Eating the front lawn

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Over the weekend I was spinning yarn in the afternoon, and my husband asked for my help outside.  “I went a little crazy,” he said “and I need your help cleaning up.”

Nothing could have prepared me for he did: half of our front lawn was completely bare.  He ripped up everything.

We do not have a traditional front lawn, all flat with a lovely expanse of green grass.  Rather, we have a steep front yard covered in ivy and other ground cover.  It often looks messy and sort of overgrown.  There’s a 6 feet by 5 feet section to the left of our front steps, and a 15 feet by 5 feet section to the right of our front steps.  My husband decimated the smaller section.

As we threw the detritus into lawn bags, we talked about what to do to the plot.  My husband wanted to put in some nice, flowering ground cover.  Vinca perhaps.  Or maybe Phlox.  The more I think about it, though, this might be the perfect time to introduce some edible ground cover.  It makes perfect sense - I’ve been trying to convert more and more of our lawn into garden space.

And as it turns out, there are a lot of options available.

Perennial herbs are readily available - oregano, chives, mint, thyme, bay, lavender, lemongrass, rosemary, just to name a few.  And there are also edible ground covers to choose from.  Lingonberry is viable option.  This low growing, spreading, evergreen ground cover produces edible berries in late Summer.  Cranberries are another interesting option.  Cranberries are a low-growing, spreading ground cover that, New Jersey being the cranberry capital, does very well in our area...and a bog is unnecessary.

Alternatively, lowbush blueberries are another option.  Lowbush blueberry bushes, also known as Maine blueberries, only get about a foot high at maximum.  They are also native to Pennsylvania and tend to spread like crazy.

Coincidentally, I recently discovered three local nurseries that specialize in native plants: Edge of the Woods, Red Bud, and Yellow Springs.  All three are a rich source of native edible landscaping!.

What are your suggestions for plants to include in an edible landscape?

To bee or not to bee

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

We’ve been concerned about bee populations for a while now, since the minute the reports of colony collapses began to be reported.  Those of us who garden truly understand the benefit of bees, and by now I think most of us appreciate the impact of bees on our food sources.  It’s said that Einstein predicted the end of mankind within four years without bees.

A report out yesterday indicates that bee health in commercial colonies has declined even since last year.

A survey of bee health released Tuesday revealed a grim picture, with 36.1 percent of the nation’s commercially managed hives lost since last year.

Last year’s survey commissioned by the Apiary Inspectors of America found losses of about 32 percent.

As beekeepers travel with their hives this spring to pollinate crops around the country, it’s clear the insects are buckling under the weight of new diseases, pesticide drift and old enemies like the parasitic varroa mite, said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, president of the group.

This is the second year the association has measured colony deaths across the country. This means there aren’t enough numbers to show a trend, but clearly bees are dying at unsustainable levels and the situation is not improving, said vanEngelsdorp, also a bee expert with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

Pennsylvania has committed an additional $20,400 into Colony Collapse Disorder research at Penn State, bringing the total funds dedicated to investigating CCD to $86,000.  That doesn’t seem like nearly enough money to me to investigate something that could impact us all so radically.

Just last year Pennsylvania apple growers, as well as fruit growers throughout the region, had trouble getting enough bees to pollinate their acreage.  The cost of renting commercial bees increased by 60%.  With the greater decline, rental prices will likely increase again, and farmers will be forced to pass on the extra costs to consumers.

So what can you and I do?  No one really knows exactly what’s killing off the bees, but we can support wild bee habitats.  Honeybees are not the only good pollinators - bumblebees and Mason bees are also prized for pollination.  To make your yard or patio bee-friendly, grow plants that have plenty of nectar and pollen.  Feed the bees!  Avoid pesticides and other harsh chemicals.  And be sure to give bees a place to live.  You can purchase bee habitats, but you can just as easily build your own.

Signs of Life

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Seedlings are the most optimistic things, don’t you think? They awaken some longing that I think I last felt as an elementary schooler as I headed home with my tiny pine tree on Arbor Day. These wee ones are Buttercup Squash. Please don’t ask me where I plan to plant even one of them, because I hear that they’re likely to take over my little garden patch. I wonder if I could train them to grow up a clothesline? I could have green squash bobbing in the breeze like lumpy paper lanterns…

To Feed Thousands

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Here it is! My very own plot in the Sloan Street Community Garden. I’m delighted to be a new garden member this year as I’ve got big plans to grow sugar and shelling peas, followed by all manner of green beans, peppers, zucchini, cucumbers and (how could you not?) tomatoes. It was a difficult choice, but I’ve narrowed down the finalists to yellow and red ‘jelly bean’ grape tomatoes, beefsteak slicers, and one precious Cherokee Purple. I started my baby seedlings on Good Friday with the intention of sowing them in the back yard. I changed my mind after a few attempts to sink a spade into the compacted clay soil. This decision was confirmed as I unearthed two whole glass bottles, several bricks and brick shards, and some extremely corroded cutlery.

