Planning Ahead VS Planting In-Over-My-Head // "At times I think and at times I am" -Paul Valery5/31/2011 I'm about one third of the way through the growing process--I planted most of my seeds three weeks ago, followed by a rather brash and fervent decision to double up and plant more a week later. Moral of the story? Be sure to check the package to determine how many plants should go in each garden square--gardening book basics say to divide a 4x4 plot into 16 squares, each one square foot in measure. I'm going to have so many vegetables I won't know what to do with them! Check out my brocco-rabe-sprouts (pictured below)! It looks like a clover patch, don't you think? These babies were planted in a significantly sized trench right in the middle of the plot, mid-two-week torrential rain pour. I was honestly concerned about the broccoli, but obviously they must have just loved it! I have more broccoli than anything else in the garden--however the entire plot is sprout-popping! I even removed the stones I laid down last week to find things pop'n up underneath where I hadn't planted anything. It's my belief the rain moved things around a bit as well... I decided to read up--Every garden book advises to start "small," but small is never defined exactly. I planted ten different kinds of vegetables, two herbs and three types of flowers... I don't know if this is small or not, but you can tell (from the second to last picture of kale/ chard) just how many sproutlings are successfully stretching for sunshine. Apparently, according to Square Foot Gardening: A New Way to Garden in Less Space with Less Work, it's important to follow guidelines on not only how many plants should go in each square, but also important to follow guides on how far apart each plant needs to be from others. For example, since broccoli and peppers should be planted 12 inches apart, you should just plant one packet of seeds in the center of one square. Carrots should be planted three inches apart, so you may plant 16 (four rows across by four down), all three inches apart from each other and 1 1/2 inches from the edges. Guess what? I don't really even know if I have rows anymore--everything is haphazardly strewn about the plot. The top left picture I believe are pepper sprouts, and below that you can see my kale/ chard mezcla. I believe the purple sprouts are the blue kale and the focused green, crunchy-looking-leaf is chard... Additionally, I have no idea what is actually a vegetable/ flower sprout and what is a weed! I think the picture of the sunflower I took two weeks ago is actually a weed... How will I know how to keep my plot neat and clean? Perhaps one might say my plot lacks direction, yet I am happy. I'm giving a new meaning to the term "garden-variety."
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Yesterday the sun finally showed its face and has decided to stick around since... Denver's nearly two weeklong cloudburst even elicited a few tornado warnings. Tornado warnings out here have always confused me--I feel like we get them a lot (at least a lot more than when I lived in Iowa, and I had my roof taken off while I lived there!), yet I've only seen one big funnel cloud over Coors field a year or so ago. In any regard, I rather thoroughly enjoy downpours, as any midwest-raised gal should, but I started to wonder if it was ever going to cease. Torrential rain like we've had is so rare for Colorado, and I was worried all my little seeds and sprouts would get washed away since last week I eagerly laid down some new seeds and re-planted a bunch of similar varieties right smack-dab in the middle of the two-week deluge. Specifically I was concerned about the broccoli rabe I planted in a pretty deep trench; I was afraid a pool of water just sat on top of the seeds for the past seven days and drowned them out. Surprised, I came to find the brocco-sprouts (pictured top left) flourishing more than anything else! Below the brocco-sprouts you can see the beets are popping up too! You can also see some carrots sprouting behind the beets (they're the unfocused green sprouts). Perhaps the weather man was right--it was a perfect week for planting and growth. Obviously, I'm excited. Broccoli and beets are probably my most favorite vegetables. That being said, I don't think I ever ate broccoli until 2008, and I'd never even tried a beet before 2009. Around the same time I started studying nutrition, I also started working as an Administrative Assistant and Admissions Representative for the Nutrition Therapy Institute. Not too long after I started this job, the cooking school hosted a staff appreciation lunch. I can't remember exactly what was served, but I remember sitting elbow-to-elbow at this big, round table cautiously eyeing and being leery of the beet salad. Sitting to my left was one of the cooking schools' chefs, and throughout the whole lunch her toddler bounced quietly on her lap, dominating a large bowl of cooked beets, giving a new meaning to face and finger painting. The little tyke inspired me and in the two years since, I'd like to say I've become quite the beet connoisseur. I love raw beets, roasted beets, steamed beets, boiled beets, any kind of beet! IMHO, it's a really