always sowing.

This is my post of shame.

You know, like a walk of shame... returning home in last night's clothes, only I'm returning to "little seed" after about a year and a half of no posting. Yowzah.

I'm back for a couple reasons:
1. I just went out to my garden after a morning of work and I'm feeling inspired.
2. I'm supposed to be writing this article for work and I'm not feeling inspired at all. I'm hoping that writing about something I truly love will make me more motivated to write about marketing and company culture. We'll see.

{loving the color contrast of this lettuce variety + a background of parsnip leaves}

In the last year and a half, despite my absence here, I've been experiencing some real growth in my knowledge of sustainable / regenerative agriculture & gardening practices. I've finished up my Horticulture Degree from NC State University and have helped plan, market, and recruit for an organic farm in South Carolina.

With all the work I've been putting into learning, I find it easy to be discontent with the lack of output that knowledge is driving. Sometimes I feel like the harvest wasn't really worth the work it took to sow.

But then I remember... I'm sowing these little seeds, these little nuggets of knowledge, for a lifetime of change. I'm sowing to change the way I consume, to create a lifestyle for my family that yields healthy / happy humans, to start conversations with my friends and family about our food, and to work toward a system for our world that can feed its inhabitants and renew the earth that gives us such an abundance. This always sowing has a purpose.

The practice of always sowing is something I've been implementing this season in my garden too. I noticed that I was usually picking a weekend each season to plant {for hours}, and then wait-wait-waiting to go out and grab the fruits, and then eat-eat-eating all of that harvest for a really long time without much variation. So this year, I've adapted an always sowing practice of planting seeds here and there - usually 1 or 2 days a week - so that my plantings and my harvests are more staggered. This also helps me to utilize my {limited} space much more effectively, and only take a few minutes at a time.

Try this out in your gardens / raised beds / pots on your deck. Don't plant all those basil seeds at once. Instead, plant a few, reserve the seeds in the packet {storing in a cool dark place}, and then plant some more the next few weeks.

I've been doing this particularly with one raised and one in-ground bed that I've set aside for cut flowers this season. I want to be able to harvest my zinnias / globe amaranths / double click cosmos / rudbeckia & many more all throughout the summer, and I'm hoping this staggered planting schedule will allow for just that. I also want my garden to look beautiful after the first round of mature flowers are spent. And for budget-conscious gardeners like me, this stepped planting approach also helps me regulate my seed usage and get the most out of my seed packs.

{above: a selection of Southern Exposure Seed & Johnny's Selected Seeds packets - two of my faves}

Above all else, the practice of always sowing means I'm outside more, taking in the sunshine and growth of a new spring season, a little bit at a time on almost every nice day. And when I am regularly experiencing those little pockets of joy and awe of God's creation, I feel reassured that my sowing, my toiling, my hard work... it's not in vain.

"Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap...the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life."

- Paul's letter to the Galatians

little by little: a practical gardening post

I have to admit... our house is a wreck.

But, I'm finally starting to feel pretty good about our garden.

This year, I followed the 6 P's that my father-in-law George taught my husband Caleb when he was younger: Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. And so far, it's working out. I hope that this post will inspire you and give you some practical ways to boost your harvest this year.

The most important thing I've learned in gardening is to not wait until the last minute. As a major procrastinator, this is tough for me to do, but it pays dividends in the gardening world (& in life) to prepare ahead of time. {See my last post on preparation & anticipation.}

If you don't have a place designated for your garden already, start there. Create a plan for your space, sketch your vision, and take some measurements. Then hit the hardware store to get what you need to build and purchase for your space.

This year, we moved into a new house & decided to do three raised beds in the sunniest spot in our backyard. If you're managing a larger space, look into a local landscape supply company for mediums like gravel (for good drainage in your beds), soil, compost, and mulch. You'll pay a much lower price, and if you don't have a truck of your own, many places will deliver it to you. Even with a delivery fee, you'll still make out well ahead of where you'd be purchasing bag after bag from the store.

Add hardscapes to your landscape as needed, using the plan that you create (more details below) as a guideline for what you need. Caleb helped me build a great trellis for my pole beans & squash, shown here:

Once your space is created, draft up a plan. This year, I created my own {self-titled} Planting Matrix. I relied heavily on my local co-op extension as a resource to create this personalized matrix. For the Piedmont region of the Carolinas, this guide by NC State is excellent: Central North Carolina Planting Calendarfor Annual Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs. Using the data found here, I created an Excel spreadsheet with 2 tabs: Layout & Schedule.

