Minesweeper: Gardening by Trial

It's getting close to that time of year again. My home gardening exploits give me fresh produce in the summer, and eggs almost all year, but most importantly, it keeps me honing my agricultural skills. It seems like the average suburbanite doesn't seem to have any agricultural skills at all, and they completely take for granted the fact that there is more to making food grow than simply planting seeds and putting water on it (at least, if you intend to be effective anyway).

My first garden attempt, as a teenager, was a complete failure; It looked good and I had a good location, with nice raised rows, but I had no clue what I was doing. The most valuable asset in my gardening experiences has been that I've become more observant of the patterns in our climate, so I can effectively weigh out risks and benefits when I plan out my garden. For example, my first garden attempt was in the middle of a hot June and in soil that had very little to offer. I watered in at the worst times of the day and produced absolutely nothing. Most of what I learned from that point forward was by continuing trial, error and getting bits of information from people around me who grew things.

At the time, my main adviser was my mother, it took years for me to realize how clueless we both were. She had lots of experience growing flowers and landscaping, but very little making produce. I'm the one giving out the advice now, just last year I had to explain why a small greenhouse and pots on her southern deck would not be sufficient for strawberries due to their intolerance of heat, whereas tomatoes would love an environment like that... Which reminds me of my second year, when she rightfully directed me to plant some tomatoes against a wall so that they could get more heat and light reflection, but the wall she suggested was on the Southeast side of the house rather than the Southwest, giving the advantage of morning light, but too much afternoon shade. I had huge tomatoes, but only half of them ripened before the frost came that year.

The point of saying that is that transitioning from knowing about the theory of gardening and applying it succesfully are very different. I'm humbled yearly by experiences which show me how complex and different many plants can be. I've become very good at growing some, but still need to fine-tune countless others.
Other than my tomato problem, my second garden was made primarily of nursery bought plants, and combined with the good fortune of a hot summer, I was able to grow a lot of produce. Like many first gardening attempts, however, I can see now (with humility) that the things which made it work, such as a good location and the right starting time were based in nothing more than sheer luck on my part.
My years in an apartment left me unable to plant anything, but when we got our first house, a well-positioned garden with a fence and raised beds gave us the inspiration to try again. I had already learned that some plants needed to be started indoors in our state, and had gained a good base of knowledge from my experience at my parents house.

The main problem with the garden at our first house is that we forgot it too frequently, because, while it's position was great for growing, it was behind our garage and also great for forgetting. We managed to hold it together the first year, but by the second we were too busy and ventured behind the garage too infrequently. The heat sensitive plants died and the tolerant plants lived, but with only just enough to pull together some tiny ears (of the most delicious) corn and some fantastic sugar beets (it's hard to kill beets).
The third growing season for our house, I was commuting to work in Seattle and we were preparing to sell and move to a new home, so we missed our opportunity entirely, though gardening had been part of our reason for buying that house in the first place. By the next season I bought a tiller, some garden tools and picked a spot which would be out of the way and offer the most sunlight that my yard could give. After several years of partial failures, I was finally able to select a good location based on experience and understanding and even more importantly, I knew which foods I could grow there and which would have to be potted and placed in another location.

I chose a location at the top of my hillside where I got m more light than any other spot, the hillside would offer good drainage (but I would have to improve the soil) it was far enough from the house to get the advantage of late evening sunlight, the only kind in Washington which is intense enough to keep corn happy... I painstakingly tilled the ground, pulling out hundreds of rocks left there by the county as part of an unrelated project, I composted for months in advance, spreading mulch and adding nutrients to soil that was a little sandy, I planted as soon as the frost was certainly gone and I was blessed with an unusually steady spring, summer and early fall; I weeded and watered faithfully and I harvested bounties of corn, cucumbers, lettuce, carrots, beets and cucumbers (I even expanded my original tilled garden in the first year to make more room), but ultimately, half of what I tried to grow died or never produced.

I couldn't say that I was crushed, not with as much delicious food that I was able to make succesfully, but such staggering losses showed me that I had a lot more to learn. That was when my paradigm began to shift and I realized that conventional wisdom came from places with 120 - 140 days of viable growing weather, where March truly marks the coming of spring and where you could lose an early plantation of corn, with plenty of time to start over and try again... Those of us in the Northwest have to hone our skills further and pay more attention to our trials if we want more success...

