Penny Wise or Pound Foolish?

            I recently came across a website I thought I would share. PennyWise is a website devoted to frugality, but it incorporates a lot of old fashioned, country advice for living. I found a lot of good information in their Homemade/Handy section dealing with gardening, etc. Their recipe section is also full of old-fashioned advice that a lot of people have forgotten including how to stretch out those garden ingredients to last longer. 

When you have a minute, check them out.

Pumpkins!

            Recently I noticed a couple of volunteer pumpkin plants coming up in the back yard. Last year I had a single vine that I babied along so I could get a few Jack O’Lanterns. I wasn’t really planning on growing more this year as they are a lot of work for me since we don’t have lots of bees and they need a lot of watering. Unfortunately, the spot from last year (and this year) is not well irrigated so I have to it daily by hand during summer months. But they are here, so I will feed ‘em and watch ‘em grow.

            Pumpkin seeds or sprouts can be planted as soon as the ground thaws. The more time they have to grow, the greater the size of the vine and, theoretically, the more pumpkins you will have. Don’t be surprised if they grow very slowly at first because they are growing much more rapidly underground. The roots need to establish well before summer. 

Warm weather really gets them going. By June their roots should be very developed and ready for the warm sun. Vines will grow quickly, unfurling lots of beautiful leaves used to collect sunlight ready to be transformed into energy for growing and depositing in the pumpkin fruit. I’ve seen vines grow nearly a foot in a single day, so you need lots of space. I usually “train” mine to fit in a smaller area by re-routing the extending vines back and forth along the same path. 

Once blooms develop, you better start seeing bees. Pumpkins have separate male and female flowers. The females must be pollinated by the males if you are going to get a pumpkin there. In the absence of bees, like my yard tends to be, you can hand pollinate the females with the male pollen yourself. Look for the female flower first. It will be like all the rest except the area beneath the petals, the carpal, will be swollen like a rose hip. Grab the pollen from a male by pinching the anthers (you’ll see them covered in pollen in the middle of the bloom) and getting the pollen on your fingers. Then gently rub the pollen on the center protrusion (stamen) in middle of the female bloom. That should be enough to do it. If you would rather do it at night, I don’t blame you.

By the end of summer you should be seeing small pumpkins. It will be very sudden. One day, no pumpkin. A day or two later, a softball-sized pumpkin. They will continue to grow until October or November. I like to roll mine a touch to make sure they are growing into that nice, pumpkin shape good for carving.

As far as varieties go, I suggest PumpkinNook.com. They are one of my favorites for learning about pumpkins. Just remember, if your pumpkin is for eating, you may want to go with a variety other than the traditional Jack O’Lantern type. You can eat them, but there are others better for it.

Keep on Growin’!

Protecting the "Babies"

       Weird weather we are having, huh? Well, by now you should have some stuff in the ground just about anywhere in the country. Snow, rain, cold temperatures, we've got it all in the middle of April. Don't forget about the "babies" outside.
        If you are getting lots of snow, don't be afraid to add some mulch to the top of the soil or around the seedlings, if necessary. Use something biodegradable like shredded newspaper or straw and you can add it to your compost later if need be.
        If you are getting a lot of rain in a short bit of time, don't forget to adjust your watering schedule. If it is automatic, shut it down for a day or two. If you have help (the kids) give them a day or two off. Just remember to turn it back on later.
        Watch for your seedlings to appear soon. Waterlogged soil can rot some seeds. If you don't get something coming up in a few weeks of planting, you might want to re-plant some of the seed just to be on the safe side.

Keep it going, people. If you don't grow it, who will?

Irrigation

            In my part of the world, it is time to start considering irrigation for your garden. Technically, you should have considered it before you ever started planting, but it never hurts to upgrade. If you are small time, like me, you would do well to invest a small amount of money in a drip system.

I am slowly installing a drip system in my backyard homestead. Last year, I bought a simple drip system kit, but ran out of time to install it. It was a very simple set-up very similar to this one. I like the ¼-inch drip line since it is easier to work with. If you have a larger garden, you may want to go with the ½-inch hose set-up. They are essentially the same in design, but the larger hose is more durable and better if you want to bury the line (to keep away from animals, equipment, etc.).

The workhorses of the drip system are the emitters. They determine how much water will get to your plants. They can literally bubble out slowly, in a small stream or fan out in a large broadcast. My system is simple. I ran the ¼-inch water line around my plant rows leaving a little slack. At each plant, or the area where I planted seed, I cut the line in half, inserted a Tee and placed the emitter right by the plant/seed on the surface. The 1-gallon per minute (gpm) emitters will run for about 5 minutes, thoroughly soaking the small site. The ½-inch hose requires you to poke a small hole and insert either the emitter directly or a nipple with the emitter attached.

The tricky part was attaching to a water supply. You can attach it to a water hose, spigot or even to your existing sprinkler line. I did the latter. I put a PVC Tee with a ½-inch threaded top into my sprinkler line. Next I added a 2-foot riser. At the top, I placed a microscreen inside a pressure regulator and a fitting that connects the tiny drip line to the regulator. You have to have a pressure regulator because the pressure coming through the sprinkler line is way too high and will blow your system apart.

It took about an hour and required some bending over the raised bed, but now I am wasting a lot less water. The nice thing about purchasing a small set-up is you can easily add to it. Tubing and emitters are very affordable. You can buy all manner of fittings and emitters to get the water exactly where you want it. Many emitters are even adjustable although they tend to cost more.

Happy watering!

