It’s been a few weeks since you were last able to peek into our garden…and there have actually been some noteworthy changes. We’ve had unusually warm weather here for the last few weeks, with only one brief freeze while we were gone (not that we’re sad about missing that).

I know the the warm spell won’t last forever because the weather in Germany has been anything but predictable while we’ve lived here. But this spring-like weather is definitely making me want to get my hands into the dirt again and grow things. Maybe I could actually get some more seeds in the ground for things that are winter hardy and see just how long this warm spell lasts.

At any rate, the growing is slow in our garden right now. But all the things I planted in hopes of them doing something, anything, in the calm of winter are still growing. The Brussels sprouts plant is actually big enough finally to look like something more than a weed in the garden…

The hardiness of parsley never ceases to amaze me…

The bulbs I planted recently are totally confused and popping up everywhere.

Our salad burnet plant has really been loving this warmer weather. It was looking a bit sickly after the summer heat.

And strangely enough, we are growing two lovely heads of lettuce!

Even the lamb’s lettuce is starting to perk up and show some progress in the aquaponics table.

Speaking of the aquaponics bed, I made an absolutely amazing discovery in our fish tank. We didn’t run our system at all last year and everything was dormant. We had some algae growing in the tank and just hadn’t bothered to drain it. We keep a piece of plexiglass over the top of the tank because we were having trouble with our fish literally disappearing (thanks birds.) So the plexiglass was laying loosely on top and sort of slipped into the tank. As I went to pull it out, I noticed that the tank had cleared and we have three fish inside. They are looking really healthy and happy so getting our system back on track for the spring will definitely be a priority.

I can’t wait to really get going with our garden in the courtyard, and hopefully figure out a plan for our big garden. At least this warm weather has my juices flowing…and my seed boxes are full. Guess I better start building up my stockpile of newspaper pots…

 What is your garden doing?

Want to join in the garden fun and link to your own blog or images online? You can share about anything related to gardening, old or new posts, from recipes to harvesting to grow reports to DIY projects or inspiration.

Here’s how this works:

PLEASE READ THESE GUIDELINES, especially if you have never linked up before!

It’s been a couple of weeks since I actually talked about my garden, so I figured it was time to make a few notes about what’s growing, what’s been harvested, what I’ve done out there lately and where it’s all headed next.

Since we’ve had a few batches of frost here already, anything like tomatoes, eggplants and peppers are officially done for the year. While debating what I wanted to do with the tomatoes, we had another good frost, so my thoughts of trying out reader Charlie’s Tennessee method of hanging tomato plants with the fruit on the vine to ripen slowly were dashed. If you looked at the tomatoes, they fell off the plant. So instead I just harvest all 5 pounds of them and stuck them in a big bowl with an apple. Sounds like a strange idea, I know. But it’s something my in-laws suggested and it works beautifully. You can also just set them out on a window sill or counter, but I feared my tomatoes would get away from me.

I am amazed at how much fruit our yellow tomato plant produced! That plant alone must have supplied us with 5 pounds of tomatoes this year. And they are really tasty. But the only drawback about them is that you need to eat them FAST. Once they start to head into the yellow-orange territory, they’re about to spoil. A wildly delicate tomato…and don’t worry, I saved plenty of tomato seeds for next year!

They do something over here in Germany (in most towns, anyway) about 4 times a year which is a garden trash pick. It’s quite practical because you can put out all your tree trimmings, dead plants and all the other large garden debris without having to pay for them to take it away. One could also bring it to the dump, but without a trailer that’s kind of difficult. At any rate, two weeks ago we took advantage of Stefan’s parents being here and pulled down a wisteria plant that tries to devour the front of our house every year. We have been talking about getting rid of it for years and it was the last of the evil vines that the previous owner apparently just loved to trim all the time. But everything we’ve been doing here in the last 5 years points toward making things easier to maintain and nicer to look at — plus more edible. So the front of our house looks a bit barren, but I seriously love it. We’ll see just how long it takes to kill the plant. We cut it WAY back as far as we could — but I know it’s still going to come back with force even with a few doses of Round Up.

I also took advantage of that trash day to pull out the tomatoes (as I mentioned above) and all that are left are the strawberry plants. It’s interesting to see how far they were able to spread in just a few short months. The plan is to let all these shoots root and then I’ll transplant them in the spring.

The carrots are starting to come along and I know Mackenzie is very happy about that. She’s finally agreed to eating carrots which we buy at the market with the greens still on them. Those little brown twigs are the raspberry plants I grabbed which were growing wild under the fence. My friend Gabi says they are called Autumn Bliss and I REALLY hope that they survive the winter because they are heavenly! I happened to find a couple more shoots today and stuck them in a wine bottle full of water instead of into the ground. Perhaps they will like that better. I didn’t actually dig these up but just pulled them out of the ground. I know that’s not the proper way, but I didn’t have a shovel handy. Anyone think I should pull up the other shoots and try to establish better roots on them before winter?

