Chickens

I have friends who keep or have kept chickens.  They have relationships with their birds somewhere between pet and poultry.  They keep chickens mostly for the eggs, but also because they like the chickens.  My friends talk to them, care for them, and some even name them.  It is a relationship of give and take.
Milwaukee allows urban dwellers to keep backyard chicken coops now.  You are limited to four hens, no roosters.  There are rules for distances from neighbors, permission letters, and permits are required.  You are not allowed to butcher your hens in the city limits when they reach menopause.  You have to take them to the "country" to dispatch your old hens for soup birds.

There are many misconceptions about chickens.  One of the biggest misconceptions is that you don't get eggs unless you have a rooster.  You get eggs, you don't get chicks from those eggs no matter how long you incubate them.  Chickens will start laying eggs somewhere around five months, give or take.   A chicken can lay an egg a day, sometimes less, sometimes more.  They are omnivores, not vegetarians.  They eat bugs as well as grains.  The better eggs come from chickens which are allowed to scratch around and get a bit of greens and bugs.  You still have to feed them daily even if you allow them out.  They need water every day.  They don't like to be too cold, but they really don't like to be too hot.  One friend lost several birds on a hot day even though they were out in the open air.  Chickens need protection from the elements and predators.  If you have hawks, fox, or raccoon in your neighborhood, you have predators.  Chickens roost at night so you need to let them in and let them out each day.

If you like farm fresh eggs but are not committed to caring for the chickens, go to the farmer and get your eggs.  I am not to that point where my lifestyle is going to have chickens in it yet, but I hope to get there someday in the not too distant future.  In the meantime, I will continue to be grateful for those people in my life who do keep chickens and supply some of the best eggs I have had the fortune to bake and cook with.  I will also continue to do my reading and be ready for that day I get my own hens in my backyard.

Sprouts and Microgreens

Sprouts are a winter gardening technique often over-looked by most people.  They are a crop that any healthy eater can grow and enjoy.  I invested in a sprouting tray system last year after using the cheesecloth held on the canning jar with a rubber band for many years.  The sprouts are a bit more consistent in germination in the trays but are not any healthier.  Once again, I used a coupon with my seed catalog from Thompson and Morgan's to upgrade my sprouting system last year.  It is kind of ironic that I decided to get the sprouts going this week.  I had gotten some new alfalfa  seeds with the latest order and was ready to go.  The day after the sprouts were started, I was listening to the morning news, and they were discussing the e-coli outbreak linked to Jimmy John's and their sprouts. I had mung beans, alfalfa, and radish seeds going in my trays on Tuesday and by Saturday I was rising and draining for fresh eating.  I have read some sources that use a 10% hydrogen peroxide rinse with the sprouts to reduce bacteria growth.  This is not necessary if you start with fresh, organic seed and store it in a cool, dry location.  This is my opinion and go with what you feel comfortable with.  My microgreens are not ready for harvest yet, but I put a picture up to see how they have progressed since last week's seeding.  I am also seeing my basil germinate and the onions are just starting to poke out of the soil.  My daughter's cat, Sully, will be getting some cat grass soon as that is up about 3" now.  I have posted the instructions from my seed sprouter and encourage you to check other sources for tips and suggestions as I have.  Today, I will enjoy my sandwich with sprouts instead of lettuce.

Is it hot in here, or is it just me?

I have friends who share this stage of life with me and we laugh about sudden changes in temperature that seem to be local in origin.  The new USDA zone hardiness map was just released based on average low temperatures from 1976 to 2005.  See the link below to check out your region.
http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/
This may not be news to the average person, but to gardeners this is confirmation to what we have been observing in our own back yards.

