Last month I decided to start writing down all the food we harvested from our land.  In April, I only kept track of eggs, but this month I tried to remember to measure everytime we brought something in the house.  I keep a little scale on the kitchen counter for just this.

April Harvest

• 146 eggs

May Harvest-

• 110 eggs (we were down because 3 of our hens were broody and not laying)
• 5 pounds 4 ounces strawberries
• 2 pounds shiitake mushrooms
• 4 ounce rose petals
• ~2 pounds of greens (this included chickweed, kale, lettuce, pea shoots, and spinach.  I’ll try to be better about separating then next month.  Sometimes we would go grab some greens for a sandwich and forget to measure.

In May, we also had 11 inches of rain!!

Quick question…

How often do you fertilize or feed your vegetables? I’ve not done anything since they’ve been planted, and everything looks great, but I imagine they would like a little food boost every now and then.  I checked on my comfrey compost tea, but it’s not ready yet…

Kaia’s flower garden:

Looks like we will have a nice strawberry harvest this year:

Onions are doing well!

Potatoes are up and growing strong:

Lettuce and other greens are overwhelming us!

Here’s a view of the front gardens from the roof

The plants on the roof are doing well… well, the ones that survived. Almost all of the delospermas (ice plants) didn’t survive the winter. We have large dead spots on the roof. We’ll see how things grow over the summer. Hopefully the plants that are living will fill in the gaps.

Kaia and I planted 45 Gladiola bulbs this spring, and Heidi created a little heart garden around them for us!

I set out my broccoli, kale, and lettuce/greens seedlings today. (The moon is in Cancer, a water sign good for planting leafing vegetables.) And tomorrow the moon moves into Leo, a fire sign good for planting fruiting plants, so I am going to start my tomatoes and eggplants. From reading other blogs it seems like I’m way behind on my plantings, but if I calculate my plantings by the average last frost date around here (April 21st), I’m not supposed to start tomatoes until about now… am I way late??

I have another question… When I start my vegetable seeds, unless the seed package tells me otherwise, I always just stick the seeds in the soil…. I know some seeds need cold, some need scarring, some need soaking, but which seeds? Is there a list of seeds needing stratification or scarification?

With the moon in Virgo, an earth sign, the onions and leeks went in the ground today. It wasn’t so easy planting with Leif attached to me by sling, but we managed 🙂 I only put in 16 soil blocks of onion (with 3 or 4 seedlings in each block) and 12 soil blocks of leeks (with 3 or 4 seedlings in each). I just don’t have the garden space this year for more. Plus, they are so tiny and spindly, I may get some onion starts to plant elsewhere just to make sure we get some onions out of it all.

Oh, here is another great guide to planting by the signs. They have a weekly newsletter too with reminders of what to plant when.

Living in the Appalachian mountains, I’ve heard some of the older farmers say things like: “I won’t be planting corn today… moon’s in the heart” or “Best be planing your collards today… moon’s in the feet” I had no idea what they were talking about, but I really wanted to understand them!! It sounded so neat to be able to garden by the moon signs.

This is my first year gardening by the signs. I am mainly working with this book. It’s easy to use since it spells it all our for you; when to plant what and why. A very general overview of the signs if this:

Pisces, Cancer, and Scorpio are water signs (wet) and are generally good times to plant leafy things.
Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius are Fire signs (warm/hot) generally good for planting fruiting things.
Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn are Earth signs (cool/cold) generally good for rooting things.
Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius are Air signs (light/bright) generally good for flowering things.

So according to the book, these signs, mixed with other aspects of the stars and moon, tell me when it is best to plant my garden.

This past fall, I attended a class on Healing by the Signs, given by Phyllis D. Light. Her family dates back many generations in Alabama, and she is lucky enough to have generations of relatives who have passed on their herbal and gardening knowledge. Though her class was primarily about healing according to your sign and what sign the moon is in, she also touched on gardening as her ancestors taught her. This is where I finally understood what it meant to “plant things when the sign is in the feet”. Here are some basic notes:

(notice as you go down the zodiac, you also go down the human body… The first sign starts at the head, the the last sign ends at the feet. A person born under a certain sign, if out of balance, may have afflictions related to the body parts that their sign rules. Also notice that the first sign is a fire sign, then there is earth, then air, then water, and it repeats down the zodiac.)

