Miss Modish- Mojo Maker

The End and The Beginning

Hello all you Petal/Pedal peddlers! As Modish prepares for changes, P+P must also change, and with that today I say farewell. Before the heat wave hit, we the stewards of Sweet Haven Homestead were working on a greenhouse. I'd hoped to have it finished before today, but ... well, the heat and humidity of the southeast will take the motivation out of anyone.

We followed Adam Fyall's instructions (as well as some tips from Eliot Coleman and Farm in My Pocket) and bought most of the materials from a farm supply hardware store. The poly for the cover came from a greenhouse supply website (this is what we got). Charlie and Mabel followed Adam's directions with few modifications, the cool thing about his instructions are that he used his design for a few seasons and went back and adjusted his design and instructions--he's has already done most of the mistake-making legwork!

With a relatively small investment for a greenhouse I now have a place to keep me gardening through the winter!

If you can believe it, I'm fighting back a few tears as I type this last post. Knowing Modish will grow and fluorish as an even more extraordinary blog is keeping my tears at bay. Thank you Jena, for having me here, and thank you readers for making me feel welcome. Keep on growing!

I hope you'll check in with me at Wolfie and the Sneak and (my blog) every once in a while to see what I'm up to and to say hi. I'd love to hear what you're growing, too!

Renee Garner has a passion to make things grow, although her brownish thumb wants her to believe otherwise.  When mud pies aren't on the menu, you can find her doodling the days away at Wolfie and the Sneak.

Something to chew on

Seems every time I turn my head there is an article about growing food. Sometimes food growing is shown in good light, sometimes not. Many of them give me the feeling gardening isn't simply about plants, but as much about the people cultivating them.

Image from Edible Estates

Most recently, I've seen a rash of newspapers covering HOA feuds and court and cases proving local governments are not necessarily wild about literally seeing food growing.  Of course, that's not the case everywhere.

Think about it, decreasing grass and increasing organic food crops can help heal our water supplies by reducing chemical run off while increasing ground water absorption. I say three cheers for that! And another three cheers for: Less mowing! Yay! Less of a burden on municipal water filtration! Yay! You get food from your yard! Yay! You can share with neighbors! Yay! (Wait, that made 4 cheers.)

Image from Flickr user edibleoffice

All sorts of people are involved and affected by food production. It's reaching way beyond farms and scaling down to the individual. Fritz Haeg's Edible Estates has been at the forefront of the front yard food movement. Yesterday the New York Times used the word permaculture in a pretty lengthy piece about creating a landscape of sustenance. No matter where gardens are garnering attention, one thing is for sure - the practice of growing food has a surprisingly large impact.

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Image from Flickr user waltarrrrr

Each time food gardening is in the spotlight I grow increasingly convinced that growing food is a viable way to grow community. After all, if an act so simple as planting a seed can divide communities, the reverse should also hold true, right?

How about you? Have a recent run-in with rhubarb or do the neighbor's tomatoes taunt you? Do you think growing food brings you closer or further apart with others in your community?

Renee Garner has a passion to make things grow, although her brownish thumb wants her to believe otherwise.  When mud pies aren't on the menu, you can find her doodling the days away at Wolfie and the Sneak.

Hot Hot Heat

Will this summer heat ever let up? Around here (in NC) even with the rain the heat just envelopes you, and the moisture from the rain makes everything thick and muggy. We usually spend sunny days outdoors, but this has been a week of staying inside, drinking lots of water and eating fresh veggies.

One such sweet relief: tomatoes. As the days warm up, the big bold berries ripen and the true flavor of summer comes alive. The lush, juiciness re-hydrates; homegrown, vine-ripened tomatoes take me away, no Calgon needed. Add a bit of fresh chopped basil for its cooling properties, and I can {almost} completely forget the three digit heat index outside. 

Are you growing tomatoes? What are your favorite types to grow or eat? Not a fan of the mater? What's keeping you cool during these long, hot days?

Renee Garner has a passion to make things grow, although her brownish thumb wants her to believe otherwise.  When mud pies aren't on the menu, you can find her doodling the days away at Wolfie and the Sneak.

Gleaning Green Beans

If you planted green beans this year, you're probably knee deep in them at this point. When my friend Bob told me he's all beaned out and isn't going to pick anymore from his crop, I offered to pick the rest. After a bit of hard bargaining, we had a deal. I'll give him some canned beans in exchange for the free produce.

Without going on and on about the virtues of gleaning, that's exactly what my little one and I did for about an hour yesterday. We picked through a row of Blue Lake (and a few rogue string bean plants) and came home with a plastic grocery bag bursting at the seams with our harvest of beans.

What will I do with all these beans? I'll pressure can most of them, but a few have already been blanched and frozen for quick preservation. They'll quickly get used when cooler weather hits and our own beans are no longer producing.

Tired of plain ol' beans? Blanch a handful, mix 'em up with chopped sweet onions and a sliced garden-fresh cucumber, then top with vinaigrette. Refrigerate and you have yourself a tasty green bean salad to snack on.

