Deals at Lowes for Raised Bed Makers

We're building garden beds here and happened upon two sales at Lowes. First, most treated lumber is on sale for 40%+ off through April 18. We explained how we build beds and why we choose treated lumber in a post last year.

As I was screwing together the corners of one new bed, our Black and Decker drill battery drained after the fifth screw. I put in the replacement and it also drained. These are many years old and rechargeable batteries do lose their life after some time.

At the same time, our DeWalt SawsAll has been out of service for six months now because its battery is dead. We use the SawsAll to tear down the deck, make quick cuts to the potato tower, and scrub bush trunk trimming.

The DeWalt replacement battery is $99 for one or $119 for two. We were already set to buy the battery two pack when I saw the tool sets. A four tool set (drill, impact driver, sawsall, and flashlight) plus two batteries is $229 for a limited time while supplies last. That's a great price and solves the problem of also needing a Black and Decker replacement battery since we could unify the branding of our hand tools with the DeWalt drill. Plus, an impact driver? Alex has been wanting one of those.

Is it a 'deal' to spend more than two times what you needed? It was in our case at least. If you are new to gardening or woodworking, or want to tuck away a gift set for a holiday, our experience with DeWalt tools has been very good.

Happy Gardening! Lowes, DeWalt, and Black and Decker have no idea who I am and in no way compensated me for this post.

Five Signs of Spring

This week has been the essence of spring. Ohio has felt downpours of rain, blustery days so chilly Alex lit the wood stove, and sunshine that made me weak in the knees. Best of all, it is the growing season! In the spirit of Friday Five, here are spring scenes from the homestead this week:

1) Backyard hens soaked to the core during Monday's rainstorms. It isn't true that a chickens are so dim that they will drown in rain, but they do not seem inclined to take shelter.

2) The painted lady caterpillar I purchased from Franklin Park Conservatory is a delight to watch as it grows visibly every day. It will form a chrysalis soon and then emerge as a butterfly!

3) Intern Keara and I moved garden beds and made new ones on Thursday. We added 42 square feet of planting space!

4) When asked to spread soil in a bed, Lil responded by occupying herself for almost an hour creating 'Dirtville'. She says the people who live there are very clean and tidy, but they make their homes out of dirt. In 'Houndsville', springtime requires more frequent baths. ;)

5) Alex worked his tail off splitting ash this week. Look at this amazing wood pile!

Added to Fight Back Friday April 8.

Keeping a Homestead Journal

I have resisted written journals forever because writing about just anything seemed to open for me. When I came upon the idea I could track activities around the homestead in a journal, I was excited. I challenged myself to write a little something every day in March. Meeting the challenge was a cinch because there's nothing I love more than being productive and writing about it.

Each evening, I organize the day's record with a title line that includes the date, temperature, weather, and location. Underneath, I note accomplishments and challenges, such as 'moved the chicken coop', 'Lil coughing all night', 'cooked for family', or 'started tomato seedlings'. This is the same format I use for my field log that I've kept since high school to record birds and significant natural sightings on hikes and vacations.

Here's what I love about the log:

• Already I can look back and see progress in the weather and my activities.
• The feel of a good pen on an excellent notebook is a lovely way to end the day.
• I am finally writing down planting dates so I can compare them in future years.
• I can't wait to take the journal on vacation next week and put some new locations in the title line!

Do you keep a journal or log? How do you keep track of gardening and cooking activities?

Added to Simple Lives Thursday 38th Edition.

The Affair is Over - What Now?

The house we were pining over has another lover. In other words, it is in contract, but not with us. Garlic sprouts are peeking out of the soil here at home and there is new growth on our many perennial plants. The yard is more attractive than it was a month ago and part of me wants to stay here to reap the harvest from our fruit trees.

Alas, we still don't have room for bees, grain fields, rabbits, or the orchard of our dreams. When the dogs bark at each person that passes by our busy sidewalk, I want to pack up and move somewhere more secluded.

There is also the consideration of Lil's schooling. We are 90% sure that we will homeschool next year but did enter the lottery for the school a block away. If, for some unforeseen reason, we need to enroll her in public school and she manages to be selected for the lottery school, it would be awfully convenient to live here.

