What is a Walipini?

What is a walipini?  It's not an exotic animal from down under and it is also not a hybrid between a watermelon and a zucchini.

It can best be compared to an earth contact home. The Walipini is dug down into the earth about eight feet, facing the winter sun and covered with a plastic-sheathed roof angled at about forty degrees. It takes advantage of the naturally warm ground very much like a root cellar and the roof is angled to best capture the warmth of the winter sun. It is really a giant cold frame. And it can be used to grow crops all winter long.

How to build your own Walipini.

I wonder what the Homes Owners Association would think of that?

Buzz it up How to

Back to the Garden!

I went through a blog storm starting in 2007 when I created several blogs. One of my blogs was about simplicity which is quite ironic since I was actually complicating my life - blogging, working, family and sometimes sleep. I was blogging sustainability, gardening, politics, faith, etc. I even created a website which is now defunct as I gave up the URL. It was exciting to have a public voice and it gave me a platform on which to think and explore my beliefs about myself and the world around me.

After taking a long sabbatical, I return to the Garden where so many of life's metaphors and activities are found, to continue my story. I will talk about what I am doing related to food but you will find that integrated in my story is all of life because food is spiritual, practical, political, scientific, artistic and the sustenance of our existence.

Many faiths speak of the garden. As a Christian, I think in terms of the Bible. The Bible begins with the macro creation story and then brings it down to a garden. Everything needed for life was found readily in the garden. God created Adam from the dust of the earth and Eve from Adam's side. Adam walked with God and named all the creatures of the air, land and sea. The story continues with Adam and Eve being cast out of the garden as punishment for disobeying God, but even then they are commanded to till the earth by the sweat of their brow so, though no longer in the perfect garden, humans were still given the task of husbandry - the management and conservation of resources, the care, cultivation and breeding of crops and animals.

In the most beautiful of Christian sacraments, Communion, we celebrate the fullness of the Gospel, the salvation of our souls, with food in the basket of bread as the body of Christ and the cup of wine, His blood shed for the forgiveness of our sins. The first sin of Adam and Eve involved disobedience regarding food and it is with food, the body of Christ that we find our salvation. The garden is our origin and our sustenance and even the resting place of our physical bodies when we perish.

What happens with our food effects us dynamically. Developing a good relationship with our environment, our garden, is the essence of sustainability. Caring for nature preserves our ability to live long and prosper. Life is food and food is life. All of life is connected to the Garden.

Buzz it up

Preparing New Raised Planting Beds

My new raised bed frames arrived from Natural Yards on Friday, just in time for the weekend. This year my garden supplies include two 4 x 4 raised bed frames, a 4 cubit foot bag of sphagnum moss, a 4 cubic foot bag of vermiculite, 1 bag of composted manure and two compost 50 gallon bins worth of composted yard clippings. I also purchased a 100 foot bolt of weed barrier cloth and 10 bags of rubber mulch. The rubber mulch is made from recycled materials and is supposed to last many years.

My soil recipe is 1 part compost, 1 part vermiculite, 1 part sphagnum, 1 part soil mix from last years garden and 1 shovel composted manure. To make it easy to mix, I added 1o shovels of my composted yard clippings, 10 shovels of vermiculite, 10 shovels of sphagnum, 1 shovel of composted manure, and 10 shovels of the mix from last year's garden. I put all of this into my wheelbarrow and mixed it in the wheel barrel. Then tipped it into my garden bed. It took four wheelbarrows per 4 x 4 bed.

The 4 x 4 beds have three feet in between each bed. I had enough soil-less mix for four beds. The trick in the plan is that I had to disassemble one half of my last year's bed which was a 4 x 8 foot bed, four boards high.

The first step my husband Brian and I did was to figure out how long the garden-bed row would be and then laid down the garden cloth. Then we removed the top two rows from last years bed.

We measured the distance from the farthest half of last year's bed to include a four foot bed, three feet space in between and then another four foot bed and three feet. So we started building the first new 4 x 4 bed ten feet away from where the near-side of the old bed that would remain. We had to leave the 4 x 8 bed intact until we assembled three beds so that it could hold the planting mixture.

Once the three beds were assembled, then I started mixing up this years planting mixture based on Mel's Mix from Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. I put four wheelbarrow's of mixture in each of the three beds. Then we scooped out one wheelbarrow of planting mix from last years bed and scooped all the mix from the half we were disassembling to the end that would remain. We began putting together the last of the five beds, but found that the ground needed to be leveled and we were running out of daylight so had to stop for the night.

