Let's talk about frost!

Technically, this will be the first time I actually have to worry about frost affecting my garden.  I've never had to cover my plants with a bed sheet before.  I brought most of my outdoor potted plants inside (and treated them to get rid of the bugs.)  However, I did remove all the extra leaves that were all chewed up and whatnot and threw them into my compost. (Note: I have no idea how to harvest seeds or anything like that yet. That'll hopefully be a post for another day.)

First things first, what is frost?
Frost is when the temperature outside get's below freezing and water can form small ice crystals on your plants and car windows.  Or that's how I understand it.  A better explanation can be found here via Cornell University.

Why should I care about frost?
Frost can potentially damage and kill your plants if you're not careful.  Typically, you still have a few weeks of good weather after a frost.  So try to keep them safe and warm so you can still harvest them. We don't want to let a frost kill our plants that we spent so much time caring for.

How do I protect my plants from a frost?
The most common way I've seen people protect their plants is by using a bed sheet. I was recommended to use a thicker flannel sheet or double up on a regular one. Another piece of advice I was told, was to try to prop up the sheet a little so that it's not resting on my plants, as this could also cause damage to the plants. I have a very sturdy cardboard tube that I cut in half and placed in my garden and draped the sheet over it like a tent. Also, remember to cover your plants in the evening and uncover them in the morning so that they are protected at night and still get sun during the day.

If you're like me and have no idea when a frost may occur in your area, I found this very helpful frost date estimation lookup via Dave's Garden. Considering I don't usually watch the weather channel nor did I want to wait until I had to get out the ice scraper for my car and find out it was too late, I found this gave me a good estimate of when I needed to cover my plants.

Even though I don't plan on planting a late fall/cold weather garden, I still have some of my carrots in the ground that I'm keeping an eye on. But if you are interested in keeping your garden going on into the colder months, here is a nifty infographic from Hobby Farms that shows what plants will do well and how to prepare better for a frost. I suggest checking that out because it does a much better job explaining everything than I do.


And don't forget, if you are local to the Cincinnati area and have a raised bed like I do, One Small Garden has season extension cold frame curtains to keep your garden warm and protected during the cold months. Here is more info about cold frames from Organic Gardening



*I'm a little late on this post as it's November already, I know. I'm sorry.

Garden Progress

Quick Update

Hello everyone!!

Not much has been going on with the garden.  July is a busy month for me.  I was out of town for the 4th, followed by a terrible sinus infection which I feel like I'm still trying to recover from.  And next week I'm leaving for my honeymoon!

I don't have any seeds planted yet, but I hope to get something in there by the end of the week.  Because I'm starting so late in the season, my options are somewhat limited.  Thankfully Juliann from One Small Garden gave me a very useful chart that shows what foods I can plant during what months and how long they will take to grow (on average).

For foods that I can start in August, I'll be looking for cabbage, beans, beets, carrots, broccoli, kohlrabi, cauliflower, snow peas, summer squash, kale, and spinach. So I have a lot of choices actually.

I've also started another side project of putting a compost together. I have a small indoor compost bin which I use for kitchen scraps and dead leaves from my indoor plants. I am also trying to make a designated area in my backyard for composting yard waste. I'm currently building a frame for it out of the bamboo that we had cut down in our backyard and let dry out. (note: We had a crazy little bamboo forest in our backyard that was left from the previous owners and it's been really hard get rid of it all. We're still trying to get rid of it actually, so I don't suggest planting bamboo unless you do a lot of research on trying to contain it because it spreads like a weed.)

The only problem with my outdoor compost area right now is that I put it in one of my dog's favorite spots in the yard. Since the bamboo frame is only about a foot tall right now, she has no problem of hopping over it and smelling around. Hopefully once I get more of the frame built she'll stay out of it, or I'll have to continue to keep an eye on her whenever she goes out. Thankfully, both dogs show no interest in the garden plot, so I don't think they'll bother it when I have plants growing.

I was asked in my last post why I didn't just go ahead and till my yard for a garden. The main reason being that my dogs love to run around the yard and would probably run all over the garden if it was directly on the ground, not to mention dig around in it.


