http://www.mychicagogarden.com A little bit of nature in my own backyard Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:31:04 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 en ©Tyler Allison tyler@allisonhouse.com (Tyler Allison) tyler@allisonhouse.com 1440 garden,gardening,farmer,organic,growing,seeds Follow me as we build a garden from scratch and cover topics ranging from planning the garden, building raised beds, picking seeds, harvesting, canning and more. Follow me as we build a garden from scratch and cover topics ranging from planning the garden, building raised beds, picking seeds, harvesting, canning and more. Tyler Allison Tyler Allison tyler@allisonhouse.com No no http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/podcast.jpg http://www.mychicagogarden.com 144 144 http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/21/paso-robles-ca/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/21/paso-robles-ca/#comments Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:31:04 +0000 shozu http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/21/paso-robles-ca/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/21/paso-robles-ca/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/20/ristorante-da-gaetano/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/20/ristorante-da-gaetano/#comments Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:50:12 +0000 shozu http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/20/ristorante-da-gaetano/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/20/ristorante-da-gaetano/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/20/elephant-seals/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/20/elephant-seals/#comments Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:42:42 +0000 shozu http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/20/elephant-seals/ 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http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/17/trail-start/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/16/tuolumne-meadows-lodge/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/16/tuolumne-meadows-lodge/#comments Thu, 17 Jul 2008 02:18:23 +0000 shozu http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/16/tuolumne-meadows-lodge/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/16/tuolumne-meadows-lodge/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/16/permit-station/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/16/permit-station/#comments Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:39:08 +0000 shozu http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/16/permit-station/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/16/permit-station/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/15/ready-to-go/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/15/ready-to-go/#comments Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:13:22 +0000 shozu http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/15/ready-to-go/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/15/ready-to-go/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/09/garden-tour-7908/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/09/garden-tour-7908/#comments Thu, 10 Jul 2008 02:53:26 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/?p=190 http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/09/garden-tour-7908/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/06/18/art-institute-of-chicago/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/06/18/art-institute-of-chicago/#comments Thu, 19 Jun 2008 02:15:19 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/?p=189 http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/06/18/art-institute-of-chicago/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/06/11/cabbage-pest-damage/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/06/11/cabbage-pest-damage/#comments Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:30:27 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/?p=186 http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/06/11/cabbage-pest-damage/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/06/04/storm-chasing-morning-start/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/06/04/storm-chasing-morning-start/#comments Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:27:20 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/?p=185 http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/06/04/storm-chasing-morning-start/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/05/29/in-defense-of-big-box-stores-a-response/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/05/29/in-defense-of-big-box-stores-a-response/#comments Thu, 29 May 2008 21:24:58 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/?p=183 http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/05/29/in-defense-of-big-box-stores-a-response/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/05/26/first-harvest-2008/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/05/26/first-harvest-2008/#comments Tue, 27 May 2008 01:42:24 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/?p=182 http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/05/26/first-harvest-2008/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/05/21/8-soaker-hose-system/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/05/21/8-soaker-hose-system/#comments Thu, 22 May 2008 01:49:52 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/?p=181 http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/05/21/8-soaker-hose-system/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/05/18/trip-report-from-our-first-family-backpacking-trip/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/05/18/trip-report-from-our-first-family-backpacking-trip/#comments Sun, 18 May 2008 23:39:47 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/?p=180 http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/05/18/trip-report-from-our-first-family-backpacking-trip/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/05/15/woodchuck/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/05/15/woodchuck/#comments Fri, 16 May 2008 03:39:54 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/?p=176 http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/05/15/woodchuck/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/05/10/garden-tour-51008/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/05/10/garden-tour-51008/#comments Sun, 11 May 2008 01:02:52 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/?p=175 http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/05/10/garden-tour-51008/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/05/01/compost-gold-mine-found/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/05/01/compost-gold-mine-found/#comments Fri, 02 May 2008 02:36:48 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/?p=172 http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/05/01/compost-gold-mine-found/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/04/30/the-weather-gods-hate-me/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/04/30/the-weather-gods-hate-me/#comments Thu, 01 May 2008 01:13:14 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/?p=171 http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/04/30/the-weather-gods-hate-me/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/04/28/a-couple-questions-answered/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/04/28/a-couple-questions-answered/#comments Tue, 29 Apr 2008 02:17:02 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/?p=170 http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/04/28/a-couple-questions-answered/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/04/20/one-mistake-and-everything-dead/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/04/20/one-mistake-and-everything-dead/#comments Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:46:42 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/?p=169 http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/04/20/one-mistake-and-everything-dead/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/04/12/seedling-update-and-last-frost-of-the-season/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/04/12/seedling-update-and-last-frost-of-the-season/#comments Sun, 13 Apr 2008 01:30:19 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/?p=168 http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/04/12/seedling-update-and-last-frost-of-the-season/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/04/07/its-officially-spring/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/04/07/its-officially-spring/#comments Tue, 08 Apr 2008 04:29:04 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/?p=167 http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/04/07/its-officially-spring/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/04/05/is-it-spring/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/04/05/is-it-spring/#comments Sun, 06 Apr 2008 02:10:22 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/?p=166 