Christmas for a Gardener

Today I had an opportunity that I couldn't pass up......the chance to buy approx. 150 packets of various kinds of organic seeds for a good deal.  As I was looking through my bag of seed packets after the deal had been made, a friend asked me if it was like Christmas and I'm sure I was beaming as I said "yes, yes it is!"

I'm a person who likes to be very independent and controlling of my destiny, yet I like a little surprise now and again.  So the idea of a whole bag full of seed packets that I hadn't individually chosen was very exciting to me.  There wasn't a lot of risk to the purchase as I knew the lady who was parting with the seeds, I knew the brand of seeds, and I had actually planted several packets of this brand of seeds this year and they all did great.  So it was just a good deal all around.

I had never really considered the idea of seeds as a "gift" before today, but for crying out loud, why hadn't I?  It's a land of never-ending choices for the gift giver and receiver.  What gardener wouldn't love seeds?!  I can't believe I haven't thought of it sooner.  Although I do feel the need to insert a word of caution here: Do not try to turn a non-gardener into a gardener by giving them seeds.  It more than likely won't be a well-received gift.

So, here's a little sample of what I got in my "grab bag":

• royal burgundy bush bean
• swan lake melon
• garden sage
• scarlet keeper carrot
• blue ballet squash
• picotee cosmos
• beetberry
• lavendar bergamot
• lemon cucumber
• holy basil

These are all things I have never had the opportunity to grow before, how exciting!  There are also many seeds that I have grown and loved before:

• sweet marjoram
• summer savory
• german chamomile
• nira chives
• lemon basil
• dark star zucchini
• marigold (many varieties)
• calendula
• echinacea
• spaghetti squash
• small sugar pumpkin
• bunching onion
• mideast prolific cucumber
• iceland poppy
• sugar pod two snow pea
• mesclun salad mix
• butterhead lettuce

I'm not sure what it is about looking at a seed catalog or holding packages of seeds in your hands that creates such excitement.......maybe the thoughts of the growing season to come and sunshine or just that  basic connection to the earth when you get to garden.  It's pretty awesome and I hope I never get to the point where I'm ordering the same seeds every year to grow the same produce.  

All in all, I think I made a good purchase today.  I basically spent my pumpkin income on seeds for next year's gardens which, in my mind, is like taking dividends from stock and re-investing in more stock, right?  If nothing else, my bees will be very happy come next summer!

Michelle Grosek
michelle@bearbuttegardens.com
www.bearbuttegardens.com

The Nutrition Levels in Our Food is Declining

This post is mainly a reference to a new article on the Mother Earth News website.  The article is titled "The Nutrition Levels in Our Food is Declining".  It is an interesting article.  I'm not certain if all the facts of the article are absolutely correct (some of the comments seem very critical), but I do believe the high-level message is accurate.

Why am I posting this? 
Well, people we know seem to be curious about our recent transition from Sturgis Center for the Arts, to Bear Butte Gardens.  Most people can easily understand the reasons why we left Sturgis Center for the Arts (e.g. volunteering seven years at the art center is a long time, it is time for new leadership and new ideas at the art center, our own kids are now in college, etc.).  But people don't really understand why we have started Bear Butte Gardens.  The short answer is that we like to garden.  Most people seem satisfied with that answer.  But there is more.  Much more.  A deep rooted purpose.  A real concern.  A strong desire to contribute to society in a positive manner.  A vision.  What is it?  Food!

I'm developing strong feelings about the current situation of our food sources.  I've always had my concerns, but the more research I do and the more I learn about it, the more concerned I become.  The article I reference above explains why I'm concerned.

There is a better way to produce food.  We don't know exactly how we will do it (e.g. organic, biodynamic, permaculture, a combination, etc.), but we do know why it needs to be done (read the article), and we do know how we don't want to do it (conventional, chemical-based agriculture).  One step at a time.

Rick Grosek
Bear Butte Gardens
Rick@BearButteGardens
http://www.bearbuttegardens.com/

What Kind of Agriculture are We?

As we get deeper into our little agriculture business, I’m doing more and more research into agricultural methods and practices.  So far, I’ve only begun to understand various methods and approaches.  I’ve been studying about conventional, organic, biodynamic, permaculture, and sustainable agricultural approaches.  It is indeed a tangled web.  All approaches have overlapping principles, and stark differences. 

Here are some definitions that I’ve put together:

“Conventional” agriculture is the main-stream method practiced by the majority of producers.  These are generally the big farms and ranches that are probably owned by some big agri-business organization, have lots of land (thousands of acres), use big equipment, use lots of chemicals (e.g. fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, hormones, etc.), use genetically modified seeds, and produce a very high yield.

“Sustainable” agriculture was defined in 1990 by US Public Law 101-624, Title XVI, Subtitle A, Section 1683, as “an integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site-specific application that will, over the long term, satisfy human food and fiber needs; enhance environmental quality and the natural resource base upon which the agricultural economy depends; make the most efficient use of nonrenewable resources and on-farm resources and integrate, where appropriate, natural biological cycles and controls; sustain the economic viability of farm operations; and enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole.”

“Organic” agriculture is the government’s (USDA’s) attempt to govern specific agriculture practices based on the public’s concern over the use of chemicals in the food chain.  As it turns out, the USDA has made a lot of compromises (influenced by big agri-business), so the rules & regulations are not as strict as you might think.

“Biodynamic” agriculture goes beyond just organic.  It is based on Rudolf Steiner’s work during the early 1900s.  Biodynamic concepts include:

• No artificial chemicals
• Farms are self-contained entities with their own individuality
• Develop interrelationships between soil, plants, and animals (e.g. use of manure, compost, etc.) to establish a self-nourishing system (i.e. use of nine specific “preparations”)
• Consideration for “astronomical” influences (e.g. planting by moon phase, etc.)
• Open pollination of seeds (e.g. farmers grow their own seed)

“Permaculture” builds agricultural systems modeled on the relationships found in nature – where each element supports and feeds other elements.  The main concept is based on observation of how ecosystems interact.

