Last week I talked about setting your goals for the upcoming gardening season. Now that you are done that, where do we go from there? Today we are going to take a baby step closer to our goal of having a functional, practical kitchen garden. We are going to plan out a set of action steps to accomplish for February.

My Past Routine, and What’s Different This Time

If you are like me, just throw a bunch of stuff in the garden, which ends up costing more in the long run.

Without a plan, there is a lot of waste in the garden. Plants may not grow, bugs may eat half of your crop, you may even get really lucky and have too much produce, and not enough family or friends to give it to!

My garden was okay last season, despite a lack of planning and a pile full of neglect. This year I decided that by having a step by step plan will help the execution of the garden – sort of like a road map

February’s Action Steps:

• Read Mel’s All New Square Foot Gardening. The method I will use is almost exclusive to the award winning program.
• Decide what I want to grow – and why. I already know what I want to grow for the whole family, but for the purposes of this blog, we will have ourselves a poll. That’s right, I’ll grow what you like!
• Decide where to plant, Design a garden. We will be drawing out the spaces for planting, using  the guidelines in Mel’s book. I will be working off my notes from last year, but if this is your first year, working with your goals will give you what you need.
• Order seeds. I have a bunch of seeds I saved from last year. I plan to order some others. I will put a few links at the end of this post.
• Make new soil mix. I will be using the formula for Mel’s mix.
• Start seeds – I will be starting these out in a couple of weeks. It will be the first time I have ever grown from seed, so it should be interesting.

Some resources to get you started:

• Mel’s Book The All New Square Foot Garden (link goes to my Amazon Store)
• Organic Gardening Magazine
• Seed Starting Sites: Vesey’s Canada, or Vesey’s USA

Your Turn

Here I have my first ever poll on WDC. Tell me what you want to grow! Once I figure out how to put the poll in the side over there, you’ll be able to vote there too.

Why would I have a Garden update in the end of January? Hear me out here – I know it sounds a bit premature, but by the end of this post, I will show you how to fashion a set of clear goals so you can get the most out of your upcoming gardening season.

This turned out to be a good producer... now - had I really planned things out...

I have always had a haphazard method when it comes to gardening.

My method and plans were simple:

• Once the grounds warm up – go to the nursery, Wal-Mart, or wherever – and look at a bunch of plants.
• Ohhh! Shiny! Spend around $100-$200 on plants.
• Spend another $50 on compost, fertilizer, and “black earth.”
• Fix or replace all of my broken “gardening” tools, or buy something else that’s shiny this year. (Like a nifty seed starter!)
• Justify to the wife all the expenses, with the lame, “We’ll be saving money!”
• Plant my seeds – with the best of intentions of course!
• Watch the seedlings grow with baited breath.
• Plant the tiny seedlings with a careful, tender hand, and a prayer.
• Later, curse as the plants die off, overtake the area, or refuse to grow.

I did a little better last year after reading the new Mel Bartholomew’s All New Square Foot Gardening. I had a bit of a plan – complete with building some nifty little gardening boxes. Lucky for me, the system is pretty hands off – I managed to get quite a gardening haul despite the neglect I showered onto the unfortunate plants. As you can see in the photo above, watering was optional.

This year I am plan to do a lot better – by setting some goals.

• By setting some clear goals, I will have a sense of what I want from my garden.
• Having the end in mind first will help me make the roadmap to get there.
• Week by week I will be able to see what is working, what is not, and troubleshoot.
• There will be less waste of time, energy, and money by knowing what the goals are.
• I will save a ton of money by pre-planning.
• I will have a clear understanding at the end of the season whether the goals were met or not, and what to fix for next year.

How do you go about setting these goals?

