We just purchased our first home in a small, quaint and charming little town in northern Wisconsin. Let the fun begin! While raising our six blessings, we are going to attempt to revitalize our cozy Dutch Colonial Revival home. Follow along and see what we learn, discover, and overcome in the process. It is sure to be a houseful of laughs!

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Back to Eden - A Garden Update

I thought that I would take a few minutes today to update everyone on the status of our garden. As mentioned earlier this year, we decided to attempt a new-to-us garden approach that we learned from the movie "Back to Eden". (Here is a link to the post, which shows the initial garden http://goingdutchcolonialstyle.blogspot.com/2012/06/back-to-eden-garden.html).

We are continuing to receive free, raw wood chips from the city, twice a month. This has been a real blessing as we discovered that we needed to add an additional 4" to 6" of chips as our initial batch appeared to break down much quicker than we had originally anticipated. We were blessed with so much that we were able to recover the entire garden, including patches previously skipped.


As you can see, the garden is growing beautifully! Even though we have not had a whole lot of rain up here, the ground is still very moist and the plants appear to be thriving. We have several blossoms and a few tomatoes already starting on the tomato plants. We have also been able to enjoy our European salad mix, broccoli and even some of the radishes. Everything tastes wonderful and comes up so clean and easy! We actually have to be careful when clipping our salad greens as the roots want to come up with the rest.


We ate our first little batch of broccoli raw, with a bit of salad dressing. The second batch was tossed into a salad. I guess I did not plant enough broccoli plants this year, as each little harvest has not produced enough to feed our large and growing family. Note for next year: more rows of salad greens and broccoli.

So, what about the weeds...the one dreaded and never-ending chore of gardening? Actually, the results have been as promised. Initially, we did not have a lot of rain and so, we did not have all that many weeds to worry about. In fact, being a novice gardener, I was not always sure what was a weed and what was a producing plant. So I let the weeds grow a little bigger. Once I could tell the difference, I pulled out the weeds - mostly grass and a few others. Overall, it took me about 90 minutes to weed the garden the first time. I did not think that was too bad considering the size of the garden!

Weeding is so easy (once the rows of producing plants could be identified). I simply raked up and down the aisle between the rows, moving and redistributing the wood chips. Any weeds not removed during this process were pulled by hand...usually a couple of dozen per row. And then I walked down the actual plant row and pulled the few weeds between plants. Again, there were hardly any to contend with. It was awesome!

Just for fun, I asked a friend of mine to send me a picture of her garden. We were both weeding the same day. She had finished only a couple of rows in the time it took me to do my whole garden!


I think that she said that this is supposed to be a row of pepper plants....but I can hardly see them. Here is what my row of pepper plants looks like...


I don't have nearly as many plants as she does, but I also didn't have nearly as many weeds! I now only have to weed after a good rain fall. Of course, I pick a few each day as I am walking through the garden harvesting the salad greens, broccoli or radishes. Just random ones that catch my eye. The few that we happen to see pull up so nice and easy, roots and all! This method of gardening has been a real blessing and a treat....especially as we watch our neighbors weed for hours and hours.

About the only problem we have had is with the birds. Initially, they literally picked out of the garden quite a few of my "starter pellets". Note for next year: no starter pellets...just traditional boxes with soil! We were getting concerned that we might not have as many of our plants as we wanted with the flocks of birds that were landing in our garden daily. But then my wonderful husband engineered a solution.

DVDs, CDs, zip ties, fishing line and a few broken fishing poles....


We strung six to eight DVDs and CDs together using the fishing line and a lot of knots. This allows both sides to flash while spinning and rotating. We then secured the fishing line to broken fishing poles and attached them to the fence using zip ties. We have eight of these set up around the perimeter of the garden. Amazingly, they have worked! Since we installed them, we have only seen a lone bird here and there, and then only on cloudy days. On sunny days, these detractors reflect light all over the garden, scaring the birds away. We even have to be a bit careful in the house because they can shine right through our patio doors and catch us off guard!

Anyway, I just thought that I would share a little bit more about this approach.

Monday, June 11, 2012

A Strawberry Adventure

Today I went to a local pick-your-own farm and picked about 20 pounds of strawberries. Last year, we missed the window with the chaos of moving and getting settled in, so I was really watching the signs for strawberry picking this year. While we planted strawberries in our garden, we are not expecting to harvest any of them this year so that the roots can develop real well.