I’m not alone in these, my first attempts at growing my own food. I think that many have taken to heart Michael Pollan’s urging from In Defense of Food to plant a garden. Though the impulse for me may have begun with the desire to wake up to the verdant smell of tomato plants and their August bounty, my garden planning has taken on a more somber tone of late. The headlines about the impending global food crisis are becoming as consistent as my morning coffee. Working in hunger relief means that every day I come face to face with the ramifications of this crisis as the drought plays out in Australia and people in Haiti are eating dirt for dinner, if for only the feeling of fullness that it provides. Every day at work I make phone calls asking for food to feed the working poor of Philadelphia. It’s true that hunger is different here, but the urgency is looming, the Farm Bill stalled, and people in both Haiti and Philadelphia go to bed hungry.

I can’t solicit enough produce, meat or bread to send overseas, but I can do my best to take care of those in my community who would otherwise have to choose between utility bills and groceries. The other thing I can do is exactly this: embrace my little square of dirt, not because it will feed thousands, but because it just might produce enough to feed me. 

Sorrel revisited

Friday, April 25, 2008

There are a few things that over-wintered in the garden and are now going all crazy: the garlic, French sorrel, and chives.  Only the sorrel was a surprise.  And what a nice surprise it was! 

Sorrel sort of looks like spinach, but there’s no mistaking the flavor - it’s tart and lemony.  And it’s good for you!  Sorrel is high in vitamin C, vitamin A, iron, and fiber.

I tend to use sorrel more like a garnish, cut into chiffonade and used in sandwiches and with beets.  However, since I’ve got such an early and large supply of it, I’m looking into some other uses.  One interesting idea I came across is a sorrel pesto sauce for pasta.  Another really tempting idea is sorrel and goat cheese quiche.

Radishes will be one of the first crops we get when the CSA’s start shipping, and I found a recipe for butter-braised radishes with sorrel The combination of spicy and tart sounds delicious!

Here are some other ideas for using sorrel:

• Sorrel vichyssoise
• Sorrel, pea, and leek soup
• Halibut with tomato-sorrel sauce
• Smoked salmon benedict with sorrel sauce
• Sorrel dal

It’s definitely not too late to plant some sorrel in your own garden - as I discovered, it’s a perennial...so it will give you many years of lemony goodness!

Something new every day!

Friday, April 18, 2008

This is really a fun time of year to eat locally.  There’s not a ton of stuff that’s seasonal, but fresh things keep dribbling into the farmer’s markets and every day brings some new shoot in the garden.  I have tons of chives already, and there’s some overwintered sorrel that looks ready to harvest!  And did I mention the fig growing on my fig tree?

Every time I get the email about what’s coming in the next week at the Fair Food Farmstand, I can’t open it fast enough.  This week there are wild garlic bulbs and spring scallions from Green Meadow Farm.  There’s baby rainbow chard and beet greens.  Spinach.  There’s even a recipe included involving the garlic and the great, locally grown spelt berries sold at the farmstand.

I know what I’ll be eating this weekend!

What’s in season at your local market?

Starting seeds

Monday, February 25, 2008

It’s nearly March.  I noticed the other day that I have at least three or four inches of leaves up on my daffodil bulbs outside.  It won’t be long now before the earliest bulbs are flowering, and before long it will be time to start gardening in earnest.  The official last frost date here in the Philadelphia area is May 15, but global warming is certainly pushing that date earlier and earlier each year.  Last year I planted tomatoes in the garden on May 1 and had a lovely crop.

For long season crops, like leeks and celery root, it’s best to get a head start on the season and start the plants indoors.  I planted seeds for both on February 18 and, as you can see, the seeds are starting to sprout.  If I can keep the cats out of the plants and if I can give these seedlings the love they need, I’ll have a healthy head start on the growing season by May.

I was intimidated by starting my own seeds for a long time, but it’s really pretty easy.  I prefer to use Jiffy peat pellets in those plastic greenhouse things for starting seeds. It’s easy, and I have a good sunny, warm spot that means I don’t need to mess with a grow light set up.  But you definitely don’t need to purchase peat pellets to start seeds - you can use things you have lying around the house instead.