http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/04/05/is-it-spring/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/03/14/warm-enough-for-tree-houses-and-woodpeckers/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/03/14/warm-enough-for-tree-houses-and-woodpeckers/#comments Fri, 14 Mar 2008 23:02:48 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/03/14/warm-enough-for-tree-houses-and-woodpeckers/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/03/14/warm-enough-for-tree-houses-and-woodpeckers/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/03/05/hey-its-green-in-here/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/03/05/hey-its-green-in-here/#comments Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:07:33 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/03/05/hey-its-green-in-here/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/03/05/hey-its-green-in-here/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/02/24/seed-planting-has-begun/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/02/24/seed-planting-has-begun/#comments Sun, 24 Feb 2008 20:42:19 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/02/24/seed-planting-has-begun/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/02/24/seed-planting-has-begun/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/02/16/learning-the-harmonica/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/02/16/learning-the-harmonica/#comments Sun, 17 Feb 2008 02:40:15 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/02/16/learning-the-harmonica/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/02/16/learning-the-harmonica/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/02/09/bluegreen-resorts-free-vacation/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/02/09/bluegreen-resorts-free-vacation/#comments Sun, 10 Feb 2008 01:35:31 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/02/09/bluegreen-resorts-free-vacation/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/02/09/bluegreen-resorts-free-vacation/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/02/06/quick-update/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/02/06/quick-update/#comments Wed, 06 Feb 2008 19:53:37 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/02/06/quick-update/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/02/06/quick-update/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/01/13/freezer-bag-cooking/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/01/13/freezer-bag-cooking/#comments Sun, 13 Jan 2008 05:50:32 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/01/13/freezer-bag-cooking/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/01/13/freezer-bag-cooking/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/12/31/2008-begins/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/12/31/2008-begins/#comments Tue, 01 Jan 2008 04:59:52 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/01/01/2008-begins/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/12/31/2008-begins/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/12/21/water-as-a-cold-frame-heat-sink/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/12/21/water-as-a-cold-frame-heat-sink/#comments Fri, 21 Dec 2007 23:25:37 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/12/21/water-as-a-cold-frame-heat-sink/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/12/21/water-as-a-cold-frame-heat-sink/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/12/20/seeds-its-that-time-of-year-again/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/12/20/seeds-its-that-time-of-year-again/#comments Thu, 20 Dec 2007 23:47:31 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/12/20/seeds-its-that-time-of-year-again/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/12/20/seeds-its-that-time-of-year-again/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/12/13/get-out-in-nature/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/12/13/get-out-in-nature/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2007 21:43:39 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/12/13/get-out-in-nature/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/12/13/get-out-in-nature/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/12/05/shadow-casting/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/12/05/shadow-casting/#comments Thu, 06 Dec 2007 00:25:49 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/12/05/shadow-casting/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/12/05/shadow-casting/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/11/22/ever-used-fatwood/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/11/22/ever-used-fatwood/#comments Fri, 23 Nov 2007 01:00:28 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/11/22/ever-used-fatwood/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/11/22/ever-used-fatwood/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/11/18/decided-to-plant-raspberries/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/11/18/decided-to-plant-raspberries/#comments Sun, 18 Nov 2007 05:20:35 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/11/18/decided-to-plant-raspberries/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/11/18/decided-to-plant-raspberries/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/11/04/get-that-emergency-kit-ready/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/11/04/get-that-emergency-kit-ready/#comments Sun, 04 Nov 2007 23:40:13 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/11/04/get-that-emergency-kit-ready/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/11/04/get-that-emergency-kit-ready/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/28/hard-freeze-this-morning/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/28/hard-freeze-this-morning/#comments Mon, 29 Oct 2007 01:39:39 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/28/hard-freeze-this-morning/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/28/hard-freeze-this-morning/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/27/frost-advisory-cover-them-plants/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/27/frost-advisory-cover-them-plants/#comments Sat, 27 Oct 2007 22:40:34 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/27/frost-advisory-cover-them-plants/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/27/frost-advisory-cover-them-plants/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/25/gardenforktv-community/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/25/gardenforktv-community/#comments Fri, 26 Oct 2007 04:20:02 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/25/gardenforktv-community/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/25/gardenforktv-community/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/21/cold-frame-completed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/21/cold-frame-completed/#comments Mon, 22 Oct 2007 00:59:31 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/21/cold-frame-completed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/21/cold-frame-completed/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/18/alternative-to-master-gardener/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/18/alternative-to-master-gardener/#comments Fri, 19 Oct 2007 02:45:10 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/18/alternative-to-master-gardener/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/18/alternative-to-master-gardener/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/13/no-frostyet/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/13/no-frostyet/#comments Sun, 14 Oct 2007 02:49:19 +0000 tyler 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http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/09/23/first-time-for-everything/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/09/22/diary-started/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/09/22/diary-started/#comments Sat, 22 Sep 2007 22:20:48 +0000 tyler http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/09/22/diary-started/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/09/22/diary-started/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/09/05/podcast-discontinued/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/09/05/podcast-discontinued/#comments Wed, 05 Sep 2007 21:00:52 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2007/09/05/podcast-discontinued/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/09/05/podcast-discontinued/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/08/15/presentations-and-compliants/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/08/15/presentations-and-compliants/#comments Thu, 16 Aug 2007 05:24:43 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2007/08/15/presentations-and-compliants/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/08/15/presentations-and-compliants/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/07/29/plantings-for-a-fall-harvest/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/07/29/plantings-for-a-fall-harvest/#comments Mon, 30 Jul 2007 03:27:03 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2007/07/29/plantings-for-a-fall-harvest/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/07/29/plantings-for-a-fall-harvest/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/07/25/episode-13-garden-update/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/07/25/episode-13-garden-update/#comments Thu, 26 Jul 2007 04:18:49 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2007/07/25/episode-13-garden-update/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/07/25/episode-13-garden-update/feed/ 9:37 In this episode I'll give another update on the status of the garden. But before I get into that I had a few people over ... In this episode I'll give another update on the status of the garden. But before I get into that I had a few people over the last month ask me to mention a gardening related event that some of you may be interested in.