Time to plant up the garden

Seeds & plants

A renewed vigor and expectation for success was ringing in my head in the spring of 2012.  I had decided to take another shot at starting seeds indoors.  After all of the reading and listening and research done to prepare this newly constructed raised bed...

I did about 2 minutes of research at starting seeds.  This was clearly not enough to prepare me for the undertaking.  I had a 48" fluorescent shop light, a pair of t12 48" fluorescent tubes and that was about it.  The light was on some days and off others.  The seeds got water every so often and a white lovely looking moldy thing was growing all over half of the tray.  It was a half heart'd attempt at best and the fruits of my labor were evident.  I started approximately 32 pods with seeds and nearly every one of my tomatoes, basil, chard, spinach, etc., D. E. D. dead!  I did manage to get 1 tomato plant into the garden and it did live and produce a few pieces of fruit.  

Another short story...during my time in Princeton, I worked at Teresa Caffe with some truly incredible people.  A close friend Shannon, woman of the earth, and resident gardening/farming/livestock expert told me about a way to start seeds with one gallon milk jugs.  Take a plastic gallon milk container, cut it in half (horizontally) and remove the top portion with the handle.  Drill some holes in the bottom for drainage and add your favorite seed starting mix, seeds and water.  Attach the top with tape (mimicking a hinge) and...well you can read all about it here.  

It was meant to create a small greenhouse effect and it worked like a charm.  I did start some chard using the milk jug method and several of them survived the transplant into the garden.  SUCCESS!  These chard seedlings were the mainstay of the chard in my garden, for the entire growing season.  More on that chard and the successes and failures (and there are plenty of those) of my 2012 growing season to come.  Ok...here is a sneak preview!

Name that leaf!  How is that for a tease???

If you build it...they will grow

The right stuff.

My choice of materials for the construction of a raised garden bed was practically endless.  

• cedar-wood eating insects stay away from it due to its fragrance and it breaks down very slowly
• fallen trees or large branches-a more rustic look, but certainly earth friendly
• any other wood- insuring that it has not been treated with any chemicals or finished with paint or stain of any kind, though this will break down/rot after a few years
• cement blocks or natural stone-heavy and can be expensive
• simply mound soil-atop the native soil, ensureing not to mound it too high with steep sides or erosion will destroy your hard work
• endless other ideas that will not allow the intrusion of chemicals or toxins from the materials themselves to infiltrate your growing medium

A great article from Organic Gardening explaining how to build 5 different raised beds and of course the method I used to build a raised bed utilizing cedar lumber at Sunset.com.  Choose wisely!

Even more important and essential to a raised garden bed is what growing medium you will be filling the box with.  And again, the wealth of information available on the interwebs is endless.  Nearly all reputable sites will recommend that you use between 30%-50% compost or organic matter, and the rest is up for debate.  My boy Mr. McGrath will advise you on raised beds and exactly what should go in them, here on his supporting site, GardensAlive.com.  Square foot Gardening and it's founder Mel will recommend Mel's Mix...I will let you research what exactly that entails.  No doubt that these and many other websites offer tons of very valuable information on the contents of the growing medium that should go into a raised garden bed.  I decided on 50% high quality compost (blend of mushroom compost, composted leaves, composted manure) and 50% high quality bagged top soil (blend of 2-3 reputable brands).  

No preservatives, additives, chemicals, toxins, moisture retaining stuff, etc.

What I am about to mention is worth paying attention to.  None of the products I used, nor should anyone use, contain any type of chemical fertilizer or additive to enhance the ability to retain water or feed the plants that will be growing in the raised garden bed.  A proper compost and mulch will retain all the moisture you need and feed your veggies and flowers absolutely fine.  NO CHEMICALS NECESSARY!  Once again, my friend Mike McGrath will tell you all you need to know HERE about making, selecting and using compost rather than fertilizer on your garden.  For god's sake, he wrote a book on the subject...Mike McGrath's Book of Compost.  If you have the means, buy it, read it, compost it...just kidding.  

It took me about 2 hours to build this 4' x 8' raised bed and set it in its current location...

using the details I found on Sunset.com.  It was easy to plan for and construct and the website does a great job with the images to support each step of the process.  Again, there are tons of websites and plans online...if you were to simply search for raised garden bed plan.  <-------JUST CLICK HERE!

Location location location

Patience is a virtue.

I spent the winter 2011-2012 and early spring 2012 watching the sun cascade over the backyard.  I finally took notice at the "original" and newly expanded garden location and how there was no way that I could have a successful growing season there.  The tree line shaded the majority of the area until after 2 PM and the sun set behind the rear trees just after 3:30 PM.  That explained a lot about why flowering plants grew so poorly, specifically all varieties of nightshades that I planted.  These plants NEED sun and plenty of it.  I believe "full-sun" is what the learned gardener would term the needs of these and many other plants that I so wish to grow.  After a few months, I decided on an alternate location that received approximately 6 hours of late morning to mid-afternoon sun...and now I could not wait to start planting!  

Raising the bed.

Listening to "You Bet Your Garden," hosted by Mike McGrath, ingrained in me the benefits of good soil and the disadvantages of clay soil.

