Kinder Garden

A few weeks ago we had a long overdue visit from my mother in law.  She suggested that we give each of the smalls an area in the garden to plant and tend.  She had very fond memories of a small garden she and her brother had when they were young and imagined our kids would enjoy the experience as well.  So was born the idea for the kinder garden.

I had other plans for this area originally, but it was just the right size and location for this project.  There were already and handful of strawberries that predated our ownership and it is right near their play area.  Earlier this week we weeded and prepped the area.  Robbie was very focused on removing rocks and rather proud of the bucket he collected.

  

I took Robbie and we got some additional strawberries and I let him pick out a bunch of flowers.  We did also plant some beans, but I wanted them to get the immediate satisfaction of seeing the garden full of plants.  It takes patience to wait for seeds to sprout, and smalls in general are short on patience, at least mine are.

When it came time to plant, I dug the holes, but left the plant location selection up to the smalls.  They did a phenomenal job and had a great time doing it.

If you look closely you can see my DIY shed in the background.

This was serious business

 

 

 

 

 

The area would not have been been complete without a sign, so I used some old wooden stakes and leftover paint to declare this area our very own kinder garden.

I used to like birds

I used to like birds and feel indifferent about slugs and the like.  I have a feeling all that will change in the coming weeks and months.  We had some visitors to our front garden beds:

And some slimier creatures near our back garden bed.

 

As you might imagine my browser history is filled with "how to detract birds" and "how to kill slugs without poisoning humans, pets, and wildlife."

I don't know how all this will play out, but I can say this.  Bring it my feathered friends and slimy suckers.  Bring it.

What is your favorite way to discourage unwanted visitors to your vegetable garden?

My DIY garden shed

Our garden tools meander about the house, garage, and backyard.  It drives me batty.  I like everything to have a home.  I am not phenomenal at making sure things always go right back to said home, but when I do go to put something away, I want to know right away where it belongs.

The solution was easy, get a garden shed.  I was researching options about buying or building one, when we received a large shipping container.  I eyed it and thought with a little effort, it would do a fine job of containing our garden tools.  Today I used a bypass saw and few screws to create this gem.  It's not pretty.  It won't get 1000 repins on Pinterest.  It may not last that many seasons, but it will do the job.  Best of all, it was free and it is getting more use out of something before sending it off to recycling or the landfill.

Here is it, in all it's ugly glory:

All I did was take the front piece of thin plywood and cut it into three sections.  One section was for the roof, one for the floor, and one as a half door of sorts to keep things in.

There are definitely times when buying something makes the most sense, but it's a unique challenge to see what I can do with what I have on hand. 

Things I'll likely never buy again

I say likely, because I am wise enough to know that absolutes are generally just disappointments waiting to happen.

For me, this whole homesteading idea and gardening thing is about slowing down just a bit, figuring out what we can do on our own, and what maybe we  can do without.  Here are three things I will be hard pressed to buy again:

Jam-  I blogged about my learning to make jam last summer and I am hooked.  For the last 7 months my family has happily had their jam needs met with delicious fruity goodness that was made with love and as little sugar as possible.  We had strawberry, peach, and blueberry.  I'm looking forward to working with new fruits as the season progresses.

Croutons- Dried crusty bread was an eye opening experience for me.  I blogged about it here, but the gist was simple-I wondered how I could readily become more self sufficient, how many of those things I rely on the supermarket to provide I could just make on my own.  Croutons is one of those I can easily do on my own with great results.

Yogurt- Inspired by the frugal girl, I gave yogurt making a whirl and was pleased by the results.  I used 1% milk as that is just what works for our family.  I let it set a bit more than 3 hours to get the set firmer.  I've also strained it to make Greek yogurt and then used the whey for smoothies for the smalls.  This is a bit time consuming, but so very cost effective.

Next on my radar is making soft cheeses like ricotta and mozzarella, so stay tuned.

What have you come to enjoy making on your own?  What do you hope to add to your skill set in the future?

The learning curve

The seeds for this idea planted themselves almost a year ago, and as we approach spring and the major planting season, we are well on our way.  Here are some highlights of what I've learned so far.

Don't over think it-It's important to be educated, but as with most things, the right and wrong way to do something is largely a matter of opinion and varies drastically depending on your growing region.

Double planting isn't for me-I'd seed the idea of planting carrots and lettuce in the same section of garden.  The idea is you can harvest the lettuce and then let the carrots finish growing.  The issue here is I planted a leaf lettuce that could be cut and harvested repeatedly so the carrots never got their time to shine and grow.

Sewing seeds carefully is worth the time-For our first bed I way over sewed the seeds with every intention of thinning it appropriately.  It turns out a suck at thinning the plants and would be better served to plant them more carefully.

Write things down-Our front room is covered in seedlings, we have things going into the ground already, we have big plans for the rest of it and it would be easy to lose track of things.

Connect with local resources-I first met folks from the Marin Master Gardeners at our local farmer's market.  They have a wealth of knowledge and a genuine desire to share that knowledge.  I've also found that the folks at our local nurseries and garden stores are deeply passionate about what they do and have tons of experience to draw on.

Be steadfast-Tending a garden is a slow process and takes awhile to reap the rewards.

Meanwhile out in the garden

I wrote previously about our first attempt at a winter garden.  Our brassica bed with kale, romanesco, and broccoli was what one might call less than stellar.  Typically one hopes for heads of broccoli and romanesco.  We harvested florets.  The kale was fine, but we didn't get a huge amount.  In all fairness though, we put it in really late and barely paid it any mind.


Our other bed was a mix of carrots, lettuces, arugula, parsley, cilantro, green onions, spinach, and Swiss chard.  We had a decent harvest, with ample lettuces, arugula, and cilantro.  In preparation for our spring planting, we made our last harvest so we can get the bed ready for tomatoes and peppers.  We had very little in the way of carrots and pretty low expectations at this point, so I was pleasantly surprised to harvest this:

Most of them were small, but we ended up with about a pound of fresh crisp, sweet yumminess.  And to think I thought the carrots were a total bust.

In addition we had a large bowl packed with lettuce and a huge amount of cilantro.  The lettuce we used right away and I saw a TV chef freeze fresh parsley so I'll give our cilantro the cold shoulder and see how that works out!

Our Garden Plan

I started plotting out the garden beds with pen and paper, then tried a spreadsheet and while each worked just fine, I was thrilled to come upon this garden planning software.  It is super easy to learn, filled with helpful information, and customizable to your particular climate.  It even has good information about companion planting and crop rotation.  I measured out our front and back yards, plugged the data into the software and went to town.  Looking at our yard in this way actually helped us to identify more areas we could use for our edible garden.

This is the plan for our front yard:

This is the back yard:

The program also provides really helpful information about when to start indoors/outdoors and has room for personal notes.

 

I know the text of these images is likely to small to read, but hopefully you get the idea. We are growing the basics, tomatoes, peppers, squash, beans, and trying a few more uncommon items like rutabaga and kohlrabi.

We measure our growing area in feet rather than acres, and have been inspired by the idea of square foot gardening.  I don't think we fall under the umbrella of a true square foot gardener, but we are growing most of our plants more tightly spaced than traditional recommendations.  We will know is several months how this pans out!