Strawberries

Last spring we planted 20 everbearing strawberry plants from rootstock into the cinder blocks around the raised beds.  In the first year we got a few berries here and there.  Just enough to eat fresh in the garden and make us dream of next year.  Now it's next year and we are harvesting 10-20 strawberries a day. We mostly eat them fresh, but also use them in smoothies.


There are three types of strawberry plants:  


June Bearing - These are best if you plan to freeze berries or make jams and preserves.  They are the traditional commercially grown strawberry producing large fruits in a 2-3 week span of time in early summer and then ceasing production.  


Everbearing - We prefer these for fresh eating through the whole growing season.  These are what we are currently growing.  They produce medium sized berries in 3 to 4 waves from spring to fall.  


Alpine - Small statured plants that provide a steady production of small, but very flavorful berries throughout the summer.  The entire plant is claimed to have many medicinal uses.  Our experience has shown that adding the dried leaves to herbal tea does indeed seem to help with menstrual cramps.


          Strawberry runner

Tips and Tricks:

• Trim off runners as soon as they appear to encourage the plant to put its energy into fruit production.
• Plants should be replaced at least every 3 years to maintain good production.
• For an endless supply of free new plants, choose a few of your plants to allow runners to grow on.  Once these runners have a well developed daughter plant on the end, transplant them into the desired location.  These will be genetically identical to the parent plant.
• Birds will take bites out of some berries as they ripen.  If this becomes too problematic, we have found that bird netting is an effective means of prevention.

Weekly Gardening Outlook

This will be a continuing series.  Each Monday we will look ahead at the coming week in gardening for the Northwest Arkansas area.


With the warmer days, insects are beginning to arrive.  Don't be disheartened to see large numbers of insects in your garden.  Most of them are beneficial or harmless! 


Things to be on the lookout for:
Imported cabbageworm is a pest of broccoli, cabbage, kale, and kohlrabi.  If you are growing any of these be on the lookout for small white moths fluttering about, large holes in leaves, and small (up to 1 1/2" long) green caterpillars on the undersides of leaves.  They like to align their bodies with the central vein of the leaf to better blend in.  If you see any of the signs of this insect, spray both sides of the leaves with Bacillus thuringiensis to control them.  This is very effective and organic.


Powdery mildew and Downy mildew are severe diseases that can quickly kill squash, cucumber, and melons.  If you see any white powdery spots or small yellowing spots on the leaves of these plants, take action immediately.  There are many treatments, but our favorite organic solution is neem oil.  Be sure to spray it in the evening hours to avoid direct contact with bees.


Watering tips:
-Avoid getting water on the leaves if possible to lessen fungal problems
-Water in the morning (evening if you must)
-Do not water during the heat of the day
-It is better to water very well once than to water lightly often


What's being harvested:
-Squash blossoms (they are good fried!)

-Loose Lettuce (enjoy this now, because this hot weather will soon have them turning bitter)

-Turnips

-Radishes

-Strawberries

-Mint

-Green onions


What's coming soon:
-Broccoli heads are forming
-Pepper and squashes are putting on fruits


Weather outlook:
-very warm (mid 80's)
-chance of rain Tuesday-Thursday
-10 day forecast

Chickens and Eggs

For us the chickens came before the eggs (lots and lots of eggs!).  In June 2009, we got an early morning phone call from our post office that a box of very noisy chicks was waiting on us and could we please come pick them up?  Twenty-five 1 day old female Black Australorp chicks from the Murray McMurray Hatchery had arrived.

June 2009

In August, we processed 19 hens into the freezer.  The largest, healthiest 6 hens were kept for egg production.  We got our first eggs 5 months after the chicks arrived.


November 2009

Our 6 birds give us about 3 1/2 dozen eggs and eat an average of $1.50 worth of feed a week.  This gives our family a nice surplus beyond what we can eat to give away, sell, or trade.  Organic eggs go for $3 a dozen, so selling only two dozen a month pays the feed bill and gives twelve dozen eggs a month profit.  Feed costs go down to almost nothing in the summer and up in the winter due to changing levels of wild forage.  They will eat almost any kitchen and table scraps.  The only things we've found they won't eat are citrus and onions.

A daily occurrence

The hens are very low maintenance.  In the mornings they let themselves out of the hen house and spend the day eating insects, seeds, and grass.  They are a joy to watch scratching and pecking around the yard.  In the evening they put themselves up and roost on their roosting bars.  The house gets cleaned out twice a year.  This job takes about 15 minutes.  Our hen house is much larger and more complicated than turned out to be necessary.  In a future post we will tour the hen house and discuss what we think is the ideal small hen house for a backyard flock.  We have been very pleased with our return on investment with our backyard flock.  

Hen house

Garden Tour

The first two beds are made from upturned cinder blocks.  This type of bed lasts nearly forever and provides a large number of 4" X 5" X 8" deep "pots" around the perimeter.  The aesthetics of this type of bed do not appeal to some and they take a moderate amount of time and effort to build.  Natural stone or decorative blocks can be used if desired.

Basil, strawberries, onions, and mint planted in the blocks with tomatoes, kohlrabi, swiss chard, broccoli, and cilantro in the bed.

More basil, strawberries, onions, and mint planted in the blocks with onions, celeriac, watermelons, cucumber, radishes, kale, and lettuces in the bed.

The last two beds are made from 2" X 8" boards.  These are quick and easy to set up, but will need to be replaced in time due to rot.  In wet climates these may only last a couple of years.  Here in Northwest Arkansas they should give 4-5 years of service before needing replacement.  Treated wood, waterseals, or paint can be used to prolong the life of the frame.  Out of concern for chemical leaching, these beds use untreated wood.

Tomatoes, zucchini, green beans, peppers, and spaghetti squash in these wood framed beds.

And now we join the 2010 growing season already in progress

Want to grow fresh veggies, fruits, eggs, or meat in your backyard, but don't know how?  Think it's too much work or too complicated?  It doesn't have to be hard.  This blog will follow our raised vegetable beds, fruit trees, berry bushes, chickens, a rain barrel, and a compost pile at our 1/10 of an acre suburban home in Northwest Arkansas.  We hope you enjoy it.

Main garden