(Can you see Ivy’s cameo appearance in this picture?)

I asked Damian what I should blog about today and he said “copcooorn!” (popcorn) “beeees! beeees!” (bees or beans, not sure which he meant) and “Pink!” (what he calls our echinacea.) You know what that means? That means we are going to throw a little “squish” (squash) and a few sunflowers (which is just say Woah! to) into a post and update you on his Three Sister’s Garden. But to get the pink out of the way first:

These are the pink ‘Double Delight” coneflowers (Echinacea) my grandma sent me this spring from Spring Hill Nursery. I adore them, Damian adores them (when he runs past them they sway around on their long stems making he laugh) and the beeeeees adore them. I can’t ask for any more then that.

Onto those three sisters…

(Can you see the beans climbing around in there with the corn? And the pumpkin vines crawling around in there? Not a weed in sight with these companions in a garden!)

I have mentioned this in passing in other posts, but a Three Sisters garden is a Native American (possibly originally Iroquois) style of planting corn, beans, squash and occasionally sunflowers. The idea behind these plants going together is that the beans will use the corn to climb and in return once they die they will release the nitrogen fixed by their roots into the soil restoring what the corn took. The squash will act as a living mulch to both conserve moisture and shade out weeds. The sunflowers control pests like aphids and they also have those huge glorious pollinator (and toddler) attracting flowers. So in other words, they can help boost yields.

In Damian’s three sisters garden we are growing Strawberry Popcorn, Titan Sunflowers, Sugar Pie Pumpkins, Hidatsa Shield Beans and Good Mother Stallard Beans (both dry shell varieties.) This way most of the bed can dry out come autumn and it can all be harvested at about the same time. Did you know that beans and corn make a complete protein when eaten together? Throw some squash in and you get a delicious succotash! A hearty winter one pot meal. Granted we are growing popcorn but we will have local corn in our freezer in few weeks.

There is a method to the madness in this 4×4 foot bed beyond just throwing the companion plants in together. You begin with several flat-topped mounds, each being about about six inches tall and 18 inches wide in roughly a circular shape. They are spaced about eight inches apart give or take a few inches. I have found many different numbers for the height, width and distance between these mounds, so I kind of made up my own figures taking into account the size of the bed. You basically want to make sure everything has room to grow but it dense enough to not allow weeds a place to gain foothold. So far my method is working.

Corn and sunflowers are planted first. Several corn kernals are clustered together (an inch or two apart) in the center of each mound. The sunflowers were placed around the perimeter of the garden (it should be noted that Damian planted the sunflowers by himself, I didn’t know he had until they germinated.) Once the corn is four to six inches tall, beans are planted in a circle around the base of the corn cluster. Lots of beans. Pole beans love a party, crowd them in (I planted about four per corn stalk if you need a figure.) Resist the urge to plant your beans before you corn is the right height though! Resist or your beans will strange your corn! The squash is planted at the same time as the beans too. Some sources say to alternate beans and squash in the circle, others say to plant one or two squash between each mound, I chose the latter and it seems to be working well.

I have fertilized twice since planting. First when I planted the corn and this week (when these photos were taken) again with the same balanced organic fertilizer except I made it into a tea and used it on all the mounds (the water runs off the mounds to the squash so I didn’t add any specifically to them.)

We still have the rest of the season to go (everything still needs to set fruit) but so far I am really pleased with this method of planting. It looks rather like a tangled mess but I kind of like that about it. It is an easy way to fit three normally space intensive crops into a relatively small area and to reduce the amount you have to both weed and water. I will probably need to hand pollinate the corn but with this small of an area it shouldn’t be too difficult.

Have you grown a three sisters garden before? Did you use a different method? How did it turn out?

Happy Halloween and Blessed Samhain everyone! This is our first year in this neighborhood so I am not sure how many trick-or-treaters we will get but I am looking forward to seeing them all. Now to go finish Damian’s costume, we’re getting down to the wire.

(I wrote about Samhain last year here for the curious.)

We are getting our first frost warnings this week so I have had a chance to start using my GardenQuilt row cover which should protect down to 24F and has 60% light transmission (so I pull it off during the day once it warms up.) I bought a 10′x20′ piece of GardenQuilt and used most of it to cover my winter vegetable garden (my carrots have finally started to grow by the way!) The extra piece will not be large enough to cover the next raised bed I built but I can eventually sew a couple pieces together to make another large piece. For now it is draped over my tomatoes trellis to offer them some kind of frost protection while they finish ripening.