I grew up in a solid zone 3 climate in northern Oconto County. When I had my first garden in central Wisconsin, it was also in a zone 3 climate.  Plant after Memorial Day and get your garden canning done by Labor Day.  You might get a couple weeks past, but you had better watch the weather so you wouldn't be surprised by frost.  I had a sister who married August 28th in 1974.  She and her new husband spent their first night alone at my oldest sister's home.  They got a phone call that night to go out and cover the garden since frost was coming.  They complied with the request even though it was their wedding night as they knew that the garden produce was important to our sister's family.  If you look at the map above you will see that these areas are now a solid zone 4 climate.  
I have watched zone 5a move from a thin sliver alone the Lake Michigan shoreline creep further inland.  Whole counties and then some are now in zone 5b, which is even warmer than 5a.  I was harvesting crops into November the last two years.  I am not too surprised by this shift.
I am not going to get into the Global Warming/Climate Change debate here.  There is more politics than science that has circled around these buzz words and people get emotional about it.  I will talk about Aldo Leopold who penned A Sand County Almanac and his daughter Nina.  Leopold was required reading in the natural resources majors especially in Wisconsin.  His journals and written observations on his farm in the central sands area documented land changes and migratory patterns since the 1930's.  Nina took up his work in 1976 and continued to document bloom times and the comings and goings of birds and wildlife patterns.  I remember listing to a radio interview of her several years ago talking about the comparisons between her father's journals and her own.  Migration of many birds and bloom time of plants changed by weeks on this same property in less than half a century.  These are things which are governed by temperature and not by political beliefs.  It has gotten warmer and the world is changing.  A cold snap is not something that disproves this just as a heat wave doesn't support it.  We are talking long term averages which affect plant growth and animal behaviors.  
If you garden, you are not surprised.  I plant things earlier than I did.  Sometimes it is a gamble but it has paid off more times than I have been caught with my frost covers off.  I enjoy the longer season without having to move further south.  But it is not all good and we just don't know yet what it will mean for the future.  Meanwhile, we will look at the zone hardiness on plant tags and wonder...if I plant this zone 6 plant in my yard, will it come back next year?  You can always try.


Pecans are considered zone 6 by most sources but some claim zone 5...

Starting Seeds: Welcome Spring!

My spring has officially started today.  The calendar says February 11th, but the seeds that came on Thursday are getting their first starts.  Always first on my calendar is onions.  I have devoted a whole blog day to just onions (8-16-11) as they need to have some different care than other vegetable crops.  I have done onion sets and seeds and my preference for best performance is seeds.  That does mean starting early, some sources recommend 10-16 weeks before last frost date.  I choose mid to late February for my Milwaukee home.  I put my plants in the ground on Good Friday or as close to that as possible.  Yes, I know Good Friday can fluctuate dramatically on the calendar so early to mid April is my usual time.  The seedlings seems so tender and small but they are hardy plants.  If you put floating row cover over the bed it helps the process along as well as protecting the soil from heavy spring rains while they are still small.  If you didn't do it they would still survive.  An earlier start in the garden means a better chance of good bulb growth.  As long as the soil is not too wet and can be worked, it is not too early for onions.

Over the years I have acquired the tools that I use for all the my garden projects.  I take advantage of local sales and coupon deals that garden catalogs offer to get you to order from them.  One of the best investments I made was in a seedling heat mat which you can see in the center of the photo.  Germination is better and the seedlings get a great start. I buy seed starting mix as it is lighter in texture and will drain better so you do not risk having your seedlings rot from sitting in mix that it too heavy and wet.  I start my seeds in the basement under lights but have also used the south window in my kitchen to do the same.  Positioning my seedlings over another set of lights adds some under tray heating from the fixture below.  Germination is good in both places but supplemental lighting is needed in my locale to keep seedlings from becoming long and leggy once they are up.  I use flats under my starting cells with no holes to protect surfaces and help maintain steady moisture.  Never let the seedlings sit in water!  Drain your trays if you have water standing in the bottom.  I like to use a clear cover, especially in the basement as it helps to maintain humidity and keep the seedlings consistently warmer. If you use a cover like this in a sunny window, you may have to keep it slightly ajar to keep it from over-heating your seedlings during the day.  

