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Here’s an inspiring video about a little girl helping her mom set up a Square Foot Garden, and harvesting quite impressive radishes. One word: Awwww :

So you like onions huh? Well me too.

In the YouTube video I showed you in a recent post Scott McGuire talks about the use of the word pest. He deals with pests by growing more produce and accepts the loss cause by so called pests. No doubt that when we experience some kind of pest it’s due to an unbalance in natures harmony. It’s not a slug problem, it’s a duck problem. There are too few ducks living in modern urban areas, actually close to none. And that’s fair enough. Most people want to control their garden down to each grass leave. If I were living out in the country side I would gladly encourage ducks to come live with me. So that would be a solution to the slug problem. But I’m getting a bit stubborn here, I’m not ready to give up my urban vegetable garden yet. I’m aware of and have tried most of the recommend slug fighting tactics just to wake up and find slugs partying between my onions… (nooo, that’s really gross, stay focused here ) Something about the way that Scott McGuire handles pests gives me new hope. So, what do slugs eat? In particular, what does Arion lusitanicus eat? And then I felt really dumb when I came across the document “The palatability of 78 wildflower strip plants to the slug Arion lusitanicus” from 1998 by Briner T. and Frank T.: It’s well known what the slugs love to eat – why the hell didn’t I provide those plants then? Let’s feed the poor bastards. Them hungry! Why eat sour onions and beets when you can have something like:

• Rapeseed (Brassica napus)
• Corn Poppy (Papaver rhoeas)
• Shepherd’s Purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris)
• Red Deadnettle (Lamium purpureum)

Yum!

Wildflower slug fence, coming up!

(palatability. really?… come on guys )

Here’s an interesting video from YouTube about back yard sustainability. Janaia Donaldson is interviewing Scott McGuire from Oregon about the project he’s running in the backyard of his rented property. The picture is lagging but that’s worst in the first 10 minutes when they talk face to face. After that they take a tour in Scott’s garden and the lagging becomes tolerable.

In the video you’ll find:

• Experimenting with growing wheat and amaranth
• Growing a medicine border
• Growing sun flower seeds
• Greenhouse for starting plants from seeds
• Drying herbs in greenhouse
• Dog kennel as chicken house
• Growing food for your animals
• Crimson clover as nitrogen fixer

and some other small but interesting things:

Last time I wrote about building a good bean trellis I only posted a drawing. Now I took the time to actually build it as you can see in these pictures.

Each bean plant has its own bamboo stick to climb. Hopefully the beans will hang down on the outside of the construction because the sticks are mounted in an angle.

It’s now possible to stand beside the bed and pick the beans without reaching into the middle of the bean wilderness.

Okay, I’ll admit that it looks nice with the sharp edge between the raised beds and the lawn. It’s soft on the knees when you sow or weed, but I’m beginning to realize that there are some rather annoying disadvantages by alternating between lawn and beds like this.

First, this is what always happens near the edges of the raised bed, when the grass has been allowed to grow for some days. Water meant for the soil spills over onto the lawn part and the grass at the edges thrives big time. So go fetch a grass trimmer or a pair of scissors, because the lawnmower won’t go that close to the edge.

If there’s no wood and raised bed you’re doomed. It takes a lot of energy to keep the grass out of the soil meant for vegetables:

And these bastards (slugs) are having a great time hiding in the moist grass waiting to attack your vegetables at night:

Then there’s the water issue; as much as half of the water lands on grass making it grow like crazy, extracting nutrients from the soil. So that’s why I’m planning on starting from scratch with a part of my lawn / vegetable garden and buying a truckload of concrete slabs to lay out like this:

Yellow = house, grey = concrete slabs, brown = vegetable soil, green = hedge.

Several advantages comes to mind:

• Easier to fight the killer slugs, and they don’t like dry concrete
• The lawnmower goes on eBay
• The grass trimmer goes on eBay
• Only vegetables are provided with water
• Much easier to walk on the paths in all kinds of weather

Each concrete slab will be 50 x 50 cm (20 x 20 inch), making each bed 1 m (3.3 feet) across and making it easy to reach the middle.

Now make sure you follow up on this because this is going to be hard work and I might get lazy But this would be so good for the food production.