#160; If you, or your organization, live in the Chicago area and would like me to mention your event on the podcast send an email tyler@mychicagogarden.com. First we have a Garden Sculpture Workshop that is being held at the Chicago Botanical Gardens.#160; It runs for four days from 9am to 3:30pm on Monday August 20th through Thursday August 23rd.#160; It's being run by the award-winning sculptor, DJ Garrity the Sculptor-In-Residence of Mount Rushmore National Memorial.#160; The cost is $599 for members and $720 for non-members. Space is limited, and I'm told that only a few spots are left.#160; You can find a link to the workshop description on the MyChicagoGarden website. And lastly, I got an email from a listener inviting me to attend the Mens Garden Club of Villa Park.#160; Don't let the name fool you though. It's actually open to anyone.#160; They have a club greenhouse, a plant sale every year and various discounts on garden material for members and every meeting they have a guest speaker.#160; Their next meeting is August 25th at 7:30PM.#160; If my schedule will allow it I plan on attending as Villa Park is just a few miles east of Wheaton.#160; Their website is www.homegardening.org. So what has been going on in the garden.#160; I installed two different drip irrigation systems which you can see in a video segment I submitted to gardenfork.tv.#160; A link to the video is up on the MyChicagoGarden website. I know I said Wow in the last episode but I have to say it again.#160; Wow. The sunflowers are over 8 foot tall and the corn has finished producing with a harvest of roughly 30 ears of corn over the last few weeks. All from a 3 foot by 8 foot area.#160; I have also picked 25 good sized cucumbers over the last three weeks with another 10 or so on the vine.#160; I only planted two cucumber plants and I'm over whelmed with produce.#160; I really only need one cucumber plant but I don't like planting just one plant as it means a zero harvest if something happens to it.#160; With two plants you at least have a chance of one surviving.#160; I finally ended up just slicing all of them up and making some refrigerator bread and butter pickles.#160; They turned out to be just about the best I've ever had.#160; I took a jar to work for the guys to try and they agreed.#160; I think I had a good harvest with the cherrie tomatoes I planted but I can't tell.#160; My youngest girl eats all the ripe cherrie tomatoes before I can pick them.#160; I usually see a clump of almost ripe tomatoes and when I come out a few days later they are gone.#160; I've never seen a kid eat so many tomatoes.#160; A few weeks ago I had to remove one of the Borage plants because it simply took over half of the 4ft by 8ft bed.#160; I've also already learned a few things this first season with the square foot gardening method. First off, you need to do more planning that I had expected.#160; I choose the location of each plant based on spacing requirements, companionship with other plants near it, and the casting of shadows.#160; But what I didn't take into account was the trellising plants such as the cucumber not really following the trellis. I probably could have done a better job of threading the new shoots into the trellis but I didn't have the time.#160; By the time I had checked back on the cucumbers they had pretty much covered the couple squares of green beens I had planted.#160; I can see bean leaves in between the cucumber leaves so I know they are there.#160; But I can't get too them!#160; I think for next year I'll plant the vining plants in their own bed. Secondly, I really should have been more strict about my book keeping.#160; I can't remember when I planted my first row of carrots so I ha My,Chicago,Garden Tyler Allison no No http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/07/15/episode-aired-on-gardenforktv/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/07/15/episode-aired-on-gardenforktv/#comments Mon, 16 Jul 2007 02:22:44 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2007/07/15/episode-aired-on-gardenforktv/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/07/15/episode-aired-on-gardenforktv/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/07/07/long-time-no-posts/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/07/07/long-time-no-posts/#comments Sat, 07 Jul 2007 18:32:17 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2007/07/07/long-time-no-posts/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/07/07/long-time-no-posts/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/06/17/garden-bloggers-bloom-day/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/06/17/garden-bloggers-bloom-day/#comments Sun, 17 Jun 2007 22:17:06 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2007/06/17/garden-bloggers-bloom-day/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/06/17/garden-bloggers-bloom-day/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/06/17/episode-12-visiting-a-worm-farm/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/06/17/episode-12-visiting-a-worm-farm/#comments Sun, 17 Jun 2007 21:05:39 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2007/06/17/episode-12-visiting-a-worm-farm/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/06/17/episode-12-visiting-a-worm-farm/feed/ 8:54 The family and I visited a worm farm, actually it's a purpose built garage behind a house in the middle of a sub division. But ... The family and I visited a worm farm, actually it's a purpose built garage behind a house in the middle of a sub division. But the owner can produce 80 tons of worm castings a year and hundreds of thousands of worms.#160; If you have visited a local Ace Hardware store in the last few months you may have seen his video playing or seen a bag of Natures Way organic worm fertilizer for sale. That's him. But first a quick update on the garden.#160; Wow!#160; it's only June and I have corn that is 5 feet tall.#160; Everything is growing like gang busters.#160; The most surprising has been the Borage.#160; I didn't realize just how big it was going to get and it has taken over the center of one of my 4 ft by 8 ft raised beds.#160; The leaves are gigantic, but the flowers are an exquisite shade of blue. More about the garden in the next episode. [...Interview ... ] If you want more information about Natures Way Organics you can visit www.natureswayorganics.com or the MyChicagoGarden website. They even offer a free 1 pound sample. I highly recommend their product and use it in my garden. Oh..I should mention MyChicagoGarden doesn't have sponsors, so that statement has no money behind it. My,Chicago,Garden Tyler Allison no No http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/05/19/episode-11-getting-started-again/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/05/19/episode-11-getting-started-again/#comments Sun, 20 May 2007 03:52:13 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2007/05/19/episode-11-getting-started-again/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/05/19/episode-11-getting-started-again/feed/ 11:54 Over the last two months we've been moving in to our new house and getting all the emergency repairs done, like a new roof and ... Over the last two months we've been moving in to our new house and getting all the emergency repairs done, like a new roof and plumbing in the laundry room.#160; A few weeks ago we had a load bearing wall removed in the kitchen to make room for a more open floor plan in the major living areas of the home.#160; But what does that have to do with a garden podcast?#160; I mention all this to explain why the podcast has been on hold for the last two months. Almost two months ago I took an evening and tried to make my seed orders online.#160; I say try, because I really should have been placing my order back in January or February at the latest. Well...50% of the seeds I wanted were no longer in stock.#160; I had to do some quick research on what was available and if I wanted it.