Growing beans yourself? Interested in getting your glean on? What in the world will you do with all your beans?

Renee Garner has a passion to make things grow, although her brownish thumb wants her to believe otherwise.  When mud pies aren't on the menu, you can find her doodling the days away at Wolfie and the Sneak.

Share the Wealth

During a recent gardening geek out session, someone asked me if I had any mint to spare. Resisting the urge to double over in laughter, I asked how many garbage bags he wanted. Okay, maybe not garbage bags, but mint is one of those plants that will sprawl like a poorly planned city so a hard pruning won't hurt it. 

I went home and cut off several handfuls of mint for him, stood up, looked around the garden and realized I had plenty of other herbs to spare. There's no way I could use all the rosemary, thyme, and oregano that were encroaching on my tomatoes, and don't get me started on catnip. Thus was born my new favorite way to unload, ahem, give away herbs that grow crazy.

What you need:

• A 6-pack carrier for bottled beer (or soda)
• 6 small jars
• An abundance of herbs (I had thyme,  oregano, rosemary, basil, and enough mint to fill 2 spots)
• Tongue depressors to label each section, label the types of herbs with waterproof ink

 
If you don't like the graphics on the 6-pack holder, cover it with kraft paper. I happened to like mine, it emphasized the seasonality with a gift of fresh herbs.

Put each jar in a separate section of the 6-pack holder, and fill halfway with fresh water. The water will keep the herbs fresh and perky until the recipient can use them (or get them to a fridge!)

Pinch the lower leaves from the herbs so no leaves will be below the water line. Leaves under water for a couple of days will make for stinky, slimy water-- not appealing. {Bonus: the pinched leaves from my bouquets are now drying on the counter for winter use.}

Make little bouquets of individual types of herbs and tuck the stems in the water. Repeat one type of herb per jar for all 6 jars and you're done! Tuck a tongue depressor label between the jar and the cardboard, slightly sticking out.

Give the package to your favorite gourmand. Sit back and gracefully accept the accolades from your generosity all the while knowing you were really just doing a little garden maintenance.

Renee Garner has a passion to make things grow, although her brownish thumb wants her to believe otherwise.  When mud pies aren't on the menu, you can find her doodling the days away at Wolfie and the Sneak.

bench {im}pressing

If you're going to have lots of pretty plants, you need to have a few niches in the yard to view mother nature's handiwork, right? There are a handful of tutorials on the web on how to take cheap chairs and turn them into a bench.

This Homestyle magazine version is pretty, playful and sophisticated with a splash of colors on the wood slats. Studio G's blog posted a before and after: 2 mundane chairs turned metal/wood modern rustic. Either of these could be done with 2 chairs ready for a second life, some scrap wood, maybe some paint, and a little elbow grease.

I think a quick scour of the flea market or Saturday yard saling would quickly turn up a pair of chairs begging for such a transformation, don't you?

Renee Garner has a passion to make things grow, although her brownish thumb wants her to believe otherwise.  When mud pies aren't on the menu, you can find her doodling the days away at Wolfie and the Sneak.

Pesky plants and persistent herbicides

Imagine this: you've worked the dirt, put in a few seeds, a few more transplants, water regularly, and everything in your garden is going along swimmingly. You decide to give it all the nutrient rich reward of top dressing with compost and bam! It all droops, leaves start curling, and growth stops. Some plants even die.

What the hey?!? It could be you have a case of persistent herbicide. What's a persistent herbicide, you ask? It's when an herbicide, designed to target certain plants, hangs around the plant party well after everyone else has gone home. It maintains its active chemical form in the soil, in the plants it doesn't target, and even in rainwater and dew. It sticks around through the composting process. Yep, even hot batches of compost--it doesn't "burn" off like some other chemicals.

My garden, mulched with free grass clippings.

I'm not really here to write a long-winded, gloomy post about chemical residue (I've already done that) but just thought a warning was in place since I'm a big proponent of taking free organic matter from your neighbors. Commonly the worst offending chemicals are available to professionals, but keep in mind they're considered safe for pasture land. Since they're persistent (and I mean persistent) the chemicals remain active through the complex digestive system of cows and come out remaining as effective in cattle pee and poop.

Also, Scotts Miracle Gro will soon include Imprelis in some of their consumer grade products. Imprelis is one of those persistent herbicides that can take anywhere from 30 days to several years to break down. Bottles will warn consumers not to compost matter treated with the herbicide, but I for one, am a label skimmer and wonder just how many people will read the label.

Squash leaf curl, possibly from persistent herbicide residue.Image from Flying Tomato Farm.

What can you do to prevent herbicide heartbreak? Be an informed freegan! Read up! When scouting bags of leaves and grass clippings, skip over yards that look a little too green and a little too uniform in texture. Lots of times you can find free, composted horse and cow manure on Craigslist. If you're getting some, ask the farmer ask a few questions: Was the pasture treated with anything that contains picloram, clopyralid, or aminopyralid? Was their feed hay treated with any persistent herbicides? How long has the manure been composted?

