Greenhouse, Garlic, and an Unexpected Easter Egg Hunt

The weather has been great this weekend and so Leah and I made some time to work in the garden. We have just planted up the first greens and radishes in the greenhouse. This is our first year trying to grow throughout the winter. We will see how that goes. I will post some info on our passive solar greenhouse setup later.

I love garlic and so today as we do every year at about this time we planted our garlic. We are growing 2 varieties this year: Chesnook Red and one that I can't remember the name of, but it has only 4 cloves to the bulb and is super big and easy to peel which are two qualities I love in garlic. We should have a bumper crop of garlic next June...about 100 or so bulbs.

For the last few months we have been concerned with one of our new hens. We raised her from a chick-hood and she should have been laying eggs beginning in August or September. For months now we have been wondering if something is wrong with her or if somehow we had a feminine rooster, but today while raking up some straw in the chicken yard I noticed an impromptu nest located on top of one our compost piles with 8 bluish-green eggs in it. Finally some eggs. Now if I can only train her to lay in the real nesting boxes.

Thoughts on Post Frost Garden Mulching

The hard frosts of Fall are here and much of the gardening work revolves around dreams of next years garden. By now in Flagstaff, our gardens are done for the season (Sedona and the Verde Valley still have a bit of time). Our focus is on putting the garden to sleep. In the veggie garden, chop down the remaining produce to ground level. Add a layer of finished compost if you have some. Then top everything with a good layer of organic mulch (leaves, pine needles, straw, etc.) and water it all in. Don't be afraid to add 4 inches or more of mulch and compost. For trees, shrubs, and perennials you can skip the compost and just add the mulch layer.

Compost and mulch are the work horses of an ecological garden. They feed the microbes in the soil which in turn feed the plants. Without these soil microbes we would have no plants so it is important to keep those little critters happy. If we want the healthiest plants around then it only makes sense to ensure that they are well fed. This means not raking up and throwing away fallen leaves. Instead just rake them around existing trees and shrubs or into areas where they can at least compost. Make sure that no organic matter is wasted from your yard. Better yet collect your neighbors leaves if they are throwing them away and use those in your garden too! I have been known to circle my neighborhood this time of year and collect over one hundred bags of leaves to use in my garden. Organic Mulch has many more benefits including moderating winter temperatures and conserving soil moisture. Adding mulch now also allows the organic matter some time to begin to decay into nutrient rich soil humus before next years growing season.

Happy Mulching!

Leaves One Year Later

Books for further reference:

Teaming with Microbes: A Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web by Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis
The Ruth Stout No-Work Garden Book by Ruth Stout
Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway (Check out the chapter on soil)