#160; I had intended to make the majority of my orders through Seeds of Change, but they must have gotten slammed this year as they were practically out of everything. I switched about half of my order over to Park Seeds with a few minor changes in varieties. It was a good thing I did. A week or two went by and Seeds of Change had not shipped my order. When I inquired about the delay they said they had new seed packing equipment they were having trouble with and it would be a few more days.#160; By the time Seeds of Change was ready to ship, my Park Seeds had arrived.#160; That's not a bad thing really....I was able to have two seed planting sessions instead of one giant one. In the last month I have been able to take a crack at starting all the seeds, or at least the ones that can be started indoors.#160; Lucky for me, the winter has been colder and longer than expected so I'm not too far behind the start of growing season. Early on I decided that this year I was going to do the bare minimum to get plants into the garden. I just don't have the time and resources to do the grand plan and be meticulous in my seed starting.#160; This isn't a bad idea actually, as it will allow me to learn from my own experience as to what works and doesn't work for me.#160; For example...folks tell you that you need to soak seeds before you try and germinate them. I simply didn't have the time..so I just put them in the seed trays.#160; You know those seed packets that have the exacting details about seed depth?#160; I totally ignored them.#160; This has cost me with some 0% germination rates on a few of the seeds. But what's the learning process if I get 100% germination right?#160; At least that's what I'm telling myself. I came home from work one night and announced to the family that tonight was the night to plant seeds. You can see some pictures up on the website at mychicagogarden.com.#160; If you don't have young children at home you can't imagine the chaos in the garage that night. Dirt was flying and seeds were getting shoved into the dirt a good 2 inches.#160; I also think one pot had 15 seeds in it but they were so small I wasn't about to go trying to pick them out. I had to temper my scientific bent and remember that this was a learning experience for my children. If I loose 50% of the seeds it is still a cheap learning experience.#160; I can always plant more seeds. I have to say that the seedlings are doing pretty good for our first time.#160; The two things I did splurge on were heat mats and some grow lights.#160; I took the basic idea for the grow lights from Eric over at www.gardenfork.tv, a video podcast I highly recommend. You can find a link to their video series on the MyChicagoGarden website. My wife and I find it very entertaining.#160; You basically take a couple $15 shop lights from a big box store, slap them together with some handyman tools and chain and you have yourself some grow lights.#160; The lights, combined with the heat mats, had some of the seeds sprouting in under 24 hours. I honestly couldn't believe it.#160; The germination rate has been pretty bad in some instances, probably due to the haphazard planting My,Chicago,Garden Tyler Allison no No http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/05/15/new-podcast-this-weekhonest/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/05/15/new-podcast-this-weekhonest/#comments Wed, 16 May 2007 04:24:51 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2007/05/15/new-podcast-this-weekhonest/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/05/15/new-podcast-this-weekhonest/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/05/02/delay-againbut-no-worries/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/05/02/delay-againbut-no-worries/#comments Wed, 02 May 2007 16:35:52 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2007/05/02/delay-againbut-no-worries/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/05/02/delay-againbut-no-worries/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/04/06/we-are-coming-back/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/04/06/we-are-coming-back/#comments Fri, 06 Apr 2007 21:40:25 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2007/04/06/we-are-coming-back/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/04/06/we-are-coming-back/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/03/28/gardenforktv/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/03/28/gardenforktv/#comments Wed, 28 Mar 2007 18:55:37 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2007/03/28/gardenforktv/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/03/28/gardenforktv/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/03/18/garden-work-about-to-begin/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/03/18/garden-work-about-to-begin/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2007 05:42:15 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2007/03/18/garden-work-about-to-begin/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/03/18/garden-work-about-to-begin/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/03/06/on-hiatus-for-a-month/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/03/06/on-hiatus-for-a-month/#comments Wed, 07 Mar 2007 03:01:25 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2007/03/06/on-hiatus-for-a-month/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/03/06/on-hiatus-for-a-month/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/03/02/lots-going-on-with-the-housees/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/03/02/lots-going-on-with-the-housees/#comments Fri, 02 Mar 2007 07:07:34 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2007/03/02/lots-going-on-with-the-housees/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/03/02/lots-going-on-with-the-housees/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/02/21/episode-10-reading-seed-catalogs/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/02/21/episode-10-reading-seed-catalogs/#comments Thu, 22 Feb 2007 03:20:13 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2007/02/21/episode-10-reading-seed-catalogs/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/02/21/episode-10-reading-seed-catalogs/feed/ 7:18 It's that time of year to put in your seed orders.#160; Back in December I reminded you to place your requests with a few seed ... It's that time of year to put in your seed orders.#160; Back in December I reminded you to place your requests with a few seed companies so you'd have some information to help you make your decisions. Hopefully you did that and now have 4 or 5 catalogs on your kitchen counter. In this episode we'll cover the things you should be looking for when selecting your seeds. First off, let's get cost out of the way.#160; Honestly, price should not be your primary determining factor. Most seed companies charge similar prices. You may be able to get various discounts under special circumstances, but you probably only save a couple dollars on your whole order.#160; Unless you have an extremely large garden, I simply do not believe a 10% discount is a major factor.#160; Instead of price, you should be making your decision based on who can supply what you want, their customer service, their reputation for quality, extent of the information they provide with their seeds, and any of a number of other factors.#160; I choose my seed suppliers based on which companies I want to support, not price. This year I received catalogs from 4 companies: Seeds of Change Johnny's Selected Seeds Burpee Park Seeds These four are some of the major players in the seed supply market. There are plenty of other companies you could order from of course. But to be honest, I'll be ordering 90% of my seeds from Seeds of Change since I like the company, their philosophy and their track record with me. When reading a catalog you need to start with the basics.#160; Take a quick look through the catalog. It's not like you are going to be able to control yourself anyway.#160; While your leafing through the catalog make sure you find their symbol or acronym key. If your catalog doesn't come with one, I'd question if they are providing enough information for you to make an informed decision. In that key should be things like is the seed organic, or maybe an heirloom or hybrid. Is the plant resistant to cold weather? What water and sun requirements does it have? Things like that. I've included they key to the Seeds of Change catalog on the MyChicagoGarden website as an example. Now that you are familiar with the catalog set it aside and take a look at the list of plants you decided on for your garden.#160; You should have a list such as carrots, bush beans, corn, basil and the like. Unless you know you want to grow a specific variety just keep the list generic for now. Figuring out exactly which variety you want to grow is what the catalog is suppose to help you do. So let's take bush beans as our example for this podcast. Most catalogs are broken up into sections, so you should be able to flip to the bean section. Within the bean section you may find that they have sub-sections such as dry soup bean or fresh snap bush bean or runner beans and the like. I want a bush bean so let's take a look at the options in the fresh snap bush bean subsection. The Seeds of Change catalog lists 9 certified organic fresh snap bush beans. #160;Since I will have an extremely small garden this year I'd really like a bean that is small but has a good harvest. Since this will probably be my only bean in the garden, I don't want anything odd or fancy just yet. Next year we can play around with some fun or strange varieties. A quick look through the 9 varieties brings me to the #34;Blue Lake#34; variety. Here is how the catalog describes the variety. 