I have two sizes of trays so I can break up smaller batches seedlings under different covers as well as different heights of domes to accommodate taller pots and taller seedlings that I want to keep warm for awhile.  The one on the left also has ventilation which can be dialed open and closed to regulate interior temperature and humidity.  They are a pretty inexpensive investment especially if you take care of them and use them year after year.  In addition to the onions, I also started two types of micro-greens (which I will try and remember to start a new pot each week for a continual indoor harvest) as well as basil and cilantro for an indoor crop.  the onions are in 3 inch pots which they will stay in until transplanted to the garden.  The herbs are in smaller cells as I will transplant them to the appropriate containers as they grow.  

Starting seeds in smaller containers and transplanting later means you need less space than trying to start them in the finished tray.  You can choose your best seedlings (always seed more than you need) for your finished plants.  If you choose to transplant, you will also use less potting mix as seeds don't usually germinate 100%.  Resist the temptation to reuse potting mix.  Even though it is not as cheap as potting soil, get the mix.  Potting mix should be sterile and reduce the likelihood that you will be bringing insects and diseases into your operation.  Potting soil is not sterile, is a heavier blend, and is not as forgiving of watering mistakes in an indoor operation.  Soil can be amended and sterilized and I will let you Google your heart out on that one.  I will warn you that putting soil in your oven to sterilize it will put an odor into your home which you will not forget.  Choose wisely.

A simple rule for choosing lighting is to have both warm and cool lights in your fixtures.  There are lots of studies which have studied various types of lighting.  The main goal is to try and capture as much of the full spectrum of lighting as you can which will mean better plant growth.  A trip to the home center lighting department will give you an idea of how many choices there are and how much it can cost.  Grow tubes are nice but not a necessity of you choose a wider spectrum using both warm and cool florescent bulbs.  There are even compact florescent bulbs and fixtures for smaller scale plant growth enhancement.  

I will have a couple more seeds coming which will require and early start.  Many of the seeds I have chosen will let me take a break until mid to late March.  I am now committed to a daily visit to check on germination and misting needs.  Spring has truly begun in my house.

Seeds have arrived!!!!

I am so excited!  When I got home from work tonight a large envelope was sitting on the kitchen cupboard for me with my Pinetree Gardens seed order. https://www.superseeds.com/home.php

For several years Pinetree has been my main catalog for orders because they have done such a good job of getting me what I want with only a couple substitutions to date.  I like the smaller quantity of seeds with a smaller price and shipping rates are very competitive.  

This year I am excited about starting several things.  I bought some wave petunia seeds.  The silver wave is in the upper right corner of this picture.  One plant covers a lot of ground by fall.  The blue wave is not as aggressive in growth but it is full and smells wonderful even on a sunny day when most plants shut down.  I also have Dolce Flambe which we grew in the city greenhouses when I worked out there.  I really liked them and would like to try my hand with them again.

I have several varieties of tomatoes again this year.  I am going to try growing my sungolds from saved seed.  I hope I don't regret the gamble, but I do want to become a seed saver and I have to start sometime.  Romas and Celebrities will be the mainstays as they are reliable producers in my garden.  I have not had much luck with heirlooms but I may find one at the garden center to try again in my new growing site.

Whirlybird nasturtiums are a must.  They look great and I love to munch them for a peppery treat.  I am also going to try growing agastache from seed this year.  I bought a single plant and it seemed like I needed more.  I have conflicting sources as to whether or not they will be hardy in zone 5.  The flowers kept up all summer long and the foliage smells like licorice when you stroke your hand across it.  It will go into the herb garden rather than a pot this year to see what happens.  I bought Zowie Yellow zinnias again.  They are a great plant and start easily from seed.  Asters are also wonderful and those will be direct sown into the garden.  Mammoth stock is another flower I have grown in the past and am going to go with it again.  The smell is great and the flowers on this variety look nice in a mixed bed.  I am also going to start my own Butterfly Mix impatiens and Accent White impatiens because I did not get my first color choice from the garden center last year.  These will have to be started indoors so I am going to have to make space for them under the lights.
My onion seeds have arrived just in time to get them going.  I am going with Alisa Craig again this year.  I remember them having produced well, I just don't remember if I had good storage with them.  I prefer to start onions from seed as they are better than sets.  They put more energy into the bulb and are less likely to flower.  I also do bunching onions from seed for salads and Mexican dishes.  Both are sown early, the Alisa Craig indoors and the bunching will be sown outdoors when I transplant the Alisa Craig onions in April.

