Shocker - No Garden in 2011

It'll be quite some time before there's anymore posts on this blog. I'm giving up the gardening for a year to focus on my other passion -- mountain biking. I entered a 7-day stage race next May 29-June 4 and training for it will consume all my spare time from about Nov 1 until the day of the race. There won't be any time for any gardening next spring. I'm actually looking forward to taking a break from the spring clean-up. I've already started prepping beds this fall so no work will be needed next spring. And there's a bed or two I'm giving back to nature -- the herb garden will become whatever it wants and I may do the same with part of the rose garden. They'll both be there another year if I decide to clean them up again. Enjoy your passion!

A Home for Pheasants

Pheasants have been experiencing a downturn in population due primarily to the loss of habitat for these beautiful creatures. They like fence rows, tall grass, underbrush, and wild areas -- most which are disappearing quickly to housing developments, removal of trees, and modern farming practices. Today's local Harrisburg Patriot news had an article about Central Pennsylvania becoming Home to First Wild Pheasant Recovery Area. And guess where that might be? You guessed it, in my backyard. I feel SO fortunate to live in the Gratz-Hegins valley area that they consider "wild" enough to try raising these beautiful creatures again. Several years ago, the Game Commission attempted to release sechwan (spelling?) pheasants and farm raised birds with no luck. This time, they are catching wild birds from Montana and South Dakota and releasing them here. I'll snap some shots if I see them and share them with you. What's really nice is there will be no small game hunting in this area designated for the pheasants. I'm thrilled this area was picked. I wonder if they know about our family's 20 acres we leave stand in tall grass for the bobolinks to nest each year? Maybe.

How NOT to Grow Strawberries

Last season was filled with new plantings, new ideas, and new ways to prepare my new crops. You read about them nearly everyday all season long. One of my ventures was 100 strawberry plants going into the ground with hopes that future year's harvest of strawberries will fill my freezer. O.M.G. Little did I realize that this year I'd start turning into a strawberry. My 100 plants started ripening my first day of vacation and 10 days later I had 22 boxes of berries in the freezer and more to come. I'm spending about 2-3 hours a day finding them (I planted them WAY too close together and they are a matted mess and the berries are hiding deep under the debris of crumbled, brown leaves), picking, slicing and freezing. I'm ready to mow them over and start over when I'm retired. So a word to the wise: whatever you do, if you want strawberries, start with about 25, give them a bunch of space, mulch well with straw, and cut off the runners until you are ready to start new plants. I made the mistake of letting the runners root and when 100 plants send runners out and start rooting; the patch becomes crowded way too quickly. I have a mess, stress, and a LOT of work to restore some order to the patch. I'll be digging and tossing probably 100 plants or more. This is one of my biggest blunders to date, and hubby LOVES to remind me about it - every single day. ARGH!

Rest and Relaxation - Backyard Chili Style

This is vacation week to plant summer crops, exercise, read, and just plain vegetate for a change. My idea of vacation is NOT to go somewhere and spend the entire time in my backyard and that's exactly what I've done thus far. The corn, zucchini, winter squash, black beans, cannelli beans, tiger-eye beans, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant are all planted, fed, and mulched. The kale and spinach is picked and cooked. The strawberries are giving me a run for my money and keeping me hopping with picking them. I picked 2 quarts one day and 3 quarts today. What will the next two weeks hold with ripening berries? Everything is getting watered every other day now that Mom Nature isn't cooperating with some moisture. The balance is 4 hours in the garden (no more) and two hours exercise be it biking, running, kayaking, or whatever else I come up with (I count turning compost as exercise too -- it's a workout!). The rest of the day is for puttering; cleaning, cooking, organizing, sewing or reading. Life is good.

