Garden Journal 6/17/10: How To Easily Attract Pollinators to Your Kitchen Garden

Just plant some echinacea!

Realization of the Day:

There's a winged frenzy going on out in my flowerbed.

It's 92 degrees in the shade, 89 in the living room, and still several more hours until sundown. The sheep are lounging on the cool ground by the spring, the chickens are standing around panting, and there are cats sprawled out everywhere. I keep telling myself that all this sweating has got to be detoxifying.

Nobody wants to move—except for the moths and butterflies. They're over on the echinacea, excitedly fluttering from flower to flower as fast as their little wings will let them. It's an exhausting but beautiful sight.

I love echinacea, also known as purple coneflower, almost as I love seeing all those pollinators. Last June I wrote about echinacea in this post, declaring it to be one of my favorite flowering perennials and touting it as easy to grow, no maintenance, heat loving, drought tolerant, long blooming, self seeding, pollinator attracting, poor soil loving, insect resistant, cold tolerant, and pretty much impossible to kill. Yep, that about sums it up.

Once you get your echinacea growing (it loves full sun), it should basically take care of itself, reseeding and gradually spreading as the years go by if you let it. I started with a couple of plants that I dug up and brought with me when I moved here ten years ago, and I now have a patch of echinacea that covers about 40 square feet.

I did learn last summer that echinacea isn't totally insect resistant, when the Japanese beetles came out in force and attacked it, as well as just about everything else in the garden. They eat something like 270 different types of plants. I'd never seen a Japanese beetle here until two years ago, when we had an unusually rainy spring, which was great for the hayfield and pastures but caused a lot of bizarre things to happen in the garden.

We had a fairly wet spring this year, too, and I saw the first Japanese beetle of the season yesterday while I was snapping these pictures. You can see that many of the flowers already have bites taken out of them.

Maybe those moths and butterflies know it's probably now or never.

6/22/10 Update: I just posted some more echinacea pollinator pics on Farmgirl Fare I like even more than these. Click here if you'd like to see them.

Do you have any echinacea growing tips, stories, or memories you'd care to share?

Echinacea is always a joy to photograph:

8/23/05: Hardy Echinacea Blooms All Summer Long

6/20/06: Preparing to Burst into Color

7/16/06: Butterfly Bonanza

8/26/06: Butterfly Photos are Better than Nothing

6/28/06: Butterfly Paradise

7/8/06: The Stuff of Life

11/25/06: The Easiest Way to Store Seeds

6/25/07: Echinacea by the Cat Cabin

8/14/07: Echinacea Visitors

7/6/08: Been Busy

7/8/08: Winged Spectacular (one of my favorite photos)

6/24/09: My Favorite Easy to Grow, No Maintenance, Heat Loving, Drought Tolerant, Long Blooming Flowering Perennial? Echinacea!

© Copyright 2010 FarmgirlFare.com, the pretty in pink foodie farm blog where I'm seriously thinking about having ice cream for dinner.

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DripWorks drip irrigation supplies

Just wanted to alert you to a great resource for drip irrigation supplies: DripWorks in Willits, CA. A lot of times, nurseries and hardware stores carry a small selection of drip irrigation parts. Not only does DripWorks offer parts and complete systems, they will even help you design your drip system free of charge. Leery of ordering through websites? Not an issue here. DripWorks has earned a Dave's Garden Top 5 Garden Watchdog Rating. Check out the reviews.

By ordering a Row Crop or Heart Kit through this blog post or the banner ad on SacramentoGardening.com, you will receive 10% off on a battery timer. Want to learn more about their kits? Check out these videos.

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Annual Mower Exchange

Just a reminder...

"This year, the first-come, first served registration for the limited supplies of new Neuton cordless mowers takes place on Wednesday, March 17, beginning at 11 a.m. You can register by calling 1-888-742-SMUD (7683) or by entering your information here on smud.org (registration day only)." -- SMUD

Learn More...

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Garden Journal 3/11/10: Growing Onions from Purchased Plants - Ordering and Planning

1015Y Texas SuperSweet Onions Harvested Last June

Realization of the Day:
Despite numerous failures and disappointments in the garden over the years, when it comes to buying seeds and plants I'm still a consummate optimist. I also have no self control. This can be a dangerous combination—and pricey, too.

