I know, I know! This is supposed to be a crafting blog, but today I spent time in the garden harvesting the greens. It was a beautiful, yet cloudy day here today (January 26, 2012) in southeast Georgia, and was 79°F, which is quite unusual for this time of year…a great day to air out the house and be outdoors! This blog is photo heavy. Hope you enjoy! 
Jan. 26, 2012. Clouds
I am supposed to be making a ruffled apron today to share with a group of FLYbaby ladies who have started an online sewing circle, but I would rather play in the dirt! =) (FLYbabies, in case you don’t know, are ladies and gents who follow Marla Cilley and the FlyLady cleaning system, but that is another story!)
Anyhow, I want to share with you my little garden, and how I do it from my wheelchair. My dad always said that you could do anything if you put your mind to it, and I’m game for trying. Dad passed away in 2004 from prostate cancer, but he never gave up hope that his children would continue farming as he had taught us. I would seriously love to make him proud!!
Dig, Baby, Dig!
I have always loved digging in the dirt! I used to be able to claim that I was the only girl in my neighborhood that knew how to whip up a mudcake from scratch, and I meant every word! LOL Maybe I’ll show you how one day! 
Anyhow, that little fact used to drive my mother, a bona fide city girl, crazy, because she wanted a little girl-y girl who loved ruffles and pretty dresses, and I would have none of it! LOL I prefer jeans, t-shirts, and going barefooted than I do getting all dolled up. Give me some dirt, some garden tools, and a few farm animals to tend to, and I’m in heaven!
Fall of 2011 was the first time I have ever planted vegetables in containers. I definitely have plans to expand the fall plantings next season since it has been such a success this year, and I want to add additional boxes for spring vegetables. This next picture is the lineup of romaine lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts.
Boxes of Greens
The Romain lettuce bolted almost immediately. It was still too warm in the middle of October, so this coming fall, I will hold off on planting them until the first week of November, and I am hoping to get an early spring crop started in the next few weeks.
First attempt at growing Romaine Lettuce
One thing I want to share with you, is something I just learned this year! You can eat the leaves of Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower…I did not know that! I was out harvesting the broccoli one afternoon, and looking at all the leaves, it just seemed to me to be such a waste of all those green leaves, so I Googled it, and oh, my! I was like a child in a candy store, grabbing a couple of dish pans and happily cutting the leaves off the plants! The entire freezer door is nearly full of greens from my little garden!
Had my dad known, I think my brothers and I would have had quite a few more greens on our plates other than just spinach, mustard and collard greens when we were growing up. We used to have to sit at the table and finish all the greens on our plates before we were allowed to leave the table. I learned to eat them first, and in a hurry to get them off my plate! LOL
I do not like the bitter taste of mustard or collards, but according to the Melanoma Research Foundation and this article, the more bitter the aftertaste of greens, the better the protection they offer against getting melanoma cancers, so a pinch of sugar and a little butter helps to hide the taste.
I would love to have the boxes I currently have up on some blocks or a short bench so I could reach them easier, and I will have to work on that, because I do have difficulty bending over and reaching the goods from my wheelchair. Even after hip surgery, I will always need to work with raised beds, because one is never supposed to bend past a 90° angle or the joints could become dislocated. I’m thinking the back yard is about to become a “raised bed oasis!” =D
This is how you can make your own container garden for vegetables:
Start off with a few tote boxes – the plastic ones you can buy to store your “stuff!” The ones I got are 32 gallon boxes, and measure 24” x 18.” You could get the larger totes if you want, and I probably will in the spring for more growing room. Again, if you’re in a wheelchair or have difficulty stooping over, putting them up on a short bench or up on blocks will help.
32 gallon totes with lids
Drill a couple of 2” holes in the bottom for drainage, or carefully poke a lot of holes in the bottom with a screwdriver and hammer. Be careful the screwdriver doesn’t slip!! Store the lids to use them after the growing season is over so the insects don’t burrow into it. Just remember to clean out all the plant growth, and mix the potting soil with more pot ash and manure for the next growing season when it arrives! With the current weather, I don’t think we’re going to have much cold weather here, so I doubt I’ll be using the lids except on the box I started for compost. (More on that later.)
Potting Soil
Mix potting soil with equal amounts of peat moss and either vermiculite or perlite so the potting soil drains easily. My nephew brought me some cold fireplace wood ashes and chicken manure; both of which needed to be well mixed with everything else before planting. I inserted two 18” pieces of 1” pvc pipes 4” from the narrow ends in the center, and poured pea gravel down them while adding the soil for additional drainage, and then carefully removed the pipes. This means I have to water more often, but you should do that anyhow with any plants grown in containers.
Protect the crop
Water the mixed soil well after putting it in the totes and let it set for at least a week if you use “hot” manure so your plants don’t burn! You want the container to hold water, but not to become water logged when it rains. This is the reason for the drainage holes in the bottom.