What do I make of all this?  It seems that conventional agriculture is the result of how main-stream farming has evolved, based on the primary goal of producing as much as you can.  However, conventional agriculture has a lot of very negative side effects.  Biodynamic and Permaculture are two alternative approaches that do not place high yields as the primary goal.  Instead, the primary goal is the health of the environment.  Organic and Sustainable agriculture is the result of the US government reacting to the negative side effects of conventional agriculture.

So, what are these negative side effects of conventional agriculture?  Well, I did a little research and tried to summarize it in a timeline of various agriculture revolutions.

Early Industrial Revolution (1760 – 1850)

Key points:

• Crop Rotation
• Farm implements made of metal
• Invention of the Horse Hoe (plow)
• Invention of the Steam Engine

Pros:

• Higher Yields
• Decreased Labor

Cons:

• Higher Cost

Later Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1950)

Key points:

• Invention of the Tractor
• Invention of the Combine
• Invention of the Chisel Plow
• Invention of Refrigeration

Pros:

• Higher Yields
• Decreased Labor

Cons:

• Massive Destruction of the Natural Environment (e.g. Dust Bowl of the 1930s)
• Higher Cost

Chemical Revolution

Key points:

• Invention of Chemical Fertilizers
• Invention of Chemical Pesticides
• Invention of Chemical Herbicides

Pros:

• Higher Yields
• Decreased Labor

Cons:

• Decrease in natural Soil Fertility (e.g. biota, hormones, enzymes, beneficial fungi, bacteria, worms, etc.), resulting in higher dependency on Fertilizers
• Decrease in a plant’s natural ability to fight Diseases, resulting in higher dependency on Pesticides
• Increase in Human Health Problems related to diet
• Higher Cost

Green Revolution (1940’s – 1960’s)

Key points:

• Widespread use of Mechanical Technology, combined with Chemical Technology
• Widespread use of Hybrid Seeds
• Number of Farms decrease; Size of Farms increase

Pros:

• Higher Yields
• Decreased Labor

Cons:

• Even more decrease in natural Soil Fertility, resulting in higher dependency on Fertilizers
• Negative impact on Environment (e.g. DDT effect on Bald Eagles, etc.)
• Negative impact on Water Sources (e.g. fertilizer run-off, etc.)
• Higher cost & increased dependency on Financial Institution Support (e.g. loans), resulting in deceased profit for the first time

Genetic Revolution (1990s - )

Key points:

• Widespread use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)
• Widespread use of Genetically Engineered (GE) Crops
• Increase in Corporate Farming; Decease in Family Farming

Pros:

• Higher Yields

Cons:

• Continued decrease in natural Soil Fertility
• Increased negative environmental impact (e.g. genetically altered corn effect on Monarch Butterflies, etc.)
• Decreased Crop Nutrition (e.g. studies show 75% drop in nutritional elements critical for human and animal health compared to 50 years prior, etc.)
• Even more Human Health Problems related to diet (top six degenerative diseases are directly related to diet and food quality) – Scientists & Doctors are just now starting to understand impact

In this timeline format, with the key points, pros, and cons listed, it is easy to follow the evolution of higher yields and negative side effects.  The pattern is very clear, and very scary.

This realization is one of the driving forces behind Bear Butte Gardens.  We believe there is a need for food production that does not follow conventional agriculture practices.  Since Bear Butte Gardens is fairly new, we are not entirely sure where our path will lead us.  Organic? Biodynamic?  Permaculture? Some combination?  What I do know, is that we are not conventional.  :o)

Rick Grosek

Bear Butte Gardens

Rick@BearButteGardens.com

http://www.bearbuttegardens.com/

Biodynamic Gardening - What is it?

When I first started hearing my wife talking about "biodynamic gardening", I had my doubts.  What are these crazy ideas?  Who is this Steiner guy?  Planting crops by moon phases sounds silly to me.  If it's so good, then why aren't more main-stream farmers doing it?  You know, the guys with ten thousand acres of farmland and big tractors?  These guys are professional farmers, right?  They should know the best way to grow crops.  Right?

Hmmm... So what exactly is "biodynamic gardening"?  Well, maybe Google will know...  Here is a definition I found on the Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association's web site:

Biodynamics is:

An impulse for deep social change rooted in the practice of farming. Biodynamics calls for new thinking in every aspect of the food system, from how land is owned to how farms are capitalized to how food is produced, distributed and prepared.

A type of organic farming that incorporates an understanding of “dynamic” forces in nature not yet fully understood by science. By working creatively with these subtle energies, farmers are able to significantly enhance the health of their farms and the quality and flavor of food.

A recognition that the whole earth is a single, self-regulating, multi-dimensional ecosystem. Biodynamic farmers seek to fashion their farms likewise as self-regulating, bio-diverse ecosystems in order to bring health to the land and to their local communities.

Hmmm... Well, that kinda makes sense.  But I'm still not sure.  Back to Google...  Here is the Wikipidia definition:

Biodynamic agriculture is a method of organic farming that treats farms as unified and individual organisms, emphasizing balancing the holistic development and interrelationship of the soil, plants and animals as a self-nourishing system without external inputs insofar as this is possible given the loss of nutrients due to the export of food. As in other forms of organic agriculture, artificial fertilizers and toxic pesticides and herbicides are strictly avoided. There are independent certification agencies for biodynamic products, most of which are members of the international biodynamics standards group Demeter International.

Regarded by some as the first modern ecological farming system and one of the most sustainable, biodynamic farming has much in common with other organic approaches, such as emphasizing the use of manures and composts and excluding of the use of artificial chemicals on soil and plants. Methods unique to the biodynamic approach include the use of fermented herbal and mineral preparations as compost additives and field sprays and the use of an astronomical sowing and planting calendar. Biodynamics originated out of the work of Rudolf Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy.

That helps some more, but the descriptive phrase on the Wikipidia site that I like best is:

Biodynamic agriculturalists conceive of the farm as an organically self-contained entity with its own individuality, within which organisms are interdependent. "Emphasis is placed on the integration of crops and livestock, recycling of nutrients, maintenance of soil, and the health and well being of crops and animals; the farmer too is part of the whole." Cover crops, green manures and crop rotations are used extensively and the farms foster bio-diversity. 

