SproutBot

I found an interesting website that tells you when to start your seeds but they only do American zipcodes.

To get around that issue I looked up an american map for hardiness zones and found a city nearby with the same zone. Ann Arbor Michigan has the same zone and is in a similar latitude as us so I put in Zip 48104 and got this.

Turns out for one thing, our broccoli was going out way too soon. This will be an interesting site to look over when I have some time.... and it's not almost midnight. Good night folks.  

2013 Plans

So everything's updated and you can find the 2013 plans by clicking here or on the "Plans for 2013" tab along the top of the blog.

Fluffy Blanket

It snowed a lot last night. 

There's at least a couple inches covering the garden and more drifted up against the compost.

Back Garden

So here's the idea on this one:

The beds with a diagonal line though them indicate a change of crop in the August-to-October-ish time of year. There's two kinds on cauliflower. One planted early in the spring that ripens in the summer/fall and another we're planting in the fall to overwinter and produce very early next spring. 

As you know from This Post , the garlic is already in bed 4 and should be ready in summer/fall. Bed 9 was WAY too wet for the carrots, onions and tomatoes planted there last year because of the rain barrel run off flooding it off and on. This year we're using it as a pollinator attractor and moving the hosta from the front garden where it got sun burned to this less exposed spot. The zuchini we're planting isn't the standard vine. It's called Ambassador and actually grows up on a central stalk.

Close ups of the beds:

Beds 1 and 3

Beds 5 and 7

Beds 2 and 4

Beds 6 and 8

Bed 9

What do you think?

Front Garden

Remember how I said the last one was a rough draft... well I meant it.

Here's the latest version and I think this is the one that will stick.

 Re-do of front yard plan with list of herbs for spiral and raspberries along fence.

Here's what that means:

Rough Plan for Front Yard

Now do keep in mind this is a ROUGH plan that isn't exact in placement or sizes. The border of the yard is measured and the rest is sketched in in approximate sizes and spacing. Megan says it looks like a face.

North is up. The front yard is bordered on the west by the walkway to the front door and beside that our driveway, on the north by the house, on the east by the neighbour's driveway, and on the south by the sidewalk that runs along our street. It's about 8-9 feet wide depending on where you measure and about 16 feet long from sidewalk to house.

The paths in the garden are marked by XXXX and are about two feet wide. The cross-hatch against the house indicates a lattice to trellis the wisteria and roses. The wisteria has a ? because I need to gather more info on it before committing. The very south edge of the yard will have common self-seeding annuals and some perennial bulbs. I'm hoping for this section to need the least care and to announce to the neighbourhood that this is a garden, not a random mess of "weeds".

If you don't know what a herb-spiral is or why you'd want one check out this lovely post by Antony at The Kale Yard. The cross hatch pattern at the north side of the herb spiral indicates a small frog pond/wetland area that can be used to grow watercress.

I haven't decided what's going where for most of the plants. Where it says "low ground cover plants" could be anything from forget-me-nots to creeping thyme. The keyholes might turn into something else entirely like Tripod supports for climbers... but here it is. :)

Have you got your 2013 plans started?

Winter Indoor Plant Update

Since winter is officially here as the calender and first snow of the season insist I figured an update on the indoor plants was appropriate. The aloe has recovered well away from the direct light and is enjoying it's time on the stereo. Last weekend I gave it's baby/shoot to a friend. She's named it Medusa and says it's doing well.

The window plants have various levels of success. The lavender seems to be doing fine in it's peanut butter jar. I wrapped a tea towel around the jar holding the paperwhites because the water was going green and I was worried the extra light and heat was slowing root growth. Seems my instincts there were solid because shortly after wrapping it the roots went all over in the jar and the tops started growing. Just two days ago the flowers started blooming. They smell very strongly and similarly to wisteria.

Winter arrived on schedule.

Pretty little white flowers.

The chives in the tower seemed to be getting too much light beside the mirror and some shriveled up. Ironically, to get them away from the strong light I turned them to the window. The rest of the plants seem to be hovering in sprout stage and neither growing nor wilting. I'm not really sure what to do with that.

How are your plants doing?

Updates on Indoor Plants.

The sprouts seem to be paused as they grow roots.

Lavender's doing well. The bulb is working on roots.

I wrapped the jar because it was starting to go green.

The aloe had to be moved out of the window.

It seems to be getting sunburned on a few tips.

Yoghurt and Lessons Learned

So a few days ago I made yoghurt using THIS recipe I found on the Plastic-Free Life blog.

Fresh out of the Thermos. Still warm and smelled oddly like white glue.

After a few hours in the fridge. No longer smelled like glue but was weirdly watery.

Strained out some whey. Thicker and tasty! (bigger bowl)

Next day. Tasty and very creamy... with some weird bits.