15-18inch bush. The best-tasting green bean in our trials at the Research Farm. A vigorous, productive and rather small bush yields tender, sweet, 6-7inch round, stringless, straight green pods.#160; Good choice for small gardens. Great for canning and freezing. Matures in 55 to 60 days.#160; Needs moderate water and full sun. Packet contains approximately 70 seeds and costs $2.59 a packet. Sounds like the perfect green bean for my garden. I'll put that one on my list. That's the basics of reading the My,Chicago,Garden Tyler Allison no No http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/02/21/cool-new-podcast/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/02/21/cool-new-podcast/#comments Wed, 21 Feb 2007 19:25:30 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2007/02/21/cool-new-podcast/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/02/21/cool-new-podcast/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/02/08/episode-9-science-fairs-whole-foods-market-peat-moss-and-a-garden-update/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/02/08/episode-9-science-fairs-whole-foods-market-peat-moss-and-a-garden-update/#comments Fri, 09 Feb 2007 05:14:32 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2007/02/08/episode-9-science-fairs-whole-foods-market-peat-moss-and-a-garden-update/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/02/08/episode-9-science-fairs-whole-foods-market-peat-moss-and-a-garden-update/feed/ 12:20 In this episode I'll talk about spending the morning judging an elementary school science fair, then a little about Whole Food markets, a cool new ... In this episode I'll talk about spending the morning judging an elementary school science fair, then a little about Whole Food markets, a cool new website for vegetable growers and then I'll ramble on about the controversy around using peat moss in your garden. Then at the end I'll catch you up on how the house hunting, and ultimately the garden building is going. So last Saturday I woke up at 5:30am and drove an hour to a western suburb of Chicago to be one of the many judges at a district science fair. When I had told my wife I had volunteered for this duty she laughed and asked if I thought one of the kids was going to do the tried and true experiment of which laundry detergent works the best. Well, I'm happy to say that not only where there at least two of these experiments, I was assigned to judge one of them.#160; Figures. The young 5th grade scientist did an excellent job and I spent 5 or 10 minutes asking her about her project. Surprisingly I actually learned something from her project. She was able to conclude that ketchup can be removed by the premium detergent, the generic detergent, and here's the surprise...just water! That's right. He plain water control was able to remove the ketchup just as well as the detergents. While I was there I saw a booth setup by the Whole Foods Market. It looked like a child's science project. I went over and two friendly women asked me if I'd like to take part in an experiment. They had cut up some apples and had laid out two bowls. One of the bowls had organic apple slices in it and the other did not. My job was to try them and figure out which were organic and which twere not organic.#160; This was something I had never thought of doing and it was brilliant! I know the reason I prefer to choose organic ingredients, and it has never involved flavor.#160; But if you stop to think about it...shouldn't organic food taste better?#160; I tried the granny smith apples and it was immediately obvious to me which one was organic. One tasted like what a granny smith apple is suppose to taste like. It was tart and juicy and made my mouth pucker. The other granny smith apple was juicy but it tasted bland. My comment to the ladies at the table was that one of them tasted #34;flat#34;. When I pronounced which of the apples was organic they smiled and said I was right. Now...regardless if you think Whole Foods is the Walmart of organic grocery stores or if it truly has good intentions...you have to admit they did a wonderful thing for those families that day. They provided more education about organic food than any number of books and TV programs could do. They made organic mean something to the individual person.#160; It tastes better. You may have noticed that I've only mentioned Whole Foods at the science fair. That's because they were the only ones there. That's right. Nobody else in the community felt it was worth coming out and being a part. That alone moves Whole Foods up on my list. And before we get into something controversial, let me mention that I found a cool new website, at least for me.#160; Thanks to Tracy over on her blog for posting about it. Cornell University Cooperative Extension is running a website designed to allow gardeners to rank and discuss various vegetable varieties. I've only poked around a bit but it looks like a wonderful resource. The link to the website is on the MyChicagoGarden website in the 'Learn More' section. Now, I'm not one to shy away from a good discussion on any topic but this next one may cause you to feel like sending me hate email or unsubscribing from the podcast. Just remember that rarely is anything an absolute, and using or not using peat moss is one of those things. Recently I got into a fairly cordial discussion, in internet flame war terms, on an organic gardening mailing list about the use of peat moss.The reason it came up was innocuous enough, a new gardener asked about using the square foot gardening method that calls for My,Chicago,Garden Tyler Allison no No http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/31/episode-8-companion-planting/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/31/episode-8-companion-planting/#comments Wed, 31 Jan 2007 08:28:23 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2007/01/31/episode-8-companion-planting/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/31/episode-8-companion-planting/feed/ 5:16 This episode I'll be talking about Companion Planting, or if used as a primary method in your garden, companion gardening. Done properly it can reduce, ... This episode I'll be talking about Companion Planting, or if used as a primary method in your garden, companion gardening. Done properly it can reduce, if not eliminate, the majority of reasons why you would need to use chemicals in your garden. Companion planting is a mix of gardening fact and folklore that advocates growing certain plants together for their mutual benefit. The reasons for putting plants together can be quite practical, while others are harder to explain why they seem to work. Through much trial and error many gardeners have figured out what plants reliably perform better when planted together.#160; One of the best books I have found on the topic is #34;Great Garden Companions#34; by Sally Jean Cunningham.#160; I recently wrote on my blog that I have no interest in growing anything I can't eat. If you are like me in that belief, you may discount the companion planting philosophy since it involves flowers and other non-edibles. Or at least not traditionally edible. You'd be making a huge mistake. The main reason you would plant non-edibles is for bio-diversity. Even a flower hater like me can find a use for flowers in the garden if I can understand their purpose. One of the great benefits of bio-diversity is providing a home for all those beneficial insects so they can turn your garden into a battle ground against the harmful insects.#160; As a way of bring more bio-diversity to the garden, I'd recommend you set aside a part of your garden, as a wild or native planting area. Animals of all sizes need a home near your garden that isn't always in turmoil with you planting, harvesting, weeding and the like.#160; Give them a refuge to call home.#160; You may want to include some kind of water feature or bird bath as well. Not just birds need water, flying insects need water too. You might also want to consider providing water down on the ground as well in ash trays or other pans. Put some pebbles in the bottom of the pan so bugs can crawl around and not drown. But don't restrict the non-edibles to one side of your garden. Consider your garden as a neighborhood. You are going to have the good guys, the bad guys, the various types of houses, places to eat and drink, and places to work.