May Day in the Backyard

The birds were chirping away as the sun rose while I hung the clothes on the line to dry. I heard the birds, but didn't really hear them as I wasn't focused on them. And then it hit me -- that's a boblink's chirp! And so the 1st of May has arrived and along with it, the pleasures of living organically in the country. Last evening, the hummingbird feeder went out and sometime today, tomorrow, or maybe Monday, a hummingbird will make it's debut. The bobolinks and the hummingbirds are like clockwork year after year. The yellow bush to right here is an old Antique yellow rose -- Roberts Yellow Rose -- and supposedly the only yellow antique rose. This year, it's covered in honeybees. To stand next to this bush and hear the buzzing is comforting. Comforting to know not all honeybees have met their demise. Next, was off to "Marianne's" to get eggs. Marianne and her family are Amish and they recently hung out the Fresh Brown Eggs For Sale sign and of course I was all over that. She lives 1/2 mile away from me. When I got to farm, I got chills and nearly started to cry. Many Amish, in my opinion, practice what us English should do more of -- no electricity, no oil consumption via a vehicle, grow their own food, and support local stores. Marianne's farm is perfect. Her garden is huge with peas, onion, raspberries, radishes, turnips and I'm not sure what else was coming up. The chickens were flying and running around in their field with a stray goose that was causing a bit of a ruckus. The jersey cows were making their way out to pasture, only to stop and be a little curious at me looking at them. There were pigs, dogs, birds, and you can tell everything has a function - no waste of anything. Her house was plain and serviceable -- no fancy dancy Home Interior prints hanging around. As I pulled out of the driveway, I thought about someday being more like them. But why not now, I thought? Well, commuting to Harrisburg in a CAR almost 100 miles a day certainly doesn't give me any room to talk about trying to be like them right now. My dear hubby said after we retire I can get chickens! So maybe with the chickens will be the attempt to live more like the Amish. Now how can I get rid of electricity completely??

In Honor of Earth Day - Her Designs Handbags

Women's handbags are huge business and the majority are NOT animal friendly -- i.e., leather! The other downfall of most purses is where they are made and shipped from -- China. The affordability of a China-made bag simply can't be beat which is why they completely flood the market. And while tradition claims leather as the fabric of choice for a durable, long-lasting bag, it's obviously not a preferred fabric when choosing eco-friendly, animal-friendly handbags. Enter Her Design. I've been shopping for some time for a new handbag when my cheap china-made pleather starting falling apart in less than a year. I knew I didn't want leather, and I knew I didn't want China-made. A search on Vegan Women's Bags made in USA came up with many very cool designer handbags -- at a huge cost. Matt and Natt is very cool, but expensive and when asked where they were made, the answer was "Asia." Then I discovered Her Design by Helen Reigle. What attracted me first to these handbags were the designs -- inspired by nature. They use colors from nature and the styles come from varied eye-catching visions in the environment. "Poppy" is the perfect example. the purse is inspired by the seed head of a poppy flower. Check out their website for very cool designs. The second attraction is the materials used to make the purses. All eco-friendly and with concern for the environment. They use hemp, wool, linen, organic cotton and recycled fibers. The faux leather is a substance that originates from a rubber tree. And lastly, while not made in USA (American wages are simply too high and make the products unaffordable), they DO use coops that practice fair labor in countries such as Mexico and Costa Rica. I'm ok with that (it's not "Asia"). And the prices? Well... some are a little salty, but if you catch the sales, $40-$80 bucks ain't too shabby. I ordered 4 purses and when I received, I was so excited I wanted to use them all at once. Every one was more beautiful and made with TLC than described on the website. The colors are exquisite and the styles are roomy and well-thought out with many pockets, nooks and crannys. Poppy got the first honors for use. Thank you Her Design for incredibly beautiful, eco-friendly purses!

April Update in the Backyard

First, my apologies for those who have been checking in on any updates and found nothing for over a month. Last year was a true year-in-the-life of an organic garden and I shared many, many tips and tools of the trade. And since the methods of organic gardening change little from year to year, please re-read last year's posts if you are looking for specific info. I added a search box so you can search specific topics. This year, I'll likely do updates only monthly on backyard chilibloggin. I'm focusing on balancing my gardens with my active lifestyle, thus less posts here since last year was the year of many posts. You are welcome to check out my activities at http://www.chilibloggin.blogspot.com/ - there's some interesting stuff in there too if you like mountain biking, trail running, white water kayaking and sometimes racing adventure tris and other interesting races. And now the garden update for April.

