Robot Farmers & The Book Of Weeds

I noticed a copy of The Book of Weeds: How to Deal with Plants that Behave Badly in the new book section at the library today. I started glancing through it because I've been trying to figure out what the weed that takes over my back lawn each summer is and this book had really nice, big pictures which made it very clear what you are looking at. Often times books like this will have squinkly little line drawings which make it hard to figure out what you are looking at, but this book made it very easy. (Common plantain by the way). It also gives advice on what causes a particular weed to thrive and how to get rid of it.

It also had a couple of pages about the Field Robot Event. This is a contest for universities working on small robots which can navigate the rows of plants on a field and take action in much smaller spaces than conventional farm equipment. Think a swarm of small, solar powered robots which patrol the rows all day spot digging weeds or spot applying herbicide on specific plants rather than needing to spray the entire field. The site has some interesting pictures and videos.

Seed Starting: Cardboard Box

As mentioned in the last post, the seed starting trays you buy at the garden center are often very small and require one or two transplants as the plants get bigger before the final transplant into the garden. I think if you start with a bigger container in the first place, the re-plantings can be avoided later on.

I haven't tried this previously, but plan on doing so in the spring.

1. Get a corrugated cardboard box that was used to hold bottles which has card board dividers in it used to separate the bottles. A case of bottled beer is a good example of the type of box I am referring to.

2. Drink the beer. Gardening is hard work and this is one of those thankless tasks you'll need to suffer in order to ensure a successful crop.

3. Cut the box to the height of the dividers. This should be about 3 - 4 inches high. If the dividers themselves are very high, you may need to trim them to about 4 inches.

4. With a screw driver, poke three holes in the bottom of the box under each of the squares of the divider.

5. You should now have about a 4 inch deep cardboard tray with either 12 or 24 compartments made from the divider. Fill the tray with potting soil and plant seeds in each of the compartments.

6. Place the tray on a cookie sheet or similar and use as you would a normal seed starting tray.

The compartments of the box are probably 4 or more times the size of the seed starting trays from the nursery center. It also has the advantage that you can simply tear away the cardboard when it is time to transplant in the garden rather than having to knock the plants out of little pots. The cardboard will also bio degrade if it is not wax coated and can also be used in the garden as mulch after the seedlings are removed.

Seed Starting: Yogurt Cups

Seed and garden companies often sell nice plastic trays with individual compartments for starting seeds. These usually start out great, but are often too small once the plants get a little bit bigger and I often end up needing to transplant once or maybe even twice before the plants get transplanted into the garden.

Yogurt cups are about two to three times bigger than the average seed starting container. While some towns recycle yogurt containers with the plastics, many do not, and they are seen as a landfill problem that won't bio degrade away. They stack inside each other for storage.

1. Use an eco friendly brand like Stony Field Farms. They stopped using plastic lids and the product itself is good.

2. Wash the cup.

3. Carefully poke 3 holes in the bottom of the cup using a screwdriver or other sharp tool being careful not to press so hard as to crack the plastic. The power drill with a small bit will also work.

4. Fill the cup with potting soil and plant your seeds as you normally would.

For those of us in the North East, the time to start seeds is a little over three months off which should leave plenty of time to collect enough cups for the home gardener.

Strawberry Jam Smells Like June

Back in the early summer we had gone strawberry picking and made Strawberry Jam. The jam had a light, shimmering pink translucence and when the jar was opened a thick, rich smell of strawberries came tumbling out along with a deep strawberry taste.

At the time, I had wondered why store bought jam did not smell and taste that same way. Most store bought jam uses corn syrup rather than sugar and they often cut the fruit content with grape juice, but I assumed that the real reason had to do with the long time the store jam needs to sit on the shelf. I also assumed the homemade jam would also wither over time once it was allowed to age.

I did not think I would get an answer to my question because, at the time, the jam we made was eaten very quickly and whatever wasn't eaten was given away to friends and neighbors.

Recently, however, one of the family found one last jar tucked away in the back of the pantry. Opening the jar produces the same rich taste and flavor as it did back in summer as if it were still June. Homemade jam is ridiculously easy to make with only four ingredients basically boiled together in a single pot. While this didn't answer the question about the blandness of store jam, it did tell me I need to make sure I make enough next year to last the entire winter.

Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution

I just watched Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution which was a documentary about a small town in France in which the mayor mandates the food served in the local school must be organic. This experiment is interspersed with commentary on the different farming methods used in the region, the condition of the water in the region and other food related issues.

The movie itself is a little slow moving, but the images of the village and surrounding countryside are beautiful and exactly what you would expect a small village in France to look like. The food the kids are eating is about as far away as you can possibly get from chicken fingers and PB&J. The film itself is a good reminder why I started my own garden and gives good pause to reflect on a lot of other actions.

