted Walla Walla onions, which are a PNW variety. There’s your optimism right there. They were growing quite nicely. Even if you can buy them locally, stick to local varieties.

While I knew rain was predicted, the hail wasn’t expected.

I had a few broken tomato branches and drowned lettuce. I lost one of the two Stevia plants. It was just too delicate.

The table of herbs was sitting on the lawn unprotected. Ugh. The basil plants took a huge hit. They survived, though, as did the lettuce eventually. They look thick and full now.

The onions never recovered. They absolutely wilted and collapsed. Full cellular collapse. Was it the rain? The shift from 80+ temps to 55? I also lost a couple of small pots of garlic. Thankfully, not my big pots. Also, a cellular collapse.

Then I realized something: every plant I lost after that massive set of thunderstorms and rain? They were in large hard plastic pots. Everything in the felt pots? They were fine.

Which leads me to thoughts. That the rain was just too much at once. It couldn’t drain fast enough. It has very much shown that felt pots are far better here. In Western Washington, I didn’t have these issues. Rain would be gentle, drizzle, all day long. Here, it dumps for an hour, and you can have a quarter inch fall in that time.

The tomatoes 🍅 love the heat and rain. They really love it.

Potatoes 🥔 are huge. They are in felt pots.

The three grow bags of peas 🫛 are just starting to flower.

I love to tuck nasturiums in. They seem to enjoy growing here. Hopefully they will flower all summer long. If they do, I hopefully will have enough seeds to pickle for poor man’s capers.

2 weeks out the seedlings are doing well.

A lesson learned there. When I see heavy rain predicted, the seedlings trays go into the pop-up greenhouse for protection. It is under the deck, so it is protected from the heavy rains to a point. The table we bring under the deck as well, while the larger potted plants do get rain, it’s not non-stop damaging. This week, we had another set of storms. It dropped 1.5″ in a 24-hour period. I’m paying attention now.

It’s all lessons, and every year, I will adapt to growing here better. I’ve harvested strawberries, lettuce, and greens so far. That leaves me happy.

~Sarah

Gardening · Homesteading · Urban Homesteading

Easy Vegetables To Raise In Grow Bags

May 1, 2025 Sarah

When we were full-on homesteading at our place on Whidbey Island, I would periodically get someone posting on Facebook or Instagram, “Must be nice to have land. Most people live in an (insert apartment, condo, no backyard, etc)”. The thing is, I have grown nearly every way there is – that is how deep my love of growing is. As a child, we grew in the ground, tilling every spring. When I left for college and lived in an old house, I put pots on my neighbor’s roof (covered in old tar paper) to grow a few tomato plants I brought home from work (I worked at a K-Mart, and weaseled my way into the garden department for deals). My first place with Kirk was an apartment with a hot south-facing deck, which was tiny. Yet, I had pots on it. It was only at our second house that I built my first homestead – and even then, most of our food was grown in raised beds I built with scavenged bricks and pavers. It wasn’t till our third house that I built massive in-ground gardens. I had land, so of course I was going to use it!

You use what you have in front of you. And if you have a deck that gets sun, use it like crazy.

At our place now, until the garden is built, I have a patio to put containers on. So I did. Last year, Kirk found a super deal on felt growing bags in the 10-gallon size. I feel that to grow well, use at least a 5 —to 10-gallon size, and go for wider versus tall. That applies to all pots—even small ones for flowers and herb plants. On that sale, we picked up multiple orders (it was a crazy deal for 12 bags at under $14). You can find a 6-pack for under $18, which is still great. It takes about 1.5 cubic feet of soil to fill a 10-gallon bag.

What Do I Grow?

You can grow a lot. One of the most essential things is hydration. As long as you water daily in the summer (unless it’s cold or rainy), you can grow so much in grow bags. The bigger the pot, the better the results, but if all you can get are old 5-gallon buckets, even that works fine. Just check every day.

The other is proper support—you will need tomato cages to encourage things to grow up, not out.

And yes, you will need to fertilize eventually. So do watch the pots.

Potatoes:

Throw six soft potatoes in the bottom, cover with soil, and wait. They may not get huge, like in the ground, but you will enjoy plenty of new potatoes in early summer. Plant a second crop in midsummer, harvesting right as fall slips in.

Harvest when the tops turn tawny and flop back. I knock out the containers into potting soil containers and pick through. I reuse the soil for potatoes a couple of times.