Biodynamic farms often have a cultural component and encourage local community. Some biodynamic farms use the Community Supported Agriculture model, which has connections with social threefolding.

The description above makes a lot of sense to me.  This is very much a part of our vision for Bear Butte Gardens.  We are already practicing several methods that directly support this description.

So now, let's proceed a little deeper.  Biodynamic agriculture addresses the following methods:

• Field preparations
• Compost preparations
• Astronomical planting calendar
• Treatment of pests and weeds
• Seed production

Ok.  I can buy into that -- except for the "astronomical" bit.  Planting crops based on the sun, moon, and stars sounds kinda like hippie farming and witch doctor stuff.  So, back to Google again... 
Here is a short explanation of the moon stuff that I found on the Down Garden Services website:

Lunar Effects

The Moon reflects light and has a gravitational effect on the Earth.  Steiner proposed that this affects plant growth.  The Moon has a roughly elliptical orbit so the gravitational pull varies throughout its 28 day cycle.  Root growth is improved when Moon moves further out causing a decreased pull on the Earth and vice versa - this force also causes the ocean tides.

- Planting of flower, fruit and vegetable seeds is best done 2 days before a new Moon because light and gravitational forces are more favourable in the seven days that follow.

- During the next seven days the Moon appears larger each night approaching a full Moon. The increased light stimulates foliage growth, but the gravitational pull increases so root growth is less favoured - young shoots thrive and the roots rest.

- For the seven days following the full Moon the light decreases slowing foliage growth, but so does the gravitational pull and the roots can develop. This is a good time to transplant seedlings as it gives the roots better conditions to flourish.

- In the last seven days of the lunar cycle the light continues to decrease, but the gravitational pull increases so both foliage and roots rest in the run up to the new Moon of the next lunar cycle.

Hmmm...  Does the moon's gravitational pull and moonlight really effect plants?  When I was a young boy and learned about how the moon causes the ocean's tides, I found that pretty hard to wrap my mind around.  Is this really any more far fetched than moving an enormously huge body of water up and down by 50-60 feet?  The forces in play are absolutely huge!  As I understand it, plants use "capillary action" to move water & nutriants throughout the plant.  If the moon can cause tides, then it could certainly impact water & nutriant movement in a vegetable plant.

I don't fully understand the astronomical part yet, but at least I now know it has some basis on science and common sense, instead of "Oh! The full moon is so pretty!  My garden plants like it too!  They are gonna grow so good!" 

So, actually, the more I learn about biodynamic gardening, the more sense it makes to me.  I'm feeling good.   I'm on a roll.  I actually get this stuff!  ...Until I read the details about Steiner's "Biodynamic Preparations" and "Treatment of Pests and Weeds".  Da, da, da, dum!  Come on!  Horn of a cow?  Oak bark placed inside the skull of a domesticated animal?  Deploying ashes of field mice when Venus is in the Scorpious constellation?  Spraying weed seeds with the clear urine of a sterile cow?  Now I'm skeptical again.  This sounds like witch doctor tactics!  I guess I need to do more research, and try to find a more modern interpretation of this information.  There must be a reasonable explanation somewhere.  Oh Google...

If anyone can explain this to me, I'm all ears!

Rick Grosek
Bear Butte Gardens
Rick@BearButteGardens.com
http://www.bearbuttegardens.com/

Heirloom vs. Hybrid vs. Organic

I've been mulling this blog over in my mind for a few weeks now, doing a little research, trying to figure out the best way to make it informational, even though I'm still learning through trial and tribulation on all three of these subjects:  heirloom, hybrid, organic.  I guess I'll just lay out what I know and later on add info as I get it.

What I've come to realize is that there's a lot of information out there, some of it better than other.  Some people are extremely well-versed, some of us know a little, and a lot of people are pretty happy not having any knowledge of the differences between heirloom, hybrid, and organic.

For the purposes of this blog I'm going to assume the reader knows a little bit about each subject which is where I was at the beginning of the summer.  I have a history of working a couple seasons at a small locally-owned greenhouse business as well as going through the state training to become a Master Gardener about 6 or 7 years ago.  In both instances I had the opportunity to learn hands-on about hybrids vs. heirlooms and delve a little into the biology of the two.  In neither case did I have much exposure to "organic".  In South Dakota I think we can easily label our gardening methods many ways like hobby garden, truck garden, traditional garden, xeriscape garden, high production garden, etc., etc.  One method label I would hesitate to attach to most gardening in this rural agricultural area is "organic".

So let's just dive in and define and differentiate the topics:


Heirloom Tomatoes


Heirloom - an open-pollinated plant (bees, insects, wind) which maintains the qualities of its ancestor plant and when you keep a seed from an heirloom and plant it, you'll more than likely get another plant next year just like the one you had this year.  Of course now I have to throw in a disclaimer----if the helpful bees carried pollen from one lovely unique heirloom (let's say tomato) growing side by side with another lovely unique heirloom (tomato).....you may get a cross of those two heirloom tomatoes next year.  There are actually a few different interpretations of the term "heirloom", but all agree that "open pollination" is an absolute must and most agree that a lengthy time period, say 50 to 100 years, is necessary to consider a cultivar to be a true heirloom.

Hybrid Tomatoes

That leads me now to "hybrid".  To create a hybrid, two perfect specimens of a plant are chosen....a male with one kind of assets (let's say nice bulging.....form) and a female with another kind of asset,  let's say smooth skin.  Once the plants have been selected, the pollen-bearing anthers of the female plants are removed so that only pollen from the selected male plants can pollinate the female plant. The pollen is then manually transferred to the female plant and then the resultant cultivar provides this highly sought after round formed, smooth skinned tomato.  So now, in your garden, you determine that this round, smooth tomato is really wonderful and you want to grow the same one next year, so you keep some seeds out of one of the best tomatoes, dry them carefully, and plant them next spring to get another year of really fantastic round, smooth tomatoes, right?  Probably not.  Your tomatoes next year are probably going to be something totally different because you allowed your garden tomatoes to open pollinate and did not follow the same painstaking process the original growers utilized.  There's no telling what your new tomatoes will look like or taste like and the only way you will get that same exact perfect hybrid tomato is by going back and buying hybrid seed (or plants grown from that seed) from the company.  This is great for the plant breeders and the seed companies because they have a dedicated clientele year after year, coming back to buy that seed or the plants grown from the seed which is only produced by the plant breeder.