I have developed a relatively succesful system now, whereby I plant sections at different intervals according to the preferences of what I plan to grow, I have to become more intimate with the plants and get to know their preferences if I want success. Some of them start outside and tolerate the cold-wet spring, some have to be sprouted indoors and some of them can be planted in July, when others are done producing for the season. The main point is that I try to limit my attempts at new introductions to one or two per year, knowing that my first year may result in failure, but that my second year will yield more success. I can never say that I'll be entirely confident in my ability to produce any one type of plant with certainty, even the ones which are usually hardy and successful.

When new gardeners ask me for advice in a specific area, it only takes a few seconds before their glossy eyes show that I've tried to give them details which they will only learn through experience as I did. Instead, it's easier to say that the the key to successful gardening in the Pacific Northwest stems from nothing more than making the least amount of mistakes possible in any given year, and trying to make less the next.

Goodbye Old Friend

Sunday morning someone finally purchased my 2000 Suzuki Bandit GSF600S. They were only the second person to come look at it, even though I've been listing it off and on for several months. I took a break from listing during the winter months since I didn't want anyone to come out and take a test ride in the rain (leaving me to clean it up again) and because not many people are in the market at that time, but this is a great demonstration of the fact that people are still not buying many toys with their money. I've sold a lot of motorcycles in the past and it has never taken me more than a week to make a deal with a buyer.

Before the interested buyer came out, I pulled the motorcycle out and started it up for a bit. It was nice outside so I took it for a ride to make sure it was sufficiently warmed up and the battery was charged enough for them to take a pleasant test ride. I'm going to miss the way that the Bandit handled, taking it out for the last ride reminded me how smooth and zippy the engine was when it was wound up to 9000 rpm.

The V-Star is certainly no comparison in that department, but it's considerably more comfortable, so it works much better for the distance trips and pleasure cruising I do more frequently these days.

I'll miss this motorcycle occasionally, but I'm glad to have yet another thing off of my very full to-do list.



Another person came by Sunday afternoon to look at the F-150. He was interested, but wants to tow a 3500lb sailboat, which the engine and transmission can haul, but the bumper hitch cannot. He indicated that he would look into hitches and get back to me today, I'll see if that goes anywhere or not.

Amidst all of this, I managed to till in the new plot for my garden. I had to remove a lot of large rocks left by the county when they were putting in their drain field for the storm drain system. I assume they used it to drive their heavy machinery over when they were working on it, otherwise they just dumped the extra rocks they had after completing the drain. In either case it was definitely annoying to dig them all out, but at least it is something I only have to do once.

I didn't plant any seeds yet, last year I planted on the last weekend in April, and it looks as though I will do the same this year. It seems like it will be warm enough to plant now, but I'll be too busy to do it any sooner. I look forward to an expanded crop this year and taking advantage of better sunlight.

The Size and Shape of Corn

Corn is a truly amazing annual plant. It grows at a rate which exceeds almost anything else you find in a garden, and one stock produces as much consumable corn in one season as a six or seven year old apple tree would produce.

In about a month and a half, my corn has grown from just over 12 inch stocks, to over 6 foot stocks on average. Almost every stock has tassels now and they are beginning to sprout the small buds which will become ears of corn.

Here is a picture of Coughlin and I standing in the middle of my corn rows, at the very back.


My current profile picture on facebook shows us standing further forward, which makes us show up better, but doesn't as accurately demonstrate the height and density of my corn.

Here is a picture of one of the stocks with tassels coming out.


Coughlin loves to grab plants and leaves and move them (sometimes trying to eat them as well), he's been especially fascinated with the corn stocks.

As far as my trip is concerned, it will be less than 40 hours until I depart for South Dakota. All my gear is together, I just have to pack up on Thursday afternoon and lay my clothes out for the next morning.