Aries (the first house) rules the head and sinuses. It is a fire sign good for pruning, turning soil and killing weeds. It is not a time for planting or starting new projects.

Taurus (the second house) rules the throat and thyroid. It is an earth sign good for sewing seeds and planting root crops. It is a good sign in which to start projects, and build.

Gemini (the 3rd house) rules the breath, lymph, and blood. It is an air sign good for weeding, cultivating and harvesting. A time for cleansing.

Cancer (4th house) rules the stomach, breasts, and upper liver. It is a water sign good for planting seeds or root crops, watering the plants, pruning/grafting.

Leo (5th house) rules the heart, spine, arteries, spleen, and lower liver. It is a fire sign good for pruning, killing weeds and cultivating.

Virgo (6th house) rules the intestines, solar plexus and carpal bones. It is an earth sign but is considered a barren earth sign because of the dry/hot Leo sign before it. It is good for killing pests and weeds.

Libra (7th house) rules the kidneys, skin, and lower back. It is an air sign for planting above ground crops (things without big roots)

Scorpio (8th house) rules the genitals and bladder. It is a water sign; prune for growth and plant seeds.

Sagittarius (9th house) rules the thighs, hips, glutials, sciatic and motor nerves. It is a fire sign good for tilling and cultivating. You can also plant some over-wintering foods such as garlic, onions, and greens.

Capricorn (10th house) rules the knees, joints, skeleton, and skin. An earth sign good for pruning for growth, planting seeds, bulbs, rhizomes, and greens.

Aquarius (11th house) rules the calves, ankles, blood, and circulation. An air sign for harvesting to store food, and weeding.

Pisces (12th house) rules the feet, lymph, synovial fluid, and glands. A water sign for sewing seeds, transplanting, grafting and fertilizing. Considered a very fertile sign.

So, I’m taking detailed notes as to what I’m planting when and will report back at the end of this gardening year to let you know how things went. If any of you out there are gardening by the signs, I’d love to hear your experiences.

The leeks and onions aren’t doing so well. They started off great, sprouting in 2 days, but since then they haven’t done much. It’s been 2 weeks since they were planted… they should be about ready to go in the ground! Only one seed has grown to ~2 inches. The rest still look like sprouts. i may have let the soil get too dry and maybe then too hard for the roots to penetrate. The soil looked dark and moist, but it felt hard. So, instead of spritzing them from the top, I poured a bunch (probably a quart or so) of water into the bottom and they soaked it up! I also decided to put a pinch of peat on the seeds to give them a little cover… the sprouts looked too exposed… We’ll see how they do.

I seeded the onions and leeks today. According to my calendar, yesterday afternoon through Saturday the moon is in Virgo and it is a good time for planting/seeding/transplanting rooting crops. I have two different kinds of onions: Copra and Red Bull. For each kind I planted 5 seeds in each 2″ soil block. I will thin them to 4 seedlings and then plant the blocks 12 inches apart in 12 inch rows in the garden. Onions and leeks grow well in bunches like this and take up the same amount of room in the garden as if you had planted them in individual block, but take less seedling block space (so instead of having 160 soil blocks with one seedling each, I only have 40 seedling blocks with 4 seedlings each, and will produce the same amount of onions.) The leeks (King Sieg) will be planted 4 seeds per 2″ soil block and planted in the garden 8″ apart in 16″ rows.

LizzyLaneFarm asked about watering the soil blocks…. they are made extremely moist and hold water very well. They also have a high peat percentage so they don’t fall apart easily. I will put the seeds in the indentation and the book recommends not even covering them. I’ll simply mist them occasionally to keep them moist. This is my first year using the block maker and soil recipe, so we’ll see how it goes. My brother-in-law has used this recipe before and said he doesn’t have to water them much because they hold so much moisture.

