Lettuce Success and Other Ramblings

Our lettuce experiment turned out to be a success. I was told by multiple people on gardening forums that you cannot grow non-bitter lettuce in the heat of the summer, even in the shade. I will concede the fact that this summer has been pretty mild as far as high temps are concerned, we will see what September brings. I have never been able to grow non-bitter lettuce in August before, but this shade grown lettuce is delicious!

The trick is to keep it watered and keep it out of direct sunlight. This area gets dappled sunlight in the morning and at the end of the day. Most of the day these beds lay under the shady protection of two massive oak trees. You have to harvest the lettuce very young so it doesn't go bitter.

 

We selected heat tolerant varieties for this experiment. Lettuce seed is so cheap you can sprinkle a handful of seed every time you harvest your lettuce. I want to put in more lettuce beds on the deck. At our consumption rates, these beds only supply about two salads each a week.

I have seen many of these spiders around this year, way more than I have seen since we bought the house around three years ago. I guess it is my fault for playing Barry White albums on repeat in the garage. This scary looking spider is in the orb-weaver family (Araneidae) and is called the Spined Micrathena (Micrathena gracilis). It is also known as the "CD spider" due to its habit of building webs that look like CD's hanging from trees in the woods. Despite its menacing appearance, it is completely harmless to humans. 

This species is called the "Eastern Needy Tomato Gobbler" (daralis complainiface). This garden pest will consume every ripe tomato in the garden if you do not take adequate steps to remove it. The most effective methods I have found are luring it away with dark chocolate or telling it there is a buy one get one free sale at Earth Fare. If the tomato gobbler ever feels threatened, it will sit down on the ground and cry. Be careful when approaching this creature, its bite has been known to hurt a little bit and it will try to get you to take it out for ice cream.

A Very Addictive Yard Game

 Here is a DIY, fun backyard game that is easy to make and a lot of fun. Drunk people friendly!

 

One of my co-workers told me about a yard game she and her husband recently made. I thought, man that sounds cool. A few internet searches later and I was at the big box store.

The material list is pretty small and it should only take you a day to make it. If you have a power sander it would only take a couple of hours. Here is what you will need.

8 - 2x4x8's Make sure they are as straight as you can get. I had to pass up the cheap ones.

1 - Pack of 120 grit sandpaper. We used 8 sheets. If you have a power sander use it!

I had some scrap 2x4's and plywood laying around so I made a base for the game. You could use pretty much anything that is flat to play on.

 

Edit:

After getting my ass handed to me on reddit, I suggest you use a miter saw to do this work. Table saws are very dangerous and I have been very lucky over the years.

You could set up a system using a stop so you would not have to mark and measure each board. Hindsight 20/20 and all that jazz, this is what I did. Starting from one end, measure and mark a line at 10.5 inches. Continue marking the board every 10.5 inches. You should get 9 pieces 10.5 inches long out of every board. 

 You should start to accumulate a pile like this. I am glad I choose the more expensive wood. These blocks have a nice red color you do not get with the cheap 2x4's. The hardest part is sanding the edges. You need to make sure every edge has been taken down a little so the blocks will move freely.

You can see my advanced sandpaper technique in the top of this image. I wrap a piece of sand paper around a scrap piece of wood and start sanding. I had four people help me sand these, and it still took many hours. I plan on making and selling these soon, after I invest in a power sander. =)

I had some scrap lumber laying around so I made a heavy duty base for the game. It is important that wherever you play the game, it has a flat level surface.

It is nothing fancy just some 2x4's and some scrap plywood. I made it 21 inches square. I used a can of old spray paint, and it turned out pretty nice.

Here is the end product with a wine glass for scale. A full size, backyard Jenga-like game. This was definitely the hit of the party. I had corn-hole, ladder-ball and a pool table, but this game got the most use.

If you want one, and don't feel like making it yourself, send me a message. I am taking orders. This would be for local pick-up only, it would cost way to much to ship this anywhere. If you are in the South-West Ohio, Cincinnati / Dayton area, let me know if you want one. 

Let Us Experiment

 This is a story of finding uses for unwanted items or "trash". My future Grandfather-in-law's neighbor gets large wooden boxes used to ship equipment. I saw one in his driveway on a visit and commented on how I thought they were cool and useful. So unknown to me, Dara's Grandfather Ron asked his neighbor what he did with them. Apparently he just gets rid of them, so Ron asked him to save them for me. I have picked up three so far and more are to come.

 

 I drilled a bunch of holes in the bottom of two of the boxes to use as planters.I am not sure what was shipped in these containers but the wood is not pressure treated and they are well built. I may make one into a sandbox for my nephew.