Here’s my first podcast and it’s all about potatoes:

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is my highly subjective list of people who I think have contributed the most to the “grow your own food” community. If you know of someone I’ve missed please leave a comment below the list:

	Jules Dervaes * Founded the “Dervaes Institute” in 2006 * Creator of the public urban homestead model “Path to Freedom” http://www.pathtofreedom.com/about/background/theman.shtml
	D. G. Hessayon * Wrote gardening manuals “Expert Guides” (50 million printed) * Guinness World Record for “bestselling non-fiction author of the 1990s” * Awarded the Royal Horticultural Society’s “The Veitch Memorial Medal”
	John Jeavons * Developed the “Grow Biointensive” method * Wrote “How to Grow More Vegetables” (500.000 copies) http://www.johnjeavons.info
	Eliot Coleman * Wrote “The New Organic Grower” (1989) * Co-owner of “The Four Seasons Farm” * Executive Director of the “International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM)”
	Alan Titchmarsh * Awarded the Royal Horticultural Society’s “Victoria Medal Of Honour” in 2004 (RHS in UK) * Runs his own charity: “Garden for schools” and “Seeds for Africa” * Host of TV program “Gardeners’ World” in UK
	Kent Whealy * Co-founder of “Seed Savers Exchange” * Received “The Genius Award”
	Amy P. Goldman * Wrote “Melons for the Passionate Grower” (2002) (American Horticultural Society 2003 Annual Book Award) * Wrote “The Heirloom Tomato” (2008) * Wrote “The Compleat Squash” (2004) (American Horticultural Society Book Award)
	Barbara Damrosch * Co-owner of “The Four Seasons Farm” * Wrote “The Garden Primer” * Co-hosted the TV-series “Gardening Naturally”
	Jeff Lowenfels * The world’s longest running garden columnist (32 years) * Wrote “Teaming with Microbes” * Founder of “Plant a Row for The Hungry”
	Maria Thun * Publishes an annual biodynamic gardening calender in 18 languages * Wrote “Gardening for Life” (2000)
	Mel Bartholomew * Wrote “Square Foot Gardening” (1981) * Created the “Square Foot Gardening Foundation” http://www.squarefootgardening.com
	Michael Pollan * Wrote “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” (2006) * Wrote “Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education” (1991)
	Carol Klein * Own plant nursery, “Glebe Cottage Plants” * TV show “Grow Your Own Veg” * In the TV show, “Gardeners’ World”
	Carol Cox * Ecology Action’s Garden Research Manager * Co-author of “The Sustainable Vegetable Garden”
	Toby Hemenway * Wrote “Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture” * Associate editor of “Permaculture Activist” from 1999 to 2004
	Barbara L. Bowling * Wrote “Berry Grower’s Companion” (2005) * Was chairperson of the “American Society for Horticultural Sciences’ Viticulture and Small Fruit Working Group”
	Joy Larkcom * Wrote “Grow Your Own Vegetables” (2002) * Was in 1993 awarded the Veitch Memorial Medal for her services to horticulture by the RHS, and was also Garden Writer of the Year in 1993
	Charles Dowding * Wrote “Organic Gardening: The Natural No-Dig Way” (2007) * Created a market garden in rural Zambia * Gave lectures to the RHS in Tokyo http://www.charlesdowding.com
	Eric Toensmeier * Wrote “Perennial Vegetables” * Co-author with Dave Jacke of the two-volume permaculture design manual “Edible Forest Gardens” * Manages the Tierra de Oportunidades new farmer program of Nuestras Raices
	Shane Smith * Wrote “Greenhouse Gardener’s Companion” * Director and a founder, in 1977, of the Cheyenne Botanic Garden, Wyoming’s only public botanic garden
	Stella Otto * Wrote “The Backyard Orchardist” (1995) * Benjamin Franklin Award winner (1994) * Fruit farm owner
	Fern Marshall Bradley * Author of Rodale’s Vegetable Garden Problem Solver (2007) * Co-author of “Vegetable Gardening” (2006) * Managing an organic market garden in western New Jersey
	Mike * Blogs about a 2 acres market garden * His blog has 1400 daily readers * 1300 links back to his blog from other websites http://tinyfarmblog.com
