The Importance of Experimentation in Gardening + DIY Lemon Balm Cleaner

I'm admittedly picky at times. I'm not always a try-er of the newest things. However, I think experimenting, testing, and "giving things a try" is really important to continued success in the garden.

Our gardens are affected by so many factors- pests, weather, water and soil conditons.. as gardeners we have to be ready and willing to adapt, change our plans, and accept the results that nature gives us.



I've been reading Founding Gardeners (which is a great book, btw) and thinking about experimentation and observation. Jefferson, Washington, Adams, Madison and Franklin all had very high regard for the role of trials and experiments in the garden, and devoted whole sections of their land and gardens to that very purpose. This has gotten me thinking about all the little ways I've experimented in my garden over the few years of its life.



Lemon balm in my garden

 Almost every "experiement" I've done in the garden or in the kitchen has probably been done before many different ways, but I still think there's merit in trying things for oneself. Most of my awesome projects; concrete block raised beds, my DIY 5 gallon bucket Root Cellars, homemade Vanilla Extract- those were all "experiments" or trials that I got an idea to do, and did!

Sometimes the idea occured to me first, sometimes I was looking for a solution for a problem and found ideas that I figured I could try out. Either way, because of the room I've given myself to try these things, I now have products and advantages I wouldn't have otherwise; an awesome urban garden with extra space for herbs, a successful way to store carrots and potatoes right up until late spring, and high-quality, low-cost vanilla extract!

An experiment I just stumbled upon recently is this Lemon balm drying project that I wanted to try out.

DIY Lemon balm Cleaner

I planted Lemon balm this year, with no real thoughts on how I would actually use in, whether in cooking, medicial or other useage. I was googling how to dry Lemon balm at home, and I saw a few methods- oven drying, a electric dehydator, but one method stuck out in the reading- laying the Lemon balm out on a towel in front of the dehumidifyer- what a creative idea! We already run a dehumidifyer nearly 24/7 in the summer, so why not use the hot air that is getting sucked in to the machine to dry the herbs? Yesterday night I picked some Lemon balm from the garden and laid it out on a kitchen towel. I spread out the towel on top of the ottoman in the basement, and scooted it up in front of the dehuminidifer, as pictured.

When I came down this afternoon to check, less that 24 hours later, look what I found:

Perfect, right?

I thought the leaves would take at least 2 days to dry out! It's taking a lot of restraint not to fling out into my garden and just start harvesting all my herbs to run the same experiment! I do think I'll try drying some Lavendar this way, as well as some bundles of Thyme, as our nice weather draws to a close in late Fall.

Because the Lemon balm dried so nicely, I was already able to start an infusion to make a Lemon balm scented cleaner this evening!

I crushed up the leaves a bit and add them into a bottle of white vinegar (1 cup) in a spray bottle. Supposedly, the leaves can be left in the bottle for few days to infuse, and then I can strain them out and I'll have a great, fresh Lemon balmy scented vinegar. I'll add 2 cups of water to that, and have a great homemade cleaner! As someone who regularly ulses a just vinegar + water mix, I am definitely looking forward to a more pleasant scent- maybe Lavendar or Rosemary scented cleaner will be next on the list?

I'll definitley report out on my facebook page about the results- I have a feeling I might have to try a different preportion of vinegar to water in order to get that lemony-fresh scent I want.

Keep trying things, even if they don't always work out- Our Founding Fathers would applaud your efforts :)

Canning: Apricots in Light Syrup

Have you ever walked past some perfectly ripe fruit and been seized by the urge to can it up? I was seized by that very feeling today, and I went on a canning binge! I was passing by some ripe, juicy-looking apricots and the urge to preserve just hit me, haha :)

I ended up buying about 3 lbs of apricots and canning Apricots in light syrup- a first for me. I usually can peaches this way, which are amazing and probably my favorite home-canned product.

I also realized tonight that I still had some blueberries left over from my canning class this past weekend, and I decided to make Blueberry Jam! It turned into more of a Blueberry Juice for some reason- I think I might need to invest in some fresh pectin. At any rate, I canned Apricots and some type of Blueberry product.

The apricots were easy, by the way. If you're looking for a quick canning project, this is another one to try!
I did a raw pack (rather than a hot pack), which made the process especially quick. If a canning frenzy claims you, here's the recipe (from the Ball Blue Book of Canning):

Apricots in Light Syrup

Supplies needed:

a water bather canner (or a really large pot)

a rack to go inside the canning pot

canning jars- Ball and Kerr are two frequently-used brands

a set of 6 Pint-sized jar lids & bands

canning tongs to grab the hot jars                                                                                  

Between 2 and 2 1/2 lbs apricots

2 1/4 cups sugar

5 1/4 cups water

Directions:

(Raw Pack) Wash apricots. Cut in half and pit; do not peel. Treat to prevent darkening. Pack apricots, cavity side down, into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Make a light syrup by combining the water and the sugar together in a saucepan- heat the mixture to a boil, and stir. Once the mixture is boiling, its ready to pour over the apricots in their jars- ladle the syrup into the jars (a funnel is helpful here) and again, leave 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles (I like to use a chopstick for this purpose) and place the lids and the bands on the top of the jars, and screw on. Process 25 minutes in a boiling water canner (for pints).