I also discovered that we have a couple of onions which have popped up. Guess they decided they liked the fall weather better than the summer. Can’t say I’m disappointed about that since growing onions is super easy. I would have liked to plant some garlic, but I’m still looking for a good source of starter cloves.

Several of the herb plants have really perked up and put on a lot of growth since the cooler temps started. The salad burnett has tripled in size and I finally remembered to stick some in a salad we had a couple of weeks ago. Super tasty and it’s incredible how much it tastes like cucumber. Still have a bit of cleaning up to do in this bed before winter closes in.

I would have liked to do some cover crops in our garden areas, but I fear it’s a bit too late now. Sometimes you just can’t get to it all. We do have a few old bales of straw laying around though — so maybe I should just pull some of that down and cover our beds so they don’t get too beaten down over the winter.

I’d like to find some bulbs on sale to plant for the fall. Maybe some more tulips or crocus. A lot of times our local gardening store has bags of bulbs marked down to €1 a bag, which is quite a deal. But you have to gt them in the ground immediately or there is little chance of getting them to bloom on time. Our last few winters here have been so hard that most of the bulbs haven’t survived, so it’s getting to be a continuous issue.

Sunflowers which have now become bird feeders

If you happen to have gladiolas or cannas in your garden, now is the time to dig them up — or bring them inside if they are in pots. I wish someone had told me that a few years ago about the gorgeous cannas we had in our courtyard. The same applies for potted herbs, citrus or olive trees. I pulled our stevia plant out of the ground always bring my rosemary inside as well as another other herbs I have potted — aside from the sage and thyme in my window sills. They don’t seem to mind the cold temps or snow at all.

Those with a lot of  terracotta pots outside should also get them indoors. They are prone to cracking during the cold winter months anyway, since they expand and contract with the moisture and temperature changes. And although you can repair them with a bit of silicone, do you really need more work?

 What are you planning for your garden right now?

Are you ready to start combing the seed catalogs yet? What are your favorite seed companies?

Want to join in the garden fun and link to your own blog or images online? You can share about anything related to gardening, old or new posts, from recipes to harvesting to grow reports to DIY projects or inspiration.

Here’s how this works:

PLEASE READ THESE GUIDELINES, especially if you have never linked up before!

That’s it! Share your garden with us by linking up below!

There’s been a lot going on around our farm lately. We’ve entertained quite a few guests, and each one has helped spur on our cleanliness level and a bit of decorating. We’ve been trying to do a little bit here and there to lesson the extremity of some of our projects. A few of them are going to be a lot easier if we can get our helper guy over here to take care of some things…and a few just require us to be patient until things are ready to go. I’m pretty amazed at the things we’ve accomplished despite all of the other work we’ve been getting done in our “real” lives on a day-to-day basis. Just a little bit of action can make a huge difference.

1. Harvesting, canning & starting winter planting — The days are getting shorter and the weather staying cooler…so as much as I hate to admit it, our summer seems to be winding down. We’ve had some very nice success with our new container garden this year and learned quite a bit. I’ve already started planting a few things for our winter crop but hopefully will get some of the summer plants cleaned out this week too, and get more things like broccoli and brussel sprouts in the ground before it’s too late.
   
2. The back yard garden – We’ve played with a lot of ideas for our garden this year, but pretty much decided that we’re not ready to abandon the idea of having veggies in our garden behind the barn. But instead of trying to grow everything out there, we’ll keep the daily stuff closest to us — and just plant the types of things that need little maintenance and take up quite a bit of space. Stuff like squash, pumpkins, onions and probably a few more strawberry and raspberry plants. We’ve got some major cleaning up and prepping to do before winter hits — but we’ve got our ideas in our head already so it’s just a matter of finding the right weekend and getting a whole bunch of mulch here.
3. Living room remodel & repurposing furniture — We recently inherited some furniture and so we’ve finally gotten ourselves what we consider to be an extremely adult living room now. It’s a bit scary to have lovely rugs and expensive tables with the kiddo and doggo around — but so far things have gone pretty good in that regard. New sofa, new rug, new coffee table, new end table…pretty much the only thing we left in there was a sideboard with our TV on it (which is oh so practical) and Stefan’s turntables. But we’ve got some things in mind for that corner too. We also have moved a whole bunch of stuff around as a result of that remodel and it has all been for the better so far. Mack now has a big couch in her room (which is really nice for reading in the evenings) and we’ve rescued another piece of furniture from the attic that only needs a little bit of cleaning up and sprucing to make it really nice.

1. Decorating the patio — We’ve been staring at a solid white wall for a couple of years now, ever since we finished building the furniture a couple years ago. We intended to hang a bunch of deco stuff that we’ve found around the farm up there, but have had some trouble tracking stuff down again. So before a dinner party this weekend, we found a few thing that I’d relocated during the storage room cleanup and hang them up. It instantly looked 1000 times better in there and far more cozy. Hopefully we’ll soon find all the old license plates and tin signs that we set aside.
   
