Gardeners be aware of the Ghost of lead products past.

Turning the Compost

As the time passes from March to April people in this corner of the New England states start thinking about summer and all that it brings.   New England summer  is a magical time full of boating, bike riding, golf, hiking and much more; including my passion of gardening.  Playing in the dirt makes me as happy today as it did as a young girl.  No longer am I pushing my brother's trucks and gadgets around; instead I am moving soil with hoes, shovels and other gardening tools.  Thoughts of the garden and soil always makes me happy but a new article has me a bit concerned as to "what lies beneath" all that green lushness.
An article I read from "Huffpost Green" titled "Urban Gardens Tainted with Lead, Arsenic" I learned that remnants of lead paint, run off from roofs, leaded gasoline and other lead tainted products have contaminated soils in urban area.  Areas closest to roadways, around the drip edge of roof lines and soil that comes in contact with contaminated wood products tend to test the highest.  It isn't a surprise to have one area of a yard test higher for contaminants than others.  Indianapolis tests show that approximately 9 out of every 10 urban gardens test positive while in Boston 4 of every 5 urban are testing positive. Surprisingly enough New York City has low levels of contamination, perhaps due to most garden soils being trucked in or being made up of good quality compost.

The good news is that the testing levels are rather low and plants don't tend to draw lead up into the plant itself.  So what is a person to do and why should we be concerned about these contaminates.  First off you should wash your hands after gardening and wash produce before serving or storing.  Don't  wear garden shoes into the house, leave the contaminated soils outside the door.

We live in an older home, more than 170 years old, which has seen a lot of abuse when it comes to questionable building products I am sure.  Now that I have read this article not only will I have my soils testing for levels of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium but will also ask for a test of lead and arsenic.

Mother Earth News Garden Planner

I've just started reading the recent issue of Mother Earth News and pleased to try out and explore the new Garden Planner.  The first step is to set up a quick account, decide if you want email reminders that include planting tips, hints and a reminder to actually plant at the appropriate times, excellent idea!!  Once you register you will get an activation code sent to your email address, next you enter your zip code, your frost dates are placed on your personal calendar and you have other options including if you want perennial updates as well as vegetables.

Once you get the preliminary information entered you will enter the size and type of space you are planning.  My first project will be the vegetable garden for 2011, which included some perennial vegetables like Asparagus.   I am just now setting my gardens up and will update you as to the time it takes to set up the plan and ease of using their new planner.  I see that they offer a lot of tutorials and a great help section for me to view, like most people I will just right into the planner only to read the instructions later.. 

Weekly Snippets

Body:

• Salads are wonderful when you keep an eye on the toppers and use a simple dressing.  Take out salads can be higher in calories than their meatier counterparts.  Check out this list of bad salad choices by "Eat This Not That".
• Are you experiencing extreme chapped lips?  It is reported in Men's Health that Hydrocortisone reduces inflammation.  Use 3-4 times a day, after application cover an unflavored lip balm with moisture control.
• Four years in a row Vermont is ranked the healthiest state in the union. Qualifiers are access to medical care, prenatal care, insurance and 22 other areas.

Soil: 

• I just read an article about how making casual observations that you believe can change how things are done even when you are bucking common trends can be wonderful.  Please read "Bring the outliers inside" from Ode magazine and see how people are making positive changes.
• A local writer takes on a CSA for a year to see how she does eating local farmer products.  This will be an interesting venture to follow.  See Farm Fed by Sally Pollak
• Living in Vermont proves to be, yet again, easier to be green as our state comes in first place for being Greenest State in America.

MPB: Blogger missing in action

(Via: Allposters.com)

Sorry for not posting as regularly as I should be here on my blog site.  I have been a bit preoccupied with my day to day routines and suffering from what surely must be writers block.  My readers must be wondering what I have been doing that has kept me from my own blog..  I have been a busy girl clearing up my todo list, some of which I will write blog posties about to share with you, I will spare you from the mundane day to day life stuffs.  The list of things completed is also a list of future blog postings so without further ado here 'tis:

Household:

• Processed the garden of tomatoes and froze for winter consumption
• Toured the northern part of Vermont to visit some spectacular waterfalls
• Traded in an older vehicle for a nice new crossover
• Finally enrolled again to complete my degree
• Spent a day in southern Vermont at the Hildene, I had the entire grounds to myself. 
• The best, taking advantage of some spectacular weather for boating and hanging with good friends

Fitness:

• Turbo Fire is still going strong and I am now in week 13, loving the positive results
• Started running, HIIT training rocks as my first time out I ran 3.5 miles in under 30 minutes
• Completed a 3000 pushup in 30 days challenge in under 14 days!!
• Enjoying the plethora of wooded trails local to our home

Again, so sorry for not keeping this site updated as often as I would like to have.  Perhaps I need to update my todo list and add that I need to finalize and post the many drafts I have started here.  Of course when the days start getting shorter here in northern Vermont the feeling of urgency starts to hit as I realize that all that I have set out to do over the course of the summer hasn't been done.  Winter is my best blogging time, winter is when we here in the tundra are sequestered indoors looking for escape.. 

