13 Skills

The garden this summer in July. Next years should be more impressive.

Alright, I've set some pretty lofty goals for next year and wanted to share with my friends and family exactly what I plan on doing. Maybe we can even work on some of these together. Actually, I hope to encourage and/or inspire some of you to take the same challenge I'm about to embark on.

A man I have a lot of respect for, who was also provided me the motivation to do a garden, set up a website  hoping "to restore a can do spirit to our modern world." His name is Jack Spirko, the creator of  "The Survival Podcast" ( http://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/ ).

You may agree that, as Americans, we have it pretty nice over hear in the states. Enjoying our big screen TV's, having grocery stores within a few minutes drive, not to mention being able to practically buy anything we could ever need. It is my belief that as a result of this luxurious lifestyle, we've lost touch with a part of our humanity. We've become dangerously dependent upon the government and corporations to provide for and protect us. Anytime we allow an organization to take responsibility for us, whether through provision or protection, we hand over a piece of individual liberty to pay for it. We all do it, but lets slowly start to transition our lifestyle to one that takes more personal responsibility. Certainly there's some skills you've always been interested in learning or a skill you currently have but want to improve.

Allow me to tell you about 2 of the 13 skills I've selected. One is a fruit orchard. I want to be able to walk into my back (or front) yard and pick a variety of fresh fruit. I felt that a goal of 5 trees or bushes would be a great start and as a result I will learn about pruning, plant placement, perennial fertilization and care. Just looking into the subject I've quickly learned that there are all kinds of fruiting bushes available that grow fine in our climate, yet I've never heard of them. Stay tuned to my blog, as I'll make sure to keep it updated. The advantage of being able to grow my own fruit is fairly obvious...I know where it came from, I know it's fresh,  and I know what products (or lack thereof) were used in it's production.

The second skill is hunting. I've never successfully hunted a deer or turkey and feel that the techniques involved in this would transfer over to most other game in my area. Plus, I'd feel more confidant as the provider of the house if I knew I could provide meat in the event we couldn't afford store bought meat. So, I've set a goal of taking down one deer and one turkey for 2013.

There are 11 more skills I'm hoping to learn and if you'd like to see them, check out my profile page at http://13skills.com/member/3393/hoe-made .

Finally, I hope you'll find this an effort worth considering for yourself. If so, definitely let me know, I'd be eager to hear about it. You can learn more about it and create your own profile hear http://13skills.com/ .

Thanks for taking the time to read this,
Clinton

Chicken tractor & weedless gardening

Alright, I've decided to vencher into owning chickens. My plans are to start with 3 laying hens and just harvest eggs. However, chickens do a great job and clearing pests from the soil and fertilizing it at the same time, so I plan to take full advantage of that with my mobile chicken pen (aka chicken tractor). I want to thank Bumper (Sam) for helping me to make this happen. My brother-in-law provided me the pen practically already built. All I did was paint, roof, hang door, and wrapped it in chicken wire. Thanks Bump!
Having chickens will increase my liberty and self-sufficiency. By producing some of our own meat (eggs) we are less dependent on others, plus as I mentioned earlier, chickens can be used to clear a piece of grass of seed, while fertilizing it at the same time. I saw a video of a guy who would put chickens on a piece of grass for 3 weeks, giving them time to pick all the grass/weed seed out of it, while fertilizing it. After moving them to the next patch of grass he would plant the previous spot, which is now fertilized and weed seed free.

Also, I've covered my garden with approximately 8 inches of mulch. By practicing some "weedless gardening" techniques, I hope to greatly reduce my time spent weeding next year. Plus, the mulch will hold lots of moisture, reducing the amount of watering I'll need to do.

Mobile chicken pen, also called a chicken tractor. I'll put wheels on the back, lift  the front , and move it anywhere in the yard. All that is left is a ramp for the chickens to walk up into the house.

Back of tractor. notice the hinges. This is how I will get the eggs. 

Mulch and lots of it. 8 to 12 inches deep. I've increased the garden width by about 10 feet. I hope to double last years space before next spring.

