Dwira Park

Woo, hoo!  Advance copies of my gardening companions book, Wildflowers and Plant Communities of the Southern Appalachians and Piedmont arrived unexpectedly today.  Totally amazing.  We knew that the availability date had been pushed up to mid-March, thanks to Amazon and UNC Press, but didnt expect receiving hardback and paperback copies today.

Its so remarkable to see an idea transformed into a wonderful book through many (almost 10) years of hard work.  Tims created something thats a significant contribution to encouraging folks to learn more about plants and plant communities in our part of the world.  Its something to be proud of, and Im so proud of him. 

Its not easy to write a book - Ive done two relatively small ones, the second with a team, and theyre a LOT of work.  It takes discipline and a willingness to work long hours, not to mention honing the narrative, taking better photos, proofing the ms, etc. etc.

On this book (its over 500 pages), Ive been the first reader and editor and photo manager (and supportive spouse, too, along with Mocha, who accompanied Tim on his photo excursions, serving as the bear dog-- hmmm). So, its a labor of love all around.

So Ive got a big grin on my face this evening.  What a pleasure to welcome a book into circulation, both in print and in digital form (in progress)!

A brief mention of rotating vegetables in a talk yesterday morning encouraged a question about how to rotate garden crops -- important for a sustainable (organic) kitchen garden, simple in concept, but sometimes challenging in practice.

The principle is simple: rotate crops that are grown in a single area by plant family. There are a number of plant families represented in common vegetables, but not so many that its easy to avoid repeat plantings.

Ground rules:

Dont plant tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, or potatoes (tomato family: Solanaceae) in the same area for 3 (preferably four) years, ditto with kale, broccoli, cabbage (mustard family: Brassicaceae). Alternate plantings with lettuce, chicory, marigolds (in the Asteraceae, or daisy family), carrots, parsley, fennel, or dill (in the parsley family: Apiaceae), onions, garlic, and shallots (in the onion family: Alliaceae), beans and peas (in the pea family: Fabaceae), squash and gourds (in the squash family: Cucurbitaceae), or beets, turnip, or chard (in the beet family: Chenopodiaceae). Wheat, rye, barley, and oats arent commonly grown in home gardens, but make a great cover crop rotation, being in the grass family: Poaceae.

Some plant families are more disease-prone (because we grow them all the time) than others. Tomatoes, peppers, squash, and green beans fall in that category.

Its important not to plant vegetables in the same family year after year because of pest buildup-- soil critters like root-knot nematodes, fungal problems such as fusarium wilt, and presence of larval pests like squash-vine borers LOVE having their hosts there year after year.

Im learning that lesson first hand.

My main vegetable garden isnt that big. Its basically a long row of five blocks (roughly 5 X 5 ft) loosely adhering to the Square-Foot Gardening principles described by Mel Bartholomew. Theyre a little bit too big to reach in easily, but simple to dig by hand. Each block is separated by stepping stones and a mulched path, and edged by gray fieldstone.

I like to play around with my beds and mix up different vegetables, herbs, and flowers, and do NOT have a great record-keeping orientation, so after growing tomatoes, peppers, and cole crops in various places in the blocks, Im starting to see a build-up of soil-based problems for these common species in the main vegetable garden after the 10 or so years Ive been gardening there, root-knot nematodes and fusarium wilt (I think) in particular.

The satellite garden, started 3 years ago, provides a more expansive opportunity for rotations and cover crops (very helpful for soil replenishment and dealing with soil difficulties).

So, Im planning on being much more scrupulous about rotations (I WILL keep a plan of what I planted, I hope), using cover (and trap) crops, and introducing predatory (supposedly) beneficial nematodes, in the coming months.

There are lots of sites that provide useful information about rotations. A quick Google search finds Yankee Gardener, an Iowa State University site, and a Texas A&M site at the top of the heap.

Since Im waiting to start my vegetable garden - Im getting some chickens!

Today we set our new chicken coop into place in our new back yard. Its a small (3 x 4 feet), sturdy coop with an attached run. Ive ordered 3 pullets for arrival midweek from McMurray Hatchery. Exciting! I hope I can figure out how to care for them.

The 3 pullets (hens 18-22 weeks old) I ordered are three different varieties: Black Australorp, Araucana/Ameraucana, and light brahma. I did a lot of reading on different varieties and in the end, not quite sure why I selected the ones I did. They look nice! I want to raise chickens for eggs, to eat bugs (especially the prolific ticks we have) and to help provide manure for the vegetable garden. The Araucana is a very good layer with beautiful green or blue eggs. The Australorp is gentle and also a good layer. Brahmas are heavily feathered, winter hardy, regal and beautiful. All should be good for our cold winter around the corner, I hope.

We placed the coop in a sheltered location near to our back door. Next spring, I think well move it down closer to the vegetable garden, but the current location will be easier for me to get to if we have a lot of snow this winter. We leveled the coop well, then I added pine shavings inside the coop and nesting boxes. I hung the waterer in the run and the feeder in the coop. Tomorrow we will put some poultry wire around the base for predator protection (I hear the Fisher cats are the worst around here). Then we will wait for the birds.... I hope they will like my dogs..... and vice versa ...

Today we shook the bees onto fresh frames and foundation, about two weeks later than last year, but then winter seemed to hang about longer this year. The colony looks to be a healthy size but Ill find out if we were successful in about 10 days when I remove the two frames of grubs that we left as bait comb.

It was absolutely lovely in the garden this morning; the fall color is still bright, as the leaves come down and sprinkle the landscape with color. But its unusually warm, the kind of "Indian summer" day we used to have in September and October, not in mid-November. On the front steps, there was a sudden emergence of hundreds of winged insects -- they looked like ants and Ill have to figure out what they were. In any case, its not the time of the year to be hatching!

I did my favorite program this morning for a garden club in a nearby city (this permutation was Gardening for Nature). Actually the location was in a semirural area west of town. In what used to be rolling farm fields, subdivisions and shopping areas have popped up and lakeside houses now dot the nearby shore of Lake Hartwell. They were a great group, amazingly energetic with their outreach and volunteer activities. It was not only gardening and planting activities that they were involved with, but also community action projects. They mentioned a local hospital thats created a garden area that patients receiving chemo could look at through the expansive windows. What a lovely thing -- when my mom was in extensive rehab, the ability to go outdoors, and visit in the courtyard garden at the hospital was so significant to both of us, but probably to me most.

A early morning walk found us (a good friend and me) admiring Green and Gold (Chrysogonum virginianum) and the emerging green of the oak-hickory forest in the back of the Garden.

Its a lovely forest, with Piedmont azaleas and sweet shrub in flower (not to mention the oaks and hickories, achoo!)



We heard one of the red-shouldered hawks calling in the forest and coming out towards the meadows, we saw a pair soaring high up, barely within reach of my camera lens.

In the raised bed garden thats the main vegetable garden, I try to practice intensive raised-bed gardening, loosely based on the square-foot method. Im afraid Im not methodical enough to be precise about planting -- frankly, I like to play with my garden, but I do try to rotate vegetables as I can.

We eat as much as we can from the garden, but having it look nice is important, too. The garden is right out the kitchen door, so I think about it as a perennial vegetable/flower bed, even if its made up of annuals. I want it to be pleasing throughout the year. Rotating out plants, reseeding, and routinely adding more compost and amendments; all of these things are part of my gardening year.