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Greenhouse Update Part Deux

I am very excited with the progression of our greenhouse! Nate did a ton of work this past weekend getting the floor ready and starting on the pond in the center. A drainage pipe was laid in front of the greenhouse because we realized after last week's storms that there isn't very good drainage in that area. He also built a two-tiered raised garden that will be located between two raised gardens. The same layout will be built on the other side of the greenhouse and a workbench (yay!) will be in between the gardens.

View of Greenhouse

You can see from the photograph above how the layout will look for the greenhouse. The opening in the frame is where the doorway will be. There is a bit of a step to get into the greenhouse, but as long as we are careful I think it will be fine. Maybe we can work on making more of a ramp to get into the structure. The drainage pipe (black piping with holes) is around the front half and half buried into the dirt. There are a lot of roots from the huge pine trees that we have in our backyard so it was a bit difficult to get the piping laid down. The center is where the pond will be located - Nate laid out the outline with stones from our previous pond and placed several bags of "play sand" for the bottom. It's going to look great once it is finished! I hope that we can have some koi fish :-) Just from Google it looks like small koi require at least 100 gallons and large can need up to 500-900 gallons of water!

Tiered raised garden

Layout of raised gardens

And, of course I have to give a shout-out to my little helper, Deacon. He brought a ball in to play with while his parents were working on the greenhouse. He particularly liked the sand - I think it must be cool and feel good on a humid day. We're going to have to build up the pond pretty quickly if we don't want Deacon to ruin the sand bottom!

Deacon on top of the sand

Play with me!

I have had several seedlings ready for a couple of weeks now for transplanting. This included corn, squash (yes, I know...I am trying again), cucumber, and lima beans. We also bought some broccoli, brussel sprouts, spinach, and a great looking pepper plant from the local store. It may be wishful thinking to plant the squash and pepper plant so late in the season, but with the greenhouse the cold shouldn't be a problem only the possible lack of full light. There are still a good couple of months left before that is a real concern.

Preparing to plant

Planting the first garden

Plants from the AeroGarden and new plants

More planting

I first tried to organize the seedlings by placing them in all three gardens. Of course, as soon as I did that, I immediately wanted to rearrange the way they were going to be planted. This is mostly due to the space requirement of several of the plants - brussel sprouts and broccoli require more space than the others. The cucumber plants needed to be on the ends of the raised garden to ensure space for the vine to grow. There is a really neat website that details companion planting (see below for the online resource). It's a pretty neat source and I tried to use some of the information when planting the raised gardens.

Set-up of garden

For example, in this garden the brussel sprouts were planted in the middle to right section of the garden, which was lined with spinach on either side. Leafy greens do OK underneath taller plants. I am hoping that even with a small space we can get a lot out of the garden. The corn is in the back, and okra lining the left-hand side of the garden.

The middle raised garden is two-tiered, which is really nice for growing plants that require a little more dirt (think carrots, potatoes, onions). I do not have these ready to plant yet and I need to do a little more research on what potatoes would be best to grow. Onions deter a lot of pests, so it would be great to get some growing sooner rather than later.

I planted the cucumber on either side of the bottom tier with the idea that once they start to grow (in their viney fashion), I can place a trellis-type gizmo in the space between the gardens. This will help keep the vine from taking over the garden as well as pretty up the greenhouse. There is also a squash plant in the middle, and interspersed between are more spinach plants. The spinach is pretty small and the root system wasn't all that great, but I am hoping with a little bit of love, good soil, and water they will grow just fine.

Last, but certainly not least, the right-hand raised garden was planted with the pepper plant taking up most of the space. I tried to take this apart because it looks like three separate plants, but I didn't want to ruin the root system so I left the plant as is. The cage is a nice touch so that I don't have to worry about the plant falling over.

On the left half there are several plants of broccoli and the two remaining squash seedlings are in the center of the garden. Squash do get rather large, but there should be enough space for them to spill over into the sides of the garden without getting in the way. Broccoli also requires a lot of space, but I am going for survival of the fittest so after a while, whichever few plants look the best will remain. This is also a good fall-winter crop, along with brussel sprouts and dark leafy greens.


And that's the update for now! You can see in this last photograph how the gardens look after being planted. I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out - I think Nate did a great job building the type of gardens that I needed for the greenhouse. He is going to build three more in the same fashion to put on the other side. I'm sure that I will have plenty more seedlings to transplant! The gardens do require a whole lot of soil to fill and I am staying with the mixture of black kow, sphagnum moss, and vermiculite but I also added garden soil as filler. The nice thing is that we can continue to reuse the soil, just add a bit of compost and manure and mix well and voila! New soil for the next vegetable garden.