Grab a pen and paper, and ask yourself these questions:

1. What do I ultimately want with my garden? What is the raison d’être? It could be to feed your family, to eat healthy, to make a gift – or anything you like. You are about to drop a lot of time and effort to this project, so having the reason why is the first step to your success.
2. What do I need to get done so I can succeed this year? Do you need to build raised beds? Read up on how to garden? Perhaps you need to have a compost bin set up, your earth tested, order some seeds – this is where you lay out the major points for your overall success.
3. Are there any areas that I need to look at that didn’t work out last year? (Or, if this is your first season, then think of what might come up.) An example of this is I grew a lot of tomatoes last year, but I only harvested 50%. I found the other 50% while picking up my dog’s waste in the back yard. This year I’ll make sure he can’t reach the tomatoes.
4. Is there anything that I am interested or excited about trying? Have you always wanted to try growing rosemary? How about Thai Birdseye chilies?

Here are my goals for this season in gardening:

1. Grow my own food for eating healthy in the summertime.
2. Grow enough for canning for the winter.
3. Grow enough herbs for dried herbs.
4. Grow enough herbs to make gifts this year.
5. Read up on Mel Bartholomew’s All New Square Foot Gardening.
6. Find seed catalogs and order the seeds I do not already have.
7. Plant the seeds I have indoors so I don’t have to drop a lot of money down in May.
8. Design a pleasing arrangement that will allow room for my child to play.
9. Make some flower boxes for the wife so she can have her garden area as well.
10. Keep the dog away from one of my growing areas so I can actually get my full tomato harvest.
11. Branch out with newer stuff, like garlic and ginger.
12. Grow grapes and possibly make wine.
13. Grow raspberries and blackberries.

Your Turn

Alright, so that is how you make your goals for the Garden this season. Next week I will get into designing an attack plan for the upcoming season.

So, what are your goals for the coming garden season? Let me know in the comments!

Winter is coming… and I have a problem

I guess I can count myself lucky that I live in southern Quebec. Here I am in the second day of November, and the temperature is still a balmy 7 degrees outside. (44 Fahrenheit for the Americans out there.) Rosemary is a hardy herb that does not survive the harsh winters we have up here in igloo-land. What’s a chef-writer to do?

I watched my garden patch as the days of November slowly approached, sneaking up on me like the mornings that greet you without sunlight, worried about the branches of rosemary awesomeness. Bringing the plant inside has never worked for me. It seems the shock is always too much for the fragile evergreen to bear. I’d have to endure the mutterings of my dearest lamenting about “another plant” inside the house.

Sure, drying the herb is an option – but I have never been satisfied with the results. The oils lose their potency over time, and all of the awesomeness that is rosemary is just … gone. If you want to see what I mean, go buy a jar of rosemary leaves. Open the bottle; there’s no distinct floral, pine scent to seduce your nostrils. Your mouth won’t water, expecting to be tantalized with promising combinations like lemons bursting with its acidic tones, or the earthy aroma of potatoes, roasted garlic, and the fruity, heady smell of a extra-virgin olive oil.

No, you’ll be greeted with a reaction-evoking smell – factory dust. Or, perhaps you are lucky – you’ll smell the same smells I was greeted when I first raided my mother-in-law’s spice rack – nothing.

I’ve read about people that chop up their herbs and freeze them in ice trays. That’s certainly a way to go if you are making a pesto, or a puree. With rosemary, though, the French have a saying, “ça va pas marcher.” (That won’t work. When you hack up rosemary, the oils inside are volatile and oxidize quickly. That’s why the works turn into a mess that looks like you are chopping through twigs, bark and mud on the cutting board. It’s hard enough getting a picky family to eat something new, want to try something that looks like it was accidentally dragged through your back lawn?

The solution

Then, as luck had it, I found a post over at Kalyn’s Kitchen on how she freezes rosemary, written in 2006. What struck me most about the method is her picture of rosemary after a year of freezing. That is something I can totally get into!

I am trying out this method, and I will let you all know how it goes. Anyone who knows me, knows that rosemary is my favorite herb. If this method turns out to be the bomb, then my thanks go out to Kalyn for introducing me to it.