under-appreciated vegetable and ends up in the same recipe over and over again (beet salad with balsamic-vinegarette, topped with warmed goat cheese). It's my belief this stems from the fact that most people aren't sure what to do with beets. I'm not going to lie, when I started buying them I was really intimidated by them--I had no idea what to do with them and they would sit in my fridge and go bad. Sound familiar? Check out one of my favorite websites for information on how to cook beets and read about how amazing they are in the cellular detoxification process. This week I also made an outstanding vegetarian summer salad with some baby beets (I modified the recipe, of course). Anyway, back to the garden! Below is a picture of my kale and/ or chard sprouts--I'm not really sure which it is as I ended up accidentally putting kale seeds on top of already planted chard seeds and vice versa. As you can see from the picture (as well as the picture of the broccoli), it's going to get clustered, fast. I think I am going to have to do some sorting and re-planting once everything really starts coming in; whoops! Again this weekend I thought I might plant the tentative tomato plants. Alas, I have too much work to do and it's not going to happen. I did get some pretty rad gardening gloves in preparation for it though, AND, in the middle of the plot, I did lay down two round, unfortunate-looking, brick stepping stones that were just hanging around the community shed (one of them is actually split in half--so you could totally say three stepping stones). I like it. It takes me back and makes me feel like a little girl trying to be cool, just like her mom; but let's just that my plot doesn't look nearly as "sophisticated" as my neighbors who have sandstone walk ways and raised beds :) It seems as though y'all are for the pet pig--yet no one addressed my predilection for a grilled cheese slathered with bacon and cooked in bacon grease.
I am majorly procrastinating on serious spring cleaning, which overcast weather I feel sometimes can push in your face, much like a bully shoving some brainiac's head down a toilet. Today (again) all I want to do is garden. Suddenly I find myself googling " weather garden denver" and looking at soil moisture and field readiness forecasts. I have never done this before. What have I become? How did this happen so quickly? I feel like a garden-geek.
On any account, the forecast for this week looks great, saying it's "excellent for planting" and "ideal for crop growth." I'm already patting myself on the back for God knows what.... Minor concern--I just read the back of a few of the packets the seeds came in and most of them say something like one packet for a 20 foot row, or one packet for three 5 foot rows, or one 12 foot row.... I definitely put two packets in 2ftx2ft plots--This is about to be a cluster garden!!! I might have a lot of vegetables to share; Only time will tell... There's plenty for me to do inside and the only thing I want is to be outside at my community garden. The weather being damp (something I enjoy, however it gives me a lack of motivation to ride my bike) I decided to drive over to the garden this morning. I was anxious to see if there was anything going on, as I hadn't made a visit since Tuesday and it has been raining daily in Denver since. I was worried I wouldn't see any happenings in terms of growth--concerned I had planted the seeds too deeply... So, on my way to the garden, I stopped at my local health store to pick up more Botanical Interest seeds to plant over what I already planted last week. To my dismay, I couldn't find a lot of the exact same seed variations for everything, but similar seeds that came pretty close; and of course, unable to resist my overzealous tendencies, I grabbed some broccoli rabe. I arrived at the garden to find the soil moist and ripe, and soon there was a huge grin on my face. In delight I found sprouts! However I am skeptical that they are not all my own children... I do believe most of them are, but I get the feeling I left some stragglers in there and suspect weeds have grown. On top of that, I can't really be sure where I put anything, despite having made myself a chart and using stick markers, which I now feel are rather ambiguously placed. Don't be fooled by these pictures!!! These are all actually very small.... I carefully tilled the soil, watching out for any sprouting and handling them carefully as they crossed my path. I spread some new seeds practically right on top of the soil of the same general area I thought I'd already planted their similar variety. I have an inkling that this weather has been good for them--the soil felt pliable in my fingers and I mused that my loving touch and zen-raking made an impression on my dirt. Being at my garden I couldn't help but think, "The nut doesn't fall far from the tree." However, my mom would never mismatch seeds this way and I'm absolutely thrilled to see a hodgepodge-mezcla vegetable garden (hopefully) bursting before my eyes. I had planned to get some tomato plants in the ground but I just wasn't feeling it today; That's why they were labeled "tentative" on my layout chart. My fingers quickly chilled and my belly gurgled in hunger. Once home, I sat in my kitchen nook, listened to the pitter patter of the rain, and snacked on Outside the Breadbox Vegan Oat Bread and Haystack Mountain Snowdrop goat cheese. Why the vegan bread and then the goat cheese? I'm afraid of bad-juju eggs (in most store-bought bread) and a good source of fat is a delicious superfood for your brain! I've toured the Haystack Mountain facilities and while I prefer raw dairy, I trust this company. I'll share with you a little secret... I'm positive I want a miniature pet pig. Ethical dilemma--do I still consume high-quality pork? Copyright © 2011 biophilia, LLC // website made by kate Katherine M. Coleman : RYT & CNT / biophilia, LLC : yoga & holisitc nutrition therapy / 303 578 2378
