http://statebystategardening.com/ar/blog_01_summary/ en wilkerson.leigh@gmail.com Copyright 2011 2011-05-21T19:19:04+00:00 http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/ar/blog_01/book_review_the_edible_front_yard_the_mow-less_grow-more_plan_for_a_beautif/ http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/ar/blog_01/book_review_the_edible_front_yard_the_mow-less_grow-more_plan_for_a_beautif/ For those who have been snoozing since 2007: Edible is In. Whether it's food prices, the appalling state of commercial food systems, or some deep instinctive turn toward self-sufficiency skills that we may need soon given the state of the world and the climate, lots of folks are starting to grow their own food. More urban dwellers in particular are venturing into growing edibles and there's a bunch of new books on the particular challenges of growing food in the city, often in a very small space. Usually, the next challenge is sunlight. Now why is it that more front yards are in full sun than backyards? Go figure. Since I compulsively assess the garden potential of any neighborhood I happen to be driving through, I can tell you it's true. Home buyers take note: If you want to garden in your back yard, you are looking for a house with a front door facing North...and no neighbors who love shade trees.   For everyone else, Ivette Soler is going to show you what your front yard could be! Front yard gardens do face additional challenges beyond the usual soil, critter and plant-based varieties. These may include neighbors, neighborhood associations, and the opinions of your family on having your dinner out there for everyone to see. The usual delight of harvesting your produce may also produce a big blank spot in your yard. What about passing children, dogs, or someone with boundary issues who feels free to harvest when you aren't home? All this and more is covered quite handily in The Edible Front Yard, published by Timber Press. Now let me say that many garden books by California authors are not that useful to those of us everywhere else. The plants and garden techniques that work great in the climate-of-paradise-to-most-fruits-and-vegetables are often a no-go if you deal with humidity, abundant/erratic rainfall, particular plant diseases & pests, high/low temp extremes, etc that pretty much the rest of the country faces.  I'm delighted to report that I found many ideas and tips in Soler's book that are transferrable to most every gardening situation, even my own large, backyard and countryside spread in the Ozark hills.  Actually, the "removing concrete" how-to box rang some bells regarding bed prep on this rocky ground of mine! I immediately loved the luscious photography and book design. The colors and textures make the book seem nearly edible. Luckily, the content is great too. I was pleased with how many she lists that will also grow in most regions. Soler brought my attention to several plants that I've neglected to explore, like passionflower and mints. Passionflowers grow wild in portions of the Ozarks, is beautiful, edible and beneficial to butterflies and I haven't planted one yet!  This is soon to be remedied. I already fixed the mint shortage at the Fayetteville Farmers Market last weekend... Soler  is generous with suggested plants and their profiles. I particularly like the 'how to use' sections on herbs. Some plants I have for wildlife-gardening reasons but hadn't really thought of as edible to me—like juniper—were pleasant surprises.  There are also many how-to boxes, handy techniques for hardscaping & hellstrips, advice on dealing with neighbors and neighborhood associations (Really, just show them the pics in this book...), transforming a yard to garden, and maintaining your now productive and edible plot. I think new gardeners will find good advice and more advanced gardeners will find some very clever tips and ideas. Finally, like Rosalind Creasy and several other edible pioneers, Soler goes a step further in breaking down the myth that edible gardens and beautiful gardens can't be one and the same.  The photographs are the proof.  