Freezing Rosemary

1. Cut the rosemary branches right down to the roots. The roots will be going into compost anyway.
2. Cut the rosemary into six inch sprigs. Any longer than that and they wouldn’t fit into the freezing bag.
3. Place into a freezer bag with a zip-top (you know the brand,) and packed them in as nicely as I could.
4. Close the zipper until an inch is still open; gently force the air out of the bag.
5. Close the zipper all the way and fold the remaining plastic over to make a nice package.
6. Place in freezer for 1 to 2 weeks, or until needles are frozen completely.
7. Pull out bag from the freezer, strip all needles from the branches. (I like to keep the branches for soups and stews – why waste all that is good from the plant?)
8. Put needles into a glass jar, cover, and keep frozen until you need them.

I am a day behind due to an internet SNAFU. No worries though, the garden is coming along nicely! Here’s my progress for the family Victory Garden

It has been constantly raining over the last week. I chalk it up as good, except I have not been able to get outside to build my boxes. It looks like I will have to resort to building them inside!

As per the instructions on the package for the herb garden, once the “true leaves” make their appearance:

Isn’t that pretty? You should smell it – a sweet hint of coriander. Now comes the tough part:

Oh my, but how that hurts! No worries though; I will make sure these micro basil will go into a Caprese salad for lunch!

Finally, I want to leave you with a project that I have on my hands, and if it ever stops raining I will get out and take some pictures of the compost bins I plan to make with these little gems I picked up:

It seems that the nursery is just giving them away? I plan to build a nice, simple 2 compartment compost bin. No worries, there will be a tutorial for that!

That’s all for this week. If you are interested in finding out about more Square Foot Gardening, please visit my store link over at Amazon and buy the book so I can have a half cup of tea.

Wednesday has rolled around, and that means I will be updating you on my progress for the family Victory Garden. My oh Nelly, there is a LOT of work to do:

Honest, if it stops raining for any amount of time, my butt will be back there, for sure! I am going to be rocking the Mel Barthalomew’s All New Square Foot Gardening. (The link will take you to my Amazon store where you could purchase it and I can get a half cup of tea!)

Of course, that mess will have to be cleaned up!

Here is how our plants are doing:

Sweet baby oregano:

Now some baby thyme:

Beautiful parsley:

Majestic coriander:

Gorgeous basil:

Now that it has started, I find myself reluctant to thin the babies out. Mel warns about this in his book. It is necessary for the herbs to grow, so I will have to bite back my pain. After I finish this post – snip, snip, snip!

You know what is totally NOT fair? My wife doesn’t even have to try to have her garden section grow. She is much smarter than me; she planted perennials. Of course, you can’t eat what she planted, but hers IS effortless.

Here are tiger lilies coming up:

The problem with those little buggers is they invade all parts of your garden. When we first moved into this house, they were everywhere. Yes, they are beautiful, but they are a major Pain in My Ass.

In the front of the house, effortless tulips!

Again, a little work in the fall a couple years back, and that is what she gets. Small consolation: they will be gone by the time I can transplant the herbs into the garden. How about a money shot on that tulip?

Here is another set of effortless plants, but I have no idea what they are. I will have to ask the wife what they are:

That’s all for this week. If you are interested in finding out about more Square Foot Gardening, please visit my store link over at Amazon and buy the book so I can have a half cup of tea.

It has been 2 weeks since my son and I planted our fresh herbs for the victory garden. I thought an update and a couple of pictures were in order:

Now the seeds are nicely sprouted, so it is time to take off the cover and set the planter in a sunny spot.

Isn’t that some lovely basil? I am supposed to wait for the “true leaves” to appear before I snip the seeds back to one or two per square. Don’t worry about the waste though, micro basil is lovely!

Hard to believe that this will become thyme! One of my favorite herbs by far, I wonder what micro thyme tastes like?

Lovely, majestic coriander. This will be so lovely in my Thai Curry Soup.

So far it has been a lovely project to do with my son. The anticipation, the wonder when we propped the lid off far outweighs the 15 dollars spent on the project. Being able to grow your own? Priceless.