Kale:

Cut kale often, and it will keep the plants at a good size. Chop it finely, and it works great instead of spinach. Swiss Chard and bok choy (choi) are also good choices.

Lettuce:

Also, kale is tucked in with the lettuce in this pot. With lettuce, harvest often; romaine grows back easily.Use scissors to cut low.

Tomatoes:

I used 5-gallon buckets in this case, but I also have three more in grow bags. When you plant, be sure to add a cage. I go for bush varieties or cherry tomatoes, as they are often smaller in size. You can also grow dwarf cherry varieties if you don’t have much space.

Peppers:

I have small kale in with the pepper plants to keep it all growing nicely. The leaves protect the pepper plant. Just harvest the kale often. I do find the pepper plants grow better, as they have outside protection from the wind here.

Bush Peas:

Bush peas, especially dwarf varieties, work well in grow bags. Plant 4 weeks or so before the last frost. For early fall peas, they are planted in mid-summer.

Strawberries:

Need I say more? They do so well in containers, and you can keep them up higher so slugs don’t have an easy life.

Bush Beans:

Yes, you can have green beans (or yellow or purple).. Use bush seeds for a quick crop. For best results, use two or three bags. To have plenty, stage them two weeks apart for seeding and to eat for an extended period.

Garlic:

Garlic grows well in containers, particularly if you are spring planting. Keep an eye on the mositure level.

Onions:

Green onions will be your best bet, followed by smaller onion types. Of course, I ignored my advice and grew sweet onions. Harvest as you like. I usually overfill, then eat some young and let the rest mature.

Blueberry Bushes:

Blueberries? Yes. You have two choices: grow low varieties, which love containers, or grow standard high bush types till they get too big (three or four years in). Then, if you don’t have room, you can always gift the plant to be planted in the ground. Since I know I will plant in-ground blueberry plants here, I am letting them grow a year. I will plant them very early in the fall. It is buying me time and allowing the plant to grow and become stronger.

I like to tuck in Nasturium plants, giving me more green but also edible flowers. In the first year of growing a gallon-sized blueberry, you should remove all potential berries so that the plant puts its energy into growing the plant and roots.

Most Herbs:

Herbs like pots. Basil is a good one. Most annual ones do well in pots/bags. Rosemary and Sage will want to be potted up or in the ground after the first year. The first year, they can go into a one—to three-gallon container.

~Sarah

Gardening · Herbalism · Homesteading · Urban Homesteading

Review: Survival Garden Seeds Ultimate Medicinal Herb Collection

April 30, 2025 Sarah

A few weeks back, I saw a packet at Walmart for Survival Garden Seeds Ultimate Medicinal Herb Collection. I was at one of the largest Walmart locations I have visited, here in West Virginia, and they carried a number of the Survival Garden Seeds products on the shelves inside the store’s garden section (not outside in the seasonal garden area). Online, it retails for $35.88 currently. I have only seen it in person at the biggest store; the other Walmart near us is an older “super” with a much smaller gardening department.

On Amazon it is $39.97.

I bought it from Amazon, and they delivered it not even 12 hours later to my doorstep.

Includes:

Alfalfa, Angelica, Anise, Holy Basil, Bergamot, Black Cumin, Borage, Calendula, Catnip, Cayenne, German Chamomile, Curled Chervil, Clary Sage, Dandelion, Echinacea (Purple Coneflower), Elecampane, Evening Primrose, Fennel, Fenugreek, Feverfew, Horehound, Hyssop, Lamb’s Ear, Lavender, Lemon Balm, Lovage, Marsh Mallow, Motherwort, Oats, Oregano, Peppermint, Red Clover, White Smudging Sage, Stinging Nettle, Toothache Plant, and Yarrow Seeds.

It gets each packet down to $1.11. Will I use all 36? I doubt it, but even if I grow 18 of the herbs, I have come out ahead. Herb seed packets are $3 to 5, on average. I liked it had Horehound (great for throat lozenges) and Marshmallow. Calendula, Chamomile, and Echinacea are all great for pollinators. Toothache plant has an interesting look when it is blooming, and Feverfew isn’t liked by pollinators, but is hardy and survives even the deepest cold winters, and grows huge with zero care. Having edible kitchen herbs like lovage, fennel, anise, and peppermint is handy. These are plants I had growing as perennials at our previous homestead.