Lettuce/Spinach Patch & Bloomed Pineapple Sage

The Pineapple Sage plant that I planted in the spring finally has flowered. It started out about the size of a soccer ball, now the plant is roughly 7 feet in diameter and about 3-4 feet tall.
Also, the lettuce and spinach patch has done really well. The lettuce and spinach are both from seed. I think they were planted mid to late August. Also, the brussel sprouts and cabbage, also from seed, appear to be doing well.
With winter approaching, my plan is to cover the summer garden with about 8 inches of mulch. I've been adding grass clippings, leaves, and compost on the garden all summer. But I want to completely cover it for winter. Hopefully this will greatly reduce the amount of weeds I'll have to deal with next year and will add a lot of organic matter to the soil...plus will provide a nice environment for earthworms, a gardeners good friend.
Lastly, I had planted about 20 Catnip seeds with the a 2nd planting of squash. I had read that Catnip repels squash bugs. Not a one of the seeds germinated then. About a week ago, I noticed a single Catnip plant. I'm guessing that maybe it was already too hot when I sowed the seed, not sure though.

Dinner: Lettuce, spinach, carrots, with some basil and dill...all picked from the garden about 1 hour ago.

Parsley: this parsley patch struggled through the summer. We had it tucked close to one of the Mammoth Sunflowers. Once the sunflower was cut (providing more sun) and the weather cooled down it really took off...about 2 feet in diameter.

This is the Catnip I mentioned above. Right next to it, out of sight, is a volunteer squash plant  that came from one of the squash we let mature and seed on the vine.

Spinach Patch, I wish I had planted more seeds...lots of empty spots in there.

Lettuce patch: I bought a packet of "Variety" lettuces and just scattered them in this spot and covered the seed appropriately. Seed pack was $2.50 and I've already picked 5 salads out of what your looking at.

Bloomed Pineapple Sage. Honeybee's were really appreciating this late bloomer  the other morning.

Same Pineapple Sage plant as above in June. Look back to some of the first posts for a picture of when I had just planted this sage, it was about the size of a basketball. Here it's 2-3 feet in diameter.

Moon Flower & Fall Seeds

I haven't posted in quiet a while. Grass cutting and other home projects got in the way. Here's a quick update on the garden and the fall garden I have started.
Also, just for the heck of it I planted some various flower seed while planting vegetables and have come to enjoy and appreciate them. Check out the pics of the Moon Flower below:

Moon Flower - It almost looks fake. The lady at the nursery convinced me to buy this 8 inch vine she called a Moon Flower. I reluctantly did. I planted it on the A-frame trellis I built. It's covered one side. The flowers open up at dark...or close to dark, hence the name.

Sprouts from Radish seed I planted Friday...that's 5 days ago!! I planting a wall of Radishs around my fall garden in hopes of keeping the rabbits full of radish leaves instead of my other fall plantings, which include: carrots, leeks, swiss chard, spinach, various lettuces.

Moon Flower plant on the 7 foot A-frame trellis. This plant started out as an 8-inch single stem.

Zinnia

I planted a bunch of zinnia seed in small containers just to use up some potting soil. When they sprouted, I decided to stick them in front of the house in the flower beds. They've turned out looking really nice.

Dill flowers and grass mulch.

We've had lots of growth over the past 3 weeks.

Check out the dill flower heads (foreground) and the eggplant (background). These dill blooms bring lots of beneficial insect activity into the garden.

Squash and Zucchini that we started from seed when our others got hit by the squash vine borer. Notice the ground is covered with grass. I mulched the snot out of it with grass clippings from the yard...hoping to keep down weeds and retain moisture. 

A nice pic of most of the garden. The very front bush type plant is the Pineapple sage, it will bloom in the fall. Going right is sage and the dill plants. That's Okra behind the pineapple sage.

Where's Clinton

Check out the picture taken tonight of me behind the Mammoth Sunflowers....if you can find me. Not sure how much bigger they will get before they go to seed, but I hope they keep going. Notice the picture of only one month ago.

Picture taken tonight of the sunflowers. The tallest looks to be around 8 feet. The packet the seeds they came in said they go 8-10 feet. Look below for a picture of the sunflowers only one month ago.

Same sunflowers as above only ONE month ago. Holy cow, I couldn't even believe this, but it's true!!!

We harvested our first head of cabbage a few days ago. The outer leaves have been stripped off.

