Strawbale gardens

We moved...to the country. I was thrilled at the prospect of having more garden space that was truly mine. I would develop it into a varmint-free enclosure where I could start to develop permanent garden beds that were mine, not to be handed off to the next person in line for the residential manager job I left.

That dream was a bit shattered when I stuck my shovel in the ground the first time. We were aware that the Niagara Escarpment runs through our land. Well, it is our land. Bedrock right below the surface. We have successfully planted here and there, but there is no big patch that we will be able to go down into our soil. We have to go up.

Fortune should have it that there is a large pile of old, but serviceable supply of small straw bales in the barn we now own. At first encounter we were thinking that this would become a major undertaking to remove it all so we could use this interior space for other use. The straw has now become a commodity, not a hindrance. 

I picked up books at our local library. One in particular was Straw Bale Gardens by Joel Karsten.  He clearly lays out the whys and hows of using this method. I got busy. I conditioned the bales for my strawberries and put them in.

I also used bales to frame out garden beds for my raspberries. I got a late start on it, so my garden is more of an overwintering plot with hopes that it will hold together through the growing season. In the end, I will not cart away the decomposed bales, but continue to built on this plot with hopes of having the raised beds I planned for my golden years of gardening.

This is obviously just a start. I will come back next spring with a follow-up on how things are holding together and how well the plants overwintered. In the interim, I am going to enjoy studying up and planning for the expansion of the straw bale empire in an old horse coral.

 

Passing the torch, but running together

My oldest daughter and her husband occupy our house while we live at my job site.  If you look back at my posts through the years, you know this property is full of gardens.  It is no small undertaking to learn gardening in this environment.  My daughter has decided that she is up to the task.  
Between my job and hers, we are late getting at the gardens at both properties this year.  I got a good start at both places, but fell behind when my own work schedule picked up.  Michelle puts in a good amount of hours at her day job with a publishing company in addition to free lance work with a second.  Add a new puppy into the mix and the schedule gets pretty tight.  The only time we have set aside together has been to frequent some of the outdoor beer gardens in our local parks.  
This Friday we made a date to get busy.  The beer was picked up at the local liquor store famous for its price and selection.  I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived at the tremendous number of volunteer annuals that are filling the beds.  Our job was made easier as a result.  My plans had to be altered a bit as a result, but we ended up with a combination garden of flowers and vegetables as a result.
Michelle got familiar with the most prevalent weeds and got to work at clearing those spots out.  It took just a few more plants to make the garden complete.  The rain garden has filled in so well this year.  There are very few spots to put those shade loving plants that I have grown accustomed to adding every year.  The loss of the street tree has also changed the light level dramatically.  One of my Hostas at the edge was already showing sun scald.  There was also a complete mass of turf grass that despite my best past efforts, had completely engulfed one of my sedge clumps.  I dug out and removed all of that (ha! you never get it all) and my girls followed behind with her splash of color.  The result was very pleasing.  I also ended up with more Hostas for my very shady patch of earth in a smaller variety than what has already been installed at the new digs.
I knew that we would not finish this project together so we took the time to walk with a cold beer around the rest of the yard to discuss her next steps.  We looked over the seed packets purchased earlier this spring and talked about where they needed to go in the raised beds.  We talked about the current crops of potatoes, onions, and leeks that I did get in early in the season and their upcoming maintenance.  She had the usual question of how do you know when things are ready to harvest.  I told her a few times that she needs gardening to be a hobby, a time to relax.  Do things in small batches as a way to unwind and decompress at the end of the day.  Never look at it as another thing you have to do as this will take all the joy out of gardening. This is definitely a new stage of life for both of us.  Growing older is not a terrible tragedy as most folks view it.  Without the aging process, my daughters and I would not move past those tumultuous teenage years into a new phase of life where we share a beer and discuss the bigger things in life.  I am happy to have both my girls in that place where they are independent women who are making their own way in life.
Dark started to settle in as hunger gnawed at both of us.  Woman can not live on beer alone. My daughter headed in to make a very late supper, while I used the waning light to hand cultivate the vegetable beds to jump start her next planting day.  I looked up at the silver of moon followed by Venus in an indigo backdrop and savored my favorite part of the day.  The seasons turn and life takes its course.  Life is good.