Last spring was the first time I grew onions from purchased plants rather than onion sets, and despite the fact that many of them bloomed way too early (which means I ended up with some fairly small onions) I enjoyed some delicious success—and still ended up with bigger onions than I've ever grown from sets. (The flowering was most likely due to some wet and wacky spring weather, and I'm hoping to cover this problem in a future post). I wrote a little about last year's onion growing here and here.

For experiment's sake, in late February of 2009 I ordered a total of 10 bunches (approximately 60 plants per bunch) of 9 different varieties of onions (along with hundreds of leek plants—which was a whole other growing adventure I've been meaning to write about) from Dixondale Farms in Texas, the oldest and largest onion farm in the U.S.

I'm running a little later with my ordering and planting this year, but according to Dixondale's shipping schedule, March 9th was their suggested ship date for my area. I also ordered fewer plants and fewer varieties, sticking to the ones that did the best for me last year.


Some of My 2009 Harvest: Red Candy Apple, 1015Y Texas Super Sweet, and others

Here's what I ordered yesterday:
2 bunches 1015Y Texas Super Sweet
2 bunches Red Candy Apple
1 bunch Candy
1 bunch Super Star

The 1015Y Texas Super Sweets (so named because October 15th is the Texas planting date) are a Short-Day open pollinated variety. Red Candy Apple, Candy, and Super Star are Intermediate-Day hybrids. I don't usually allow hybrids in my kitchen garden, preferring to grow open pollinated heirlooms instead, but I make an exception when it comes to onions and leeks, rationalizing that homegrown hybrids are definitely better than none.

According to Dixondale's 'Which Varieties are Right for You' map, Intermediate-Day are the best type of onions to grow here in southern Missouri. I didn't learn until last year that the size of an onion bulb is dependent upon daylength and temperature, not the size of the plants.

I really liked the flavor of the Red Candy Apples—so sweet, and the size was good. I couldn't get enough of them in this Garbanzo Bean Salad with Red Onion, Scallions, Cilantro, Parsley, and Feta Cheese.

I'm embarrassed to admit that none of the yellow Candys ever made it into the ground (I ordered too many onion plants last year!), but since it's Dixondale's most popular variety (they sold over 85 million in 2009), I have high hopes. They say this variety will work almost everywhere in the country and is great for beginner gardeners.


6/5/09: Just Harvested Super Star Onions Laid out to Cure before Storing

The Super Star onions started blooming early, so I ended up picking them on the small side, but the flavor of this white globe-shaped variety was very nice, and the plants were vigorous. And as you can see in the top photo, the 1015Y Texas Super Sweets—which are indeed sweet—did quite well.

If you're gardening by the moonsigns, the best time to plant onions—even though they grow below ground like potatoes and garlic—is on a fertile day in the first quarter, so if all goes according to plan (new bouncing baby lambs and other unexpected farm stuff notwithstanding), I'll be putting mine in the ground on the 18th, 19th, and/or 20th when the moon is in Taurus. You can read more about minding the moonsigns here and here.

In an effort to post more often on this poor neglected garden blog (and keep better track of what's going on in my garden!), my new goal is to write shorter posts (okay, I'm failing miserably so far) that focus on just one or two points. I plan to hopefully write more about growing onions, including soil prep, onion planting, an amazing way I discovered to organically control weeds, troubleshooting, and growing tips in the near future.

In the meantime, you'll find lots of helpful information about growing onions, including online and downloadable guides, on the newly redesigned Dixondale Farms website.

Are you growing onions this year? Any favorite varieties, stories, tips, or other oniony info you'd like to share?

Previous onion posts:
6/2/09: Harvesting Spring Onions Grown from Purchased Plants
10/8/09: Growing Short Day Onion Varieties in Spring and Free Green Onions in Fall
6/7/08: What To Do with 125 Green Onions (Scallions)
6/7/08: Wanted: Your Recipes and Favorite Ways to Use Green Onions
6/12/05: Growing Onions In The Garden
3/16/06: It's Time to Plant Onions!
4/4/06: Operation Onion Complete!
4/26/06: Companion Planting Beets & Lettuce with Onions

Scallions and spring onions should be here soon!
Sour Cream & Onion Dip
Savory Cheese & Scallion Scones
Fiesta Cottage Cheese Veggie Dip
Mexican Jumping Bean Slaw
Summer in a Bowl
Colors of Summer Salad
Healthy Swiss Chard Tuna Salad with Kalamata Olives
Swiss Chard Cabbage Salad with Garbanzo Beans and Cottage Cheese
Garbanzo Bean Salad with Red Onion, Scallions, Cilantro, Parsley, and Feta Cheese
Sprinkled on top of Hot Swiss Chard Artichoke Dip
Three Onion & Three Cheese Pizza

© Copyright 2010 FarmgirlFare.com, the happy to have onion breath foodie farm blog where buying too much and planting too much are half the fun of gardening, right?

