Meal Kit gardening

My usual philosophy of gardening is "Fill the garden with plants," which is beautiful and satisfying but for me can quickly lead to the garden getting a little out of control, and things being neglected or not  harvested at the right time. Lately, I've been experimenting with an approach to organizing my gardening based around my principle of "Eat what you grow."

I call it Meal Kit gardening, and basically it means that you divide the garden into moderate units of space and then plant together in that space the things you want to harvest at the same time.  It's easiest to explain with an example. My winter garden has cabbage and garlic and onions.  Typically I would plant all the cabbages in one section and then group all the garlic in another section, and all the onions in a third group.  With a Meal Kit garden, I take a 2 x 2 foot section and plant one cabbage, two onions and two garlic.  During the spring, I make a schedule to harvest one of these meal kits per week, picking the cabbage, onions and garlic, adding some bacon and taking them right into the house for that nights dinner.

This does a few beneficial things for me.  First, because I assemble these Meal Kits from seedlings I started myself, it means I have to think about not only what is fun to grow, but how the things I grow will eventually be eaten.  It forces me to grow what I want to eat.  Second, all the vegetables I need are right in one area so I am sure to pick them all, and include them in the evenings dinner.

In addition, by harvesting the entire meal kit plot at once, I now have a good-sized empty space that I can fill with a new Meal kit. For example, the Cabbage Meal Kit will be replaced with a butter lettuce and a foot of radishes - a ready made garden salad for later in the spring.  The other way, I would pull one of the onions and it would simply leave a gap in the onion bed.  I couldn't fill it in until all the onions were gone. Now, I have a reasonable space that can be put to use right away.

It also naturally creates a schedule for harvest.  If I have 12 cabbages in 12 meal kits, that means that I will need to harvest one meal kit plot each week for the three months that they will be mature.  Yes, the first ones might not be quite mature, but certainly fresh and edible and can be added to other ingredients to round out the meal.

Finally, if I want to experiment with something new, I need to think about how it fits into the existing planting schedule, about how I am going to cook that new mustard green or rutabaga and what would go with it; what supporting cast of characters that helps turn a single iconic vegetable into an entire meal.

Spring Meal Kits:
1.  Two Bok Choi and two Yellow Onions.   Per 2x2 block.  Six blocks 

2.  Two Swiss Chard and one foot of Green Onion seed tape.  Per block.  Six blocks

3.  Two Lettuce, two Red Onion, and one foot of Radish seed tape.  Per block.  Six blocks

4.  One Broccoli green, and 1 foot of carrot seed tape.  Per block.  Six blocks


Summer Meal Kits
1. One Tomato plant and one Basil plant Per 3x2' block. 8 blocks

2. Two Pepper plants and one Nasturtium   Per 2x2 block.  Six blocks

3. One Zucchini and three Green Beans, bush type  Per 4x3' block.  2 blocks


Fall Meal Kits
1. One Cabbage and two Garlic   Per 2x2 block.  Twelve blocks. 

2. One Kale and two Parsnips   Per 2x2 block.  Six blocks

3. One Rutabaga and one Red-veined Sorrel  Per 2x2 block.  Six blocks


Now, there are objections to this method of gardening. 

The primary one  is that the vegetables in these meal kits all mature at different times.  The radishes will be sprung up and out of the ground by the time that the lettuce is ready, and at that time, the onions are just only getting started.

The answer to the first objection is to simply say that it's true.  The onions might be more of a green onion, and by picking it you are forgoing a much larger onion if it was harvested later in the Fall.  This efficiency is the sacrifice for a more dynamic garden, one that has more interest at all times of the year.  There is a story that illustrates one of my recurring garden failures. 

I sometimes get the urge to plant a long season crop, like cantaloupe.  I carefully tend it all through the hot summer, and just about the time that the melons are about to ripen, some fungus or insect infestation or flock of crows come in and damages the harvest.  The result is that I am very wary of plants that stand for a long time without being harvested.  I love vegetables that are "cut and come again" or that can be picked in an immature state like peppers and green beans and onions.  I don't have to wait for a perfect moment of ripeness, that may never come. 

My answer is to plant many vegetables and pick them over a long season.  Some may be immature but still delicious; others may stand too long and be slightly soft.  And many will be picked at the peak of perfection. 

The other solution to this objection, is to take some time to match companion plants that have similar maturation cycles as well as seasonal preferences.

January 2020 Gardening

January is a month of planning, of looking ahead throughout the gardening year.  Not much is happening in the garden right now, as the winter crops have basically become dormant even under the row covers.  They are gathering strength and quietly biding their time.  And so should we.

Start by checking the Gardening Tasks page for January 
You can copy whole sections of that page here and check them off as they are completed

Feeding the Beds

• Make sure the beds are well mulched, if there is any leaf mulch to be removed from the lawns.  
• Check the soil to see if any watering is necessary; only a minimum to prevent fungus.
• Prune back any brush and clear the vines from the base of the fence line.
• Prune the fruit trees
• Turn the compost boxes

Harvesting

I will not start harvesting my cabbage until next month, but it is encouraging that it is still growing under a double layer of row tunnel plastic.