I harvested my first autumn Early Scarlet Globe Radishes this morning, I think they have gotten hotter with the cooler weather. I am definitely ready for this cool down too, anything over 80F has been leaving me drained but I am not sure if I am ready for frost yet. I am hoping my last pumpkin ripens before the killing frost as I don’t have enough row cover to protect it. It is about half way orange. You can see it at the very end of the vine to the left of the tomato trellis.

Does anyone know if there is any way for me to encourage it to hurry up and ripen? I do not intend on storing it for long, it will be turned into a pie in short order. Should it ripen at least.

I thought that recaping our trip to the Harvest Festival this weekend would be a nice post for today, the Autumn Equinox. If you would like to read more about what this day means to me and how we celebrate it as a family I posted extensively about it last year.

This past Sunday we went out to Beck’s Harvest House in Greenbluff, as is our tradition, to pick apples as well as buy fresh pressed cider and some wine. This year we threw a pumpkin into the mix, for Damian’s benefit. (It is in his blog here.)

Last year Damian was only 3 1/2 months old and slept threw most of the trip. This year he is 15 1/2 months old and is walking, running, pointing and babbling. (They grow up fast don’t they?) He did not sleep a wink for the entire trip, though he rode around in his wagon for most of the time eating apples. Of course he had to pick some too, which proved a little tricker then he initially thought. Yanking them off the tree was no hard, but keeping his balance after the yank was! He face planted into the ground right after this photo was taken:


He might have managed to stay upright if he hadn’t of tried to grab the apple beside it also. Not that tipping over bothered him. He scrabbled back up quite triumphantly holding both apples! We picked galas, valstars, liberties and a few other varieties who’s names I never remember. We filled a bushel for ourselves (30lbs of apples!) and some for Shannon and Rachel too. Peter and Andrea came but they just helped us pick and frolic through the orchard of course. Actually Andrea had my camera for about half the time we were out there so I am not sure who took what photo anymore!

Just because you hide behind the camera my dear doesn’t mean that the camera’s owner (me!) does nab it back a few times to get a photo of you though. You’re beautiful. (Andrea is planning my blessingway for this pregnancy for the record, making her even more dear to my heart!)

This is my favorite photo of the day. Granted, I might be bias but I think these are most handsome guys in the world.

Other then picking apples and Damian’s pumpkin we also had lunch while we were there. A dozen pumpkin donuts, a caramel apple and a cinnamon bun count as lunch right? We thought so. We also browsed the country store and picked up 4 gallons of fresh cider (three of which are in the freezer) and a bottle of wine. Maybe we will still have the wine by Winter Solstice. Assuming Ivy has arrived by then, I’ll even be able to have some! (She better have, her due date is December 2nd!) I think she will be born on November 27th, but that is just me.

This past year has gone so fast, even the festival this year seemed to fly by. Thanks to all our friends who came out with us (and we missed all you who couldn’t make it this year.) This time next year Damian will be over 2 years old and Ivy over 6 months. Whew, that makes me appreciate the three seasons and seven sabbats that will come between now and then!

Anyhow now to go start peeling and slicing a bushel of apples and start on dinner. Blessed Autumn Equinox everyone! (More photos from the day can be found on our flickr page.)

This year I was the official pumpkin picker of the family, so while we were at the Harvest Festival I (gleefully) accepted my duty and set about choosing the perfect one that will grace our porch this Samhain.

Each pumpkin must be careful considered you know. Color, size, rollability and, of course, taste are all very important. I was undecided between two for the longest time but eventually I found one to be slightly easier to tip over then the other.

I promptly confirmed my choice with Daddy.

Since, you know, he is big and strong and has the wallet and stuff…

I tried to pick more pumpkins later but they were for “display only” what is the point of that!? I still enjoyed browsing their selection though!

The tomatoes have started rolling in. I harvested a bowl of Stupice and Cherry Romas this morning and it looks like my Amish Paste will be the next to start ripening. Keep in mind they are all inderterminate plants though so they will produce until the frost offs them. I am going to have so many Cherry Romas, so it is a good thing they dry well, and taste fantastic too. Michael and I are a little underwhelmed by the flavor of the Stupice though (still better then anything from the supermarket) so I do not think that variety will be making a comeback next year.

