The Ether Garden knew long before we did it seems. It was last winter when we started discussing the possibility of getting a small urban flock, but we figured we’d best wait until we’d been in the new house for a while before starting down that road. Then one morning I looked out the kitchen window which overlooks the garden and what did I see? A small garden statuette which must have been hidden first by the masses of Daylillies and then by the snow. There it was, the sign that the Ether Garden knew better than we did what was to come- a small hen. She’s remained in that very spot since the moment I first saw her, but thoughts of an urban henhouse have expanded and moved to the forefront of our minds

Fast forward to last month when I received notice that the woman from whom my parents have been getting organic free-range eggs. She was selling off a few of her young laying hens, as she simply had too many and couldn’t properly care for them all! This was amazing news, as I was busy trying to figure out where to find started pullets in breeds we found appealing, without having to rear an order of 50 chicks and hope we could sell the surplus later. I quickly conferred with Lumin about the chicken opportunity and a decision was made- we’d get one each of the varieties she was selling, but we’d build space for four in the hopes of adding one or two more in the future.

So that’s that- we will be getting two lovely ladies very soon, too soon almost! One Rhode Island Red and one Black Star (also known as a Black Sex-Link). Now it’s crunch time, I and must say I do feel a bit like Chicken Little at the moment. There is a coop to build, waterers to make, feeders and feed to buy, bedding to obtain, and a myriad of other things to take care of before the ladies arrive. Having spend my younger years raising backyard chickens (a few of whom my mother captured beautifully in a watercolor study) I’m probably a little better off than some, but there has certainly been a large chickenless gap in my life in which to forget a great many things.

First, on Friday we’ve got the Great Plant Auction at the Phipps Garden Center (remember, the Garden Center is located at 1059 Shady Ave, near the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts). Doors for the Great Plant Auction open at 6 p.m. Admission includes wine and heavy hors d’oeuvres: $20 members; $25 non-members.

Saturday brings the Phipps Conservatory used bulb sale, at the Conservatory from 9am to 6pm. Also on Saturday is the Audubon Society’s local plant sale at Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve, from 9am to 2pm.

I’ve been thinking about turning a section of the ether-garden into a native plants plot, and this is just the kick in the pants I needed. I’m definitely quite excited!

We got some three inch deck screws, a bunch of two by tens cut to appropriate lengths for our four foot by six foot boxes, our drill and screwdriver and hauled it all into the basement for some drilling and screwing. We pre-drilled two holes in the ends of each six foot piece of lumber, laid out the lumber on the floor as it would look in its finished form, and then screwed our deck screws. We used deck screws instead of just regular screws because they’ll be more weather resistant.

After completing our boxes, we took them into the yard and dropped them in a good spot. However, our yard isn’t exactly flat, and the boxes wouldn’t lie horizontally no matter where we put them. I decided that an unlevel garden box would be a problem when it rained, since all the good soil we put into the boxes would just run out of the tilting wooden frames. So, I fixed the problem by leveling them out. I dug a good trench in a few of the corners such that the box could sit level horizontally.

Look at that photo. Check out those rocks we had to dig out. Along with the big rocks, there were bits of glass and chuncks of plastic buried about a foot deep. It looks like our yard is built on clean fill, which isn’t surprising given that in our hilly neighborhood practically everybody’s yard has been leveled out industrially.

After digging the trenches, I used the removed sod to bolster the opposite corners of the boxes. And now we have three big empty garden boxes waiting for our topsoil and compost.

Speaking of co-operation I stopped by my local co-op, the East End Food Co-Op today and they were putting out the first flats of locally-grown organic and heirloom transplant seedlings for sale! I didn’t get to see all of what they had, as they seemed to be explaining the different plants and prices to the staff when I arrived. I did see garlic chives, a few other herbs, and rhubarb. Mmm… rhubarb. I think I’ll have to snag myself some of those seedlings. Remember back when I was talking about what all I’d be growing this year, and how it was subject to change based on the available seedlings? Yeah- this is what I was talking about. I’m a sucker for baby plants. They’re just so darn cute (and tasty).

Well, thanks to a readers comment I went ahead and got the gloves I was pondering earlier. I guess it wasn’t so hard to win me over after all, though I will say that the pretty designs on the fingers and the label saying that they were machine washable helped lure me in a good bit. What’s that? Target audience? Well perhaps…

It has come to my attention that I am sorely lacking in certain areas of the gardening gear department. The department in question is that of weed annihilation. I’ve always relied on my (well, ok, initially it was my mother’s) hori-hori knife. That unassuming tool really has served me well, and until now I never felt I was missing out on anything.