Seed Packets

 Chances are, you buy your seed every year anyway, whether it's heirloom or hybrid, so this may or may not be a big deal to you.  When it may become a big deal is if you decide you want to step up the number of plants you grow of a specific cultivar and you don't necessarily want to invest in all of that seed if you can dry it yourself from your own produce.  You can produce your own seed if you've been growing heirlooms, but not if you've been growing hybrids.

While we're talking about hybrids and heirlooms, let's delve into other reasons why hybrids have become so popular over the past several decades and these are my favorites.  We can narrow it down to a couple main obvious reasons:  better modes of and faster transportation (great interstate highways and refrigerated tractor trailers) and fast food restaurants.  This is a topic which is well-detailed in many books worth reading, so I'll just cover the high points here.  The popularity of fast food restaurants created a need for the cheapest food possible to be shipped as quickly as possible.  When you're talking about fruits and vegetables that are being sliced and diced and thrown onto burgers or salads, the focus is no longer on eye-pleasing shapes and colors and full flavors, but instead on how many can fit into a box while still green, be shipped across the country in a truck, and then hold a walk-in cooler shelf life as long as possible?  Or in the case of your local grocery store......same steps 1 and 2, but then hold a produce aisle shelf life as long as possible.

So now let's jump to topic #3 and contemplate "organic".  And I have to let you know right up front, this one is a touchy spot for me and here is the reason......a food does not have to be conscientiously grown to be labeled "organic".  Nor does it have to be a great cultivar to be labeled "organic".  Any hybrid or "picked green, cross country shipped, stored on the shelf" fruit or vegetable can be labeled organic as long as the water is right, the soil is right, and the fertilizer is right.  I'm over simplifying a bit here, but really, just having something labeled "organic" is not an assurance that you're doing the best you can for your body or your family.  I'm always a little baffled at my friends who order their produce which is shipped on a truck from Oregon or California so they can have "organic".

Here is what I know about organic and I'm going through a learning curve right now, so bear with me.  I may need to amend some of these thoughts as I learn more.

A plant or seed can be an heirloom OR a hybrid and still be organic as evidenced in the many, many seed catalogs.  A plant or seed can NOT be genetically modified and still be organic......this is a good thing that appears to be a firm truth at this time.

When growing something organic you have to take into account many things:

• What has been sprayed on your growing soil in the past and how long ago?
• Have the animals producing the manure/fertilizer been given any antibiotics or growth hormones?
• Have any synthetic fertilizers or other additives been put into the water used for the plants?
• Have any synthetic treatments been applied to the wood or the framing involved in the structures where the plants are grown?
• Do you utilize any synthetic pesticides or herbicides in the areas of or surrounding your gardens and how close?

So normally I truly do somewhat dismiss the "organic" label on something I'm going to eat and I pay more attention to how locally it was produced and by whom.  In the workings of my mind, I would rather know that something was conscientiously grown locally and support THAT practice rather than demand that something be true "organic" and then support the oil industry so that I can have that organic, shelf-ripened piece of produce shipped to my door.

But, in the interest of providing all things to all people (:-) I believe I will delve into the organic world and see what I can do locally.  My husband and I have an opportunity that a lot of people don't have.....we have the necessary space to experiment with crops, animals, irrigation, greenhouses, and all of that.  I believe I have the necessary knowledge and willingness to learn through process to give it a fair shot.  We have a lot of interested friends and family who are willing to help us along, even if that just means tasting the tomatoes when they're ripe (straight from the vine)!  But most of all, I truly do want what is the best and the healthiest for my friends and family, so obviously utilizing organic methods to do my gardening is just a logical practice and I look forward to incorporating those methods for everyone's well-being.

Michelle Grosek
Bear Butte Gardens
Michelle@BearButteGardens.com
http://www.bearbuttegardens.com/

Herbicide Carryover in Hay, Manure, Compost, and Grass Clippings

What do Canada Thistle and gardening have to do with each other?  Well, maybe more than you think! 

Like many ranches in western South Dakota, we have some Canada Thistle too.  We have been trying very hard to control the thistles with mechanical methods (i.e. mowing, cutting, etc.).  But this year, there are more thistle plants.  Many more.  I'm not sure why there are so many more this year.  Maybe it's because of the additional moisture, or maybe I missed cutting one or more plants that went to seed last year.  So, we are doing some research and trying to become more informed on the topic in an attempt to control the noxious weed.  I've visited with neighbors, friends, the Soil Conservation folks, the Meade County weed control specialist, and a couple salesmen at Warne Chemical (a Herbicide distributor in Rapid City).  I've also read about the weed in several noxious weed books and studied many web sites.  I even downloaded a Noxious Weed application to my iPhone.

Anyhow, in our quest to understand the issue, Michelle came across a very interesting article published by the North Carolina Cooperative Extension.  The article is titled "Herbicide Carryover in Hay, Manure, Compost, and Grass Clippings", and was published in 2010.  This is a MUST READ for any gardener that uses hay mulch, manure, compost, or grass clipping on their garden.

Here is the URL to the original article:
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/fletcher/programs/ncorganic/special-pubs/herbicide_carryover.pdf

Target Audience:

• Hay Producers
• Livestock Owners
• Farmers
• Home Gardeners

Main Gist:
The article explains the potential danger and damage that can occur to a vegetable garden by applying manure, compost, or grass clippings that may un-knowingly still have herbicide chemicals that are active.