January Cabbage on January 29th:

Planning

This is the month where you set out your plans for the coming year.  You look over what worked, what grew well, what you ate all of, and what you didn't care for.  Now you have to decide what you will plant this year.

We need to note where we planted last year, from your garden layout, for example, and then see how crop rotation can help with the coming season. We have three beds, so its a simple matter of rotating all the crops to the next bed over.

Next, we make a note of where we want everything to go, using the garden layout to document our decisions.  This is the tool we will use and refer to throughout the year so we don't have to continually re-invent this particular wheel every time we need to harvest something and re-plant.  It also reminds us that the wheel is continually in motion, and we have not just one crop but a series of seasons where crops must be eaten to make room for new ones.  So we will need at least three garden layouts, to cover the three growing seasons of the year.

Once we decide what to plant, and what space we have to plant it, we can order our seeds.  When ordering, we should place the order for the entire year.  Now, at the beginning of the year, the seed companies and garden centers are fully stocked and will have whatever you order.  Later in the year, they may well be out.  Seeds can be kept sealed in a ziploc in the refrigerator until they are ready to be sown.  (I just started some swiss chard from 2009.)

From the Supplier

This is a major task for January.  As outlined:

1. Decide what to plant
2. Decide where to plant - what section of the garden
3. Decide when to plant - consult the plant page for when to sow indoors
4. Decide how many to plant - this will tell you how many seeds to buy and to start.

As I figure out the answers to these questions, I fill them in on the 2020 Garden Planner

When the Garden Planner is complete, Place the Orders for seed and supplies.
This could be from online seed companies, or from Amazon, or from the seed racks at the garden centers or even Walmart.

Along with the seeds, you also need seed starting supplies like the grow plugs/pellets, liquid nutrients

  I plan to keep seeds for three years so it is very likely that I won't need to buy all these seeds every year. And some of these I may just buy as live plants from the garden center, because I can spend $2.99 on a package of seeds or $3.50 for the one cherry tomato plant I need.  Just replace the seeds that you will use as they are about to expire.

But ordering seeds in anticipation of the coming spring is an honored tradition among gardeners.  It is one that should be upheld.  Opening the package and holding the seed packets is like a second Christmas

Sowing in the Propagator

It may be too early to start most of the seeds, but the exception is Lettuce.  Next month, we will begin the harvest of the winter crops, and as we bring in the cabbage, we will need to have lettuce to set out in its place.  For next month, we will need 6 lettuce plants to be started now.

February 2020 Gardening

Despite the reputation for the previous two months, February is usually the coldest month.  In this area, we receive more snow days in February than January, so this is the harshest weather we're going to receive all year.  If we can make it through this month, we'll truly be in growing weather on the other side.

Indoors, however, it is another story.  We need to begin sowing seed in the propagator that will be ready in 6 - 8 weeks for the spring crop.  Cool weather spring crops run from March to May.  By June, the summer has truly arrived and we will need the garden beds for summer vegetables.

So that means that when March arrives, we need to be ready with seedlings of  Lettuce, Broccoli greens, Bok choi, and the other spring crops.  These need to have at least 4 weeks of growth on them by March.  That means February seeding.

Start by consulting the month by month February Gardening Tasks page to find the checklist of things to do this month.

Harvesting

Cabbage.  This cabbage has been slowly growing since last October, cautiously taking its time.  If we followed the plan, we should have 12 cabbages in some stage of immaturity, as well as 12 garlic planted in a row down the center.

In February, we need to start harvesting them, and we'll do that in two phases.  While full heads may not have formed yet, the outer leaves can be harvested one at a time.

• Phase 1 will be the "cut and come again" style of harvesting where we take a leaf or two from several plants - enough to make up a meal. 

These outer leaves are best used for frying, as in a bacon, cabbage, and garlic stir fry. or sliced thinly and added to Asian bowls like beef and cabbage.

We'll do that for at least two weeks or as long as the loose leaves last, pruning away the older leaves and leaving just the younger head.

Garlic.  Also assess the garlic at the same time, adding the garlic greens or the whole garlic depending on the state of development.

• Phase 2. By the middle of February, however, it will be time to start harvesting the whole heads, one at a time.  Harvest one whole head each week to use fresh in salads or cooked in stir fry.  Similarly, harvest one bulb of garlic.  With 12 heads, that will give us enough for three months of harvest and will take us to the middle of May.

When the heads are removed, replant the vacant space with lettuce and 3 radishes, which will be picked when all the cabbages have finally been taken.

Kale and Red Sorrel.   We have been harvesting individual leaves all winter as an accent for salad.  Now it is time to begin removing them entirely and replanting with Broccoli Greens.

 

Feeding the Beds

Cabbage:  Once you start the phase 1 harvest of the outer leaves, apply a side dressing of organic fertilizer and water well once.

