The Velociraptor and Hitler’s mistress

The velociraptor “shows extraordinary intelligence, even problem-solving. That one... when she looks at you, you can tell she's working things out.”  (From Jurassic Park 1)  Meaning “speedy thief”, velociraptor is my nickname for my granddaughter.  She watches you, working things out.  How are doors opened?  How do I get through every barrier they put up to keep me out of things?  How do I climb like a cat?  A lot of my garden defense strategy is not to keep bugs or animals out, but my granddaughter.

At the Ag Fair in Salem - not intimidated by anything bigger then her

 

She loves to run through piles of dirt, climb into freshly planted raised beds, “pick” the plants I have just planted – after all, she did watch us harvest stuff last year.  Given free range of the garden, a two-year-old can cause a lot of havoc.  So can an evil cat.

I don’t know why my daughter and son-in-law named the stray they befriended last summer after Hitler’s mistress, Eva Braun.  Eva is not a nice cat – well, she wasn’t at first.  She hissed at everyone, hates the other cats, will never be fully tamed.  But she was grateful for a winter indoors, where she slept and ate a lot, even mellowing out some.  And then spring came, and she was outdoors all day.  Using the onion bed as her personal digging space.  So I covered that up. 

 My "Onionsaurus"

 

Then she switched over to the cucumber bed.  And I covered that up.  

I have been following that cat around the garden shooing her out of raised beds and creating coverings so she won’t dig in them.   

She has sat in the parsley I raised from seeds and destroyed them.   

She has attacked my catnip (along with a few other cats in the neighborhood) and I have had to protect that from her, since that is a cash crop for me.

I knew the catnip would be an issue this year, so was proactive in protecting it

 

At least this year the catnip has had a chance

Cold weather, rain, bugs; these are not the only dangers to your garden.  As you plan your garden, you have to take into account your pets, the strays that wander through your yard, your children; all those plants have to be protected against these threats.  Which is another reason why row cover rocks!

Still, I would rather face these threats, then 15-20 deer that can come in at night and wipe out a garden.

The Bean House

“Beans, Beans, the American Fruit,

The More you eat, the more you toot”

I heard these words at least three to four times a week growing up; every time we sat down to dinner and had green beans.  It took me a long time to figure out that the words my dad quipped upon beholding the green beans were not about green beans, but referred to dry legumes, like navy or white beans.  So it was probably something that he grew up with that he had to say.  And he said this so often because green beans were always on our table; they were a staple in our diet.

My mom and dad had two main crops in their garden; tomatoes and green beans.  They grew enough of these in just a small city garden to feed a family of 5 for a year.  That worked out to about 300 quarts of beans.  In order to get that much from just twenty-five to thirty feet of plantings, you have to start picking when the beans are small – the size of haricot verts.  You have to pick every day, because as soon as the bean plant starts forming beans with actual beans in them, it starts shutting down; it’s job is done.  We usually picked beans up through the frosts in November.  I was so glad when the canning was finally over.

I didn’t realize how lucky I was to have home canned beans till I went off to college.  It was there I discovered the taste and texture difference between our home canned beans and the ones commercially canned.  When I lived in Ohio and West Virginia, I was horrified to find that they grew beans until there were huge seeds in them and the outer part was tough – then cooked then for several hours in bacon fat till they were mush.  I shudder even now remembering the horror of it.

One of the influences behind our purchasing a house in 2009 was so I could grow enough beans to have for the whole year.  One of my daughters is on a sodium-free diet, and there is too much sodium in commercially canned and frozen vegetables.  So I needed to grow a lot of beans!  Having a small yard, I needed to take advantage of every space, which is why I decided to have a bean house.

