Preparing my Honeoye strawberry bed after the winter

Two years ago I purchased 25 Honeoye (pronounced like "honey-oy) strawberry plants because they are cold hardy for NY and they are good producers of fruit. The first summer, after the planting, I just trimmed the flowers and the runners RELIGIOUSLY and for that reason we did not enjoy any strawberries. That was done so the plants would create strong root system. Last year, though, we collected at least 14 quarts of strawberries. I covered them with chicken wire and protected them from the squirrels and birds. 

Last November I weeded the bed and covered them with 10" of straw. The stayed there, covered in snow all winter. Now though, that there is no chance of snow the time has come for me to clean up the bed.

First, let me say that most materials I used to create the beds were either free or purchased form Restore in Newburgh.

The following picture shows the bed after I removed the thick layer of straw. After removing the straw I placed it temporarily close to this bed because I would need it to add it to the strawberry bed.

Here I am removing any dead strawberry branches and weeds. I try not to disturb the light coating of straw that exists between the strawberries. Last year I noticed that all of my weeds grew right next to the edge of the bed and there was very little straw there covering the dirt. Live and learn.

Here I am adding straw back to the bed. You can see on the left side of the screen the pile of straw that I removed from the strawberry bed. I used most of that to add it back between the plants and the edges of the bed. It's not hard work, but it helps if you have something to kneel on, like my yoga mat.

Here I'm adding more straw around and on top of the plants. The layer that I've added on top is loose and the plants will grow nicely. 

The whole process took less than 45 minutes. There were quite a few dead branches that I've removed and quite a few weeds. Also I pulled about six or seven plants that I already gave my good neighbors. They have been very generous with contributing many buckets a leaves for my beds. Good stuff. 

Happy gardening! 

Enrich Your Mulch Pile by Adding Used Coffee Grounds

I've written several posts about my mulch piles (ref 1, ref 2, ref 3) and you probably already know that I'm really serious about mulching.

During the latter part of 2018 and beginning of 2019, I was going to a local bagel shop. They were saving their used coffee grounds for me. I would go there on Monday to drop off a 9" x 9" aluminum pan and on Thursday I would pick it up full of used coffee grounds. I would add that to my mulch piles and then mix it in a little with the existing material. Every three weeks or so I would pull the contents of the whole mulch pile out, mix it and shovel it back in again. But the amount of used coffee grounds was too little, I wanted more coffee grounds.

Used coffee grounds contain nitrogen as well as some potassium and phosphorus, plus other micronutrients. Adding them to your mulch pile is a good thing. I do NOT add, used or not, coffee grounds directly to the soil.

One sunny spring morning, I went to a Starbucks on Route 300 in Newburgh, NY, to talk to them about their used coffee grounds. I must say, I thought they would laugh at me, but I was wrong. After talking with the manager I found out that the store is very happy to save and give their used coffee grounds to local gardeners. The manager asked me to come back after a week or so because they already have someone who they give their grounds to. Sweet!

As a backup, I drove to my favorite supermarket, Adams Fairacre Farms in Newburgh, to ask them about their used coffee grounds. I knew they had a self-serve area where they sell a variety of coffees and teas. I never paid attention to that area because I am not a coffee drinker. I spoke with the manager and she stated that she would be very happy to give me their used coffee grounds. YES!!!

Well, I got a call a day and a half later from them and they told me that they had a batch ready for me. To start with, let me apologize to all cars and street-crossing people who I almost had an accident with. I drove there like a bat out of hell, parked the car and quickly walked to the coffee area and announced myself. The person working there asked me to get a shopping cart. Well that was a good sign, but I was not sure why. THEY HAD TWO (2) FIVE-GALLON, FOOD GRADE BUCKETS FULL OF USED COFFEE GROUNDS FOR ME! The funny part was that they apologized to me because they had a third bucket, but an employee mistakenly threw it out.

The point that I am trying to make in this post is that home gardeners can go to their local:

• diner/restaurant;
• coffee shop;
• deli;
• Starbucks;
• supermarket;
• bagel shop,

and any other place where they serve coffee and talk to them about getting their used coffee grounds. They will be delighted to share them with you. If you don't take their used coffee grounds, well, they will end up in a garbage can, and that will be a terrible thing.

Keep on drinking coffee!

Shopping for Coco Coir

On Wednesday, March 13, 2019, I went to Adams Fairacre Farms in Newburgh, NY to buy Coco Coir, a natural fiber extracted from the husk of coconuts. Coir is a great substitute for peat moss and peat because it is a renewable resource widely available and environmentally friendly. Unfortunately, gardeners choose to use such products as: perlite (ref 1, ref 2) and vermiculite (ref 1, ref 2) on a regular basis in order to aerate and keep their soil moist. I am determined to use only organic products from renewable resources and I refuse to use either perlite or vermiculite. When I read that you need to be cautious when handling perlite because breathing its dust can hurt you, and also that up to 1990 in Libby, Montana, they mined perlite that was contaminated with asbestos, I stay away from these products.

