Eight Square Metres

Recycling the Kitchen Part II - Building Storage

2009-03-17T14:21:00.007Z

Last week I put together a trough out of my parents' old kitchen for growing potatoes. Today I made a box out of some kitchen press doors so we could have some outdoor storage for gardening paraphernalia on the balcony.

In an apartment, any space-saving measure is a good one. In particular, anything which helps avoid domestic disputes arising from traipsing mud through the living room is a step in the right direction. Hence I thought building a box for storing outdoor things outdoors was a sensible idea.

Ingredients and Equipment

4 cherry wood kitchen press doors
4 short battens and 2 long battens made from maple floorboards
A drill and 1 1/4" wood screws
2 end pieces made from a fifth press door
2 hinges
4 wheels left over from some Ikea purchase

Method

As you can see from the images, the box again was made in a similar fashion to the trough last week, using battens to strengthen the structure and allow for some easier screwing - it was quite tricky to screw the cherry wood directly into cherry wood.

I used some old simple hinges for the door. I'm not sure what the origin of the hinges are but I suspect it was an old press or wardrobe, rather than a door, as they are quite small. I attached the door so it opens downwards with the hinges at the bottom. This meant that I needed some clearance underneath so I attached four wheels we had leftover from some piece of Ikea furniture. This allows the door to open down fully.

To complete the door I screwed a screw into the top and attached the doorknob to it with an elastic band. Not the most exotic solution but it does the trick.

Conclusion

If after making it for 3 hours and with a very sore back someone had asked me whether this a better option than say buying a box for twenty quid, I'm not sure what I would have said. Nonetheless, we have a box now and I'm proud of it. It also looks better aesthetically in my opinion than anything you might buy. Well it definitely has character. We are contemplating painting or stencilling the outside of it but have no concrete plans as of yet.

Getting the Potatoes Down Before St. Patrick's Day

2009-03-12T19:13:00.004Z

They say in Ireland to get yer potatoes in the ground by St. Patrick's Day so I've put down two types of potato in the trough I built a few days ago on the balcony.

I hadn't provided space in the masterplan for the potato trough but was able to squeeze it in opposite the bean trellises.

Chitting

The two potatoes I am planting are pentland javelin, which are first earlies, and charlotte, which are salad potatoes, both courtesy of B&Q. I have been chitting them for the last few weeks. For those not in the know, "chitting" is simply the process of encouraging sprouts to grow from the eyes of the potatoes before actually planting them. I did this by keeping them in egg boxes in the study which is quite a cool room with a medium amount of light.

The charlotte potatoes have blackish sprouts about 2-3 cm long. The javelins have much longer white sprouts - about 6-8cm. I'm not an expert on this but I suspect they are different in color and length as we kept the javelins in the dark for longer before moving them to the study. Since moving them to the windowsill they are now a little greener.

Pentland javelins chitting:

Charlottes chitting:

In order to prevent too dense a growth, I left no more than two sprouts on each potato, slicing off the rest:

The Planting Procedure

Fill trough (bucket, pot, container, tub, barrel etc) about one third full of compost (or leave it 2/3 empty if you are that way inclined)
Place potatoes on top of the compost, spouts facing up. Make sure they are not too close to the side and about 10cm apart.
Cover with compost so the potatoes are now about 5 cm below the surface.
As the sprouts grow, add more compost, analogous to the way that traditional gardeners and farmers "hill" potatoes by building up soil around the plant. This encourages as much potato yield as possible per plant by maximising the length of the plant underground.

More on hilling and harvesting when the time comes - Happy Patrick's Day!

Turning a Kitchen into Potatoes

2009-03-08T19:01:00.008Z

Over the weekend I've been putting my limited DIY skills to the test to construct a trough-type structure for growing potatoes out of some old kitchen presses.

OK so strictly the kitchen isn't literally being turned into potatoes but it is definitely going to help in potato cultivation. My parents have just renovated their kitchen and I was able to salvage some scrap wood from the builders. Prices for large containers can be very high (for a reason which escapes me) so I thought a more recession-proof home-grown solution could do the trick. The idea of having a container made out of solid cherry wood and maple seemed a bit unique to say the least.

Ingredients, Equipment

There were a few things that helped me along the way:

Cheery wood paneling from the kitchen
Some spare maple floorboards from when we put the floor down in the apartment
A drill and 1 1/4" wood screws
A soon-to-be father-in-law with more power tools than Tim the Toolman Taylor and an all-round gift for building things from other things (thanks for the help Nathy!)

In particular, having someone with access to power tools (and who is expert in using them) was a distinct advantage. It's best not to think what would have happened if I had been locked in a shed with the table saw on my own. Or for that matter, what would have happened had I resorted to using the handsaw I bought during the week in Lidl.

Method

Below are the steps used to build the trough. There are some photos at the end of the post for illustration.

Cut out two long sides of the trough about 40cm deep. If necessary, allow side to be comprised of multiple sections.
Cut 4 narrow battens to support the panels, one for each side. The battens should be shorter than the whole side, allowing for the end panels.
Cut the end panels. In our case we made the sides about 4 times the width of the end sections (30cm).
We made the bottom of the trough out of tongue-and-groove floorboards we had and cut them into lengths equal to the with of the end panels.
Screw the battens into each side. I used 5 screws on each. The lower should be be positioned the width of the bottom from the bottom edge such that when the bottom is added, it can be screwed into the batten.
Screw the end pieces into the battens - this makes four screws in each end panel.
I then turned the whole lot upside down and added the sections of floorboard one by one, screwing both ends of each section into the battens.