Spring clean-up gets harder and harder each year mainly because I simply have too much garden to maintain while working and playing full-time. I'm about 75% finished and everything is getting mulched with horse manure/straw this year to prevent weeds from growing. It may not look attractive, but time will be saved by not having to weed as much with everything covered in straw-mulch. Here's the plantings and seed startings for April:

-- Planting 150 onions after we realized the prices to buy onions has skyrocketed (I was going to not plant onions to cut back a little on how much I plant).
-- Started 68 broccoli plants from seeds in March and they are all now nestled in their growing spot in the garden. They are coming along beautifully.
-- Planted snap pea seeds, carrots, red beets, spinach, kale and radicchio which are all coming up nicely. The leeks seeds will take some time (long season plant).
-- Started bunches of seeds indoors: two kinds of heirloom tomatoes, two peppers (we loved Nardello last year and couldn't wait to start them again), early girl tomatoes, purple stripe eggplant, heirloom melons, and purple basil. All sprouted and are coming along beautifully. The peppers took about 10 days to sprout, and the eggplant is just about ready to pop (takes about 3 weeks according to the seed pack). I have faith on my eggplant this year. Last year was a failure and I had to buy plants which were likely Monsanto seeds (argh!). I'm going to have an overabundance of tomato plants, but since I have space, I think I'm going to plant them all and try to sell them this year to make a little money for a change. Haven't decided that for sure yet.

And the perennial vegetables/fruits are coming along beautifully also -- the asparagus is coming in like crazy (it loved my feeding of pure horse manure a couple weeks ago), the strawberry plants are reviving after a long winter's sleep, the rhubarb is huge, and the herb garden got a massive haircut and is starting to grow again. Spring is a bunch of work, but its so rewarding when finished and you can sit back and truly reap the benefits of your labor. See you in May!

Broccoli Babies and Spring Chores

The only thing growing at the moment is broccoli seedlings. I was pleasantly surprised this week when the snow melted and I took a day off to do a little gardening and found red beets in the compost pile! I pulled small ones last fall that didn't materialize and threw them on the compost pile and low and behold, they grew over the winter. It was a delightful dinner surprise. The asparagus patch was cleaned up and the raspberry canes were trimmed back. I'm hoping to be off a day this week to start cleaning up dead stuff. Let the games begin!

Weed Killer Castrates Male Frogs

Could man be working on a population control device without realizing it??? Check out this article in CNN.com about about a popular weed killer in the Midwest castrating male frogs and turning one in 10 into females. All the more reason to give up the chemicals.

Just Released - Organic Manifesto

It was just ordered and I can't wait to read it. Maria Rodale, the 3rd generation of organic gurus in the Rodale family, just published her version of why organic is important - the Organic Manifesto. She brings organics into the modern world of today and pulls together all that we already know about pesticides, farming practices and GM foods and lays it out in a difference perspective. From the Rodale website:

Rodale was founded on the belief that organic gardening is the key to better health both for us and for the planet, and never has this message been more urgent. Now Maria Rodale, CEO and Chairman of Rodale Inc., sheds new light on the state of 21st-century farming. She examines the unholy alliances that have formed between the chemical companies that produce fertilizer and genetically altered seeds, the agricultural educational system that is virtually subsidized by those same companies, and the government agencies in thrall to powerful lobbyists, all of which perpetuate dangerous farming practices and deliberate misconceptions about organic farming and foods. Interviews with government officials, doctors, scientists, and farmers from coast to coast bolster her position that chemical-free farming may be the single most effective tool we have to protect our environment and, even more important, our health.

We should lean towards more organic and Maria tells us why. Chemicals are killing us and the environment. Thanks Maria! I can't wait to read it and re-enforce my beliefs.