Posts Tagged ‘planning’

23 May

A return to The Plan

Posted by rakhi in Gardening, Planning, The Conversion, Where do I put all this [delicious] crap?!. Tagged: , .

The Plan (optimized using Microsoft Paint)

I’m not great with planning.  I’m more of a “wing-it-and-see-what-happens” type of character.  But, since I do tend to research my fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants ideas, I know that every person who has ever gardened and written about it recommends that you plan.  As such, I reluctantly started out with an empty piece of graph paper, sketched in my front yard with some high-level ideas, and develop it as I go.   As I dig and plant and fence in, I figure out things that don’t look very good or that are not working, and planting and changing things around.

And I mess up a lot.  For example, early this spring I planted the asparagus rhizomes at the front of my raised bed – in front of my strawberries.  Go ahead, laugh.  Get it out.  I’ll wait…

….

…Okay.  Now of course, after the fact, I know that asparagus can get pretty tall, and so they will inevitably shade out my strawberries where they are.  But I don’t even remember exactly where I put the rhizomes, so I’m going to wait until they start showing up above the soil before I relocate them.  That will be fun.

Since the yard is southern facing, and in the evening my neighbors monstrosity of a tree (I jest! …sorta) casts a ginormous shadow over my lawn, it’s important that the crops won’t shade each other out during the first half of the day.  So, my plan is to put the shorter plants on each side of the front lawn closer to the east, and the taller plants towards the west.  I also am staggering the taller plants.

I’ve moving my Jesus blueberry bushes from my backyard to my front yard so they get more sun.  Also, I’m hoping to make the soil more amenable to their acid-loving ways.  I am partly thinking I should build a raised bed for them.  We will see.

12 May

Companion Planting

Posted by rakhi in Gardening, Planning, Where do I put all this [delicious] crap?!. Tagged: , , , .

Since I have no space (have I complained about that, yet?), I have been researching companion planting ideas to make my front yard feed my hungry belly more efficiently.  Wikipedia has this companion planting chart that I think is fairly helpful.  I compared it to to a few others, and it is consistent and broader than most.

This article from the National Sustainable Agricultural Information Service describes companion planting in general, and then does a thorough report on the the Native American companion planting techniques of the three sisters: corn, beans/peas, and squash (and sunflowers, in many instances). I have a slightly crippling obsession with popcorn and edamame, so I’ve decided to plant a few of those…so it’s good to know how to arrange them with some squash plants so they all benefit and I can subsequently gorge myself.

I apologize if the above links don’t work.  It appears that since republicans prefer we eat cardboard (manufactured by a corporation of maximum size)…and dems have yet to acquire the requisite cojones…funding for this organization has been eliminated as of March 15th.  It is a really great resource for gardening, so I hope it doesn’t disappear for good.

19 Apr

Urban Gardener = .005 Acres of Vegetable Bliss

Posted by rakhi in Gardening. Tagged: , .

The lot that our house the on is .06 acres.  Twenty feet wide, and 120 feet deep.  Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on the season) , the house and the garage take up more than half of it, and the back yard is shaded by the house and wood fencing.  What I am left with for a garden is .005 acres of front yard gardening space.  This, my friends, is the definition of an “urban garden.”  This weekend I am planning on starting my root vegetables.  Even though it might get cold at night over the next few days, I plan on covering them with black landscaping plastic to keep ‘em nice and cozy with the warmth of the day.

I learned some stuff from my garden last year, but everything else I need to learn I will be scouring Teh Internets for.  I’m looking for information particularly for 1) tiny spaces, 2) increasing yields, and 3) increasing yields in tiny spaces (I don’t think that’s redundant at all).  What I’ve found is that there is a ton of information. spread out everywhere. and it’s overwhelming.  So I’ve decided to compile them pages on this blog, by vegetable/fruit type, based on what I’m planting.  Eventually. I found there are some bloggers out there who have created similar web pages, and I’ll be sure to share them.

18 Apr

Local Soil Temperature

Posted by rakhi in Gardening, Local Gardening Information, Planning. Tagged: , , , .

If you’re like me and stressing out about planting at exactly the right time, too impatient to wait until next week to start planting, too anxious to  plant right. now., and too lazy to stick a thermometer in the ground and do math, go to the Soil Temperature and Pan Evaporation Tables by the Minnesota Climatology Working Group.  Other states should have similar data available through an extension office.  Every week they post the new soil temperature average for the past week for a variety of areas.