#160; A properly designed neighborhood is not one that puts all of one kind of house on the west side, and all the businesses on the east side, and puts a train track down the middle leaving the bad guys on one side and the good guys on the other. You need to mix it up a little. If you want to plant 5 tomatoes plants, don't plant them all together. Plant them around the garden with their various companions. The notable exception to this is corn since it needs to be in groups to grow properly. And believe it or not, you need to leave some weeds. Learn which ones are really beneficial, and how to recognize when it's time to control them. So how do we actually put this into practice? You need to divide up the vegetables you want to grow into families, and then find their friends, and put them together in your neighborhood. It may seem confusing at first trying to sort all your garden plants into each family, but luckily there is plenty information available from folks who have already done this heavy lifting for us. You can find a list of the common vegetable plants and their friends on the MyChicagoGarden website in the 'Learn More' section. Much like anything in gardening, you'll probably start with some basic information and someone else's plan. It's that simple. Okay..it's not simple. It's a mater of doing some research and actually mapping out your garden. But that's okay. If you've been following along with the podcast you'll remember that we already mapped out how much space we have, what we want to grow and how we are going to grow it.So we have everything we need now to put the data into a spreadsheet or document that maps out what plants go with what. Once we figure out all the various plants we need, not My,Chicago,Garden Tyler Allison no No http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/24/getting-started-managing-a-compost-pile/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/24/getting-started-managing-a-compost-pile/#comments Wed, 24 Jan 2007 09:00:16 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2007/01/24/getting-started-managing-a-compost-pile/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/24/getting-started-managing-a-compost-pile/feed/ 11:22 ...Composting Part Two - Getting Started Managing a Compost Pile... This is part two of our podcast series on compost and composting. I mentioned in the ... ...Composting Part Two - Getting Started Managing a Compost Pile... This is part two of our podcast series on compost and composting. I mentioned in the previous podcast that we are heavily leveraging the Rodale Book of Composting. You may find it useful to purchase the book as we move through the series. I also mentioned a few episodes back that there was an online gardening book club that I had joined. I recently finished the book for January titled Teaming with Microbes: A Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food.#160; My review was posted last weekend and I would encourage you to read this book as part of learning about composting and soil. The book is more scientific than you may be use too, but it can't hurt to really understand what is going on in your backyard. So we've learned the history of compost and have a basic understanding of the science around composting.#160; But we don't know how to build and manage a compost pile.#160; Now granted, nature doesn't build and manage compost piles. You don't technically need to either, but your neighbors and your garden will be happier if you do. Since up to 75% of household trash is organic in nature, you should be able to provide everything you need for your compost pile without leaving your house and yard. The majority of ingredients for compost piles usually comes in the form of grass clippings, leaves, and other yard waste. If you have a yard of any reasonable size, you'll probably have more yard waste than you can compost.#160; I know last year I probably had 30 or 40 yard bags full of leaves.#160; It would have taken more than the entire area of my vegetable garden to compost it all.#160; I say all this to make the point that you have everything you need for the base materials of your compost pile right at your finger tips, and for free. If you find that you do not have enough resources, you can plan a foraging expedition in your neighborhood. I suspect your neighbors would be more than happy to give you their trash.#160; One thing to be careful of though. Some locations that do curbside recycling actually have laws or ordinances that make it illegal for you to pick up trash. This is usually because they have contracted with someone who is making money off the trash, and they don't want you take the best trash before they can get it.#160; Just work with your neighbors to get the trash before it goes to the curb. The one thing you probably wont have access to is manure. Try and find a stable or ranch that doesn't look to have it's own garden or farming. They probably have animal manure they would be willing to give you for free. Places with their own gardens or farms will be reluctant to give you their manure since they are probably using it themselves. Without manure you'll be lacking the bacterial compounds that will help to rapidly break down the compost pile. But let's start at home first and see what we can find ourselves. There are a few things you should be avoided when building a compost pile. Some of them can actually help, but they pose a risk and alternatives are available that make taking that risk unwise in my opinion.#160; Never use human feces or those of your pet dog, bird, or cat as your manure. You can safely use human urine, but I'm not too keen on standing a top my compost pile and letting it fly while my neighbors are having dinner. Things like large chunks of wood or seafood shells, rags, brushes, pine needles and corn stocks can be used, but they need to be shredded first. Be careful of using too much of a particular item like oak leaves or pine needles. They tend to be acid and could throw the balance of your compost pile off significantly. Also watch for diseased plants and weeds making it into your pile. It's better to burn or discard them in some other fashion than to turn them back into your dirt. And lastly, and hopefully most obviously, don't be putting toxic chemicals in your pile. The compost pile can possibly break down My,Chicago,Garden Tyler Allison no No http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/20/teaming-with-microbes-a-gardeners-guide-to-the-soil-food-web/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/20/teaming-with-microbes-a-gardeners-guide-to-the-soil-food-web/#comments Sat, 20 Jan 2007 22:24:45 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2007/01/20/teaming-with-microbes-a-gardeners-guide-to-the-soil-food-web/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/20/teaming-with-microbes-a-gardeners-guide-to-the-soil-food-web/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/20/episode-6-compost-gardeners-black-gold-part-1-of-3/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/20/episode-6-compost-gardeners-black-gold-part-1-of-3/#comments Sat, 20 Jan 2007 18:23:23 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2007/01/20/episode-6-compost-gardeners-black-gold-part-1-of-3/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/20/episode-6-compost-gardeners-black-gold-part-1-of-3/feed/ 9:50 ...Composting Part One - Black Gold... We are starting a three part series on composting, that black gold that every gardener dreams about...or should dream about. ... ...Composting Part One - Black Gold... We are starting a three part series on composting, that black gold that every gardener dreams about...or should dream about. If you've never worked with really good compost you don't know what you are missing. If you listened to episode 4 on the square foot gardening technique, you'll remember that there is no soil amendments or fertilizer used at all. The only thing you add each year is fresh compost. Compost, properly done, can bring all the nutrients a healthy plant needs to grow. In our last podcast on organic gardening you heard me mention that using compost is a requirement of having a truly organic garden. For part one of this series well dip our toe into the pile and get familiar with some history and the benefits of composting. And we'll dig a little into the science of composting and compost itself. For part two we'll deal with the mechanics of building and managing a compost pile. Part three will have to wait until it's no longer below freezing outside. This last part will be a special video podcast on actually building and starting a compost pile, so you can get a sense of the effort and cost involved. But until then, let's get started on the part of the series we can do in the freezing cold, some learning! It might help a little to understand what compost is and where it came from. Composting is simply the biological reduction of organic material into a dirt like substance known as humus.#160; This finished compost, or humus, is the black gold that gardeners treasure so much. The entire composting process is too difficult to explain in a single podcast, or even a series of podcasts, but suffice it to say compost is simply organic matter that has been converted into dirt. The act of composting is an intentional replication of the natural process of birth and death that occurs in nature. We do not have a clear picture of where composting began in history, but the best we can surmise is that early cultivators of food crops discovered the benefits of composts, probably in the form of animal manure.