ONE WARNING:

You may wonder why this product won’t ship to Washington State if you live there. It is because of the Clary Sage. I would say this: Why did they pick an herb that is downright banned? It is a Class A noxious weed that cannot be sold as seed or plant. I don’t typically see herbs as “bad,” but having researched it, I can see why. West Virginia doesn’t ban it, but begs one not to plant it. It seeds efficiently and spreads like crazy. You might be OK with it, but I opted not to seed it.

I want to see how they will grow in the short and long term. Will they germinate quickly or slowly?

I set up a grow table outside. It’s been in the 80s this week, so it is go time. We had rain last night after it was 84 during the day. This weather should cause quick germination.

In general I did one 4 to 6″ pot per type, though I seeded more for Chamomile and Calendula, as they will be used for flowers as well.

I aim to have all the plants I want for an herb spiral. Last year, when we were taking a permaculture class, I came out in June ready to build one, and then I had my fall at the end of that month. With a temporarily destroyed arm, that herb spiral got bumped. But now I am back to planning it!

This will be a long-term set of posts to see how they grow this spring and summer.

It is pretty convenient to buy seeds sealed in an outer Mylar bag for storage, as one usually doesn’t use all the seeds in a year (unless you are growing plants for sale). The remaining seeds are sealed up and stored for later use.

~Sarah

FTC Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

Gardening · Homesteading · Urban Homesteading

Building A New Garden Using Raised Beds

April 29, 2025April 29, 2025 Sarah

A month into our new place I finally found the batteries for our push lawn mower (and ancient Greenworks), which was….something desperately needed.

Our new place is almost nothing but lawn (oh yay) and we were looking very unkempt. The rain this spring has led to very lush lawn, which then gave a place for these annoying gnat like flies to hide in, that swarm on warm days.

As I pushed that awful broken down mower, it gave me a lot of time to think about where to put a garden. Having a month here, I have had time to watch the sun shift. My original idea, behind the house, doesn’t really feel like it will be a good choice after all. It only gets sun in the afternoon for a few hours, and is in the shade by the house by 5 pm, and is sloped downhill in general. It’s also in an area that holds the water better, so the grass grows deeper back there. There is a seasonal emergency creek that divides the properties here, in case of heavy rain, and we can’t build anything within a certain distance, so I realized that a garden there might just have far too many issues.

(The trees in the mid right of the photo below are just above the creek area)

Not long after this, my awesome neighbor offered to mow the rest of our lawn on his ridie. The worst parts – super thick and heavy down by the creek. He saved me at least 6 hours of mowing and many charging of those batteries. By the next time I need to mow, we should have the flail mower on the tractor, and it won’t be hard.

Instead, there is an area to the left of the house that is nearly flat, dry and hard packed. Not great for in ground, but raise beds? Yes. Perfect. It needs a tree taken out (an unattractive pine tree), and it gets nice sun exposure.It is in the sun by mid morning, and holds sun till well past dinner time.

It’s also more importantly, mostly flat. It’s on very hard pack land, so not good for an inground garden at all. We also have rock seams around the upper parts, and I am sure under this area it has lots of rock buried. So, great for raised beds!

I will have to work out water for the site, but I think it will work well over time.

The bed will have pro farm/garden fabric laid down, to ensure weed free growing, and to block rodents as well I am considering laying under that hardware cloth. It will be properly fenced in, as we do have some deer, though they keep to the edges, near the farm a bit away from us. No need to offer an all you can eat buffet though.

The goal is to have a garden big enough to have a greenhouse in the center, with beds around it, and pots as well. With walking space between the beds, that I can line with chipped wood to walk on. Unlike the last 7 years, I want/need this to look like I planned it, and have it nice looking as it will be visible from the road.

This is the start of the new garden – it will be major work – but beyond worth it.

I have to do something. The container garden is crazy down on the patio – I can’t help myself. I love plants way too much. It encourages me to get moving on the project.

The raised beds:

In the past years, and last 3 properties, I was more about just having beds and not the look. So I would use a hodge-podge of materials. Reclaimed pavers, cinder blocks, felled trees. Whatever I could source, preferably for the lowest cost. This time I want them to match. It pains me to spend the money – but I want it nice.

