Oh Deer!

The last couple weeks have been very busy in my garden!  There’s nothing like an upcoming social event to keep me motivated!!  You know how it is…you have projects that have been sitting on the list for ever and finally the suggestion of a party or the pending appearance of out of town guests gets you movin!  Of course being stuck “in-doors” for the last 6 months makes working outside like a breath of fresh air, literally.
Let me give you a little back story…7 years ago when we moved out to the “country” I never imagined we would be fencing a yard.  I think we’ve all heard the famous quote from Robert Frost’s Poem, The Mending Wall, "Good fences make good neighbors.” But we don’t have neighbors.  Well, we have one neighbor, about 1/4 mile down our private driveway, who happens to be my brother and sister-in-law.  There are just our 2 homes on 140 acres.  Pretty nice.  Very private.  Very quiet.  (expect coyotes howling, owls hooting, geese squawking, birds chirping, turkeys gobbling…you get the idea)  I guess I had always thought of a fence as a means of privacy.  Well, now I know better.  
Year one:  Deer ate all my new hostas.  And they were planted very close to the house, like right by our front door.  So, year two:  we decided to put up a 3-strand electric fence on the perimeter of most of the yard.  I was bound and determined not to have our yard look like a fenced prison yard!  At least the electric fence wire wasn’t too visible.  Well, apparently deer don’t mind a little shock cause they crawled right under or jumped over.  Year three:  This is when I decided to put in a vegetable garden and there was no way all my hard work was gonna get eaten by deer.  So we beefed things up with actual page wire fencing.  A good friend of ours gave us a tip that deer won’t jump “through” a fence, like a circus animal through a hoop.  So that meant we only have to go about 5 feet with page wire and then leave a gap and run the electric wire at a height most deer won’t jump.  There’s varying information on how high a deer CAN jump but for the most part they’re not gonna bother with a 7 foot fence, unless they’re being chased by a coyote.  So that seemed to work!  But then I got lazy and figured we didn’t need to worrying about fencing the yard in the winter, after all there’s not much to eat.  HAH!  They chewed down the entire middle section of my Alaskan weeping cedars.  Fortunately they have started to fill back in.  

If you look close you can see how the deer ate the middle sections of both cedars. 2009.

But I digress.  The whole point of that lengthy back story was that we now finally have a proper man gate to enter the garden area.  For over 2 years it has been a piece of page wire.  At first I wanted time to think about what kind of gate I wanted…then “there’s nothing more permanent than a temporary solution” happened.  Between rain storms and work days my handy husband has managed to make me a proper gate, a new (another!)  raised garden bed and a garden work bench which cleverly disguises the propane tank…. AND all with recycled/reclaimed wood leftover from building the house and other odd projects over the years.  And 2 pieces of wood he used  have quite the history…he’s been holding on to them for years, way back when we lived in town.  They had been used as planks to load a truck that was hauled over from Montana…(really big 2x10’s, 8ft long) and because he never throws ANYTHING away they were piled up with the rest of old lumber just waiting for a proper use.  I love that all these little (big) projects utilized old wood with stories behind them…

The two long boards were old planks that have been
laying around for years…I started a purple hyacinth
flowering vine that will cover this gate by mid summer.

2006, first phase of landscaping.

Where's the propane tank?

Start of gate without a man door, 2010.

New gate today…not sure if i’ll keep the cow skull…:)

summer 2005, just a few months after we moved in

We’ve managed to solve the deer problem, for the most part.  Our front yard isn’t fenced but i just don’t plant anything they like to eat, which isn’t much.  They don’t eat ornamental grasses so that’s about the extent of plants on that side.
But the word is out in the animal kingdom…I just started see rabbits in my garden!  Time for more fencing...

Compost!

Last weekend I attended my first gardening class.  I’ve always wanted to go and this year I decided to make it happen.  WSU Spokane County Extension offers a series of beginning gardening classes every weekend in March and early April.  I had already missed the March classes but was able to grab the last of the 4 week series in early April.  And the topic this week was compost!  