#160; Probably noting that their crops grew better in areas that had held domesticated animals or large herds. The oldest written record of composting is found on a set of clay tablets from a civilization that flourished 1000 years before the birth of Moses. Compost was known the Romans, Greeks and the tribes of Israel. The Bible makes several references to the cultivation of soil and the use of dung or dunghills. Much of the agricultural wisdom of the ancient civilizations disappeared during the Dark Ages, but then reappeared during the rise of the Arab cultures. One of the first extensive writings on the topic is from an Arab scholar of the 10th or 11th century entitled #34;Book of Agriculture#34;. The medieval church also kept a repository of knowledge thanks to the efforts of a few devoted monks. Monks were the primary source of agricultural knowledge when Europe began to claw it's way out of the Dark Ages. In North America compost was known to the native tribes and used by the early settlers. There are numerous accounts of using compost and manures in the colonies that date back to the 18th century. Several of the founding fathers were accomplished farmers such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, both of whom wrote or spoke on this topic. American farmers knew the benefits of manure, but few used the composting of plant material due to the ready access to animal manure. As American's moved west they found rich and fertile land and little thought was given to composting, except for the few who were familiar with farming poorer soil in the east. For the next 100 years agricultural practices became increasingly chemical in nature and composting fell by the wayside. However, since the turn of the century organic methods of farming and gardening are more popular than ever and more and more people are finding the value in composting again. So what are the benefits o My,Chicago,Garden Tyler Allison no No http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/16/what-makes-a-gardener/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/16/what-makes-a-gardener/#comments Wed, 17 Jan 2007 03:35:49 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2007/01/16/what-makes-a-gardener/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/16/what-makes-a-gardener/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/14/organic-gardening/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/14/organic-gardening/#comments Mon, 15 Jan 2007 01:05:44 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2007/01/14/organic-gardening/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/14/organic-gardening/feed/ 16:03 Before we get into the meat of this podcast I need to apologize for not getting out the podcast on Wednesday as I had planned. ... Before we get into the meat of this podcast I need to apologize for not getting out the podcast on Wednesday as I had planned. My family and I are currently trying to relocate from northern Kentucky to an, as of yet not purchased, home in the western suburbs of Chicago. I'm doing my best to release a weekly podcast on Wednesday so you have plenty of time to schedule some reading or work activities for the coming weekend. So you want to be an organic gardener. Good for you. There's nothing stopping you except some basic education and a little extra work. The book definition of organic gardening is a form of gardening that uses substantial diversity in pest control to reduce the use of pesticides and tries to provide as much fertility with local sources of nutrients rather than purchased fertilizers. That seems a little wordy to me but before we go any further, a few gardening facts. In the United States, the practice of gardening organically was greatly popularized by J.I. Rodale during the 1940s and 1950s, with his magazine, #34;Organic Farming and Gardening#34;. Now titled simply #34;Organic Gardening#34;, it is currently the most widely read gardening magazine worldwide. And it just so happens that I'm a subscriber. The average person throws out 1,500 pounds of trash per year. The average amount of trash thrown out by person who composts? 375 pounds. Americans spend $6 billion annually on lawn care It's estimated that less than one percent of insects are actually pests Organic gardening is an environmentally friendly, people-friendly style of gardening. Using the organic method gives you the opportunity to create the garden you want while feeling confident that you are doing your part to protect the wider environment in which we all share. Even if you could not care less about the environment, there is simply no reason why should not be gardening organically. It's been proven over and over again that the chemicals and fertilizers in which the vast majority of gardeners utilize are simply not needed. What they need is a bit of education, so they can break the shackles of using unnatural methods. Only recently have I been converted to the organic method. I simply didn't know such a method existed. The organic method really gathered steam in the middle of the 20th century when a few forward-thinking individuals began to question the direction and current techniques of the farming and food production industries.#160; Because of this focused view on food production, gardening of produce is where the organic methods are most advanced. Most people first get their taste of organic gardening in their vegetables gardens, but it can be used for everything from lawn care to flower beds and planters.#160; Recently there has even been interest from managers of public parks, playgrounds and even some parking lot operators. In the past year Who hasn't seen the word organic nearly every day of their life? Be it in commercials or on grocery store packaging. The organic movement has exploded on the scene in the last few years.#160; Now a bit of history... Surprisingly chemical fertilizers have been around for nearly 150 years and many were the direct off shoot of the chemical warfare programs of world war 2. The use of chemical fertilizers did not reach acceptance in the farming communities until the 1950s.#160; To their credit the farming communities didn#8217;t believe these artificial manures were what was really need to replenish the land. However, in the post war years there was a huge drive by governments to increase production and harvests. Most farmers, lured by the quick results and the claims of increased harvests, jumped onto the chemical bandwagon.#160; Production and harvests did rise sharply as promised and the program was considered a success. Yet a few people voiced concerns, but they could not be heard. It was not until farmers started to see the damage that was being done to their soil did more voices sta My,Chicago,Garden Tyler Allison no No http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/05/episode-4-the-square-foot-gardening-method/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/05/episode-4-the-square-foot-gardening-method/#comments Sat, 06 Jan 2007 04:19:39 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2007/01/05/episode-4-the-square-foot-gardening-method/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/05/episode-4-the-square-foot-gardening-method/feed/ 9:26 This is the last part in our series on 'Getting Started with a Vegetable Garden'. This espisode will cover the basics of square foot gardening. ... This is the last part in our series on 'Getting Started with a Vegetable Garden'. This espisode will cover the basics of square foot gardening. But first, a quick fix of a mistake during our last episode.#160; Towards the end, I referred to carrots as a horrizontal rooting crop. Hopefully that was an obvious mistake for everyone. Carrots grow vertically...not horrizontally. Hurm...maybe they can grow horrizontally. Something to try in your garden! Part of the fun of gardening is experimentation. Now a few gardening facts. The average American eats 22 pounds of tomatoes a year (plus 20 pounds a year in the form of ketchup, salsa, soup, and BBQ sauce). A tomato is a fruit, but it is legally known as a vegetable. In 1893, a case went before the US Supreme Court about importing tomatoes from the West Indies. Fruits could be imported tax-free, vegetables couldn#8217;t. Since tomatoes were eaten with main dishes and not as desserts, the Court ruled them to be a vegetable. The biggest tomato on record weighed in at a hefty 7 pounds 12 ounces.