Sorry for the lack of pictures in this post. I'll try to make up for it in my next post!
Also, I went back and added a few things into the last post that I forgot. Please go read that if you haven't already :)

Building My Garden

First things first! I got my raised garden through One Small Garden and am partnering with them to bring you this fun blogging experience. I'm also going to add this disclaimer: I basically know nothing about growing and keeping a garden. So this is a huge learning experience for me and will hopefully inspire others to start a garden. I'm sure I'll make tons of mistakes and have lots of questions. I'm hoping by having this blog, other people can help answer my questions or if anyone has any questions those can get answered as well.

Now onto building my garden!

The bed I have is a 3'x6'x18" GreenSpot, and is a combination of both white and red cedar. After discussing with Juliann of One Small Garden, we decided to go for this smaller, hybrid bed for this experience. The white cedar is from the southern Michigan area and the red cedar is local to the Ohio river basin. Cedar is a very good rot resistant and sustainable wood to use. 

Here's everything you need! All the hardware is included and the pieces are pre-fabricated. You don't need any tools to put it together.

If you go visit One Small Garden's YouTube page there is a video of Juliann installing a garden which I watched before I put mine together. 

Here's the hardware it comes with. Building the garden is incredibly easy. Like, Ikea easy. Maybe easier. All you need to do is screw everything together.  

 I managed to put it together by myself the next morning. It comes with a diagram on how to put the pieces together. When building it I moved it to a more level space in my backyard and got the first tier put together in no time. 

Here's the finished bed (without the trellis). I think it only took me about 20 minutes to put the entire thing together. The only trouble I had was trying to line up some of the holes for the screws, but other than that there was no headache. A tip for putting these together: don't tighten everything as you go. Tighten the screws just enough so that it's together, then go back at the end and finish tightening everything. 

  

You can really see the difference in color of the cedar. I think it looks pretty cool! However, in a few months it'll all turn a grayish color. 

Moving it back into the spot I chose required a little more effort, so I suggest having two people to help if you need to move it. I chose this spot because I'm tired at looking at the ugly cement wall in our backyard, and it's right next to the fence gate and the stairs of my deck. That means easy access to my garden to take care of it and it's in a spot that I can see every day.  

You can see how much my yard slopes here. Hopefully this won't be a problem if I decide to add more gardens. My only other main concern with placing it in this spot, is that my dogs will try to jump into the garden to get up higher to see the neighbor's dog. But my dogs haven't seemed very interested in going near the garden yet. I'll have to keep an eye on them. 

I forgot to put cardboard under the area when I moved it so I did the next day. It rained overnight so everything was a little soggy but that's okay. 

It took me a few days before I finally got the soil for my garden. And I got a lot of soil. 40 40lb bags of a recommended Veggie Soil. It was a bit of a drive for me to get, and we weren't sure if I could get it all in the two vehicles I had available to me. But we fit it all. There was a terrible storm on the way back to my house, which was not fun to drive through at all. I could barely see the road but I think being weighed down with 25 bags in my car helped me stay on the road, haha! I unloaded it all from my car in the light rain and stacked it in the side yard.

For measuring the soil for the bed in cubic feet you do (length x height x depth) or find a cubic soil calculator online like I did. 

Thankfully it wasn't raining the next day so I was able to get to work. This picture has about 6 bags of soil in the bed. I ended up using 18 bags to fill up the garden. Though once I saw how it all settled after it rained, I think I should have used 20.

I had a skid laying around so I used that to stack the rest of the bags onto under my deck. I covered them with a tarp and that's where they'll stay until I need them. I definitely got my workout lugging all the bags around. It made me wish I had a wheelbarrow. 

Here is my finished garden spot! The trellis isn't really secured in right now. It's just kind of stuck deep into the dirt. When I find my tools I'll try to secure it properly or at least zip tie it to the fence behind it. 

I had a half of a bag of this Metro-Mix 360 which I spread on top of the Veggie Soil. 

And the final touch, the One Small Garden placard.

Installing the garden was a nice experience. Being out in my backyard I was able to chat with my two neighbors who were curious as to what I was doing. One of them offered advice of where to put it, even though neither spots he said were where I chose in the end. I also found out my other neighbor was currently growing his own food and he gave me some advice. 

The cost of my garden plot was about $260.00 and all of the soil was $180.00. It might seem a little costly now (it does to me anyways) but I'm positive this will save me money on groceries in the future. And if I do move in the future, I can bring this garden plot with me.

Now all I need to do is plant some stuff so I can start growing my own food! I'm excited!