Farming at the White House

Hey, I just found out of my very informal nomination to help get the White House lawn up and running as a vegetable garden!
Please feel free to check it out and...if you are so inclined, vote me in....by January 31st!
White House Farmer
I would certainly call this a dream job...if there ever was one.

Varmints

Lets talk about varmints. First, this is a typical conversation during the course of a garden consultation:
New Client: “We have a lot of raccoons (and/or rats) in our neighborhood…are they going to eat everything?”
Me: “Of course!”
New Client: “How dreadful!”
Me: “Life is merely a series of tragic episodes, each more devastating than the last!”

Based on our experience, every neighborhood in this city (and presumably other cities?) is full of raccoons, rats, opossums, moles, voles, crows and countless other vermin in such numbers that we are probably better off not thinking about it. The good news is that, generally, most of these varmints have little interest in your vegetable crops. (Your chickens are another story altogether: chickens will eat your vegetable crops and varmints will certainly eat your chickens).

There are of course many, many exceptions to this…one notable case would be that of the lowly vole. Should you worry solely about voles, or voles and moles? Remember this, Voles eat Vegetables (esp. the roots of your favorite crops) and Moles eat Moths (or at least the larvae of moths). If that is a poor pneumonic device it is only because I just made it up. I am sorry. Moles may make mounds in your lawn, but generally won’t go after your crops; whereas voles are straight-up varmints. Maybe this is better: Voles are Varmints and Moles are Marmots (even moles aren’t actually marmots).

Anyways, if voles become a problem, as far as I know, the best strategy is peanut butter baited mousetraps...The other most common varmint we see is the rabbit. If you have seen rabbits hanging out at the end of your street after school, it is best to organize a neighborhood watch with the other parents on the street. Alternatively, you can put up a short (2-3’) fence around the perimeter of your garden before planting. Rabbits should be considered ruthless, and at the very least, not merciful. You might also have deer. In most of the urbanized greater Seattle region, deer don’t pose much of a threat, but if you know that deer are in your area, you probably have little choice but to build a fence (a high fence).

Other varmints can become troublesome from time to time, especially in the late winter (the lean months for varmints of all kinds). For example, rats seem to have an affinity for Peas, which are planted early and therefore a likely target for a hungry beast. Come to think of it, there are endless cases of animal attacks on unsuspecting vegetable plants. Just last summer I heard one report of a rouge raccoon attacking a Zucchini plant! The creature did not have the common decency to eat the fruit, but instead shredded the plant down to a ragged nub! There was also a report of a Mountain Beaver cruising out of the nearby woods to wreak havoc in an otherwise civilized garden...Not to mention the crows in Wedgewood that will pull newly transplanted Brassicas out of the ground and let them wither away in the summer heat! Always keep in mind that your neighbor’s cat will inevitably mistake your newly cultivated garden beds for…well, you know…

As you can see, there is much anecdotal evidence of varmints in the vegetable patch, but it has been our experience that most city gardeners will have limited trouble with these small and medium sized animals. If you feel the need to worry about something, worry about insect pests and plant diseases (which we can discuss later).

There is certainly no shortage of bizarre happenings in the garden at night (crop circles, drum circles, etc.), but for the most part the free-roaming animals of the city are not going to destroy your vegetable garden...at least that is what my blog says...

Onions and Leeks

I just sowed our first onions and leeks. As with so many great gardening traditions (e.g. planting peas on President’s Day, planting chocolate on Valentine’s Day, or planting hot dogs on the Fourth of July), I figured it would help to start the year's first seeds on a holiday: Martin Luther King Jr. Day. As with all great gardening traditions, I got a late start.

At this point, I am sure that you may be asking yourself something like, “Isn’t mid-January a little early to start vegetable seeds?” or maybe “Why am I reading this blog?”

Well, for now please let me attempt to elucidate a few of the wonderful properties of the onion. It should be noted that, the more unique characteristics a plant has, the higher its rating on the "SUFCo Plant Fantastic Index".
That being said, there are many things that make the humble onion a subject worth exploration: First, we should note that the seeds should be kept in the freezer. These seeds have a shorter shelf life than many other vegetable seeds and will likely only be viable for a year if left in your normal seed storage facility (a dark, dry place with zero gravity and free of drastic temperature fluctuations).

Second, onions can now keep the distinct honor of being the earliest sown seed (at least here in the PNW). For this same reason, many home gardeners are apt to grow their onions from sets rather than seeds. It is obviously difficult to get them sown early enough and to have the space and energy to do so.
There are, however, a few advantages to growing from seed.
One, lower cost: seeds are much less expensive than sets or young plants.
Two, the plants will be less likely to bolt: when grown as a set, the onion has already lived for one season and is thus being grown as a biennial, which means its evolutionary programming will tell it to send up a seed stalk ASAP effectively stopping bulb growth.
Three, you have something besides groundhogs to cheer for during February.
So...we sow our onions and leeks in late January, set under a grow light until early spring and get into the ground as soon as we can.