Drying & Saving Seeds for Future Planting

Earlier in the month I posted about drying veggies and herbs in the garden for later use. In a similar vein, it's fairly easy to dry lots of different seeds for planting next year if you know how to do it!

Over the past week, I've been starting to harvest and dry seeds from Bell peppers, Cantaloupe, and Kidney and Provider bush beans. I scoop out the seeds from the veggie of choice, rinse them off gently to clear them of all that inner-vegetable juice, and then I spread them out on a kitchen towel to dry for several days.

Make sure there is enough space between each seed so they can dry properly!


When they're dry to the touch, I gather up the seeds, make sure they're separated by type, and then place them in ziploc bags or 8 oz canning jars. Then, they get labeled with a permanent marker, and I store them in the refrigerator for next year! They seem to store quite well that way- I kept pepper seeds (in a plastic bag) and dried beans (in a glass jar) in the fridge over last season and those plants did very nicely this season!

If you're growing beans now and you'd like to save some for drying, here's a tip- let them dry outdoors right on the plant! This year, I planted about 20 kidney beans and 20 provider green beans, all for saving. I just let my bean plants grow throughout the spring and summer- at a certain point they look optimal to harvest for green bean stage, and then they start to get fatter and puffier. Instead of harvesting then, I let about 3/4ths of my crop dry, cutting back on the water I give the plants and eventually not watering them at all.




When the bean pods are beige-white and quite dry to the touch (if you shake them, you should hear rattling inside), they're ready to harvest! Pull the pods from the plant, and you'll have a pile of dried bean pods, like the picture to the left.

Yesterday, I spent 20 relaxing minutes cracking open each pod, and collecting the 2 -5 beans that lay within each one. I ended up with about 100 kidney beans! It's not enough to store as beans for much of anything- really it would only be enough for 1 or 2 winter batches of chilli.

What I'm going to do instead is just save all the kidney beans, as I did last year. Next year, I'll plant all 100 of them in the garden, and have a really big harvest, enough to save as dried beans for future use!




Have you dried and saved any seeds from your garden?  


If so, what was the easiest to save or the most successful plant the next season?

DIY Plant Labels out of Used Canning Lids

Since I am lucky enough to be featured on a local urban garden tour on Saturday, I have been spiffing things upon around the gardens here. Weed-pulling, plant staking- all those fun garden chores that seem to slip past me for weeks at a time! 

One of the projects I tackled today that I'd be meaning to get to for a while is plant labels! I looked at buying plastic or wooden labels, those awesome pinterest spoons, event popsicle sticks, but the idea of purchasing something new to label plants for 3 months just seems a bit wasteful. 

My mom was in town and we were brainstorming creative ways to re-use materials and also create plant labels are functional: Big enough to read, Eye-catching but not an eye-sore, and Tall enough so people don't have to squat down to see them! I'm pretty satisfied with what I ended up with, so I'll share the glory with you!

DIY- Canning Lid Plant Labels

Supplies needed:

Used (already canned-with) Wide Mouth jar lids 
2 pkgs. Floral Cloth Wire 
Duct Tape 

Permanent Marker

Seed Packets for reference 

the internet, to look up latin names if necessary

Directions: (This is real easy, friends!)

• Sort through your seed packets and set out any that you planted in the garden this year on your table, essentially making a list.
• Flip all the lids white-side up and make sure they are clean and blemish free
• On the white-side of each lid write the plant type in large letters straight across the middle of the lid in permanent market
• Write the variety across the top of the lid, in smaller-sized writing. I chose to add quotation marks too.
• Write the latin name of the plant across the bottom of the lid, again in a smaller size
• Once you are finished with the entire pile of lids, get out your floral wire
• Bend each wire in half, leaving a sort of upside-down "U" shape at the top
• Flip all your lids over, careful to set them down so the text is aligned and straight
• Tape a bent floral wire piece to the back of each lid, and press the tape down around the wire so it's secure

Now label up those mystery plants!

Drying and Curing Veggies & Herbs from the Garden

There's lots of things growing in your garden right now (or waiting for you at the Farmers' Market) that you can dry and essentially preserve for use later on in the season. I personally think that is one of the most awesome aspects of growing your own- the ability to have a Winter's supply of some great thing you worked hard to grow! I know, I know- I'm a nerd. While I won't cover all of them in detail, and this isn't an exhaustive list, there's a lot to be saved from the garden come late summer/fall time!

Produce/Herbs that you can Store by Drying:

Almost any herb

Beans

Chamomile blossoms

Cilantro (into Coriander)

Garlic

Onions

Potatoes

Squash

Cilantro

When to Harvest:

You can simply let the plant flower. Little white flower clusters will form, which will soon form seeds. At first, these seeds will be green but then they will slowly dry from green to brown, then they will harden. 

How to Cure/Dry:

The nice thing about cilantro is it's very low-maintenance to dry. When the seeds are dry, you can just pull the whole plant out by the roots, and harvest the seeds from it. 