Conclusion

Overall from an aesthetic, economic and general Ibuiltthatwithmyowntwohands point of view, I'd regard this small construction effort to be a success. It remains to be seen how this stands up to the elements however. Let's just hope no one talks it into coming down.

The whole process, took only an afternoon or so and was relatively painless. It's definitely an approach I hope to use again in the future. I have some more press doors from the kitchen and some hinges so I'm hoping to build a storage box for the balcony next time I get a chance. I'll be sure to post when I do.

Balcony Garden Diagram: The Plan

2009-03-04T17:53:00.008Z

As spring is springing around us it's time to draw up the plan for the coming season on the balcony:

I have colour-coded the containers in the diagram according to depth to give a better impression of the layout. The darker green ones are deeper and the lighter green are shallower. I've taken particular care to get deeper pots for the plants that are more demanding in the root department such as potatoes, tomatoes and peas.

Breaking it down into sections we get:

There are still a few question marks on contentless containers. As well as that, I am planning a number of other plants (namely rhubarb, spring onions, marigolds, sunflower(s?), chamomile, nasturtiums, cherry tomatoes, more carrots and potatoes) which I haven't allocated space for (yet). Some, such as the flowers and spring onions, I am hoping to grow amongst others. In fact, I have just sown spring onions in the centre of the trellised pea shoots, which are looking pretty good by the way:

Some of the other plants can be accommodated either on a high green house shelf or on our (as yet unhung) hanging baskets.

Another feature I am hoping to have on the balcony is table and chairs (a condition of my girlfriend in this whole business). I suppose what's a square metre here or there!

Chili plants: The Pruning Experiment part I

2009-02-23T19:57:00.007Z

Bringing two chili plants together after a 6 month separation shows a remarkable difference in progress. As if to further punish the weaker of the two plants, I pruned it right down to encourage some new growth:

After much googling, forum posting, book reading and general conjecture from asking around, I found that the results were inconclusive. It seems there is too much of an outdoor bias in what has been written online, not catering for us urban gardeners who rely on indoor growing to grow plants wholly inappropriate to our climes.

The two plants started off in the same batch but, as you can see below, are very different in appearance now. The chili plant I moved to the spare room last autumn is much more well endowed in terms of growth, leaves and flowers. I am puzzled as to why this is - answers on a postcard please. As far as i can tell, the spare room is several degrees colder on average and has less light than the main room. Either way, one half of the pair got the pruning treatment today and they will both be kept in the spare room from now on. We will check back in a while to see the results but in the meantime, below is a pictorial history.

Late last summer, first fruit:

Last autumn, just before the winter:

5 minutes ago, pre-pruning. Spare room plant on left, main room on right:

Pruning. Just above the growth node, or so I'm told. Was obviously hoping for a secateurs for Christmas.

Impulse Buying @Newlands Garden Centre

2009-02-15T19:41:00.007Z

I went to a couple of garden centres this morning before the Six Nations to check out what deals for containers were on offer and I came away with a bush and a tree.

I've been asking around about the droopy lettuce seedlings on the GardenWeb and Irish Allotments forums. The general consensus seems to be that it is lack of light that is causing the dearth of enthusiasm. With sun on the balcony only until late afternoon, and their position indoors, perhaps lettuce germination has been a little premature. On the plus side, broccoli, chili and tomato all look good. (Admittedly I've little frame of reference here but at least they stand up on their own.)

In the meantime I thought it would be a good idea to take stock of what's on offer container-wise in the nearby garden centres (doesn't that sound interesting!). In short: Most containers were either too small, too ugly or too expensive but we got some around 25-30cm deep for 12-15 euro each in Woodie's on the Naas rd.

In other more interesting news, I made two dubious purchases at Newlands Garden Centre:

Dubious purchase #1:
5 Raspberry bushes (or more accurately, a bunch of 5 canes/stumps which I am assured will mature into raspberry bushes)
Pros: Raspberries taste nice and are easy to grow.
Cons: Not many people on the the Internet recommend them for container growing. Even then, I'm not sure what to do with the other 4 (stumps on left in photo). Anyone who wants one is welcome to arrange to pick up before I find a home for them elsewhere.

Dubious purchase #2:
1 olive tree
Pros: Olives are nice and the tree is pretty (in the manliest sense of the word).
Con: Olive trees grow in countries where it is frequently 40 degrees Celsius. Our balcony hasn't topped 10 degrees in a while. Indoors is warmer but even then the olive tree needs needs extensive light. We don't even have enough light indoors to enable 5 cm seedlings to stand up straight (see above). The garden centre girl says I needed lemon (citrus?) compost. I ignored this and transplanted into multi-purpose compost. Someone please tell me if this is silly.

Anyway I guess this wouldn't be fun if there were no risks so what's the worst that can happen, right?

Seedlings: Tomatoes, Broccoli, Chilis and Lettuce 9 days in

2009-02-11T22:25:00.009Z

Taking stock of the seeds I planted 9 days ago, already there are varying degrees of progress.

I had a bit of a rookie scare with white mold (which I now know was in fact a fungus) on the lettuce seedlings but thanks to the folks over at the GardenWeb forums my concerns were allayed.

Here is a summary of the current seedling status:

Lettuce

Height: 7 cm
Variability: Significant deviation in angle, colour and height.
Characteristics: Floppy, unenthusiastic, probably jealous of the broccoli.

Broccoli

Height: 7 cm
Variability: Quite consistent.
Characteristics: Upright, sturdy, a good example to the lettuce.

