What's in your wallet...er...garden?

Well, in mine there are carrots (not the weeds at the top and bottom of the photo.)
There are radishes and golden beets.
We've got some pretty nice looking leeks.
Salad anyone? Weeds in the upper left, onions on the left and a dead (for some mysterious reason) Meyers lemon tree on the right. That might be blackberry just to the right of the greens. Those vines grow all over the yard.
How about more salad?
How about a spinach and arugula salad? Those are some fine tasting greens.
Another spinach shot.
From the top: peas and Swiss chard. Purslane was planted at the bottom of the photo, but it hasn't seen fit to emerge. Too early, maybe.
I've got a ton of stuff that needs to go in, so this is just a small sample of the stuff we will be eating this year. BTW, in case you are skeptical that home-grown vegetables taste better than grocery store offerings, they do. Way better. In fact, nothing tastes better than picking them and eating them less than an hour later.

Of course things are growing, they want to grow.

I stopped at Starbuck's on the way to work the other morning to see about picking up free fertilizer. As Solomon notes, coffee grounds are a seedmeal that has had hot water passed through it. He estimates that it's got about half the potency of chicken manure, and that it really makes plants come alive. I'm all over that. Coffee is a huge industry, and resulting grounds are free for the taking.

I've been experimenting at work. Lots of people there have decorative bamboo plants, but I've been feeding mine a bit of coffee grounds, and it's the darkest, most healthy looking plant in the office. Of course, others have taken to feeding theirs, so we'll see what happens. Initial results are encouraging, as is the fact that two other people have come to me to say they too are starting gardens.

My most recent compost pile additions are coffee grounds and wood shavings bedding from a Guinea pig (with the complimentary gp wastes.) I figure I'll be able to use a lot of coffee grounds to offset the high-carbon wood shavings. Plus it's free for as long as I'm willing to schlep an extra twelve or so pounds back up the hill each day.

I recommend putting your grounds in a plastic bag for transport. I lucked out here, but the next day the bag leaked grounds and strong black coffee on my panniers and wheel.

On Friday, my daughter and I rode into town on the Xtraycle and while running errands and getting lunch, we picked up four of these bags. Maybe 45lbs of grounds? Thank goodness for the Xtracycle. Without it, I'd be driving.

Update: I was reading Solomon's book again, and realized he wrote to never, ever put wood in your compost pile as it takes too long to degrade if you want to make high quality compost. Guess I'll skip the bedding.

Cream or sugar?

If you work in an office, there is probably a pot of coffee brewing. And those used grounds are probably destined for the trash. Here's a hot tip: Worms love coffee grounds. Plants love seedmeal. Coffee grounds are seedmeal. Grab the filter and grounds for your compost bin, and you are eliminating waste and contributing to your garden.

I've got one of the best bamboo plants in the office, and I think it's because I'm experimenting with giving it a bit of coffee grounds every now and then. Even if that's not a success, I can vouch for the worms. They love the stuff.

I understand Starbucks has a policy to give anyone that asks the used grounds. I'm wondering if my local Oakland City Center location has anyone asking for it already, because I certainly could ride the Xtracycle to work a couple of times a month.

It's alive!

Some updated photos of what's growing so far. The entire backyard has been finished and is ready for planting. As we're in a water shortage for the last few years, I've let the grass die in the front. I was considering a bed of corn since it looks like crap anyway, but I'm not sure I want to spring for stakes and fencing to keep the deer out. I might go for it, though.

Back in reality-land, peas are growing in the center of the raised bed, and spinach is popping up between the peas and arugula.

Radishes and beets poking up. The beets are just above and parallel to the row of radishes.

The final new bed (top of the photo, to the left of the stepping-stone path. Nothing is planted there yet, but we've lots of time. Note the abundance of moisture. It's been raining quite a bit the last few days. Here's hoping for a lot of resulting snow-pack (raises beer.)


Blast from the past - the backyard after a couple of years of neglect. (Note the wooden bench for a reference point.) I wish I'd have kept count of how many paper garden waste bags I put out at the curb. A lot of it was woody matter that I'd still put out, but some would have made good compost material. Leaves and such.

Oops...

While drunk on the summer-like weather we had last month, we planted out part of our garden. While it was mostly things that like cooler weather, I messed up and forgot that some of the sections planted don't really get any sun just yet.

Now coming up between the green fencing and the arugula is spinach, and above that in the skinny bed are radishes and beets. Along the fencing are peas that seem to be doing fine. The areas to the left (out of the photo) are currently shaded all day, so carrots, purslane and Swiss chard are not coming up. I suspect we'll find out in the next few weeks if the seeds went to waste or not. It's been cold and wet lately, so I don't blame anyone but myself. Lesson learned. Next year the south end of the beds are for later planting. Note the happy leaks ringing the Mandarin orange tree in the upper-right of the photo (click for super-large size.)