2. Building a trampoline — Trampolines are all the rage over here right now…and we found a good deal on one a few weeks ago on Groupon, so Mackenzie got herself a very early birthday present. But since it probably wouldn’t be nearly as much fun to play on at the end of November, this just made so much more sense. She’s really enjoyed it the last few days and been hopping around like a little frog. And thankfully Stefan has also now recovered from pulling the springs into place.
3. Storage room clean up — A couple of weeks ago, I could barely fit our two strollers into what we refer to as Storage Room B. Stuff was cluttering the floor (to be sold or which just ended up there at some point) and it was starting to get dangerously close to spilling out. So around the time of the Laternenfest, I decided to take action and reorganized some stuff in there. We can now actually reach our shelves and access the stuff we want to ebay more easily now, which is half the battle!
4. Cutting back trees — At the beginning of spring and start of fall, we have large garden trash pickup days where you can put out you yard and garden trimmings for free. I’m pretty sure the city sells the compost and mulch they make from everything they pick up (or at least I hope someone does) and we don’t have to worry about getting a special trash container just to take care of a few things. This year, our trees in the courtyard are in desperate need of trimming, so I started on one of them already. And I think that our fruit trees are also going to be needing some love in the backyard after the harvest because they are looking like Weeping Willows, loaded down with all their fruit.
   
5. Our aquaponics setup — We would like to get our aquaponics bed in the courtyard back to working order, especially since I just planted some Lamb’s Lettuce seeds in there. I’m fairly certain that it’ll grow even without the thing being active, but we at least need to see about getting it cleaned out before spring so it’s ready to go. The winter was not so kind to our fish, so we have to restock — and also have to see about getting a new pump since the freezing didn’t make our old one work any better. I’m not even going to talk about what is going to happen in the backyard at this point as far as aquaponics goes.
6. Cleaning out closets and other decluttering — Slowly but surely, we’ve been adapting more to the mindset that having too much stuff is detrimental to our overall health and well-being. Not because we’re being smothered by stuff, but simply because when you’re constantly being reminded of all the junk you need to be putting away and trying to play catch up with your stuff, it just doesn’t allow you to have fun or just enjoy your own home.
   
7. Setting up a worm bin again — Our little girl is a fresh veggies junkie. In fact, this weekend, she probably ate close to a 1/2 pound of carrots and possibly even more tomatoes, straight from our garden. She is definitely loving all the fresh stuff around, and she is so adapt to what is growing around us (which we really love). But all of this extra fruit and veggie growth and consumption has made us realize that it would be really nice to have our worm bins back again. So we’re going to reactivate those as well and buy some new worms again as soon as our bin is ready.

So that’s a taste of what is going on around here — and you just can’t even imagine how much work we’ve managed to get done lately on our businesses as well. Just trying to continue pushing forward on all fronts and make our dreams reality! We truly are blessed.

Want more top 10 lists to read? Hop by OhAmanda this week and see what’s everyone is sharing.

What’s happening in your neck of the woods this week? 

Welcome to week 3 of the Garden Life link up. We’ve had plenty of rain this past week and our plants are just thriving. Still battling the mildew a bit but the grapes are starting to turn purple and they already taste quite good. Now we just have to get them covered before the birds find out they taste great also!

Our tiny little salad burnett plant has really been thriving…such an incredible improvement versus when it started. Apparently the moist weather and the cooler temperatures are really making it happy.

These tiny little lavender plants were saved from our driveway. I guess the seeds blew over from our big lavender plant out front. I grabbed about 10 of them from the cracks and they seem to be quite well so far. Hopefully I’ll have some nice plants to transplant around the courtyard soon. The lavender seems to keep the aphids at bay which have been a huge problem for us in recent years on the rose bushes.

Another big bell pepper on its way. Hopefully Mack will let this one stay on there until it’s really ripe.

We also cut a bunch couple squash off that are already ripe. I’m really surprised that these turban squash are already ripe. I was really hoping they would be ready sometime later in the season. We’ve had a few more small squash start on the vines, but they all started to foul off. We’re hoping that now that these two huge squash are off, the others will do better.

Our eggplants are also finally starting to get somewhere. Can’t wait to harvest these guys!

Off to grab some cucumbers off the vine and get down to snacking.

Now it’s your turn! What’s going on with your garden?

Here’s how this works:

PLEASE READ THESE GUIDELINESespecially if you have never linked up before!

1. You are free to join the Garden Life link up at any time. You can also skip a few weeks and then come back. It’s entirely up to you.
2. Please link directly to a post about your garden, a recipe, a tutorial for gardening, an inspirational idea, etc that relates to GARDENING — not your mail blog URL.
3. Please only link to your own blog or photos hosted online.
4. You MUST link back to No Ordinary Homestead or a Garden Life link up post in your blog post. This way, if someone else wants to join the fun, they can. You can either link with text or using the Garden Life badge.
   Below is a code for the badge above. Just copy and paste this code into your post or save and upload the image to your blog:<a href=”http://www.noordinaryhomestead.com/garden-life-link-up/”><img title=”garden-life-300″ src=”http://www.noordinaryhomestead.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/garden-life-300.gif” alt=”garden link up” width=”301″ height=”301″ /></a>
5. I highly encourage you to visit other participants and leave comments. This is a great way to meet new friends and become inspired about your garden! I try to visit all the blog participating as well

That’s it! Share your garden with us by linking up below!