We made some soil blocks today in preparation for seeding our onions and leeks.
I used the soil block recipe from Eliot Coleman’s The New Organic Grower book, and did decide to buy a 2″ soil block maker from The Peddler’s Wagon. We mixed up the soil in a large rubbermade tub. I will have more than enough seedling mix, but we’ll only use what we need as we go along.

Today, my friend Heidi helped me with the blocks (my energy is running low and I’m not moving around too well so it is really nice to have the help!). We mixed about 2 1/2 parts soil with one part water and then pressed the block maker in nice and snug.

Then we pushed the blocks out into little trays that we made. These trays were used to carry the plugs that went into the roof. We lined one with plastic then put another one on top to hold the plastic in and keep the seedlings from sitting in the water. (Does that make sense?)

I’ll seed these with Onion and leek seeds on Wed. afternoon or Thursday, when the moon is in Virgo, an earth sign, and good for starting root crops.

For now, the blocks are in their ‘green house’ that Toby made for me. He made a long shelf to fit in our biggest window and I’ve wrapped it in plastic to keep moisture and warmth in. I think it will work well. We’ll have to move the dining table somewhere so that I can get to the seedlings… but for now, here it is:

I’m very excited to get back into gardening, but I’m also very nervous. I really want to make my time and efforts count and be able to grow as much as possible to feed my family. Still, I feel like there is so much that I don’t know. Everyone seems to have their own ideas of the right kind of soil mixture, the right way to fertilize (or not), the proper way to get rid of or live with pests, etc…. So, this year, I’ve decided to document all of my gardening endeavors on my blog. Then, I can take a good look and what worked and what didn’t. I am planning on using organic and bio-intensive methods, including gardening by the signs, crop rotation, and companion planting. I’ll be following The North American Biodynamic Sowing and Planting Calendar .

So far, I have my garden space planned out. We have built some raised beds and have about 270 sq.ft of gardening space. It’s not much, but we have lots more rocks to build more beds in the spring if possible. Moving all the rocks and dirt has become impossible for me in my third trimester, and Toby is already working his butt off. So, once the weather warms up and I’m feeling up to it, I will try to double our gardening space.

By late winter, I need to:
-finish filling the raised beds with composted dirt
-clean up the established herb and strawberry beds
-transplant the hops (’cause I’ll be using that space for onions and lettuce now… we are going to plant the hops in front of the cabin so it can grow up the building)
-transplant the passion flower (I’m going to move it to the grape area so it can use the trellises)
-prune the fruit trees
-place and fill the 8th raised bed box

Garden needs/things to make (that I can think of);
–rain gauge (I had one, but it’s been beat up and trampled to death)
–bird flash tape (I found that this worked really well when I used it in my last garden in 2005)
–labels for the seedlings/plants
–mini greenhouse for starting seedlings (I’m planning on using plastic bread trays to hold the soil blocks. They stack easily with some head space and I can put them in front of my south facing glass doors. Then I’ll cover them with plastic to keep the warmth and moisture in)
–soil block maker (my brother-in-law has one he said I could borrow, but I imagine we will both be needed it at the same time and often through out the year. So, I may try to order one, or make one)
–Ingredients for my seedling soil mix (following Eliot Coleman’s spoil block mix, I will need: peat, lime, bloodmeal, phosphate, greensand, I already have sand, garden soil and compost)
–trellising (I plan to grow ‘up’ as much as possible. All the vines will be trellised)
–limb spreaders (I will need to work on opening up the limbs on all the fruit trees we just planted so that the sun and air can reach as much of the tree as possible. These can be expensive if you need a bunch, so I may try making some… in my spare time! Ha!)
–Metal rods for floating row cover (I have a large amount of floating row cover, but no rods to support it over the plants. I’d like to use the cover for season extension as well as pest control)
–fertilizers/pest control (I have none of this stuff… whether it’s fish emulsion or organic pest controls (like ‘surround’ or diatomacious earth), all of it got lost/tossed/destroyed over the past 3 years of moving and building. I also don’t know what I’ll do about the fertilizers… all of the natural and organic stuff has a strong smell to it and Suki digs up anything I put it on. Last time I used a seaweed spray, she dug to china trying to find the fish under the soil)