One advantage of adding the planting mix from last year's garden into the new beds, was that some of the red wriggler worms I added to the bed last year were transplanted along with the planting mix. I was so encouraged to find the little guys. I wasn't seeing them at first. They had migrated over to the sides and bottom of the garden bed. I suspect they were seeking the warmth of the wooden frame. I was so happy to start seeing them as I digged a little deeper.

I hope to get the last bed in place today and to place the rubber mulch. I may hold off on the mulch because I think I may purchase some landscape edging to hold the mulch in place. I priced it on the Home Depot website last night. I looks like I will need 6 packs of edging which should run about $180. We bought the rubber mulch at Costco. It was about $20 a bag. That's pretty rich for my blood, but hoping it really will last as long as the claim! And I hope the ten bags will be enough. I think I will need to buy another bag of sphagnum peetmoss and vermiculite to finish filling the beds. Then I will be ready to plant. Yeah!

I haven't done the official talley but I estimate that I am at about $600 for this year's garden beds. The five beds will then have reached a cost of about $1000 - $1200. That sounds like a lot to me, however, these materials will last for many years. The planting mix from last year was still very usable this year. If you were able to find reclaimed lumber for your garden frames you could cut the cost in half.

We recently stayed at a lovely bed and breakfast near Herman, Missouri, Les Lavandes, where the owner, Myrta Webber, was able to acquire barn boards for free from a neighbor who was taking down an old barn on his property. The old weathered barn boards look great in their new life as a raised bed garden. Another example of a great reuse of materials. Remember the OurFriendlyEarth motto: reduce as much as possible, reuse as much as possible, and recycle as much of everything else as you can.

I expect to only be refreshing the mix each year with my own compost which is virtually free. We use a lawn service which uses only organic treatments for the lawn and we do not add any chemicals to the lawn ourselves. We water the garden with water from our rain barrles, so our garden is as close to organic as one can get in a suburban garden.

Gardens at Les Lavandes B&B

Buzz it up

Back to the Garden

Guardian of the Beach
The wizened old man who watches over Bethany Beach, Delaware is the first one to greet you and the last to say, "farewell." I would love to bring the old man home to my garden. Maybe I can find a big log and create my own someday. We had a great time at the beach and it seems we have been running ever since. But today I am determined to give you some updates of my suburban homestead as I am becoming to consider my plot of suburban land.

Back to the Garden
Some great things are happening in the garden. I am in love with the fresh herbs. The are beautiful and so fun to use in my cooking. I picked my first lovely white eggplant yesterday and plan to cook it tonight with dinner. I have made some awesome pesto. I will share a lite version with you at the end of this article.

Planters on the Deck
My new garden addition is five new railing planters for my deck. I saw them when we were at the garden center looking for a display solution for the wooden spirals Brian bought at Shorty's Shop in Bethany Beach. The wooden spirals have found a home next to the vegetable raised bed garden and a looking good there.The planter is plastic, but looks convincingly like clay. It has groove on the bottom so you just set it on the railing and plant. No brackets or screws. It's great. The pots come in two sizes of groove, 4 inch and 6 inch. The garden center had five 6 inch pots left on the shelf and I got them all. My raised bed is brimming over with plants and I have several packets of lettuce, spinach, collard greens, beans and more that I wanted a chance to plant. Late July to early August are the time to plant fall crops and a great time to plant some lettuce for fall. I plan to replant just as soon as I harvest the spinach and lettuce and if lucky, I may get several crops in through mid October.

I planted spinach and lettuce in one pot and then planted the others in three varieties of bush beans. In just a week, the seedlings are popping up. It's fun to have the plants on the deck and so close to the house.
Recipe of the day:

Pesto Sauce, Light
2 cloves garlic
2 cups fresh basil
1/4 cup fresh oregano
1/2 cup fresh parsley
1/4 cup almonds
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 T olive oil
1/8 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup fat-free chicken broth

Instructions:

1. Add all fresh herbs to blender, then add the rest of the ingredients on top.
2. Blend on low for 5 seconds then increase to medium speed for 15 seconds. You may need to tamp the ingredients down.
   
3. Blend until just combined.
   

Serve as a dip with crackers and fresh cut vegetables such as carrots or celery. May also be used as a sauce over pasta. 8 servings; 2 Weight Watchers Points per serving.

(Zucchinis are on the way!)