I'm glad that I've been riding to the Bainbridge Island ferry this week to work a different shift, it's given me a chance to wear in my tires. The newer rubber is a little more slick, but I truly put them to the test yesterday while making my way off the island. Just after the day road stoplight someone in a large pickup who was turning left (into my lane) from an intersection, crawled out into the opposite lane as I approached. I looked to him to make sure he wasn't going to run me over and as I turned back ahead I saw that a box truck which was also turning left into my lane, had pulled into the middle of the road (not a turn lane) to attempt to find a spot to merge with the traffic, the large pickup was apparently planning to muscle their own way into traffic around the box truck. If this weren't enough, as I looked up the road, I found that an idiot in a Kia Sorrento two cars in front of me had stopped abruptly to let the Box truck into traffic.

The small pickup between myself and the Sorrento therefore had to stop abruptly and I locked up both wheels for a moment trying to stop. I eased of the brake and rolled forward at a now slow pace, and we all began moving again.

I'll be very happy whenI'm out on the open freeway, far away from assholes who cannot drive. Of course I'll see some traffic around the urban areas I pass through, but on this route, those will be few and far between.

In any case, I feel well prepared for my trip.

Free Retaining Walls and Plants on Clearance

We were at Wal-Mart on Sunday and I checked out the garden area to see if there were any vegetable plants on clearance. It's late in the season to be starting anything, but they had a surprising amount of plants available, many of which should be capable of maturing in time.

To be specific I purchased two pumpkin plants and two cucumbers, since the rows I tried to grow my pumpkin and cucumber seeds in this year were too cold and dark. I also bought a pack of six heads of red lettuce and two red bell peppers which both have a very short 30 day average maturity.

I immediately planted the cucumbers in the end of my row of beans since there was a two foot, space where the beans didn't manage to sprout up. This was also the easiest place to plant them, since I already made a small fence-trellis for the beans to grow on. The rest of the plants would not be so easy.

I knew that the two rows I had already tilled in the spring, but couldn't get any growth in, were not going to work, especially since there isn't much time left before fall (I'll need all the sun I can get). Expanding isn't terribly difficult since I have a tiller now, it would just be a matter of tilling in another section, that is, if it weren't for the invisible fence wire that was buried close to the garden.

It has been about a year and a half since we finished burying the invisible fence wire to keep Abby from going on adventures outside the yard, so the exact location was overgrown and very hard to see but I knew a few locations where the line would be and used those points as a starting reference. I used a small spade, and dug to expose the wire at about three foot intervals. It was only one or two inches under ground in most places, and the soil was dry, so it was fairly easy to locate at first. After making five or six marks, I was directly in front of the garden, where I needed to Till, and decided that I would have to move the line (at least eventually). I pulled up on the line gently in one of the exposed locations to see if it would budge at all to decide how difficult extraction would be and it snapped. This was no big surprise, since it was 18 gauge wire with a very thin rubber coating, but it meant that I had no choice but to lay all new wire in a new path now.

A few weekends ago, I found someone who was giving away telephone poles on Craigslist. They were in Belfair, and buy the time they got back to me and we could meet up on a weekend, they only had a few good poles left. I brought my saw and cut up 5 six foot lengths of pole. My intention all along was to make a small retaining wall about ten feet from the garden, so that I could expand my garden next year, and make my upper lawn healthier in the process. Of course, to keep Abby from digging in the fresh dirt of the garden, I was going to have to move the invisible fence wire anyway, I just didn't think I would have to do it so soon.

I got out a large digging spade and made a trench exactly where I wanted the lenghts of pole to be, then I tapped into the wire for the invisible fence on either side, at it's previous locations, spliced the wires and with a light covering of dirt, I rolled the pole sections into the trench. This made covering the wire very easy, and if I need to access it in the future, it should be much easier to locate as well.


You can't see it in the picture, but on the ends of the wall, I've left enough room for me to create a slope and fit the riding mower through. Before the end of the summer, I would like to till up the entire lower area, and shovel the excess dirt into the upper area. Depending on how much I get, I may need to make a trip out to pick up some topsoil so that I can raise the level all the way to the tops of the pole sections. Leveling out the lawn should help keep it healthier and greener for more of the year.

With the wall finished and the invisible fence active again, I was able to till in the addition to my garden. The soil I tilled up was fairly rich from some composting I did on or near it last summer, but it's not quite as good as the soil in my original garden space this year.

I planted the pumpkins on the far left, where I can allow them to grow out and over some lawn without interfering with the other vegetables.


I put the peppers in the middle.


And the lettuce took up the last three rows on the right.