Spring is finally here, and you may have heard a few crickets chirping around these halls. Spring cleaning; it’s important to come back to what matters the most. Today I want to show you a victory for me and my family. The start of our “Victory Garden.”

I knew when I passed the Jiffy Instant Herb Garden it was going to be a great time for my son and I. Plus, if I could keep my wife’s nerves down enough, a LOT of fun could be had by all.

Here my son is diligently reading his “constructions” as it is very important to follow them.

Fill up the little peat boxes…

Then get ready to plant the seeds. The little buggers were small even for Boo’s hands, so we used a container to pinch them into our fingers. Worked great.

A little water into there, making sure the peat containers’ sides are moist…

Now comes the time we have all been waiting for. (Especially Mommy in the background there, grinding her teeth at the mess on the table!)

Boo proved adept at setting out the holes for the seeds. He caught on really quick, and is a natural.

Now that the cover is on, all that has to happen is the hardest part. We wait.
I took these photos this morning before going to work: (3 days after planting.)

There it is, the start of something great for the summer. Boo had a great time getting his hands dirty, and learning about planting seeds. He also remarked, “Mommy’s gonna FREAK when she sees this mess.”

What a smart little boy!

What do you think? Is it Physalis?

I have been off on vacation, and truth be told, it has not been so relaxing for me. I am a naturally wound up guy, so relaxing is a bit of a hard thing for me to do. Panic attacks, fear of dying and the works. Goes to show you that your health is in your mind as well.

So, I have to learn to truly relax. I have not posted much in the last few days because I needed to get my mind off of cooking for a couple of days.

Truth is, I don’t have much in the way of hobbies other than cooking, and I guess that can be unhealthy. I guess my garden counts as a hobby, albeit a neglected one. Well, nothing takes the mind off a sharp chest pain like weeding.

Today I actually sat down and watched a couple of videos in an attempt to find out why my San Marzano tomatoes are not preforming like I would like. One plant totally is sucking wind, and the other is a bit overgrown. I found a cool, short video describing what to do – pruning your tomato plant to 2 lines. I hope I have not screwed my plant up too badly now.

My yard also looks like a jungle. I am sure the neighbors appreciate the work I put into ripping out the waist-high thistles, dandelions and other nameless wonders. All the dog manure is picked up, ready to go, and even the herbs are properly clipped.

I was in a corner of my lot cleaning out what looked like some weird vines when I stumbled onto something that blew me away. I use Physalis all the time, (AKA ground cherries, cape gooseberries,) and I was startled to see vines growing on the ground. Thing is, I never planted them before!

Here are some crappy pictures, can you all tell me if I am right about this?

Excuse the beer shorts... Here is a shot.

I am so excited, if I am right, accidental gardening is an awesome thing! Now to figure out how to make it grow better.

Nothing is more Primal than growing your own. You get a sense of ownership, pride. Best yet, a better sense of what you are growing, what is going onto your table. More than ever you control how your produce is grown, from plantling to the table.

I am nicely pink all over, with a well reddened neck today, as I put the starting touches into what will be the WDC Family’s yearly garden.

I have taken things in a new direction. I just cannot fight the dog anymore for space in the garden, so I decided to open it up to him and all, and get the produce into containers. The idea is that we will be better able to manage the garden. The best part, I paid next to nothing for the set up that you see here, as almost all of it is recycled material!

First, the obligatory shots:

It is a start. This is from the door area of the Cabana

This is from the opposite angle, from the steps of my deck

It doesn’t look like much, but it is a start. Let’s get into the nitty-gritty, shall we?

Try and get that you bastards! I will have some strawberries this year!

I had planted strawberries last year. I think that they were lovely, except I never did get a chance to taste them. Between Hershey and the birds, they had them all. I was a little fed up when I saw some robins eating my berries, so I went and got some netting to work around them. A major PITA to install, but I WILL taste my strawberries this year. OTOH, I have lost them all to Loo. Well, priorities first, see!

