Category: Garden Science

Moving Forward in the Backyard and Beyond…

June 28, 2019 / cbaker11 / 0 Comments

Swiss chard growing in the garden.

It’s been an enlightening journey.

Initially, when I signed up for the ENG 304 class, I thought that I was going to blog about historical research. As I considered it though, I realized that my family was actually doing something that a majority of other residents in Saco are not. Perhaps it was worth blogging about! I also had numerous pictures and topics that I could share with readers.

I’ve learned numerous things.

While blogging and linking, I have read countless blogs to learn what others have to say about my topics. I have had to investigate a little deeper into subject matter and gain an improved understanding in order to clearly communicate issues to readers.

Red mulch sheeting for the tomatoes.

My enthusiasm for the backyard is re-energized.

I’m in the amazing city of Montreal, and all I want to do is be home with my family, working in the garden. I know the carrots and beets need thinning. I want to eat our fresh produce, feed our egg-layers, and see how much the broilers have grown.

By the time I get back, we’ll be placing red plastic mulch down on certain areas of the garden; especially for our tomatoes and peppers. The mulch absorbs sunlight and warms the soil and prevents weeds.

Since my last blog on compost, Joe has gotten inspired and we have purchased a compost rotator to improve the process. We are hoping that this tool will help us process the compost more evenly, quickly, and in larger quantities.

Thanks for sharing my journey.

We’ve discussed health benefits of a garden, how to regain an awareness or connection with our food, and soil testing. I’ve shared my burger recipe-I hope you will try it sometime! I’ve shown you that the backyard is an ongoing process of experimentation as we explore improved methods with our chickens, compost, and garden.

Now go interact with nature and grow something!

As Alena Hall states in her Huffington Post article, you really need to put down your cell phone now and walk outside. Step into an urban garden, plant some flowers in front of your house, or start some seedlings. Don’t forget to re-connect with nature! Mark Sisson, primal enthusiast, reminds us to get back to nature and Grok on!

Backyard Progress Report

June 19, 2019 / cbaker11 / 0 Comments

In just four weeks, the backyard has transformed!

Garden on 5.26.19.

Garden on 6.19.19

Since my first post, spring has finally sprung (even though it is almost summer)! Our broiler chicks are almost five weeks old. The pitiful little patch of garden I showed you in my introduction video has been planted.

Joe built a new broiler chicken run.

The broiler chicks new run.

This year, we increased our typical flock of 10 chickens to 25, so our old chicken run was inadequate to accommodate the increased number of birds. Joe constructed the new run using a mixture of new and recycled materials. The broiler chickens do have a separate pen where they can run around, but the walls are not high enough to be secure. The new run will serve as a safe shelter for the remainder of their lifespan.

The new water distribution system.

Since the chickens drink massive amounts of water, Joe added another great feature. He installed a five gallon water distribution system, which took the chickens some time to get the hang of, but it is efficient.

The chickens transitioned into their new home.

Broiler chicks 5.30.19.

Broiler chicks 6.16.19.

If you remember some of my earlier pictures, we kept the chicks in a kiddie swimming pool in our back shed with a heating lamp. As it grew warmer and the chicks became bigger, we would bring them out once a day into the grass to roam and play. Once the new chicken run was built, we finally transitioned them fully outside.

Check out this blog post by Debra Ahrens, a poultry project leader for the Wisconsin, Kewaunee County 4-H organization. She discusses her techniques for raising boiler chicks, which mirror ours.

The seedlings have been transplanted to the garden.

This year, Joe is experimenting with a new technique, no till gardening. The concept is that tilling actually brings more grass seeds to the top, depletes nutrients, and lets precious carbon escape the soil. So this spring, besides having our egg layers break up the organic matter in the garden, we refrained from tilling. Kai Hoffman-Krull discusses how tilling is a contributor to global warming. In addition, implementing the no-till gardening technique is actually easier for the farmer: it’s a win-win!

Cara and Joe adding compost to the seedlings,

Prior to transplanting our seedlings, we lightly broke up the top garden soil, spread compost over it, measured our rows and used a pro-plugger tool to make holes in the earth. More compost was inserted to the soil, the plant was placed in the ground, and additional compost piled on the top.

Note: You will observe that there are no pictures of me working. I really do assist with the garden; at this point I was just busy taking the pictures!

Want to learn more? Here are some ideas to get you started:

Have you ever implemented new ideas in your garden?

I’d love to hear about them and if they were successful! Please share your experiences below-

Regain a Connection with Food

June 16, 2019 / cbaker11 / 0 Comments

Out of bananas for breakfast? Make a quick stop at the store.

It’s Wednesday and you realize you need to stop by the grocery store to pick up a few things. As soon as you walk through the automatic sliding doors you behold a wide expanse of a clean, modern store that boasts an abundance of ripe produce. Ok, well maybe the avocados or bananas are the exception; they’re usually green.

You may want to consider what you’re buying.