Harvesting Lettuce Seed & Squash Vine Borer Bugs

I let 2 of the lettuce plants (1 butter bibb and 1 red leaf) bolt and go to seed (flower) for the purpose of being able to harvest and save the seed. Both types did so well, I thought why not try and saving some of the seed to plant for next year. Below are a few facts about lettuce seed that I learned with some pictures. Do know, I don't know all the facts and am not sure I did this 100% right, but there is still some useful info here.

• Lettuce has to bolt (starts growing up with a stalk, instead of putting off leaves and growing out). This happens when the weather starts getting hot, as lettuce is a cool weather plant.
• Once lettuce has bolted, it will start forming bud-like pods as it prepares to flower (go to seed).
• Before the the buds open they will have yellow sticking out the end and once they have opened and been pollinated they will close back up and plump and white fuzzy material will be sticking out the end. So that's how you know which ones have been pollinated, look for white and plump instead of skinny and yellow. See pics below:
• Lastly, the buds/flowers may only open for as little as 30 minutes, so don't count on seeing the flowers for long...if at all.

Butter Bibb lettuce that has bolted and "gone to seed." 

Same bibb lettuce plant as above while the flowers were open.

Notice the skinny/slim buds with yellow sticking out the top, this is before they have opened and been pollinated. Also in the picture are closed pollinated buds...look for the plump buds with just a little bit of white sticking out the top.

An enemy of the squash / zucchini plant is the Squash Vine Borer. They enter into the stalk close to where it enters the ground and eat the plant from the inside, making it's way up the stalk. Evidence of the insect is saw-dust looking material on the vine (see pic below). This is where they have bored in. Most of our squash  and zucchini plants have these tell-tell signs, so we planted some more today. So if we lose the plants we have, no biggie, we've got more on the way. Not to mention we've been harvesting these plants for about 2 weeks now. 

There are 3 vines on this mound, one going out to the left, and 2 to the right. Notice the left vine, it has the saw-dust looking material caked on it. You can't see it from this angle, but there is actually a noticeable hole also. The vines on the right show no signs of being infected.

Lastly, the wife and I planted some Catnip (from the mint family) and Cilantro (coriander) this morning.

Sunflower Progress & Cucumber Trellis

Sunflowers are doing great, almost 6 foot.

4 of the 8 Mammoth Sunflowers I planted from seed. They haven't formed a head / flower yet. Look at the size of those leaves. Some people use these types of sunflowers as a sight barrier...I see why now.

2 cucumber plants, planted about 2 feet in front of sunflowers. I used concrete reinforcing wire as a trellis for the cucumbers to grow on. I'm hoping it keeps them off the ground so that picking them will be easier and it will save ground space.

Squash Bug eggs on one of our squash plants. We've sprayed them with soapy water to kill them...hopefully. It kills the live bugs, just not sure about the eggs.

Tri-Pod Beans and Homemade Cages

Tri-Pod trellis I built for pole beans. You can't see it now, but around each leg  I planted 5 beans. Hopefully by mid-summer this structure will be immersed in grean.

Triangular tomato cages I built from Concrete Reinforcing Wire purchased from  a lumber yard. They are 6  feet tall, and I expect the plants to go all the way to the top...and even over.

First Squash. It along with another got picked and cooked tonight with some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and  some fresh rosemary from the garden...not bad.

Mammoth Sunflowers - That's a 17 oz. water bottle at the base. There about 2.5 to 3 feet high now. 

I planted pole beans (from seed) around the base of 3 of the Mammoth Sunflowers. Notice the 4 bean plants surrounding the sunflower stalk. Once the beans get big enough, I'll run them up the Sunflower stalk...using the stalk as the supporting pole.

Broccoli, Cabbage Worms & Coca Cola

Everything is growing great. Have had a major infestation of Imported Cabbage Worms. I blogged about them earlier. I noticed the white butterflies all over my garden weekend before last and from what I have read, one can expect an infestation soon. Well, that's right. If you plant cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts and/or cauliflower and you see pretty little white butterflies dancing from plant to plant, grab a tennis racket and start swinging.
My wife and I have easily picked off around 200-300 of the caterpillars that hatch from their eggs. I think we have salvaged the broccoli and brussel sprouts, not sure if the cabbage will make it though.