After planting!

I am very excited for part three of the Greenhouse series and hope that you are too! I am still researching what types of plants will do the best in greenhouses and when they need to be planted. Right now I am seeing what works and what doesn't in a trial and error type fashion since this is my first year gardening.

Online Resources:
http://www.koiacres.com/koi/faq.html
http://www.anglianhome.co.uk/goodtobehome/garden-news/a-vegetable-growing-cheat-sheet-infographic/#.U_J09WORidm

Homemade pickles!

This might be the largest cucumber I have ever seen. I was working on the squarefoot garden this morning (next to the deck) and noticed this sucker growing underneath the deck. Unfortunately, I have not been taking great care of the garden as the one on the deck since the whiteflies invaded. Side note: the insecticidal soap does seem to have helped - time will tell. So, I was fixing the cucumber vine when I saw a huge cucumber fully grown (too grown, really) underneath the deck. Since I already made cucumber salad (http://stephmixson.blogspot.com/2014/07/two-five-minute-appetizers.html), I Googled cucumber recipes and homemade pickles came up. I love cucumbers, and I also love pickles. With this huge cucumber I figured that pickles would be a good way to use the vegetable. For the recipe see the end of this blog.

As usual, here is the obligatory ingredient photograph. The recipe calls for 6 cups of sliced cucumber. Believe it or not, this huge cucumber is about 6 cups worth of slices. I ended up slicing and then halving the whole thing. The end that is on the whiter side I left out because it isn't ripe, or rather is overripe. The recipe also calls for green pepper, which is from the garden - we picked up a plant the other day. There is also distilled white vinegar, white sugar, and salt. Pretty simple!

To prepare the pickles, I followed the recipe as written. I didn't want to make up anything this time around since I am not sure how specific the ratios are for pickles. With the amount of sugar, I am sure these will be sweet after they marinate over night!

First, boil 1 cup white vinegar, 2 1/2 cups sugar, and 1 tablespoon salt for about 10 minutes. The point is to fully dissolve the sugar before adding to the vegetables. While this was boiling, I sliced the cucumber, green bell pepper (1 cup), and onion (1 cup) and placed in a mixing bowl. After the sugar mixture dissolved, I added it to the vegetables and mixed with a spoon. Then, poured everything into a Tupperware container for storage. The recipe calls for a sterile container (if I was pickling for the long term I would have done this), but I figured that a plastic container would work for the time being. I did taste a cucumber slice, but it had not been marinating that long. After about an hour or so I tried another piece and it did taste like a pickle! I bet that after sitting overnight in the vinegar/sugar mixture the pickles will be ready. Delicious!

If you are looking for another way to prepare your cucumbers, check out Allrecipes.com. There are tons of recipes out there for cucumber salads and Greek dressings as well as additional recipes for pickles.


Online Recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Homemade-Refrigerator-Pickles/Detail.aspx?evt19=1

Farmers' Market Volunteers

Nate and I have signed up to be volunteers at the South Durham Farmers' Market (http://www.southdurhamfarmersmarket.org/). We helped out for the first time this past Saturday by setting up before the market opened - 7AM. I am sure that people think we are crazy for being up so early, but honestly we are up every day around 5:30 or 6AM because of Deacon. Setting up at 7AM works better with our schedule than taking down everything when the market closes at 12PM.

Obligatory "Before" Shot

The other nice thing is that the market is literally just around the corner so we can leave a few minutes before 7AM to get there on time. Nate contacted the South Durham Farmers' Market Manager, Elizabeth, to ask how we could help out. The morning set up involves setting up several tents, tables, cones to block off the parking lot, etc. We helped by moving tables from storage over to the parking lot. It's amazing how fast set-up can go when you have several hands to help out! In addition to Nate and I, there was another woman there to help out. She, coincidentally, also lives in Parkwood :-)

Kids Tent

We set up the kids' tent, which is where kids can come and do arts and crafts and play while their parents are checking out the produce. The tent was actually really easy to set up - you just pull apart the four posts (helps to have 4 people!) and they lock in place. The backdrop was painted with a barn, tree, and some farm animals and was attached to the top with Velcro. Very cute.