Tomatoes (Harbinger & Cherry)

Height: 5 cm
Variability: Lots. Short, tall, floppy, open, closed. You name it.
Characteristics: Bit of a slow grower but with larger leaves than the others.

Chilies

Height: 0 cm
Variability: None.
Characteristics: Invisible. Maybe check back in a while.

The last chilies I grew had quite a long germination phase so I won't write them off just yet. There are some others I bought from Lidl a few weeks ago that are a little further along, so for the moment - here's some I made earlier (note hint of aforementioned white fungus):

Basil Wars Part II: Lidl vs. Superquinn

2009-02-08T13:28:00.007Z

Though attentions have been turning towards the new season, a rare snowfall in Ireland gives me chance to check in on some indoor growing, in particular the two basil plants from Superquinn and Lidl I have been pitting against each other.

It's now just over ten days since the basil plants were purchased. I've been harvesting them both equally in an effort to maintain an even playing field. I've also made every effort to give them the exact same light, temperature, compost, pot and watering.

Lidl (right in picture): €1.69
Mid to large sized leaves: 34
Price per leaf: €0.05
Bonus marks for: leaves generally are healthy, evenly coloured and not withered

Superquinn (left in picture): €2.99
Mid to large sized leaves: 20
Price per leaf: €0.15
Bonus marks for: plenty of stalks that are self-supporting and not droopy

I was going to compare the two plants in terms of calories per euro but I discovered that basil doesn't actually have any calories rendering such a comparison a bit of a pointless exercise.

It looks like the Lidl basil has edged it so far with 34 medium to large sized leaves. The Superquinn basil with a measly 20 leaves so it has a lot of catching up to do. The Lidl plant might have an unfair advantage as I suspect that it is in fact more than one plant underneath it all. I'll check back in a while to get an update on the competition but knowing my history with basil, the winner of this particular battle will be the one which dies second.

Planning Germination and Photos of Dirt

2009-02-02T11:46:00.013Z

Winter is fizzling away (the snow this morning aside!) so it's time to look at what needs to be germinated in February.

A reliable source informs me that last frost (hereafter: "F-Day") is the first week in April for Ireland and that in Dublin it's a week before that (on account of the sea and concrete). Working backwards from F-Day it would seem that some plants need to be germinated now in order to make it out in time. I went through what I have in my seed arsenal and did a bit of research. My findings about germination and various other tidbits are below. This is all secondary research and not from my own experience so send on any suggestions or corrections!

It now being the start of February means that 6 things need to be done - potatoes, chilies, lettuce, broccoli, peas, tomatoes.

Four of the above require seed trays. The tomatoes are covered in cling film to help retain moisture during germination. The pot on the top left is a mystery to me - girlfriend won't tell me what's in it.

Here are the Charlotte or salad potatoes ready for chitting - this is in the cooler room in the apartment. The egg cartons help the chits, or sprouts, to grow freely while keeping the potato upright. Takes 4-6 weeks.

The trellis for the peas I fashioned out of bamboo. If there are too many shoots, I may supplement the trellis with some taught twine or wire for the shoots to grow up. You have to be careful not to use anything with too big a circumference as the shoots' tendrils are quite small. Apparently.

Sunflower Seeds - Gathering, Cooking, Eating

2009-01-28T18:50:00.007Z

Growing sunflowers have two great advantages. The first is that they are pretty. I don't think anyone will contest that.

The second is that they produce sunflower seeds if pollinated sufficiently. As well as being convenient to eat, they also possess an array of health benefits.

Towards the end of last season, when the head of the sunflower looked decidedly downbeat, we decapitated it and stored the head in newspaper to dry out. (No more personification I promise!) Upon opening the newspaper now, the head is dry and disintegrates allowing the seeds to be picked out easily.

There are a number of ways that the seeds can be used in cooking but my personal favourite is toasting them. The seeds can be toasted under a grill, or even in the oven, but I find the best way to keep an eye on them is to have them in a frying pan on the hob. The main danger is in burning them as the time between toasted and overdone can be very short, depending on the heat.

So, the method is:

Put seeds in dry pan (optional salt, no oil).
Cook on a lowish heat, tossing occasionally to ensure all round toastiness. This usually takes somewhere around 15 minutes, depending on heat.
As soon as seeds are evenly golden, remove from pan.

More ambitious (read: "impatient") people might want to toast on a slightly higher heat though you have to be pretty sharp with getting the seeds off the heat as soon as they are done. The same technique applies to most nuts such as pine, peanut (a legume I know!) and cashew.

After toasting the kernel must be removed from the black and white husk (colour may very for different types). Alternatively, the husk can be removed before toasting. The toasted kernels can then be used for example in salads or stir-fries. Toasting seeds before adding them into another dish helps bring out their flavour. I find that nuts added straight into, say a stir-fry, end up tasting a bit bland. They can also be eaten as a salted snack where the eater removes them from the husk much like a pistachio.

Cheese Making Part I: Mozzarella

2009-01-25T22:00:00.010Z

Having procrastinated cheese making for a while, I got cracking on it today and have a great batch of homemade mozzarella to show for it.

I followed the recipe from Home Cheese Making for "30 minute mozzarella". I used pasteurized (but not ultra-pasteurized) homogenized milk, almost 4 litres of it. I didn't have any powdered citric acid so I substituted the juice of 3 lemons - which came to about 120ml or one half cup. The rennet was one I ordered from Moorlands Cheesemakers.