New Plantings:
4 Eggplant
2 Pickling Cucumber
2 Straight 8 Cucumber
1 Straight Neck Squash
3 sets of pole green beans (planted around sunflower stalks)
About 15 Marigold seeds (meant to attract beneficial insects and repel harmful insects)

If you've ever wondered what Broccoli looks like, here you go. Looks like I'll be steaming some up very soon.

Sunflowers! Put a Coca Cola can next to the plants for size comparison. I am using  2 of the  Sunflower plants as  supporting structures for pole beans...more on that later.

Basil...I look forward to eating lots of this...especially with tomatoes .

Fortunately the Pineapple Sage has made a good comeback from the damage done during one of the frost. See earlier post for a picture of the damage immediately after the frost. Oh yeah, the leaves smell just like sweet Pineapple...it's awesome!

Broccoli Squash Progress

Quick Update:
Broccoli and Squash are really doing great (see pics below). Everything else is doing fine also. The only exception is the cucumber plants. I'll be pulling all of them up this weekend and replanting some new ones. The cucumbers currently planted just haven't changed. Plus they have white-ish marks on the leaves. Not sure what the problem is, but something ain't right.

Had the wife kneel behind the broccoli plants so that it's easier to judge the size.

Broccoli, lettuce, and Brussels sprouts.

Zucchini squash.

Salad Surprise

As I mentioned in the previous post, the lettuce, both butter bib and red leaf, have did great. I really had little expectation of them doing well. So I have been more than pleased. We have actually now taken 2 salads from the plants and hopefully many more to come. See pic below:

Tonight's salad...straight from the back yard!

Frost Bitten, Twice Shy

Got most of my plants covered Wednesday night, but it wasn't enough to prevent damage. I was actually surprised. I just assumed that if you cover your plants, all is well. That's not the case. However, it appears that I only lost 2 plants...a cucumber and a zucchini squash. My basil plants took a hit, but I plucked the bad leafs off and I think it will recover. My pineapple sage took a pretty big hit, which is a bummer, it was looking so good. I didn't cover it, so that's probably why. I gambled hopping that it would be ok...I was wrong.

With that said, the broccoli, lettuce, brussel sprouts, and cabbage are doing great. See pics below:

Pinneapple Sage took a pretty good hit from the frost!

Zucchini Squash.

Broccoli doing great!

The lettuce has been my biggest surprise, it's doing wonderful.

Sunflower Germination

My Mammoth Sunflower seedlings have germinated. I've never started any plants from seeds so I was very excited to see these leaves sticking out of the dirt (see pics below). I planted them last Sunday (April 1) and thought it may be 10-14 days till germination. They are Mammoth sunflowers. I planted them for several reasons:

1. To help attract beneficial insects (aka..beneficials) to the garden. Beneficials prey on the pest that eat your plants. Wasps and ladybugs are examples of beneficials. For example, wasps will eat caterpillars and ladybugs will eat aphids.
2. As the stalk for a 3-sisters garden, which consist of sunflowers (or corn), pole beans, and squash.
3. They just plain look cool, as the Mammoth's grow 8 to 10 feet tall.

Lastly, my broccoli appears to be doing really well and with a cool spell expected for the next five days I expect the brussel sprouts and cabbage to do well also.

Notice the 3 sets of seedlings across the middle of the pic, these are the Mammoth Sunflowers...expected to reach 8-10 feet.

Broccoli, brussel sprouts, and cabbage all doing fairly well... especially the broccoli.

Mo Plants

Alright, I finished up pretty much everything I wanted to get in the ground for the next 4 weeks. Plus, I got my herb planting wrapped up. I just focused on 5 main herbs that I think I'll be able to use regularly, see list below for what I got planted over the last 2 days (pics below that).

• Vegetables
• 4 Cucumber
• 4 Zucchini
• 1 Straight Neck Squash
• 8 Green Bell Peppers
• 4 Better Boy Tomato
• 3 Black Krim Tomato
• 3 Cherokee Purple Tomato
• 4 Cayenne Pepper  
• Herbs
• 3 Sage
• 3 Dill
• 2 Basil

One of the Dill (herb) plants

One of the Sage (herb) plants

One of the Basil (herb) plants

Cayenne Pepper plant