Spring is Here!

It’s now 5 days into the spring of 2008 and you can tell that Mother Nature is beginning to wake up from her winters nap. I’ve noticed that the Bradford pear trees and Forsythia bushes are in bloom with their distinctive white and yellow blooms. Also, the daffodils are making their appearance around the neighborhood. I mention these because, more than anything else, this tells me to get busy in the garden. In addition to all the blooming going on, it is also great to report that the temperatures seem to be now moderating into more tolerable levels. I took a moment during my lunch break to put a tray of Little Caesar Romaine plants out into one of the raised beds. They are still tiny and look defenseless but with some conscientious watering on my part they should do OK. Yes, they have been hardened off over the last week and will be able to withstand the still cold nights we are getting. I hope. Right next to these are a few early broccoli plants I purchased at a local nursery. They have been in place for about a week now, as transplants, and look raring to go. Likewise, my five or so head lettuce starts are perking right along. These guys represent my early test plantings and if they can tolerate the climate for the next week to come, I will be ready to begin planting in earnest.

You Want How Much for That Pepper?

Only recently it seems to have become me (the shopper) against (them) the grocery store. Hey, I go in for a green pepper that sold at the outrageous price of $.89 one day only to find they are at $1.29 the next. What gives with dat bro? And what’s the story with the cost of bread? It now takes more of my bread to get any bread, if you get my drift.

Well, I’ve decided that one of the ways I can fight back will be to get out and grow my own this summer. I’ve got myself a little old garden out back. It’s been tilled and prepped and is raring to go, but like most of us I have only limited resources in terms of space, time and (ahem) ability when it comes to actual production. You see, my past efforts have always been to grow stuff for the fun of it. I’ve never been in a position, like I now find myself. Now it’s serious and time for the tough to get going (Ah, I sense a new challenge coming my way).

So that’s the way it’s going to be for this growing season. I have promised myself to come up with a plan that will produce vegetables that will actually make a dent in the grocery bill. To that end, I plan to keep track and report my actual savings as time goes along. Should be fun. Stay tuned to this channel for my grand vegetable plan.

Chives

One of the plants I love to grow and consume is the herb known as chives. The name is thought to be derived from the French cive. The botanical species name of schoenoprasum means essentially “rush-like leek”. By whatever ‘nom-des-plume’ (my bad French), the herb has a wonderful taste that I like to use, freshly chopped, in soups and salads. The purplish flowers are also edible and really add interest to a dish(just make sure to wash them well before use). Another interesting aspect of the plant is its ability to drive away insect pests. If you have a plant in your garden that is routinely bothered by insects, just make sure to have a bunch of chives planted next to them. The little buggers will magically disappear in no time at all, I promise! Chives grow best in full sun in a fairly rich, moist soil, which is high in organic matter, and has a pH of 6 to 8. Chives will, however, tolerate partial shade and most soil types. Chives should be fertilized several times during the growing season with a balanced commercial fertilizer or bone meal and manure. Although specific recommendations are not available for chives, a general recommendation is to incorporate 50 to 75 pounds each of nitrogen, phosphate, and potash per acre at planting if you are a commercial grower. If not, just side dress with a little blood meal two or three times during the growing season. You also should keep these guys well watered and weeded. After a season or two when they are well established, feel free to divide them up into clumps to give to friends. They'll thank you!

Taney County Missouri Soil

For those of you that live down here in southwest Missouri you might have noticed that our soil often has a reddish tinge to it. Thats largely due to the high iron content. In my area by Forsyth Missouri our soil is classified as Ocie-Gatewood which is a type of gravely, silty loam. This means its basically good for making mud pies and needs all the fresh organic matter you can possible add to make it good garden soil. I made the mistake one time of ordering a truckload of soil to be delivered to my home when I was starting a new raised bed area. The truck arrived with what appeared to be river bottom muck. Stuff that had the consistency of concrete and was about as useful. Since it was there, I went ahead and incorporated some of it into my beds but made sure to add a lot of amendments in the for of bags and bags of composted manure and sand. I think the total number of 50 pound bags for each of two four by eight foot beds was something like 12 bags of compost and 6 bags of sand. That same year I also started a compost pile of my kitchen scraps and those went into the beds the following spring. (I was always amazed at how all that material went into such a small space and seemed to disappear). Anyway, after a couple of growing seasons the soil went from ugly to sort of good as it began to take on a darker appearance and more importantly held onto water for longer periods of time.