I have had to rip out my two hybrid romas and giant valentine. The romas never really flourished and every tomato has blossom end rot, and then all the hybrids got late blight (so much for hybrid resistance.) I am glad that I decided to put them in a different bed. I would cry if my heirlooms succumbed to blight, though I continue to watch them all very carefully. I give no quarter to diseased plants. My garden gave me a pleasant surprise while pulling out my spent bush bean plants this morning though, a flourishing Genovese Basil plant hidden behind them and under one of the tomatoes. Yum! Firms up my decision to grow my basil in a container next year though. I know they are a companion plant to tomatoes but I have been having a hard time getting to them for harvest (and apparently I loose them too!)

Elsewhere in the garden, my ground cherries seem to be doing fantastic. They were right beside my blighted tomatoes but don’t seem effected by it thus far. My pumpkins are… Well, I am dealing with the little pumpkin vine that could, at least it use to be the smallest one, now it is the longest, 12 feet I think? Not that it is doing anything more productive then that, it has not set one fruit. I am actually having a terrible time getting my pumpkins to set fruit. I have one baseball sized pumpkin and three plants. I hand pollinated some of the flowers so we will see if that helps, a few fruit seem to be growing now. Where are all the pollinators this year? Seriously, between my neighbor and I, we have enough flowers to attract them and neither of us have seen much of anything beyond the occasional mason or bumblebee. I haven’t seen any butterflies either. Maybe my eight-foot sunflower will send up a pollen-available flag, the head is starting to develop. Bloom my pretty, bloom!

My Seed Savers Exchange order arrived yesterday. It is about 8 weeks to the first frost date right now and I am starting my Ragged Jack Kale indoors this morning. It will be transplant just before the first frost date as per the instructions (it is hardy to -10°F.) Ragged Jack is more commonly called Russian or Red Russian Kale by the way, I just like Ragged Jack better, reminds me of my Grandpa Jack. He loved the color red and the cold. Not that he liked leafy veggies, I believe he referred to them as rabbit food… He would have found the tribute amusing though.

I have six crops left in my raised beds right now. Tomatoes, pumpkins, green beans, ground cherries, zucchini and sunflowers (do sunflowers count? I am saving their seeds after all…) The photos above are my quickly ripening cherry romas and stupice. My tomatoes are doing so beautifully this year. They are so heavy with fruit. Tomorrow I think I am going to harvest my first zucchini, technically it will be my second but the first was damaged by hail and went soft.

I am amazed with how much I have learned since building my beds this Spring, most notably I have learned not to underestimate the amount of shade a tree casts. But beyond repositioning my beds due to the elm tree (which I have typed about previously) I have a little list of other things I need to improve. For starters, I need to focus more on amending my soil. In addition to compost I am going to add rotted manure to my beds as my soil is still somewhat nitrogen deficient (which is relatively common in this area apparently.) For a longer term solution to that problem I am also going to start growing more varieties of beans next year, Empress (which I am growing and seed saving this year,) Good Mother Stallard and Hidatsa Shield. maybe cowpeas again too… Beans are a legume, which is a nitrogen-fixing plant. Once they die the nitrogen fixed in their roots is released, making it available for other plants to use. I didn’t know that until recently, I thought that beans constantly released nitrogen.

Water, that is an area that could use improvement too. I use an oscillating sprinkler to water my yard, including my beds, but that can make the leaves (and fruit!) if my beds more prone to disease. Luckily I haven’t had too much of an issue with that this year since it has been so hot and dry, but I can’t bank on luck every year. Drip irrigation works best from a gardening and water conservation standpoint and I could invested in soaker hoses, but given the chance I like to try to stay low cost. I have been considering collecting 2 liter soda bottles and making my own watering stakes. I am still undecided though. Eitherway I am also collecting 2 liter bottles to make sub-irrigation planters for my transplants next year, problem is I never drink soda so I have been asking around to get them from my friends who do (if you are one of my local friends, can I have your bottles?) One man’s trash is another’s treasure right?

Look at my little sugar pie pumpkin! (Please ignore the bolting cilantro beside it.) I am looking so forward to making pumpkin pie from scratch this fall. My pumpkins remind me of two things I need to keep in mind next year which go hand in hand, plant spacing and better planning. Two of my pumpkin vines climbed out of my raised beds and having grown six feet away from them (towards the sun in fact, since they are in the bed shaded by the elm.) I will have to keep a closer eye on them next year so I can train them into the spaces I want. I want to do better with my planning next year too (and I have all winter to plan so I am not overly concerned.) Both planning plant placement and successive sowings. This year I have managed to supplement our diet a bit this summer but I will not have much to preserve (except tomatoes and maybe pumpkin.) I want to remedy that over time, so that I grow more and more of our food. Experience will help me there.