Briefly last week we considered a rebound deal, a bigger old home on a quarter acre in an up and coming area of Columbus. Again, someone else signed a contract before we could fit in a showing.

We're unsure what our next steps will be in the home search journey. What do you think?

How and When to Plant Potatoes

I just finished sorting bulk seed potatos into smaller portions for the group buy. Thirty nine pounds of organic seed potatoes are making their way to gardens around central Ohio! A few weeks ago I shared how NOT to grow potatoes. Most of those who ordered with me would rather know the best practices for success, not failure.

Here's what I can gather from personal experience, the Ohio Extension fact sheet, and a most helpful guide from Dayton Nursery.

When to Plant

Guides vary widely about when to plant. Some say to wait until a week before the frost free date (May 15 in Columbus, Ohio). Others advise planting as soon as the ground is workable.

Everyone agrees that gardeners should allow the seed tubers to begin sprouting indoors. Simply place them in a single layer in a sunny place until sprouts appear in one to two weeks.

If seed potatoes are large with many sprouts, cut them into pieces for additional plants. Do this a few days before you wish to plant, leaving the pieces again in a sunny place inside to dry.

My plan is to spread the seed potatoes in a single layer in a sunny place soon, wait two weeks, and plant in early April, weather permitting.

How to Plant

Potatoes like well-drained loose soil. If yours is heavy with clay or full of clods, break these up and enrich with compost or composted manure. You can also add thin layers of broken straw pieces.

Plant potatoes in a 3-4 inch deep furrow or trench. Space them 9-12 inches apart. Rows for commercial production are recommended to be space 24-36 inches apart. For the backyard gardener, this can be reduced to 12-24 inches.

If planting in a bucket, select 2-3 tubers per five gallon bucket laced with holes.

When potatoes sprout their beautiful leaves, allow to grow to 8-12 inches high. Then, hill up around the stem with additional soil or a mix of soil and straw. These hills are where many of the potatoes will grow. Hills also cover the potatoes so they do not turn green and develop the toxic alkaloid solanine.

Potato plants are susceptible to frost. If you plant before the frost free date, as I plan to, watch for frost warnings and cover your rows with a sheet or tarp if necessary.

When to Harvest

Potato plants will mature into tall leafy things. In July or August, they will send out interesting spiky flowers. Most gardeners pick these flowers to encourage the plant to put energy into the spuds, not flowers.

If you do not pick the flowers and the potatoes set fruit, know that the berries are poisonous like many other fruits of the deadly nightshade family. We had no idea potatoes would grow berries! After a little research, we decided to pick ours and throw them in the trash lest we contaminate our compost bin.

When the leaves die back in September, allow them to lay fallow for two weeks. This waiting time allows the potatoes to set their skin.

Carefully dig up the potatoes. Wipe off dirt but do not wash until you intend to eat them. Potatoes will keep in a dark cool place for 4-6 weeks, if they aren't eaten before then!

Ohio State University extension recommends curing potatoes for storage in a dark 60-65 deg. F place at 80 percent humidity for 10 days before placing in a dark 40-45 deg. F high humidity for permanent storage.

Do you have any potato growing tips or tricks? Share in the comments!

How NOT to Grow Potatoes

Sometimes my inner voice says I'm too preachy about things. It is true that I share a lot more success stories than mistakes. So far, our potato growing has been nothing but missteps and I'm ready to share so we all can learn from them. Here are all the ways I do NOT recommend you grow potatoes. 1) Give potato buckets only a little drainage. Last year we tried growing some seed potatoes in old buckets. I washed them and Alex added a row of holes near the bottom. I said "Don't we need holes on the bottom and up the sides?" But he insisted the single row was enough.

It wasn't. The potatoes grew but rotted before they set new tubers.

Because we still have the buckets and they aren't useful for much else now, I will drill drain holes all over the things this year and try again.

2) Plant potatoes near the pets. Our chickens and dogs conspired against us to destroy the potatoes planted in dirt. Just as they do all over the yard, chickens dug around the potato bed. We gently covered over the exposed seed potatoes and they did continue growing.

In late summer, Devie caught drift of the tubers. What spuds the chickens didn't peck, she gnawed on. That dog will eat anything.