Buzz it up

At the Beach!

We have been at the beach for the past week at our annual Weaver family reunion! It was great to see everyone again. It was a true vacation from the computer. My day job is very computer intensive work -- so I was determined not to touch a computer or think about work! However, I missed my garden and blogging!

To prepare my gardens before leaving, I set up soaker hoses on the raised bed and on the herb garden. I put timers on the faucets to water every other day. Our summer vacation has been a gardening challenge in years past. My soaker hoses worked well and no plants were lost this year!

In the raised bed, I used one 50' soaker hose and wound it up and back spacing out about a foot apart. In the front I have a long narrow bed, so I took a 50' hose and cut it into 4 pieces. I bought male and female connectors and caps for the hose ends and then hooked them up to a four-way splitter. I cut my regular garden hose so it would be just long enough to connect the splitter to the front faucet and connected it to a timer.

I had a couple of challenges. I learned that you have to inspect the hardware pieces closely before purchase. One piece I bought was the wrong type which had been placed in the bin with the pieces I did need. Another piece had a screw that had no groove in the head. After overcoming those challenges, I hooked up the timer on the faucet, hooked up the hose and turned it on. The faucet stem packing was wearing out and the pressure from the timer caused a massive leak. I had to schedule a plumber to fix it. Just in time, all the work came together and now it works like a champ.

Buzz it up

Shopping for Plants

No Luck with Veggies at the Local Garden Center

12:45 PM - Busy schedules and gardening creates conflicts! I just went shopping today. I knew I was starting really late when I began this project but should have bought plants last weekend. This weekend was "Double-Dip Beethoven" with the KC Chamber Orchestra and a full 13-hour day at Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun. We had a great time with friends from Brian's work - even though Brian managed to wipe-out on Aruba Tuba and we collided heads on Hurricane Falls and despite all of Brian's P.R. I am still a hold-out on the Mamba. In 10 years I have never experienced the thrill of the Mamba. The summer is still young, I may yet take the 200 foot plunge.

However: You play, you pay. Now my veggie garden may be limited to herbs...I love herbs, but was really counting on some tomatoes and peppers too!

The local garden center, The Family Tree Nursery has no more vegetable plants, so I bought herbs and also seeds for 3 varieties of beans, okra, collard greens, and cilantro. We will be going to Home Depot this evening and I think there is a chance to pick up some tomato plants there still.

Our local Hen House has started a Consumer Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, so I am thinking that may be our best bet for fresh, local veggies this summer along with a few trips to one of 18 farmers markets we have in the area.

Home Depot still has veggies!

9:30 PM - Home Depot saved the day with several vegetables to choose from. I purchased 4 tomato plants, 2 eggplants, 1 zucchini, 1 cucumber, 3 pepper plants and a globe basil from the Depot.

Since I had already purchased herbs earlier in the day, my new problem is too many plants for the raised bed! At Family Tree Nursery I bought 6 basil plants, 2 rosemary, 2 parsley, 3 oregano, and two Salad Burnet.

We also decided to join the CSA program at Hen House. By joining the CSA we help support local farmers. The membership included a nice cookbook which is an exclusive for the CSA, a t-shirt, and two cloth shopping bags. Looks like a fail-proof plan to have local veggies this summer.

Here is the first picture of the planted raised bed.

It's too bad we don't have a video camera because I am pretty sure my wrestling match with my new garden soaker hose would have been a winner on Funniest Home Videos. I did prevail and managed to install 50' of soaker hose in my 4' x 8' garden. It was when I finally got it in place that Brian informed me the that the garden nozzle had been stuck to the end of our regular hose since last summer and he had never been able to get it off. The rubber hose is to be connected to the soaker hose. We both tried and failed this evening to remove the nozzle, so I add to my list of garden purchases a 100' garden hose -- tomorrow. (I found that I could buy a brass connector to fix the hose, cost $2.50. It was an easy repair. I simply cut off the end of the hose with nozzle attached, and added the new connector. This saved me about $46.)

We bought a water timer that I will attach to the faucet that allows you to set up an automatic watering program. It was $24 but I feel after the investment I have in vegetable and herb plants it is worth the investment and may save the day for my plants while we are at our family reunion this summer. I set the timer to start the water every 12 hours, so at 6 AM and 6 PM the garden soaker will run for 60 minutes.

Now it is time to shower off all the dirt and "hit the hay." Good night all!

One last thing...I just ordered 2,000 red wrigglers from Uncle Jim!