Weeds I Love: Chickweed

Poking around the few existing garden beds here, I was delighted to find a raised bed in the shade overflowing with weeds! Beautiful, healthy, useful weeds with pretty little white flowers and graceful stems and leaves. I'm talking about chickweed.

Packed with vitamins and minerals, chickweed can be eaten raw in salads. It is also traditionally used in salves and tinctures for its skin calming properties.

I use chickweed in an herbal salve I make for my very sensitive skin (I can't even put Eucerin or expensive eczema-specific products on my face - they burn!). I had just a few little patches of chickweed in my yard in Kentucky, and it was never as lush as this flourishing patch I found here.

No chance of ripping this out! Though I may mix in a few ornamentals so the garden bed looks a little more "on purpose."

Let me encourage you - before you pull up or poison the weeds in your yard, try to identify them online, then do a quick search to see if they might be more valuable alive.

My Weekend Reading List

Gardening on the Cheap

Without proper planning, gardening can turn into an expensive hobby.  A writer named William Alexander published a book a few years ago titled:

"The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden."

After taking into account the money spent on soil conditioners, fertilizer, raised beds, tomato plants, water etc, Alexander figured he spent about $64 per a tomato. 

That should never be the case!  With some smart planning and a few frugal tips and tricks your garden not only won’t be expensive – it can pay for itself and actually make you money. 

Here are some tips I put into practice to make gardening frugal and rewarding:

First, saving money by planning well:

1.       If you are landscaping, buy perennials.  Perennials grow outward and multiply, sometimes quickly.  That one hosta plant will spread out lush foliage to cover your empty spaces in just a few years.  Tulip, iris, gladiola, and other bulbs will multiply bulbs underground and spread their flowers.  When they get too close together, dig up some bulbs and you now have free plants to landscape other areas of your yard – or sell.  Why spend money every year on annuals, when perennials will multiply on their own?

This can also apply to edibles.  A few strawberry plants will send out runners and multiply into more than you know what to do with in a few years.  Cane fruits (blackberries, raspberries) will do the same.  Herbs in the mint family (lemon balm, peppermint, spearmint) spread rapidly as well.  You have to make sure to contain these so they don’t take over your entire yard, but with planning and diligent pruning/separating/replanting you are eating for free after a year or two.

Blackberry flower turning into a berry.  These things will spread like crazy!

2.       Choose appropriate plants.  It took a few years to get the hang of this.  Plants really do have specific requirements for water, light, temperature, spacing, etc.  They also each have unique characteristics that may make it a good or poor choice for your yard.  Some spread like weeds, other stay very small, some grow only upward unless pruned, others trail the ground.  Don’t buy a plant that has high water requirements if your area if dry and you don’t intend to water often.  Don’t plant strawberries or raspberries if you don’t want a plant that will spread – or needs to be vigorously pruned and cared for to contain. Don’t buy a hydrangea for its beautiful blooms if what you really want is an evergreen to be a privacy screen year-round. You can accidentally spend a lot of money on the wrong plants, which in the end die, take over your yard, or get ripped out and replaced (with more money). 

   

3.       Only plant what you will actually take care of.  Duh, right?  But when it’s spring and the garden centers are calling your name and the big fluffy white blooms of those peonies on sale are beckoning, it can be hard to say no to plants you don’t need, don’t have space for, or don’t know how to or have time to take care of.  It helps save money to have a general plan for your garden.  This includes what type of plants you want, how much time you will have to care for them, how often you can water, how many weeds you are willing to pull, and so on.  I tend to only pay attention to the plants that are eventually going to feed me.  I walk through them every morning.  I pluck off iffy looking leaves at the first sign of disease.  I hand pick insects.  I pull weeds.  I water diligently.  I cover them with blankets on chilly nights (yes, literally, but they’re called row covers).  My roses?  Good luck kids, you’re on your own.  I know that I need low, low maintenance ornamentals.  While I want an attractive front yard and enjoy beautiful, blooming gardens, I am simply never going to pour a lot of energy and resources into something that is only pretty.   Know your intentions before you buy plants.  You won’t spend money on things you don’t need and you won’t lose money on a bunch of dead plants you forgot to ever water!

