The Growing Season has Begun

We planted seeds on the 28th, 30th and 31st of Jan and a few days ago my Tomato seeds started sprouting. I bought these guys in from the sun room because even though the ground hog didn't see his shadow it's been really cold these past several days. While reading the Indoor Gardeners' post on seed I saw that he mentioned that he had an addiction. I concur. I have a Seed Addiction. It seems like everytime I go somewhere, whether it's Lowe's, walmart or the neighborhood garden store if I see seeds I have to buy something. It amazes me that when you put a seed in soil add moisture and top it off with a little patience, you get these seeds that are lifeless suddenly sprout forward into the world. It's amazing. I can just sit there and stare at the seeds. I know it may seem boring and pointless, but for me it's just so much fun watching seeds grow. My wife thinks I'm nuts, because the most tiniest things amuse me and catch y attention.. So here we are, the growing season has begun and we are off to a good start.

Composting done Right

When it comes to compost there is one thing that you have to put into it that you can't purchase from the garden store and it is called patience. With out it you just wont get the desired effects your looking for. Two years ago I decided to make my own compost and I have a system that works for me. In the pic there are two bins. On the left are all the leaves I have collected from this fall along with grass clippings and veggies from the kitchen. On the right is what it will look like after one year of having worms, microbes and moisture work it. That deep black crumbly chocolate cake look is the desired effect. In a few days when it stops raining I will take all of my black gold "not oil" and lay it in my garden beds ready to prep for this growing season. What a growing season it will be. In theory I should be able to do better than I did last year. We shall see. Lately I have been plagued by squirrels eating my kale and and other greens. The Garden Wars have begun- Such is the life of a Urban Homesteader:(

Top 3 Essential Garden Tools

Over the past year I have spoken to many people who want to start gardening and begin to live a sustainable life. Im not sure how sustainable I am on the sustainable meter but I know I am headed in the right direction. But back to the top three tools that I feel are the most essential for my urban garden and they are as follows:

1:Wheel Barrel

2:Garden Hoe

3:Spade Shovel

I can honestly say that 99% of the work I do in my garden includes one if not all of these items. They have proved to be absolutely essential in transforming my garden plot into a productive edible garden. I guess the list may vary depending on what your needs are; because some people may have no use for a wheel barrel. I never thought I needed a wheel barrel until I wanted to fill my raised beds with compost from my pile. After carrying several shovel fulls of compost and losing half because of tripping to dragging filled garbage cans with compost, breaking the handles and straining my back from picking them up, I figured I would be a smart caveman instead of a strong one and invest in a wheel barrel. Over the next several weeks we are going to nurture our garden for this upcoming season, we hope we will be as successful as the first.

Growing habanero peppers

Alas my first HOT PEPPERS EVER!! My Habanero plants did extremely well this season. The plant itself was waist high and is still producing many peppers. These things are ATOMIC!! HANDLE WITH CARE!! I mean literally. Don't do what I did several years ago; while cooking some amazing venison chili and chuggin a few coronas, I had to go to the bathroom and Habanero residue was still on my hands. I need say no more.........

So while picking these grenades I was so excited to test them out. I picked one up, smelt it and I could literally smell the heat. My mouth started to water, my brain new that I was about to do something stupid and I did. I bit right into it. I thought...... not so bad....... WOE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That bite was a delayed reaction for the heat that ravaged through my mouth. OMG!! HOT, HOT, STUPID SERIOUS HEAT HOT. But sooooo Goood!!

The peppers thrived off a good mixture of compost and regular feeding of fertilizer. With all of this Georgia heat the peppers are in nirvana. To give you an idea of the type of heat habanero produces, I will compare them to jalapeno peppers. All peppers are rated on the heat index in scoville units. Green peppers are obviously Zero; jalapenos are between 2000 and 5000 scoville units and Habaneros, "the devils candy," run at amazing 200,000 - 300,000 scoville units. HOT AS HELL!! BUT UMMMMM SOO GOOD!! But please before cooking with these WASH YOUR HANDS BEFORE HEADING TO THE BATHROOM!!!

The First ladys' Garden

Looking at pictures of the First Lady on her hands and knees tending to her new vegetable garden is a powerful sight for me. I come from an organization where my leaders are active in leading from the front and this active role the First Lady has taken to grow vegetables on the White House Lawn is extremely inspirational.