Getting it together at the new digs a little bit at a time

I have grown (and purchased) a boat load of plants to fill all the gaps at our new residence.  Last year during the growing season, we still lived in our primary residence that we own.  This year we live in what is the manager's house where I work.  The short story is that so much old plant material had to be removed to make facility updates possible that we are starting from scratch in all respects.

I missed my herb garden this spring when it was not out my back door to snip fresh chives or thyme.  I have no mint for those refreshing summer drinks.  I spent a chunk of change at one garden center that carries a nice variety of modesty priced herbs.  I had no prepared ground to put them in.  I knew that I was going to have to make a few raised beds over old shrub stumps.  I used my collection of cinder block which I used for plant shelving in past years to do just that.  I even put my soil/compost blend in the centers of the block for the annual herbs like basil.  I also have the aggressive growers like mint confined in these holes.  The thyme will have the opportunity to trail down the side.  I alternated annual and perennial herbs in case they successfully winter and start to overflow their cells.  I back dropped the garden with some old trellises for some tomatoes (grape and yellow Sungold cherry type) and cucumbers.  It also is a bit of a privacy screen from the work areas and shade for the hostas on the opposite side of the wall it parallels.  I will also get the strawberry planters in their tower again as that is still the most convenient and best option I have used so far for the Alpine variety I grow.  This also provides a bit of screening which makes the patio feel a bit more intimate in such a spacious environment.

 I have pulled out some old planters from the weeds and placed them around the greenhouses and residence again.  They will provide a nice working height for food crops and our stock plants that we propagate.  It took an operator and equipment to get them out, but I love these old planters that still have plates on them designating the business that sponsored them decades ago.  They ended up at the nursery and were used for a short time before being mothballed.  They really were in the weeds before being pulled out into the spotlight again.  I had to dig out a fair amount of weedy soil so that we can put in some clean composted soil in the tops  One pot is home to my small stature blueberry bushes.  It is easier to transform the soil to be acidic and boggy when it is confined to a limited area.

The compost also came in handy for hilling the potatoes.  Straw adds and extra layer of soil retention in which the potatoes can grow.  It took quite a bit of soil, but the compost farm is just 10 minutes away so another trip was made for the other areas.
In addition to all the new area I have for gardening at the new digs, we still own our home in the city.  It is only 15 minutes away, so checking in is not a huge deal.  However, my daughter and her husband are novice gardeners.  They need the instruction of what is a weed and what isn't.  They have never put trowel to dirt on their own.  I will have to guide them through the season so they can have the most success in their very large gardening environment.  I have not been there for over a month, so there is lots of work to do.
So here it is, three days since I started writing this.  I am finally finishing this in the early hours of my day since I had to let my delivery drivers in for a 6 AM flower drop.  My days start early and end well after my hourly employees go home.  There is a lot of ground to cover in a day, and the work never ends.  Other than the regular frustrations of running a farm, I could not be happier with where I am.

Seed catalog morning

It is a cold, snowy morning.  The sun isn't even close to coming up.  For the first time this season the Christmas lights are shining off of snow.  It is the perfect day to look over seed catalogs.