It's finally spring--which means gardening season is here! This year, instead of purchasing a CSA (Community-Supported-Agriculture) share, I decided to buy a Denver Urban Garden (DUG) plot. There was a super long wait list and after lots of phone-tag and e-mailing I was able to score a fairly large plot (pictured below) for only $35 for the whole spring/ summer season. This past Saturday I finally met my very own first DUG plot--Academia Sandoval School--located over in the Highlands, a pleasant 3.6 mile bike ride from my home. Saturday morning I was bursting with excitement! However, while I've spent years watching my green-thumb'ed-mother garden, I've never actually gardened myself--I was nervous, not to mention clueless. I intended to check out the Farmers Almanac to see when good days to plant would be but I completely forgot about it, and I arrived at my garden with seeds in hand and the sun higher in the sky than I preferred. I didn't know where to begin, so I asked myself, "What's the most logical thing to do first?" Immediately I thought, "Play in the dirt!" and began to recall childhood memories playing King of the Hill with neighbor-friends on a huge, looming and reeking compost pile in the middle of my steaming-hot, black driveway. All-smiles, I entered the community toolshed to look for something to play with. I emerged with a small, handheld garden fork and began to rake the plot as though it were a zen garden. Cluelessly tilling the soil I quickly realized I needed gloves; there was lots of broken glass and deeply-rooted weeds. I'm certainly not against getting my hands dirty, but I do dislike dry dirt wedged under my nails, so back to the toolshed I went to see what I could find.... plenty of kids gloves! (The garden is located right next to an elementary school) I tugged on some precious, little, green-and-red lady-bug gloves, and got back to work preparing the space and spreading fresh compost (freely provided, I might add). This didn't take long and before I knew it, I was again asking myself, "What now?" I gathered my seed pouches and started to read the back, but this overwhelmed me--for such small packets, there was a lot of info, and a lot of different info on each packet! I chose to skip the reading :-) (I'm more of a hand-on learner) and decided to organize the plot into little plots and figure out where each vegetable/ plant would go. I purchased Botanical Interests, Inc. Carrot Carnival Blend Beet Gourmet Blend Eggplant Black Beauty Butterhead Lettuce Ruby Red Swiss Chard Blue Winter Kale Sweet Cal Wonder Peppers Cilantro Chives Sunflower Elves Blend Zinnia Pastel Sunset I started to lay out the seed packets on the plot, using a garden hoe to mark each packets territory. I changed my mind a lot considering only landscape design (what would look good next to what, and what made sense [to me] being close together) Here is what I came up with: I decided tomato plants should go in the back because they are tall and may provide needed shade for the kale and chard, I bunched all the root vegetables towards the front where there would be a lot of traffic heading to and from the community shed, and lastly I planted the zinnias, sunflowers, and big-leafy eggplant alongside the shed for all to enjoy. After using a garden ho to dig trenches for the seeds, planting and covering up the seeds, I realized I was left with a huge open space in the center of my plot, so I lined the root vegetables and leafy greens with a row of cilantro and chives, respectively, leaving room for a stone walk way down the center of the plot (We'll see if that ever happens...), or perhaps more vegetables. It wasn't until I came back to water on Sunday (lobster-baked from the late-afternoon Saturday sun) that I realized I hadn't even considered the direction of the moving sun. All my full sun vegetables are covered with shade and my vegetables that do well with shade are fully exposed to sun for the majority of the day. Le sigh. I should've done my reading... Stay tuned for amateur gardener updates--there's a strong possibility of miserable failure, but I might just succeed... Wish me luck and please leave any helpful gardening comments/ suggestions! Copyright © 2011 biophilia, LLC // website made by kate Katherine M. Coleman : RYT & CNT / biophilia, LLC : yoga & holisitc nutrition therapy / 303 578 2378
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by Kate ColemanE-RYT & MNT // archives
April 2013
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