Recycled Buckets

Cat Litter usually comes in a paper bag or cardboard box which can then be recycled. The economy size, however, comes in a big, plastic bucket and while the convenience and cost savings of the larger size are nice, the bucket itself does not lend itself to curb side recycling.

Peel the labels off, however, and it simply becomes a white, plastic bucket with a lid and a handle. The lid fits tight and makes it a squirrel proof bird seed container, it doubles as a small garbage can in the tool shed and functions well as a sturdy bucket in the garden for hauling water, dirt, etc ...

Tips On Buying Seeds

The Seeds of Change catalog came in the mail yesterday and this is one of my favorite places to order from as they have a huge selection of organic and heirloom seeds.

When I speak with people who are looking to start their first vegetable garden, I usually suggest they go to their local nursery or big box store and start with some transplants. Transplants, having already been sprouted and partially grown, are in many cases easier to grow than by starting from seed.

The varieties at these locations, however, can be limited and certain varieties are either very simple to start from seed (peas, beans, squash) or simply don't make sense for the nursery to sell as transplants (carrots) and this is when seeds make sense.

When buying from a catalog or from a seed rack in the store, there are a number of terms used to describe the seeds. Many of these, like "partial shade" or "water often" are self explanatory, but here are a few that may not be obvious to everyone:

Zones: The U.S. Department of Agriculture divides North America into "hardiness zones" which are geographic bands which are similar in temperature. If a plant or seeds list a range of zones, you need to be certain you live within that range or the range of the temperature will not allow the plant to flourish or even survive. This is particularly true if you are buying a big money item, like a fruit tree, which you expect to live for more than one season.

Determinate vs. Indeterminate: Most often seen with tomatoes. Determinate give fruit in one big burst while indeterminate give fruit the entire season. Determinate plants tend to be shorter and bushier while indeterminate tend to be more long and sprawling.

Annual vs. perennial: Annuals live for one season while perennials will come back year after year. Many herbs are perennials. Take care that you plant the perennials in a location where you want them to stay for years to come rather than right in the middle of an area that you expect to dig up at the end of the season. Some plants are labeled as "perennial grown as an annual" which means that in their native land they would last season after season, but in other regions they will last only one season. You may occasionally see the "biennial" which is something that will last for two seasons.

Seeds in the packet: The smallest size packet is usually the right choice for the home gardener. While 25 seeds or 1/8 ounce may seem like a small amount, chances are you only want a few plants of each variety anyway and you will more often than not end up with half a packet left over. The seed companies are pretty good about knowing what they doing in this regard.

Germination percentage: The percentage of the seeds in the pack expected to sprout. Seed companies have various controls in place to try and ensure good seed, but plant genetics, nature, and processing factors are not going to allow for 100% success. This is not usually significant for the home gardener and is more important for the farmer who might spend thousands of dollars on hundreds of pounds of seeds.

F1 or Hybrid: This plant is the result of crossing two other plants which hopefully results in the best characteristics of the parent plants. Seeds from these plants, however, will not produce the same results when sown the following year and are usually not good for saving.

Heirloom: These are seeds which have been saved and passed down over many years and will reliably produce similar characteristics year after year. These are the best types for seed saving.

Disease Resistant: This may often be followed by a number of letters such as PM or the name of the disease which the plant does well with such as "powdery mildew". This may not factor into your decision making process unless you happen to know you live in an area where a particular disease is common.

Chickens & Ducks

The McMurray Hatchery catalog came today.

Firstly, this is an amazing catalog with some really beautiful birds in it. Showing birds is not something that I would normally be interested in, but reading this catalog makes a person want to run out and join a 4H club. The game birds, pheasants and quails, are particularly nice.

Araucanas Americanas, however wins it for being the most interesting though as this bird lays multi color blue, green and brown eggs earning it the name "Easter Egg Chicken".

I've been interested in raising 3 or 4 hens and maybe a few ducks for eggs for quite some time now. The mental road block I still need to reconcile is the difference between the intimate commitment of getting a pet versus the more business like relationship of owning livestock.

Getting a cat or a dog is a commitment that will last 10 years or more and the relationship is intended to last. The animal will often feel like a member of the family and will live in the house with the people. Very seldom will you eat your pet (although the physiology of a cat looks a lot like a rabbit) and it is no unheard of for a person to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on vet bills for a cat or a dog.

Livestock, on the other hand, is typically grown to be eaten or sold and the relationship is intended to be of a much shorter duration. While livestock needs to be fed, watered and cared for, I doubt there are many who would pay a vet hundreds of dollars on a single chicken. While a person may have 2 or 3 cats and dogs, livestock is often owned in much larger quantities and I doubt anyone is going to take the trouble to name each of a flock of 50 chickens.