I laid a layer of newspaper down to keep the soil from clogging up the holes I drilled. I made a mixture of composted manure and peat moss. Normally I put sand in my soil mixes but I don't want sand on what I am growing. I filled the boxes with about two inches of soil.

Dara picked a mix of lettuce seed that does well in the summer heat and mixed them up together. We always have trouble growing lettuce in the main garden. It always gets bitter and goes to bolt too fast. I wanted to see how it does on our deck under our large oak trees. It will get some sun, but mostly it will be in shade and dappled light.

Dara sprinkle the two boxes with the lettuce seed. I put a thin layer of soil on after that and watered it in really good. We plan on eating the lettuce when it is really young so it doesn't have a chance to get bitter in the heat. As soon as we harvest a part of a box we will replant it.

Spring mix is so expensive and lettuce seed is so cheap, we need to find a way to grow our own that is not bitter. We eat a lot of salads so, I hope the lettuce does well in this location. If this doesn't work out, at least the beds will be ready to plant in the fall. I will be able to put some plastic over these to extend the growing season into the winter.

Another use for the boxes. Turned upside down, this box is the perfect size to hold our canoe off the ground. I am sure I will find more uses for these as I get more. I may do an outdoor worm bin that I can harvest in the fall before the freeze comes.

Garlic Harvest

Garlic (Allium sativum) a brief history:

Garlic has been used by humans for over 7000 years. It is native to central Asia and thought to have descended from the species Allium longicuspis. Egyptians would "pay" pyramid workers with garlic. It was believed garlic would improve the workers stamina and strength. In India, garlic was used as an aphrodisiac. I guess if everybody smells like garlic, who cares? Phoenicians and Vikings would carry large amounts of garlic on their voyages for medicinal and spiritual practices. No matter where you look, you will find garlic was used in folk medicine and rituals for centuries. During the middle ages an infusion of garlic was thought to protect from the plague. Don't forget about the vampire repellent attributes of this pungent and useful plant.

 

Garlic is such an amazing plant. If you told me I could only grow a handful of plants for the rest of my life, garlic would be number one. Aside from its many culinary uses, I grow garlic for its medicinal benefits. Garlic is antibacterial, antimicrobial, antiviral and anti-fungal. Garlic was used in ancient Assyria as a antibiotic by putting crushed garlic in rotten teeth cavities.

In a growing number of scientific studies, garlic has held up to the ancient belief that it is indeed a powerful medicinal. It has been found to reduce heart disease by significantly reducing harmful LDL cholesterol particles in the body. Garlic acts to block LDL formation in the liver while not hindering HDL cholesterol. It has also been shown to dilate blood vessels, effectively lowering blood pressure. It also prevents stroke and blood clotting by decreasing the stickiness of blood platelets. Oh and did I mention it may help reduce the size of some cancerous tumors and has been shown to prevent some types of cancer, mainly in the intestines.

I could go one and on about the medicinal benefits of garlic but I want to talk about growing it, harvesting it and using it. Some garlic you will find at your local grocery store is called elephant garlic (Allium ampeloprasum). Elephant garlic is actually a wild leek and not a true garlic. Most of the garlic you will find in the grocery store is a soft neck variety. This is mostly because they are large, have many cloves and store well.

There are two main types of garlic in cultivation today. Hard neck (Allium sativum var. ophioscorodon) and soft neck (Allium sativum var. sativum). I am growing three varieties of each. Hard neck garlic is said to do better in colder climates while soft neck prefers more southern climates. I had good luck with both types but my hard necks are visibly larger than the soft necks.

Garlic is planted in the fall here in Ohio about 6-8 weeks before the first frost, but you can plant after the first frost as well. You plant the actual clove that you would normally eat. You can let garlic go to seed. It will grow a shoot and make small cloves on the top of the plant. These seeds must go through a freeze to germinate in the spring. I prefer to use the actual cloves from the bulb you would normally eat. This in effect is a clone of the garlic you want, instead of a hybrid. You plant the clove root side down about two inches under the soil level with the pointy end up. You want a loose but very fertile soil. Planting cloves in a clay type soil will constrict the bulbs expansion in the spring. Once the tops emerge they will grow a few inches before the growth is stopped by the first strong freeze. At this point you should mulch over them with a couple of inches of straw. In the spring the growth will pick up where it left off.