I will be using this for veggies... let's hope it is better than last year! Notice the chives in the corner..

I still have the framework for the SFG from last year. I accidentally grew a crapload of cucumbers in it without even trying. This year I will try and do better.

A little different than Mel's Mix, but I can't sell it...

I filled all containers with a mix of my own design. Okay, I was HEAVILY influenced my a gent named Mel Bartholomew. Whereas his mix is vermiculite, top soil and peat moss, mine is slightly altered. I might post the recipe one day.

Netting for the strawberry, a San Marzano tomato, and some thyme... all in recycled affairs!

My wife makes fun of me because I cannot even pass by the neighbors when it is the once-a-month BIG garbage day without cherry picking things from it. In this case, I got some awesome huge outdoor potting planters. A few drill holes here and there, and we are good to go.

My wife is kind of right. I once “acquired” a suitcase from the garbage pile, wondering why the hell someone would throw away a perfectly good case. I lugged that bad boy home, then my wife looked at me. She only innocently asked if the zipper was still good. I hate it when she is right…

Nice! My favorite tomato!

These may not be grown in Italy, but hey, they are superior for making sauces. Plus, it is not too primal to have something flown from the “Boot” to you anyway, is it?

More netting, another San Marzano, some herbs as well. Recycled affairs people!

Recycled = free. Sweet!

The best catch of the day, ignoring the quizzing looks of my wife, was the old counter someone had thrown out. I think it makes a perfect counter for my plants to keep out of Hershey’s pee range. Let’s see him lift it that high!

Nothing fancy here. I have so many pails, my wife will be happy to rid of some.

Why not use pails? A drill for some drainage holes, and a few rocks on the bottom make for pleasant containers. Plus, I am a chef, so they are technically “free” for use. Better than in a landfill. What you are seeing there are French Lavender, Stevia, Sage and Basil.

Trust me, you WANT mint in a container

Finally, notice the nice raiser for the pot. Yes, it is a milk crate. I remember a time when using these was way against the law. I know, I live dangerously. Perhaps the milk crate police will come and confiscate it. Mint is known to overtake everything in its path, so it is smart to plant it in a container.

So, that is what I was up to today. Any thoughts on what type of vegetables I should grow in the SFG? Let me know in the comments, I would love to hear about it!

Plus, I wonder if anyone has any experience growing lettuces in a balcony box? I think it would be trés cool to snip what you need right out of your doorstep. I was looking at a coconut bottomed one that might be cool!

photo courtesy of seier+seier+seier of Flickr under Creative Commons License

It has been a while since I have hit the publish button here. The reasons are three-fold:

1) I had a huge food costing project that I had 2 weeks to complete. That meant all recipes, price lists, costing and final reporting. Whew! It was quite the project, but worth it!

2) I have been thinking about this site. I am sitting on several different posts, but I have not published them, for there is a nagging fear in the back of my head. I recently (on Aug 1st) checked my stats, and it was a bit of an eye-opener for me. Right in black and white, I found what people like about my site. Mainly, recipes and posts that help them somehow. Now, there has been some soul searching, and I am now ready to give what I think will make the site better. That means I will discontinue the “What I am eating”, “Garden Updates”, all frugal posts not pertaining to recipes, and rants that have no value to you, the reader. What I want to do is give you what you want, and that is what I will continue to do, in my wacky way. This is the first thing I want to do to make this site better.

3) I have been battling a heavy ear infection for the last 3 months, that has recently come to head since last weekend. I am talking about not being able to chew, ear pounding, blood from the ear kind of infection. I am on 2 different types of antibiotics, and popping aspirin like it is candy. I hope it is going to go down soon.

I am also looking into buying a new theme here. I like the look of the site, but I want to clean it up a little more. I am looking around for options, and I will pay if I have to. All in the name of a good site, hear?

I am working on a post for Tom Naughton’s site, a follow up to the franken stock post. I wnat to have it done soon, so I will have something for you later. In the meantime, keep cooking, and remember, it must be Well Done!