Yeah, until now. That’s the danger of reading garden blogs, you start discovering things you didn’t think you needed, but now you lust over. Right now it seems everyone else has an assortment of hoes except me. Of course you can’t talk about hoes without mentioning Carol of May Dreams Gardens with her collection. Recent days have found me poking about various blogs into their older posts, and lo and behold- more hoes! So I suppose I should get a hoe, or a few hoes, I’m just not sure what sort is ideal for me. I think the reason I’ve never needed one is I do such intensive style gardening that there isn’t much room for weeds to really grow. This year there will be some more space amongst my veggies, so I might actually need one of these tools. I’ll leave the suggestion lines open to all of you gentle readers- what hoes do you like? Have you ever met a hoe you didn’t like? Any general hoe thoughts?

I’d like your advice on a few things regarding gardening. I’ve secured at least one plot at a nearby community garden that’s in a raised bed 3.5/ft wide and probably 15 feet long. I’m so excited about it!

I picked up Square Foot Gardening and it seems like I can do pretty well with three square foot rows going the length of the raised bed. I still need to spend a couple hours out there and see what the sun does–I have a feeling, though, that we’ll have some issues with it being too shady.

I was wondering what you might suggest growing for a first-timer. Should I go all-out and try to grow three seasons spring, summer, fall? When’s the earliest I can start in this climate and what crops should I choose? Finally, I was just reading your post about heirloom varieties and the health benefits and such, and I’m wondering if you have a favored mail-order source for great seeds.

Just want to make sure I’m ahead of the game before the season is suddenly upon us!

Blake [The Paupered Chef]

Congrats on your new gardening plot! Community gardens are great ways for those of us who live in the concrete jungle to still have healthy, local, inexpensive produce. I’ve been lucky the past few years, having rented in a house with a patch of grass in which I grew tomatoes, broccoli, and the odd pepper. Now that we’ve moved into our new house with a full yard I’m rather excited to be able to resume the type of growing I grew up with.

You’re starting off on the right foot. A good gardening book is always handy. I have a whole shelf full. Square Foot Gardening is my suggestion for anyone who is an urban gardener or is working with a small space. With the Square Foot Gardening method you can even garden if you only have a paved patio and no grass space!

You’ll want to check the sun patterns where you are planning your garden. Most vegetables need long hours of sunlight to produce their best. You can make do with less sun, but you’ll get fewer and smaller vegetables. You’ll want to keep in mind the sun patterns over the various areas of your garden if it’s a long-skinny plot. Plant the sun-loving veggies such as tomatoes in the sunniest area, and put those plants likely to bolt, lettuces and other cool-temperature veggies in your shadier areas.

For first-time gardeners I suggest only trying for a single crop season with some light succession planting of lettuces. This won’t mean that your garden will produce everything all at once. Everything has a different period of maturity. Your squash and melons will take a while to fully mature, whereas your lettuces with be in and out pretty quickly. Generally, planting in the late-spring for a summer crop is the best bet for beginners. You’ll have a mix of hardy and tender plants to care for, and a bit less unpredictability in the weather. To determine exactly when you should start planting your transplants and seeds you’ll want to determine your hardiness zone. Many seed packets will say when to plant them or when to start them indoors based on your hardiness zone. Other seed packets and nurseries will go by the date of last frost. This date is the average when your garden will be safe from deep killing frosts. To determine the date of last frost you can either keep track on your calendar for a number of years or you can check some of the handy charts out there such as Clyde’s Garden Planner. Clyde conveniently keeps the list of last- and first-frost dates online, as do many seed companies and gardening websites. You can always contact your local USDA co-operative extension office for information on your zone, frost dates, as well as for soil testing.

With the information on your hardiness zone and your frost dates, you’re ready to start looking for your plants. This is when you decide if you’re going to start your seeds indoors, or buy seedlings either via mail-order or from your local nursery. Seed starting is fun, cheaper in the long-run, but a little bit trickier than buying seedlings. It’s nothing to be afraid of though. I start my own seeds, and my seeds generally come from Seed Savers Exchange, purveyors of heirloom vegetable and some fruit seeds. I find that most varieties which Seed Savers carries are suitable for my area, though most vegetables will grow throughout the U.S. just with differing care requirements. Seed companies are very knowledgeable about the varieties they supply. So feel free to contact them with hardiness questions.

When choosing what to grow, the first thing to remember is: only grow vegetables that you will eat. If you don’t like zucchini then don’t grow it! I see plenty of first-time gardeners growing tomatoes and zucchini because they think they have to, even though they detest eating them. Tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, strawberries, beans, and peas are all good choices for a first garden. I plan the number of varieties and the number of plants in each variety to grow based on my intended usage. I’m a big tomato eater, and I do a lot of canning of tomato products, so I grow both paste/sauce tomatoes and steak tomatoes in abundance. I’ve never had too many tomatoes in my garden. I like to grow a number of varieties in each category when I can, though this isn’t always cost-effective for me. I do try to save seed, but sometimes it just doesn’t work out.