Welcome to the very first installment of the Garden Life Link up!

I know that a lot of you reading this blog have your own blogs –and your own gardens. So I thought it would be fun to start a link up that will be posted every Friday right here on No Ordinary Homestead. You can post a link to your own blog (or even Flickr or other photo account — at least I think that should work) and show us all how your garden is growing, what you’ve been doing to create a garden, favorite recipes for garden fresh veggies, share canning recipes, include your garden projects or anything else garden related.

I actually took these photos a few days ago and I cannot believe how much everything has grown since then. It’s insanity! The plants are loving this cooler, wetter weather! And the best part is that we’re growing all of this in about 10 m² (100 sq ft) of space right in our courtyard. It’s right under our noses so we see it all the time and take care of it. And we’re realized that we can make a nice relaxing area out of our garden at some point since gardening back there has been nothing but problems. We will still have some bigger stuff growing back there, though, and a bigger aquaponics system with gold fish in the greenhouse. But more on all that much later.

So here’s what’s exciting in our garden right now…by the way, the hand in the photos is my garden model, Mackenzie. She did a wonderful job holding the biggest fruit on each vine so I could photograph everything.

The goose neck squash are growing like crazy! Actually they’ve probably doubled in size since last week. We bought this as a small plant already and it is just taking over the end of the bed where it is. Next year I’ve got to find a way to put these in the back garden, with plenty of slug deterrents around them so they survive. They’re just too huge for our courtyard garden!

Our turban squash are also growing like crazy. You’re not going to believe how much this thing has grown when I share photos next week. Although I have always considered these to be decorative, you can actually eat them. So we’ll be seeing what they taste like later on this year.

The bumble bees and yellow jackets have been ALL OVER that turban squash plant. There are usually two bees to every flower on there. Apparently the pollen and nectar is especially good on that vine!

Our onions are also doing pretty well. I don’t think they’re going to be huge, but one or two of them are starting to bloom already. It’s our first time growing onions so it’s been a fun experience — and little onions are meal-size which I love!

Last year (or the year before) someone recommended I grow salad burnett because we love cucumbers. So I bought some seeds but never got anything in the ground last year due to the accident. So since we had all these little spaces this year in our courtyard garden, that was one of the first herbs I planted, and it’s doing pretty well. I would have never imagined that an herb could really taste so much like fresh cucumbers, but it really, really does. Delicious!

Our stevia is also doing very nicely. The one outside is doing the best although it looked pretty sick shortly after we got it. Now one of them inside is looking a bit rough, so I may just move the pot I have indoors with 3 plants outside somewhere while the weather is nice. Have been able to harvest a few leaves (I seem to recall from two years ago that the leaves should be about 1 inch across when you harvest) but the plants are going pretty well so we should be able to get more off soon. We’ll definitely need a whole field of these things to be able to use stevia to sweeten our iced tea full time, though.

Our second sage plant is absolutely exploding in this bed. Look at the leaves compared to Mack’s hand. And she might be small, but some of these leaves are almost as long as my had! I am going to have to divide it or something because it’s just taking over the world! That’s our second sage plant, and honestly I have no idea what we’re going to do with all of it. Maybe I can sell it to the farmer’s market down the street…they charge a fortune for fresh herbs in bunches. To the left of it, you can see the leaves of our biggest eggplant plant — which has it’s first baby fruit as of today. We’ve had some trouble getting it to pollinate so I started doing it by hand which is working out pretty well so far. Must talk to those bees that are all over the squash plant about that…

Our carrots are also coming along slowly. Mackenzie just loves pointing out to me that they are carrots…and I love that they are growing in random spaces in the garden so there’s no empty dirt.

Our Romaine lettuce is also starting to come along nicely although it was slow to get started. Our other lettuce growing in our little random beds is also doing pretty well although the heat has been tough on it.

Decorative indian corn that I just had to try growing. Next year I will be taking the advice of more experienced gardeners (thanks Charlie) and growing a cluster of corn in the backyard instead of up here. Again, I will have to be vigilant about the snails and slugs!

Ah tomatoes. We have 4 large tomato plants that are just loaded with tomatoes. And this year I actually wasn’t afraid to cut them back a bit. So looking forward to tomatoes this year…and it seems our plan to have them under the roof of the guesthouse was a good one so far.

The strawberries are also delightful. We need about 100 more plants to satisfy Mackenzie’s picking urges. She can barely wait for them to turn red before plucking them off of the plants.

Little pumpkins are also coming along nicely. In fact, this one is quite a bit larger now and dark green, so I think it will be done in a few weeks…The card with the plant said they would get to be about the size of tennis balls…but they’re more like the size of a softball right now (just not in this picture).

This cucumber has actually been harvested now and halfway eaten…it’s heavenly! It weighed in at 340grams and there are a couple more on the other plants that are nearly as big now.