Hardening and Setting Out

Lettuce :   The lettuce you sowed in January will be ready to be re-potted and move outside this month through a hardening process.  Make this transition very slowly and under row tunnels.

When you remove a cabbage, plant a lettuce and a group of direct-sown radishes in its place.  Use seed tape or high vis coated seeds for radishes and plant 6 in the group.

Sowing in the Propagator

For now, we are only focusing on the Spring garden plants; the cool greens.

This is the list copied from the 2020 Garden Planner.

Spring Garden 
Lower Bed
Bok Choi  - seeds in inventory 12 plants
with Yellow onion (sets)  12 plants in inventory

Swiss Chard  seeds in inventory  12 plants
with green onions (seed tape) 6 feet seeds in inventory

Upper Bed
Lettuce  12 plants seeds in inventory  Started Last month?
with Radishes (seed tape) 6 feet seeds in inventory
and Red onion (sets) 12 plants in inventory

* Broccoli Greens  6 plants
with  Beets 18 plants seeds in inventory

 

Bok Choi, 12 plants
Swiss chard, 6 plants
Lettuce, 12 plants
Broccoli greens, 6 plants
Beets, 12 plants (seed tape)

(Total is 36 plants in the propagator)

From the supplier:
Green (bunching) onion, 15 feet seed tape
Radishes, 15 ft seed tape
Red onions, 18 bulbs
Beets (seed tape)

In February, the propagator is busy preparing the seedlings for the spring garden.  These are all cool weather crops that will break away when the harsh temperatures are past by early March.  But to bring them in by the end of May, we need to be ready to go in March, which means sowing in February.

Tasks

•  Start the new seedlings in the propagator.  You will need the seed starting tray in the aerogrow as well as 36 grow plugs.
•  Prepare the seed tape for root vegetables 
•  Order any remaining seeds that are still on the list
• Turn over the compost boxes, transferring the contents from one to another.
• Purchase finished compost, if necessary, to fortify garden beds.

Landscaping

• This is the month for pruning branches around the yard.  
• Trim anything low hanging, crossed branches
• Thin out the canopy of shade trees so they don't kill the grass beneath
• Trim the brush and trees along the back fence.
• Mow into the woods to clear the needles from the pathways.

Aquaponics pilot project

Ever since I was about 12, I have kept an aquarium.  And from about the same age, I have helped my father work in the garden, until I was about 16 and started a garden of my own.  When they first came out several years ago, I got an Aerogrow hydroponic system and began to understand how effective it can be to grow plants indoors, as well as how modular and encapsulated it was.  That brought me back to my thought of designing a system that incorporated indoor gardening and aquarium keeping into one system that benefited both.  My research revealed that others had already done most of the work and perfected the concept and called it Aquaponics.

However, there were so many different ideas about the best way to accomplish this, and differing ideas about what the end result should be, and many of the voices were stridently opinionated so that the discussion created a lot of confusion where there ought to be clarity.  This is my initial attempt to bring clarity in my own mind.

The aquaponic system I am designing is based on my 75 gallon aquarium.  It consists of:

1. The aquarium and its own filter and light, with fish and plants.  The aquarium filter will process most of the waste solids before they can be pumped up to the grow bed.

• Clean existing gravel
• Continue cycling the  tank
• Start filtration
Replant two more plants

2. Above it rests a narrow grow bed full of growing media.  In my case I'm using hydroton.

• Plug un-needed drain holes
• Wash hydroton and begin soaking

Secure the grow bed on the top of the aquarium 

Position the grow bed in front and the aquarium light behind it.

May need to order another aquarium light. 

3. Nestled within the growing media are net cups with the individual plants rooted in coconut coir/hydroton mix.

• Acquire some herb/lettuce plants
• Secure their roots inside a coconut media, loose-weave grow bag
• Plant within a net cup filled with hydroton

4. A submersible pump moves the water from the fish tank up through a bulkhead fitting and floods the growing media as well as the plants' roots.

• Connect the pump and tubing to the grow bed
• Connect the return tubing to the overflow stand pipe
• Position a filter around the inflow to contain any solid waste
• Test the pump and mark the high water level

5. The pump is on a timer that runs for 15 minutes every hour.  The flow rate is adjustable but it is intended to fill the grow bed to an upper level set by the outfall stand pipe.  Additional water will return to the tank below through the outfall stand pipe.  When the timer cuts the power to the pump, water will flow back to the tank through the pump, draining the water out of the grow bed and allowing oxygen to the roots.

• Test the pump on the timer and adjust the flow rate as necessary
• Set up the timer program

6. A second led plant light is placed above the grow bed to give light to the growing plants.  The intention is to harvest the plants to keep them below the lights, although the height of the lights are adjustable.

• Determine a way to support the plant light
• Set up timer for plant light.
• Determine if plant light and aquarium light should be on the same timer.

 7.  Cautiously stock the aeroponic system

• Begin adding more plants and more fish and see if the system remains stable. 