Long-term Storage:

Put seeds in a glass spice jar or air-tight plastic container. Grind into a powder as needed, and use in asian dishes (or any dishes, for that matter!)

Chamomile

When to Harvest:

The chamomile plant will produce little white flowers with yellow centers- they look sort of like daisies. Plants bloom in mid June-late July. When the petals begin to droop down, time to harvest! Pluck off the individual flower heads and new ones will grow.

How to Cure/Dry:

Spread flowers across on a dry surface in a warm, dry area for 72 hours.

Long-term Storage:

Store in a glass jar, a tin, or an air-tight plastic container. Put a tablespoon of blossoms into a tea bag for chamomile tea any time you desire!

Garlic

When to Harvest:

Garlic plants have corn-like stalks. When stalks start to turn yellow-brown with 5-6 green stalks remaining, it's time to harvest. Grab each plant firmly, near the base of where the plant meets the ground and pull.

How to Cure/Dry:

Garlic needs to cure (dry out) for a week + before it is stored permanently. If you don't have pest problems, harvest your garlic and simply lay it on top of the soil to dry, on your porch, or bring it in and lay it out in your mudroom.

Long-term Storage:

Once the stalks are completely brown and feel like parchment paper, you can cut them down to several inches in length. Garlic needs good air circulation in order to store well. I recommend a wicker basket, or if you only have a few heads of garlic, one of those ceramic garlic containers.

Onions

When to Harvest:

You can harvest onions then the tops/stalks have start to brown and droop towards the ground. (Or if you're impatient, whenever you want, as demonstrated in the picture) The longer you can be patient, the larger the bulbs will be. If you harvest them too early, just use them as a bulb and a green onion too!

How to Cure/Dry:

Lay onions flat out on paper or some other type of dry surface. Onions are like garlic in that they need to cure for several days for optimal storage.

Long-term Storage:

Again, like garlic, onions need good air circulation to prevent them from rotting during storage. A hanging wicker or mesh bag could work well for storage.

Best of luck as you try out some drying/curing at your own home.
I hope the tips are helpful!

Build your own Concrete Block Raised Beds

This will be my 4th year gardening in raised beds, and the 3rd gardening in my indestructible concrete block beds! There are many benefits to raised bed gardening, including looser, better draining soil, mitigated risk from toxic and lethal chemicals sometimes found in urban soil, and the fact that they're a bit easier to reach because they're higher up. 

Gardening in a concrete block garden offers all of these benefits, with the additional perk that concrete blocks will not deteriorate like wood beds will. Especially if you get untreated wood (which doesn't leach chemicals into the soil like treated wood does), you could be looking at replacing your beds in 5-8 years. 

If you are thinking about concrete raised beds for your backyard, let me share some tips and steps to create your own awesome garden:

Step 1: Select your garden site

This is a first step for any garden. In general, if you can find a spot that gets sun or partial sun, that will offer you the greatest options in what you can plant. Other considerations- level terrain, proximity to a water source, visibility, potential for expansion. I chose the left side of my backyard, which faces South & was wide enough for a substantial garden.

Step 2: Purchase concrete blocks

You can get concrete blocks from major home improvement stores, or smaller hardwares. I purchased 150 concrete blocks for $200 off of craigslist, which included delivery. At Lowes, they're listed for $1/block, so if you can borrow a truck from someone, that's a good bet. I liked that I was re-purposing my blocks though, rather than buying new.

Step 3: Install landscape fabric/ place blocks
This is where you can get a little creative! Beds can be 1 or 2 blocks high, and as long as you have space for. I find that 3-4' wide is a good distance, otherwise it gets hard to reach your plants in the middle, and easy reach is a big benefit of raised bed gardening! I chose sort of an "S" shape initially, to maximize the space I had available.

Step 4: Order compost to fill beds

Many cities and municipalities make their own compost from the yard waste they collect- Ypsilanti Township and City of Ann Arbor are two place by me that sell compost. Another good source are local landscaping companies or farms that have their own compost sales option. Here is a pretty standard formula for calculation:  To cover an area of 100 square feet with 3 inches of mulch: 100 square feet x 8 inches deep x 0.0031 = 2.48 cubic yards needed

Step 5: Fill beds with compost & Plant away!
This is a pretty self-explanatory step- once you get the frame of your beds all laid out and make sure the concrete blocks are level, you can fill in with compost! I always fill mine to the top and level them out with a rake- the soil will settle a little bit so be generous. If you have extra soil, you can fill in the concrete block holes as well, and use that space for planting flower, herbs, whatever you'd like!

Step 6: Expand beds so they eventually take over your yard (optional)
As you can see, I started with one square bed that was 4'x8'. Before I had even put in compost, I expanded it to be the larger, "S" shaped bed. The next season, I added the tail on the bottom of the "S", and this season, I've added the additional section that runs the length of the side yard (pictured on right). If you're going to grow potatoes or carrots, you can just add a second layer of blocks on top of that section (like I've done in the picture on the right). It's so easy to expand and customize that I've gone from 32 square feet to about 200 square feet in just a few short years- whoops! ;-)

Whether you start small or have visions of grandeur right from the start, concrete blocks are an affordable, sustainable choice for your yard or garden!