And finally, the grapes…which are looking beautful right now. But I know that in a couple of weeks they are probably going to look all moldy again. This year, we are going to try to find the right chemical (ugh I hate to even say it) or sulfer (I seem to recall reading that somewhere) that will kill the mold and allow us to feast on these fresh or in wine. That would also require covering them but I’m not afraid of getting up on the guesthouse roof — which is thankfully the flattest roof we have!
dsd

Now I’m off to figure out what the ghost flies things are all over half of our plants and how I get rid of them and that funky white, powdery mildew. Ugh

Share your garden with us by linking up below! A link back to NOH is highly appreciated and you’re free to grab the image above as well.

Just copy and paste this code or save and upload the image to your blog:

<a href=”http://www.noordinaryhomestead.com/garden-life-link-up/”><img title=”garden-life-300″ src=”http://www.noordinaryhomestead.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/garden-life-300.gif” alt=”garden link up” width=”301″ height=”301″ /></a>

The last few weeks of shopping here in Germany have been interesting. You’ve likely heard by now that in Germany there has been an Escherichia coli (my favorite bacteria, BTW, because of the amusing name) outbreak and for about two weeks now, no one has had a single clue about where the source of the outbreak started. First cucumbers, salads and tomatoes from Spain were blamed — but no proof was found. Now, they are targeting bean sprouts which they are fairly certain are the culprit. But all of these food scares and uncertainties in the food chain really have me thinking hard about our growing situation. And then I go to a huge grocery store near us and see the grapes from India and the oranges from Chile and so on, and I kinda want to just puke.

Not only is it completely absurd to fly and truck the produce all over the world, which has destroyed the local independence of nations around the world while creating consumers that no clue when foods are actually in season anymore, but it is also just plain gross. People have no idea what fresh produce tastes like anymore, but we eat with our eyes and take the best looking items — which are ripened in route and grown simply for their visual appeal. None of these commercial grows cares what it actually tastes like — because there is no way to allow these fruits and vegetables to ripen on the vine and then ship them all over the world.

And don’t even get me started about meat. We have not bought meat in a chain store for about two years, thanks to our fabulous butcher around the corner. This weekend, we were doing some big shopping and decided to grab some filet for grilling from the meat counter, mostly because we weren’t sure our butcher would be open anymore when we got home. It was without a doubt the worst tasting meat we’ve ever had and just as expensive as the local stuff. It smelled fine but it tasted horrible — almost like it had gone bad. Perhaps it was just all the hormones and antibiotics we were tasting; something we’re not used to anymore thanks to locally grown meats and poultry.

I know this is a bit of a heavy rant for a Monday, but I really think this is another wake up call for the world. With there being fewer processing plants than ever before, I expect that it’s really only going to get worse in the long run. The food supply is extremely vulnerable. Watch Food Inc for starters if you really want to get more deeply into this subject.

At any rate, I know I’ve been saying how we want to plant some stuff for a while — and Stefan’s parents were here a couple weeks ago and finally gave our beds in the courtyard the jump start they needed. We decided to do beds in our courtyard last for a couple of reasons:

• We see them everyday (and a basic rule of permaculture is to keep the plants you eat on a regular basis right under your nose so you pay attention to them)
• We can water them easily (not so in the back garden at the moment)
• There are no slugs up here (which is a huge concern in the backyard)
• It gives us more space for green stuff in the courtyard which tends to look a bit gray and boring otherwise

Anyone who says they don’t have any space to garden isn’t looking hard enough. You can grow herbs and sprouts indoors with virtually no space at all. There are always vertical options for small patios and if we had a typical American house with a yard and all that, we would definitely have edible landscaping mixed in with our regular plants.

As it is, we really like the setup we have now, because we constantly see what is going on with the plants and they are easily accessible to use while we are cooking. Plus we have much more growing space than we could have imagined. The planters around the edge are so perfect for little pots of herbs and flowers, so we’re looking forward to really making the most of those. In the back with our tomatoes, we even have strawberries growing around the edge.

The larger plants you see were bought by Stefan’s parents and us from the local gardening store. I cannot believe that they charge €2.49 for a pumpkin plant — one tiny little seed that costs pennies. And there is nothing but hybrids all over the place in there. But we wanted to get something growing and it’s rather late for starting most seeds. But we did start plenty of lettuce seeds all over the place. I love growing lettuce in random areas that are too small for anything else to grow in…like under rose bushes or in pots with other plants.

We’re also growing onions for the first time this year, inside the little planters. So it will be interesting to see how we do with those. They’re supposed to be extremely easy to grow and really need very little watering or maintenance…and we do use quite a few onions around here.

Here’s a quick rundown of what we have planted now (and several more herb plants will be started later this week):

• Onions
• Lettuce (romano, lollo rossa, lollo blanco)
• Carrots
• Zucchini
• Eggplant
• Bell peppers
• Cucumbers
• Mini-pumpkins
• Decorative squash
• Decorative corn
• Chilies
• Tomatoes
• Strawberries
• Chives
• Rosemary
• Salad Burnett
• Thyme
• Sage
• Lemon Thyme
• Calendula
• Lots of sunflowers and other pretty flowers

How’s your garden coming along?