A play space for my granddaughter

I saw a great pic on the Internet of a “house” where three of the four walls were trellis for beans; the fourth wall was the front of the house with windows and a door. click on the link below for a look at what inspired me:

Bean House


Perfect for my granddaughter, but it wouldn’t give me the amount of space I needed for beans.  So this is what I came up with:

My oldest daughter was visiting from Minnesota last year (2010) for her brother’s college graduation and I talked her into helping me with this project.  It only took a couple of hours to set up, making up 6’ x 8' panels, stringing them with garden twine, and then leaning them together to form a triangle.  Three sets were pushed together, and then bolted together for stability.  The kids removed strips of the sod next to the bean racks, and two weeks later I planted my bean seedlings.  I had to put up some fencing to keep my granddaughter out - didn't keep out the grass though.  This was in mid-June 2010.  Even though I had a late start, we canned about 65 quarts and 25 pints of beans, and gave away 6-7 gallons of beans.  We picked beans up till mid-November; they would have gone longer but we had let too many vines let the beans get too big, so they stopped setting blossoms.

The Bean house was almost perfect.  It did exactly what I thought it would do – draw my granddaughter in – she loved running up and down the grassy area – create a shady spot to hang out, and the beans were easy to pick, hanging down the inside area.  The only drawback was picking the beans at the top – the area was so narrow, you came away with bean leaves stuck all over your hair and clothes from brushing against them.  Clearly a modification would have to be made.

Bean House, circa 2011

During the early spring, I unscrewed the sections, tipped them over, took off the wood that held them together at the peak, and put in spreader sections I had made.  Once I had all three done, I just tipped them back into place and screwed them together.  Then I decided it would be easier if I actually had raised beds to plant the beans in, so added those.  It did take about a cubic yard of soil mix to fill the beds – all 36 feet!  Then I thought back to the original house I had seen on the Internet, and with the leftover cedar fence boards from making the raised beds, decided to seal off the end of the Bean House.

What it looks like now:

Added the section in at the top

 Built raised beds on either side

 Covered the end - being whimsical only takes a little extra time

 Added supports inside for the row cover supports

View from the outside

 

 detail of support - the other end is pushed down over 24" rebar

 One side complete

 Beans and carrots planted and row cover added

I still need to make a door for my granddaughter to go in and out.  She loves the windows. She filled the window boxes with soil herself, and I planted the flowers for her.

 I had some vines in planter boxes that we just stuck at the ends last year - my son-in-law dug those in for me - they had chocolate peppermint growing in the boxes so that will probably spread as ground cover - unless my granddaughter eats it all - she loves to come out and pick the leaves and eat them.

I still have the other side to do, but had to get the tomatoes planted - they were growing up into my grow lights - still a bit chilly out, but I have the row cover on so hopefully they will do OK. When I have the other side done, I will post a picture of the completed "Bean House".

Protecting your early garden plantings (or, how I beat Mother Nature)

In the Northwest, there are about 4-5 gorgeous days in February where the temps get up to around 50 degrees, the sun shines, and all gardeners get the itch to plant something - seduced by the promise of spring.  I succumb to this temptation every year, knowing that after the initial sunshine and warm temperatures, we will sink back into the 35 - 45 degree/ raining constantly for three months mode.

How to beat Mother Nature
Last year I decided to beat Mother Nature by covering my plants until the middle/end of June.  It was the first year I put in strawberries and I knew I needed to protect them.  It ended up being a horrid year for tomatoes, with cold, windy weather until the end of June that killed many tomato plants, but mine were all snug and warm in their covered raised bed.

Results of Online Research
I did a lot of research into materials and ways to cover your plants, and found for me the least expensive, most durable materials for the job. I started out by buying garden clips from Nichols Garden Nursery in Albany, Oregon (see link to left of posting).  Nichols is on of those dream suppliers - even though they are not far away, I order by mail because going there is too much temptation!.  They sell garden clips in two sizes; I purchased the one for using 1/2" plastic poly pipe.  Instructions are in the package.  I initially bought two packages of 30 clips - not cheap, but I expected to use them for years and years to come.  I also bought two different weights of row cover material.  But after doing additional research this year, the best buy for row cover I could find is from Gardener's Supply Co ( see links).  This spring I ordered from them a pkg of medium weight row cover, 6' by 50', for $18.95.  this is the best deal from any online store I could find.  I found less expensive at a wholesale place for greenhouse supplies, but the shipping was too expensive, making Gardeners the best deal.