4.   Plan a compost bin/pile.  This is really a large topic, but I'll say it shortly here:  Compost all of your kitchen scraps (except meat, fat, and bones), your yard waste (unless from sick plants), and manure from any herbivorous animals (rabbit, birds, goats, horses etc).  After a year, you you will have dark, nutrient-rich soil to add to your garden, cutting back on the cost of buying soil additives and fertilizer.  More on this in another post...

Next, where to get your plants on a shoestring budget:

5.       Craigslist.  The most visited website on my smart phone browser is the Farm & Garden section of my local Craigslist page!  People sell every kind of plant you could ever want – just keep your eye on the listings.  Some hobby gardeners start extra seeds in peat pots to sell for $1-2 (and you can do this too, stay tuned!)  I see a lot of ads for divided plants.  Perennials plants spread from their roots or bulbs and become crowded and unhealthy if not divided regularly, usually in the fall.  After dividing plants, some people will list them on Craigslist.  You may get a plant for $3 that would cost $30 at a garden center!  I frequently see ornamental plants (even trees!) that people don’t want anymore listed for free if you’ll come dig them up!  If you have a shovel and a good back you can landscape your yard for next to nothing!  Always check Craigslist first!  

 

Blackberry canes I bought from $3 each off Craigslist.  They are typically $9 at a store.

Bonus:  People will often give you more than you came for.  If they really want to free up garden space, or just have a nice conversation with you and enjoy hearing about your gardening plans, they may bless you with a few extra plants.   I drove to the other side of my neighborhood yesterday after seeing an ad for golden raspberry plants.  I told the woman I’d like six and gave her $18.  She went out in her yard and dug up a dozen or so offshoots from her established plants, put them in a big plastic bag and into the back of my van.  We ended up wandering around her lush, front yard cottage-style garden talking for a while, and by the time I left she had also given me a dozen strawberry plants.   I commented on her beautiful variety of irises, which were blooming and spilling over into her driveway; she said she’d separate them in the fall and let me know when she had bulbs for sale.  Connections are wonderful!   

Added bonus:  Going and meeting gardeners in your area is more valuable than talking to the people at Home Depot.  The hobby gardeners or farmers selling extras on Craigslist usually know a lot about their plants, their land (and likely yours), and how to grow them best.  

6.       Neighbors. As you walk around your neighborhood notice what your neighbors are growing. Do your neighbors have a vegetable garden or a berry patch?  Herbs mixed in with their flowers?  A beautiful cherry tree?  Strike up a conversation.  Sometimes just having gardening connections will result in free plants in your wheelbarrow (not that you should use your neighbors, I’m just sayin - it happens!).  Getting to know your fellow gardeners gives you the opportunity to ask, “Are you planning to divide those hostas this fall?  I could really use some for under my shade tree.”  Or “Those irises are beautiful.  Would you consider selling any extra bulbs to me?” Or perhaps, “I noticed you have a lot of bee balm/mint/catnip/blackberries/(other invasive plant) in your side yard.  Would you mind if I dug some of it and took it to my garden?”  I’ll bet you most of your neighbors will answer, “If you want to dig them you can have them!” and be thankful for not having to do the work themselves.    

7.       Look for sales.  This may sound obvious, but plants go on sale just like groceries.   It helps to know when to look.  They will have short sales during the season, which may be worth checking out.  Then at the end of the season, after they have lost their blooms and most of them have been sold, they go on clearance. 

          I just purchased some medium-size azaleas for $5 each because their blooms had all faded and they   looked pretty scruffy.  But next year they should be thriving!  Better to wait a year than have spent $15 each earlier in the spring.  Also look for plants and sales in unconventional places.  Maybe it’s because this city is very into urban farming and vegetable gardening, but I found awesome heirloom tomato plants at the Rite Aid.  They were big, healthy plants in gallon pots, already setting out flowers… 2 for $5!  I snatched those up.  They would easily have been $6-8 each at that size at a home improvement store.  $2.50?  Yes please!

          8. Start seeds wisely.  Can you save money by starting from seed?  Yes.  But here are a few caveats:

          Only start certain things from seed. 