Raised Beds

The why and how of making raised beds:

Why? 

• Allows you to grow anywhere. 

 Soil can  range from packed clay, to a layer of sand, to the concrete patio that takes up the whole of your backyard.  If you're dealing with the typical back yard in a suburban development, you're looking at deeply suboptimal ground that will take years, even decades, of hard work and amendment to make productive.  Typically, you would be dealing with the ground that the developer bulldozed flat to create a building site.  So you turn it with a shovel, or with a rototiller and then amend it with cubic yards of peat and compost for their organics, sand to reduce compaction, and possibly lime to address the pH issues.  In the meantime, you hope that a hydraulic leak or rinsing from the concrete truck hasn't permanently poisoned your soil.

After a decade or so of constantly feeding and reconstructing the soil, you have finally overcome the limitations of your backyard and developed a fertile garden.  And it is only then that realize that you would have been better off if you hadn't had to deal with the limitations of the packed clay ground your contractor left you, and had simply used the amendments as the growing medium to start with.  Any element of that packed clay simply limited your productivity, so why use any of it at all?  The truth is that you can start immediately with a rich, productive garden, and eliminate the uncertainty.

This is especially true if you are unfortunate enough to have a concrete back yard or one that was packed gravel or a parking area where no soil at all exists.  You will be building your garden above ground and that can rest directly on a paved platform

How:
Let's start by taking a minute to asses the situation.  You need to find the location in your yard that gets the most sun throughout the day.  Avoid being too close to fences and trees that shade your garden late in the day                                                                                                                    .  You need to level the site.  If you are vulnerable to burrowing mammals, you may need to line the bottom of your raised bed with hardware cloth.

We are going to work with a raised bed that is 4 feet by 8 feet.  For our first year, we will make it out of 2x8s and it will only be one level high. You can use 2x6s for a more economical approach, or 2x10s for greater volume.  In subsequent years, we can add additional layers of 2x8s to increase the depth of the raised bed.  We will also dig down into the existing soil by 4-6" inches, giving us 10" of growing medium.  We can accomplish this simply by digging down one shovel depth and turning the sod over so the grass is on the bottom.

Next some quick math:  A raised bed of 4' x 8' by 6 inches has a volume of 16 cubic feet.  A typical bag of garden soil is measured in cubic feet, or 20 - 25 quarts.  And, there are about 25 dry quarts in a cubic foot so each bag of soil is approximately 1 cubic foot.  We need 16.  As an example the garden center has "garden soil" at $6.77 for 2 cubic feet.  We'd need 8 bags to fill the bed, for a cost of about $55.00, which is manageable if a little high. 

One recipe for filling a raised bed is:

• 4 bags (2 cubic feet each) topsoil
• 1 bale (3 cubic feet) compressed peat moss
• 2 bags (2–3 cubic feet each) compost or composted cow manure
• 2" layer of shredded leaves or grass clippings as a mulch layer on top. 

However, you may have other sources of soil around your yard including leaf mulch and compost.  A way to cut down the total volume is to begin by filling the raised bed with leaf litter, grass clippings and even small branches about 1/3 of the way and then layering your purchased garden soil on top.  After a year of being on the bottom of a working garden bed, the organic base layer will break down into compost.

A Step-by-step Resurgent Garden

This is a gardening letter to myself:  My gardening enthusiasm waxes and wanes with the years.  Some years, I go all out and the garden produces in abundance, and other years life intervenes and I don't have time to put into a really successful garden.  Some years, I never get started and the garden sits fallow.  But inevitably, that urge to grow, to nurture and plant overtakes me again and I wonder where to begin.

So this guide is an overview of the successful steps I've taken in the past to make my garden work.  If I tell myself this all in one place, I don't have to re-invent the wheel, and re-learn the knowledge all over again.  Below, I've gathered 8 steps that I need to consider.  The purpose is to create links to a more in-depth exploration of each topic, so this is really an index, of sorts, for further research.  I need to have a way to supply each of these pieces

I've divided the list into two categories:  Planning and Structure.

Planning includes the informational pieces:

• What to plant - Plant Selection, Perennials vs Annuals
• When to plant - Frost dates, crop rotation and succession planting

Structure are all the physical pieces of the garden.

• Raised beds
• Compost and soil enhancements
• Seed starting, Transplants
• Row covers and low tunnels

So, my future self,  its January, and you're determined that you will have a garden this year. What do we need to do to get started?

1.  Frost Dates

It helps to plan your garden around a schedule.  Doing things at the right time means less work and better results.  But the schedule is not the same for every part of the country.  Instead it is set by the frost dates in your area.  There are two frost dates in every year:

• The Last Frost is the date in the Spring when freezing temperatures are no longer expected; technically, below a 30% probability.
• The First Frost is the date in the Fall when the probability of freezing temperatures climbs over 30%.

These dates are readily available on the web.  Bonnie Plants has one, as well as the Farmer's Almanac
 
For my area, the last frost in the Spring is March 28th while the first frost in the Fall is expected on November 18th.