Lots of people simply reuse egg cartons or yogurt cups for starting seeds. These containers offer a way to recycle your garbage, and they’re a great size for starting seeds.  You can use regular dirt from your garden or backyard in the container of your choice, but seeds generally do best in a soilless potting medium (which is one reason why I prefer the peat pellets).  A trip to your local gardening center will score you a bag of what you need. 

When you’re ready to plant, just take a look at the packet of seeds you have.  Read about how deep the seeds need to be planted.  In most cases, it’s about a quarter of an inch deep.  Make sure the peat or soil or whatever is moist and then plant.  Put your containers in a sunny window and cover the containers in plastic wrap to trap warmth and humidity.  Check your containers every day or two to make sure the soil is moist, and eventually your seeds should sprout.

It’s at this point where things most often go awry.  Seedlings need 12-18 hours of light.  If your sunny window isn’t providing the needed light, you may need to invest in a grow light - but be careful not to position the light too far above the plants or they may get too leggy.  When the plant gets its first set of true leaves, you may want to fertilize a little encourage good roots and healthy growth.  You can normally keep the plants in their original containers until you’re ready to plant, unless you’re growing them indoors for an extended period.  In that case, you may want to pot them up into larger containers.

It doesn’t take a lot of work to start your own seeds, and you’ll be rewarded with the most local of locally grown produce!

An organizing fool

Friday, February 08, 2008

It’s February and that means I have been nose-first in seed catalogs the last couple of weeks.  I suspect many FTP contributors are in the same boat.  There’s nothing more ‘local’ than growing it yourself!

I keep a stack near my couch so I can read and reread the catalogs, deciding which company has the best seed varieties, figuring out what I really want to grow.  Normally, I’d have a little notebook close by so I can make notes and lists.  Now I just keep my laptop handy - I’ve gone high tech.  I have become completely enamored of MyFolia.

MyFolia is a program for gardeners that let’s you electronically track, organize, and share what you’ve planted, what seeds and plants you’ve purchased, and what you want to buy.  There’s a reminder section for making gardening task notes and a journal.  It’s a pretty great idea.  The site is in public beta, so not everything works perfectly...but it’s definitely better than the system I was using.

For those of us who are knitters, you might think it sounds pretty similar to Ravelry.  It is very similar and even has the same Flickr interface. Like Ravelry, MyFolia definitely appeals to the inner nitpicky organizational freak in me.

I’ve been busily entering in all the seeds I’ve recently ordered.  Just this week I placed an order with Territorial Seed Company.  Spring will soon be here and I want to make sure I have time to start some seeds indoors.  Some of the first things I’ll start inside are the Brilliant Celeriac and Tadorna Leeks.  And, of course, one of my first outdoor plantings will be a sea of Hakurei Turnips, the seeds for which I procured from Kitazawa Seed Company.

Garlic Interlude

Monday, January 21, 2008

Had to put a recent picture I took of some garlic left over from a garden we were given.  Garlic, as I was telling M, is so amazing yet unassuming it is probably my favorite veggie.  Well, there’s tomatoes too, of course.  And potatoes, brussels sprouts, mushrooms, onions… Oh, dear.  Hmm… enjoy!

Rice for the rest of us

Friday, January 18, 2008

For the last couple of weeks I and some of my fellow FTP contributors have had our noses stuck in seed catalogs.  Many of us will begin our indoor seed starting for certain long season crops pretty soon and it’s a great time of year to fantasize about gardening - especially in light of the snow yesterday!!

Always interested in growing new things, I stumbled upon a kid’s website recent that describes the growing conditions necessary for growing your own rice.  As you might imagine, rice is not exactly native to Pennsylvania.  Rather, rice is native to tropical and subtropical southern Asia and southeastern Africa.  Most of the rice grown today comes from Asia, and it’s growth requires quite a bit of water.

That said, it’s entirely possible to grow your own rice without flooding your backyard!  All it takes is a bucket, a bit of compost and potting soil, some rice seeds, and water.  You can grow the rice indoors - as long as your have temps above 55 degrees, that’s all you need (click for the full instructions).  The rice needs a long growing season - 90-120 days.

I have to assume that a large number of rice plants would need to be planted to get a decent enough yield.  Still, it might make a fun experiment - and think of how proud you’ll be to have rice that you’ve grown yourself without all the pesticides.