Every Day I drive around my town and I see land that is just going to waste. I can tell the by the lush grass the soil is good and there is this burning desire in me to want to dig and plant all over my city. I know that my efforts will soon give way to pilfers and trampled on by people who need to take shortcuts from street to the next. But I also see these same people working and having a source of income from their hard labor or paying for crimes through community service in the form of a sophisticated gardening effort. Our Country has come full circle and now we are back in the age of where self-sufficiency and local grown are being realized as the standard. We still have a long way to go, but it's a good start when our White House is leading the way. Impressive! More Photos of the garden http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/White-House-vegetable-garden/ss/events/pl/041009obamagarden#photoViewer=/090409/photos_ts_afp/a27230f7a0da7f9db153649ae0876930

Garlic and Onions are growing

Alot of my excitement from being a novice is looking at what I have done and saying "Ok what now?" I don't fully understand how growing garlic works. However, from all of the research I have done I do realize that I would have a little more trouble growing them in the ground compared to growing them in pots. So I took the path of least resistance and used the pots.

My Garlic and onions have sprouted shouts and are growing like a wild fire. Hopefully they grow and produce more garlic or whatever it is they do. Right now I am researching how to harvest, because what I gather is that I have to harvest them at the right time. I hope I get this one right. Because I absolutely love garlic.

Early morning Relief

I woke up this morning to find that my veggies were relieved the rain had stopped. The sky literally fell on us for the past three days and still there is rain in our forecast. But this morning was a bit special. When I took a look at the garden I noticed that all of the leaves on every vegetable were perked up to touch catch the glimmer of sun rays that were shooting from the east. It was as if they were all clapping and giving each other encouragement and a pat on the back for weathering the storm. It was almost as if there was a sense of relief to raise their leaves skyward after being beaten down for more than 48 hrs. They all survived and I'm wiping my brow in relief to.

Growing Tomatoes

Our Raised beds are really working out for all of our vegetables especially the tomatoes. I bought three transplants and they almost doubled in size. The tomatoes we grew from seeds have taken off and all of them have really strong stalks. This is going to be the year of truth, although I grew a really strong tomato bush last year I was unable to produce any fresh tomatoes. I was told that if you shake the tomatoes they will pollinate. Well I will be shaking, praying, rain dancing and whatever else it takes to have one tomato grow.

Georgia Muscadine

I have long been awaiting my muscadine vine to finally sprout and finally after a few days of rain she begun to bud. This grape vine has a long history with my family of "kickaboo" juice makers, shakers and drinkers. I grew up listening to all my dads stories of growing up hunting with with his father and brothers and tending the farm and whenever they spoke of the muscadine it was always about how drunk granddad would get after a full days work drinking down a batch of his homemade kickaboo juice. Seeing these little buds, really gives me a sense of joy knowing that they served as an integral part of my families history; the drunk part anyway.

Dwarf Cherry and Peach trees doing well

My dwarf cherry and Peach tree have started to sprout out. I must admit I was a bit worried when I received my dwarf fruit trees because they were just sticks. I was expecting a small tree already equipped with the basics. But nope instead I came home to find a rolled up piece of cardboard with wet material wrapped around the roots. I felt a bit disappointed. But I figure I give the anorexic sticks a chance and add some organic compost to humus, water

them and watch. Amazingly those sticks were alive and everyday their shoots are spreading out a little more. The cherry and peach are self pollinating and eventually I will add more dwarfs to my little orchard. But so far so good. I hope they keep on trucking along and eventually produce wonderful fruit.

First Spring Harvest

The mesculine lettuce have survived and provided a bountiful crop. They had their challenges from being over crowded and chomped down by tiny green leafed hungry monsters. As soon as we controlled the pests and thinned the lettuce out by only keeping the strong, they regained their strength and produced brilliant full green leaves. We decided to have our first spring salad by ading a few cherry tomatoes which were extremely sweet, almonds and steamed shrimp, drizzled with rasberry vinagerette. Im looking forward to our next salad. Recipe found posted at http://urbanhomesteadcooking.blogspot.com/

Spring Planting

Raised Beds

Wild Flowers to attract bees, butterflies and Humming birds
Corn
Carrots
Sugar Snap Peas
Swiss Chard
Oriental Spinach
Spinach
Pak Choy
Cabbage
Collard Greens
Kale
Radish
Edamame Soy Beans
String beans Runners
Okra
Sakata Melons
Tiger Melons (Heirloom)
Asian Cucumber
Mesculin Lettuce
Strawberries
Sunflowers (Mammoth)
Tomatoes (Grape)
Tomatoes (Big Boys)
Zucchini
Japanese Eggplants
Leeks


Planter Boxes and Buckets(Patio)

Thai Chilli Pepper
Golden Hot Chilli Peppers
Sweet Bell Peppers
Potatoes
Garlic
onions
Dwarf Cherry tree
Dwarf Peach tree
Basil
Oriental Basil
Cilantro
Sage
Mint
Shiso
Oregano
Parsley
Thyme
Corriander
Dill
Rosemary

Positioned around the Garden

Muscadine Grape
Scupernog Grape
White Grape
Blackberry thornless
Blackberry thorned

What affect will a White House vegetable Garden have on our country?