So how do we use these dates?    Let's take Radishes, as our example.  A typical seed packet will say, "For a spring planting, sow seeds 4–6 weeks before the average date of last frost."  If my last frost is March 28th, then I could be sowing radish seeds in late February or the first week of March.

"Sow seeds 4–6 weeks before the first fall frost."   Since my first frost date is November 18th, I could sow radishes as late as mid-October and still get a reasonable harvest.

So we set the clock by the frost dates.  Note that they don't start the clock; many thing should happen before then so that the process is already in motion when the garden kicks into high gear.

2. Plant Selection

Often when people think of gardening, they envision a summer activity with tomatoes and cucumbers, but the garden can be productive in most months of the year with the proper planning.

However a productive garden is one that is not only green but produces the things that you want to bring to your dining table.  It only makes sense to plant what you will eat.  I say that by sowing, I am making a promise to the plants that they will be harvested and enjoyed as part of our regular meals.  So plant selection needs to be given some thought.

To some gardeners, the garden is a field of experimentation, with various cultivars and new variants to try each year.  I used to wander up and down the aisles of my Home Depot garden center, looking at the racks of Bonnie Plant seedlings, envisioning what I want to bring home, and seeing what new exotic offering caught my eye. 

Lately, my approach to my garden is that I want it to be productive. I want to plant something that will produce reliably and in abundance with consistency and efficiency.  While I appreciate the beauty of the living system, I also want to devote my time to something that can feed my family as well.

I need to find out which lettuce produces the best for my climate and day length and temperature, and then plant that variety year after year for a consistent yield. For now, I need to be aware of what variety I'm planting, how it performs, and how much I like the taste and texture of what it produces.

In addition, I like to create a page for each specific plant that I grow.  Remember that I only have a limited number of plant types that I work with so it makes sense to know as much as possible about each one.  This includes my own experiences from year to year.  I also include how I'm going to prepare that vegetable for eating, so I have an idea before I plant it.  Eat what you plant and plant what you will eat.

3. Succession Planting and Crop Rotation

At this point, many new gardeners' eyes begin to glaze over, but this is a simple concept that makes the best use of space, limits disease, and balances nutrients.  Basically, what we are doing is dividing our garden into three categories based on the type of production of our plants.  The tree categories are:

• Roots
• Leaves
• Fruits

Each type of vegetable pulls the same kinds of nutrients from the soil and creates an environment for the same kinds of diseases.  Plants that mostly are grown for their leaves (like lettuce, cabbage) tend to deplete the soil of nitrogen, root crops need phosphorus and potassium, while fruiting plants (such as tomatoes, and peppers) need a balance of the three.

The simple solution is to divide your garden into three sections where each type will be planted.  Then "rotate" the crops by planting the root crops where the fruit crops used to be last year.  The fruit crops will be planted in last year's leaf crop areas; and the leaf crops will no be planted in the root crops area.

At the same time, planting tomatoes in the same location year after year will allow tomato diseases to persist in the soil and more readily attack the plant in subsequent seasons.  By planting carrots there next year instead of more tomatoes, the tomato diseases have nothing to thrive on and so diminish.

I aim to support three plantings in the garden:  The season starts in March or April when the earliest of the cold hardy Spring greens are sown.  This is followed by the basic tomato, pepper, and zucchini planting of Summer.  Finally, I put in a Fall and Winter rotation starting in about September.  These will start well and some of these will lie in the garden over the winter, harvesting cabbage in January and February.  The last of it will be out and eaten in time for the Spring when the cycle begins again.

In order to achieve that, I need to begin a more regular record keeping system, rather that relying on notes I've jotted down or breezy, "top of the head" posts.  My suggested system is to create a calendar with all of the activities that are useful for a given month.  What am I supposed to be doing in my garden in April (for example):  what am I sowing indoors into my propagator, what am I hardening off, what am I setting outside, what am I feeding in the raised beds, and what am I harvesting.  At any given moment, I could be doing any or all of these things.  

Early Spring:   Bok Choi, Rutabaga, spinach, parsnip, broccoli raab, radish, Kale, chard
Summer:  Tomatoes (cherry, beefsteak, Roma), Peppers (jalepeno, green bell, sweet red), Zucchini, Eggplant
Fall:   Cabbage (red and green), Red veined sorrel, carrots, parsnip,

 

4. Perennials

Typical garden vegetables are grown as annuals, started from seed each year and then removed when they are done.   However some produce, including many fruits, are better grown from plants that persist for many years, producing harvests year after year. 

 

5. Raised Beds

The quality of soil in your backyard varies widely from location to location.  You may have a deep loam soil in an older neighborhood, or you may have 2" of topsoil over a hard clay.  For this garden we are going to bring in much of our growing medium and fill a raised bed above the surface of the ground.  Raised beds have many advantages, including giving you control over the soil composition, but also in greatly reducing soil compaction, which is one of the enemies of your garden. 