So, I’ll get started on as much of this as I can in the next month or so… seedlings (onions and leeks) get started indoors here in mid. Feb (right when I’m due!), so I want to be sure everything is in place and ready to go.

…and when I look at what I’m wanting to grow next year, even though I’ve planned out the whole garden, I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed. 🙂 I like having things organized and it’s been a few years since I’ve gardened (since we’ve been building). Now, I don’t remember all the stuff I knew… like starting seedlings, floating row covers, companion planting, cover cropping, rotating crops, pests, etc. Oy! At least the baby is due before I will need to start the seedlings.

I got my seeds and tubers from FEDCO and Seeds of Change

Sugarsnap Snap Pea
BEAN, POLE, BLACK SEEDED BLUE LAKE
BEAN, POLE, KENTUCKY WONDER
Prescott Fond Blanc Cantaloupe
Sweet Dakota Rose Watermelon
Arava Cantaloupe
Calypso Pickling Cucumber
General Lee Slicing Cucumber
Raven Zucchini
Tromboncino Summer Squash
Saffron Summer Squash
Paydon Heirloom Acorn Winter Squash ECO
Uncle Davids Dakota Dessert Winter Squash
Zeppelin Delicata Winter Squash
Squisito Winter Squash ECO
Jarrahdale Pumpkin
Rouge Vif detampes Pumpkin
Red Ace Beet
Chioggia Beet
BEET, LUTZ SALAD LEAF
King Sieg Leek
Copra Onion
Red Bull Onion
Space Spinach
SPINACH, AMERICA
New Zealand Spinach
Summer Lettuce Mix
Winter Lettuce Mix
Greens Mix
Bright Lights Chard
Forest Green Parsley
Windsor Broccoli
Fiesta Broccoli
Winterbor Kale
Golden Self-Blanching Celery
Pingtung Long Eggplant
Rosa Bianca Eggplant
Cosmonaut Volkov Tomato
Cherokee Purple Tomato
Rose de Berne Tomato
Pineapple Tomato
WOW! Tomato ECO
Peacevine Cherry Tomato (I’m going to plant the cherry tomatoes on the outside of the chicken coop so that some of the plant can droop into the coop and the chickens can enjoy some of the harvest 🙂
Amish Paste Paste Tomato
Potatoes: Banana, Caribe, Sangre, All Blue, Elba, Red Cloud
ASPARAGUS, JERSEY GIANT
Bouquet Dill
Kablouna Calendula Mix
Resina Calendula
FENNEL, PERFECTION
CILANTRO, SLOW BOLT (SANTO CILANTRO)
There are lots more companion flowers and herbs that I want to get, but I may just buy those as seedlings later.

I’m starting to plan out my garden for next year and trying to figure out how to get seedlings grown. It seems like we will need to buy warming mats (to keep the temp. constant) and maybe even grow lights (since we are on the north side of a mountain and may not get enough daylight in Feb. and March). But, I don’t want to spend more money or use the energy to power this stuff. Once it gets warm enough outside, we can use our cold frame for starting the seedlings. But, to get the greens, broccoli, kale, and such started in early March, it will be too cold outside, even in the cold frame. What do you all do?

Today we headed out to the local lavender farm, Sunshine Lavender Farm, for it’s annual lavender festival!! (Every town should have one!!) There were foods made with lavender, lavender wand making, pick-your-own lavender, even artists there drawing the scenery. And, it smelled so good!! Here are a few shots of the day:

Check out this white one!!

I think I heard her say they had ~3000 lavender plants!! That is my idea of heaven 🙂