#160; It was grown by Gordon Graham of Oklahoma. The largest tomato plant was 65 feet long. The Tomato Genetics Stock Center at the University of California, Davis has more than 2,750 genetic varieties of tomatoes. Regarded as poison by American colonists because of its relation to deadly nightshade, the tomato's reputation was saved by Robert Gibbon Johnson, who stood on the New Jersey courthouse steps in 1820, and ate a tomato. He suffered no adverse effects, to the amazement of the town. The word #34;Tomato#34; has been used as slang for an attractive woman. Its use was most common from the 1920's through the 1940's and was used in Season 10 of the MASH TV series by a young boy to describe Major Margaret #34;Hot Lips#34; Houlihan. Square Foot Gardening is a system designed by Mel Bartholomew and published in several books which you can find on Amazon or Mel's website www.squarefootgardening.com. Mel wants practitioners of his SFG method to follow a strict system. The primary difference between his method and those of the wide row method is that the soil used to grow the plants is completely grower generated in that you create the perfect soil instead of ammending what you have.#160; The rest of the method is really about maximizing space. This is the particular method that I will be using in my new garden. I will expand on the actual use of the SFG method as we build out the garden in future episodes. But now let's briefly go through the requirements for a square foot garden. First, always think in squares. Build garden box frames no wider than 4 feet, and 6 to 8 inches deep. Then seperate them by 2 or three feet to form walkways. The length is not as important, but a recommended size for your first time is 4 foot by 4 foot. You can, of course, go smaller. A 2 foot by 2 foot box works great on patios and 3 foot by 3 foot box is ideal for kids. The frames can be made from almost any material, but I would not recommend treated lumber. The new treated lumber is supposedly safe but why take the risk? Purchasing 1 by 6 or 2 by 6 lumber is ideal, and comes in 8-foot lengths which most lumber yards will cut it in half at little or no cost. Exact dimensions are really not critical. To put the boxes together you can use deck screws in each corner. Remember to rotate or alternate corners or you wont end up with a square on the inside. If you want something that will last longer than wood you could also try stone or brick, or Mel even sells ready to build vinl boxes on his website with proceeds going to charity. Next you create the soil. Use equal parts compost, peat moss and coarse vermiculite to fill the frames. No dirt needed. A blended compost made from many ingredients provides all the nutrients your plants will require. Peat moss and vermiculite help hold moisture and keep the soil loose.#160;#160; It's best to make your own compost from many ingredients but if you have to My,Chicago,Garden Tyler Allison no No http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/04/house-job-and-a-new-book/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/04/house-job-and-a-new-book/#comments Thu, 04 Jan 2007 23:12:27 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2007/01/04/house-job-and-a-new-book/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/04/house-job-and-a-new-book/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/12/24/car-electric-fails/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/12/24/car-electric-fails/#comments Mon, 25 Dec 2006 00:57:55 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2006/12/24/car-electric-fails/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/12/24/car-electric-fails/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/12/22/chicago-the-house-and-the-garden/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/12/22/chicago-the-house-and-the-garden/#comments Fri, 22 Dec 2006 19:14:50 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2006/12/22/chicago-the-house-and-the-garden/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/12/22/chicago-the-house-and-the-garden/feed/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/12/21/episode-3-the-wide-row-growing-method/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/12/21/episode-3-the-wide-row-growing-method/#comments Thu, 21 Dec 2006 23:18:58 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2006/12/21/episode-3-the-wide-row-growing-method/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/12/21/episode-3-the-wide-row-growing-method/feed/ 7:25 ...The wide row growing method... This is part three in our four part series on 'Getting Started with a Vegetable Garden'. This espisode will cover the ... ...The wide row growing method... This is part three in our four part series on 'Getting Started with a Vegetable Garden'. This espisode will cover the wide row growing method. But first let's look at the calendar. Tomorrow, December 22nd, is the winter soltice. The winter solstice marks the point where the sun has reached the lowest point in the horizon and will begin to climb higher in the sky. If you haven't marked out the sun exposure of your garden yet, as discussed in our prior episode, now would be the perfect time! December 22nd should be the worst case scenario for anything that would cast a shadow on your garden. The lower the sun is to the horizon the further that shadows will cast. During the growing season the sun will be higher in the sky and theoretically shadows will not cast as far.#160; Theoretically of course. So we've figured out what we want to grow and where to grow it.#160; But we don't know how to grow what we want.#160; How to grow something can be a life long passion or a fight you seem to be unable to win.#160; I'm going to cover two growing methods that I prefer, in the next two podcasts. The wide row growing method and the square foot gardening method.#160; As far as I can tell from my research, all backyard growing methods can be boiled down to basically these two methods.#160; Of course these two methods are variations on other methods, and other methods are variations on these methods. One could almost say there are no new ideas in gardening methods, only refinements and variations. Let me mention a few other methods or terms you might read about that will not be covered but would be beneficial to know about. Some of these I may cover in future episodes, but for now just jot them down or visit the mychicagogarden.com website and check out the Learn section for links to more information. They are...lasagna gardening, companion planting, bio intensive, organic gardening, raised bed gardening. Wide row gardening is based on the fact that traditional row gardening had more path space than actual growing space. By planting multiple rows of plants together and then working from either side of the wider row you require less space for your feet, and you give more dirt to the plants. Instead of having an 8 or 12#34; wide strip of dirt with one plant in the middle and 6 or 8#34; of dirt on each side, you mark out a #34;wide row#34; of about 3 feet and then plant the crop in sort of a diamond or checkerboard pattern to maximize the area. The wide row method is almost always paired with the deep soil method, which espouses that plants of all kinds actually need more root zone than other people believe. For example it's argued that some carrots will utilize and grow better if given the opportunity to throw roots down 3 or more feet and 1 1/2 feet wide. It is conventionally believed, and often disputed by some other method practitionars, that even though carrots COULD use that much space they don't need to, and will produce the same crop with less space.#160; This is one of those contention areas with the square foot gardening practitionars. If you have good ground, or want to have good ground, you should be able to utilize this method. Working the ground can be more work than other methods but for 1000s of years gardeners have wanted good dirt to grow things in and were willing to work for it. So how wide is a wide row garden?#160; This really depends on how comfortable you are when working in the garden.#160; Some folks do not like reaching in between plants to weed or harvest so they choose a less wide row...say 2 1/2 feet. While others are comfortable with 4 or 5 foot wide rows.#160; I'm a fairly tall guy who doesn't mind hunting in between mature plants so I would probably make mine 3 feet wide to sort of cut the distance for my first try.#160; The key here is that once you have designated your rows for crops, NEVER walk on them. A path is for walking, a row is for growing. If My,Chicago,Garden Tyler Allison no No http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/12/10/episode-2-picking-a-location-to-grow-your-vegetables/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/12/10/episode-2-picking-a-location-to-grow-your-vegetables/#comments Mon, 11 Dec 2006 00:12:37 +0000 tyler http://www.allisonhouse.com/family/2006/12/10/episode-2-picking-a-location-to-grow-your-vegetables/ http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/12/10/episode-2-picking-a-location-to-grow-your-vegetables/feed/ 5:26 ...Picking a location to grow your vegetables... This is part two in our four part series on 'Getting Started with a Vegetable Garden'. This espisode will ... ...Picking a location to grow your vegetables... This is part two in our four part series on 'Getting Started with a Vegetable Garden'. This espisode will cover recognizing the right site for your garden. But first a personal note.#160; I've finally moved up to Chicago and will be living in a corporate apartment in the Ashland area of the Edgewood neigh