Because onions and leeks take so long to mature, and they are always necessary, we like to plant as many Alliums as we can:
Chives,
Garlic Chives,
Scallions (which are really just non-bulbed onions),
Green Onions (which are really just onions with very tiny bulbs),
Shallots (which are really just onions with slighty larger bulbs)
Leeks,
Sweet White Onions and,
Yellow Storage Onions.
Also an Allium, but requiring its own personal blog, chauffeur, and penthouse apartment: Garlic.

The last fantastic feature that I will mention is “Allium Day-Length Sensitivity”. Different species and varieties have unique light requirements, but bulb growth in most Alliums is triggered by a change in day length. Some types will not start bulbing until days exceed 12 hours, or 13 or 14 or...These differences make certain types more or less suitable to your region. You would want to grow different varieties in Panama (near the equator) than in Alaska (near a moose). Such distinctions are irrelevant to non-bulbing types (leeks, scallions, etc.).
Mostly, I just think that onions are continuously consumed but rarely considered.
In conclusion, at least I now have something to check up on every morning (besides the weather report).

Another word on seeds

I am not expert on this and I don’t want to belabor the subject, so I will try to make this brief. While putting together this year’s seed order, I ended up doing quite a bit of poking around on the web. It seems to me that there is a lot of both confusion and disagreement about seeds (and everything else in the world). Especially when it Industrial Agriculture starts looking for backdoors into the organic/sustainable food system. Specifically, no one seems sure what is going on, but there are rampant rumors that Monsanto owns just about every seed company in the known universe. Here is the short story of what is going on.

Once upon a time there was a relatively large seed company called Seminis. Seminis collected and breed a whole lot of seed varieties (esp. hybrids) and most every small seed company out there bought some of their varieties from Seminis. A few years ago, Monsanto bought Seminis. This sent the industry into chaos and nobody was quite sure what to do. Some seed companies vowed to eliminate all Seminis varieties from their catalog with the disclaimer that it might take a few years to find alternate sources (ex. Fedco). Other companies are still hemming and hawing about the right thing to do (ex. Johnny’s Selected Seeds). That being said, Monsanto doesn’t own Territorial, Fedco, Johnny’s, etc…but some of them might still have Seminis varieties in their catalog. Here is a really in depth article about the whole shebang: shebang

Also, M and M/Mars does in fact own Seeds of Change, which inexplicably started using plastic pouches for their seeds (with the claim that this is the most environmental option). I am not sure what the future holds for all of this, another reason to start seed collecting I suppose.

As for SUFCo, we are going to stop buying seeds from any company that continues to carry Seminis seeds (it should be noted that I have a very large grudge against Monsanto) and I don't see us buying organic seeds from a candy company either. Here are a few organizations that I believe are trying to do the right thing :
Fedco
High Mowing Seeds
Seed Savers Exchange
Victory Seeds
among others...here is a long list from ATTRA http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/altseed_db_results.php?Class=3&resultpage=1&SearchBtn=Go

Start a business.

I think it is officially the slowest time of year around here…the statistics are a bit skewed because “The Blizzard of ‘08” pretty much brought all of our work to a grinding halt for two weeks. Now the snow from has melted and it is raining again. Raining just enough so that there are avalanches in the mountains and floods in the valleys. I am starting to disagree that global warming is making our weather unpredictable. It is just a matter of getting used to the new pattern: one disaster after another.

I am attempting to take advantage of the relative quiet and follow up on some of the mail I have been getting. Like countless others, in the mornings I have no choice but to check my email. Each day there seem to be more and more people contacting us about all things urban farming…One of the most common inquires goes a little something like this…”I live in (insert any city or state in the U.S) and have been thinking about starting a vegetable gardening business. I came across your website and was hoping you could answer a few questions…”

I am taking this as a good sign. I have recently received emails from Tennessee, Texas, Florida, Massachusetts, Missouri, and California, among others. On the chance that someone out there is reading this blog and thinking, “How fine and dandy this guy has time to write his inane blog but the good lord knows he never answered any of my emails!” I apologize tremendously. The main issue is that (as shown in recently published reports) too many hours in front of the computer can lead to dangerous conditions such as “Rapid Callus Loss and “Clean Fingernails”. Writing any more than 4 emails at a time can send me off the edge into an uncontrolled compost-shoveling binge. As we all know, the only thing you have is your health (that and a 'Meyer Improved Lemon' Tree).