I had a small bowl today and it's a lot creamier than the store yoghurt it was cultured from and reminds me of the fancy super creamy greek yoghurts. I think the weird bits may be scalded proteins and I think next time I do this I'm not going to boil the milk. Store milk is highly germ free after going through pasteurization so I'm not worried bad germs will take hold.

Success!

After two hours in the fridge straning out some of the whey, the yoghurt finaly started to resemble yoghurt! Because it finally looked right and smelled okay I was willing to taste test. It's definitely different than the store stuff that cultured it but it's also definitely YOGHURT! 

(I even got John to taste and make sure it wasn't just wishful thinking.)

Maybe Not So Cultured

Yesterday I made yoghurt using THIS recipe I found on the Plastic-Free Life blog.

I put everything together and set it aside to sit at 5pm and this is how it looks when I poured it out at 7am this morning.

It's lumpy and watery and kinda smells like white glue. Sooo... I'm straining some of the whey out to see if I can get a thicker, more... yoghurt-y yoghurt.
Updates to follow.

What sorts of things have you made from scratch? 

What sort of things would you like to?

Jack Frost is a Busy Guy

Winter's definitely here. There's icicles, snow, and freezing winds.

Down spout icicle

I removed the paper and sticks. The garlic bed looks a little drier than the others because it had that layer of "protection" from the early morning frosts and such but it's not overly dry. It'll be interesting to see how much we can get from this one bed.

Garlic hibernation.

Evil White Stuff

Seems the snow is starting even though winter is still officially about a month away. Going to get the newspapers and sticks up before they get buried under a few inches.

Let There Be (more) Light!

Put a mirror behind the planter to help the lil sprouts grow strong.

Oregano

Chamomile

Callendula (Pot Marigold)

Chives

Sage

As you can see, most of the sprouts are starting on their first set of true leaves. The chives don't grow like most and the sage is a slow starter. I'm hoping to have everything well established before I have to start the seeds for the garden.

Sheilds Have Been Breached!

Looks like the squirrels got curious. Damn. I don't think any of the garlic was disturbed though so that's good. Fingers crossed that because they didn't find anything they'll leave it alone now.

Squirrel? Cat? or Raccoon?

Sheilds are Holding Cap'n

Made of nothing but a layer of newspaper and a few sticks to keep it from blowing away, the squirrel shield seems to be holding! It's been at least 18 hours now and no signs of trouble. Knock on wood but I think this just might work!

What do you use for critter protection?

GARLIC!

Got the garlic planted today. Good thing too because the ground is bound to start freezing soon. I planted twelve blocks of nine so 108 all together.

Sorting/Counting on the table.

Each set had some old(sprouted) and some new.

Newspaper and sticks laid over the bed to discourage scavengers.

Hopefully my plan to cover the bed for a week or so with newspapers(and sticks so they don't blow away) will keep the squirrels from digging it up. I know they're not digging by smell or they'd know they don't want to eat the garlic before they dig it up. If this doesn't work... I don't know what we'll do next year... chicken wire?

Make Your Own

I don't usually send people to other blogs but I just read a post about how to make your own seasoning packets and I had to share. Self reliance by Jamie - Tis the seasonings

I knew you could make your own onion soup mix but I had assumed ranch dressing and taco seasoning would have ingredients I couldn't get a hold of.  **happy dance**

Fertile Beds

Urea now shovelled into the beds. It came in water-soluble pellet form and looks like little hailstones. Hopefully the spring 2013 testing will show awesome nitrogen levels and we won't have to do any more store bought additions. I have a friend who's willing to give us straw for mulch, and Fall 2013 will be the first time we can add some of our own compost to the beds so that will be cool. :)

West side

East side

closer view

Front Window Update

Not much to say. So here's a bunch of pics to say it for me.

Little white Calendula sprout by the stick.

Three itty bitty green Chamomile sprouts.

Red-neck flower pots.

New addition is a Paperwhite bulb.

Should look like this when grown.

A Pillar and Boxes of Pee

I decided we needed some greenery indoors other than the aloe this winter, so I took the two containers the hot pepper plants were in and stacked them so the smaller top one drains into the bigger one. I figured that some fresh herbs would be welcome in the kitchen and the flowers will make awesome tea and salves.

Top: Basil surrounded by Chamomile;  Lower ring: Calendula, Sage, and Chives

I also got to the garden center today to pick up the nitrogen for the garden. Because we had plenty of everything else I wanted to find a high-nitrogen, low to zero phosphorus, low to zero potassium solution that was naturally sourced and slow release. I was considering poultry manure but the size and weight of the required amount(not to mention cost) was a bit uncomfortable... especially since I don't drive and I'd have to take it all home on the bus. What I found instead was this:

Urea is the chief solid component of mammalian urine; synthesized from ammonia and carbon dioxide. It is filtered out of the body through the kidneys, and is one of the components of urine.

Five boxes should do the whole garden plus some left for if the front yard needs a boost. Amazingly potent. :) We'll get it mixed in ASAP and it will age over the winter into very nutritious soil.