"After" Shot

As I mentioned earlier, there are also signs and cones used to block off the market so that cars don't drive through - apparently that has happened in the past!

Unfortunately, they do not allow pets in the market so we couldn't bring Deacon. It only took us about 30 minutes to set everything up including a table where they sell Farmers' Market T-shirts. Naturally, we both got a t-shirt to support the market!

Farmers' Market T-Shirt

I think it would be neat to be a vendor at the Farmers' Market in the future. You pay an annual fee of $75 as well as a $15 daily stall fee for when you are there. That would mean we would need to be able to sell enough to cover those costs. Of course, right now we do not have any excess produce to sell, but it is fun to think about. Nate also sent me a list of the top most profitable specialty crops to grow. This includes Bonsai trees, mushrooms, Ornamentals, gourmet garlic, etc. (http://www.profitableplantsdigest.com/10-most-profitable-specialty-crops-to-grow/). I'm just taking it a day at a time to see what we can grow with our current set up of raised gardens and eventually the greenhouse. 

I also came across this neat site that describes 8 foods you will never have to buy again (http://www.unbelievable-facts.com/2014/08/8-vegetables-you-only-need-to-buy-once.html). We are already growing garlic, and I plan to keep one bunch from the ones growing now to use as future garlic! I thought it was interesting that you can regrow carrots just using the tops. If I can get this new crop of seedlings to be successful, I will definitely be trying out this trick. The last one that I thought was interesting was that romaine lettuce can be grown by reusing the bottom of the head. I bought a bag at the store today (sorry Farmers' Market) and once we eat a few of those, I would like to try regrowing the lettuce. 

Support your local farmers! Go to a Farmers' Market near you - the produce is fresh and delicious and usually about the same price, if not cheaper, than your grocery store. 

Homemade Sausage and Hashbrowns

We made a fantastic breakfast Sunday morning of homemade sausage and hashbrowns (recipes from Allrecipes.com are at the bottom of the post).We were at the Farmer's Market Saturday morning and bought 2 lb of potatoes and some sausage from one of the vendors.

The ingredients for the hashbrowns included potatoes, diced onion, egg, salt, pepper, and olive oil for cooking.

In addition to the sausage (which was fresh from the market!) we needed brown sugar (we had to substitute regular sugar), cloves, red pepper, salt, pepper, and we added rosemary and parsley from the herb garden.

Nate prepared the sausage by first mixing all of the dry ingredients together and we improvised based on what was available in our kitchen - 2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon pepper, 1 tablespoon sugar (we should have used less because brown sugar is less sweet than regular), 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes, a pinch of crushed cloves, a couple leaves of parsley minced with the herb scissors, and some rosemary.

Dry ingredients for sausage

Patties ready for cooking

Nate added the package of sausage to the dry ingredients and mixed well with his hands. The patties were formed by hand and cooked on a skillet with a tiny bit of olive oil. The patties were cooked for a couple minutes on each side.

Grated potatoes

While Nate was preparing the sausage, I made the hashbrowns using potatoes from the Farmer's Market. The recipe calls for mashed potatoes and if we had some leftover that is what I would have used. Instead, I ended up grating a couple cups worth of potatoes and using that instead. I diced the onion using the vidalia onion chopper to make it easier. I added an egg, salt, and pepper to the potatoes, mixed well and cooked that on the skillet.

Dicing onion

As you can see from these photographs, the sausage patties were cooked on the skillet as well as the hashbrowns. I didn't make the hashbrowns into patties, which would be easy to do with mashed potatoes. Instead, I went for more of a skillet hashbrown that ended up being very tasty. This had to be cooked for longer (about 15 min) since the potatoes were uncooked in the beginning.

The sausage patties were very good - reminded me of Dad's homemade sausage (although he grinds his, and I'm sure it has some sage for flavor). Next time, we'll need to make sure that we have brown sugar or to use less white sugar in it's place. These will make great leftovers for breakfast this week! The hashbrowns were also very good, and if you like onion, then use an entire one in the mix. Yummy breakfast :-)

Online Recipes:
Breakfast Sausage: http://tinyurl.com/ls9npo8

Homemade Hashbrowns: http://tinyurl.com/l4wfpct

Greenhouse Update

We decided to do a little bit of work on the greenhouse this past weekend - and Sunday the weather Gods were nice enough to give us a break in rain. Although humid, and the ground muddy, Nate did an amazing job working on getting the greenhouse ready for construction. See my previous blog post for the first greenhouse update (http://stephmixson.blogspot.com/2014/08/designing-greenhouse-and-update-on.html).