Need to get rid of some weeds of your own? There are some pre-emergent treatments for lawns made from corn byproducts. Try one of those out as a chem-free solution. If you have a small area that needs weeding but don't want to get your hands in it, boiling water poured right on the leaves usually works for me. If you have a bigger area try a salt and vinegar solution. Mmm, tasty, now I want potato chips.

Do weeds in the grass bother you? How do you handle them? Any run-ins with a bad batch of compost? Any other burning plant questions? Comment away! I love to hear your gardening thoughts!

Renee Garner has a passion to make things grow, although her brownish thumb wants her to believe otherwise.  When mud pies aren't on the menu, you can find her doodling the days away at Wolfie and the Sneak.

What would Popeye Think?

This year I'm thinking outside the typical garden box to find edibles that will stick around through the winter. One such veggie came highly recommended from a few different sources, so I got some seeds to try it out. New Zealand Spinach, have you heard of it?

I started my plants from seed--the instructions said to soak them 24 hours before planting. Some of them I soaked, some of them I didn't. They all sprouted, that is to say, each pod sprouted many many little seedlings. Needless to say, I have been giving away plants left and right.

The mature plants are kind of vine-y, kind of bushy. They sprawl across the ground but seem to want to keep their heads up, aimed at the sky. My plants are now about a foot long; well, actually "were" about a foot long because I chopped off about half of each vine for dinner last night.

I wasn't sure how to prepare it and briefly thought about following the blog Chocolate and Zucchini's way. Instead I just sauteed some onion, added a little fresh basil, salt and pepper, homegrown zucchini and about 2 cups of fresh New Zealand Spinach leaves pinched from the stalk. Sauteed everything until just cooked, still maintaining a bit of crunch, then I added a tablespoon of butter.

In the meantime I boiled some of Chef Joe Bonaparte's fava bean and cheese pasta that I bought from our local farmers market. When done, I strained the water off and added it to the vegetables and holy wow. What a divine dinner. New Zealand spinach, when cooked, is like regular spinach, but it holds up to heat with a nice firm crunch, even after a bit of time on the stove.

A "spinach" that's strong to the finish. Second helping please! Have you tried New Zealand spinach before? Any tips or recipes? Perhaps a Popeye reference or two?

Renee Garner has a passion to make things grow, although her brownish thumb wants her to believe otherwise.  When mud pies aren't on the menu, you can find her doodling the days away at Wolfie and the Sneak.

Hey Sister, Grow Sister

Bit by bit our yard is transforming into my permie vision. If you're not familiar with the term "permaculture" it is, as simply as I can put it, creating a self-sustaining ecosystem. When you get all Dave Jacke on the topic you start to consider root shape, plant function and the details. I'm not a details kind of gal, so I think one of the easiest ways to understand permaculture principals is through the 3 Sisters Gardening technique: growing corn, beans, and squash together.

The beans accumulate nutrients to share with the heavy eater (corn), while the cucurbit (squash, cucmbers, winter squash) uses the height of the corn as a trellis. It's a little more complex than that, I imagine, but the simplified explanation works well for illustrative purposes, garden planning, and my meager brain. Each plant serves several purposes beyond providing food--some plants repel pests, others serve as a trellis, while others act like a living fertilizer. All the while they provide beauty!

Not only that, the keyhole shape of the bed will be a fun and imaginative little hideaway for playtime with Mabel. Can you imagine a better nook to read a book, hidden on three sides by a small jungle of food? I think that's a pretty good way to grow, don't you?

Renee Garner has a passion to make things grow, although her brownish thumb wants her to believe otherwise.  When mud pies aren't on the menu, you can find her doodling the days away at Wolfie and the Sneak.

Growing Small Accomplishments

Apparently it doesn't take a lot to excite me, so bear with me as I gloat over what is a giant accomplishment in a small package.

I grew a zucchini.

Yes, I know. Zucchini and squash are pretty common to grow, fairly easy and all that, but we've had an infestation of squash borers for as long as I can remember. If you've ever had squash bugs and vine borers, you know the terror of having a happy healthy plant one day, then the next you're left with a hollow stemmed mushy wilted mess.

Borers live in the dirt and just wait to wreak havoc from year to year. You get one borer and they'll eat their fill from the dirt on up through the stem, totally destroying the plant. To add insult to injury, they'll then lay eggs in the soil so the next generation can do the same the next year.

It's total devastation when you've spent a winter dreaming of fried squash for dinner.

It's also kind of embarrassing when people ask you what you're growing and there's no squash, zucchini, or winter squash on the list. They're basics for crying out loud. What kind of veggie gardener doesn't grow at least one of them?!

So yes, this year I get to gloat: I grew a zucchini. It looks like I'll get at least a few more, too, but I'm not holding my breath.

Renee Garner has a passion to make things grow, although her brownish thumb wants her to believe otherwise.  When mud pies aren't on the menu, you can find her doodling the days away at Wolfie and the Sneak.