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Is a Digital Kitchen Scale an Essential Garden Tool? I Think So

I'm working on a post called Six Worthwhile Kitchen Investments for Gardeners, but since my favorite Oxo 11-pound digital kitchen scale is currently on sale for $37.44 at amazon.com with free super saver shipping (and their sales don't often last long) I decided to skip ahead and write about it first. It's worth every penny of the regular $49.99 price (which is what I paid three years ago), but this is a very nice deal. I've raved about this scale before, and no doubt will again.

Basil from the kitchen garden on 9/4/10

Realization of the day:

I literally cannot remember life before my kitchen scale. I often use it several times a day.

If you read the title of this post and your immediate answer was no, I kindly suggest you do these two things and then come back:

1. Go to three different places and buy a bunch of Swiss chard or kale—or even parsley or cilantro—at each one. Are they anywhere near the same size? Didn't think so.

2. Ask three people to measure out two cups of basil leaves for you, then lay the piles side by side and compare them.

Another interesting experiment, though it isn't relevant to my yes, you really do need a kitchen scale argument, is to buy a lemon at three different places and compare the sizes. Zest and juice them if you want, too. Yeah, whoa. Huge difference probably, huh? And how many recipes simply call for 'the zest of one lemon,' or 'the juice of one lemon?' That kind of drives me nuts.

But back to the scale. Once you have one in your kitchen, it's amazing how many things you'll probably find yourself weighing while cooking and baking. They're also are great for weighing postage, especially since you need to know the weight of a package if you want to print out a mailing label online and avoid waiting in line at the post office.

If you're a gardener, a kitchen scale can be put to even more good use—weighing all of your beautiful bounty. A scale will give you a real idea of how much you're harvesting. For example, I had no clue how many total pounds of tomatoes I grow each year—until I started buying them from our Amish neighbors a couple of years ago when I didn't have any and realized we managed to eat 25 pounds in a couple of weeks. And they were all consumed fresh! Thank goodness their prices are very reasonable, but I still really need to get back into my tomato growing groove. Next year, next year.

I've noticed running harvest tallies on several garden blogs this summer, and it's been fun to see how much bounty other gardeners are getting. If you want to feel like a real underachiever be totally impressed, check out Nathan and Aimee's list of harvest totals in the left sidebar of their blog, 2 Acre Farm: The Experiences, Trials, and Lives on a Small Farm in Rural Illinois. Here are just a few of the things on the list as of August 21st, their 16th Farmers' Market Week:

13.35 lbs. Cilantro

29 lb. 11 oz. Purple Top Turnips

46 lbs. Purple Top Turnip Greens

9 lb. 12 oz. Burgundy Okra

4 lbs. 8 oz. Rocket Arugula

121 lb. 9 oz. Provider Snap Beans

A scale is so handy, even if your bounty doesn't weigh anywhere near what theirs does. Thirteen pounds of cilantro? Forty-six pounds of turnip greens? Oh my gosh. I just realized that these might actually just be the harvest totals for that one day, not the entire year to date. There's a total of 49 different vegetables listed. Are these two gardeners amazing or what? Everything is Certified Naturally Grown, and this was their first full season!

I bought my first digital kitchen scale at least ten years ago, and immediately fell in love. So many things to weigh! Three years ago I upgraded to this 11-pound Oxo Good Grips scale, which is currently on sale at amazon.com, and have nothing but good things to say about it. It weighs in both grams and ounces, and the pull-out display, which allows you to weigh big bowls of things, is fabulous. It's no surprise that America's Test Kitchen (the publishers of Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country magazines) voted this scale #1.