Primary Points:

1. Use of manure, compost, or grass clipping applied to a garden may still have active herbicide chemicals that can damage gardens.
2. List of herbicides of concern:
• 2,4-D based products
• products that contain picloram, clopyralid, or aminopyralid
3. List of crops known to be sensitive to herbicide carryover
4. How to prevent herbicide damage to non-target plants
5. How to test for the presence of herbicides
6. Complete herbicide breakdown and deactivation can take several years in some situations. 

Example #1:

1. Herbicide is applied to a hay field to control Canada Thistle or other noxious weeds
2. Hay is later cut, baled, and used for livestock feed (maybe sold to another rancher)
3. Cattle eat the hay and produce manure
4. Rancher moves manure (from barns, cattle shelters, feel lots, etc.) to storage/compost pile
5. Home gardener gets manure and applies it to a vegetable garden

Example #2:

1. Herbicide is applied to a lawn to control weeds
2. Grass clippings from the lawn are stored/composted (i.e. city or private compost program, etc.)
3. Home gardener gets compost and applies it to a vegetable garden

Personal Conclusions From the Article:

• A potential and common danger occurs when the herbicide chemicals are transferred from one form to another (i.e. hay, grass clippings, cattle, manure, compost, etc.), and from one person to another (i.e. hay producer to rancher, rancher to gardener, etc.), and knowledge of the original herbicide application facts are lost.
• Many people who apply herbicides have a mis-understanding of residue break-down.  I've heard from several people (i.e. neighbors, friends, etc.) statements like "wait 48 hours after spraying, then it is completely safe".  Safe for what?  Walking thru?  Hmmm...
• If you are a gardener and add hay mulch, manure, compost, or grass clipping to your garden, then do your homework first!  Know where it came from -- all the way back!

Be careful out there!

Rick Grosek
Bear Butte Gardens
Rick@BearButteGardens.com
http://www.bearbuttegardens.com/

What I've Learned from Honey Bees

I think this blog could very well have several chapters as time goes by because I just keep learning more and more from my honey bees.  I'm pretty sure I'm just at the beginning phase of learning and as the years go by I'll keep stock piling more knowledge.  This works out well for me because I'm definitely a "learn from experience" kind of girl.  Certainly I'll read books and web sites about anything and everything, but I don't truly grasp something until I experience it.  Honey bees are the perfect example.

Today I decided to do hive inspection #4, or maybe it's #5.  My hive inspections are kind of random.....both in timeliness and quality.  I like to check on the bees when it's a cool, calm, almost rainy day because so far the bees have always been agreeable to that and it's comfortable for me.  Today's inspection had a specific purpose:  to find out how much room the bees have left in the honey super.  I had previously checked on them to see if they were indeed busy in the hive and making honey.  Having qualified that both of those points were going well, I learned from a friend that I should see how full the top honey super was and then determine how soon I need to get another empty honey super.

So, today after a light smoking I pried off the inner lid of the hive and proceeded to pry up one of the 10 frames inside the honey super.  The bees were totally amicable to all of this and I was able to get a good look at that frame, plus peer down into the other 9 frames and.........they are all full of capped honey comb.  Yay!  But I certainly do need to be adding another honey super and quickly!  Luckily I know a gentleman in Rapid City who builds honey supers and sells them, so I'll get one this week and possibly a couple more next week on payday.

This is all very good news for my bees and ultimately for me.  I'll try to describe my hive configuration here in words.  I have two deep boxes on the bottom in which the bees care for the brood once the queen lays eggs and the bees also build up their personal stores of food for the winter.  On top of those two deep boxes I have one shallow honey super which is how it sounds, for building up honey comb and honey.  This is where I benefit from the bees' hard work.  :-)  On top of that I will place yet another honey super or two so they can keep working into the fall.  I believe I will draw off honey some time in September.

My goal is to get yet another whole hive configuration for next spring.....maybe two if I'm very lucky, so I can get one or two more nucs of bees in the spring and just keep adding to my apiary.

I believe this has been a very good, easy summer for bees.  We've had reasonable temperatures and a lot of moisture which in turn has led to some great yields of blooming crops in our pastures.  The bees have been a great joy for me to have around as they are constantly pollinating my plants in my vegetable garden and every morning I chat with them about the number of pumpkins they have successfully pollinated for me that day.

Some things I hope to do for next year's bees:

1. Add more "boxes" for additional bee hives
2. Plant even more bee-friendly garden items.  They really liked the blooming mustard this year, so I plan to have an entire crop of it next year.  I wonder if my honey will taste like mustard?
3. Read up more on the intricacies of the hive so I understand it even better next year.  I have several books waiting on my bookshelf for reading material on cold wintery days.
4. Possibly convince a friend or family member to get started with bees to share the happiness and help build up the bee populations again.

Michelle Grosek
Bear Butte Gardens
Michelle@BearButteGardens.com
http://www.bearbuttegardens.com/

What Mom Did

As I have gardened over the years, things have changed and progressed and I realize that the progression is very much based on "what Mom did".  Let me explain.  My mom was quite the avid gardener.  She loved everything about growing and harvesting.  I'm the youngest of five kids, so my "Mom Gardening" memories are certainly different than my siblings' memories.  When I was two years old my family lived on the outskirts of Newell, SD, and it was the late 60's and my mom had 5 children ranging in ages from 18 to 2 so she did the logical thing......she bought the local laundromat.  Whaaa?  Yeah, that seems logical to me, maybe not to most readers, though.  I think Mom had birthed, diapered, cooked, mopped, and laundered as much as she could through the 50s and into the 60s, now she was ready to get out and do something else.

