Homesteading: Preparing for Spring

Warm weather is around the corner!

Every year, we do our early seed planting a little differently. In some years, we just waited until the danger of frost passed and planted seeds. Other years, we buy transplants from the nursery and also plant seeds. Often, it depends on the weather, timing, our schedule, and level of enthusiasm. That said, our vegetable garden is always an essential part of our lives. Not only do we derive great pleasure from gardening, the garden feeds us a significant portion of our diet - ensuring organic food for which we know the entire life cycle of that plant. I also think it saves us much money over the long term.

This year’s tomato seeds:

Now that we have an official greenhouse, I used our three Aero Gardens to start my tomatoes this week. In a few weeks, I will transplant the seedlings into pots, put them in the greenhouse under grow lights, and then transplant them into the garden once the danger of frost has passed. I have bought several heritage varieties that can’t be easily found as young plants, so I am excited to see how they turn out.

An aero garden is an all-in-one indoor growing system with an automatic timer, LED grow lights, and reminder messages for water and fertilizer. Jill has been planting with her first unit since 2014. That unit just keeps on trucking, although she has replaced the motor twice.

Tiny LED grow lights have revolutionized indoor gardening, and the price has come down to a reasonable set-point. I want you to know that many of these indoor gardens are on the market now; read the reviews to see which ones work for you. A search on Amazon will bring up lots of options when using search terms such as: indoor garden, indoor garden systems, Aero Garden, or even hydroponics growing system. I like the bigger models; they hold more plants.

Here are some examples on Amazon:

We use hydroponic indoor gardens for two very different purposes. The first is to grow food for eating now. It is excellent for greens such as lettuce and basil, as well as other herbs like dill or parsley (which can be transplanted later in the year). We either harvest the whole plant or take leaf cuttings. However, the Aero Garden is not great for growing larger vegetables for their entire cycle, like tomatoes or peppers. It doesn’t work because the more extensive roots become bound up in the motor, and they outgrow the size of the system.

I once tried to grow a miniature tomato (Tiny Tim) variety in our Aero garden. It took literally months to grow three, very tiny, very sour tomatoes. When I got on line, to see what I could have done better- it turns out that I should have done my homework. I discovered that lots of people have tried with this marketed variety for Aero Gardens… and failed. I won’t make that mistake twice.

But one can never go wrong with greens in the indoor gardening systems.

These lettuce plants were in mid-January. If it were a little warmer (frost is ok), I would plant them into the garden. But instead, we will cut off the exterior leaves for use now.

We also use the indoor garden system to grow transplants for the garden from seed or cuttings. For this purpose, almost anything can be started from seed and grown initially in the Aero Garden, except those few vegetables, such as spinach, that like a bit of cold to get started.

Our little indoor gardens already boast two plants ready to go out into the raised bed. Parsley can handle a lot of cold, even snow - so next week, these tiny plants will be the first to make it into the big world. Of course, I will have to plant them out when goose isn’t watching. I think if I use the stock tank raised bed, she won’t be able to pluck out the little plants for a meal.

All I need is one healthy parsley plant - so if luck holds out and I am careful, these little babies will supply us with parsley for the next year.

Another tip is to consider one of the many available LED grow lights. These can be set to a timer and work wonders for starting vegetables in containers or seed trays. They are also great for citrus plants moved indoors for the winter and all indoor plants. The price of the many different varieties has dropped significantly.

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Vegetable gardening: we all face different challenges.

What works for one region may not work for another. For instance, in Virginia, we can’t grow peas or sweet peas because the hot weather comes too fast. What works in one year, may not work for another.

The top soil on this farm was depleted years ago. As this land hosted a gravel quarry, almost all of it has gravel mixed into the clay substrate, which constitutes our top layer of “soil.” This is one reason we have gone to raised beds for our vegetable gardens. Plus, we have so many insect pests in our hot, humid summers. Raised beds make it easy to cover the plants with netting, which protects them from the sun and the many pests.

A raised bed or even pots can be made from many things. When we were very young, our teens, maybe? I took an old wooden water bed frame and with a few screws converted that into a functional raised bed that lasted for decades, long after we moved from that location. I built the four we have now, but we also garden in pots, as well as old stock tanks that horses have punched holes in. Just try not to use toxic woods (such as the old pressure treated stuff) and cheap plastic.

Our marauding pests may differ from yours, but we all have them. The netting also keeps the deer and various avian species at bay. BTW- Gonzo and Gizmo are not fan favorites of Swiss chard, but the chickens like it well enough.