I have been using grow bags on the patio this spring, and they work pretty well, so I was intrigued to find that I could source grow bags that line metal raised beds. And they are compartments, so you can grow things like mint, and keep them from growing under and taking over. They are 4 feet by 4 feet and a foot high. If you are using 8 by 4 foot raised beds, you can fit two of them in.

I picked up a twin pack of 8 by 4 by 1 foot beds for $69.99 from Amazon to try out, to see if I liked the look, were they durable and such. They have a rod in the center for stability.

The grow bags I picked up (I ordered two packs of them). They were $19.99 for each two pack. They are the same felt materiel as most grow bags are. The compartments are 2 feet each, giving you 4 compartments per bag, or 8 total in an 8 foot raised bed. They can seem overwhelming when you open them up, but once filled and in a frame, do just fine.

So not square foot gardening, but 2-square foot gardening!

Why use liners?

There are a couple of reasons to use liners:

Soil stays in the bags and doesn’t leak out over times as it settles (which happens in the raised beds).
It offers weed protection, from coming up from below. Too often (and me included) it’s easy to lay down cardboard and think you won’t have weeds in your beds because of that. Well, you won’t the first year. But after? Eventually grass comes up and so does dandelions, thistles and more.
It helps hold in moisture.
It controls plants with compatibility issues – such as peppermint, lemon balm, well honestly ALL plants from the mint family. It keeps their roots from spreading everywhere.

I ended up buying more.

With the risk of China tariffs, I went back and bought more, to prepare for the garden. It’s going to be done, so might as well get ready!

I’ll post an update once I start the building of the garden – first I need to get any potential utilities flagged so I know where they are, since I will be putting posts into the ground.

FTC Disclosure: This post contains affilate links.

~Sarah

Gardening · Homesteading · Urban Homesteading

A Simple Raised Bed Concept For A Family Of Four

April 25, 2025 Sarah

Social media does have a positive side—and that is giving one ideas to work with. I saw this one over the winter and liked it. It’s simple and one that most people could follow. Tiny Garden Habit posted it, and if you are looking for articles on small scale growing, this is a great place to waste some time reading.

I would base it in the beds being 8 feet long by 4 feet wide, as the illustration doesn’t precisely tell one that information (the downside of social media is it isn’t always deeply informative). It is the standard for size in raised beds.

5 raised beds would fit easily in most suburban backyards, leaving room for kids and a dog to play.

The key in it is using square foot planting. High density planting.

With proper watering, high density works in using less water, but also in controlling weeds. It takes planning, especially if you pick things to plant that need to be trellised. You will need to watch the sun, and how it moves across your land – so that anything tall is in the back.

But this can inspire one to get growing, even though they might feel that they don’t “have the room” to have a garden. All you need is just enough room to move around the beds to weed, water and harvest. It doesn’t have to sprawl a lot.

Do you need to grow what is shown? Of course not. You should grow what you like to eat. If you hate cilantro, grow parsley or celery instead.I myself prefer to grow my herbs in large pots, by themself. But that is me, and I also like letting my plants grow big, as I cut off them often. Most people only need one parsley plant per family, not a row.

Change the flowers (though they have a beneficial side, to deflect certain insects). Instead of Marigolds, grow Calendula or whatever grabs your fancy.

The top bed would need a cattle panel or a trellis to grow up on, placed in the middle of the bed. Or grow bush varieties to save space – and the need to build a trellis.

The key is to plant seeds (and actual plants) far more densely than you are used to doing. Ignore the recommendations on the seed packages. You can thin out as needed (like beets or carrots). Peas grow well when crowded, I have found – and if you grow bush peas versus climbing types, they grow faster and take less room.

Start with plants (which you can grow in a simple greenhouse or buy) for produce such as tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, cabbage, and onions. You will be able to space them accurately and time them better to the last frost date in your grow zone.

I would not plant strawberries in a raised bed like this—they should have their own bed or be in containers, sprinkled around the garden – if your yard has a fence you can put plant hangers on the posts, and hang pots up easily. They are space hogs in raised beds and invite slugs and snails in. I would double up a favorite veggie or plant some summer squash there (did you know you can grow it upright on a cattle panel?).

One last tip? Do not plant sunflowers with other items, no matter how tempting it can be to plant a back row (I get it, it is pretty). However, sunflowers can and will leach out and cause any other plant nearby to not grow well, or at all. It wants to reach the sun, and it does it efficiently. Consider planting it along a fence line, far at the back, by itself. Where it can grow happily.

~Sarah