So essentially my earliest memories are of rows of washing machines, dryers, folding tables, and a couple dry cleaner machines.  By the time I was four years old I knew how many pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and 50-cent pieces were in a dollar so that I could make change for the ladies.  I frequently got loaned out to fold washcloths and hand towels for the farm wives as they worked their way through literally bags full of laundry.  Remember, in the 60's it was not necessarily common place to have a washer and dryer in every household, in fact it was kind of rare.  It was a lot easier for the ladies to bag up all of their laundry for a week or two weeks and bring it to the laundromat than it was to try to get through a family's worth of laundry mostly by hand at home, then put it out on the clothesline, etc.  So a laundromat was quite a commonplace occurrence at that time for many, many families.  The days were very busy and very long at the laundromat.  Mom and Dad had rigged up an ingenious little opening device which allowed the front door of the facility to be opened by the first customer any time after 6 a.m.  I think Mom went in about 8 or 9 a.m. to see how everything was progressing and to start the day cleaning the machines, doing other people's laundry and dry cleaning for them, refilling the coin-operated soap and fabric softener machines, etc., etc.  It seems she always went home and got supper for all of us, but I know many times her laundromat day ended about 8 or 9 p.m. if everything was going well.

Needless to say, not a lot of flower or vegetable gardening happened during those years.  Mom had entered into a different era in her life and all of a sudden there were some really great convenience foods on the market that made life so much easier and more fun like boxes of mac and cheese, Velveeta cheese, cartons of milk, Jell-O, Kool-Aid, store canned fruits and vegetables, and sliced white bread......pretty much all of those things that have since been deemed to have no real food value whatsoever.  Don't get me wrong, Mom was a top-notch cook and definitely spoiled us all with great homemade meals.  But along with those meals we had a sprinkling of all these new foods, too.  And we (Mom, Dad, and me) frequently got to lunch at the diner down the street because we were a two-income family and we could.  It was great!

When I was eight years old my parents made the decision to sell the laundromat, Dad quit his job with the city, and they put the house up for sale and moved 25 miles down the road to the bigger community of Belle Fourche.  Here is where my gardening experiences began.  We had a smaller place right in town, but the yard was very mature and the soil was good and Mom now had a little time to get back to gardening.  She had beautiful shade trees, lots of established perennials, and a nice side lot for a vegetable garden.  Within a couple years she had gotten four kids through high school and it was just me and Mom and Dad.  So she put up a grow light and started planting seeds in the late winter, transplanted out to the beautiful little garden spot in May/June, and gardened to her heart's content.  Of course she had gardened before and absolutely knew what she was doing, but this was all new to me.  Mom loved her time in the garden and the yard, so of course it was an enjoyable experience for me, too.  Other than the crossing with an occasional garter snake, things were very happy and mellow in the garden.

My memories of Mom's garden in Belle Fourche consist of hybrid tomatoes, onions from sets (which can indeed be planted too deep, Dad and I found out), potatoes, peas, radishes, turnips, cucumbers, beets, green leaf lettuce, carrots, and rhubarb.  There may have been other things, but I know for sure there was NOT squash, beans, spinach, cabbage, herbs (except for dill), or corn.  She always told me that cabbage crops and corn got too buggy.  She had a bad experience once with opening a jar of canned green beans and finding an intact bug, so they were out of the question.  When she was a kid her mother had a root cellar which evidently the prairie snakes and lizards liked, so easy keepers in a root cellar like squash just weren't on her list of favorites.  I don't even remember discussing herbs or mixed salad greens, so I guess they were pointless for some reason or another.  And if you could see Mom's garden, it was pretty perfect.  No weeds, absolutely straight rows, nothing that grew haphazardly, just nice and neat.  And Mom believed in canning when she had time, so we would have shelves full of her favorites......chokecherry jelly and syrup, canned tomatoes, pickled beets, and sweet pickles, dill pickles, bread and butter pickles, 10-day pickles (or was it 7 day?).  She also liked to can meat, so there would be a couple shelves of canned beef and canned heart of something, both of which I'm sure were yummy, but just never looked terribly appetizing to me.  It seemed like canning season would never end sometimes.  I appreciated all that she did, but it was a lot of hot, sticky, hard work and not always a happy, calm situation, so it left a bit of a negative memory for me.

So this finally leads me back to how and what I garden.  For years I had varying degrees of gardens.  Maybe I would only do flowers, no vegetables.  Maybe I'd do a couple kinds of vegetables, a few plants each.  Maybe I'd throw in some lettuce seed.  I just kind of dabbled in gardening, but I frequently tried the things that Mom wouldn't grow.  Of course I also had a couple kids and a job or two most of the time, so I was never terribly serious about gardening and I certainly never wanted to grow so much stuff that I felt compelled to do canning.  That would just take the fun out of it.  I certainly raised my children to work out in the garden with me and help me and have fun with growing things and I think either of them are completely capable of doing their own gardens some day if they have a desire to do so.  I have to admit I never have gotten the point of gardens needing to be weed-free and of course there are studies to back me up, so there you have it.

Now I'm at the middle age point and I'm reconsidering so many things.  This summer I've spent more time in the garden than I ever have and can't get enough of it.  I don't have a huge garden this year, but it's a nice size and I've had the chance to try a lot of new things, stick with some of my old favorites, and just experiment a lot.  Of course, most of my favorite things in the garden are the items that my mom never grew........big rangy heirloom tomatoes, pumpkins, spinach, mustard greens, all colors and kinds of lettuces, squash, red carrots, seed onions, corn, watermelon, and cabbages of every variety---broccoli, brussels sprouts, purple cabbage, head cabbage.  A couple things that I do grow in common with Mom are peas and potatoes.  One thing I may never grow is turnips.  Something I really don't miss growing is cucumbers.  A new venture this year is the pumpkin patch and I predict it may take on a life of its own in the future, just for the fun of it.

So I do have my mother's love for gardening and I am forever thankful to her for that.  It is a pleasant, calming experience for me like no other.  I can literally spend hours just "piddling around" doing this and that......weeding, mulching, picking, watering, planting.  As the years go by, I am sensing the need to preserve the foods I raise in the garden for eating at a future date, so of course that means canning, freezing, root cellaring, etc.  This phase is kind of surprising to me because I didn't honestly think I would ever view these as "enjoyable" activities, but they quite possibly might be.  Last year it was simply freezing up sweet corn.  This year jams and jellies and possibly tomato sauce and salsa.  Crazy!