Around late May to early June your hard neck varieties will start growing scapes. These are long green shoots with bulbils at the end that will eventually form the small cloves you can plant after a freeze. You want to cut these scapes off when they first form. This will tell the garlic plant to put its energy into the bulbs instead of trying to reproduce through bulbils. Scapes are absolutely delicious. Use them in stir fries or make them into a garlic pesto. 

Around early July you will start to notice some of the garlic leaves starting to turn brown. This will happen from the ground up. Once the first set of leaves have turned you should start to think about harvesting. I know you can't control the rain but you need to stop watering them if you have been and pick a dry day to harvest. Some people say to not pull them out of the ground and recommend that you dig them very carefully so you do not injure the bulb. I planted mine in a very fertile compost / peat moss soil that was pretty loose. I pulled mine up roots and all with no problem. You want to brush off as much dirt as you can. I hosed mine off gently, some people say not to, I say they are still wet from being in the ground. You want to lay them out in a well ventilated dry place out of the sun to cure for a couple weeks.

If you have grown soft neck varieties you can do a garlic braid. Its pretty easy and it looks awesome hanging in your kitchen. You want to braid them before they are done curing so the stalks are still pliable. There are many videos online detailing how to make these. It is simple. Start with three bulbs, stalks facing you. Braid one side over the middle and every time you add a new bulb make sure the new stalk goes in the middle. Braid like you would hair. When you are done braiding, use a piece of twine to tie it off and make a knotted bow on the back to hang it from.





 

Garlic should be eaten raw,  crushed and chopped, to get the most health benefits. By crushing garlic you release an enzyme called Alliinase. This enzyme reacts with the chemical Alliin which is then converted into Allicin. Allicin is an organosulfur compond that gives garlic its pungent smell. Allicin is also what gives garlic its antibacterial and anti-fungal properties. This is its natural defense mechanism against pests. 

 

 It is interesting that if you could somehow split a garlic clove without rupturing the cell walls, you would not smell the familiar garlic odor.

 I really enjoy crushed and chopped garlic in homemade balsamic vinaigrette. Here is a simple recipe that I have been using for years:

3 parts extra virgin olive oil

1 part aged balsamic vinegar

Pinch of salt

As much crushed and chopped garlic as you can handle!

Mix with a fork and pour over your favorite salad greens. This is by far my favorite salad dressing. In fact I do not eat any others. It is so simple, yet delicious and very good for your health. Please consider eating more raw garlic and growing your own while you are at it. 

We purchased our heirloom organic garlic from Botanical Interests. We have been ordering from them for years and have nothing but praise for their products.

If you want to grow garlic to harvest next year, you should be thinking about ordering your bulbs in early fall. You wont find any for sale in the spring or summer since you need to plant them in a very specific time window. I hope you try your luck at growing this easy and beneficial plant.

Well I'll Bee

 I opened up my hives for the first time since I installed the new colonies. They both are doing great. In my previous post on bees I mentioned one of the hives was lost. After seeing no activity in the hive for days, I saw bees coming and going a week after I thought they were gone.

I don't know if a new swarm came in and set up shop or if the original queen managed to keep the hive going and I just didn't notice it. The hive in question is the one that had the dead queen in it when I installed them.

 

 You need to make sure your bees have enough room in the hive or they will go into swarm mentality. In a top bar hive set up you have what are called follower boards. These can be moved left and right in the hive to make the center bigger or smaller. When I opened up the hives they were both almost full of comb.

 The new top bar design I am using this year seems to be way better than the old style. The bees are drawing comb on the triangular edging I added to the bars. I did not see any cross combing. I recommend this style of comb guide over the flat bar with a line of wax in a groove.

 Here are some bees on our oregano flowers. I am not sure if these are our bees but the odds are really good.

This is our wormwood. This picture was taken after Dara gave it a pretty good pruning. This perennial is very hardy and does well in our climate. Wormwood is a insect deterrent and can be used to make a tea that is effective against aphids, caterpillars, flea beetles and moths. Don't use wormwood tea on edible plants.

 One of the best flowers you can plant for bees is Borage. Borage is a continuously flowering plant. The flowers are a beautiful blue and are quite delicious in a salad. 

 Borage is an annual but once you plant it it will come back every year from the seeds it drops. It is a good companion plant for tomatoes. The leaves are edible with a cucumber like flavor. They contain a very small amount of alkaloids that can be harmful in large quantities.

I let a lot of alluim (onion, leeks) plants go to flower throughout the garden. Bees absolutely love the flowers, who am I to argue with bees.