That being said, I am continually inspired to hear that so many people are interested in the same issues as we are. I only hope that I can offer some help. The only real thing that I can usually tell people is: it is working in Seattle. The community of people here are so great and supportive of sustainable agriculture projects that I can only hope that a similar sentiment is burgeoning elsewhere. I don’t know much, but I do know that many people out there want to know more about “where their food comes from”. We are finally reaching a point where this subject is more widely discussed in mainstream culture. No longer do you have to own Birkenstocks and beeswax candles to be a vegetable gardener. What reasons do people give for their new interest in this subject? There are as many responses as there are people, but I can tell you this, these are the two authors that people have usually been reading before calling us: Michael Pollan who wrote "Omnivore's Dilemma" and "In Defense of Food" and Barbara Kingsolver who wrote “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle). I suppose it was only a matter of time before people started to realize that they don't really feel that good after eating Cheese Nips and Sierra Mist...

Anyways, the point is, people want to grow their own vegetables, spring is on its way, next week I get to start the first of our seeds, and if you are considering going into the vegetable gardening business, Godspeed…Although maybe not if you live in Seattle (there are enough people getting into this type of thing that we might already be looking at market saturation)

What is with these seeds?

It is the first of the year. This means I am finishing our seed order. Due to our variety choices, the seeds are coming from a few different companies. While choosing seeds can be considered a great way to pass chilly winter days, it can also be considered the scourge of my existence. There are a lot of factors to consider; herein I will attempt to describe one of the inherent difficulties. I will spend the next few minutes nerding out about the differences in seed types because I think it is confusing, hopefully this is a useful thing to talk about…

Hybrid seeds v. Open-pollinated: Generally speaking, most commonly grown vegetable plants have been breed over generations (just like poodles and pot-bellied pigs) to have the traits we find most desirable. For example, plants are bred to taste better, produce more fruits, or show disease resistance. More recently, breeders have begun producing hybrid (F-1) seed that is derived by cross breeding two distinct “pure” genetic lines (more similar to labradoodles and cockapoos). These pure lines have been bred for generations to exhibit one spectacular trait: one of the lines may produce high yields while the other produces a resistance to a common plant disease. The crossing of the two lines creates a plant with both high yields and a resistance to the disease. This has obvious benefits, but it also has certain downsides. The principle case against F-1 hybrid seeds is that they will not “breed true”. This means collected seeds from the plants will not produce a plant similar to their parent. Often these second generation seeds produce plants with little or no vigor. In essence, this means the grower is required to purchase new seed each year.

As an aside, it should be mentioned that hybrids are very different than Genetically Modified plants. GM plants are another story entirely and their creation involves direct manipulation of the plant genes (more similar to Frankendoodles). Genetic engineers can directly insert genes that come from bacteria or animals (Bt corn:) to increase a plant’s vigor. I should mention that we don’t use any GM seeds whatsoever. This will probably have to be discussed later with scientists on hand.

Open-pollinated seeds are those which are able to breed true and produce plants similar to their parents, thus allowing seed saving. It should be noted that cross-pollination between varieties would change the genetic makeup of open-pollinated seeds, leading to changes in subsequent generations. For example, growing Dill’s Atlantic Giant pumpkin and New England Pie Pumpkin in the same garden could lead to a medium sized pumpkin that tastes like tires.
Heirloom plants are simply old-time, open-pollinated varieties. I don’t believe there is a consensus how old a variety must be before it can be considered an heirloom. It is often cited as somewhere between 10,000 and 50 years ago. Heirloom varieties are often considered better tasting than new varieties or hybrids. Keeping heirlooms viable means protecting the bio-diversity of our food crops. If you don’t think this is important, read about the Irish Potato Famine Heirloom varieties are becoming more available. The more people growing these seeds, the better chance of their continued survival (www.seedsaversexchange.org/)

When possible, we chose open-pollinated seeds so the option of seed collecting remains open. Seed collecting is a beautiful thing: it closes the loop on the growth cycle, cuts costs and further connects you to your garden. Starting seeds that I have collected is unequivocally one of my favorite things to do. Some people have very strong feelings against hybrid seed (and dependence on seed companies), many of their sentiments I can share, but there are times that we choose this seed over open-pollinated varieties. Such a situation may arise if we have had terrible trouble with a crop in the past. For example, peppers. Peppers have a difficult time ripening in the cool nights of the pacific northwest. If a hybrid is available that ripens better in cool weather, our options seem to be: stop growing peppers, continue growing peppers that produce no peppers, or try a hybrid. I do think that we should be growing plants that naturally thrive in our local climate, but…these things are complicated. At this point, we have selected open-pollinated (esp. heirloom) varieties when possible, and chosen hybrid seed on selected crops when our past experiences taunted us into submission. Maybe I will have more to say about exactly what we selected this year once the order is totally finished...