	Rose Marie Nichols McGee * Co-author of “McGee & Stuckey’s Bountiful Container” * Blogs about gardening and food (100 links back to her blog) * Rose Marie is President of Nichols Garden Nursery http://nicholsgardennursery.wordpress.com
	Joe Swift * Wrote “Joe’s Allotment” (2009) * Wrote “Joes Urban Garden Handbook” * Host on BBC’s “Gardeners’ World”
	Steve Solomon * Wrote “Gardening When It Counts” (2006) * Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades (2006) * Wrote and self-published “Growing Vegetables South of Australia” (2002) http://www.soilandhealth.org/05steve%27sfolder/05aboutmeindex.html
	Gayla Trail * Wrote “You Grow Girl: The Ground Breaking Guide to Gardening” (2005) * Blogs about gardening * 2200 links back to her blog from other websites http://www.yougrowgirl.com
	Marjorie Harris * Wrote “Seasons of My Garden” (1999) * Wrote “The Healing Garden” (1996) * Wrote “In the Garden: Thoughts on the Changing Seasons” (1995)
	Jerry Baker * Wrote several books on gardening * Host on gardening TV and radio shows
	Liz Primeau * Wrote “Front Yard Gardens: Growing More Than Grass” (2003) * Founding editor of Canadian Gardening magazine * Former host of Canadian Gardening Television on HGTV
	Steve Ott * Wrote “Homegrown Vegetable Manual” (2009) * Co-author of “The A-Z Guide to Growing and Cooking Farm-fresh Food” (2008) * Editor of Kitchen Garden magazine http://www.kitchengarden.co.uk/thismonth.php
	Sarah Raven * Wrote “The Great Vegetable Plot” * Guest presenter on BBC’s “Gardeners World”
	Alys Fowler * Wrote “The Thrifty Gardener” (2008) * Horticultural researcher on “Gardeners’ World” on BBC in the UK
	Suzanne Peabody Ashworth * Wrote “Seed to Seed” (2002) * Owner of “Del Rio Botanical” http://www.delriobotanical.com/site_main.html
	Stu Campbell * Wrote “Let it Rot: The Gardener’s Guide to Composting” (2003) * Wrote “Mulch it!” * Wrote “Improving Your Soil”
	Anais Dervaes * Blogs about urban homesteading in California * 1900 links back to her blog from other websites http://urbanhomestead.org/journal
	Andy McKee * Wrote “The Polytunnel Handbook” (2009) * 500 links to his blog from other websites http://hedgewizardsdiary.blogspot.com
	Carleen Madigan * Wrote “The Backyard Homestead” (2009)
	Carole B. Turner * Wrote “Seed Sowing and Saving” (1998)
	Dick Raymond * Wrote “Joy of Gardening” * Head vegetable gardening specialist at Garden Way Gardens
	Edward C. Smith * Wrote “The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible” * Wrote “Incredible Vegetables from Self-Watering Containers”
	Kenneth E. Point * Internship on a forty acre organic farm (1985 – 1994) * Blogs about gardening (2005 – 2009) * 800 links to his blog from other websites http://www.veggiegardeningtips.com
	Tonopah Rob * Owner of 2,800 square meters farm in Tonopah, Arizona * Sold more than 550 kg produce in one weekend at Tonopah Rob’s Vegetable Farm stand http://tonopahrob.com
	Gillian Carson * Blogs about gardening * 1000 daily readers * 800 links to her blog from other websites http://mytinyplot.co.uk
	Sally Jean Cunningham * Wrote “Great Garden Companions” (2000) * Has a TV and radio show on gardening
	R. J. Ruppenthal * Wrote “Fresh Food from Small Spaces” (2008)
	Emma Rawlings * Co-author of “The A-Z Guide to Growing and Cooking Farm-fresh Food” (2008)
	Jeff A. Hartenfeld * Co-author of “The Farmers’ Market Book” (2007)
	Cavagnarok David * Co-author on “The Complete Vegetable & Herb Gardener : A Guide to Growing Your Garden Organically” (1997)
	Sharon L. Lovejoy * Wrote “Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots: Gardening Together with Children” (1999) * Serves on the National Children and Youth Garden Advisory Panel of the American Horticultural Society http://sharonlovejoy.blogspot.com

The picture above shows a field of Sea Buckthorn shrubs (Hippophae L.) growing near the west coast of Denmark. If you look closely you’ll be able to see patches of yellow berries. Sea buckthorn is special because it tolerates the salty and dry climate around here. The shrubs need full sun and can be up to 6 m (20 feet) high. Most of the sea buckthorn in the world grows in China (90%) but it has also spread across Europe.