Vermicomposting

Have you ever said to yourself "self, composting your kitchen scraps in the yard is boring, what you need is a bin in your kitchen full of worms." I have these conversations with myself all the time. In normal fashion, I learn as much as I can about a topic and forget most of it before I actually follow through with it. So it goes with this project. I have known about Vermicomposting for years and have always wanted to do it. A friend of mine gave me a kick in the pants when he asked if I wanted to go in on an order of worms with him. It is good to surround yourself with people who think it is quite normal to mail order thousands of worms.

A little history lesson on Vermiculture:

It was punishable by death to remove earthworms from Egypt under Cleopatra's rule. Aristotle called earthworms the "intestines of the Earth." Up until the end of the 19th century most people believed if you had earthworms in your garden, they would eat the roots of your plants. This belief was, for the most part, put to rest by Charles Darwin's 1881 book called "The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms with Observations on Their Habits". Here is a link to the full text available free online if you have an interest:

http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F1357&viewtype=text&pageseq=1


Fast forward to the middle of the 20th century and we meet Mary Arlene Appelhof (1936-2005), a biologist and environmentalist born in Detroit Michigan. The story goes; in the 1970's Mary wanted to continue composting throughout the very cold winters of Michigan. She started experimenting with indoor worm bins and the modern Vermiculture movement was formed. Here is a link to the website she built for further information:

http://www.wormwoman.com/acatalog/index.html

She wrote some of the first books on home Vermiculture. You can find links to her books on her website.

 
So on to the Main topic. Making a worm bin is fast and easy, not to mention cheap. Here is what you need to make my system:

* Two 18 gallon plastic totes with lids.
* Lots of newspaper, egg cartons or other scrap paper products.
* Drill with a 1/4 inch bit and a 1/16 inch bit.
* One pound of worms (Eisenia fetida).
* Kitchen scraps

Step one:

With the 1/16 inch bit, drill two rows of holes in the top section of the tote about an inch apart each way. You want to do this to both bins. I will explain later why you need two.

  

Step Two:

With the 1/4 inch bit drill drainage holes on the bottom of the tote making sure to have some on the lowest part of the bin. The holes on the bottom of the tote will be used by the worms to transfer between bins when you are ready to harvest. So now you should have two identical bins with holes drilled in the top sides and on the bottom.

 

Step three:

Shred a ton of newspaper into one inch strips or smaller. I did this by hand but if you have a shredder, by all means use it. You can use any newspaper that is not coated or glossy. This looks like a lot of newspaper but you will see what happens when you get it wet.

 

This is the same bin after I wet the newspaper. You will need more than you think. You are shooting for filling up the bin about a 1/3 of the way with bedding.

I ran out of newspaper and had nowhere near the amount of bedding I needed. I remembered my grandmother use to keep worms for fishing and all she used for bedding was cut up egg cartons. I have hundreds of egg cartons saved for my future chickens. I sacrificed a small stack for the worms.

I still didn't have enough material and I was tired of ripping up egg cartons, so I used some shredded paper I got from the friend who ordered the worms. Thanks Mike!

At every stage I wet the mix down with water.You want to be careful not to over water the mix. It should be damp to the touch but not saturated. Start small and add more and more water until you get to a point were you can squeeze a handful of the mix and get a few drops of water out of it. If you get a steady stream or a ton of drips it is too wet. Add more material to absorb the extra water if needed. You want the moisture content to be around 80%.

We ordered our worms from Uncle Jim's Worm Farm.

http://unclejimswormfarm.com/

I bought one pound of Red Wigglers. It is very important to get the right worms. You cannot go out to the garden and dig up worms for your bin. You need to get very specific species. The most common worms for Vermicomposting are Red Wrigglers (Eisenia fetida). They are also called tiger worm, redworm, brandling worm, trout worm, panfish worm, and the red californian earth worm. There are other species you can use but, these are the most commonly available. "Fetida" means Fetid or foul-smelling referring to the fact that if the worms are handled roughly they emit an unpleasant odor.

The bowl on the right is a mix of compost / manure and a handful of soil from one of my raised beds. The other bowl is a little peat moss and sand. You do not need to add the peat and sand but I had it and I don't think it will hurt anything. The worms come packaged in peat and I figured the baby worms would like some small grained sand to munch on. The important thing is to add a handful of soil from the garden. This inoculates your worm bin with all the soil microbes you need to break down organic material.

Time to put the worms in their new home. You don't want to spread them around or try to bury them. Just gently dump them into the middle of the container and leave them alone. You want to leave the lid off for a while in a well lit room. The worms do not like light and they will bury themselves to get away from it. I left mine in the light for a couple hours.