A more aesthetic reason is that raised bed gardens have the benefit of looking more elegant and better managed.  A typical backyard garden has a tendency to look a little unkempt and ragged, a little uninviting.  The raised bed keeps things carefully constrained and manageable.

Anyone can build a raised bed garden anywhere of exactly the size that fits their needs and space, and keep it neat and manageable.

Refer to this page for more discussion about Raised beds

6. Compost

So you start a new raised bed garden, and the first year it is tremendously successful.  Everything grows and the produce is impressive.  So you plant again next year, with nearly the same success, though not quite as much to show for it.  And the third year, your plants seem to lack the spark of the first season and some of them fail to thrive at all.  You get a few heads of lettuce and a few tomatoes, but you begin to question if a garden is really worth the trouble.  In the fourth year, you decide not to bother...  What was happening?

As you grow in your garden, the vegetables that you harvest gradually consume the fertility of your soil.  If you want to maintain that level of productivity year after year, you must return the nutrients to the soil while maintaining the proper composition and soil structure  Ultimately, you will need to make amendments to the raised bed every year to maintain fertility and consistency.

To maintain healthy soil in a raised bed, you need to add 3-4 inches of organic material each year.  Ideally, this will come from your own compost, and will require two of the 18 gal compost tubs of finished compost for each 4' x 8' raised bed, along with grass clipping mulch in Summer and shredded leaf mulch in the Fall.

If you don't end up composting your own, you will need bags of commercial compost from the garden center for each 4'x8' bed.  Either option is completely viable, but you have to use some combination of these sources to replenish your gardens productivity.

Rather than using an oversized compost heap or an expensive compost tumbler, we are going to start with plastic storage tubs as our composter.  I use ordinary 18 gal, rectangular plastic tubs, which measure about 18 x 24 inches on the lid.  You can find these at any Walmart but they are commonly at thrift stores as well.

7. Seed Starting

Many seeds will achieve the greatest success both in germination and later production, if you start them indoors for a few weeks before planting them as a seedling in your garden.  You can achieve this effect very simply by buying your live plants from the garden center, as is common with tomato and pepper plants.

However, you can achieve the same effect yourself with a home seed starter or propagater.  These systems can be as simple as a Jiffy pot set on a heat mat, or they can be very elaborate and control light, moisture, and temperature to optimize your success.

Starting your own seeds allows you to control what to plant, and when, since the Walmart garden center isn't going to stock red-veined Sorrel in January when you want to start it. It prevents the vain hoping that what you were looking for, the cool jalepenos, the Japanese eggplant, still happened to be available when you got there.

The most effective system for seed starting is the Aerogrow system.  However, if the goal is to transplant the seedlings into the garden, they need to go from the soilless hydroponic system to a grow medium that can be planted out in the raised beds.  And they can't stay in the aerogrow for too long because they will develop extensive roots that will be pruned away when they are transplanted. 

The best schedule is to grow them for 2 weeks after germination, and then transfer them to potting soil in the garage where the temperatures will match the outside.  Another two weeks in the grow medium will acclimate them and develop the roots necessary to put them in the garden.

Seed starting is an important component in the overall system.

 

8. Row covers and hoop houses.

 In most places, the temperatures allow for a productive growing season between the last and first frost dates and that limits what you can plant and how long you can grow.  However, covering the garden beds with plastic can keep a killing frost at bay for several weeks, allowing you to start earlier in the Spring and harvest later in the Fall.  It can turn a one-season garden into a three-season garden.  For the little effort it requires, it can produce a tremendous reward. 

 

Start the Clock

Each of these eight elements I've just mentioned fits together into an interconnected garden system that when working properly increases your garden's productivity and your satisfaction.  Your garden is properly envisioned as an ongoing system where each element supports and feeds into the others.

1. Early in the year, you begin preparing the garden beds for the growing season, harvesting the last of the winter crops, cleaning away weeds and amending with compost so that they will be ready when they are needed.
2. You might consider building winter structures like row tunnels to give you an extended growing season or protect from unexpected late frosts.
3. You start with your plant selection, knowing which plants grow best in your area and which you enjoy eating the most. You locate and order fresh seeds for this growing season, or use some that you've saved.
4. The garden planner tells you which beds you will plant your selections into, rotating crops to avoid disease and depleting nutrients
5. Consulting your frost dates, your garden planning tells you when you can set the selected plants out into the garden, 
6. Working backwards from the set out date, you start the seeds indoors in your propagator to have them ready at the right time.
7. When the seedlings are ready, based on frost dates, row covers and their own hardiness, the spring plants are set into the garden and begin to produce.  As the caretaker, you monitor for weeds, disease and insects.
8. As the spring and summer progress, the garden is mulched with grass clippings to return productivity to the garden soil and organic fertilizer is used with heavy feeding plants like tomatoes.  Row covers are removed or replaced with insect netting.
9. As the spring plants, like lettuce and spinach, mature, they are harvested and brought to the dinner table. Remember that most spring crops will bolt when temperatures increase, so plan to harvest them on a regular schedule so the beds are empty for the Summer crops.
10. In the meantime, you are looking for succession plantings and what will replace these plants when they are done. Spring lettuce and radishes will be replaced with tomatoes and zucchini
11. New seeds are started in the propagator in anticipation of being needed later
12. As the crops are harvested, new plants from the propagator are brought out to replace them.
13. Compost boxes prepared last Fall and Winter are turned and evaluated for being added to the beds as a top dressing. 
14. When summer crops are done, but while there is still some warmth in the fall, cool season winter crops are being prepared for the fall season.  Again referencing the first frost date, seeds are started with plenty of time for them to grow indoors, and then also be set out in the beds with several weeks of development before cooler winter temperatures limit growth.
15. Some of the more frost tolerant kale and cabbage will overwinter under row tunnels, giving a taste of the garden all winter.  The plastic row tunnels are prepared and installed in early November, again based on frost dates.
16. Also in October, fall leaves are shredded and gathered to be used as mulch in the fall months.
17. After the beds are mulched, more shredded leaves and trimmings from the garden beds are used to refill the compost boxed