3) Harvest too early. One day at our community garden plot, we were overanxious about harvesting potatoes. The first plants we dug had only tiny tubers. After waiting for several more weeks for the plants to truly die back and leaves to wither, the harvest was much greater.

4) Believe the potato tower myth. For two years now we have operated under the promise of harvesting 100 pounds of potatoes from a few pounds of seeds. We set up our potato tower, added soil, and waited to harvest. Both years we harvested 10 pounds for our one pound planted.

Like One Straw, we found no evidence that potatoes are sending out new tuberlets each time they are covered. The idea that perpetuates the potato tower myth seems to be truly false.

There are still several advantages to the tower.The harvest was dead simple because once the sides were removed the potatoes were visible. It required no digging.

Our animals had no way to get to the tower potatoes. Drainage and watering were not a problem in the open bottomed tower.

Good ideas:

• Space potatoes at a foot or so apart.
• Plant in a mix of soil and straw, hilling up with more soil and straw as the tuber grows.
• Remove flowers when they appear. Legend has it that Marie Antoinette like these flowers for her hair and they are very beautiful.
• Allow potatoes plants to be totally spent, i.e. very yellowed and hanging over, before harvesting.
• Elevating or containing the beds make harvesting easy.

There is one modification to the tower idea that might allow greater harvest in a four foot square area. After the potatoes shoot up 1 foot of stem, train the stem out the side of the tower between planks. Place another layer of soil and seed potatoes on top and allow those to grow as normal. One could be growing two crops on top of each other. We will experiment with this idea this year.

Good luck fellow spud growers! Share your challenges and solutions in the comments.

PS. Don't forget about my free basic gardening ebook, Grow Your Garden! Plant something edible soon.

Added to Simple Lives Thursdays 33.

Cheating

The time is right for starting seeds, drawing up garden plot plans, and making tree orders. Like any obsessed gardener, I lay awake at night imaging the beauty that will bloom in the spring and lavish us with fruitful production through the summer. Except I feel like I am cheating a lover.

I am not planning for my garden, the one I can view out the back window from my house in Clintonville. I have barely any seeds started for the earth I worked and richened for the last three years.

No, I am mentally arranging a would-be garden, one that would cover vast swaths of the four acres around a house we looked at this autumn, a house still on the market.

I am imagining a pumpkin patch, a bigger chicken coop alongside bee hives in an orchard, community garden plots, and a sugarbush. Alex is considering meat goats and rabbits. Lil wants a cat. We are having a family affair with another home.

Last fall when we saw the house, twice, we decided to stay where we are through the holidays and reconsider in spring. It is now almost spring and we still see more opportunity than risk in this 'other house'.

The list is posted on the fridge of all the small things we need to update on our current home. Super De-Clutter Woman is attacking all areas of the house. By the time the grass is green again we will be ready to list and buy and sell.

There are so many things that need to fall in place that our dream of a bigger homestead remains a crap shoot. What if there is a negotiating impasse? What if the potential house has structural issues we didn't see on the first visits? What if we move in June or July, too late to plant at the new place but too early to harvest at the old?

I don't care much about the what ifs. I am willing to put in the tiring work to stage and pack, tolerate last-minute showings, and risk having no garden at all this year. I am madly in love.

Grow Your Garden Free Ebook!

There is nothing I love more than planning gardens. There is such anticipation in the planning: what will grow, what new things do I want to try, what do I love to eat? I casually advise friends and family, occasionally drawing up a whole plan. Last year I attempted to inspire beginning growers with a series of basic edible gardening articles I published on this blog.

This year, I collected and expanded those articles into the Grow Your Garden ebook. Because I dream of a world with a garden in every backyard, I am making this ebook free for all!

Download your copy by visiting the ebook page. Feel free to tell your friends and family too – free downloads are unlimited.

All I ask in return is that you gently tend a piece of earth and savor the edible results. Share your plans, challenges and triumphs with me by email, in comments on Hounds in the Kitchen, or on the Hounds in the Kitchen Facebook page.

To bigger gardens, Rachel

PS. I just added a donation button if you want to support future educational endeavors of Hounds in the Kitchen. Look for it under the picture of me cooking on the right hand side of this site.