In this photo, you can see our excellent broccoli among the roses and fruit trees. The level above (bottom of photo) used to sport a juniper that succumbed to my sweat and sawzall. Now it's got a lettuce mix and onions around the lemon tree. The level below is my daughter's garden sporting peas, a sowing of carrots and some flower seed. I'll have to check on the carrot progress, but something chomped the peas the first night, so we've got more started in the kitchen.
The section where the old birdbath is laying is now a finished garden plot as well. I've got it all ready to plant and will probably sow seeds next month. Potatoes for sure. I'm not sure what else at the moment. You can also see that the lemon tree is not looking so chipper. Perhaps the missing juniper is causing ultimate suffering.

I've also been working in Steve Solomon's Complete Organic Fertilizer. I'm anxious to see what it does to help grow things. See "Gardening When it Counts" for fertilizer details. It's all natural.

The new phone book is here!

Navin Johnson - The Jerk, 1979

Realizing that it's only January 20th, I've got 80+% of the backyard garden beds in place and 50% of it planted. I grabbed my Milwaukee Sawzall (the most awesomest, manliest tool out there) and shovel and made way for five new fruit trees, while my superdy-duper wife went about planting.

My garden (farm?) so far:

Peach tree - fairly new
Plum tree - new
Persimmon tree - new
Pear tree - new
Pluot (a plum/apricot hybrid) - new
Lemon tree - last summer
Lime tree - last summer
Mandarin orange tree - last summer
Apple tree - new
Blueberry bush - last summer
Spinach - new
Scallions - new
Onions - new
Carrots - new
Lettuce - new
Purslane - new
Arugula - existing
Parsley - existing
Fig tree - newly transplanted from a pot
Strawberries - existing
Blackberries - existing
Golden Beets - new
Broccoli - existing
Leeks - existing
Swiss Chard - new
Radish - new
Some forgotten herbs
And maybe some stuff I forgot.

On deck: potatoes, parsnips, zucchini, peas (sprouting on the kitchen table right now), beans, peppers, pumpkins, tomatoes, cucumber and some other stuff that I’ve forgotten. We're just waiting for the proper growing season or for me to create the bed. I've got around 30-40 gallons of dirt left to haul in the back (out of three yards delivered) to create the final bed. Another weekend and I'll be finished and ready to resume painting the house...

Three yards of dirt to carry to the back. Luckily it's all downhill. Only another 3-4 garbage cans worth left to move.


A backyard shot before last weekend. Gone are the juniper bushes and some dead stuff along the fence. New are the fruit trees including the fig tree at the bottom of the photo in the corner of the deck.

What's growing on your kitchen table? Beans here at casa Smudgemo.

My brother in Wisconsin says he's growing ice. Sorry my family and friends can't share in the unbelievable weather we've had the last weekend, but that's how we suffer in the land of fruits and nuts.

I love the smell of compost in the morning.

My dad came to town last week to help get some projects done, and one thing on the list was a new compost bin. We debated a few different designs and decided to build a two-bin system from some plans I found on the Lowe's website. Due to cost constraints, we opted to build it out of fir instead of redwood (which was over three times more expensive.) We also decided to reduce the thickness of some materials (namely the 2x6 and 5/4x6 where we went with 1x6.) The 2x6 called for seemed unnecessarily thick. While fir isn't rated for outdoor use, it was a lot cheaper and will certainly last five years, perhaps more with some care.

After a trip to Truitt & White for lumber and some hardware, we proceeded to cut all of the boards to the correct lengths. Then we stained most of the boards for a little bit of protection and good looks. What is surprising is the amount of lumber and labor that goes into making something this small. We had a couple of problems caused by errors in the plans and by our use of thinner wood, but nothing we couldn't fix.

Tools used were a chop saw, drill, various drill bits, hammer, jig saw, circle saw and a wrench. You could get by without the chop saw, but the cuts are so easy, and always square.

Here we've built the base and the rear posts (which are already notched.)
Dad installing one of the completed front posts.We removed the front posts for access and are installing the floor.
Since my yard entry is very narrow, we removed the rear posts as well, and finished the building on site. I'm excited to see what kind of rotting goes on, and if it compares at all with the worm bin (foreground.)
Here we are attaching the backside planking.
Almost finished for the day, and we realize the front and rear posts are not the same height. Doh! Forgot that the floor thickness was reduced from the plans. A simple handsaw fixed that.
This bin allows one easy access to the compost because the front panels slide up and out. Turning a pile won't be much of a chore, and we won't have to worry about the fork tines poking the floor from digging downward.
Unfortunately we ran out of time and my dad had to leave. This weekend I plan to attach at least the middle screen and one side so I can start filling it with some yard waste and rotting pumpkins. Then some more stain and a couple of simple lids, and it's done!

Books to reference are "Let It Rot" by Stu Campbell and "Gardening When it Counts" by Steve Solomon.