Challenges of winter sustainability

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Feb 06, 12 Challenges of winter sustainability

Our preserve shelf. Half empty.

We’re halfway through the winter here at the little urban quasi-homestead. One thing is absolutely clear: If this were little house on the prairie, I’d be dead and my corpse would have been eaten by wild goats by now. It is damn near impossible to be 100% self-sustainable during the winter months this day in age, especially in an urban setting.
Over the summer, fresh foods were easy to come by. Whether they were growing in our backyard or were acquired through farmer’s markets – we had plenty of them and we were rarely visiting big chain grocery stores. However, now that the summer frenzy of food trickled to a halt, even with our attempts at canning, we do not have a truly sustainable food supply.
Fortunately, grocery stores are an option for us. That’s the idea of industrial agriculture – to make simple groceries a reality for a lot of people. We rely a fair bit on what we get delivered via Door to Door Organics. What we do get from the neighborhood grocery store rarely extends much farther than grains and eggs. It’s a concerted effort on a lot of fronts – eating foods that are better for you, better for the earth.
As easy as the local grocer can make this, it’s boggling to think that there was a time this didn’t exist. Where what you were eating is pretty much what you could grow and procure on your own.
Looking back, I’m amazed at how much planning, forethought, and general ingenuity it takes to put up enough food to keep two people fed for the half of the year food isn’t actively growing.  Even when our gardens were growing and producing at full tilt, we weren’t 100% reliant on them. Although, they did put a huge dent in our food budget.
July, August, September – the hottest months around Colorado, and what were we doing? Burning the stove on high and boiling lots of water to preserve foods while they were still fresh. Even with our modern conveniences it was a lot of work. Some of what we canned could be eaten right out of the jar. Others are still basically ingredients. Putting them away was more of “we can’t let it go bad” and less of “what are we going to want to use this for in several months from now?
Some preserves go faster than others. The pickles seem never ending – we’re now giving them away as gifts. The applesauce and tomatoes are almost gone, we still have a large stock of fruit preserves and jams. We have been getting better at using dried beans and lentils in soups and stews (a beans go a long, long way in terms of calories).
I never really made it a goal to be 100% self reliant on the food that we grew here in our own gardens – I still enjoy supporting other food vendors in the community. But after such a successful summer I have come to miss having so much wealth outside my back door. This year I have several goals, but when it comes to growing food.
I am going to grow 100 pounds of potatoes. Probably using this model:
potato growing box

Potato growing box (click image for full directions)

Planting a winter crop on unused beds – if only so it doesn’t look so desolate. Winter crops also work well at preventing valuable soils from running off and keep nutrients active in the crop. At the beginning of spring, the winter crop is tilled back under the soil and the spring seedlings are planted.
Plant foods that have a longer shelf-life. Namely: gourds, squashes, pumpkins, onions, roots. Thicker skins mean they can stay on the shelf much longer.
Plant garlic, and onions. And other things that need a winter underground to be awesome. We always seem to need garlic at our house. While we’re at it: other herbs. We have been saving empty shaker jars that were previously home to store bought herbs. Last summer I dried and crushed basil leaves (one of the better-producing plants).
At this point, we’re still at least two months out from our final frost in Denver. Still a little early to start seeds indoors, but there is plenty to do.
What are you doing to maintain a green and sustainable lifestyle during the winter months? I want to hear ideas and suggestions!
BTW – Not Quite Hippie is experimenting with Pinterest. What would you like to see me do with it? 
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Five ways to prep your garden for 2012

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Backyard garden

Successful gardens require planning!

Tonight’s forecast says snow. Each night still dips into the twenties. It’s January in Denver, and if you live in the same climate zone as I do then the planting season is still several weeks away. Months still remain before any seedlings can be planted.

However, if you’re antsy like I am, then there are still plenty of things to do between now and when the warmer weather arrives.

  • Plan your garden.Beyond deciding where it goes and what you’re planting, there are countless other factors to consider. You’ll be surprised to learn that gardens can give you several harvests throughout the season (usually one at the end of spring, several throughout the summer, in the fall, and right before the first frost). Consider what kind of soils your plants grow best in. Read up on companion planting to see what else should be planted to ensure awesome growth. Should you start the seeds indoors? Plant directly into the ground? Looks like you’ve got some research to do.
  • Oh, and if you haven’t ordered your seeds already, get on it. Many companies are now accepting online orders.
  • Test the soil, especially if last season’s garden was productive. Nutrients may need to be replaced, acidity needs to be balanced.  A quick test: Get two samples of your soil from the same area. Add about a 1/2 cup of water and a 1/2 of baking soda to one and a 1/2 cup of vinegar to the other. Either one or the other should fizz. If it is the vinegar, then your soil is acidic and can be balanced by adding some wood ash. If the baking soda sample fizzes your soil is alkaline, add pine needles. Or, add compost to kickstart the organic compounds already in your soil.
  • Speaking of compost. If you have a compost pile in your back yard, the cold weather may have caused you to forget about it. Give it a few turns a week to keep the composting process active. It’s always a smart idea to have compost on hand.
  • How are your garden beds holding up? If the winter weather has given the wood a beating, consider replacing a few panels. Looking to expand your garden? Now is a good a time as any to build new beds, till soil, and get things breathing. This is also a good time to start collecting buckets and containers to grow in as well.
  • Gather containers to store food in. No matter what the square footage you end up planting, you’re probably going to end up with more than you can digest in one sitting. Keep those veggies fresh in the fridge, give them away to your friends, and don’t forget to brush up on your canning/drying/preserving technique.

What attention does your garden need? Leave your answers in the comments below.