A short story...the home my family now resides in has a septic tank.  This tank is buried somewhere in the backyard.  No one, including Rebecca's mother Ginny or Rebecca's grandfather Earl, the patriarch of this home, could with any certainly, tell me where the tank was buried.  Lawrence Township has no record of the location of the septic tank, and the company that would somewhat regularly pump this tank, did it improperly and poorly.  It was time to get it properly cleaned and checked and I had to locate it.  I began to dig in the vicinity of where Ginny said she thought it should be.  After approximately 21 days, I found the tank, buried 6 feet deep in clay rich soil.  Heavy, dense, clay soil.  How could anything grow here?  Anyway, tank got cleaned, riser installed, hole filled, end of story.

Clay rich soil.  If you were to attempt to deal with clay rich soil you would find it difficult without the use of heavy duty equipment.  Basically the tried and true method to amend clay soil is, to remove it and replace it with plenty of organic matter and compost.  I was not about to remove large quantities of soil, find a location to dump it and then haul in yards and yards of material to amend the existing location.  NOT GONNA HAPPEN!  Mr. McGrath would often reference "raised beds" for gardening in areas where the soil is suspect or in poor planting condition.  This seemed to me like a no brainer.  I would build a raised bed and avoid my native soil altogether.  I scoured the interwebs for a free raised garden bed plan that I could easily construct on site and found a gem on Sunset.com.  It seemed easy enough and I was all in.

Lessons learned

Farm to mind.

I worked for a restaurant group in Princeton, NJ for almost 3 years (2009-2012).  I was employed in each of their 3 restaurants.  One of which, Eno Terra, is a "farm to table" restaurant and therefore operates a farm (as you might imagine).  

My time with this restaurant company and specifically the time I spent in and around Eno Terra and One Acre Canal Farm introduced to me what farming/gardening may entail.  The bounty that is possible with A LOT of work and care and patience and water and compost and...well you get the idea.  And so my interest was piqued, and in my usual demeanor...I was extremely excited!  

My Nook Tablet.

Santa (AKA Rebecca) was good to me Christmas 2011 and I was gifted a Nook Tablet.  The idea was born when I gifted her a Nook Color a few months earlier, and she could barely put it down.  I began to download books on gardening, composting, "Square Foot Gardening," organic gardening...again, you get the idea.  At this time, I also stumbled upon a radio show some of you may have heard of, "You Bet Your Garden."  I must say, this show is absolutely full of great information, references and a website with links to just about any garden topic you could think of.  Mike McGrath is my idol...sort of.  It was Mr. McGrath that planted in my mind, the idea of using raised beds.  I came to the understanding that my shady garden, as seen here...

though once in a most glorious location, was now in a bad spot and if I was to have a successful growing experience, it had to be relocated!  The search was on.

Province Line Road

In the beginning...

Who would have thought I would end up on Province Line Road in Lawrence Township, NJ.  Growing up a world away (exactly 50.7 miles away) in Bayonne, NJ, I had never even heard of Lawrence (or as the traditionalists enjoy calling it, Lawrenceville).  Yet, here I am!  In the spring of 2008, my wife Rebecca, my son Fletch and I moved into Rebecca's grandparent's home. The split level was built on 2 acres of some old family farmland, about 50 years ago.

There was an existing garden in the back yard, and I am sure at the time it was built it was in the most perfect, full sun, well to do location on the entire lot. 

As you can see, life grows on and so did every tree planted in the landscape surrounding the property, shading the majority of the garden until the wee hours of the afternoon.  Never the less, in summer of 2008 I did what I thought was the proper thing, went ahead and planted my very first garden with tomatoes, garlic, peppers, corn and basil...with marginal success.  I do believe I harvested a handful of tomatoes, a pepper or two, a fair amount of basil, some barely recognizable corn and no garlic.  The best thing to come out of that garden was this...

a lady bug gift for Fletcher, courtesy of my cousin Jeff.

With renewed vigor!

Well...after 2 years hiatus, the spring of 2011 rolled around.  Some trees were trimmed in the landscape, the backyard got a wee bit more sun during the day, and so I decided to double the square footage of the garden.  I stripped the lawn adjacent to the garden, sunk in a bunch of new metal fence posts, ran some additional fencing and off I went.  The Sisk Family Farm was born!  I even thought it a good idea to try for the first time to start a few plants from seed indoors.  The usual suspects were on my mind, tomatoes, peppers, basil, corn (this land used to be a corn farm...I mean, how hard could it be?) with the addition of eggplant, morning glory, zinnia and sunflowers, which my son and I planted together.  As you could imagine, the seed starting was a complete failure.  I did manage to plant a garden with some plants I purchased from a few local nurseries and the H*** Depot.  Again, the harvest was fair, 20 or so tomatoes, a few peppers, some very small corn, and a couple of eggplant.  I even tried a version of the "Florida Weave" with my rows of tomatoes.

 FAIL!  I used a very "stretchy" bright orange roll of plastic tie that did not keep the tomato plants upright.  One success...

a few of the sunflowers grew to nearly 8'.  Fletcher was VERY pleased with his roll in our garden, and so was I.