You would think by now I would have had my fill of plant catalogs.  I had a very able assistant who lined up most of our annual orders and took care of setting up our deliveries.  Still, this past couple weeks has found me knee-deep in confirmations, delivery dates, order adjustments and additions to our present level of service to include some hot house vegetable crops.  This has not dimmed my desire to open up my own catalogs and seed box to start planning MY GARDEN!
I am excited about the prospect of having a much larger space to use this year.  Neglect and repeated sowing of weed seeds are going to make this space a challenge.  I am sure that I will not be whizzing through my beds like I was at home in my tidy 4x8 raised beds.  
I will be able to grow some of those crops that I didn't have the room for.  I will be able to put in some squash and pumpkins in hopes of harvesting from my own plot.  I will also be able to rotate my crops to their best advantage, provided the soil doesn't already harbor some of the nasty diseases I am hoping to avoid.  
I am also excited to open up my seed box and take inventory.  I know that I will have some new items to choose from even before opening a catalog.  Our summer trip to Decorah, Iowa and Seed Savers Exchange put more seeds in my box in mid-summer than I would normally consider adding.  First, Seed Savers participated in the Nordic Fest parade in Decorah and handed out packages of their 2014 seeds.  Not a problem as most seeds have viability for several years when stored in a cool, dry environment.  After the fest, we went to visit their facility where I loaded up on some of their 2015 seeds.  These are all heirloom varieties with stories from whence they came.  I highly recommend a trip to Seed Savers when you find yourself in northeast Iowa.  It is beautiful farm country with rolling hills.
I also have my hold overs from my usual crops.  It will take a bit of inventory to decide what still needs to be added to the mix.  I left my herb garden behind with few exceptions, so I guess that is one place to start.
My new garden has another consideration in its design.  I know that I will have to deal with woodchucks, rabbit, rodents, and deer (we have a few still inside our deer-exclusion fence).  There will have to be a lower fence dug in to keep out the small critters and a higher blockade for the larger critters.
I will have to work the soil as it is very hard.  The trailer full of composted cow manure barely made a dent in the area that I needed to cover with some organic matter.  My plan is to rake up raised beds from the ground.  This way I can still square foot garden without putting in a wood-sided raised beds.  This is a temporary place for me after all.  I will save the time and money for a place we can call our own again.  I will mulch the paths heavily to try and keep some of the weeds at bay.  Hopefully, I can plant dense enough to help shade out some of those noxious weeds.  I do plan on putting in a cover crop to add some green manure to soil as well.
So with hopeful heart and seed catalog dreams, I will plan the perfect garden.  If wishing only kept out the weeds.

Urban gardens in Milwaukee public spaces

Milwaukee is a big part of the urban garden scene.  Not the biggest, but we have Will Allen and Growing Power who have sparked garden movement which has been far reaching.  The vegetable beds in front of the municipal building are planted and maintained through city resources, but it was Allen who got the project going with his design.
Milwaukee is one of hundreds of cities facing the foreclosure crisis which has left many homes empty.  Banks may or may not maintain these properties.  Sometimes people just walk away from homes.  Sometimes these empty homes fall into disrepair.  Sometimes empty homes attract scrap collectors and the valuable pipes, wiring, siding, and even vintage woodwork is taken from the homes.  Empty homes become empty shells.  If these homes become part of city owned properties, they may end up demolished if found beyond repair.  The empty lots are returned to a seeded state and then it becomes my job to monitor them.
There are almost 3,000 vacant lots within the City of Milwaukee.  Most of them are in central city locations, sometimes whole blocks of parcels have become one big vacant lot.  People use these lots for all kinds of unattractive things which makes our job essential to keeping them from becoming garbage heaps filled with weeds.  The handful of inspectors who watch over these lots are in charge of making sure the garbage is picked up and large items taken away by sanitation crews.  Inspectors also make sure contractors are keeping up with mowing during the summer and snow removal on adjacent public walks during the winter.  If there are trees and shrubs left on the property after demolition, the health and safety of those plants also has to be watched.  I am one of the chosen few who get to keep track of vacant lot activity.
There is one aspect of vacant lots in the City of Milwaukee program that is closer to my heart than picking up trash.  The city has a garden permit process which allows people or groups to obtain a permit to use the lot for urban gardens.  There are several lots within the city on publicly and privately owned parcels.  Some are big and some are many are small.  They provide a neighborhood a place to gather and grow fresh vegetable and fruit within walking distance of their homes and apartments.  See link below for how to obtain a permit for a lot in your neighborhood.
I do not know the total number of gardens on city lots, but I do know that out of the 174 lots I watch, there are six lots being used as garden permit lots.  Some are just adjacent homeowners just getting a few things directly in the ground. Without a soil test, this is not the recommended route if you are growing food crops due to residual heavy metals from prior construction materials.  Most are groups that put raised beds and fresh soil for growing edible crops.  
There are a few of the lots which also sponsor health and wellness classes on sites.  I have seen art classes for kids and yoga for adults.  Some of the larger community gardens have cooking lessons to teach people how to use the vegetables they have grown.  The parcels that were once a blight in the neighborhood have become positive places for the community to come together.  I wish more of these parcels were being used for this purpose.  
If you are interested in knowing more about obtaining a permit for a city owned vacant lot go to:

http://city.milwaukee.gov/CityRealEstate/Neighborhood-Gardens.htm

I hope to see more vacant lots as a positive place in our community.

City garden on Burnham St near Frank Lloyd Wright homes in Milwaukee