I knew for some time that the President and and the first lady were consulting with grassroot groups from around the US about establishing an edible lawn for their kitchen and today it's official. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/20/dining/20garden.html

I personally think it's a great idea to plant vegetables on the White House lawn. The impact that is going to send across the country is going to be amazing. This single act may have just very well propelled our generation into a different direction, where citizens strive to maintain healthy lives and march on the path towards self-sustainability. According to the report they will grow 55 different vegetables and fruits except beets because the President hates beets. He should read my blog on trying it twice.

Suburban Gardening

Disaster strikes In the Garden

The other day I noticed there were foot prints in the garden and my winter greens were all chewed up. The collards, broccoli, and the cabbage. It was a shame. I felt violated. Who was the culprit to jump the fence and shew up my hard work? It had to be the cats I thought. We have alot of neighborhood cats raoming around and I just knew it was one of them. Only becuase my own cats eat every poisionus plant in the house and throw up afterwood.

But one day my wife and I were preparing our dinner and I saw a flash of brown head toward the back of my quail coop and in a few moments I saw my DOG!!!!! Cheebah is a mixed bully breed with some sort of hunting breed in her maybe a hound or GSP either way she is very smart and will be a capable hunter this season.

But thats besides the point. Here she was in full fawn color standing, digging and rooting around my garden looking like a small deer. I would be lying to you if I didn't admit my first instinct was to "SHOOT" the deer in my Garden!! But I had to back track from those thoughts. Two combat tours and Preparing for Airborne and Ranger school can get my blood boiling almost instantly. But nevertheless, I knew what it was and I decided to sneak back there and catch her in the act and Boy, you should have seen the expression on her face. Forget hands caught in the cookie jar, it was more like catching a man in bed with your wife.

She knew shouldn't have been back there and the sign of "Oh shit-I have done it now" saturated her face like a 2 year old eating cream pie. Deep Breath, Deep Breath, and then I acted like fool shoutin and hollarin and banging the walls. She was scared as hell and then I let her out. I found her once again and guided her back to the garden and as soon as she got close she started back peddaling. She didn't want any more to do with that place. And so I turned it off.

Ok its a loss but it's my fault. Rule #1 Protect your garden from your pets. Especially if your using your garden to produce food to supplement the high cost of food. I should not have set my pup up for failure and I did. But needless to say my seeds are starting to grow from the compost That I laid down last week. I should have a mixed bag of winter snap peas, Bunch onions, Pakchoy, and another Asian Green. We will see how this goes, but its starting to look good more to follow.......

Is my Compost working?

So today I went to the compost pile and I dug in the center of it and I felt it; Amazingly my compost had a lot of heat in there. The outside temp was approx 55 degrees, but the center of the pile felt more like 80-90 degrees. It has only been a day or two since I jerry rigged my compost pile together and its starting to work.

From all of the research that i have done, Im starting to understand that there are microbes and bacteria in the pile that are breaking the pile down and all this work is generating heat. Im looking forward to seeing how well it breaks down and I can't wait to see how much nutrients it gives to my garden.

Urban Compost bin

My compost is looking like a class A station. I cut some grass today and placed it in the pile. Im new at this stuff, but im willing to learn to see whats going on. I pulled most of the pile to the edge to create a pocket so that I can place old vegetables and dry grass. I didn't see any more worms. I think they beat feet or headed to the bottom of the pile to work there way back up to the top. I hope I didn't kill my worms.

How to Compost the Urban way

Today I went to the back shed and I was curious to see how my make shift compost pile was doing. I placed grass clippings, leaves and acorns on the side of the shed between the fence and I noticed that the middle of the pile was actually turning into dirt. There were a gazillion worms in there turning that stuff around and I was amazed. The spot where the compost was situated was in a spot that was not easily accessible. So I recycled my neighbors old metal shed by forming a box on raw dirt. I took all of the leaves and the working pile of compost into it. Sincew Im new at this I should have read how to start this thing first. I shouldnt have put a dead mouse in there and I shouldn't have put water in there. Hopefully I don't kill my worms. I placed a plastic tarp on the top to increase the humidity so it can work faster. From all of the research that I have done, I am beggining to understand the importance of worms. I really need my worms to survive. If this works my compost is going to be great for my garden needs. More to follow

My Urban Garden

Currently I live within city limits. With all of the issues going on with the economy today I feel the need to be more self-sufficient. Its nearing the end of Oct and I presently I am in Georgia. The weather is much cooler and I have started to plant leafy green Vegetables; Collards, Broccolli, Cabbage, Bunch Onions, Pak Choy, and Snow Peas. Coming soon I will add lettuce and Kale. Im looking forward to having a nice harvest before the real cold weather settles in. More to follow........