I can’t believe it’s the middle of May already and I have yet to put one seed in the ground! I had such good intentions, but we’ve been quite swamped with work and visitors and traveling and LIFE! But I still hope that one of these days soon, I will still put some seeds into the ground and create some sort of food in our new raised beds in the courtyard.

So today, I’m going to dream about 10 things I want to grow this year!

1. Tomatoes — These are the one thing that always stand out radically from store bought produce. There is nothing like the earthly, sun-filled smell of a tomato fresh off your own vine. We have a new location for our tomatoes that is under the roof of our guest house — so with any luck the dreaded blight will leave our ‘maters alone this year!
2. Lettuce — One of the only things I managed to grow last year before our accident, I’ve discovered a wonderful place to grow lettuce under our rose bushes where they don’t get too much sun when the weather turns wildly warm. So I’m looking forward to plenty of homegrown salads again.
3. Cucumbers — We managed to grow a few cucumbers in our courtyard a few years ago, up the side of our aquaponics tank. So we’ll try that again too.
4. Zucchini — Our stockpile of shredded frozen zucchini for zucchini bread has been seriously depleted over the last year…so I hope to replenish it this year for many more months filled with moist, delicious zucchini bread in our future. And of course smell fresh zucchinis for sauteing and grilling!
5. Chilies — This one will actually require that we finish our
6. Eggplant — Mmmh, eggplant. Whether it’s on a pizza with fresh rosemary. or breaded as parmasan, there is nothing quite like fresh eggplant!
7. Carrots — Dainty, fresh carrots are so sweet and delicious. Not to mention healthy!
8. Bell peppers — This one is a basic staple in our house; Mackenzie can almost eat her weight in bell peppers on any given day. An stuffed bell peppers are a new favorite around here which I would really love to try with homegrown peppers.
9. Decorative corn — Normally I would not devote any efforts to growing things I cannot eat. But I love how decorate mais looks at Thanksgiving. And since it’s nearly impossible to find here (especially at reasonable prices), I’m apparently going to have to grow my own. I even have the seeds already which I picked up at our local feed store.
10. Decorative pumpkins & squash — Along the same lines as the corn above, I so love to have these around the house — but they are insanely expensive over here. So I’ve got to find a way to get these sprouted FAST & then keep the darn slugs & snails from devouring the seedlings! Crushed egg shells & cornmeal are high on my list…

Some of the zucchini we harvested in 2008

In 2009, when winter just seemed to be dragging on forever, we decided to build a cold frame for our beloved salad table so that we could extend our growing season just a bit. We’ve actually had lamb’s lettuce and spinach growing (oh so slowly) in there all winter. The regular baby lettuces that we use as a cutting mix found it a bit too harsh in there but the others are quite hearty for the winter months. There were a few times that they wilted a bit but once the temperatures were out of the negatives again, they perked right back up.

This will be our third summer with this salad table and I have to say it is still one of the smartest things we’ve ever built. You can almost watch the lettuce growing in the spring and fall (when the sun isn’t just scorching the lettuce plants) and it’s done pretty well for basil, cilantro and parsley as well.

Because the bottom of the table is still open, you do lose a lot of heat, and there’s no real insulation even with this topper. But it will at least allow you to keep growing things late into November or maybe even December. And we are thinking of using it as a seed incubator after we’ve gotten the sprouting going inside the house since our greenhouse is still in major need of renovation.

You could use this same construction idea to make cold frames that sit on the ground around your garden. It will help keep the ground warmer so you can start planting vegetables a bit earlier this spring, without the risk of frost.

We had a substantial stack of Plexiglas here at the farm which was left behind from the previous owner. So this was a great project to use up some of it.

We shot a couple of videos for you, staring Stefan that detail the process we went through. So I hope you’ll check them out below. I’ve also written out the instructions for you below. Sorry but you’ll have to refer to the video for most of the photos since we weren’t doing both while making this cold frame — but it’s a very simple construction so I think you’ll get the gist of it.

How to Build a Cold Frame – Part 1

How to Build a Cold Frame – Part 2

Building a Cold Frame

Tools Needed

• Router
• Miter saw
• Electric drill with drill bits
• Cordless screwdriver
• Angle
• Level
• Measuring stick or tape

Materials List

• Eight 2-meter-long 1×2″ wood beams, untreated
• screws
• Plexiglas
• Handle

How to Do It

1. Measure how deep the cold frame will be (length A on diagram). Measure out this distance (in our case 76 cm) and mark it on one board. Cut it with the miter saw. Use this first piece as a guide for your second cut which goes on the other side of the table.
   
2. Lay these boards on the table, lined up with the table pieces running underneath, and lay a beam across the front of the salad table, to get the width measurement (length B). Make sure the corners are lined up. Mark the board with the measurement.
3. Cut all the lengths of A & B that you need to complete the table. Eight lengths of A total and 6 lengths of B. Remember you need twice the base diagram above because you need a complete outer cold frame shell. And then you assemble the lid to go on top using the same lengths.
   