Michelle Grosek
Bear Butte Gardens
Michelle@BearButteGardens.com
http://www.bearbuttegardens.com/

Red Tractor

I get a lot of questions about my new little red tractor, so I thought I would share some information about it on this BLOG.

Earlier this year, when my wife and I decided to formally start Bear Butte Gardens as an official business, we also decided to purchase a tractor.  We'd been talking about it for years.  We were mostly looking for a good used tractor, but we just couldn't find just the right one.  We finally decided to go for the gusto and get a new one instead!

Before we actually bought this one, I did a lot of research.  I compared various brands, models, dealers, options, prices, etc.  We finally decided to purchase a Massey Ferguson model 1648 compact tractor from Valley Implement.

First of all, Valley Implement is located about two miles from our home, so it is very convenient for us.  In all the years of living here, I had only stopped in at Valley Implement a few times to ask about specific used tractors they would have on their lot at the time.  We found Tom and the rest of the staff at Valley Implement to be great to work with.  They are friendly, knowledgeable, and gave us a good deal.

On to the tractor itself...  It is a Massey Ferguson model 1648.  This particular model is part of the 1600 series of compact tractors.  As I understand it, a "compact" class tractor generally has lower gearing than other similar sized (based on horse power) tractors that might be classified as "utility" or simply "agriculture" tractors.  A compact tractor will probably be a bit smaller in physical dimensions also.  This lower gearing works well for tasks such as tilling.  Other non-compact class tractors are intended to move a little faster, like maybe seven to ten miles per hour when working a field.

The MF model 1648 has a four-cylinder diesel engine that produces 47.4 horse power.  It also has a class IV three-point hitch.  This combination of horse power with a class IV hitch make it very versatile around a hobby ranch or garden & greenhouse business.  It seems to have plenty power for anything I done so far, and the hitch will accept a wide variety of implements.

One of our needs is to move snow in the winter.  Before we bought this tractor, we were also considering skid-steer loaders like a Bobcat.  Based on conversations with several people, I came to the conclusion that a small 4wd tractor with a loader will move snow better than a skid-steer loader.  As I understand it, skid-steer loaders work great for moving snow on level pavement, but have problems getting traction on uneven ground such as a long, gravel driveway.  The MF 1648 has four-wheel drive with an easy pull of a lever.  It works great!  I'm looking forward to testing it this winter. 

I also got the matching MF loader.  I use the loader more than I ever thought I would.  It has a standard six-foot-wide bucket that attaches with the standard "quick attach" mount -- just like Bobcat skid-steer loaders.  I'm told that many attachments that can be used on Bobcat can be used on this tractor as well.  The loader is easy to use with a "joy stick" controller.  I have not removed the loader from the tractor yet, but it is designed to be removed quickly and easily by disconnecting the hydraulic hoses and pulling a couple pins.

As for implements that use the three-point hitch, I have three so far.  I have a six-foot-wide rotary, finishing mower, a six-foot-wide maintenance blade, and a post hole digger.  I use the mower to mow the ditches, the yard around the house (the wide open areas), and a fair amount of area around the gardens and greenhouse.  Before we got this tractor, I used a standard 16-hp riding lawn tractor with a 42" mowing deck.  Because the MF is so much larger, has so much power, and can move so much faster, I can mow for one hour what would have taken four to five hours with the lawn tractor.  And when it comes to mowing deep grass, the MF cuts through it with no problem.  The lawn tractor would have required 1st gear and maybe two passes just to get a good clean cut.

The blade works great for maintaining our gravel driveway.  It mounts easy, it's easy to adjust, and easy to use.  The height of the right side of the three-point hitch can be adjusted separately with a turn handle.  This allows me to make just a bit of a "crown" down the center of the driveway so that water runs off instead of making puddles.  And of course, the total height of the three-point hitch can easily be controlled with a lever on the tractor.

The post hole digger is a huge time saver!  Anyone who has ever dug post holes in hard ground by hand surely envies this piece of equipment!  Wherever we have used it, it digs with ease.

We have also used a tiller with this tractor.  When we bought the tractor, Tom at Valley Implement was nice enough to let us use their rental tiller free of charge.  This is another great time saver!  The tiller was six foot wide and the tractor had plenty of power to turn it in virgin soil.  The first pass would go through the sod and dig in about four or five inches.  With another pass or two the tiller would dig in to about eight to ten inches.  And when done, the ground was so beautifully tilled, I didn't even want to walk on it and leave my foot prints!  If possible, we plan to purchase our own tiller next year.  I think it will be very handy to have at a garden & greenhouse business.

There are a couple of other things I want to get for our tractor.  I need to mount a toolbox somewhere.  I'm thinking about using a military surplus ammo can and mounting it to the step tread on the right side of the tractor.  It would be nice to keep a few basic tools, a pair of work gloves, some wire, and some tape with the tractor.  Another item is a shade canopy that can be mounted to the roll bar.  When we were buying the tractor, it didn't seem like a necessary item, but after spending many hours mowing in the hot sun, it seems like a good idea.

I'm also considering some kind of wheel weights.  We sometimes use the loader to move fairly heavy items.  It works pretty good for loading or unloading heavy items on/off a trailer.  One time I was unloading an old antique two-bottom plow and the back tire of the tractor started to come off the ground just a bit.  The loader seemed to handle the load just fine, but the back end of the tractor was just too light.  I've heard that beet juice can be used inside of the tire for weight.  Apparently it won't freeze and it is fairly heavy.  Anyone know about this?

Overall, we are very happy with this tractor.  I would highly recommend this brand and model, as well as Valley Implement as a dealer.  If anyone has any questions, comments, or suggestions, don't hesitate to contact me.

Have a nice day!