The Cliffs Notes for the method are:

1) Sterilize equipment

2) Mix lemon juice and and milk

3) Heat and add rennet solution

4) Heat more and then cool

5) Drain whey, knead, heat and repeat

6) Eat or store refrigerated in whey.

I found the whole process relatively straightforward. Being a cheese making virgin, I reckon I was a little too careful and overcautious at some stages but I would say you could definitely do it under the 30 minute barrier.

Other than a thermometer, there is no equipment out of the ordinary required so the only real expense is the ingredients. Disregarding the rennet (one bottle goes a long way), the only ingredients needed are milk and lemons. From the batch I made today, I would say that the juice of one lemon (or maybe less) and 1 litre of milk would produce one supermarket ball of mozzarella.

My parents are coming over for dinner on Wednesday so I hope they are looking forward to mozzarella and tomatoes to start, mozzarella-topped lasagna for main and then mozzarella ice cream for dessert. Well, two out of three ain't bad.

Below are some photos of the process. And here are some more.

Overwintering Tarragon and Chilis

2009-01-23T00:16:00.011Z

It always seems a bit over-wintry generally here in Ireland. However, in gardening terms overwintering plants correctly can maximize their performance the following season.

At the start of last December, I saved much of the tarragon by freezing it in ice cubes. Shortly afterwards, the tarragon went brown and died down. I then removed all parts of the plant from about 2-3 cm above the soil level upwards and left the plants be for the holiday season. Upon checking them this week I noticed some very promising new growth which you can see here:

I also spent a considerable amount of time figuring out the best POA for the chili plants. They produced many chilis during late summer and august but have been quiet since it got colder and darker.

Many pages on the Internet suggest a hardcore pruning procedure and a hardening off phase before first frost. We are now considerably past first frost (and subsequent frosts) and I hadn't done that and was concerned. I posted on the irishallotments.net forums and got some helpful tips.

Further reading on the Internet led me to the conclusion that:

If possible, bring chili plant indoors (if not already) and let it lie low for a while. Water every fortnight, fertilize monthly and don't mind leaves dropping off because the pepper species are tough nuts and are just shedding excess while dormant.
If leaving outside or in a potentially cold porch or greenhouse, do the pruning thing. Pruning the roots in this case seems like a trendy thing to do too.

Seeing as mine are indoors all year round I don't have to do anything to overwinter them - suits me fine! Coming closer to the warm(er) seasons I will probably repot the plants though with some fresh compost.

Lidl Vs. Superquinn - and they're off!

2009-01-20T22:08:00.004Z

Having forgotten my conclusion after the last basil batch withered away I invested in a new basil plant while picking up some meat in Superquinn yesterday. Upon heading to Lidl, I then found a basil plant 43% cheaper so I couldn't resist:

Lidl: €1.69

Superquinn: €2.99

Over the next while I'll keep an eye on them and post here with updates. I'm not sure where the wise money is yet!

Lidl's offering:

... and Superquinn's entry - I was particularly encouraged by the disclaimer "will last up to 3 weeks if watered":

and together for comparison:

I've transplanted them each now into 5 inch pots each (as much as it pains me to use the imperial system!) so no supermarket will have an unfair advantage.

The New Scientist - Thermostats and Eight Square Metres

2009-01-18T17:29:00.008Z

I've been reading the latest set of reader question published by the New Scientist, "Do Polar Bears Get Lonely". It's quite good. In fact, it's seriously hindering my reading of "The Omnivore's Dilemma", another Christmas present, which has much smaller writing and is thus less inviting.

The reason I bring that up here is that a couple of questions were close to home. The first was to do with fridge thermostats, something I have mused about before. It would appear that most fridges have very much a ballpark type of themostat philosophy, rather than a precise temperature control. Presumably, this is why we have numbers rather than degrees on the thermostat knob by the light in the fridge. When the fridge gets too warm, the fridge motor kicks in and cools it to too cold to maximize the amount of time that the fridge can be somewhere between too cold and too warm, slowly rising in temperature. This is much more efficient than kicking in at shorter intervals. The question the reader had was why his temperature in the fridge was so cold. What had been happening was that the environment outside the fridge was so cold that it was getting stuck in the too cold stage and not able to heat up. My cheese making fridge is in a room with no ventilation beside a gas boiler so I reckon I'll be able to sidestep that pitfall.

The second question I found, I couldn't believe when I read it - (paraphrasing) "Can you feed a family of four for a year with food grown on eight square metres of land?". Admittedly they had in mind a more allotment style eight metres than a container / balcony package. While not directly answered, it seems that for a good portion of the year you should be comfortably able to get away without buying vegetables. If you take freezing into account, you should be able to do vegetables for a full year. Seems reasonable! It's also definitely compatible with contemporary thrift trends.

While I always maintained that I wanted to do this as a hobby rather than an excercise in sustainability, there is definitely part of me that wants to examine the efficiency of urban gardening - what can maximize the space to calorie ratio. To that end I hope to be realistic about trying to get a reasonably high yield out of such a small space. As long as eating a hundred bowls of carrot soup of the course of the year doesn't get to me, I'm very much looking forward to it.

I hope to get some time to get cracking on the cheese making this week. My current concern is how far I will get with homogenized milk. Any suggestions for where I might be able to pick up some unhomogenized milk in the Dublin area are welcome!

Cheese: A Fridge Too Far?