A Free Market Square

Just recently the town I live in is nearing completion of a new and expanded court building slash jail. While it is very pretty to look at I can't help feeling its only going to be of use to the criminal element among us. So, when do the rest of us get something we can use and benefit from? I'm not all that sure of how the funding is done to put up stuff like that but I do have a suggestion that I think makes some sense. First, let me digress a little.

I'm sure that by now everyone has associated the rising cost of living with problems associated with the dollars fall relative to foreign currencies. As of this writing I think the US dollar is now something like forty percent of the Euro. So that means for everything we buy that is an import (like some gasoline) we have to pay forty percent more than our European and Asian friends. That increased fuel cost also directly impacts other markets like plastics, transportation and fertilizer costs, for instance. Pretty soon this all trickles down to the good old supermarket and opps there goes another rubber tree plant. Ahem.

OK, so it doesn't take a genus to see that prices of a lot of things (including groceries) will be going to rise for some time to come. While most of us cannot do anything about the price of meat or how much we're going to pay for TP we can get out there and grow some of our own vegetables in our own backyards. While this is a good thing in the short term, it also generates some difficulties. One of the big problems has to do with diversity. No one family can grow all the vegetables needed to round out the dinner table. Some crops like corn need large plants in order to germinate properly. Other crops like melons, just require a lot of space.

Mind Your Taters

Of all the vegetables that are commonly grown at home, I would rank the humble potato as one of the most useful. Not only are they multi-talented in the kitchen, but they are also a breeze to grow. If you can make a trench in the ground you can grow tubers. Most nurseries and local markets have starter spuds ready to plant during the springtime. Just take them home and plant each piece about six inches apart in a row of any convenient length. Cover with some earth, then as they begin to send up shoots, just add a little more earth until you have a mound or hill established. The tuber will grow along the buried shoot. A few months later, you are ready for the harvest and the best part is that once dug up and cured, potatoes can last a long time before going bad. If you’re really lazy like me or a little tight for space consider using a plastic garbage can. Sometime in the spring just cut some circular holes in it big enough to admit your hand and then locate it in a sunny spot elevated on some paving stones. Next fill the bottom third with dirt, add a few starter potatoes with their eyes intact then cover with about three inches of soil mixed with straw or even shredded newspaper. After a week or so the tubers will sprout and break the surface at which point you will continue to add more dirt and paper or straw until they are just covered. Keep this up until the foliage has reached the top of the trashcan. Come fall reach in a hole with your hand to grab a potato or two for the dinner table. What could be easier?

Onions - Not Just for Breakfast

Onions have been around for just about forever, I think. I know they are one of the oldest cultivated plants in existence. I like them for a couple of reasons; they taste good and they can hang out in the garden long after other crops have bolted or withered away. Every spring season, they are among the very first guys planted in my garden, usually in the form of onion sets. After only a few weeks, they send a set of slender green stalks that, if harvested at that point, are called green or spring onions. I love to dice these up and add them to my salads. Later in the season, assuming you have thinned them to stand a few inches apart, you may see them bulb up into regular onions that can be pulled, cured and then used throughout the fall.

Did you know that the regular consumption of onions has been shown to lower high cholesterol levels and high blood pressure? Two problems common to many of us. I’m told these beneficial effects are likely due to onions' sulfur compounds, its chromium and its vitamin B6. The studies are still on-going but early results have been very encouraging. Now if I could just figure out what to do about the bad breath!