Strawberries in Raised Beds ready for row cover

The cost of installing row cover
For covering raised beds, I started with some 36" rebar from the lumber yard - about $1.80 each.  That turned out to be 8 for each 6' bed.  I bought a 50' roll of black plastic poly pipe - 1/2".  I don't remember exactly how much it was, but it wasn't that much - probably around $9 -$11.  This is the same pipe that you use for drip irrigation, so it stands up to the UV rays better than PVC pipe ( and less expensive). I pounded in the rebar, cut the poly pipe to the size I wanted to make a nice arch, and pushed the ends down over the rebar.  You can't see it in the pic above, but in the front where I get so much wind, I also used plumbing clips to anchor the pipe to the box.  a pkg that did most of my boxes in front cost me a few dollars.

Last fall I cut off a lot of the runners from the plants above and planted them in a new box, and then covered them with a foot of loose straw for the winter.  when I took the straw off in February, I put the row cover back on.  You can see the advantage - after almost 9 straight weeks of cold, rainy, windy weather, the berries are covered with blossoms and are really healthy!

Strawberry babies from fall 2010 - blooming in early April 2011

A Promise Kept - Early Peas
I promised myself this year that I would plant peas in February.  But I was smart and covered them up!  Two days after I planted peas, chard and spinach, the forecast was for 18 degrees!  Ack!  And then it started to rain - we broke records this year with rain - out of 31 days in March, it rained for 29 or 30, lost count.  And it rained in February and April, so we have had almost two months straight of rain.  Fellow gardeners at work have watched the peas they planted at the same time flood, and never germinate.  Here are my peas:

Tall Telephone Peas and Oregon Sugar Pod II

still under cover of course.  the rows of spinach and chard I planted didn't really make it - I had two spinach plants that made it through the cold weather in March.  That's ok, I decided to start some seeds inside this spring, and just planted the broccoli, spinach and chard outside under cover last night.

Sewing Room turned Plant Nursery

First Year for Asparagus
I am happiest about my new asparagus bed.  We love asparagus!  Even my granddaughter loves the tender shoots.  I prepared a bed for them in late winter, but made sure after I planted them that they were covered:

I kept peeking to see if anything was coming up, and was almost despairing after all the cold weather we had, when a few days ago I saw the first spears coming up!

Of course these won't get picked - these will turn into those lovely fronds, and then I will let them go for about two years before we pick any - but that is what gardening is all about - planting for the future.

Advantages of Row Cover
The great thing about row cover is that it lets through 70 - 85% of the light, and some of the water, so I don't have to worry about watering, and the tender plants are protected during the torrential spring downpours -  I don't have to worry about hailstorms, thunder showers, etc smashing new tender plants, or the cold wet soil rotting my seeds.  When there is a little sun, it warms the soil in the raised bed quickly.  Temps under the row cover are 10-15 degrees above outside air temps.  That means that on a really warm day (60 degrees?), I open the ends in the morning so the plants don't get overheated and close them at night.  If you have problems with bugs, or birds, you can use the summer weight row cover to protect your crops. (Check out the links for both summer weight and regular weight row cover)

Tomatoes from late spring 2010 - ready for row cover

Tomatoes in August 2010 - huge, prolific, thanks to the row cover

I made taller hoops and put row cover on in the fall, and we had tomatoes almost until thanksgiving - plenty for us, and plenty to give away to neighbors.

Final thoughts - Protect your investment
I know that having a garden is partly about saving money on food. And that there is a cost involved in purchasing garden supplies like this.  But this is all about the infrastructure of your garden.  why invest in seedlings if you can't protect them?  I used all the row cover I bought last year, and the row clips, and bought more this year to cover the rest of my boxes.  It withstood 60 mph gusts, without tearing.  I plan on using this row cover and clips and poly pipe for years before having to replace them - they will extend my growing season and protect my investment in seeds and plants.  And, you don't have to have raised beds to cover your plants - instructions with the clips show you how to cover your beds with just the rebar and poly pipe.

Good luck beating Mother Nature!