It's also small enough that instead of storing it away in a cupboard, I just stand it on end and lean it on the back of my big butcher block work table, so it's always within easy reach. If you're a bread baker, a kitchen scale is great for dividing up dough. For example, my Oatmeal Toasting Bread recipe makes three loaves, and weighing the dough allows you to easily make them all the same size. And portioning out 16 Carrot Herb Rolls is a snap.

I haven't been harvesting much of anything by the pound lately, but I did manage to snip almost 12 ounces of basil from my one plant back on September 4th. After trimming off the stems, I ended up with the 6-7/8 ounces you see pictured above, which I turned into some wonderful pesto. This was the second cutting—remember how I ruined the first one back in August?

Then yesterday afternoon, with the threat of falling temps, I picked another 2-7/8 ounces, some of which will go into some of my easy homemade Italian sausage, which will in turn go onto a homemade pizza (you'll find my simple pizza dough recipe here). I covered the plant with floating row cover and an old bedsheet, but didn't want to take any chances. And good thing, as it's 32° this morning! I left plenty of new growth on the plant and may even get another small harvest from it, depending on the weather—and if I remember to cover it up each night. For more about this, check out my previous post, How To Keep Your Basil Plants Growing into Fall.

Do you have a kitchen scale? What do you love weighing with it?

For those of you who can't wait to hear what my other five worthwhile kitchen investments for gardeners—or anyone with access to a good farmers' market—are (and in case for some reason I never get around to finishing that post), I'll list them briefly here:

—A food dehydrator. My first one quickly paid for itself in dried tomatoes alone—simply slice paste tomatoes in half and set them cut side up in the trays. A few years ago I upgraded to this Nesco 700-watt model and love it. The adjustable thermostat is great. You can learn how easily I dry pear slices in this recent post on Farmgirl Fare: Got Pears? My Three Favorite Recipes, Plus How To Make Your Own Dried Pears.

—A food mill. I use a classic Foley food mill to make my Really Easy Low Sugar Pear Butter and Homemade Tomato Vegetable Juice, but I'm just looking for an excuse to order this Oxo Good Grips food mill, which doesn't cost much more than the Foley and has three different grinding discs, along with some other nifty features. Several Farmgirl Fare readers said they love theirs in the comments section of my Pear Butter Recipe post.

—A Water Bath Canner. Canning is a great way to preserve seasonal bounty. It isn't difficult or dangerous, and the basic equipment is very affordable. I use a canner like this one, and I've found this inexpensive home canning accessories kit to be invaluable.

—A FoodSaver vacuum sealer. We have one of the original models that still works after 20+ years, and have used it to seal everything from green beans to spare chainsaw chains (keeps them from rusting). A few years ago I bought this really nice one, which is still available although apparently discontinued by the manufacturer. You can purchase ready made bags, but it's much more economical to buy rolls of the FoodSaver bag material and make your own. The bags can be reused over and over. (I haven't had good luck using other brands of bag material.) The FoodSaver company also has excellent customer service.

—A chest freezer. We have several. The first tiny one I purchased nearly 20 years ago entirely changed my life. Our newest one is 24.9 cubic feet. Totally worth the initial investment and literally only costs a few dollars a month to run.

Okay, so I guess this pretty much does cover the entire originally planned Six Worthwhile Kitchen Investments for Gardeners post!

Did I miss anything? What kitchen tool does the gardener in you never want to be without?

© FarmgirlFare.com, the hot tea drinking foodie farm blog where it's time to get out there and see how everything in the garden and greenhouse look on this chilly morning, and then start preparing for tonight's predicted frost—12 days earlier this year than our 'official' first frost date. Yikes.

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Garden Journal 6/20/10: How To Transplant Sweet Pepper Seedlings, the Extended Version

Off to Browner Pastures!

Realization of the Day:

The most important thing you need to do in the garden is get your seeds and plants in the ground. Otherwise nothing else matters.

As obvious as it sounds, it's amazing how often I forget this simple fact, missing out on growing so many things each year because I'm focusing too much on all the prep work I need/want to do and not enough on the actual planting. Lettuce season in southern Missouri has come and gone, yet despite always telling people how easy it is to grow lettuce from seed, I don't have a single leaf to show for it this spring—and you know how much I love lettuce.

Your seedlings don't care if the soil isn't perfectly amended, or the pathways around your raised beds are full of weeds, or it's not the absolute ideal day for transplanting according to the lunar calendar. They just want to be put in the ground. And yesterday morning—after worming 30 lambs and before it got quite all the way up to the 103 degree heat index predicted for the day—some of the poor suffering seedlings I bought over a month ago finally were.