4. Cut 4 short beams (ours are about a foot but if you want to grow taller vegetables in this, you can go with something higher) for the corners.
5. You will need to use your router and route one thin side, the full length of each A & B piece…and create two A pieces which have both sides routed for the lid. The groove should be wide enough for the Plexiglas to side into but not so wide that it falls out. This will keep it in place as well as hide any slightly jagged edges.
6. Now it’s time to start assembling. Since it will only tend to confuse if I try to describe the process, I suggest watching part 1 of the videos above, starting at about the 5 minute mark.
7. Oh, and there will be a few more short pieces to cut for the base which hold the Plexiglas in place. Woops.
8. How to score and break Plexiglas is shown in part 2, starting at about 1:25.

Feel free to ask questions, contribute comments or ask for clarification.

If you would really like to have a full written explanation of how to build a cold frame, let me know and I will put it together. Unfortunately, it took me over a year to actually put this much of the process together (you might here the baby in the background which is our little Mackenzie, now 2 1/2 years old!) so I really just want to share this finally, considering that garden season is fast approaching and we really love both our salad table and the topper!!

A couple weekends ago, we decided it was time to start putting together our first aquaponics system. It’s a 500L fish tank with  200L sump pump and a grow bed which is 120x180cm large (30cm deep). Our intent is to grow either catfish or tilapia in it and crawfish in the bottom of the fish tank. The sump will only be used for water overflow and to flush the system. We will eventually add a few more small beds and a few wall pipes too with hopes of adding a bit more filtration since that’s a lot of tank for so few grow beds.

For a quick overview of our system, read this post about our new courtyard aquaponics system. Because it can be rather difficult to find clear, concise information about building an aquaponics system online (although BackyardAquaponics.com is an awesome place to learn and get inspiration), I’m going to try to be as specific as possible so that you can create your own backyard aquaponics designs.

We will be setting up an ebb and flow system but are still working on our siphon drain (more on that as soon as we get it built). Every 3 hours or so, a timer turns on the pump in our sump tank which pumps all the water inside into our fish tank. As the water fills into the fish tank, everything over 500 liters overflows via a hose into our primary grow bed. The grow bed has a slow drain in it which allows water to gradually filter back into the sump tank, at a rate slower than the pump is pushing it out. When the sump is mostly empty, the pump shuts off and the cycle will repeat again 3 hours later.

A general rule of thumb when starting an aquaponics project is that your fish tank should be about the same size as your grow bed. This figure can be tweaked once you have things up and running, if you have large or small fish, etc. But it’s a good place to start and as you learn about how the system works, you can always add more later. It seems that aquaponics systems are never really finished but in a constant state of testing and fine tuning.

We wanted the water to run naturally from our fish tank into the grow bed once the water level in the fish tank rises…so we have the fish tank sitting at a higher elevation. Our entire courtyard actually slopes gradually to one side so it made this layout very easy.

Select a Building Site

Because we already had a small pond in our courtyard which was only an eyesore and safety hazard for our toddler, we decided to build a platform over the pond which would become our grow bed.You can see it toward the middle of the picture below, under the tree and the pipe sticking out of the wall. It’s about 120x180cm around the lip of the pond and 2-3 feet deep. We estimate that it holds about 200 liters of water.

To the left of the tree (but before you reach the door on the left) is where the fish tank will sit. We have several IBC tanks around here and weren’t sure which we would use, but decided to take the tank which was already covered in black pond foil and conveniently located just a few feet away.

Tools

• Screwdriver (Rechargeable with multiple battery packs is recommended)
  
• Drill with bits which correspond to the screws used
• Miter saw (You could cut the boards by hand or with other sorts of saws, but the miter is the easiest and cleanest. Or you can have the boards cut for you in the store already if you prefer.)
  
• Square angle (to get your corners nice and tight)
• Bubble level (to make sure your construction is at least remotely level)
• Radio (because we’ve found that we work a lot more fluidly with music on in the background. This thing has been rained on multiple times, has paint and plaster all over it, the antenna is broken and the thing still works! Best 20 bucks ever!)
  
• Saw horses (Not required but recommended. We started without them and needed them once we started adding legs…then wondered why we don’t use those things during every project–standing while you work is so much better than hunching!)

Materials List

Because it’s inexpensive and easy to work with, we decided to build our grow bed out of wood and pond foil but many people select large plastic containers and build stands for them instead. It’s all a matter of your budget and material availability. If you have an old bathtub in your yard or some old trash cans that you’re not using, those will work just as well for various components. Use opaque and dark colored vessels whenever possible so that sunlight will not turn your tanks into an algae farm. Some algae is acceptable and will be appreciated by your fish…a totally green tank that is smothering your fish and clogging up your system is not okay.

The following will build 1 grow bed which is 120 x 180cm large (47 x 71 inches) with 4 stacked legs of various heights (that’s not a technical term, I’m sure, but I will explain what that means in the next construction phase). You will likely want to modify the measurements to your own building site, material availability and preferences.