I ordered flowering kale again this year.  I bought two varieties of the stemmed rose head that I grew last year.  I am going to have both sunrise and sunset to grace my fall garden.  With the mild winter we had I also carried this pot into my Christmas decorations with the addition of some evergreens and lights.  What a pretty and unusual porch decoration.  I am trying Dwarf Blue Scotch in the vegetable garden as my eating kale variety this year.

I have two varieties of pole beans (flat podded Italian Romas and Purple Tri Violetta on right).  Two bush varieties are both slender podded, Slenderette and Maxibel (French).  It does seem like a lot of beans but they fit the space well.  I also use about half the seeds one year and carry over seeds to the next with very little germination loss.  I also am going to put in soy beans for fresh eating again.  I need to have something to eat with a cold beer after work.  
I am going to get sweet peas in the ground early again this year.  I have two from Pinetree and another on the way from Select Seeds.  The flowers have been chosen for their scent and for their vining habit.  I grow them on a trellis behind other flowering plants.  Last year I had them on the same trellis with cucumbers.  They like cold weather, so after the cucumber vines were done, I pulled them off and the sweet peas went into a beautiful fall bloom.  Experimenting with the unexpected can sometimes result in wonderful discoveries.
I am going to wrap this up as I want to do a little research on growing microgreens.  I have two packages in my sweating, little palm that are begging for some water and light.  I look forward to letting you know how this new adventure goes.

Early Spring??

Well the groundhog did not see his shadow in Milwaukee and with the very mild winter we have had, it sure feels like an early spring is in our future.  I will not lay money on this as I have seen snow as late as May 10th in our fair city and it wasn't pretty.  

A walk around the back yard over the weekend held a few surprises.  My garlic started to show some green and the grass has yet to brown out from a good cold snap.  The little bit of snow we have gotten in January melted with the 50's and sunshine we've had since.  It sure feels like spring is on the way with the amount of birds singing like they are setting up nesting territories.  

I really wouldn't mind a cold snap to knock down some of the overwintering insects that may otherwise overwhelm the garden in spring.  We are also far behind the normal precipitation amounts that we usually have.  I am glad that I put evergreen boughs over the evergreen ground covers.  I got the hose out to wash the car and while I was at it, I watered the dwarf Alberta spruce to help it through any chance of winter burn.

I finally motivated myself to get my indoor gardening done tonight.  I had coleus ready for cutting and some potting up of rooted cuttings.  I also did some upgrading of small stuff and divided some plants for spring.  I am going to take some of my stock plants to the sunny windows now as the days are getting longer.  I have a lantana and streptocarpella that will go to work with me so I can enjoy the flowers on the windowsill from my desk.  

It is also time to start fertilizing plants to get the growth moving again.  I tend to starve my plants most of winter to just keep them in a state of suspended animation rather than push new growth.  I use fish emulsion which has a bit of odor to it but I prefer to use less synthetic fertilizers.  I am also going to pick up some kelp fertilizer for another option.

My seed order went out last week after I finalized my list of  items I need verses what I all want.  I plan on doing more annual flowers at home.  I have limited space so some of the seed I selected will be direct sown into the garden to keep plant numbers at a manageable number.  It is time to get a new crop of basil going for my windowsill crop.  I did some dumping tonight and the basil plants went with the aphids that have started reproducing on them.  