A Modular Composting System

Composting can seem like magic, in that you are making soil out of nothing.  Without it, you have to purchase bags of compost from the garden center to maintain the fertility of your garden soil, and that can get expensive and inconvenient.  Instead, we are going to use the materials from around the house to create garden soil out of nothing.  Not exactly ex nihilo, but close.

Composting is a favorite subject of some gardeners, who swear by the beautiful soil and the abundant gardens that result.  On the other hand, I've read from many garden bloggers who find the process finicky and time consuming.  It can become an unproductive and unsightly nuisance if not tended correctly.  The goal here is to reduce composting to its essentials that are still effective without being overwhelming.

Lets begin by looking at the source of materials that we will use for composting.  The obvious sources are:

Brown:

• Fallen Leaves
• Shredded Paper

 Green:

• Grass Clippings
• Kitchen Waste
• Garden trimmings

 I would add a final ingredient.  You need a source of microbes to jump start the process, either a little compost from the previous batch, or a bag of organic compost from the garden center. Also a sprinkle of high nitrogen blood meal or granular urea can give the process a boost.

Also consider fireplace ash, straw, newspaper, wood chips, sawdust, etc.

The system is set up in two phases.  The collection bins and the processing bins.

Collection

The collection system is simply a number of plastic barrels or trash cans the hold in the individual ingredients until they are ready to mix.  Outside we need 2 trash cans with lids,around the 32 gal size.  One is for grass clippings and green material from the garden, and one for fallen leaves, wood chips and other dryer materials.  Leaves and garden debris need to be ground as finely as possible, usually by running over them with the lawn mower and vacuuming them into the grass catcher.

These collection containers are necessary because your source material tends to be seasonal.  Fallen leaves are abundant in the Fall when the grass cutting season has slowed down, and when the mowing season is in high gear in summer, the leaves have all been cleared away.  

In the Fall, I gather the leaves into black plastic trash bags.   I gather 12 bags full before the season is over; one for each month of the coming year.  Then I add about a quart of water to each bag and tie them loosely for use the following year.  Over the course of the year the leaves will break down slightly and form leaf mold.

Inside the house, we need a smaller container with a lid for kitchen waste, probably a 1-gallon size.  Consider an ice bucket, for example, or simply a large tupperware container.  Ideally, the items that go inside have been chopped up as small as possible for easier composting later.  In the office you need a wastepaper basket with a shredder on top of it for paper.  With properly fitting lids, the materials inside can be held until they are needed and then mixed in the proper ratios.  However, this process is usually driven by the kitchen scraps, which you don't want sitting around longer than necessary.

Finally, go to the garden center and buy a bag of cheap garden soil/potting soil/ compost.  You want to get something with active microflora that is finely broken down, without big pieces of wood still present.

Filling the composter

Filling the barrel is phase 2.  Once you have a supply for each of your source materials, you will combine them in layers inside a 32-gal plastic trash can.  This barrel will be your primary composter.  The trash can will have a locking lid.  You should drill 1/2" holes throughout the can, about 6" apart.

Some gardeners like to put so many holes in the sides that it looks like mesh, But I actually think that too much air will simply dry out the compost and lead to inactivity.  Of course, having no holes will lead to anaerobic conditions that will also stop the composting.  You want the material damp without being sopping wet.

In the bottom of the bin, start with a base layer of the leaves you've collected. You want about 3-4 gallons from a bucket; just enough to create a 3-4" thick layer. The principle is to keep the layers thin, so they can interact with each other.  At the same time, you don't want to be measuring or having to think too hard.  Just find a bucket or scoop that's the appropriate size and use that for everything.

Next, each week you will start your collection building.  

• Add 3-4 gal of Grass clippings from your weekly mowing or other green materials
  
• on top of that is the Kitchen scraps. 
• Add 3-4 gal of brown materials like the Leaves you gathered in your plastic trash bags.  You should have enough in each bag for the four weekend layers.
  