2008-12-17T20:45:00.010Z

So the lettuce seedlings died, and the salad leaves and kale survived. I use the term 'survived' loosely as the kale was just banished to the balcony by my cohabiter where they will presumably perish. I would have put them in the greenhouse only the outside parsley is streets ahead of the greenhouse parsley so I'm favouring the outside at the moment. Either way, maybe the dead of winter is not the time to concern oneself emotionally with cultivating leafy green vegetables.

In the meantime, I thought it was about time to embark on the next folly: cheese. After much lofty ambitions of fashioning cheese making tools out of things laying around my general living area, I sold out and bought a cheese making kit online. not wanting to quite relinquish all of my stubbornness, I aim to make soft mold-ripened cheese only. For those that don't know, these cheeses are generally about a 6 to 8 out of 10 in terms of amateur cheese making difficulty. They also happen to be my favourite.

The reason the type of cheese is important for this post is that part of the soft cheese making process involves keeping the cheese at a constant temperature and humidity for a significant period of time (think weeks and months rather than days). Humidity can be controlled to a certain extent through the addition of, well, water to make a space more humid and some kind of material which soaks the water out of the air (salt for example) to reduce humidity.

Temperature is a little more tricky. The ideal temperature for soft cheese making is about 7/8 Degrees Celsius. Any less and the bacteria won't grow, any more and the bacteria will grow, but alongside other unwanted bacteria. This is higher than most kitchen fridges which are about 4 Degrees. To be honest, purposefully cultivating bacteria amongst the vegetables didn't seem intuitively like the smartest thing to do anyway. I decided I needed a second, smaller fridge. I didn't really want a tiny AC one and the under-counter bar-style fridges were a little pricey. I turned my attention to a Freecycle website and managed to rescue a fine big fridge from a landfill-shaped destiny.

It smells a bit odd and is the last thing we need in our 60 square metres, but I managed (somehow) to get this past the committee in my particular apartment and now it sits next to the boiler in the utility room.

It has a a thermostat knob like most not-too-fancy fridges which goes from 1-5, but no indication of what temperature these settings might represent. I used a resistance thermometer to measure the temperature at three different shelves, for five thermostat settings.

While there is an obvious downward trend in the higher thermostat settings (as you'd expect), the readings weren't as consistent as I was expecting. I did a second experiment where I took a single spot close to what I guessed would be good for cheese and measured it a number of different times. I have also recorded the times associated with these measurements, but they were not on the same day or at regular intervals. (hey this isn't work - cheese making isn't a precise science, right?)

There is a much bigger deviation than I would have expected taking a single spot and a single thermostat setting. Perhaps the fridge is being effected by the hot water in the house - it's right next to the boiler after all - and it can't keep up with the external temperature changes. Maybe the external temperatures don't matter at all and the thermostat is just not able to regulate temperature in any consistent manner. That would seem to be good grounds to give away a fridge on Freecycle!

I'm still a bit puzzled but let's hope that it will do the trick for the moment. Next challenge is to build up the courage to actually make the cheese and unbox that kit that has been sitting on a shelf for the last two weeks.

Growing in Social Housing

2008-12-04T11:50:00.005Z

OK, so I've clocked the kale growing at 0.00kph. It might be time for a bit of a diversion...

There was a not-too-pretty block of social housing in Dublin, not too far from Stephen's Green which has recently been replaced with more modern and sustainable social housing. Interesting to urban farmers is to note the consideration given to growing plants in the world of apartments and duplexes.

These blocks include:

Rainwater collection for watering plants
Glazed shutters on balconies which turns them into winter gardens
Built-in Scandinavian-style planters on the balconies
Fruit trees in common areas

As with all innovations in housing there are a number of things to consider, not least the relative cost of installing such measures which may or may not be used. So whether this is a useful and/or cost-effective thing to do remains to be seen.

From what I can see, none of the items mentioned above are be too expensive, so that begs the question as to why we don't see similar features in developments for more affluent sections of society.

For me one of the incentives to grow herbs and other food is to save money, selfish as that may be. Yet, I feel that this aspect is often sidelined in favour or more purist notions - carbon footprint, supporting local produce, organic food, etc. I wonder is there a correlation between personal finance and willingness to produce one's own food. If there were, perhaps starting with families and sections of society who can greatly benefit from economising their food budget is a good way to go.

Winter Defiance II - Transplant Op

2008-11-26T19:19:00.007Z

After a week away in chilly Washington DC, the balcony seems positively quite balmy. The plants disagree. With little growth or progress, I decided I might try a bit of transplanting to help their cause.

Kale on right (85% sure):

Without too much compost reserves, I decided to reuse the ex sunflower and salad leaves containers. The back of the seed packets said transplant lettuces 12" apart and the kale 9" apart. I used some liberal mathematics and round this down to 6" apart (15 cm - let's be progressive here). I kept the seedlings that I didn't transplant as insurance as usual.

Kale post-transplant:

Three lettuces transplanted:

The lettuce has held up not quite as well as the kale. Also, note the old stems of the sunflowers. A smarter gardener might have removed them completely. Oh well!

Again, pushing the boundaries of what is permissible in the confines of our apartment, the transplants are going to be kept inside for a while at least. The soil was very cold and that seemed like something that wouldn't be good for the tiny guys in a new home. That's the last time I personify the plants, honest.

The corn salad leaves are doing quite poorly so I left them alone for the moment. Hopefully they will sort themselves out. They are on the balcony in the other room so they are easier to ignore:

Similarly, the oregano isn't looking too hot but I did thin out the 50 or so seedlings down to 7. Maybe it's just a slow grower, right?

Pre-thinning:

and post... meagre pickings!