First let me say that I tried really hard last year to compost…but I never really felt like I was doing it right…my pile would never get hot enough.  I kept throwing heaps and heaps of kitchen waste on my pile with a little bit of brown material but it basically just sat there.  So I kinda gave up and just let it sit over the winter.  Fast forward to my class and I’m learning that there are different ways to compost; cold compost, where you basically just make a pile and leave it, no turning involved.  Very easy, low maintenance but takes a lot longer, 6 months to 1-2 years.  And hot compost, that’s when you have a specific formula of green/brown mix + water.  And the key here (which was my error) is once you start your hot pile you don’t add more green or brown material you just turn every 7 days or so.  Back to my compost pile that sat all winter…after the class I decided to take a look at it and low and behold I have compost!  I had used a “cold” method without really realizing it.  I’m really glad I took this class.  Even though I’d read tons of “how-to” articles on composting and watched videos online this class finally made it all sink in.  I never thought I could spend 3 hours talking about compost but the time fly by and it was very interesting.  I may not even do a hot compost pile, ever, but I feel good about keeping all my kitchen waste and yard waste out of the “trash”.  If you live in this area and are interested in composting I was told at my class that there is a quick composting class at Finch Arboretum on April 28 from 11am-2pm.  And after listening to the class you get a free compost holding unit. (similar to the black ones in my picture).

Thought i’d throw in some progress pictures of my seeds!

These are the onion “sets” i planted.  just stick in the
ground with a tiny bit of top showing.  Easy!

This is one of my raised beds…i mostly plant lettuces cause i can easily
cover with a shade cloth when it gets too hot.  

                                      

Yesterday, after months of waiting (nagging) I finally got my husband to build me a proper garden gate!  And a garden work bench that conveniently hides the ugly white propane tank :)  I’ll get pictures of that up next week.

Happy Gardening!

Starting Seeds

Last weekend I went seed shopping…I'm a little too late to order cool weather seeds from my favorite catalog but Northwest Seed and Pet has a great selection of seeds-almost too many!  Because I’m rotating my crops I’m growing a lot of things I’ve never grown before...sprouting broccoli, romanesco broccoli, cauliflower (white, green and purple) and fennel.  Oh and onions; spring and Italian red scallions.  I’m planting onion “sets” too, which I’ve never done but what can be more easy that just plopping them in the ground?  Some seeds I’m starting indoors first, like fennel, broccoli, cauliflower and morning glory but as soon as you can work your soil it’s a perfect time to direct seed lettuces, radish, carrot, kale, spinach, etc…just to be safe I purchased a very light-weight row cover; you lay it directly on top your seeds/transplants.  Because it’s so light it won’t interfere with sprouting.  This is definitely the earliest I’ve ever planted outside probably because I’ve mainly grown warm weather crops like tomatoes, cucumbers and squash.  

There is a ton of information online on how to start seeds indoors so I won’t bore you with the details but I will say that my heated bathroom floor is a perfect place to germinate seeds!  Don’t  have to buy those expense heating mats.  As soon as I see a sprout I move them directly under my lighting system. 

A quick note about seeds…I’ve always wondered how long seeds last but never gave much thought to to it…a favorite garden blog of mine gave me a some insight…and she had a handy little chart that I attached above.  Bottom line is don’t throw your seeds away after only one year!  Most will last 2-6 if properly stored-that is key.  I always plant 2-3 seeds per pot anyway and then cut off the weakest sprout after first true set of leaves appear.  

Rack I use for grow lights

I’ve finally perfected my lighting system with
“s” hooks and chain; easy to raise and lower as
plants grow.

found these at NW Seed, 18¢ each, biodegradable so
no need to disturb roots when transplanting.

One advantage to starting your own seeds is growing things you wouldn't
normally see at the store.

One final thought…If you’re looking to grow something maintenance free and keeps coming back year after year look no further than CHIVES!

It’s one of the first signs of “green” to pop up in very early spring...they have beautiful purple or white

flowers, which by they way are edible and so pretty tossed in a fresh garden spring salad (with those greens you planted too!).  I have enough around my yard that I cut fresh bouquets for my kitchen…and of course you have the typical use as simply chives. It's the all-in-one plant!  They are so easy to grow.  I have one in a pot that’s been there for years.

-Happy Spring!