Readers of this blog will know I believe if you combine edibles with beauty, add some permaculture ideas, then cross it with generous wildlife & pollinator pantings then you have created one truly LARRAPIN Garden! Soler's book is going to help more front yards get bountiful. And I like that a lot. P.S. I love to read garden books—particularly on edible landscapes, local food, cooking from the garden, permaculture, homesteading, chickens & backyard barnyards and other organic topics. I welcome titles to review. If I love it, I'll write about it here on the garden blog. Disclaimer for readers: I receive no compensation for any endorsement I give in the posts on this blog, just so ya know if you read it here then I think it's fab. 2011-05-21T18:19:04+00:00 http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/ar/blog_01/seed_starting_homemade_light_table/ http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/ar/blog_01/seed_starting_homemade_light_table/   On Sunday, February 13th the seed starting bug HIT me. I cleaned the clutter that had accumulated on the seed starting shelf I made last year (funky, but it works great) and got going! First I wanted to add some protection since the shelf is now living in a semi-heated workshop space and had a roll of silver bubble wrap available. With the heat of the lights and the seed-starting mat, should be warm enough on cold nights. The silver bubble wrap (foil insulation from Lowe's) also works to reflect the light, which is good.     Finished up with a drape of leftover yellow plastic tablecloth. The whole workshop kind of glows screaming lemon now, but Ada the farmdog has shown no ill effects from sharing her sleeping space with this contraption...     That tray on the right is hard to find but really handy. I think I got this one from Johnny's.  It gives you about twenty narrow "furrows" to start seeds. Once they pop up, I transplant to individual cups. That was I can start a *lot* of varieties in a small space. I have only one small seed-starting mat (like a heating pad for plants) and this fits on top of it. The bottom heat makes things sprout really, really fast but once the cool-weather seedlings are up, they will grow happily with no additional heat other than the lights...     This pic shows how many trays I can get going on just two lit shelves. The seed-start tray will be on the heat mat (for a few days) then the seedlings will be spread out in individual cups in the regular trays. Each shelf has two sets of lights, so I can line up the trays side to side and get four on a shelf...     The heat mat makes a real difference. Check out the kale that poked up in 48hrs and was as above in 72hrs!     Once the seedlings start to pop up, I remove the mat and use a spare tray to put them all very close to the lights. This is another thing that makes a BIG difference: having the lights only a couple inches above the leaves. Your seedlings will be stocky and dark green this way, rather than pale and spindly. (This is why the lights are on chains to raise/lower when the seedlings are bigger.)     Above the seeds are up and ready to go into individual pots...     Above, some seedlings ready to graduate to the outdoors. Hope your seed starting is off to a great beginning!   —Leigh from A Larrapin Garden  Also online at www.larrapin.us and www.OzarksAlive.org Geesh...even on Twitter @LarrapinGarden   2011-03-10T13:41:43+00:00 http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/ar/blog_01/bringing_nature_home_by_doug_tallamy/ http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/ar/blog_01/bringing_nature_home_by_doug_tallamy/ I'll admit it: When I first became a gardener I thought folks who were so into "native" plants were...er, a little stuffy. I mean really, with native plants populating the wild landscape everywhere else, what could it matter what I planted in my own yard?  Ahhh, my innocent ignorance. It was Sarah Stein's book "Noah's Garden" that first woke me up to how much suburban yards are needed to provide food, water and shelter to all the beings we tend to love so much: the butterflies, songbirds, hummingbirds and more. Turns out we humans are kind of spreading out and altering the same landscapes our favorite creatures require too... Then Douglas Tallamy's book, Bringing Nature Home,  was enthusiastically recommended by my friend Cindi Cope. Cindi is a kind of one-woman Green Team for the city of Fayetteville. And wow are we lucky to have her around. If there's a nature and gardening related project going on to enhance and beautify Fayetteville, you'll probably find Cindi's fingerprints on it. Tallamy's book made the big light bulb go on in my head: All the bird feeders and butterfly bushes in the world can't provide what the native plants provide what my beloved winged friends need. Native plants are utterly vital. They are what make the winged creatures I so adore say, "Now that's larrapin!" So many of the showy plants in our flower gardens have been bred for looks to the point that they provide nothing for the pollinators, butterflies and birds. You have to watch out for this at the garden centers because plants that appear on bird/ butterfly lists my have the same name, but the showy varieties may be so fancy as to be useless. A non-native example is the old can't-kill-it shrub Rose of Sharon (Althea). The old fashioned single flowered kind that were here when we bought the place are buzzing and humming with bees, butterflies and hummingbirds in the summer. But the kind on sale at the box stores are often the showier double-flowered kind. That flower design prevents anyone from getting to the nectar and pollen. May as well be a plastic flower in terms of its value for wildlife. The most important aspects of native plants lie much deeper than showy flowers though. (And do know that choosing natives does NOT mean you have to give up on pretty flowers and trees and shrubs! ) Native plants are the ones that have historically grown in a region before settlers brought their own plants and weeds to the area. Native plants are Mother Nature's garden design. The native plants of an area have evolved alongside the creatures they support within the setting they all live. These webs of interdependence flow both ways, they each support the other. It's a package deal: To have the Ozark birds, butterflies and pollinators we need Ozark native plants.  Otherwise you may as well try to have the goldfish on your coffee table without the fish bowl. Not good. Nature tends to design gardens very unlike the ones most of us humans design. Her gardens are self-supporting, self-replicating, they grow and maintain their own fertility, harvest and share their water and support a myriad of creatures who help all of the above maintain itself. Mother Nature is INTO abundance and is really the garden designer to watch. I've heard it said another way too, about learning from creation: "Why just bury your head in the Book when you can go out and study the original text?" But back to the reason for this post. Get Doug Tallamy's book. Tallamy will tell you why, and how, to become a contributor to the land you live with - restoring or retaining native species in your yard and surrounds so that we can have the privilege of hanging out with some lovely friends. Who would want to live without them? Bird photos by Leigh Wilkerson. Taken at Larrapin Garden 2009. 2011-01-18T02:37:01+00:00 http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/ar/blog_01/a_larrapin_garden/ http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/ar/blog_01/a_larrapin_garden/ I live a few miles outside of Fayetteville in a country neighborhood surrounded by the rolling cattle fields of a neighboring farmer. The site is rocky and often dry. The thin topsoil is a poor pallid clay and gravel mix, not the well-drained loam every gardener wants. Yet despite the soil, the site is rich with large white oaks, red oaks, wild cherry, black-jack oaks, sassafras, sumac, hickory, pine and cedar trees which dot these three acres. The previous owners added several redbuds, a mountain ash and a lovely tupelo. As I began to garden here five years ago, I realized I wanted a new theme for the yet-to-be landscape I would plant. I wanted a garden that meant more than a pretty vista or even just healthy vegetables. I wanted to move beyond organic, beyond art, and right into generosity—an expression of love for life and the earth. The theme of my garden is “Larrapin.” Larrapin is an old hill term that I first heard from my Arkansan father-in-law whenever he ate a particularly great meal. “That is Larrapin!” he’d announce with a big nod of the head in culinary appreciation of his wife’s legendary cooking. In other words: Yum! Delicious! Wonderful! Larrapin became the guiding principle and name of the new garden. I set out, with the help of my ever-patient spouse, to cultivate a landscape that was larrapin for everyone: the birds, bees and butterflies; the plants, the wildlife, the soil live and yes, the gardeners! Each tree and plant I considered was judged by one criteria: Is it Larrapin?  Does it give shelter, shade, rest, comfort, food, nectar, nesting material, protection and/or deliciousness to someone? The more generous it is in these endeavors, the more Larrapin it is! Today, organic vegetables grow lush in raised beds amended with loads of compost.  New flowering and fruiting plants cover a once barren bank of scraped clay. Bees and butterflies confetti the many blooms. The river birches we planted are beginning to cast a patch of refreshing shade over the sunny patio. A tiny new apple orchard of tough, disease-resistant trees stands shoulder-high and growing heartily, along with young peaches, mulberries, persimmon and plums. With the work required to amend the soil with endless compost and deep mulch, it’s a slow work in progress. But it’s joyful work accompanied by songbirds and butterflies and the knowledge my labors are making this hilltop come alive. It’s more than pretty…it’s Larrapin!   2011-01-03T18:22:06+00:00