All in all, everything is going very slowly, but I guess that is to be expected heading into winter. Hopefully at least some of these transplants will work and I can move them outside or into the greenhouse.

Either way, I made provision for such a situation, which is why I am prepared to shift focus for the winter months to cheese-making. The kit arrived today so hopefully I will have my first lash at it soon!

Thinning without gyming

2008-11-10T22:51:00.007Z

After reading a lot of blogs and online articles, I'm not convinced my winter defiance plan is going to work but I have resolved to soldier on regardless. This evening I thinned out the kale and lettuce and they seem fine. 2 inches seems like a good return for a week and a bit. I aimed for about two seedlings per 3/4 cm squared. I am not going to transplant all that is left but that's for another day.

At the weekend, I hit another couple of garden centres (Atlantic in Blanch and one on the N3) and came away with a big pot and oregano seeds. I have two big outdoor pots now I can transplant into outside. The only problem is transporting the compost for the big pots to the apartment. I brought up 100 litres at the weekend only to have pointed out at the apartment that I had bought soil enricher by mistake. Hopefully I can work a half and half mixture with the compost when it comes down to it.

I don't like oregano much as I think it makes everything taste like pizza. One thing I do hear time and time again is that it is better dried so it might make for an interesting herb drying challenge. I think it might be nice to have a bunch of oregano drying on the dresser in the kitchen though there are probably shedding and mould issues I haven't considered. One thing of note is that the oregano seeds were very small. I put in a tiny amount in a pot which may have been about 50-100 seeds for all I know. I wanted to put in about 10 seeds but I couldn't psychologically trust that that many seeds would do they trick. Hey if I don't make these mistakes I will never learn right?

Before thinning, lettuce on left (I think, hope!)

After:

Winter Defiance! (1st attempt)

2008-11-04T23:17:00.014Z

OK, so maybe my efforts to Florence Nightingale the basils in the window box were slightly misguided. I decided to let my sensibility govern my stubbornness (for once) and removed all of the basil from the ground up. Leaving the roots intact adds needed nitrogen to the soil. Or so I read somewhere.

Not wanting to let the cold spat get the better of me (stubbornness slowly kicking in again), I scoured Newland's Cross for packets of seeds that suggested the contents were not a stranger to the colder seasons. I picked up:

Kale - big demand for this in our apartment. Kale Dwarf Green Curled to be precise. "Hardy" apparently.

Corn Salad Cavallo - some kind of "winter" salad leaves.

Lettuce - "Sow at any time of year". I'll be the judge of that.

In order to find a home for the Kale and Lettuce seeds, at least for their infancy, I fashioned a mobile seed tray box. It consists of two seed trays on some waterproof plastic (bin liner) raised inside a cardboard box. I thought it wise to go for a transportable solution so during you'returningourapartmentintoafarm type disputes it would facilitate rapid retreat to the other room or the greenhouse outside. Our living room has been still getting a good deal of sun and regularly hitting 20+ degrees Celsius in the evening, despite the weather. At the moment the seed trays are occupying pride of place by the window. Let's see how long that lasts.

In the other room, I planted the corn salad leaves where the basil used to be. I only covered the left half the window box with the aim being to populate the right half in a few weeks and ensure some kind of continuous harvest. I expect "harvest" might be a little ambitious for what happens but ah sure we'll see anyway. Updates due in a few weeks when we have to look at thinning and then transplanting.

Incidentally, I had a quick look on google and Wikipedia there and am still none the wiser as to why it is called "corn" salad. Answers on a postcard please.

Rescuing basil and tarragon by warming, cooling

2008-10-28T19:38:00.007Z

I am very cold tonight. And this isn't just the usual me complaining about the guy in the office who keeps the air conditioning on too cold either (he wasn't in today). This is really cold.

The greenhouse seems to have helped some of the plants, particularly the parsley which looks quite lively. I'm not sure the salad leaves will ever recover from the hurricane last week, but there are definitely about 10 leaves that are still growing. Let's be positive here.

I figured the two to rescue were the tarragon and the basil. Basil is native to Iran and India so while -2 degrees Celsius on my balcony can't quite replicate that, I decided the closest I could get was the window sill in the second bedroom/music room/den/study/computer room (the room title is still under intense negotiation since the move). I'm not going to lie, they don't look great. Hopefully I can nurture them back to something better. Although in their defense, I did pillage them for leaves very recently.

The tarragon's stems are quite sturdy so it is definitely surviving. The leaves however are a little bit discoloured in places and very limp. I had been reading that I should have been taking the top 10cm or so off the tarragon regularly enough. I blame the lack of recipes. It should die down in winter anyway, although you can split the roots and plant a root cluster inside for new shoots in the winter. I just might do that. Not today though.

I decided to take the ends of the tarragon as it is to at least conserve the considerable growth there. Apparently drying leads to mold so I resolved to freeze them.

I have heard of this done before for basil and people wondering what to do with all their basil when they don't want to make 2 pints of pesto. (luckily I don't have this problem)

I followed method two on about.com. They use seven steps but it boils down (figuratively) to this:

Freeze chopped tarragon in an ice cube tray, half filled with water.

When frozen, top up with water and freeze again.