A great approach to managing farm stock (Via Ted.com Michael Pollan)

Growing up in a farming environment was a very interesting experience for me.  We had the traditional type farm where the cows and horses were pastured together, all the pigs in a pen and the chickens had their own house with an open air enclosed area for rummaging around outside.  In the last 15 years I have been reading about the idea of permaculture or symbiotic farming, looking back I would have loved it if my parents implemented this practice.  The whole idea of rotating livestock based on utilizing each species for its strengths in an effort to improve the health of the soil is certainly a fantastic technique.  I know if I were to go back to the farming lifestyle this is the approach I would use in managing my livestock and pasturelands.  Please take a few minutes to watch a talk that Michael Pollan does for Ted.com regarding this topic.





It is very interesting to hear Mr. Pollan talk about how the rotation of the livestock helps to manage more than fertile soils but also pest control. I would love to see more farmers using this style of livestock rotation as it increases the nutritional value of the foods produced with fewer chemical additives. We are very lucky to have this type of farming that is local and available for purchase by the general consumer.   I notice that you do pay a bit more for product at the market yet you know you are certainly getting your moneys worth with all the added nutrients these food items contain.

What is bugging me today... Japanese beetles..

The warm months of summer bring these beasts to my gardens and I dread their arrival.  According to Wikipedia the species Popillia japonica isn't much of a pest in Japan due to natural predators but that isn't the case here in the states.  They were first discovered in the US in 1916 and thought to have hitched a ride on iris bulbs before commodity inspections began.   Each year, from late June to Mid July,  my roses, grapes, cannas, peas and many other plants take a lot of abuse from these little devils.
To read the story, click here. 

Asparagus oh how I have learned to love thee..

 Asparagus was never a vegetable we ate as children; I didn't experience the taste until I met my future husband in my late twenties.  Unfortunately my first taste originated from a can; yes I can hear the shrieking from all of you, as you can imagine I was not very fond of this new vegetable.  Canned asparagus is pallid in color and rather bland, in fact, the only taste it had was the flavor of the can with the added yuck factor of being mushy.  Asparagus was off my menu for a long time after that experience and it would take a lot to convince me to give it another go. 

With much trepidation I did give it another try and this time I was overjoyed with this wonderful spring vegetable.   It was picked fresh and cooked just enough to give it that perfect crispy tenderness, seasoned with a simple dressing of balsamic vinegar, walnuts and sprinkle of pepper making it pure heaven.   I was in love with the first taste; now instead of disgust I was researching the cultivation and care so that I could start harvesting my own personal crop. 

I was excited to find that asparagus grows best in sandy, well drained loamy type soil that is heavily enriched with well rotted manure.  I had all of those things available to me and was ready to go, I checked my pH and adjusted it to the preferred level of 6.5 and dug a nice trench in a location that could be completely dedicated to this perennial crop.   I had read that most soils will support asparagus but I wanted to be sure that I got things off to a good start. 

I planted two dozen root stock plants called crowns, enough to feed our two person household, in trenches about 6-8 inches deep and spaced them about 1.5 feet apart.   I didn’t bury them deep at first and only covered them with around 2 inches of soil; I continued to add soil throughout the summer until the trenches were full.   The excitement was building but you can’t fully harvest asparagus until the third year, it is a game of patience while you wait for the root system to mature.   You can pick a few spears in the second year but I chose to wait it out and let things mature on their own.   After the third year you can begin harvesting and continue until the spears start to look thin and spindly, at that point let the plants grow. I snap off the spears close to ground level when they are approximately 6-8 inches tall and still have tight tops that haven't started to branch out.  Some people suggest using a knife to cut the spears close to the ground but then you risk damaging any surrounding spears that are just under soil level.

Newly planted asparagus needs time to mature and grow their roots into a thick mass which will send up shoots/spears that become thicker as each year comes and goes.  The thicker the stalk the better and more tender the asparagus will be, you will be handsomely rewarded for your patience.  The stalks are easily recognizable as they first emerge from the ground; you will be surprised at how they mature into tall fern like structures.   You need to let the stalks grow well into the fall as that growth sends energy down to the root which in turn helps the following year’s crop production.   Cultivate lightly around the plants in the spring, before the spears start growing to keep weeds down then use well rotted manure and mulch after cultivating, this helps feed the plants and keep the weeds in check during the growing season. 



Nutrition data for the Asparagus: (via: Nutrition Data, know what you eat)

 low in Cholesterol and Sodium. It is also a good source of Iron, Magnesium and Zinc, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol), Vitamin K, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Folate, Phosphorus, Potassium, Copper, Manganese and Selenium.
click here for the full report by Nutrition Data, know what you eat

Random acts of kindness

I put a lot of time into my gardens every year and enjoy the process.  One year while after doing hour after hour of back breaking work as I watched my neighbors enjoying themselves on the bike path that runs by our home I wondered why I continued on.  I wanted to be biking, hiking and just being out doors and to just sit and read a book while listening to the birds.  I was questioning why I committed myself to the arduous chore of maintaining all these plants, after all, I told myself, is wasn't like anyone really noticed.   It is odd how the world works because a few days later I find this in my mailbox, like a message from the universe, someone had committed a random act of kindness at just the time when I was contemplating giving up the gardens..  I keep this taped to my dressing mirror as a constant reminder to keep working towards your goals even when you think people don't seem appreciate your efforts, they do. 