I wish learning worked a little more like it does in The Matrix and I could just download information right into my brain and instantly know all these little trial and error lesson and so much more. Granted it probably wouldn’t be as much fun then.

Photo intensive garden update time. Enter at your own bandwidth’s risk!

Do you remember what bed A looked like just a month ago? Now look at it!

Carrots and onions and green beans, oh my! Ignore that empty square in the back left corner. My cilantro bolted while we were at the Pagan Campout (I still need to blog about that don’t I?) so I pulled it up. Never fear though, I have the new crop already sprouting in bed B (photo to the right.) But while we are on the topic of bed B…


Cucumbers and Pumpkins (and zucchini which are not pictured.) Cucumbers… well they are rallying at least. My Sugar Pie Pumpkins are doing fabulously though, as you can tell, the kid in the corner won’t be boxed in, but I’m cool with that. I’ve always had a thing for rebels. Please ignore the weeds proliferating in the pathway, I know that I am!

I adore pumpkins, they just make me so happy. Look at this blossom! And who says yellow is an ugly color? (Oh wait, I do. I love yellow in nature!) My sunflowers have several more feet to go before their giant yellow beauties open up, and I really do mean giant, they are 12 foot heirloom Titan Sunflowers. I have them in the four corners of my beds, ants have turned them into aphid prisons.

I really love insects. Look at this jewel-like fly perched on my ground cherry. I am sure it and it’s six-legged cohorts will eat my garden (or their spawn will,) but lets just appreciate how beautiful Mr Fly is, before I catch it munching on my leaf lettuce. I just sowed my second row of lettuce a couple weeks ago (the old stuff was getting a little bitter.)

I have these beautiful Creeping Bellflower all along a section of our fence and one side of our deck. Initally I thought they were the more innocent Ladybells but they are spreading quite voraciously (they are a naturalized but ecologically invasive.) I am keeping them around for those gorgeous flowers, but I plan on annihilating them once they begin to fade. Gardening is a brutal business, I’m telling ya.

Here is a flower that will never be thinned. Mmmmmm cherry roma tomatoes or are they stupice tomatoes? Well they are one of my 4 varieties of heirlooms. Basil is keeping them all company. Basil and tomatoes are just meant to go together. Can you say bruschetta?

Tomatoes are to Michael and pumpkins are to me. It looks like my Giant Valentines (one of my two varieties of hybrids) are beating my Stupice in the race to be adored by him first. Granted, I think my raspberries will be the first to bare fruit. We are both cool with that though.

In fact, we are cool with everything in the garden overwhelming us with bounty. If there is too much for us to eat fresh it will just go in the freezer, in a canning jar, in the dehydrator, to Second Harvest or shared with friends (preferable all of the above.)

This weekend my raised beds and I spent some quality time together.

I transplanted 3 black beauty zucchini because I am a sucker for punishment, 5 sugar pie pumpkins because I adore giant orange things, cilantro and red onions and yellow onions. I also have purple haze carrots and mammoth dill directly sown and hopefully working towards giving me an abundant crop.

On Friday we had some friends over, including the lovely Laurie and Ben. They brought us a couch and several transplants for us. I transplanted the chives, garlic chives, triple curled parsley and tarragon but am waiting another week before I transplant the tomatoes (Giant Valentine, Black Krim, Stupice) and ground cherries. Better safe then sorry, the lemon cucumbers and basil I started will be waiting another week before transplanting as well.

All the seeds I started this year were planted in cardboard egg cartons and so far it seems to have worked pretty well. The roots of the pumpkins were starting to grow through the cardboard, so I didn’t even both removing them from the cups when I transplanted them. I think that they will degraded just fine. If I wanted to grow larger transplants (like if I start my tomatoes indoors next year) they will need to move up to a larger container but for the small starts egg cartons seem to work great.

(Mmmmm tomatoes… Grow my pretties, grow!)

The hardest part about growing your own food is waiting for it to be ready I noticed a few flower buds on the ground cherry transplant this morning and I think that just heightens the anticipation. Come wild plant spirits of my garden, grow!