The half filling is to stop the tarragon floating to the top you see. This holds for any non woody leafy vegetable so it's good to know and I might do it in the future with basil or parsley. It's undergoing freezer stage one as I type and I've included some photos of the process so far below:

We're not in Kansas any more, Toto

2008-10-20T23:09:00.006+01:00

Despite many years of physics education, I feel beaten by two principles of the physical world: (i) the higher the centre of gravity of an object, the easier something will fall over and (ii) a force is proportional to the area to which it is applied. Last Saturday night (possibly Sunday morning, it was a lazy one) the greenhouse became the object in question, the force was the wind and the area to which it was applied was the greenhouse plastic cover. The result was herb carnage:

Pretty much all of the soil and plants had found their way out of the pots. I have since put it all back together again, as much as a plant jigsaw can be put back together. I reconstructed the greenhouse and migrated it to a (hopefully) more sheltered part of the balcony, the north western corner. At the sacrifice of a bit of sunshine, I have moved some of the heavier pots to the bottom to lower the centre of gravity a bit.

The chilly hours and minutes of uncertainty

2008-10-16T20:45:00.007+01:00

Seeing as our summer was so cold, I figured it would be prudent to get kitted out for the impending winter. I decided that in order to enable survival for my plants over the winter month they would need some kind of protection from the frost and cold.

There is an apartment around the corner with a small plastic plant covering type thing which got me thinking. After a few searches on eBay, I decided I needed to own a multi-tier mini greenhouse. And a few days later I did - for the reasonable price (I think - no frame of reference here!) of about fifty quid (Euro).

While watching Ireland triumph over Cyprus last night I decided to go ahead and set it up. There were no instructions but, through a process of going by the picture on the box and winging it, it all fell into place in the end.

As regards the plants, I decided what was to go in based on one part instinct, one part book learnin' and one part observation of which were doing badly in the cold so far. Those that made the cut were: salad leaves, parsley, basil and some small chili plants I didn't transplant. The woodier plants like rosemary, bay and thyme should be OK out in the elements. That's the plan anyway.

I've included a few photos of the greenhouse construction below (admittedly I may be making it sound marginally more arduous than it was!). By the time next spring rolls (yum) around I hope to have a some loftier plans for the greenhouse.

Balcony Garden (beta)

2008-10-06T23:13:00.015+01:00

Back in May when I started this lark, I guessed it would be too late to make a large scale effort to grow my own food in 2008. It was going to be June before I'd be settled in the apartment - a quick Google confirmed my suspicion that that would be too late in the day to set the ball rolling. Well that and I hadn't a notion what I was doing.

So I decided to create a beta version of the garden this year. By growing a few herbs I hoped to have at least something I could use in cooking and at the same time I could check how rubbish I was at gardening and get a feel for whether the balcony was up to it space, light and temperature wise. That was the plan anyway.

Most of the plants I grew were herbs and were grown from seeds planted around the start of May before we moved in. In retrospect it seems like I might have done better had I started a bit earlier but the results in general are encouraging.

For all the herbs, the key seemed to be finding balance between watering regularly but not waterlogging (not always possible in an Irish summer). The only other care needed was to remove dead vegetation (attracts insects) and to remove flowers. For herbs, flower production means the plant is diverting energy away from its leaf production. I also used an NPK fertilizer (I used a general purpose Miracle Gro) every 3 weeks. This is necessary as the nutrients required are not present in the compost like they might be in soil in the ground.

Here's a round up of this year's outdoor crop:

Rosemary

Rosemary is quite a woody one so it's a slow grower. All my seedlings seemed to grow at a very different rate so when transplanting so I kept trying to just keep the best ones. There is one really good one now (the one on the left) which I may just keep when it gets big enough. Recently in Crete I saw a rosemary bush about the size of the balcony so how hard could it be right?

Thyme

Thyme seems to grow like a bit of a weed. This might be a problem for some people but it's not a problem when it's in a box. An honourable mention goes to the thyme plant that recently passed away after my girlfriend accidentally pour acid on it (more on this another time).

Basil

The main characteristics of basil seem to be that it attracts flies, always complains about something and eventually dies. If you water it too much, this encourages the roots to rot, which in turn encourages insects. If you don't water enough it just looks withered. The important balance is to make sure it is completely dried out by the time you water again.

With all the herbs I kept backups when I transplanted from seed trays into proper containers. I'm currently on my third batch of basil (first two R.I.P. - thirst and flies respectively) and with the winter setting in, my hopes aren't high. Nonetheless, we had plenty of basil over the summer so a success of sorts!

Tarragon

Tarragon is ridiculously easy to grow. After a few weeks it was 3-4 times the height of everything else and as you can see is still overflowing the container. Unfortunately, it's not the most versatile and I'm not too sure what to do with it if you don't want a dish based on cream or butter. I did try to make a Bearnaise sauce for guests once. It was a success until I left it to heat up unsupervised before serving and it separated. Lesson learned - always keep a garlic butter backup.

Chives

Chives grow a bit like grass so really very straightforward. It's not in a pot with drainage holes on the bottom at the moment. This is definitely not something the girls approve of. Though every time I think of transplanting, it just seems easier to drill holes in the bottom of the current pot. Then I get worried about cracking the pot and vow to come back to it. The chives aren't complaining anyway.

Garlic

Looking for something quick and dirty in the book when I first got it I came across the idea of growing green garlic. It's very easy - just pop a clove in dirt and grow. The leaves look a bit like spring onions but taste of garlic. The garlic flavour isn't as sharp as a raw garlic clove so it's great for salads and sandwiches and that kind of thing. You can cut it off and it grows again (cutandcomeagain I hear it's called in the biz) so no need to replant.

Sunflowers

Good fun growing these though I don't think they pollinated as we had no seeds. No pictures though - bad blogger / slap on the wrist!