 

 

 

 

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Quiet Winter Saturdays

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seed packets

organizing seed packets

This morning I am sitting here thinking about all of the things I need to do with the backyard to make it garden ready. Carly is over on the couch, pouring through the 2012 seed catalogs, preparing to buy dozens more varieties on top of the hundred or so we already  have in our collection. A collection I still need to catalog to see exactly what we have and what we have coming through the mail.

For our yard, I still need to:

  • Figure out how to lift the shed up on pallets in order to give it more of a foundation, and then move the whole thing flush against the side of the yard
  • lay down a ton of gravel (probably 3 tons, now that I think of it) for landscaping
  • build a path from the back door to the back gate (probably flagstone)
  • build a better, more Lucky-proof fence around the garden to keep meddling dogs out.
  • acquire lots of lumber, soil, compost, and manure for next season
  • plan out the (new) front yard garden
  • find a grow lamp so we can start all of these seeds within a few weeks
And, of course, figure out how to do all of this at minimal cost. We want to have loads of seedlings in all kinds of varieties to sell/trade with all of our other neighborly gardeners.
I also want to make some time to help out those who have asked over the past few months about setting up their own gardens so they are successful for the season.
I really wish there wasn’t snow on the ground right now. Alas.
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Hunting down the 2012 seed catalogs

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I remember, as a kid, I would always get excited this time of year because that’s when the enormous Toys ‘R’ Us catalog would show up with one of the newspapers. It was like the September Issue of Vogue, but for toys, and what kid didn’t love glossy-page after glossy-page of plastic crap, brightly colored encyclopedia of all the cool crap that we would outgrow in a month or two?

Oh! To be young again!

Growing older, interests change, and I find myself thinking about seed catalogs. Pouring over page after page of stuff that I want to grow next Spring. Yes, now is the time to acquire your catalogs and plan out your plots for the next growing season. There are thoudsands of seed companies all over the world, many of them with some kind of catalog. Not all are heirloom varieties, or organic, or even non-GMO. But if you are interested in those things, here’s a few companies that will deliver pure goods:

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

Big, pretty vegetables from garunteed non-GMO seeds. What’s not to love? Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds also publishes Heirloom Gardener magazine. Definitely worth the look. Currently only the 2011 catalog is available. Look for 2012 sometime in the middle of December.

Baker Creek

 

 

Terrior Seeds/ Underwood Gardens

Offering only the finest in hand selected, untreated heirloom seeds for vegetables, herbs and flowers. Family owned and operated, good people.

 

Landreth Seed Company

Established in 1784, the Landreth Seed Company is one of the oldest seed companies in the United States. This last August they ran into a bit of fiscal trouble, but were able to stay afloat thanks to the increased sales and donations given by concerned gardeners everywhere. Proving that heirloom gardeners are not a dying breed.

 

Landreth

Do you have a favorite seed company? Where are they from and why do you return to them? Leave your answers in the comments below.

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How to start seeds

Posted by in Blog, Fresh, Grow, Grow Guide, Seeds | 1 comment

seedling

Stolen from Flickr

By the time it is warm enough to plant things in the garden, it is probably too late to start plants from seeds. In order to have strong plants which produce early and second harvests, gardeners should probably start their seeds in the late winter.  Last year we started seeds in the second to last week of February - and I think we could have easily benefited from planting them early.

Invested in the seed catalog? Planned your garden, what you want to eat, and placed an order with the seed company? You’ll want to start your seeds no later than six weeks before the last frost of the season (in Denver, beginning of April-ish).

1) What you start your seeds in will determine their rate of success. It being our first year of starting seeds we tried out a few different methods. Half of our seeds went into sectionalized trays that had a “special seed-starting” blend of soil added to them. The seeds sprouted, but not much else happened to them – they never really matured to the point where they could be transplated.

We had far better success with the other half of the seeds – planted in the Jiffy Peat Pellets. They were so successful in getting seeds a good start that we ended up starting a second round of seeds early May which also did very well in the garden.

The process to start them is simple: hide the seed under about 1/4 inch of peat. Keep the seedlings warm and moist for the first few days. You should start to see sprouts within a week.

2) Keep everything fairly moist and warm until the seeds start to sprout above the surface. Once sprouted, offer as much sunlight as possible. If it’s still early in the year, keep them inside. Think of them like babies – leaving them out in the snow is inherently a “bad thing.”

However, once the seedlings have leaves, curb back the amount of moisture. Yes, they need to be watered, but leaving them oversaturated for too long can cause mold to grow in the soil.

3) Transplanting. Before too long you’ll notice the roots are growing beyond the confines of whatever you’re growing them in. It’s time to move them into a larger container. Last year we bought a bunch of 2 inch peat-pots, filled with soil and moved the seedlings into them. A few weeks later we had to move them all again into 4 inch pots (it was still too early to move them outside). A few died in the transplanting process. In the future we will be putting them directly into the 4 inch pots.

The peat pots are pretty solid because they also enrich the soil when you inevitably plant them in the garden.

seedlings 2011

Last year's seedlings - when we still lived in the old place!

And that’s it. That’s all there is to starting a seed. The only other thing you can possibly add to the seed-starting process is a great deal of patience. There are months between when you start a seed to when it is strong enough to be planted in your garden (after the first frost) and even then there is the possibility it wont do that well.

Last year we had a seedling swap with fellow gardeners. We had started with a rash of tomato and eggplant seedlings and were more than happy to trade some of the stronger ones for chives, peppers and the pumpkin seedling that eventually grew into a fifteen foot vine in our garden. Consider doing the same with your community of gardeners.  If everyone starts a surplus of certain seeds, then it is more likely there will be plenty of survivors to share with others.

This is gardening, after all. And if it’s not for the community, then what is it for?

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