Working on the greenhouse - Deacon is overseeing

The metal poles that will serve as the structural grounding were less than stable after removing the fabric from when it was a pool, as well as removing one section that will serve as the doorway of the greenhouse. Nate went around and dug all of the pole bases into the ground several inches. He then placed an entire ring of stones on the outside, which has helped tremendously with the stability. The stones came from the turtle pond (sad day - the pond has been somewhat dismantled; don't worry - the turtles have been safely moved to an aquarium indoors). Once a plastic layer is on top of the poles and the edges held snugly under the stones, everything should be held in place.

Buried poles and stones lining the greenhouse

Nate spreading gravel

He then shoveled a layer of gravel from part of the pathway - however it's very muddy. Maybe after several rinsings (and it has been raining quite a lot here) it should be a good surface for walking as well as providing excess drainage, which will be good for the raised gardens.

Future steps include finishing the raised gardens - design-wise I have decided that we will need 6 total, which leaves space for a workbench. Two of these gardens have been built, just need to place inside the structure on top of the gravel and fill with the 1:1:1 mixture of soil (http://stephmixson.blogspot.com/2014/04/gardening-101.html). Another two I want Nate to build tiered so that the back half is taller than the front - this should work well for veggies like onions, carrots, and potatoes. I have been growing seedlings in the AeroGarden (http://stephmixson.blogspot.com/2014/07/starter-seeds.html) for only two weeks now and already the corn, okra, squash (yes - I am trying again despite my earlier failure), and broccoli have been transplanted into larger pots (not too large as they are still seedlings) and placed to the sides of the AeroGarden. Once the raised gardens are ready for planting I plan to put these seedlings into the greenhouse! In addition to all of this, as if we don't have enough going on already, we want to have a round pond, possibly about 4 ft tall, in the center of the greenhouse. The pond will help with heat retention - you can see the circle left in the middle in the photograph. 

A hard day's work!

The dome and insulation still needs to be completed, but we have until October or so before we need that part to be completed. Hopefully having gardens planted won't get in the way of piecing the greenhouse together. The geodesic dome is 8 ft tall, which, when placed on top of the current framework, will make the entire structure about 12 ft tall. I will give an update later on as we continue on this project!

Zucchini Fritters

For those of you lucky enough to grow zucchini in your garden, I discovered a good recipe for zucchini fritters. This was one posted on someone's FB page, unfortunately I cannot remember who posted the recipe! The link can be found at the end of this post.

Ingredients for zucchini fritters

The recipe only called for a few ingredients: zucchini, feta cheese, garlic, egg, flour, and some spices (I added my Dad's mix as well). The egg is from a vendor at the Farmer's Market - I love the taste of these eggs, much more flavorful than anything you buy at the store. I would love to say that the zucchini is from the garden, but I have had no luck with squash this year. However, there are several vendors at the Farmer's Market who have plenty to sell! I eyeballed the amount of zucchini and grated them into a colander. I added about a teaspoon of salt, mixed well, and let them sweat in the sink for about 10 minutes.

Grating zucchini

Notice the frog sponge holder??

Grated zucchini

Fritter batter

While the zucchini was being salted, I combined the remaining ingredients into a bowl. This included 1/4 cup wheat flower, ~ 1/4 cup feta cheese (I didn't measure this out, just eyeballed it), 4 cloves of minced garlic, 1 egg (bought at the Farmer's Market!), 4 tablespoons of olive oil (added more because the batter wasn't mixing completely), 2 tablespoons of dill, 1 teaspoon of black pepper, and 1 teaspoon of Dad's Mix (JGM Mix 4+).

Nate helped out by whisking the fritter batter together and forming the fritters by hand (photographs above). We made about 8 fritters total and placed them on a greased pan and baked for a good 45 minutes or so. The recipe calls for pan frying them, but I was already baking chicken in the oven so we figured it would be OK to bake. They didn't turn out pretty, but they tasted great. If we were to make them again, I would recommend trying to pan fry them to hold the fritter together and using less dill (unless you love the taste of dill, then 2 TB is perfect). This is a nice recipe and you could really do this with any vegetable that can be grated - carrots, peppers, etc. I highly recommend trying it out and changing the spices to what your taste buds will enjoy!

Online recipe:
http://12tomatoes.com/2014/08/vegetarian-recipe-zucchini-fritters.html