A little poo is good for the soul

Thursday, December 27, 2007

One of our readers recently requested a list of local resources by county.  The other contributors and I are working to put that together, but while I was doing a little bit of Google research I ran into the latest newsletter from the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau.  I found a link of potential value to all of us home gardeners - Pennsylvania Manure Trader.

When I excitedly ran into the other room last night to tell my husband, he stared at me like I had grown horns.  I guess it’s a little strange to be excited about manure.

I compost, but my kitchen scraps can’t possibly supply all the nutrients I need for my little garden.  Oftentimes I end up purchasing manure to dig in, and then I wish I could find someone from whom I could buy it.  Some of the manure listed on the site is purchase-able, but much of it is free.  And it seems like nearly all the manure listed is horse manure.

This is the time of year I start daydreaming about next year’s garden, so this is a great resource to have on hand.

On a related note, have you checked out the Seed Savers Exchange catalog that Allison wrote about?  The variety of tomatoes has got me drooling!

Lapsing Locavoritude

Monday, December 24, 2007

Although I have not lost locavoraciousness, this time of year—lacking time and wheels and a taste for root vegetables—it’s tough not to skid off the runway of locally grown. I still have a few farmers market apples in the fridge, but that’s about it at the moment. Except for these herbs—the last scraggly tarragon from outside, some sage from a patch in the nabe, and some oregano I brought inside that’s hanging on—that I’ll mince and combine with butter and lemon zest (uh-oh) to slip under the skin of tomorrow’s Christmas turkey breast. (Don’t ask about the turkey part’s provenance, ok?)

Arrival of the Seed Savers Exchange 2008 Catalog

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

This is a big fun day for me every year. If you’ve never encountered it, you are in for a treat. And while I am trying to get off most catalog lists, this catalog is worth the paper/inks, etc.

Last summer, the first in several that I was able to have a garden again, I went bonkers for both seeds and plants. (Some turned out better than others, but it was a good learning experience.) Opening to the pepper section, how could you not want to order the “Sheepnose Pimento,” the “Bulgarian Carrot,” or the “Hinkelhatz.” Eggplant varieties called “Casper” (yup, it’s white), “Lao Purple Stripe,” and “Udumalapet” are pictured. There are drying beans and fresh beans, a beautiful spread of melons, herbs, flowers, and garlic. And there are 8 pages of tomatoes. Just try to resist.

A few years ago my stepsister and I (the same one who does organic ag for the Minnesota Dept. of Ag) visited the Seed Savers Heritage Farm in Decorah, Iowa, at the height of summer. Unbelievable. It’s there that they grow the seeds people send them in order to preserve the germ. The variety of colors and shapes blew me away.

But if you can’t visit in person, visit Seed Savers online.

Jack and the Bean Stalk

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

We’ve recently been talking about local sources for dried beans, but don’t overlook the fact that you can grow your very own dried beans in a very small amount of space.  In my case, I didn’t quite mean to grow dried beans - I just didn’t have time to keep up with the beans in my garden and they became dried beans.  As you might be able to see, the limas, green beans, and purple beans overgrew, dried up, and left me with a couple fistfuls of beans.  And there would have been many more had I completely ignored my little plot of beans instead of only doing a half-assed job of keeping them picked!

You can plant regular old beans and just let them get out of hand, like I did.  But there are quite a few varieties of beans that are intended for use as dried beans.  Victory Seeds has a nice selection of heirloom varieties, but you can get them from nearly any seed company.  And it’s a good, low maintenance thing to plant in the garden - simply plant, keep watered, and don’t harvest until the end of the season when the seed pods have dried up on the vine.

Home Sweet Worm Bin, Day 11 or 12

Friday, November 16, 2007

A quick update on the tenants of my bin.

(Full disclosure: I don’t call them “tenants” any more. It wasn’t long before I began greeting them “hello worms, it’s your mother!” I knew it would happen, just not this quickly. I realize that interviewing as potential “father” to my worms could turn off potential partners for me. Love me, love my worm bin? Updates on this should the time come.)

There’s been a birth! I spied a very little worm among the adults today. Too small for my camera to get a good shot, but should I encounter a creche of them on my next occasion to burrow in the bedding, I’ll try to document it. In the interim, I do have a photo of worms at work on some bits of tomato, potato peelings, and I’m not sure what else.

The smell is fine—earthy, as one might expect. About a week ago I opened the bin and a couple of houseflies flew out, but that’s been it as far as other creatures. The lettuce-y items appear to be the most broken down; onion skins the least. So far, I’m quite pleased.