LAYOUT: This is where your mind can dream & your creativity can flow. Pick a mix of vegetables, fruits, flowers, and herbs that sound delicious or beautiful to you and include these in your space. Arrange the plants within the space how you want them, taking into account things like amount of sunlight, where you'll add hardscape elements like trellises, and what time of year and how long each plant will remain in that space. Go ahead and make a plan for what you'll put into place after a plant is spent for the season.

{I added these dahlias for a pop of bright color & to attract beneficial insects. Marigolds are also useful for attracting friendly bugs, & their petals can be added to give salads a little citrus zing!}

I encourage you to use a digital method for drawing up your master plan. It's easy to change and move things around, print out a page for reference while planting, and a great way to share your ideas with others via Google docs or social media outlets.

{my personal garden bible - the layout matrix}

SCHEDULE: Pay attention to the days to maturity for the plants you've selected, and try to space out when you'll be reaping the harvest of different veggies & fruits. Not only will this cut down on having a surplus & waste from everything in your garden being ready at once, but it will allow you to keep grocery bills down and maintain a steady flow of produce out of your garden and into your home & mouth! Create a schedule ahead of time and stick to it as best you can, using guidelines for your region regarding the last frost and best conditions for seed germination for the variety of plants you choose. You may want to start some seeds indoors and transplant them outside when temperatures warm.

{Kale is very hardy & seeds can be planted directly into the ground. It will germinate even in cooler temps.}

{These poblano peppers were started indoors & transplanted to my raised beds once the weather warmed.}

Once your space is created (hardscapes in place), your soil is prepared (make sure you have good organic matter in your soil and go ahead & top it off with mulch), and you decide on your layout & schedule for planting, you've set yourself up for some major success and hopefully a bountiful harvest. Now get to planting!

let's talk asexual.

Sorry, this post is not about my stance on 50 Shades of Grey. In fact, it's about bypassing reproductive organs and re-creating in other ways. If you're hoping for something juicy, read no further, but if you want some tips on how to boost the number of plants in your garden without having to buy more or wait for seeds to mature, read on.

Asexual propagation in plants is when you create {genetically identical} daughter plants using the vegetative parts of the plant (stems, leaves, roots) instead of the reproductive parts. It's growing a plant without a little seed. And one of the most popular (& successful) ways to do this is through stem cuttings.

Some benefits of stem cuttings are:
- Utilize plants you already have & love to create more.
- Get genetically identical plants to the parent plant you choose, so you know what to expect & can avoid disease or unfavorable traits.
- Skip the juvenile stages of plant growth & get a more mature daughter plant from the start.

Winter can be an especially good time to take stem cuttings, but you'll have to make sure they're protected from the weather. I built a miniature hoop house using a plastic tray, wire, and plastic to house my plants. You can build something even simpler, like putting a plastic bag over a flower pot or re-using soda bottles. The important thing is to create a warm, humid environment for the stem cuttings to take root. Make sure you make it easy to open up your closed, warm system every so often to allow ventilation & prevent your plants from getting any fungal diseases. You can see below that I'm using clothes pins to hold the plastic on the sides, so that I can undo them and let the flaps open for an hour or two a day to prevent poor ventilation.

Another essential to stem cuttings is using rooting hormone. Auxin is the hormone that enables plants to form adventitious roots. You can find rooting hormone at your local hardware store, usually in a powder form. Be sure to dip your cutting into the rooting hormone before placing it into your medium.

It's important that you choose a sterile medium that has good drainage. I recommend a 1:1 ratio of peat moss & perlite, based on what I've learned so far in my classes at NC State. Don't just go grabbing soil from the backyard, as this increases the chance for disease and, depending on the type of soil in your yard, may not give you optimal drainage that is determined by particle size.

Take cuttings 3-6" in length and minimize the amount of leaf area by removing the lower leaves and cutting some of the larger leaves in half. You want the plant to be photosynthesizing / respirating, but you don't want all the plant's energy being used up in the shoots of the plant. The important thing for these cuttings is that they use their energy to form roots. For this same reason, remove any flowers from the cutting, as these will suck up lots of energy.

Reference your local co-op resources for choosing the type of plant and timing for taking the stem cutting. And, of course, utilize literature from NC State's & Clemson's horticulture departments if you're a Carolina native. They are simply the best resources in our region.

Below you can see that I took stem cuttings of a Knock Out Rose and Jade plant. The jade plant I have is a cutting from my great-grandmother's original plant. I'm hoping to have a few successful cuttings that I can give to my mom, sister, aunt & cousin as a small, living family heirloom.

I'll keep you posted on how they turn out. Let me know any questions & reference this link below if you're interested in taking some stem cuttings at home. It's a great winter project to bring a little life indoors, and especially a fun activity for kids.

NC State Co-op Extension: Stem Cuttings

Plants are sexy.