As you can see, they were absolutely beautiful and ready to be picked! Once home, we got right to work getting about 15 pounds of them processed for the winter. My beautiful daughters were eager to help and learn what needed to be done to make our wonderful strawberry jam, syrup for topping ice cream, and a few gallons frozen for making strawberry pies.


They had so much fun and the strawberries were so juicy that little Zoya looks like she was slaughtering chickens instead of slicing strawberries! Her dress was stained right through to her panties and the skin underneath all the way down to her knees! Raeann was just as busy helping, but managed to contain the stains to her forearms and hands! And, we go a lot accomplished in just a few short, busy hours.


Working together, we processed 10 half-pints of strawberry jam, 8 pints of strawberry syrup to use on our ice cream, and 2.5 gallons sliced and frozen for homemade strawberry pies. I couldn't have done it without my wonderful helpers! They did such a great job. I think we can classify this "assignment" as part of our life skills class for homeschooling for today!

Saturday, June 9, 2012

A Haven for Lilacs

The past few days we have been hard at work landscaping around the house. For the past few months, it seemed as though our yard looked more like an archeological site than a family home. Our first summer here, we had noticed a lot of wood carpenter ants on our porch and in the house. So, we ripped out all the railroad ties that surrounded the house and subsequent flower beds. It was a good thing we did, too, as most of the beams were severely rotted and full of huge larvae. Disgusting to say the least. But since then, we had not done anything to the flower beds other than destroy what plants had remained - mostly hostas and other unknown flowers. That meant that for most of this spring and summer, our house was surrounded by mud and weeds. Not the most attractive site for the neighbors or a very welcoming one for us! However, as of this week, all of that has been vastly improved upon!

As you may know from our last blog post, we implemented a Back to Eden approach to our produce garden. We decided to also implement this approach to our flower beds and the perimeter of the house. I was blessed to see the City of Marion Street Department hauling around the chipper yesterday. I was able to stop them and ask what they did with the wood chips from the cleanup. He asked if I wanted them and said that they would be happy to dump whatever they had around lunch time. This was such a blessing and an answer to prayer as we had used most of our supply of wood chips up while planting our garden! I was so happy to see the half-load of raw wood chips and greenery - exactly what the video had advised we would need. And so, work began.

The previous day, we had borrowed a bird bath from our neigbhor and placed it in one of the bald areas caused by the removal of the trees earlier this spring. We planted some wildflower mixes around it, and fenced it in to keep the kids away from it. So the first thing we did was use some of the wood chips to cover that area. What an improvement!


My very good friend Jamie told me about new lilac growth spurts and that these could be easily transplanted to start new lilac bushes. First thing the next morning, I checked out some training videos on YouTube and found out that these new little growths are pretty hard to kill, so long as you have some of the root on it. The one lilac bush in our yard is going to have to be removed as it is interfering with the placement of our fence, but it has at least 50 to 75 new growths all around it. I learned real quick one thing that the videos forgot to mention - lilac roots are tough as steel and almost impossible to cut through with a shovel! It took me two days, and a lot of wheelbarrow loads of wood chips, but I was able to transplant 21 of the lilac growth spurts around the house.

For the most part, I strategically placed them so that our views from our windows and the front porch would not be blocked. I also used them to try and hide some of the unsightly things around the house, such as the utility boxes.


We have a few odd little corners here and there, too, that I think they will help to soften and make mowing the lawn a bit smoother for my husband. Some of the areas around the house, especially towards the back, were really ripped up and uneven with the rest of the ground. At one time, this whole area was covered with white decorative stone, which we were only to happy to eliminate. We purchased 10 more bags of the organic soil that we had used in the garden. This soil was placed along the side of the house which had the deepest discrepancy and filled it in. Once the wood chips were added, it looked so much better! I can almost see it with the various lilac bushes growing.


Of course, I had to plan it carefully so that once the bushes grew and filled in the space they would not interfere with my laundry line! I can almost smell the fragrant lilac scent as it wafts through our clothes in the next few years....mmmmm. Because I softened the angle to make it easier to mow, I was also able to transplant a lot of the grass into the other bald area by the street caused by the stump we had ground down. Hopefully, the grass will transplant okay and fill in that area nicely.

We also planted some lilacs alongside the part of the house that is adjacent to the driveway. This area is particularly challenging. Previously it was full of tiger lillies (one flower that I do not like at all!) and more hostas. These were taken by a friend and transplanted at her house. In addition to the lilacs, we planted some low ground covering wildflowers. And of course, we covered everything with the raw wood chips.