This is a side view of the entire new section I tilled in, where the invisible fence used to be buried.


As you can see my corn is getting very tall. The tallest stocks are as tall as I am and most of the stocks are starting to sprout their tassels, which means that ears of corn are not far away now.


In a previous blog I mentioned some nectarine trees I planned to plant, but I called them tangerines. It's much more likely that I'll get a nectarine tree to bear fruit than a tangerine, but here is a picture of one of the two nectarine trees I planted on Sunday.


One is planted in the upper portion of the backyard, near the fence, the other is in the front yard between my driveway and the picket fence. Both of the trees are taking to the new-found space very well.

More Talk About Plants

One of my fellow commuters, who lives a couple of miles away, gave me two tangerine trees yesterday. He had grown them from seeds that sprouted in his compost pile, but decided that he didn't have the space for them in his back yard.

Since I have plenty of space in my yard, with lots of sun exposure, I picked them up. It seems like they should be able to bear fruit here at least every few years after maturity, but even if they don't, they are neat looking trees which I'll enjoy having around.

My favorite thing about fruit trees is what little effort they require to maintain and how much fruit they can produce with that little bit of effort; for those reasons, I like vines a lot too. My grape vine is very healthy this year since I cleared out the blackberry bushes which it had been competing with for several years prior. This year it grew up into the branches of a large old maple that had a low hanging bough nearby. Grape vines are impressively tenacious, this one managed to take over a 10x10 section of this bough with only three vines leading up into the branches.

I don't want the vine to waste it's nutrients producing fruit I can't reach, and I don't want it killing the maple tree, so I cut the three vines leading up to the maple. Over the weekend I noticed more buds shooting out of the remaining lower section. Next spring I hope to cut the grape vine all the way back so that I can repair the fencing it has overgrown, take out the remaining blackberry bushes that are competing with it and allow it to grow back with a fresh start.

You can see the healthy, happy grape vine behind me in the picture below showing my happy, healthy corn.



This picture was taken on Friday, but over the warm weekend, the largest corn stalks have actually grown to chest high on me. This year has been unbelievably good for corn in Washington.

For those who don't know already, all of the large trees with pretty blue sky behind them are located on my acre. Those trees in particular are at the bottom of the ravine, where the creek crosses through the corner of my woods. Right behind the grape vine, however, is a shallow slope without any trees on it, I'm thinking about putting in a chicken pen in this location when I finally get chickens. The area in question is full of stinging neddles during the summer, and chickens are particularly good at clearing out small vegetation.

Here is a picture of my beets, just before I pulled the weeds around them. Since this is the first year I've had my garden in this area, weeds come up frequently, hopefully this will slow down next year as I continuously till the area.


Here are my carrots, which are doing particularly well.


And these are my beans so far. They are in the shadiest spot, so they aren't growing as quickly, but they generally have a long season, so they should still produce something for me before it's over.


My last two rows, which included cucumbers, onions, sunflowers and pumpkins have not produced anything promising. The spot was just too shady to get good results. Next year, I'll move my garden over and start with the row my beans are in, since that seems to be the last viable row for growing.

On a side note, my motorcycle is at Burton's now getting new tires put on. I went with a Kenda 671 for the rear and a Kenda 657 for the front tire. They are similar models, but Kenda didn't make any lines which had both tire sizes I needed. I had Kenda tires on my first motorcycle and they are pretty good. They gave me no problems, in fact, one of them picked up a nail once that was bent at a perfect 90 degree angle. It went through one of the treads perfectly, without rupturing the tire.

Since the old tires are still in decent shape, I'll keep them around in case I have any problems down the road and need a tire that's good for a couple thousand miles.

I'll pick up the V-Star on Saturday, then it will be time to check everything thoroughly to make sure it's ready for the trip, now only three weeks away.

Ideal Spring: The Gamble of Vegetables in Washington

As previously stated, I managed to pull together a Garden this year, which I haven't been able to do for several years.

I tilled in my compost and planted all of my seeds in the same day, the first weekend after the last frosty morning. There is a calculated risk involved with planting so close to the frost, but most seeds won't be damaged by freezing temperatures, you only have to worry about that after the sprouts actually come up.