Soon, I will be receiving several fig cuttings and I am preparing myself for their arrival. There will be several separate posts on this project.

Here is the Coco "brick" I bought at Adams. It is compressed and it will expand almost tripling its volume when moistened.

As I was looking around the gardening products, guess what I saw!!!!!! They had Chicago fig trees. This fig tree may is a very hardy tree that will do very well in our zone 5b.

I had to act fast and immediately grabbed one package, after all, you never know how many customers can swarm this area even though they had about 20 trees. There is the tree, in my shopping cart, looking proud and happy it just got adopted by a loving family.

Happy plantings!

Yesterday I Started Seeds Indoors

In the summer of 2018, I started to garden for the first time. I built one raised bed and planted a variety of vegetables. At the same time, I bought eight 5-US Gallon buckets from Lowe's to plant potatoes in. The planting and growing of the vegetables and potatoes was a huge success! Unfortunately, we had a rainy summer and aside from two green bell peppers, seven puny tomatoes, and about a dozen potatoes, the garden was a lot of fun.

I've been educating myself in the various aspects of gardening and I felt I was ready to tackle a larger project than just one raised bed.

I added three additional raised beds using pallets, and one potato tower for the 2019 season and I cannot be any happier. I see gardening as a journey, an ongoing experience and not just planting for yielding high amounts of crops.

For the spring of 2019, I bought my seeds from:

• Johnny's Selected Seeds, 
• Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds,
• FEDCO

I chose three different varieties of tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and a variety of herbs. I also bought asparagus seeds and I am very excited about this particular vegetable because Ruth Stout wrote extensively about her methods of growing asparagus in Connecticut.

Here is my finished asparagus bed that I prepared in September of 2018 with a heavy layer of hay and straw.

During the late fall of 2018, I added a few inches (five 5-gallon buckets) of chopped leaves that my good neighbor Scott. gave me.

I also had to buy a few other items to accelerate the germination of seeds: a two-bulb shop light from LOWE'S in Newburgh, NY, two LED bulbs, two fifty-cell potting trays, and a six pack of Corona.

I created a short YouTube video with the finished product.

Happy growing veggies!

Education, Education, Education. Read all about it!

Recently I visited the village of Walden's Josephine-Louise Public library to lookup gardening books. The Josephine-Louise Public library is part of a much larger system of libraries that affords its patrons the opportunity to access books from many libraries. How cool is that!

I ordered two books written by Ruth Stout and earlier today I went to the library to pick them up. Here they are, side by side like two happy siblings.

I would love to write more, but I'm going to get a large glass of water and get comfortable to read my two books.

Happy deep mulching!

Determining Plant Hardiness Zone

The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map is the standard by which you can determine which plants are most likely to thrive at a particular location. The map is based on the average annual minimum winter temperature.

To determine your hardiness zone, simply go to planmaps.com, enter your zip code and press the "Zoom to Zip" button.

The site will provide a detailed map with the hardiness zone. In my case my hardiness zone is 5b or 6a. The lover the number the colder the recorded temperatures.

Each zone is identified by a number and a letter. The numbers goes from high to low or from warm to cold. The letters go from "a" to "b". The letter "b" indicated colder temperatures as compared to "a".

Click inside the map to see the exact hardiness zone for your zip code.

Happy gardening!

My Potato Tower Project

During the summer of 2018, I made an attempt to grow potatoes in 5 Gallon buckets. I had recently decided to garden seriously and after a little research, (the word "little" is a keyword here), I gathered some information about growing potatoes, bought a few buckets, haphazardly bought a few potatoes from a local garden center and I thought I was in great shape. Oops!

Online Resources

I found a GREAT resource on youtube that you should familiarize yourself with. If I made a post or video copying their information, it would be a waste of time and effort. Their videos, Hollis & Nancy's Homestead, are complete and VERY informative chock full of relevant information free of fluff. Specifically, Hollis created three videos that every wannabe potato grower should watch, HD How To Grow Potatoes In Containers (Part 1, 2, 3). I think the third video is the best one because it describes what I am trying to do. Kudos to Hollis and Nancy for taking time to create such complete, wonderful resources.

Well, when I bought my potatoes for the 5 Gallon buckets I thought that potatoes are just potatoes. You buy seed potatoes, bury them in the ground, water them, and then pick them. WRONG! You should watch Holli's videos to learn about potatoes.