My Favorite Homesteading Websites

            I know it seems odd that I would be writing a blog that sends you to other blogs, but bear in mind that I have never intended to be all inclusive here. I’m small potatoes. I talk about baby steps to living a free lifestyle. I love sharing the websites I visit often with people. I have a few listed and a few honorable mentions, as well.

Mother Earth News The original homesteaders guide. I am a huge fan, getting their magazine and buying their How-To books as often as possible. Everything you could ever want to know about Homesteading and gardening in one site. Be warned, the site is slow at times. My guess is it is due to the tremendous wealth of information available. If you have any questions about gardening or the homesteading lifestyle, they are the place to be. You would love their CD-Rom collection that includes 40 years of their magazine (given to me for Christmas by my wonderful bride). I also pointed out in an earlier blog how great their Vegetable Gardening Planner is.

BackwoodsHome.com This magazine and website has been around for some time. The website is decidedly commercial in nature, but the articles are solid. I don’t have a problem with all the ads since you can’t do all that work for free. The articles are a little more geared towards survival, but that goes hand in hand with homesteading.

Honorable Mentions

UrbanHomesteading.org I first became aware of this family (and they are a family) a year or so ago on Facebook. They purport to grow “6,000 pounds of food on 1/10 acre.” From their pics, I don’t doubt it. There is not a ton of information, but what is there is pure gold. If you have ever said “I don’t have room to garden” you need to read their website. Be warned, there are some in the urban homesteading community that do not like the family because they had the audacity to trademark the term “Urban Homesteading,” but you can’t argue with their results.

WaldenEffect.org Anna and Mark have a great website devoted to homesteading. They operate a small homestead and gives very good tips on small scale animal raising and gardening. They also have a monthly magazine available on Kindle.

Raised Beds

            Installing raised garden beds is a good way to make your life easier. Having raised garden beds is like raising the ground up to meet you. You spend less time stretching and bending or having to get down on your hands and knees. For the older gardener or if you just to make things easier, raised beds are the way to go.

            That is, after you have built your raised beds. It’s not a simple task or a cheap one, but it’s not that difficult. It’s easier than container gardening, which I could never seem to master. Start small with a custom built raised bed that fits your space. Remember that you want to it to be a manageable size. Too wide and you can’t reach across it. Too deep and it will require too much soil to fill it.

            Most beginner beds are 10-12 inches deep. That’s not too bad as most of your roots are going to go much deeper than that. I would suggest that if you really want to keep from straining too much, you go 2 feet deep as a minimum. Also, don’t go wider than two inches or you will have to stretch quite a bit. Your first raised bed shouldn’t be too big or you will be overwhelmed.

            The structural material can vary. If you have the means, stone or landscaping brick is very nice. However, it is very expensive and heavy to work with. I prefer pressure-treated 1x6’s or even railroad ties. You can use a plywood bottom or just use landscape fabric across the bottom. Hand-water the bed or tap into a sprinkler line either dedicate a sprinkler to the bed or attach a drip irrigation system.

The soil you fill it with is also important. You can buy some prepared garden soil. Depending on the size of the bed, it could get real expensive real fast. You can use clean fill dirt, but you really don’t know what’s in the soil including herbicides or weed seeds. Go with a layer of cheap, bagged mulch with a layer of good Kellogg or Miracle-Gro garden soil mix.

            There are some great Kindle books on building raised beds. Kindle books don’t require a Kindle. You can download the free Kindle reader app for your phone or computer.

Seed Starting

            For many gardeners, now is the time of year where you make your pilgrimage to the local nursery and start looking at what you will be planting this year. You’re looking for tomatoes and peppers and onions and broccoli whatever the nursery has that is established. And you will pay for that convenience. But what if I told you that for a fraction of the cost, you could have far, far more plants in your garden? In fact, you could have more than you can handle.

Starting your plants from seeds is a time-honored way of getting your garden going early. I remember reading a article a while back that pointed out how in the winter months we gardeners are just itching to get back to work outside. Well, unless you have a greenhouse, you probably just waited on the sun. It really isn’t necessary.

You’re going to need a few things depending on where you are going to start your seeds. If it is in your house, then you will need something like a Jiffy Greenhouse for $5. You can start 50 plants in one flat with this particular one. However, there are all manner of seed starting flats out there and if you really look around, you can get them cheaper. Mine are just like this except they have plastic cups instead of paper so I can re-use it for several years. Others even come with a peat pellet so you don’t have buy soil.

You do need to be careful where you put the flats, though. They have a clear plastic top to trap the heat and if there is too much heat, you will fry the plants (I can personally attest to this). Also, you need to keep the soil moist, but not “soupy.” I put mine outside under a covered patio with a grow light over the top. On a warm day it some of the tiny sprouts very quickly. If you know it’s going to be warm, you will want to take the plastic tops off.

Now you need seeds. You can get seeds anywhere this time of year, but you want to be a tad discerning. You can get them at your local nursery or you can order them from a seed company. It really just depends on what you want. A lot of vegetable seeds are only a couple of dollars for several hundred seed. You can $4-5 bucks for one plant and $2-3 bucks for 100-200 seed. See the savings there? Sure, you will not likely need that many seed, but they will usually keep for a few years in a warm, dry place like a coffee can with a lid. Or, go ahead and grow too much. The neighbors and your friends will love you for it.

If you want organic or Heritage seeds, you will likely have to order them online. I like to use Burpee. Never had a problem with them and their online product catalogue is fantastic.

Make sure your seed can be started indoors. Some plants, like carrots or potatoes or beans, like to be directly sowed into the ground. Transplanting a plug with these plans disturbs the roots too much and they give out on you.