Along those same Just plant it already lines, I'm going to skip past several other blog posts that were supposed to precede this one in order to record—since this is supposed to be a garden journal, after all—doing something when I actually did it.

So here's what I planted yesterday:

—3 Quadrato D'Asti Giallo sweet bell peppers ('giant yellow bell pepper, beautiful and blocky, with very thick walls, sweet and rich outstanding flavor')

—2 Emerald Giant sweet bell peppers ('heavy yields of 4+" long by 3+" wide, thick-walled peppers that turn from dark green to red when mature')

—1 Yellow Monster sweet pepper ('gigantic, sunshine yellow sweet and meaty fruits can grow 8" long by 4" wide)

—4 Red California Wonder sweet bell peppers

—1 sweet basil plant (learn how to extend your basil growing season here)

The first six pepper plants were purchased for $1 each from a little rack outside a hardware store in town that a local gardener sets up each spring. They're all heirloom varieties from Baker Creek Seeds here in Missouri. The Emerald Giant and Yellow Monster are new varieties for me.

The Red California Wonder peppers are one of two 4-packs bought from the greenhouse down at the highway junction for $1.39 each. They're boring but reliable and aren't hybrids. I couldn't find any of my favorite Aconcagua sweet peppers for sale (a gorgeous variety from Baker Creek I've been growing for 14 years), but beggars buyers can't be choosers.

I bought the basil plant at the end of March from a supermarket in St. Louis when I picked up my English friend Betty Western at the airport. I wanted to mix up some homemade Italian sausage during her farm visit, and the 'fresh' basil for sale in little plastic packets looked pathetic—and cost almost as much as the locally grown live herb plants they'd just put out. That choice was a no brainer.

And here's how I planted them:

1. On Friday morning, re-weeded the 4'x8' mini greenhouse raised bed I'd cleared out back in March, and then scuffle hoed a few weeks later, in preparation for planting lettuce seeds (which never got planted) and fed most of the green matter I pulled out to the chickens (which they mostly didn't eat). You can see photos of my raised beds here and read about the mini greenhouse beds in the comments section of that post.

Free food!

2. Discovered several volunteer kale plants growing among the weeds, which the chickens do love to eat. (One of those previously planned posts is all about how to grow almost free green food nearly year round for your chickens. I'll get to it one of these days.)

3. Decided not to bother picking out all the little rocks staring up at me in the bed after weeding because it would take too much time, I was too lazy to empty out the nearby bucket already filled with rocks from last year or go find another one, and they always seem to somehow grow back anyway.

4. Used a hoe to turn the soil and then smooth it out.

5. Sprinkled the bed with 2 cups of granulated corn gluten, an organic method for preventing weeds from growing that really works (another previously planned post!—hopefully up soon) and worked it into the top two inches of soil with a metal rock rake.

6. Laid out the planting holes so they were at least 2 feet from each other, then adjusted because the kale plants were in the way. If any of the plants had had flowers or tiny peppers on them, I would have snipped them off so the plant would expend its energy growing bigger before fruiting.

7. Dug the holes with my beloved Oriental Garden Tool (also called a Korean Ho-Mi Digger/Cultivator), then in the interest of streamlining the operation, skipped putting any amendments in the planting holes. These would normally be most or all of the following: compost, sheep manure, granulated kelp (fed to the livestock), calcium mineral mix (livestock), two aspirin tablets, epsom salt, crushed eggshells, and probably something else I'm forgetting.

The plan is to heavily mulch the plants with sheep manure/bedding hay soon (like this) which will prevent weeds from growing after the corn gluten stops working in six weeks, while providing a slow release of organic fertilizer each time the plants are watered.

8. Picked up at least a couple dozen of the rocks while digging despite my plan not to, and since there was no bucket handy, tossed them in the corners of the raised bed, which means they'll still have to be picked up again and/or they'll just end up getting mixed back into the soil.

9. Built up little circles of soil around each plant to help hold water, then watered the seedlings and the volunteer kale plants with 4 gallons of water.