  For two years I tried starting tomato and bell pepper seeds inside in February to have them ready to    transplant outside by April or May.  Both years I got maybe 2 plants that were hardy enough to survive.    I purchased several different varieties of each (I’ll guess about $20 worth from a seed catalogue).  I purchased a little greenhouse with peat pellets (about $12).  Then I decided to move them up to peat pots (soil plus pots about $12).  I had to leave on a grow lamp all the time.  I don’t know how much that electricity cost, but it is a factor to consider.  I didn’t have a heating mat, so I started putting big Tupperware containers of hot water under the plants trays, switching them out three times a day (sound crazy?  Yes, it was).  My light was not wide enough to equally reach all the plants, nor was it low enough to keep them from getting “leggy.”  They almost all failed to thrive.  My input was about $45, hours of work, and a lot of frustration for about four plants.  I now buy tomato starts for usually $1-2 each.  Last year I had 12 tomato plants that I got for $1 each = total $12. 

I also tried starting lavender and rosemary (and a few other things) from seed and not a single one grew.  I learned there are a few plants that are notoriously difficult to start from seed (which I didn’t know before I bought the packets).  So now if I want a rosemary plant I will happily buy one already a few inches tall.  

If you have a great set up with a grow lamp, heat pads, or a greenhouse, by all means start those seeds!  But if you are starting out, do your research and count the cost of investing in all this equipment, especially if you only want a few plants. 

Thankfully, some seeds start very easily!  Green beans, cucumbers, melons, squash plants, snow peas, lettuce and other greens, and many herbs grow quickly and easily from seed without much fuss.  Save yourself money by purchasing the $1.20 seed packet instead of buying individual plants for $1-5 each.  Save yourself hassle and money by simply sowing these directly into your garden as soon as the soil warms up instead of starting these inside.

How to make your garden pay for itself 

Sell your extra plants!  Just like I mentioned buying from sellers on Craigslist, once you have established garden plans and plants, you can make some money selling, too.  The goal should be to recuperate some of your costs (what you spent that season on seeds, soil, peat pots, compost, fertilizer).  I have almost always been able to accomplish that.  Once you have a more efficient and sustainable system (making your own compost, saving seeds, having more mature dividable plants) you can actually make money.   

 Seedling Example:  You buy a packet of summer squash seeds for $1.00.  You buy potting soil and peat pots to start twenty five plants for $12.  Twenty of the plants grow, but you only want five.  Sell the remaining 15 plants for $1 each.    You’re now eating for free.

Perennial example:  I started a 10’ by 5’ strawberry patch four years ago in Kentucky with nine strawberry plants.  Two years later (with nothing but water and straw mulch on my part) almost the entire bed was full and I needed to dig up some of the plants so they weren’t overcrowded.  I spent an hour or so digging up about 30 little strawberry plants with nice roots, put them in plastic cups, and sold every one of them for $1.50 each. Not only did I make back all of my original investment in the parent plants, but I made (a little bit) of money.  Free strawberries all year.  Repeat.   

     

I hope this helps you off to a good start or gives you some ideas for locating plants and planning your garden this year!  Feel free to leave more money-saving suggestions in the comments! 

Cultivating Pacific Northwest Weeds (i.e. Growing Blackberries)

I purchased 8 blackberry canes and 6 blueberry bushes about four weeks ago from a local backyard grower for a great price (yes, before we had even found a house, first things first).  I paid $3 each, compared to the $9-15 they charge at a home improvement store garden center.  However, good deal or not, I have since been informed that I am insane for buying blackberries because they grow rampant all over the region.  And now that I'm paying attention I've seen that it's true... every shopping center parking lot, highway median, unkempt backyard, and park are bordered by tangled mounds of blackberries.  They are nasty thorny things, and no one really picks them; they just rot on the branches and feed the birds.

I didn't know there were so many wild blackberries when I paid for these... but I did at least buy thornless blackberries that have been cultivated for size and taste and we will actually pick them and eat them, unlike all the wild ones that people just treat as weeds!  I love blackberries and have always wanted to grow my own, so I'm starting with these eight canes and we will eventually have a nice row of vine fruits (eventually blackberries, raspberries, and grapes) going down the long sunny fence line of the yard.

 Of course our livestock plans may put a hitch in all that... goats love to eat brambles and the "pasture" part of our yard is exactly where these plants are going.  So we may need to fence the berries in on both sides...  or tether our goats in areas we want them to eat down to the ground... or just get sheep instead, which (so I read) won't eat woody plants unless they run out of grass... that's a problem for next year.  It still made sense to use the long sun-drenched fence line that already exists for the berries.