The berries are interesting because you can make sea buckthorn juice from them. What you get then is juice that is full of antioxidants, caroteniods, vitamin E, amino acids and most importantly, vitamin C. In fact the vitamin C content is 12 times higher than in oranges! All of this puts sea buckthorn in the category of superfoods.

Here’s a tool specially made for making sea buckthorn juice while you walk around in the field and collect the berries. It was used by one of my relatives during a trip to the coast:

Sea buckthorn juice is collected in the small container while working in the field and later poured into glass pitchers in the kitchen back home:

But you need to stir the pitcher now and then or the juice will seperate into three layers, which look really gross; orange cream on top, saturated and polyunsaturated fats in the middle and sediment and juice in the bottom.

Mix the raw sea buckthorn juice with water, 1 part raw juice and 6 parts water.

Here’s a recipe including sea buckthorn made by Pille from Estonia: Sea-Buckthorn Jelly with Kama & Mascarpone Mousse

It’s annoying to have your vegetables eaten up by bugs. Luckily it’s possible to get help from other insects, because they’ll attack those harmful bugs and eat them or feed them to their young. Some plants naturally attract these beneficial insects and some even attract several helpful insects to your garden. In the table below you’ll find the beneficial insects in the left column and the names of the attracting  plants in the top row. Below the table you’ll see a picture of each plant. By planting these in your garden you’ll be able to create a big insect magnet and get help hunting down those hungry bugs:

Coreopsis:

Photo by kabils.

Cosmos:

Photo by Kanko*.

Dill:

Photo by Eran Finkle – ערן פינקל.

Fennel:

Photo by Anika Malone.

Goldenrod:

Photo by Benimoto.

Lemon balm:

Photo by color line.

Sweet alyssum:

Photo by hortulus.

Do you already have any of these beneficial insects in your garden? Where are they hanging out?

Photo by mckaysavage.

1. Write your own garden calender on when to do what and print it out and put it on the wall to be more effective at growing food
2. Write a garden journal to learn more effectively from your experiences
3. Purchase an extra 5 kg kitchen scale and a notebook to find out how much food you are actually able to grow per square meter
4. Make friends with local horse breeders or horse riding schools to get a stable supply of horse manure for your beds
5. Collect organic scraps in a small box in the kitchen and throw it on the compost heap to have something to feed back to your soil. It’s free nutrients for the soil.
6. Turn your compost regularly to speed up composting
7. Collect leaves in the fall and add them to your compost
8. Get an axe and a chopping block for chopping up branches in 5 cm (2 inch) pieces for your compost. Longer pieces than that will sabotage your compost production.
9. Build composting boxes with three compartments with front and top access to make it easy to produce compost
10. Hedge clippings goes into the compost. It’s free nutrients for the soil.
11. Seedlings need 17 hours of light each day to stay healthy
12. Plant fruit trees in your garden to provide shade in the middle of the day
13. Use wood chips on the lanes between your beds instead of spending time on cutting grass
14. Seed saving takes up a lot of area and many spare plants
15. Water the soil not the plants to avoid fungus
16. Grow winter vegetables for a higher yield per square meter
17. Increase diversity in your garden and be rewarded with healthy plants and more food
18. Take good care of the birds in your garden and they will help you debug your garden
19. Some butterflies are devils in disguises as their larvae will eat up your vegetables
20. It takes time to re-establish the small ecosystem in an area coming out of monoculture
21. Growing food is not a new idea. There are many helpful people out there who will help you if you dare to ask.
22. You’ll never be entirely self-sufficient. You’ll always be dependent on the sun. The goal is to have fun and be happy.

Add your best tip in the comments section below.