These comments are obviously the result of the societal norms of where I am from and how I grew up. They will seem right on the money to some people and completely off the wall to others, but I'll need to have it straight before moving ahead. The hatchery won't ship until February at the earliest, so there are still a few months to plan this out.

Thoughts On Melons

I've never had too much luck with growing melons. Most of the books say they should be fairly easy and they are, in many ways, like squash and cucumber which I do grow well, but I seldom get good results with melons. More often than not they die off early in the season and, if they make it, very seldom do I get fruit.

Winter is a time for for reflecting on what went well in the garden this year and planning for the next season and I picked up a copy of Melons for the Passionate Grower hoping for some pointers. This is largely a picture book written by a true melon aficionado, but it also has some good chapters on melon history and growing technique.

Melons are originally from Africa and, not surprisingly, need long hot days. After reading this, I'm pretty sure one of my problems is I'm putting them outside too early in the spring. The author suggests for zone 5 to put your plants out after Memorial Day. I am zone 6 and I usually have them out well before that.

There was also some good suggestions about growing them on black plastic which not only will keep the ground warmer, but it will also help keep the weeds down. Ensuring proper drainage and planting on mounds to further improve drainage is probably the other thing I can do better.

Hopefully with these relatively small adjustments I'll have a better melon season next year. Here are the varieties I am planning:

One item I got last year from the Hudson Valley Seed Library which I'd like to try again was the Banana Melon. Not only does this melon have an unusual shape, but it is also supposed to smell like a banana.

A second one I got from the Hudson Valley Seed Library was Schoon's Hard Shell which is supposed to do well in this area of the country. This too did not go well this year and I'd like to give it another try.

The final variety I am planning is theCream Saskatchewan Watermelon. I had been admiring this in the Seed Savers Exchange catalog and then happened to come across it again in the Novella Carpenter book which described it in equally glowing terms.

Early Seed Catalogs

The 2010 catalogs for High Mowing Seeds and The Seed Savers Exchange have both already arrived in the mail. In both cases this feels a lot earlier than in past years and I wouldn't be surprised if that is the result of the recession and the current boom in people planting their own vegetables.

I've bought from High Mowing the last four years in a row. Even though the are a relatively small company, they really take the time to make sure your order is correct and have excellent customer service. All their seeds are organic and they have a nice selection. I'll be using them for all my cucumbers, squash, and beans although I haven't figured out which varieties I am going to order just yet.

Seed Savers is dedicated to saving the vanishing heirloom varieties. They have a huge selection in the catalog and an even bigger selection as part of their member exchange program. Even the non gardener will be impressed looking through their catalog a the huge number of pictures. I'll be using them for some heirloom tomato transplants, melons and chard. They also have a broad selections of unusual flowers and I'll probably also get some poppies and morning glories for planting around the patio again this year.

Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer

I just finished reading Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter.

While there is a lot written lately about eating locally, growing your own food, etc ... this book takes on the unique twist that it was all done in a run down section of Oakland, California rather than some sprawling acreage in Virginia, New Mexico, or British Columbia. In a relatively small, urban space she not only has a vegetable garden, but bees, chickens, ducks, rabbits, and, eventually, pigs. The many solutions she comes up with to the problems unique to her tight conditions are extremely interesting and give food for thought to those of use who may have previously felt constrained by the proximity of our homes to those of our neighbors.

There is also much on eating locally and the value of community which are also very interesting and the entire book makes for a good read, even for the non gardener. She also has a blog at Ghost Town Farm.

Simple Saturday Bird Feeder

This is quick and easy to make and a fun thing to do with a young child on a cold and rainy Saturday afternoon.

It will also remind the birds that your yard is a good place to eat to which they will hopefully return in the spring to eat the bugs in your garden.

1. Mix several packets of unflavored gelatin per the package instructions with enough bird seed to make a good, dense mixture.

2. Pour the mixture into a small bundt pan or other container and chill it for several hours. Try to find something with a fun or seasonal shape to it.

3. After the gelatin is very firm, turn the pan upside down and gently tap the back until the gelatin / bird seed mixture falls out.

4. Poke a small hole through the birdseed using a pencil, screwdriver or similarly shaped item and thread a loop of stout twine or ribbon through the hole and hang the entire thing to a tree, porch railing or similar near by a window of the house and enjoy watching the birds eat.

Our favorites are the boldly colored birds. We get blue jays, cardinals and gold finches, but even the chickadees are fun to watch. It's also fun to watch the frustrated antics of the cat as he also watches the birds through the closed patio door.