10. Clipped two old bedsheets over the mini greenhouse PVC frame to shade the bed and keep everything from keeling over in the blasted heat. Ideally, seedlings should be transplanted in the late afternoon or evening before a cloudy day, but if you can't, shading them helps tremendously. You can make a similar setup with bamboo stakes, which have countless uses in the garden. You can read more about making your own shade in my previous post, Gardening on the Cheap.

11. Looked with pleasure at a job finally done.

I really wanted to get some tomato plants in the ground first, but that mini greenhouse bed (which looks a little odd because it's missing a piece of pvc pipe at one end) was the easiest one to clear out, and the tomato plants would have been too tall for it.

Last summer my sweet pepper plants went into the ground so late they were still loaded with unripe fruits when the temperature started dropping in autumn. I picked a bunch of the green peppers and let them ripen indoors (yet another blog post), but my plan this year is to cover the mini greehouse frame with plastic and be able keep the plants alive at least through October.

During previous years, it seems like the plants I make the most detailed notes about usually end up dying. Let's hope that doesn't happen with these!

Did you know that you can easily freeze sweet peppers to enjoy all year long? No blanching required. Click here to learn how.

So how's your planting going this year? Everything in the ground? Nothing in the ground? Somewhere inbetween? I can't be the only one so behind with everything can I? I haven't give up hope yet (there's always autumn lettuce!), but I have to admit I've already started planning for next year.

© Copyright 2010 FarmgirlFare.com, the tired of the summer heat and summer hasn't even started yet foodie farm blog where I once read about a woman who got so fed up with the sun baking all of her plants that she spent a small fortune erecting a shadecloth cover for her entire two acre garden. I can totally relate.

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My Favorite Heirloom Carrots (so far) to Grow from Seed: Parisienne

A Handful of Harvested Carrots on July 11th, 2009

Realization of the Day:

I never shared the final results of last year's carrot growing adventures (which I wrote about here and here)—mostly because they were so disappointing.

The short version (because I'll probably never get around to posting the long version) is I've decided that, for me, growing carrots from seed isn't worth the effort—at least right now. I did learn a lot about growing them, though.

We eat a lot of raw organic carrots around here, and the ones I can buy year round for less than a dollar a pound actually taste better than most of the carrots I managed to grow last year—which was a surprising discovery since most homegrown vegetables taste so much better than storebought.

Granted, they're packaged in annoying plastic bags and are grown in some other state and then trucked to Missouri, but there's always a give and take when it comes to what we choose to buy and eat. We raise so much of our own food that I don't feel too bad about buying bagged carrots, and at least they're organically grown.

That said, I haven't completely given up on homegrown carrots. And when I do try them again (who knows, maybe even this fall—I have huge plans for a fall garden since at this point the spring garden is pretty pathetic), I'll definitely be growing Parisiennes.

I'm a Sucker for Cute—and not Just Baby Animals

I bought my seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, and according to their catalog, Parisiennes (which they offered for the first time in 2009) are small, round carrots that are so popular in France. Tender, orange globes are superb lightly steamed. Easy to grow even in heavy soils. This little carrot is great for home and market gardens, as this variety is fairly uniform.

Mine had a nice, sweet flavor, and of course there's the fact that they're adorable. They make a fun addition to a crudite platter, and would probably be a big hit with kids. Someday I'll get around to making pickled carrots, and I bet these little babies would be perfect. Wouldn't a jar of them make a beautiful gift?

The Pinetree Garden Seeds catalog lists a similar sounding variety of carrot called Thumbelina SG:

A round Paris Market-type carrot, Thumbelina was an All America Award winner for 1992. It's an improvement over older round varieties in the smoothness of the skin (important because you don't want to peel them). Another virtue is that they will do well in heavy, rocky soil. The flavor is very good at the 1-inch size but is retained up to golf ball size.

Because they're so small, they also have a shorter growing season than many other carrot varieties, which is always helpful.

So how about you? Did your carrot crop do well last year? Are you growing carrots this year? Any successes, failures, or other words of carrot wisdom to share?

Related posts (lots of helpful info in the comments sections):

6/6/09: Growing and Thinning (and Weeding!) Heirloom Carrots

6/12/09: Bigger Red and Orange Baby Carrots

Recipe: Carrot Herb Rolls (and a beautiful bargain bread book for beginners)

© Copyright 2010 FarmgirlFare.com, the crunch and munch foodie farm blog where our donkeys love organic carrots even more than we do—and can gobble up a pound of them in seconds flat.