A note: As our currently operating chicken coop is non-mobile, I like to grow greens for the chickens. The chickens are fed all the garden leavings - pruning waste, old vegetables and fruit, pulled plants, and weeds. If I don’t have garden or food scraps from the house, sometimes I will just go pull some long grass or weeds from the pastures. Green is good (for all of us). Not only do these plants provide for us, they provide for our birds. Produce, fruit, and plants improve the egg quality, and feeding out the garden waste reduces the feed bill.

These bad boys ate a lot of my blueberry crop last summer (note the plants and peas outside my front door). This year, we will be netting the blueberry plants too. This variety of blueberry is a dwarf and has made a very attractive front garden plant.

Close-up photos outside and inside the hooped raised beds, show how successful these structures are for us:

Some tips for planting seeds.

• When you buy seeds, date the packages for the month and year.

• Buy organic, non GMO seeds.

• If you buy online, read the reviews for the company and the seeds.

• When you plant out seeds, write the variety and the date planted. It is super helpful to know how fast something is growing.

• Be sure to fold down the envelope on the seeds once the package is opened, then use scotch tape to secure the flap. I keep scotch tape in my seed container.

• Use a container to keep seeds in. An old-fashioned tin container works well, as does a brown paper bag.

• Store seeds in a cool place and the dark - if using a transparent container.

• If buying heritage varieties, often they aren’t as productive or as pretty as the package would have you believe. But buy them anyway.

• Some seeds do better if soaked overnight. Read the labels and consult some other source before you plant

• Read the package labels for when to plant in your zone, and if still not sure, use the internet and/or a good gardening book to determine when to plant, soil and watering requirements for seeds, as well as for the growing plants.

• Experiment and enjoy the journey!

• Label the seedlings with the variety and the date planted. For indoors, I will use the same marker as the plants transfer into pots and then the garden.

• Use a pencil or a permanent pen (sharpie)- as water will wash off many inks.

  

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Tools

• Gardeners worldwide have a rule about tools: don’t buy cheap. Well-made, time-tested models tend to hold up over time and get used.

• I like to buy American-made products when possible, and it is surprising how many tools can be purchased that are made in the USA.

• Go with tried and true gardening tools - many faddish ones are just that.

• Take care of your tools, don’t leave your tools outside. But it happens - we are all busy. We left some of our tools out two years ago, ruining a perfectly good lawnmower. Another time, I left water in the power-washer lines, which expanded in the tank and rendered that machine a leaking mess. Over time, we have learned the hard way - take care of what you own and it will take care of you, when you need it most.

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Mixing ornamentals and vegetable/herb plants can be a lot of fun. Below is a cement water tank for cattle, which we use for ornamentals. Shallots add texture and the oregano is a wonderful trailing vine - that adds a lot to any hanging pot or raised bed.

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This is the same garden, after the shallots were harvested in September. Look at how nicely the oregano drapes over the container.

Oregano is easily dried, and stored in jars. Jill places the oregano cuttings in a brown paper bag and hangs the bag in a closet for a few months. Then crumbles the leaves, throws away the stems - and puts the dried herb in jars. Super easy and the jarred product makes excellent gifts.

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A worthy tool: The hori-hori knife

I don’t normally write about specific products, but a few years ago I came across the hori-hori knife: a tool that I think is pretty neat. Unfortunately, it is not made in America, but made in Japan, which is one of our strongest allies.

That tool is the Namibagata Japanese Stainless Steel Weeding Knife, 7.25-Inch Blade, and it is pretty amazing, all-purpose gardening tool. Jill has even taken it on our walks about the farm, to cut off saplings, prune, and cut down unwanted shrubs and small trees (it does come with a belt sheath).

We use it for weeding, seeding, planting bulbs, and cutting down small trees, branches, and shrubs. On one side, it has a serrated edge and a straight edge blade on the other. The blade itself is concave. There are inch markers engraved - to measure depth when planting or seeding. The stainless steel is of excellent quality, and ours has lasted for years.

This is the one I bought. It is made of excellent quality stainless steel. Note that the knife has thousands of reviews and has a five-star rating.

The hori-hori knife was originally developed by the Matagi, who are traditional hunters in Japan, to excavate plants such as Sansai (wild vegetables) in the mountains. The knife still is one of the better hand tools for gardening that one can find.

Here is my knife - after years of use.

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We arrived at CPAC DC last night, which is being held at the Gaylord National Conference Center. We immediately met our European friends Christine Anderson and Rob Roos in the lobby. Conservatives from all over the world are converging here to celebrate America's return to normalcy.

Vice President JD Vance will give the opening speech, and President Trump will deliver the closing speech.

I will speak on Saturday at noon, shortly before President Trump, which I am super excited about!

Will we see you here also?

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