Local Gardening Suppliers

Gardening was something I have been doing since a very young girl, I remember stooping over picking row after row of green beans (I plant pole beans now), picking until my back ached even when I was only 4 feet tall.  The family garden was another way to feed our family all through the year as the abundant produce would not only be eaten fresh but canned for winter use.  Many of the techniques I learned as a child I still use today whenever possible, except I am organic and don't use chemical fertilizers.  I learned to apply chicken manure to the rhubarb and cow manure to garden in the fall, in the spring we tilled in the well rotted black gold into long rows, watching the soil tilth quickly go from hard clay to an earth wormed filled light fluffy mix, if only I still lived on a micro farm with access to all that black gold like I did growing up.

Simple to make hoop house with the soil prepped and planted.

In 1983 when I started my own family and was living on my own the organic gardening bug continued to work its magic in my life.  We didn't have internet or cable but did have PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) to learn a lot of new techniques, one of which was from Mel Bartholomew and his Square Foot Gardening techniques.   I fell in love with gardening in a smaller space planting in 4 foot squares instead of long tedious rows.  It made perfect sense to me as having a 6" row of plants with 12" of dirt path on either side seemed like such a waste of garden space.  The gardens was now aesthetically pleasing and you could really get artistic with the layout and function.   Over 20 years later you will still see my garden planted in blocks of various sizes as I haven't gone back to row planting.

 The guy above needs a good stylist..  Below, his and hers garden clogs

My other source of information was and still is Organic Gardening Magazine, if you were to look in my attic you would see boxes of back issues that I still use for reference.  It was here that I found many of the sources of organic gardening supplies and techniques that I will use today.  The biggest and best find I discovered was practically right in my own back yard, Gardeners Supply Company.  

Gardeners Supply Company started in 1983 by Will Reep who started an employee stock option program that helped keep the company in Vermont, in December of 2009 the company became 100% employee owned.  For years the company headquarters and store could be found down in the Burlington Intervale area.  Stopping here was always a joy and finding goodies to take home was easy to do, actually it was leaving behind things that was difficult as I could easily find so many things to use in the garden.  In fact when I prepare to work outdoors I put on a pair of gardening clogs, grab gardening tools that are stored in a gardening tool belt that all came from the gardening supply store.  

 Our composter is filled 2 or 3 times a year, the inside when it is just about ready to use.

I don't find my was down to the Intervale store often as Gardeners Supply had an outlet store that happens to be on the route I take to work.   One of my favorite things to do would be to stop into the outlet shop to see what type of deals and finds had been brought into the store.  That outlet store has been moved to their newest location in Williston Vermont and is called Four Seasons Garden Center.  A stop in this store is like heaven as you can grab lunch at their Garden of Eatin' restaurant, you can eat right there or you can bring it into the greenhouse surrounded by tropical plants and beautiful water feature.  When you finish your lunch you can wander through the store to view their standard stock items and also the outlet store with has many things at a deep discount.  During the planting season you will find everything you need for your vegetable and flower gardens along with shrubs and trees for your landscaping needs.   In fact I just looked at our weather for today, sunny and 25 degrees, if you need to find me today it might be in the greenhouse on Harvest Lane looking for herbs to place out in the sunporch.

Look we have a guest taking a jacuzzi in a plant pot.. I think he just moved into the neighborhood.

Making Hypertufa Plant Pots (Via Martha Stewart Magazine)

 (click here to watch the video on how to do this project)
Make beautiful garden containers that will last for years with this wonderful hypertufa technique. The term "hypertufa" refers to a type of artificial stone, and is a conglomerate of the words "tufa," a natural volcanic rock, and "hyper," a prefix meaning excessively or extremely; hypertufa are extremely rock-like containers.
To read this post please click here.

A sad day spent pulling up the garden.

The day started with cutting down the asparagus then starting a new heap style compost pile.  Our bunnies will love me this winter as they have a twigs pile beside the compost pile to play in.  They leave fertilizer pellets behind of the fully digested material so they are welcome to the task.  In the winter months the bunnies line up under the bird feeder for a quick meal; but I digress.  

The whole garden is clean now and the repurposed plant pot protectors stacked up for the winter.   All the tomato cages are cleaned and stacked, I need to remember to disinfect them in the spring.  I finished cleaning up the 25 foot square garden I moved on to the front of the house to trim the Black Eyed Susans and flame 200ft of weeds.  It was a good day when I came in the house to find my son cooking a healthy dinner.. ahh life is good.  

DAILY WORKOUT:  Gardening X
 Gardeners know what I am talking about here.  Spending 6 hours of lunging, lifting and squatting  stacks of plant debris is a big job.  Step back lunges, yeah I did those.  Forward bends, pull ups, I did a lot of moves this afternoon.