Have you ever wondered the process that the broccoli went through to be in the vegetable case? I know what you’re going to say…everyone knows there are huge industrialized farms in the U.S. that raise mass amount of vegetables or livestock. You’ve seen the videos: produce is picked by migrant workers, the livestock is confined, the fields are sprayed with pesticides. At some point, we have all been exposed to the truth regarding these horrible acts. Yet Americans still willingly visit the grocery store weekly. Why are we so quick to forget about how their food is sourced?

Maybe we just don’t want to think about it.

Ignorance is bliss. It’s tough to face the facts and realize that due to industrialized agriculture’s practices, we are poisoning ourselves, torturing animals and exploiting other human beings. How can consumers fight back against a toxic food industry that has been established for over 50 years?

We have to snap out of our oblivion and regain a connection with our food.

Cara eating okra from the garden.

There are many ways that we can start.

Visit your local farmer’s market– It’s the best way to witness farmers in your community growing their own food. I have asked many of them questions about their organic farming practices. All of the vendors I have encountered are passionate about their work, are open about their techniques, and want to educate others.
Support local farmers whenever possible– The more people purchase locally, the less the huge food retailers earn. It’s their massive gross income that creates a “monopsony”, where they can dictate the price they want to pay farmers. This stretches the farmers’ resources and reduces pay to laborers.
Grow your own food-I know we live in New England. There’s not a great growing season, but anything that we can produce that we don’t have to buy at the store counts.
Become more aware- There are amazing documentaries out there. Besides Food Inc, Unacceptable Levels, Food Chains, and Sustainable are eye-openers.

Here are some other great resources for you to check out:

Do you typically do most of your shopping at the grocery store?

How and where do you purchase your food? What are your reasons? I’d love to have you join the discussion!

Compost: Waste At Work

June 11, 2019 / cbaker11 / 0 Comments

Plum tomatoes from our garden.

The best thing about raising food in a garden is harvesting-

It can be a chore, but harvesting is also a calming experience. If I close my eyes right now, I am brought back to a late summer morning. The girls and I are collecting plum tomatoes in buckets. There is still some dew lingering on the grass surrounding the garden. I can feel the warm soil under my feet…I can smell the tomato plants. I’m not really a raw tomato fan, but I love the smell of the plants. I feel happiness. It’s a meditative moment for me that I can travel back to anytime.

Without properly balancing the soil, our plants wouldn’t meet their potential.

Besides soil testing, we also utilize compost and compost tea to promote ultimate growth for our plants. When Joe and I initially moved into our house, there was a small compost bin in the backyard. We would add a few things to it and turn it once in a while. However, we quickly found that the small bin wasn’t meeting the needs of our garden or processing the waste properly.

We decided to take a closer look at what we could compost.

Compost and chicken scrap containers.

After conducting some research, we found that a majority of our food waste could be composted. For convenient storage, we use old Olivia’s Organics greens plastic bins to separate scraps for the chickens and the compostable items. Food waste that attracts scavengers (typically meat) is thrown in the garbage.

I had used some fancy bins that had charcoal filters to reduce smells, but they never seemed to work. The plastic bins don’t look pretty on our counter, but they get the job done! If they get too gross, they are washed out and recycled.

Other biodegradable items, such as chicken coop waste, grass cuttings, and leaves are deposited into the compost. We don’t add cow or horse manure because that waste contains undigested seeds which, if not processed properly, later become weeds and grass for us to pull out of our garden. A compost pile needs to be turned every couple of weeks in order to continue breaking down the organic matter. Most of the time, Joe uses a tiller because our compost pile is so large.

The final results: additional compost for the garden and less waste ending up in a landfill. Seems like a win/win!

What is compost tea?

Compost tea is a concoction of compost and liquid. It is brewed to encourage existing bacteria to multiply exponentially. The bacteria breaks down the organic matter in the soil for the plant food. Overnight, you can breed billions of bacteria. This bacteria is beneficial to the plants and deter pesky insects and diseases. Obviously when you have an organic garden, you are unable to use pesticides, so an alternative method is needed.

This Joe’s recipe, which makes enough to fertilize an acre:

Compost tea brewing.

2 cups of compost
1 Tbsp organic unsulphured molasses
1 Tbsp liquid kelp fertilizer
1 Tsp of liquid fish fertilizer
5 gallon bucket with room temperature water*

Directions: Stir all the ingredients together. Using an aerator from a fish tank, let sit and bubble for 24 hours. However, after 12 hours, add more molasses. In a large 2 gallon watering pail pour two cups of tea and then fill with water. Water your crops liberally with this mixture and repeat the process until the compost tea is depleted.

Rainwater collection barrel.

*If possible, use collected rainwater. If you use city water, it probably has chlorine in it, which kills the good bacteria!

Do you compost? Even if you don’t have a garden, you can reduce your carbon footprint.