This table from the UMN Extension Service shows optimum germination temperatures for some veggies. I pulled out the temperatures leading to the shortest germination times for my own interest:

Asparagus 77
Lima Bean 77-86
Snap Bean 86-95
Beet 77-95
Cabbage 86
Carrot 86
Cauliflower 68
Celery 68
Sweet Corn 95
Cucumber 86-95
Eggplant 86
Lettuce 77
Muskmelon 86
Okra 95
Onion 77-86
Parsley 86
Parsnip 68
Pea 77-86
Pepper 77-86
Radish 86
Spinach 77
Tomato 77-86
Turnip 77-95
Watermelon 95

18 Apr

Seeds I’ve started and Dates

Posted by rakhi in Planning, Starting Seeds. Tagged: , .

Starting seeds is largely an experiment for me.  Peppers, eggplant and okra were important to start last month, but as far as the rest of ‘em, I wanted to get a lot of different plants started just to see how they progress and how they compare to seeds I directly sow.  Since that time I’ve learned that sunflowers were a mistake.  They just got too big very quickly, and took up valuable space under my two grow lights.  I did know this to some extent, but I err on the side of not-patient, so I did it anyways.  One of my orders of seeds came in later than expected, so I didn’t get to start the red burgundy okra and the Brazilian orange eggplant as early as I wanted.

I found an article by the University of Florida on Starting the Garden with Transplants, which includes this chart:

Some of the vegetable seedlings in the middle and right columns I’m transferring to peat pots, and some of the seedlings I’m sprouting in peat pots from the beginning so I won’t have to disturb the roots when I plant them outside.  I’ll compare how they do to the seeds I directly sow outside, and how the seedlings compare to other seedlings under my grow light.

14 Apr

Lessons from Last Year’s Garden

Posted by rakhi in a gardening problem, Food, Planning, Starting Seeds. Tagged: , .

Last Years Garden BedI’ve never been an actual, real live gardener before.  Last year was my first attempt as a raised garden bed, and it was definitely a learning opportunity rather than anything else.  I crammed as much stuff in there as possible, which limited food production, and basically had no idea what I was doing in any other respect.  From last year I learned a bunch of things, which I will be adding to this page as I think of them.  Here’s my starting list:

This year after the snow melted, I realized two of my three blueberry bushes had been munched on by the local critters, which brings me to Numero Uno:

1. For the love of God, protect the one remaining blueberry bush!

2. Protect everything else.  Bunnies, squirrels, and mice run rampant in our neighborhood, so I’m going to have to put up fencing around everything. Even if I’m feeling lazy when I plant something.  Last year I didn’t get a single strawberry because the mice would beat me to them.  This year, it’s on, mice, you hear me!? I’m not sure how I will build a fence that they can’t climb over, though.  Suggestions???

2. Cauliflower, Broccoli, or cabbage take up too much valuable space with minimal food production. (This breaks my heart a little, but I only have .005 acres to work with).

3. Keep planting cilantro and dill throughout the summer so they are always available.

4. Do not crowd the plants.  Repeat: DO NOT CROWD THE PLANTS.  Nothing good will come of it.

5. Do not plant fennel.  You hate fennel.

11 Apr

The Hippie’s Arch Nemesis: Nature

Posted by rakhi in Gardening, Planning. Tagged: , , .

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, the front of the house faces the south, which makes the front lawn a better location for a vegetable garden than the back lawn.  What I don’t have on the drawing are my TWO garden nemeses (nemesi?), and the reasons why I will never be a tree-hugg’in hippie.  To the immediate west of my front yard is nemesis #1: my neighbor’s huge black oak tree (sorry, Adrienne…but would you mind getting rid of that thing?) :

Arch Nemesis #1: The Oak Tree

Don’t get me wrong, it’s huge and old and beautiful and whatnot (blah, blah, blah…), but it casts a huge shadow over my front lawn in the evening.  I’m not exactly sure how much of the day it is causing me problems, so I’m planning to keep track over the next couple days.

To the immediate south of the right side of the lawn is a ginkgo baloboa tree in the boulevard between the sidewalk and the street:

Arch Nemesis #2: Gingko Baloba Tree

Nemesis #2 is pretty thin, so even when it has leaves it doesn’t create quite the annoyance of Arch Nemesis #1.

For the first half of the day, shown in the above photo, we get beautiful, direct sunlight.  In the evening…not so much.  So I guess this means that my taller plants, such as the corn, okra and tomatoes should be 1) towards the house (which is the northern side of the front yard) and 2) on the west side of the lawn.  This way early in the day they will still get good direct sunlight, and later in the day they won’t shadow the plants because of the Big Jerk Oak Tree.