Cover, cover, cover! When the insects were still buzzing around in the late fall, I kept the containers covered with sheer panels. These work great as row crop covers since they are so light, and I only needed two since they’re 20′ long. I need to pick up some large clothespins, because regular ones pop right off the sides of the boxes when the wind is blowing! On the few nights we have had frost, I have been using three clear shower curtains to cover the boxes, and my plants are happy and healthy. The plastic allows the vegetables to warm up during the day, and as long as I keep it up off the plants, the leaves won’t get burnt with the sun shining on them. I am trying to keep them covered with the sheers to protect them from any wandering bugs who have wandered out in this strange, warm weather system that we have going on down south!
The broccoli has started to bolt on a couple of plants, and I’m hoping I get the seeds off of them. I picked enough broccoli sprouts and leaves today that will make enough for 4 meals. There are still a lot of little sprouts growing, so I’ll get a few more harvests before I let them all go to seed.
Broccoli starting to bolt
We got our first big batch of Brussels sprouts today…enough for 4 meals, and I am absolutely thrilled about this! Not only am I no longer a “Brussels sprouts virgin,” but I now know that yes, to get the best growth, they do need to be planted 2 or 3 to a tote in the size I have for growing room. Obviously, I’m going to need more totes! I put 6 plants per box, and the leaves got huge…Not something a virgin wants to hear…eh…wrong subject. ;D Still, I think they’ve done okay. I cut nearly all the leaves off of them today in the hopes that the sprouts will get bigger sooner.
Harvesting Brussels Sprouts
They were so crowed that I still have a baby plant that I found when I cut the leaves! 
Baby Brussels Sprouts Plant
The Swiss Chard and Kale have really taken off!
Swiss Chard, young growth
Swiss Chard, older growth
These inner leaver of the kale make the potlikker a beautiful shade of purple! FIY, potlikker is a a term used by Southern cooks when cooking any type of greens that require cooking in water to wilt the leaves, whish which is what you do when cooking collards, mustards, spinach, or any of the greens I have listed in this blog.
Kale
This is what the Swiss Chard and kale looks like today after I harvested the plants. They are truly “cut and come again” plants. They’ll put out new leaves for more harvesting in the next two weeks!
Swiss Chard and Kale after harvesting
Now, if you want to be a true harvesting gardener, you do not want any leaves that have been attacked by bugs, or bitten with frost to go to waste. That tends to happen if you don’t have crop covers, or when the covers blow off in the middle of the night because you keep forgetting to go get those large clothespins!
This is a photo of all the leaves and plants I’ve pulled out of the boxes. It isn’t much, but it sure is a mess! I had to clean this up so it wouldn’t attract animal pests (raccoons & possums), and I had to do something with the scraps from today’s harvest.
Yard waste for the starting the compost pile
This is the box of broccoli and Brussels sprouts stems that I cut up so they would disintegrate faster.
Stems of broccoli and Brussels sprouts
After I raked up the mess in the yard and put it in the tote (also with drain holes in the bottom), I dumped in the box of scrap waste from the kitchen. I added a small 1 gallon pail of pot ash, a half-pail of chicken manure (Stink to high Heaven, but essential for making a “hot” compost), and a full pail of potting soil. I wet it down from the garden hose, and there it is!
Composting tote for vegetable waste
My first attempt at composting – Looks good so far! I am thinking about adding a little more potting soil, stirring it all up, and then ordering some beneficial nematodes and earth worms. I still need to drill or poke some air holes in the sides of the tote all the way around for air flow, and I left the lid off since we’re not expecting any heavy rain until Saturday (and I may want to add more potting soil tomorrow), but I’ll be stirring this with a shovel every few days, and hopefully, have some good potting soil to add back to the planting boxes this spring!
Just a few more photos!
Dunking the greens
Double handful of greens
Brussels Sprouts leaves, trimmed and ready for rinsing
Brussels Sprouts leaves rinsed and ready for cooking
Mom's pug, Sukie, loves greens!
Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, and Swiss chard cooling to be put in the freezer
As long as I’m talking about gardening, I’ll go ahead and include my current thoughts. I am most interested in expanding my garden growing. There is nothing like the taste of fresh home-grown vegetables, and they certainly taste better, and are more nutritious than anything you can get in a can or in the frozen food section at your local grocer’s!
With that thought, I would like to have a hoop house, and have found a few sites online that include plans on how to D-I-Y. My nephew has graciously offered to build one for me! A hoop house will allow me to get a jump on the growing season, and to extend it when the weather turns cold, and with the cost of food on a continual rise, I think it’s a smart choice to make. You can find the plans for your own hoop house at diynetwork.com.
If you live in the city, there is even a way you can grow your own vegetables! Urban Farm Guru is currently featuring Britta Riley, and her TED talk: A garden in my apartment. You can get more information for window farms at R&D-I-Y.org, and get a 1-colum, 2-column, or 4-column system, or get the D-I-Y guide and build as many as you’d like! It’s your choice. Window Farming is an open source project; an excellent way to grow vegetables if you have windows, and don’t have the room for a few boxes of dirt!
