Raised Beds ( take 2 )

Some of you may remember our raised beds from last year. We used discarded pallets, broke them down to individual slats and rebuilt them into raised beds. Overall they worked wonderfully , but the major flaw was that they we a lot of work. It took us nearly two weeks ( on days off and after work ) to assemble 5 beds. This years effort took only about 2 hours to assemble and yielded over 80 square feet of growing area. 

As always we start with pallets.

12 in all, all cut in half.

Using wood screws we begin to piece them together.

It's a surprisingly fast process.

We lined the bottom with tree trimmings that 

would have been heading for the compost otherwise.

add 4 bales of straw 

Break up and spread the straw

Add a layer of compost

Spread to near the edges and make sure it is 6-8 inches deep.

Water thoroughly

Plan and Plant.

The medium of straw and compost has maintained an ideal temperature for growing. Our sprouts are coming up strong and fast. Some seeds ahead of their expected germination. As always we let you know how it progresses. 

Now enjoy this silly video of us ( and the dog helping ) build these beds. 

Are we saving money ?

So, the question popped into my head when I looked into our shopping cart at the plant store last week... "Are we saving money by growing our own vegetables?".
The short answer is no. The long answer is yes.

2012-2013 being the first growing season at +The Littlest Farm we are saving no money at all. We didn't keep detailed records ( which I regret ) but we have spent quite a bit on dirt, compost, seeds, new equipment, etc. Even with all of our re-purposing and reusing ( raised beds of pallets etc. ) there were things that we just had to buy.

We are growing things that when we compare the price of a seed to the price at the supermarket are remarkably cheaper. Tomato is much cheaper to grow at home, as are lettuces and squash and next year when all we are buying is a couple cubic feet of soil booster it will be solid savings.

It's important that all gardeners learn that the investment phase of the garden is crucial. I don't speak only of the investment of money, but the investment of time. A properly planned and maintained garden will bring great amounts of food and enjoyment year after year.

Looking at the above graphic you can see the return on investment ( bottom right corner ) is quite impressive. Add to that the gratification of growing your own food and frankly... who cares if you are saving money.... you are gardening. 

Getting Our Herbs and Flowers Started

It's a lovely day here in the East Bay. We hit around 70 degrees in the hills and with the sun beating down on us we were highly motivated to get some seeds going.

The focus was on herbs and flowers today. Somewhere between 150-200 of them as a matter of fact. We aren't growing 200 different herbs and flowers we are starting that many seeds in hope of a 50% success rate.

Our bag of boxes

You remember how to make seed start boxes right ? 

Fill 'em with dirt

Water & Wait 

* A couple notes that apply to our ever increasing effort to reuse as much as possible. 

The boxes are made from grocery bags and the plant identifiers are made from a cut up milk jug. 

Bean Teepee

We are hoping to build a bean tee-pee to go along with our early planting in February. If you have never had a bean tee-pee they are fun to build, have and eat. You create a great growing area for runner beans and end up with a neat little edible fort and who doesn't love a fort. I might be a technical adult but there is a child inside of me that gets all worked up at the idea of having a fort in the yard.

                                                         photo credit http://lillbutton2.blogspot.com/

Anyway, after a little bit of reading I have seen just how easy it can be to build a bean tee-pee. All you really need is bean seeds or starts, 6 to 8 bamboo or wooden poles each about 6 feet tall and a little wire to bind the whole thing together.
Clear a nice level spot that gets a lot of sun.The size of the circle will vary on the height of the poles ( use your best judgement here ). Once you have your circle set up begin putting out your poles at equal distances around the circle being sure to leave a large enough space in the front to get inside the tee-pee.
Sink each pole about six inches into the soil and lash them together at the top. If it doesn't seem very stable set up support wires horizontally every 2 feet or so ( again being sure to leave yourself room to get inside the tee-pee ).

Once you are set up plant 4 or 5 bean plants per upright and watch it grow.

It is important to ( once your plants have grown ) to harvest inside as much as on the outside to keep your proud structure/fort/trellis from collapsing. 

Enjoy! 

Spring is coming

With spring just around the corner ( some of us closer to the corner than others ) some preparations need to be made. For us, the chief among them is getting our sees started. In a previous post we talked about the mini-greenhouses that we germinate in and briefly mentioned the origami boxes we make for each future plant to start in. Here is how to make those boxes.

We start by cutting up a paper bag into 7 x 7 inch squares ( giving us about 10 squares per bag ). 

Then the folding begins. 

Fold the square twice into a triangle.

Unfold your creased triangle

and turn the corners in.

Fold into thirds lengthwise

Crease and again unfold.

Fold in the corners

Fold up the two sides of the 1/3 fold and 

tuck in the ends.

Tuck in the other end.

There you go !

A 1 3/4 square box perfect for starting seeds indoor or outdoor.

Such a long list...

Dear Santa,
     I know it's ridiculous to complain about the weather in California... but please bring spring. 

Sincerely, The Littlest Farm 


It is ridiculous to complain about the weather here but there is so much work to do and so little time in the day.
Planter Boxes to build.
A new compost bin.
Prepare for Chickens.
Seeds to order.
Set up a new water capture ( which includes installing gutters ).



It can seem really overwhelming at points but damn if it isn't also exciting as all hell.

Immediately after the holidays it's time to get down to serious work. Spring is soon. I'm going to build a workshop - and then start building things in there.

Starting Seeds

It can be a challenge getting seeds to start on any given day and even more of a challenge in the winter.

In our tiny little home we don't have the space to start seeds inside so creative solutions were needed.

Meghan re-purposed an old shower curtain and used some scrap wood leftover from a previous project and built this awesome mini greenhouse.

When we woke up this morning it was 38 degrees outside but it was nice and toasty in our seed started box. The greenhouse has even accelerated germination on some plants. Seeds that were supposed to take 2 weeks to pop out of the ground were peeking little leaves in just a week. It's amazing what you can do with what might otherwise be garbage.