EdibleLandDesign posted this article on the Top 10 Rookie Gardening Mistakes.  I may-or-may-not be guilty of at least half of those from my garden last year.  I am trying really hard to avoid mistake 2 and 8 by making sure that these trees will not prevent my plants from flourishing.  This might mean that the Okra I started from seed a month ago might not be a good plant to include in my vegetable garden, which would definitely hurt my fee-fees.  This article does include a link to some vegetables that do well with some shade, though.  Also, mistake Number 3 was a big problem last year, and I will definitely avoid it this year by planning the locations of the vegetables and sticking to it.  When I’m actually planting it’s so easy to sneak the plants just a little bit closer together…until they end up on top of each other…so it might be a challenge for me.

9 Apr

Also an Inadvertent Nerd: Gardening Rules and Regs

Posted by rakhi in Gardening, Local Gardening Information, Planning. Tagged: , .

I was leery about exerting effort to contact the state to figure out where the underground utilities are around the house especially since, as a member of the instant-gratification generation, I’m kinda lazy about doing things that don’t instantly gratify me (crazy, huh).  However, I am also a member of the TV generation, and remember seeing a commercial years ago warning me of the dangers of digging without knowing what is under the yard, so I ended up calling the Gopher State Dig Line.  It’s basically no work at all.  You call in, give them the relevant information, and the utility companies have 48 hours to go mark up your lawn to show you where the surprises are.

You might be able to see the yellow flags on the left that are the gas lines.  Thankfully, those are the only underground utilities that I have to worry about, and are basically on the property line.

Yesterday I saw a post by the New York Botanical Garden of a $2,500 fine for a chard plot because of zoning issues, so I figured I should probably check out Saint Paul’s zoning laws.  This page is the list of Saint Paul gardening policies that the city thinks we should know about.  Relevant to my little project: Saint Paul Residential Composting Rules and Saint Paul Boulevard Planting Rules.  Also, the Sustainable Urban Landscaping Information Series (SULIS) of the University of MN has an article relevant to local zoning restrictions for urban gardening.  Notably, if you disrupt more than 500 square feet of topsoil, you need to get a permit.

I’m really excited that Saint Paul allows planting on the city-owned grass between the sidewalk on the street (boulevard).  The major requirement is that the height of the plants can’t be more than 36 inches, but only 12 inches when you’re within:

  • 5 feet of the curb (or within 10 feet of the curb if that portion of the street has any parking restrictions).
  • 5 feet of a public utility
  • 20 feet of an alley or driveway approach
  • 30 feet from an intersection (as measured from the property line- does anyone know what that means?)

There are also a few other requirements:

  • No herbicides, pesticides, and/or fertilizers
  • Documentation that you called the Dig Line
  • No noxious weeds (duh)
  • Your plants can’t interfere with the sidewalk, curb, or street area

In Minneapolis you need to get a permit to grow edibles on the boulevard (Boo!).  I haven’t been able to find such a permit application online, but I could probably Google it for you.

Found this link for boulevard gardening recommendations and this boulevard gardening PDF created by the Sustainable Resources Center.  Also UMN’s SULIS from above has this article on planting under existing trees, and the second half of the article focuses on boulevard planting.  I love that they drew up Figure 1(a), btw.  I think the boulevard will be a perfect place for a melon patch.

For those people not in the Twin Cities (do they even exist?!), Grown in the City has an interactive zoning map you can click on to see your local zoning regs.

6 Apr

Planting Calendar

Posted by rakhi in Planning. Tagged: , .

My Crocuses are up! The neighborhood rascals seems to be munching on them...suggestions?

I try not to re-invent the wheel, for the record.  I know that in order to maximize the amount of food I get from my front lawn I’m going to have to have a pretty scheduled calendar to remember when to plant new seeds, replace fading plants, and so on.  But, frankly, it is a bit overwhelming to make my own.  So, imagine my relief when I discovered that Dundee Nursery made a planting schedule schedule JUST for me!  This is especially nice because some of the other ones I found online aren’t specific to our (practically Arctic) growing zone. Also, because I’m impatient, I want to plant everything. now.  So I found this UMN Extension article that includes a chart of the most cold-hardy vegetables (thanks, UMN Extension).  While the article is about late-summer to fall planting, this will be useful to me for knowing what I can start right away, too.

Sigh.  I would like to start everything right. now.

5 Apr

Fritz Haeg’s Edible Estates

Posted by rakhi in Inspiration, Planning. Tagged: , .

One big inspiration for me is Fritz Haeg’s project Edible Estates, where he created prototype gardens around the world to feed the masses. I am a bit worried about the aesthetics of my front yard after this whole debacle (especially early in the summer when there isn’t too much green yet), and so his project will provide me with ideas for the lay-out of my own lawn.  Number 6 (the Estate in Baltimore, Maryland) is the “canvas” that I think most resembles my own: rectangular and flat.  Although, obviously, they have a bit warmer climate (zone 7!  Lucky jerks!) so I’ll be looking at it more for aesthetic qualities than the actual plant life.

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