• For the next layer, add a shovel full, or about 2 quarts of the commercial Compost.
• Finally, sprinkle about a quart of Water over the layer 

 The main reason for this weekly layering process is to incorporate the kitchen scraps that are constantly generated each week.

Processing

Put the lid on your trash can and store it outside on the ground.  

You will let this tub sit, undisturbed for 4 weeks.  Set a concrete block on top of the lid to discourage raccoons and other night time foragers.  The lid also keeps the contents from drying out and it presents a tidy appearance to the neighbors and visitors.  You can find a stick-on aquarium thermometer strip and apply it to the outside of the tub to monitor for raised temperatures that indicate composting action inside the bin.  However, this is likely to be a cold composting process.

Continue the layering process until the barrel is full. Then begin on the second barrel, while the first one finishes.

Turning the Bins

At the end of the four weeks, Turn the trash can on its side and roll it along the ground for a few complete turns. This causes the contents to mix and allows the moisture to redistribute throughout the contents.

Open the lid to evaluate what state it's in.  If this is the middle of the summer, you might be looking at quite a bit of compost activity already happening; but if its during the cooler winter months it may be less further along.

Re-energize the bin by scattering a layer of alfalfa pellets or other nitrogen source.  Check the moisture, at this point. Add more water if it seems dry, or more shredded leaves if it is too wet.  Check the underside of the lid for condensation, which can be an indicator of the barrel having enough water.  Now put the top back on and let it sit for another four weeks to compost in place.

As compost ages, it shrinks in size.  Because of this, it is perfectly acceptable to combine bins as you turn them.  This also frees up another tub to start a new batch.

Tumbling

If you have a tumbling composter, you can also put that to use for faster results.  After a barrel has sat for four weeks, instead of turning it into a new bin, add it to the empty tumbler.  As before, you will check the dryness and add water if its too dry.  Also add the 1/4 C of blood meal, as well.

Ideally, you will try to turn the tumbler every day, but try for several times a week at a minimum. 

Ongoing Cycle

Composting is a long process.  There's no escaping that, even if you have a tumbler. Experienced gardeners think in terms of 6 months up to 12 months of composting before you have anything resembling garden soil.  The weeding and trimming from your garden in October might be ready for adding to the garden the following March to May.  It's important to have realistic expectations for your composting efforts.  However, if you can add two bins of rich compost to your garden bed as a top dressing once a year, you will significantly improve the nutrient profile and add important organic material to the soil.  Then, if you mulch with grass clippings in the summer, and mulch with shredded leaves in the fall, this process can maintain a very fertile garden year after year.

In an ideal situation, you could have multiple barrels of composting active at the same time.  As long as you have an empty trash can and enough source materials, you can set up as many bins as you wish. 

Alternately, you may want to process the whole works on a single weekend and then let the bins sit for a month.  Composting can only benefit from benign neglect, which gives it more time to work. The benefit of this system is that it is modular and can be scaled up or down to match your level of activity or interest.  Are you going to be busy for the next several months?  Nothing will be affected if you let the bins sit.  On the other hand, if you have lots of materials on hand and don't want to lose the opportunity, you can make up as many bins as you wish and turn them often.  Then, you can scale back later when you have less time.

What are the benefits to this system?

The common complaint with composting is that it is a messy process with an uncertain outcome and very little volume to show for it at the end. No one wants to deal with kitchen scraps more than once. and an enormous pile of yard and garden debris with kitchen scraps can an unsightly nuisance for neighbors in an urban or suburban setting.  Giant 3-bin composters made from wooden pallets or 4x4 posts and fencing carry a huge footprint in a small backyard, and require considerable effort to turn.

Often a compost pile will dry out, bringing the organic process virtually to a halt and creating a desiccated brush pile.  Sometimes, well-meaning instructors get caught up in the nitrogen-carbon ratios and can make the whole process seem highly technical.  And finally, you can labor over your compost heap for six months or more, turning and tumbling and balancing week after week, only to come out with a few shovels-full of partially decomposed matter that's suitable for burying in a back corner of your garden.

From composting, you want:

1. Easy set up. By setting up layers in your bins, you establish the right ratios normally.  And you are working with smaller manageable sizes.  There's no heavy construction work in building the bins.
2. Low maintenance.  Set it and forget it and let nature do its work. Turn your compost over once a month, or let it go longer if you need to.  Nothing will happen to it, tucked away inside its barrels, other than to slowly compost into garden soil.  The small size of the trash can makes turning them manageable and not particularly strenuous.
3. Small, discrete footprint. The tubs with lids are self contained and present a neat overall appearance.  You can tuck a few bins in the corner of your garden or up against the garden shed.  When you don't need them anymore, the tubs can be nested and stored out if sight, returning the area to its former appearance.
4. High volume.  You want this to be an abundant source of soil for your garden, not a few meager handfuls. The trash cans are scalable, meaning you can have as many or as few of them as you want.