Usually to avoid this risk, but still get your garden started in time, you can sprout your vegetables indoors, or in a greenhouse. However, the potential for shock when you transplant your sprouts is high, so it's imperative that you keep the same soil and light conditions in both your sprouting location inside and the future home outside. Some vegetables, such as corn, are temperamental, even with very careful transplants. Others like beans will thrive no matter what condition changes you put them through.

Anyway, this May turned out to be perfect for sprouting seeds, the morning frost disappeared instantly, as it usually does in Western Washington, and we experienced record rainfall in the first two weeks of May. In order to sprout, most seeds need even temperatures above 50 degrees and a lot of moisture. Normally, the moisture of the soil when sprouting occurs is so high that an adult plant of the same species would be unable to survive. After the rain, we had two very warm weeks, with overcast nights, keeping the temperature higher. By Memorial Day, all of my corn, beans, cucumbers and onions had sprouted. Two weeks later, the beets and cucumbers came up too. I haven't seen any pumpkin sprouts yet, and I don't know if I ever will, because the last row, in which I placed the pumpkins, is just a little too shady.

Next year I plan to expand my garden and move it over a few rows to increase the amount of sun I can absorb.

I placed the three rows of corn on the side of the garden that receives the most sun, since corn thrives on bright, hot days, as long as it has an ample water supply. There is a saying to help you track the progress of your corn which goes "Knee High by the Fourth of July" of course, meaning that if your stocks are knee high before the beginning of July, they should mature in time to provide a good crop in the fall. If you don't reach that goal, all is not lost, but you probably won't get much produce before it is too cold in the fall.

A clear indicator of how unusually good our growing season has been this year, is that most of my corn stocks reached knee height in early June, and are continuing to grow. If the moderately warm weather can team up with a few good rainstorms, I hope to be able to get a couple of harvests in before it's too late.

The next row is cut in half, filled with beets and carrots, being tubers, they also like the light and heat. The carrots are doing very well, and the beats are coming along at a fair pace. You can't see the beets in this picture because they are beyond the two rocks at the end of my carrot row.

After that I have my cucumbers and beans, which prefer to have a little cool shade. They all sprouted very quickly, but have not been very fast to grow. I put up some wire fencing to use as a trellis to keep them from trying to take over the whole garden at ground level. The cucumbers are hard to see because they don't start out as leafy as the beans do, so they are currently just leafless stocks, sticking out of the ground.

In addition to the vegetable gardening, I've been sprouting apple trees since sometime last year. I love gala apples (but only before they turn pithy), so I've been germinating and growing their seeds. My yard is more than large enough to hold a large orchard, so I would like to get a few more fruit trees. Not only do they provide fruit, but they provide shade for the grass to grow in and fertilizer, both from the leftover fruit and from the droppings left by the nearby bird population.

Last year I was able to get two prominent seedlings. I placed the larger of the two in the back yard near the garden, and have planted the smaller tree in the front. I have them both protected by tomato cages right now to prevent any accidental damage while they are still in their first year. I have two first year seedlings that I sprouted last winter which I hope to be able to plant next year and I already have a batch of new seeds germinating for next year. If I can pull it off, I'd like to have several in my front yard, because the direct sunlight tends to bake the grass unless I water it a lot. Since I hate to waste potable water on something as vane as a green lawn (as much as I like having a beautiful green lawn) I'd rather avoid doing that, so growing some fruit bearing trees is an ideal way to improve the whole situation.

Since taking this picture, this larger seedling is almost to the top of the pictured tomato cage.

As part of clearing out my garden, I was able to take out a majority of the blackberry bushes that had overgrown that section of my yard. In doing this, I also uncovered the grape vine shown behind me in the first picture. Last year the vine produced a lot of grapes, but because it was so overgrown by blackberry bushes, it did not get enough light to ripen. I'm hoping that the new-found freedom will give it enough light to ripen this year.

Next year I plan to cut it all the way back and tie it up to help it out some more and finish off the last of the blackberries.

For anyone who who hasn't had a garden before, but is thinking about starting one, I know how daunting it seems, but let me assure you that after the initial set up, the two or three hours per week that you give to your garden will yield you the best fruits and vegetables you will have in your life. If I had the time, I would till up most of my backyard just so that I could consume and share more of the fruits of my own labor.