Sanitation is important in any growing conditions.  I clean out the dead leaves, cut back where necessary, and rinse out trays as I move plants around and clean pots as I go.  I sweep up around the tables and get rid of the yellow leaves that will end up in the pots soon.  Now you know why I had to motivate myself for the job.  

Once I get going, I lose track of time and soon enough three hours have passed.  There are worse ways to spend my time.  Now that I have cleared my head it is time to put this to rest.  Will we have an early spring?  I won't lay money on it but I will be ready...just in case.

Healthy eating vs buying local

I love to garden and enjoy talking to people who grow plants, too.  If you can't tell from a couple of my blogs past, the farm market is one of my favorite shopping destinations.  Milwaukee and the area surrounding it has become a place to find fresh fruits and vegetables grown in close proximity to the city.  Even areas in what some may consider the bleakest urban neighborhoods now have opportunities to access wonderful foods within walking distance of their work and home.  There have been many reasons why this has happened and people to thank for that.  
Winter does put that availability out of reach for some.  The local crops are fewer but still available in some locations (not all).  The shopping opportunities are not as obvious as the farm market tents set up in the middle of the neighborhood.  It takes a bit more to find where to get what you are looking for.  Which brings me to a question I have been thinking about.  What is more important, eating healthy or eating local?

There is a fruit and vegetable market right in the heart of a south side neighborhood which used to be a food desert.  Food deserts are those areas where fast food abounds but grocery stores with healthy choices do not.  Pete's Market has slowly evolved from a seasonal tent to a fairly large year-round market considering the range of food is mostly fresh fruits and vegetables.  Pete has an interesting story which I will let you google as it is several links following his expansion in Milwaukee.  I will give you the link to his market if you are interested in knowing more about the store http://www.petesfruitmarket.com
The store has so many affordable items that make having fresh produce an every day opportunity in this neighborhood.  I have the opportunity to stop on my lunch to pick up some things as I work in this area on a regular basis.  Pete shops the Chicago markets every day so the turn over at the store is fantastic.  Many local restaurants buy from Pete in this predominantly Hispanic neighborhood.  The place is busy whenever I stop or drive by.  Since the fruits and vegetables come from all over the globe, buying here is not usually buying local or organic.  
The rates of obesity and related diseases continues to climb in this country.  The poorest areas of many urban areas suffer the most as food stores pull out of these neighborhoods and fried food restaurants move in.   People in these economically depressed areas are not thinking about what they can do to save the planet when just getting enough food for their family weighs heavily on them every day.  
Eating unhealthy foods not only hurts the waistlines but also affects student performance and success.  Graduation rates in our public school are just over 50%.  That affects the whole community as more and more unskilled people populate an area already hit with high rates of unemployment.  It is not the whole answer, but it is part of the problem. School lunch menus do very little to providing the healthiest choices for our kids.  It is hard for those planning these menus as many of the unhealthy foods are subsidized (making them cheaper) while fresh fruits and vegetables are not.  Kids are so used to eating the unhealthy choices.  When dietitians try to improve the menus, they are frustrated by the amount of uneaten food going into the trash. Taste buds have acclimated to eating more fat, sugar, and salt than is healthy.   
It is not going to be easy to change but we do have to do something to try and improve food choices for everyone.  They say we produce enough to feed everyone on the planet but food production has been moved to larger areas with further shipping distances.  My mother taught me how to can and preserve things from the garden but this is far from the norm nowadays.

  
We will have to get back to our roots to help solve local food issues.  People are able to grow a good portion of their families needs in a small plot of earth.  Knowledge is a powerful thing.  Teaching more people how to pull the resources out of the ground is one step towards improving neighborhoods everywhere. 

If you have made it this far, I thank you for reading about these issues.  Not everyone sees food choices affecting something other than hunger.  If you can afford to do the best for you and your family by growing your own and doing it as organically as possible, I encourage you on.  If you can only do one thing to improve your life, do that.  I just ask that you remember those who have few choices and think about what you could do to help others.  We are a community and we need to care about each other.