Here are a few resources to get you started:

https://www.attainable-sustainable.net/composting-for-beginners/

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/10-composting-tips-for-college-students

https://gardenerspath.com/how-to/composting/compost-tea-feeds-protects-plants/

Composting info for UNE campuses: https://www.une.edu/sustainability/recycle/composting

I’d love to know your thoughts or tips on composting! Please post your thoughts below. Thanks everyone-

Develop Your Own Greenhouse

June 8, 2019 / cbaker11 / 0 Comments

Maine’s climate doesn’t support a great growing season.

Just ask my long-haired chihuahua and she’ll tell you.

New Mexican chihuahua swimming in snow.

If we planted seeds directly in the ground once the soil was warm enough, we’d never get any produce. On the other hand, buying seedlings from a greenhouse or the farmer’s market is pricey. It is even harder to determine if they were grown from genetically engineered seeds.

Every late spring, we start planting our seeds inside.

The Baker girls planting seeds in 2008.

Joe has purchased seeds from expensive online seed distributors, small hardware stores, or big-box stores. The seeds seem to have similar quality results. However, he only chooses organic, non-GMO seeds.

We have experimented with different starter planting options, such as peat soil pellets and small planters. We found out the difficult way that the peat soil pellets are definitely the best method. After planting the seeds in the soil pellets, we place the plastic top on the tray and set them in our living room by the big picture window.

Once they sprout, we bring the trays to grow in our little greenhouse.

Seedlings to be placed in the greenhouse.

Our greenhouse has evolved over the years.

We don’t have a large space to store one inside our house, so we set it up in our unheated backroom/shed. The greenhouse is always a project to build. Each year Joe tries to improve upon its function and structure.

This is what it looked like in 2008:

Humble origins.

Originally the greenhouse was built upon wooden crates with two sets of dual fluorescent lights acting as a large grow light. Joe had constructed a wooden frame and wrapped it in plastic on the sides. This structure was designed so that it could be lifted easily to water the plants. A space heater sat inside to keep the seedlings warm.

Fast forward to 2019.

New and improved structure!

Joe wrapped the inside of the frame with reflective Mylar sheeting and obtained a professional T5 grow light. The structure is lifted by a pulley system to gain access to the plants without disturbing the light.

An electric thermostat placed inside controls a space heater to keep the temperature uniform. The lights are controlled by a timer to ensure that the seedlings are exposed to 16 hours of light every day.

Seedlings in late April 2019.

We love the results!

There’s a sense of accomplishment in achieving this task by ourselves. Our seedlings grow quickly and once we get them in our garden, there’s no stopping them!

Want to get started on your own unique greenhouse?

Here are some great articles with some amazing ideas . It doesn’t matter where you live or what your budget is:

https://balconygardenweb.com/easy-diy-mini-greenhouse-ideas-creative-homemade-greenhouses/

https://www.shelterness.com/diy-indoor-greenhouses/

https://www.littlehouseliving.com/how-to-build-a-mini-greenhouse-for-free.html

Do you currently have a greenhouse?

I’d love to hear from anyone that has a greenhouse, has suggestions, or could offer any tricks of the trade. Post below and join the conversation!

Avoid This Epic Garden Fail-

June 1, 2019 / cbaker11 / 0 Comments

It has taken us years to develop our organic gardening method.

Chrissy doesn’t seem to mind the overabundance of leaves.

Our family has found that we are constantly learning new processes that work for us…and we are still making mistakes! For instance, a few years ago my husband put raw leaves in the garden to break down over the fall and winter. Sounds okay, right? Well, the following spring we planted our seedlings and nothing grew. By dumping the carbon based leaves directly on the soil, they absorbed all of the nitrogen in the garden to break down, so our plants were nitrogen-deficient.

Your soil could be lacking nutrients.

Don’t be complacent and guess which fertilizers you might use: you’ll have a no show crop. There is an inexpensive and informative way to discover how you can maintain balance.

Opt for a testing service.

Our garden in spring of 2012.

We have found the best deal for the money is a service run by the University of Maine in Orono. A test will cost about $20. If possible, send your soil sample in the fall and you will find yourself prepared to add nutrients in the spring. You will need to specify if you are growing a regular or organic garden. A student will test the sample, and in a few weeks you’ll receive this handy report:

Review the deficiencies and correct them.

Our soil sample report from Spring 2017.

The report clearly presents what major and micro nutrients you need to add (or perhaps minimize) in your garden soil. The instructions tell you exactly what products you will need to supplement your soil to maintain an optimum balance. We have been sending a sample in every year and has helped us create the best possible results.

More information:

I highly encourage you to check out these resources to avoid common garden mistakes:

https://www.farmersalmanac.com/gardening-mistakes-34501

https://www.ourheritageofhealth.com/beginner-gardening-mistakes-avoid/

https://www.naturallivingideas.com/15-common-gardening-mistakes-everyone-makes/

Have you run into any garden obstacles?

I’d love to hear what you think about our garden fail story. Do you have experiences to share? Please post below!