Composting: Experienced and Exceeding My Expectations

I have missed out on gardening entirely for the last couple of years due to time restrictions or lack of space to do so, but this year I finally got everything together in time.

I started composting more officially a few months before tilling in my garden. I've got a large lawn in the back, so I've obviously been composting since we moved in, but now I've actually set up a bin, which breaks everything down faster and more effectively.

There were four short steel fence posts in my yard because the previous owners had used them to support the crappy picket fence that was in my front yard. Since my neighbor and I agreed to take that down right after I moved in, I kept the steel posts, guessing that they would come in handy down the line.

I drove them into the ground with my sledge in an approximately 5x6 foot rectangle. A few months ago I picked up some free chicken wire that someone posted on Craigslist, so I folded that in half and wrapped it around the posts, using the pre-fabricated tabs on the posts to secure the fence to it.

I have a lot of grass and some other yard waste like leaves and brush to compost. I generally produce as much as you see in the picture below in a two week period during the spring and fall time of year, and in my new bin, it only takes about one week to reduce the pile to a layer only a couple of inches thick.

You can see Abby in the background sniffing around at stuff as Beagles often do. The invisible fence keeps her from getting into my new garden area, which is one of the reasons I chose the specific locations that I did.

The new bin makes it much easier to turn the compost effectively and since more air gets in through the sides, everything breaks down very quickly. I turn it just about every other day and during the cold spring mornings it would steam very actively.

I always knew that compost piles were warm, but I've been studying this recently and have found lots of interesting information about exactly how hot compost can get. I read one article in which a man buried a hot water heater under a 10x10x10 patch of compost and got the water up to 170 degrees. Apparently there are some homes which utilize a compost based heating system and it has been used to heat greenhouses for centuries. Working in my own compost pile really drives this home when I turn it over and the pile is actually hot to the touch.

The heat is caused by bacterial activity from the invisible friends that break down the nitrogen and carbon in all of the items. Everything breaks down most effectively when you have a good balance of nitrogen and carbon, so my pile is usually hottest when I add grass clippings that include a lot of maple leaves from all of the nearby trees.

We recently canceled our curbside trash service because Wal-Mart had a sale on 45 gallon trash cans (of which I purchased six), and I can take the trash to the Olympic Transfer Center for $10 per metric ton myself. Since my truck is a half-ton pickup, it will never cost more than $10. I bought six cans, and we only use about 1/3rd of a can per week, if that, so I'll only have to make the trip ever few months. We've been doing this for two months now and haven't even filled two full cans yet.

I kept the curbside recycling at $5 per month, even though I can recycle items for free at any transfer station. The reason is that in order to recycle at the transfer stations, you have to pre-sort the items and store them until you can make the trip, the $5 per month charge is well worth the time I'll save by simply having the truck come by every two weeks without requiring any sorting or storage.

Anyway, I say this because we have started composting the portion of our trash that can be safely composted to save space in the cans and to keep down the amount of rotting going on in the cans between trips to the transfer station. It's also pretty good for my garden soil, so it's a benefit all around. We keep a small container on the counter in the kitchen, and empty that into a larger plastic bin which we keep on the back porch so that I don't have to walk all the way down to the compost pile every day.

It's been really amazing to see how quickly things will decompose and the impact on my soil quality has been remarkable. I made my initial compost pile on the spot that my garden now sits, and the black, rich soil is hosting some very healthy corn stocks. Since then, I moved my pile to the side of my current garden space, to a location that I plan to till next year when I expand my garden.

At that, I purchased a roto-tiller from my neighbor to help speed up the process. I like doing work manually whenever I can, as many of you know, I split wood with a maul and sledge every year, but my current commute definitely doesn't allow enough time for me to manually and effectively till in a garden, so the addition of a tiller to my compliment of tools has been very handy. I may get to use it for more than gardening, since I have some very packed sections of lawn that could use a good tilling, and it also works great for removing blackberry roots since the tines pulverize the soil and pull everything even remotely solid out of the ground. As a point of the matter, my whole garden area was previously overgrown with blackberries, and the tiller pulled every root out without any problems.

This brings the end of my lunch time to a close, I've had a lot of things to write about recently, but no time to write them in, I hope I can post some more pictures and stories soon.