I have to be very careful about not letting them spread into the neighbor's beautiful yard, since, as I said, they are Pacific Northwest weeds.  I saw a trick where you bury deep garden edging plastic in the ground alongside your berries so that they cannot send out their shoots in that direction.  I will need to do that along the fence line so they stay in my yard.  

I have high hopes for good harvests from these canes - if not this year then next, once they are established!  Whatcom County Washington is the #1 raspberry producing area in the country, and is near the top for blackberries and blueberries as well.  The plants love the soil and climate here, so God-willing we will have all we can eat in the summer and a freezer full of delicious homegrown berries year-round!

What's Growing in the Garden: Week 1

I am addicted to gardening.  It is actually a problem sometimes, i.e. when we lived with another family for six weeks yet I managed to start or buy over 100 vegetable, fruit, and herb plants.  Forget the fact that we had no house or yard, I also purchased 6 blueberry bushes and 8 blackberry canes from a local grower.  I'm like the crazy cat lady, but the crazy plant lady.  And the children are my disciples.  My four-year-old cannot walk by a stand full of seed packets in the grocery store without grabbing a handful and exclaiming "CUCUMBERS!  PUMPKINS!  RED LIGHTNING MCQUEEN FLOWERS!!!  LET'S PLANT THESE!!!"  And I usually say okay, and then we have more peat pots full of plants.

This is what my "grocery" shopping cart looked like last week.  In my defense, there was an awesome sale on peonies and hostas and the house desperately needs some landscaping! 

All this to say, we have only lived here for about ten days, but I already have a lot growing!  Every afternoon while the kids play outside I try to plant a few things or dig a few more holes.  After all, they need to get in the ground before they outgrow their pots or it gets too hot and my investment in growing and purchasing is gone.

So far I have an herb garden started in the shade of a big tree and about half of one row of the vegetable garden.  In the veggie garden I have planted some tomatoes, parsley, basil, bush green beans, snow peas, calendula, marigolds, two types of lettuce, celery, and summer squash.  I still have watermelon, winter squash, cucumbers and more of everything else to add.  Here are some pictures, mostly of the herb plants. Enjoy!

Starting to dig.  The soil is loamy and rich and the sod comes up easily!  I was so happy I could have cried!

The first fifteen feet or so of the vegetable garden is planted!

Calendula - a medicinal and beneficial insect attracting flower

Celery

Lettuce

In the shade/herb garden...I don't know what this is but I separated it from a parent plant in our host family's yard because it was pretty...

Ditto with these...some sort of interesting succulent in the shade garden

Lavender I started as cuttings from our host family's lavender plant

Parsley started from a separation from our host family's plant

"Silver Posie" Thyme

Variegated Sage

Lemon Balm

Fancy French Lavender

Bok Choy started from the base of some bok choy I put in a stir fry last week 

Soli Deo Gloria,

Lauren

Keeping a Two-Year-Old Busy with Water Play

My two-year-old loves water.  He's *obsessed* with water.  He wakes up and immediately asks to play at the lake.  Then asks for bubbles.  They asks for the pond.  Then asks to splash in a puddle.  Then asks for a drink.  Then asks for the lake.  Then asks to wash his hands... all seriously in the first 90 seconds he's up.  So on a good day we hike down through the beautiful, rocky, wooded trail behind our current house to play at the lake for a few hours, where he blissfully throws handfuls of pebbles in the lake over and over and over and over and over...

So what's a mom to do when the weather is not so nice, the older child is sick, or her pelvic pain is flared up far too much (aka: me this week) to hike up and down a steep hill?  

Using a large potted plant base I create a little mini pool for him to splash in on the deck.  By putting it up on a chair or patio table he can stand up and play with little cups, bubbles, boats and other bath toys and splash to his heart's content in 1-2 inches of water.  You got it - this is basically a glorified puddle on a pedestal.  And yes, he still basically gets soaked.  But I stick in him his long rain coat and some crocs so all I really have to do is get him new pants.   To satisfy my little boy who wants to play in water all day long, this beats having him stand at the kitchen sink soaking the entire room, or having to fill up the tub and sit in the bathroom with him half the day.  It is also safer and less mess and work than blowing up and filling an entire baby pool.  If your kids can have fun in two inches of water by all means save yourself the work and fuss and let them play in two inches of water!   I did this almost every day this week since I was not able to walk much.  He was so content - and so was I!