Now you need to feed them. I have read you want to start out slow with a new bin. After they consume this I will put double to triple this amount in every time. You want to let the worms consume what you have already put in before you add more. Adding to much food at a time can lead to the moisture levels getting out of control.

Your worms will eat pretty much any vegetable scraps you have in the kitchen. There are a few things to avoid and some things you should never put in your bin.

Here is a list of what not to put in your bin, this list is not exhaustive:

* Fats
* Meats
* Poultry
* Seafood
* Dairy
* Oily foods like peanut butter
* Citrus
* Acidic foods like pineapple
* Onions and garlic
* Spicy foods like jalapenos
* Bones
* Processed foods
* Sauces
* Glossy paper
* Salty foods

Here is a list of what you want to put in your bin, this list is not exhaustive:

* Vegetable scraps including stems and peels
* Fruits
* Crushed egg shells
* Coffee grounds and the filter
* Tea bags, remove staple first
* Beans, pasta, rice
* Banana peels
* Watermelon rind
* Pumpkin
* Newspaper and junk mail
* Dryer lint, hair
* Grains, cereal, bread (I am going to get on my Paleo high-horse and say this is the only acceptable use of bread)

You want to bury the food scraps you put in the bin at least an inch if not two. This will keep the smell down and the fruit flies at bay. You want to mark the place you feed them and try not to feed them in the same spot. I used a geode we had left over from Dara's jewelry making project to mark the spot where I fed them. I also marked the spot where I started feeding them with a cartoon worm named Werner Wormzog, so I know which way to move the feeding. This will also let me know when I have made it all the way around the bin.

Place your bin in a cool dark area. Under the sink, a pantry, closet or utility room work very well. You want the temperature to stay between 59-77 degrees F.

You can use the top of one of your totes as a liquid catcher. Just turn it upside down and put your bin on it. You will want to raise it a little off the lid to allow the liquid to drain. You can use almost anything, tuna cans, small plastic cups or wood like I did. I have many large plastic bins laying around so I opted to use one to collect the drainage.


The liquid that comes out of the bottom of the bin is called "leachate". In a properly functioning bin you should not have any liquid coming out of the bottom. Some times it takes a while to fine tune your system. If you do have leachate collecting under your bin you should discard it as it is undigested liquid with possible unknown pathogens and phytotoxic componds in it. Please do not mistake this for "worm tea". A few sources online say this liquid is "worm tea", it most definitely is not. That being said, making worm tea is pretty easy.

Here is how you make it:

Fill a 5 gallon bucket with 4 gallons of rain water. If you cannot collect rain water for some reason, let a bucket of tap water sit over night to get rid of the chlorine or, you can place an aerator in the bucket for a few hours to remove the chlorine. Make sure your local public water company doesn't use Chloramine in the water instead of Chlorine. Chloramine will not off gas the way Chlorine does. You should go out of your way to use rain water anyway. You want to aerate the bucket of water for a couple hours before you mix anything in. Put 1 cup of worm castings (I describe what that is below) for each gallon of water in the bucket and mix in. You can put the worm castings in an old cotton sock or use cheese cloth if you like. Add 1 tablespoon of sulfur free molasses per gallon and mix the solution well. Place an aerator in the bucket with the output on the bottom of the bucket. You should use an aquarium air stone for this. Let the mix bubble for 48 hours in a shaded place between 60-80 degrees F. You can use the worm tea in a watering can directly or run the worm tea through some cheese cloth (If you didn't contain it earlier) to use it in a sprayer. Your plants will love the completely organic fertilizer you have made yourself. You will want to use your worm tea within 24 hours to get all of the benefits it has to offer.

The ultimate goal here is to make "worm castings". Worm castings are whats left in the bin when the worms have processed all the bedding and scraps you have fed them. This will take about 6 months or so. Once you have made it all the way around your bin and most of the material has turned a dark brown you are ready to harvest your bin. Simply prepare your other bin with bedding material like you did for the first one and put some food scraps in. Now take the lid off of the bin with the worms in it and put the newly prepared bin directly on top of the surface of the worm castings. The worms in the old bin will smell the new food and migrate up through the 1/4 inch holes drilled in the bottom of the second bin. This can take some time so wait at least a few weeks before you move the top bin. Once you move the new bin off the old bin, you should have nothing but precious worm castings left over. There may be a few worms hanging around in the old bin just put them in the new bin or go fishing. Worm castings are a great source of nutrients for your garden. A bag of them can be very expensive at the store.

You can make your own worm castings as well as have a conversation starter in your kitchen for a minimal amount of work and money.

Hope this inspires some of you to take the leap and start farming worms!