Parsley

Parsley is easy though it is beginning to wain now it is getting a little colder. Every time I use it to garnish it makes meals look like something from a 1950's cookbook.

Lavender

Well I think it looks and smells pretty, even if everyone I've said it to looks at me funny (funnier than usual when I'm going on to them about my plants anyway). In the garden centre I bought the ugly ducking lavender as it was the last one left. Hopefully it'll improve.

Salad Leaves

This was a late edition and I have been regularly using it in salads and sandwiches. What's worrying though is that you need a seriously large amount of leaves for a salad. We have a a full container and it still looks a bit empty when I take one meals worth. At least it's a cutandcomeagainer.

Cumin (R.I.P.)

In short, cumin is not really made for and Irish climate. It grew a little bit and then gave up. It's one of those herbs that tastes just as good dried so I think I can manage by continuing to pick up the massive bag of it in the Asian shop for 2 Euro.

Coriander

Coriander is an interesting one - I grows leaves that look like coriander leaves and then it grows leaves that don't look like coriander leaves followed by flowers and seeds. This second stage is called bolting apparently and some go to all lengths to avoid it. For the amount of leaves and seeds you get I don't think I can recommend it for home growing. I think the main way the coriander served us was just to confirm how little we actually like fresh coriander.

The next thing to do is figure out what is going to survive and what isn't going to survive the winter and how. I'm encouraged by this summer's experience - it actually turned out better than I was expecting. A few of the results did highlight the huge variety in yield for different plants in the same area. It's going to take careful planning to get the most out of it next year

Two ladies and some home truths

2008-09-16T23:59:00.003+01:00

After extensive searching, I eventually settled on The Bountiful Container as my bible of sorts. The Internet is good for obscure information or some quick fixes but for this I figured that a more authoritative source was required. As usual, I cross-referenced the amazon.co.uk reviews with the amazon.com reviews, and, once I was happy, bought it on play.com. In particular, I was encouraged by the reviews which said that, although the book reflected a slight North American bias, the authors were sure to cater for varying climates and spacial logistics.

And they do. There is advice for everything from people with very low levels of sunlight to what do if all you have is a fire escape or a window sill. After reading about people with only a fire escape, I felt particularly well-endowed / fortunate / spoilt for choice with just over eight square metres.

I was a little apprehensive upon seeing the photograph of Rose Mare Nichols McGee and Maggie Stuckey on the front cover as they didn't seem to come from any demographic that I had related to extensively in the past. Perhaps our shared interest in non-garden gardening would get us through. After the first chapter though my fears were allayed as they demonstrated a very level-headed and friendly approach to explaining basic principles and intricacies of container growing alike. They have no problem with delving out some frank truths and are definitely not short of imagination or creativity in pushing what is possible. Throughout the book they state realistic expectations of yield, sun and space requirements and time to harvest. Oh, and they don't mind justifying what they say using science. Good good.

Having said all that, I did skip bits of the book about colour co-ordination and edible flowers. Well I can't change that much can I?

So the first thing to learn seems to be the principle differences between container gardening and "traditional gardens" (Rose Marie and Maggie's term for in-the-ground gardening). A few of the main ones seem to be:

1) With container gardening, pests, weeds and disease are less of a problem. This is most definitely a good thing.
2) It is easier to control what comprises the soil mixture in a container. Tradition gardens require "hours of extremely difficult physical labour" to achieve this according to our two experts. Exaggeration or not, it sounds like something I can gladly do without.
3) Watering containers is more awkward as in hot weather plants may need to be watered at least daily. This obviously doesn't apply to Ireland.
4) Some plants just aren't really suitable for containers. Watermelons and marrows will have to wait. Apples are possible, but not likely.
5) Space considerations force you to consider carefully your planting decisions. No room for the hit and hope variety of gardening here where you try everything and see what works, it seems this will call for something more careful and methodical.

Something tells me that me and the girls are going to get along just fine and that the meticulous bout of planning ahead should be fairly manageable given my obsessive tendencies.

Urban Farming? Micro Gardening?

2008-08-27T14:40:00.007+01:00

Who knows what the correct term is! I just came across this on Wired.

As this is Wired, I guess you have to learn to expect such techie references as "Aeroponics" and "Aquaponics". Nonetheless, it seems indicative of an ongoing trend towards more and more people utilizing allotments and container gardens for genuine sources of food. To me, it seems that there are a number of reasons for this:

1) Hubbub about food miles, CO2 emissions from food production.
2) Cooking trends towards simpler and more local food produce. Also, anyone who has watched Ramsay/Oliver/Fearnley-Whittingstall will know, sticking to local seasonal produce is very much healthy, fashionable, OK, nice-tasting, good for economy... all those kinds of things.
3) People are becoming more liberal visually in what they perceive as good food.
4) Thriftiness in context of recession this and economic downturn the other

Having talked to a number of people about this recently, it is interesting to hear how many people like the idea of unnaturally shiny apples or straight carrots. I have never given it much thought before, but I guess it makes sense for our instincts to kick in when we see a familiar food type which looks a little deformed compared to what we are used to, making us just a little reluctant to stray from the homogeneous large-scale produce we see in supermarkets.

For me, the main reason I wanted to grow food, was to enjoy fresh and flavoursome ingredients for cooking and maybe save some money along the way. Being an engineer-cum-scientist by trade, the logistic challenges and theory behind it attract me too. Being confined to an urban apartment ensures significantly more obstacles than having half an acre out back. I am however confident that over the next season and beyond I can demonstrate what is possible with a couple of window sills and an eight square metre balcony.