My advice would be to start with the plywood middle, build the frame for it, then the legs, add additional support and finally put on the sides. Measure all your materials and calculate your lengths carefully. The general rule of measuring twice and cutting once is recommended…otherwise you’ll end up measuring once and cutting twice. If you’re not so good with numbers, keep a calculator handy or a piece of paper to work out the figures as you go along…unless you map it all out first and then get started. And what fun would it be to have everything planned out exactly before you start?

Note: Our grow bed is built against a wall so we only have 3 sides covered with decking. If your grow bed will be free-standing, you’ll need more decking for the back side too.

• (1) 1-inch thick sheet of compressed plywood measuring 105.5 x 165.5 cm
• (6) 2″x2″(5.5×5.5cm) 3-meter-long boards. Cut to the following lengths yourself or have them cut for you:
  • (2) 176cm (back supports)
  • (2) 165.5cm (frame)
  • (4) 100cm (frame)
  • (2) 72.5cm (foot 1)
  • (2) 36.1cm (foot 1)
  • (2)60.5cm (foot 2)
  • (2) 24.1cm (foot 2)
• (6) 3-meter-long outdoor decking boards (14.5cm wide and 2.6cm thick), cut to the following lengths:
  • (4) 180cm (front)
  • (9) 105cm (sides)
• 1 box 5×70 screws plus other larger screws we had around

Because I’ve yammered on so much about this project already, I thought it would be best to break it down into multiple parts. Come back tomorrow for part 2 when we really get down to work.

Last weekend I had another one of those wild ideas that suddenly just manifests in your brain when you look at something. A little light goes off and you wonder why that thought never crossed your mind before. We get a lot of those around here. Pure moments of genius. Well, in our world anyway.  And we always share them with one another in an almost apprehensive way; knowing what we’re about to say could sound totally insane when it’s out of our mouths. It’s always prefaced with one of us stating, “So I had this crazy idea…”

We’ve been thinking and talking about aquaponics systems for well over a year now. But we were always kinda scared to jump in because it all seems so complex. And when I say “we,” I completely mean “Stefan” here because things of this nature are really his territory. I am merely the assistant who does her best to make the process go smoothly (finding tools, parts, setting screws, finding screws, etc.)

If you’re reading this and wondering just what aquaponics even IS, it’s a fairly simple concept. Water from a fish tank feeds into a growing bed with aquaponics pebbles in which lettuce, tomatoes, herbs and just about any other sort of vegetable can be grown. The fish waste fertilizes the plants and you only have to feed the fish. You can grow worms or other plants just for the fish as well so everything is self-contained and self-sufficient.

The previous owner of our farm apparently used to have some free range ducks at one point…or at least that’s our guess about the mini-pond by our mudroom that once had a wooden ramp leading into it was in its hay day. It’s about 5 feet x 4 feet and a couple feet deep.

So I walked by this pond for the millionth time and I thought, “We should turn this into a food and fish growing paradise.” Then I turned to Stefan and asked, “Could we use the pond as a sump tank for an aquaponics setup?” Because I’d learned at least enough about aquaponics by then to know what would and wouldn’t work.

The gears in his head started turning and he quickly was obsessed with the idea. And so it began.

We decided to construct a platform directly over the pond which will be our primary grow bed. Finding a suitable plastic container to use for beds was useless so we decided to build the entire thing by 2″x2″ timbers and outdoor decking boards which we’ve used for other projects like our pump house and outdoor patio furniture.

We decided to use the IBC tank that we already had in the courtyard for rain water storage as our fish tank. That meant draining about 750 liters of water from it, most of which we were thankfully able to save for the sump tank and the refill of the fish tank.

Costs so far (in Euros)

I’m going to go into a lot more detail about what we’ve done and built, which will hopefully be useful if you want to do something yourself. After 2 days of work (which included an excursion to the home improvement store for supplies), we’ve built the frame, floor and sides for the grow bed, put in the pond liner, built a drain, moved the IBC tank, hooked up the pump in the sump tank and set an overflow pipe from the fish tank to the grow bed.

We’ve still got to cut a larger hole in the top of the fish tank and will probably build a small grow bed to sit on top of it. This will cut off some of the light to the tank and also make it a little bit safer when little people learn to climb up the cage. Mackenzie was already trying that yesterday.

We also need a couple hundred liters of hydroponic pebbles, a frame to hold the pond liner in place and will eventually build some additional hanging wall channels with small pots of pebbles in them. We’re currently planning to grow cooking herbs, lettuce in the summer months when the salad table dries out too quickly, bell peppers and other goodies in the grow box. We’ll probably do strawberries on the wall.

We’re not sure what fish we’ll put in there yet. We’re considering tilapia or catfish…and may couple them with crawfish. But we also have to start thinking about a place for a breeding tank since it will get awfully pricey to keep buying fingerlings to eat…and with the right conditions these fish will breed like crazy.

If you’re thinking about starting an aquaponics setup, check out the first part of my aquaponics how to. Although it can be really difficult to find decent instructions about how to build your own aquaponics system, I hope we can shed some light on our process which may explain things. And since there’s bound to be problems at some point, you can learn from our mistakes too.