I hope that all the lilac spurts take root and flourish. It's no big deal if they don't all make it, especially since they were free and all it really cost us was some time and effort. Plus, we have neighbors that also have lilac bushes, so we can always get new cuttings if we need to replace any. However, if they do all take root and grow, we will have small bushes all around our house measuring about 5 feet tall in about 4 years. Just like my asparagus, this is something that I have invested in now with the hope of a blessed return down the road. It's also one project that I am glad to say is done...at least for this year. 

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Back to Eden Garden

Things have been really busy in the Fuller household the past few weeks. Sometimes, I don't know which way is up! We have so many projects that we have been juggling lately. With that being said, I am happy to announce that our garden is finally planted!

This project actually started several months ago for us. I had read about a new gardening method on a homesteading site (homesteadcommunitypost.ning.com) that referenced a movie that anyone could watch online for free titled Back to Eden. I had never really had a family-sustaining garden as an adult and to be honest, I did not pay all that much attention to it as a child. So I watched the movie at backtoedenfilm.com. Let me tell you, everyone should watch this film! I really like that it offers a Biblical approach to gardening and raises some really valid points, while simultaneously teaching how to garden a more natural and organic way. And thus started our Back to Eden garden journey.

I measured out the area that we were going to use for the garden. My husband likes to give me a hard time since he claims that I am taking over half the backyard. The area is fairly large and measures (without taking into account the shed) roughly 60' x 30'. Or a little less than 1,800 square feet. Needless to say, by town standards, I guess it is considered to be a large garden. But then again, I have a lot of mouths to feed, so I think that the end result is a bit too small.

Anyway, after watching the film, I made a plan for how I wanted our garden to be layed out. Here is a picture of it for you. The indented area on the right is where our garden shed is located. We were not able to follow this plan exactly for a few reasons, one of which is the huge stump right where my tomatoes were supposed to be planted. This is the stump from the huge silver maple that we had taken down earlier this spring.

So after I came up with this beautiful plan, I ordered my seeds from the Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds company located in Mansfield, Missouri. I wanted to use heirloom or open-pollinated seeds and to avoid as much as possible any genetically modified seeds. I am hoping to learn how to save seeds from this years crops to replant next year...but first, we have to see if this year worked or not!

I bought 4 starter trays that held 72 "pellets" each. This was a mistake, I think. Not so much the attempt to start the seeds, but the method I used. These pellets never seemed to get soft enough to plant the seeds deep enough, so they grew really quick but were very shallow and spindly. Most of my first batch died and I had to try again a week before Memorial Day. Not good. :-( Thankfully, I found a video on YouTube that shows a much better method for starting seeds and I am going to try that approach next year.

To implement our Back to Eden garden, we needed a few supplies including newspapers, composted soil and wood chips. Because we had cut down two trees on our property and our neighbors had also cut down two trees, we had plenty of wood chips. These wood chips are all different sizes and range from the larger stick and chunks to an almost sawdust size. Exactly what we needed. But that was all we had.

I checked with our local newspaper, the Marion Advertiser, and was able to get some bundles of extras from them. This was perfect! Our little paper usually averages 4 pages (full size) and we needed to have 4 layers. Because this approach is a no-till method, we needed to use the newspaper to cover the grass in the backyard. We dug out most of the weeds and other plants that we thought might be problematic. The newspaper will break down over time and kill the grass, adding more nutrients to the soil. So now we had the wood chips and the newspapers, but we needed composted soil...and a lot of it!

I called a landscaping company about an hour from our home. They had some really nice composted soil that had been sitting for a year. Unfortunately, they wanted $35 per yard, and they calculated that to cover our garden area with soil at least 4 inches thick, we would need 22 yards. That meant spending over $700 for soil, plus delivery. Way too expensive for our budget. I did not know what we were going to do.

In the meantime, we began researching the cost to put a temporary garden fence up. We are planning on installing a privacy fence and had hoped to have it in before the garden, but due to a variety of factors, it has been delayed, so we needed something to get us through this first year. While researching, I noticed that composted soil, enough to cover 1 square foot, cost about $2 per bag. We initially thought that we would need approximately 3 bags per yard, and 66 bags for 22. So, for about $130, we could finish the garden. So off my dear husband went to Lowes, which is located about an hour away.

While there, he saw that they were selling Timberline Organic Composted Soil made with cow manure for $1.76 per bag. We agreed that this fit the bill and he bought 20 bags. Keep in mind, each bag weighs 40 pounds, and we have a 4-door sedan! We did not want to overload the car. Once he arrived back home, we began to lay out the garden.