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Do It Yourself Kitchen Garden Inspiration: Build an Amish Cold Frame

Attention Feedblitz e-mail subscribers: Hi! Sorry about the scrunched up spacing on posts lately. It's driving me nuts, and I'm hoping to have it fixed soon. In the meantime, clicking on the article title will take you to an easier to read version on the In My Kitchen Garden site. Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Realization of the Day:

In all my years of gardening, I've never used a cold frame—and I love cold frames.

Several Amish families moved to this area two years ago, and in my opinion we're all the luckier for it. The Amish neighbors I've met so far have all been very friendly, and they've already brought much to our rural community. There are three basket makers and a furniture maker. The rough cut siding on our new sheep barn came from the Amish sawmill down the road. (Step-by-step construction photos of our beautiful sheep barn will be up on Farmgirl Fare one of these days, but in the meantime, you can see part of the interior—including some of that wood siding—here.)

One of the families sets up a stand next to their house each summer and sells organic produce from their large garden. They grow wonderful sweet corn, and I think I ended up buying most of their tomato harvest last year. The stand is run on the honor system so you can shop anytime; the very reasonable prices are posted, and you just leave your money in the coffee can on the table, making change if you need it.

I love the convenience, but I'm always hoping the wife and/or husband will be home whenever I stop by, as we usually have interesting talks about gardening, sharing our successes and failures, trading growing tips, and laughing. I always learn something new.

The husband's brother lives with his wife and young children on the farm next door, and the two brothers do carpentry work. They're the ones who built our sheep barn last fall, and they came back last month, along with a young apprentice, to build us a big new haybarn.

It's a little different working with the Amish. They don't have telephones, preferring face to face interaction instead. Dropping by unannounced to discuss business or for a little visit is perfectly acceptable. Not knowing if there's a change in plans until they simply don't show up for work that day is something you get used to. (Actually, construction workers with phones often don't call either.)

Since they drive their horse drawn buggy to work, part of the deal is that you have to go pick up their gas-powered table saw, ladders, and any other big tools in your truck before the work begins, and then bring them back when the project is complete. You also have to provide a place for their horse.

These guys usually only take jobs that are within a 10 mile radius from their farms, but fortunately they made an exception and traveled a few extra miles to work for us.

While we were picking up the tools a few days before construction on the haybarn was set to begin last month, I spied this cute cold frame in their small front garden.

The Amish don't like to be photographed, and of course I respect their wishes, but oh, the wonderful photo opportunities I've missed! Fortunately they don't seem to mind the fact that I'm always pointing my camera at everything else except them, so it didn't seem odd when I asked if I could snap a few pictures of a cold frame.

Did you notice that the title of this post isn't How To Build an Amish Cold Frame? The guys didn't use blueprints or plans of any kind when they built our barns, so naturally there aren't any for this little impromptu project made from scraps of wood. He didn't even know what size it was when I asked. (It's 24" x 66.")

As for whether it's an authentic Amish cold frame design, I have no idea. He said they had one similar to it back home in Ohio, but the top didn't open; you had to lift the whole thing up and move it off the plants on sunny days. My favorite part about this one is how cleverly it opens up. I love the shape, too; it looks like a little house rather than simple a box.

This isn't a particularly complicated project, and I thought that if I photographed every angle and detail of it, some of you handy types would be able to figure out how to build one for yourself if you liked it as much as I do. As I said, it measures 24" x 66", but you could adapt the design to pretty much any size.

Actually, at the time I was taking these photos it was for purely selfish reasons. My hunky farmguy Joe also happens to be one of those handy types who doesn't need plans to build things, and I'm hoping that I can get him to build me my very first cold frame for fall—or at least before next spring.

If not, I know somebody who might be talked into making me one—and I won't even have to drive over and pick up his tools first.

Do you use cold frames in your garden? If you've shared cold frame photos on your own blog or on flickr, you're welcome to include a link in your comment—I'd love to see them!

More about our Amish neighbors:

12/13/07: Slow Traffic Ahead

7/28/08: Country Billboard

7/30/08: Super Market

8/2/08: Golden Fruits of Labor

© Copyright 2010 FarmgirlFare.com, the laid back and low key foodie farm blog where we never mind being 'stuck' behind an Amish buggy on the highway—unless it means somebody else is going to beat us to all the sweet corn.

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