For an expanded list of garden planning resources including books, charts, and seed suppliers, check out the resources page.

The seeds have begun arriving! This is the first of what should be two shipments from Seed Savers Exchange. Later on mid-march we should be getting a shipment of seed potatoes, but right now we’ve got seeds. Previously I posted about the varieties we’re planning on growing this year, so let’s take a look at what we got in the mail today.

From left to right we have:
Forellenschuss- a lovely spotted romaine lettuce
Tennis Ball- a petite buttercrunch
Monnopa- a pretty standard spinach
Lollo Rossa- a pretty pink toned ruffle looseleaf lettuce

We should be (hopefully) getting the strawberry spinach which Jeremy is quite excited about- it’s a bizarre and unique little plant and hopefully we can get our hands on it.

Next we have our peas, beans, and beets:
Amish Snap- as the name says, an amish variety of snap peas
Suttons Harbinger- a prolific shelling pea
Empress- a bush bean, don’t know much else about it
Bountiful- another bush bean, very prolific and is supposed to be a good canning bean
Detroit Dark Red- A good keeper of a beet, your standard red beet
Chioggia- also known as the ‘candy stripe’ beet is a sweet and pretty salad beet

And here we have our tomatoes:
Opalka- a rich tasting paste tomato
German Pink- a sweet steak tomato
Amish Paste- a standard paste tomato
Cherokee Purple- a dark fleshed steak tomato

Now- this isn’t to say I won’t get more tomatoes. My local food co-op carries local organic heirloom seedlings, and I’m likely to see something which sounds tasty and ending up picking a few more varieties. We’ll see how that goes.

Not everyone has a detail shot yet- we’ll get to the rest of them when it comes time to start or plant them. It looks like I’ll be starting my first batch of seed mid-march, and then again in early april. I’ve got some which need the extra time prior to transplant, and some which don’t quite need as much tender loving care indoors as the others.

 The ‘taters haven’t been ordered yet, as I wasn’t sure which shipping date is best for our area yet. I think I’ve figured that out… but I’m still double checking. Everything else should be arriving shorly.

 I’ve been saving egg-cartons for starting, and have some large yoghurt containers to get the larger plants going. I should call the garden centers in the area and see who has the best price for the potting mix materials I need.

 Something I’ve learned- when you move, don’t abandon your gardening raw materials. I left behind a nearly full bale of peat, a bag of vermiculite, some seed-starting trays, etc. I’m really regretting that now. Ahh well- live and learn. 

• Bean, bush: Bountiful (1897) [47-50 days]
• Bean, bush: Empress (re-named 1979) [55 days
• Beet: Chioggia aka Candy Stripe (1840) [50 days]
• Beet: Detroit Dark Red (1892) [60-65 days]
• Broccoli: Romanesco [75-100 days from transplant]
• Broccoli: De Cicco (1890) [48-85 days from transplant]
• Cabbage, red: Mammoth Red Rock (1889) [98 days from transplant]
• Carrot: Kaleidoscope Mix {non-heirloom, from Cook’s Garden}
• Cucumber, pickling: Double Yield (1924) [50-60 days]
• Lettuce, romaine: Forellenschuss [55 days]
• Lettuce, looseleaf: Lollo Rossa [55 days]
• Lettuce, butterhead: Tennis Ball (1850) [50 days]
• Melon: Sakata’s Sweet [85-95 days]
• Onion, storing: Australian Brown (1894) [100 days from transplant]
• Pea, snap: Amish Snap [60 days]
• Pea, shelling: Sutton’s Harbinger (1898) [52-60 days]
• Potato, yellow storing: German Butterball [100-120 days]
• Potato, fingerling: Purple Peruvian [100-120 days]
• Pepper, sweet bell: Orange Bell (1989) [90 days from transplant]
• Pepper, sweet bell: Sweet Chocolate (1965) [58-86 days from transplant]
• Spinach: Monnopa [45-60 days]
• Spinach: Strawberry Spinach Chenopodium capitatum
• Squash, winter: Waltham Butternut Cucurbita moschata [83-100 days]
• Tomato, paste: Amish Paste [85 days from transplant] indeterminate
• Tomato, slicing: Cherokee Purple [80 days from transplant] indeterminate
• Tomato, beefsteak: German Pink [85 days from transplant] indeterminate
• Tomato, paste: Opalka (1900) [85 days from transplant] indeterminate

Still trying to find a non-hybridized strawberry, as well as a source for heirloom shallot sets. Other than that, we look like we’re good to go! Herbs will largely be taken as transplants from my mother’s garden, and seeds for herbs can be obtained late in the game and still produce heartily. Herbs are handy like that.