To keep it manageable, we measured an 11' x 6' area and layed out the newspapers, 4 pages thick. We then spread out the composted soil. I am not sure where, or how, but we somehow miscalculated how many bags we would need, because we used all 20 bags for that one section! We had to in order to get the soil 4 inches thick. Once the soil was down, we covered the area with wood chips, about 4 to 6 inches deep. We could do no more until my husband went to get more soil. This continued until we borrowed a friend's jeep. We ended up purchasing 260 bags of soil to lay out a majority of our garden. We spent almost $500 on dirt! But it was still cheaper than what we had been quoted by the landscaping company, so we thought we did pretty good. Here are some photos that I took after we finished planting:


Looking across the garden, with the shed behind me.

Most of this section contains our sweet corn...and the stump.

View from the top of the garden looking towards the garage.

Our little watermelon patch.
Here is how we actually planted the garden...

Overall, I am pleased that I was able to plant everything I wanted and a few things that I had not planned on in a much smaller area. My husband still thinks that the garden is huge. Now, I just pray that God will bless it and help it all to produce abundantly.

So, what all did we plant? Here is the list of what we planted, by type, moving accross the garden from left to right, and top to bottom. At the end, I will cover what I have planted along the fence, shed and the watermelon patch. In some cases, such as the tomatoes, I have indicated how many plants we planted (yes, we planted 102 tomato plants) and for each type, where the seeds or plants came from, just in case you might be interested. I have also added a Food Preservation page to our site to keep track of everything we manage to put away for the winter, so stay tuned to follow our progress with this new, Back to Eden gardening methed!

Row 1
Iceberg Lettuce (Baker Creek)
Giant Noble Spinach (Baker Creek)
European Mesclun Salad (Baker Creek)

Row 2
Catskill Brussels Sprouts (Baker Creek)
Emerald Giant Peppers (Baker Creek)
Coronado Crown Broccoli (local Amish greenhouse)

Row 3
Radish Giant of Sicily (Baker Creek)
Big Bertha Green Peppers (local Amish greenhouse)
Giant of Naples Cauliflower (Baker Creek)
Calabrese Green Sprouting Broccoli (Baker Creek)

Row 4
Shin Kuroda 5" Carrot (Baker Creek)
Alisa Craig Vidalia Onions (local Amish greenhouse)
1-Zucchini (local Amish greenhouse)

Row 5
Yellow of Parma Onion (Baker Creek)
Violet de Galmi Onion (Baker Creek)

Row 6
Stonehead Cabbage (local Amish greenhouse)
Red Acre Cabbage (local Amish greenhouse)
Tete Noire Cabbage (Baker Creek)
Brunswick Cabbage (Baker Creek)

Row 7
8-Amish Paste Tomatoes (local Amish greenhouse)
8-Roma Tomatoes (local Amish greenhouse)

Row 8
16-Brandywine Tomatoes (local Amish greenhouse)

Row 9
4-Celebrity Tomaotes (local Amish greenhouse)
4-Burpee Delicisous Tomatoes (local Amish greenhouse)
8-Tomato Homestead (Baker Creek)

Row 10
18-Watermelon Beefsteak Tomatoes (Baker Creek)

Row 11
18-Thessaloniki Tomatoes (Baker Creek)

Row 12 - The Herbs
Balm Lemon Basil (given to me)
Sweet Basil (given to me)
Chives (Baker Creek)
Cilantro (given to me)
Herb Dill Bouquet (Baker Creek)
Thai Dill (Baker Creek)
Oregeno (given to me)
Giant of Italy Parsley (Baker Creek)
Italian Parsley (given to me)
Rosemary (given to me)
Thyme (given to me)

Row 13
Tendercrisp Celery (Baker Creek)
Butternut-Waltham Squash (Baker Creek)

Rows 14-16
Stowell's Evergreen Sweet Corn (Baker Creek)

Row 17 - Alongside the Shed
Mary Washington Asparagus (Baker Creek)

Above Rows 1-6 and 13-16 Alongside the Fence & Beyond
Rows 1-6: Old Homestead Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans (Baker Creek)
Rows 13-16: Tall Telephone Garden Pea (Baker Creek)
Rows 13-16: Garden Berry Red Wonder Wild Strawberry (Baker Creek)
Rows 13-16: Parisian Pickling Cucmber (Baker Creek)

Below Rows 13-16 Alongside the Fence
18-Fox Cherry Tomatoes (Baker Creek)
Red Cherry Tomatoes (given to me)

Behind the Shed - Watermelon Patch
Sugar Baby Watermelons (Baker Creek)