Rick Grosek
Bear Butte Gardens
Rick@BearButteGardens.com
http://www.bearbuttegardens.com/

Pumpkins = X + Y

I went up to the pumpkin patch about 7 a.m. this morning to see if I could find a few more female flowers earlier in the morning.  The patch was a beautiful sight......loads of male flowers standing up over the tops of the pumpkin leaves, as if shouting "Look at me"......."No, look at ME".......boisterous, big, beautiful flowers....thick in the patch kind of like Navy Seamen on weekend leave on shore.  On closer inspection, down under the leaves a little, I'd find the occasional female flower.....equally beautiful, but already heavy with fruit, keeping low to the ground.  I decided to help out a little with the pollination process and plucked a male flower, stripped him down to his pollen-laden stamen, and then found a female flower and rubbed the pollen all over her stigma.  It's kind of personal when you think about it, but it's what pumpkin growers have been doing for centuries.  I noticed that there was only one female flower for every 2-3 pumpkin plants.  This was not exactly calming my pumpkin anxiety.  I worked on this project for a while, noting that indeed there were bees, ants, and spiders trying to help the process along a little.  One honey bee in particular was so full of pollen, over his entire body, that when he attempted to fly up out of the flower, he sounded like a small aircraft engine which was cutting out......bzzzz.....ump......bzzzzz.....ump, and then finally got up to an adequate elevation and took off in a horizontal flight pattern straight for the bee hive which was sitting maybe 50 yards away.

Contemplating the future of my pumpkins, I decided to go visit the round garden for a while and feed some tomato horn worms to the guineas.  This is a pretty entertaining morning activity as one guinea always lays claim to the worm when I throw it into the middle of the flock, pecks it a couple times, then runs like a banshee to keep the others from getting it.  I'm honestly not sure if I'm successfully killing a tomato horn worm or just ensuring that it gets dropped elsewhere in the garden, simply to go on munching and frassing.  After ridding my tomatoes of a couple horn worms, then tying up some tomato plants a little tighter to the fence, I decide to head out of the gardens.

On my way by the pumpkin patch (maybe an hour later) I can't help but stop in and look again for female flowers.  I immediately spot a few and have to pluck a couple male flowers to do a little pollinating.  I realize that possibly female pumpkin flowers are similar to human females in that all of them don't rise at the same time in the morning.  I see several flowers which have already opened and shut, several more which look like they may yet open today sometime, and many adolescent flowers which will be opening in a day or two.  I am somewhat encouraged by all of this and reminded that God probably has a great plan for the pumpkin patch and doesn't really need me to help out much.  Imagine that!

Michelle Grosek
Bear Butte Gardens
Michelle@BearButteGardens.com
http://www.bearbuttegardens.com/

The Guineas in the Garden

Last year was my first attempt at raising guineas.  They are funky little birds that are cute and pretty oogly at the same time.  Their bodies are shaped like a feather-covered football, and about that size, and then they have smallish heads with pretty good-sized beaks.  The reason I became interested in guineas is because for the last couple summers we had hoards of grasshoppers.  I'm not just talking a lot of grasshoppers, but literally hoards of them.  Chickens, ducks, and geese all do a fine job getting grasshoppers, too, but I've had all of them and you really need some kind of a coop or house for them and they can all be problematic in the garden when they get gung-ho about pulling up small greens and scratching and pecking.  Guineas tend to be pretty garden-friendly.......hence the reason I decided to give them a try.

So, last summer (2010) I ordered 10 guineas from the local farm supply store and, as usual, set them up in a small tank in a bathtub that we rarely use.  Guineas are VERY sensitive to temperature at a young age, so you have to get a heat lamp, brooder lamp, or something along that line to keep them quite warm until they start getting feathers.  Everything went pretty well last year, but as all young birds do, they started getting pretty stinky at a few weeks old.  I believe I made the decision to put them out in a little-used dog kennel at about 5 weeks old, which was way too early.  They could actually fit through the diamond shaped holes in the side of the kennel and they were pretty flighty.  Out of desperation, I took them straight to my new garden (an old round corral recently converted to a garden) and set them up in there.  We had lined the bottom portion of the corral/garden with some old garden fencing which worked pretty well to keep them inside the garden, but they could get through very small nooks and crannies and were frequently outside the garden, which greatly excited our St. Bernard.

They did a fine job of cutting down the grasshopper population in the garden very quickly.  Unfortunately, after a week or so I began noticing about one bird missing each morning.  When comparing notes with a fellow guinea raiser down the road, we realized we had both had a lot of owls calling back and forth after dark and came to the conclusion that the owls were plucking off the guineas one by one after dark.  So, that's basically the end of my 2010 Guinea Experiment.

This year, I decided I again wanted guineas.  Fortunately, the grasshoppers have been much lower populated this year, but there are still a number of them.  I got my 20 guineas on June 16th and put them in their indoor tank with a warm light.  The second night the light bulb burned out in the middle of the night and I subsequently lost 7 guineas over the next few days.  But then there was a turnaround and those who were still alive started thriving and growing.  Once again I had 13 guineas.  This time I determined I was going to keep them warmed and inside a structure until they had most of their feathers and were closer to 8 weeks old as per most advice.  When I could no longer stand them in my bathroom, I moved them out to the garage and luckily we were having some very warm weather and they adjusted nicely.  I kept them pretty confined in a 100-gallon Rubbermaid stock tank with a chicken wire lid and an occasional light on cool evenings.  As they feathered out I started setting them outside in the shade to acclimate them to the outdoors.  I'd throw in the occasional grasshoppers to supplement their bird starter food.

One week ago I decided they were big enough to be moved into the unused dog kennel with their Rubbermaid stock tank.  I put a blue tarp over the kennel to discourage them from flying out and provide some rain relief.  Now they could fly out of the tank, but not out of the kennel and they were big enough not to fit through the sides of the kennel.  They seemed to enjoy this arrangement a lot as they could get the occasional misguided bug, yet still have some security of rain cover and daily feedings and water.

During this time my husband I have been beefing up the fencing around the garden, preparing for the guineas.  I also determined it was necessary to cover the entire garden with bird netting to keep the owl out as he has basically taken up residence in the partially completed greenhouse next to the garden.  I've always been an owl lover, so I don't have the heart to chase him away, so we just have to do some creative co-existence between him and the guineas.  My round corral garden is approximately 50 feet across, which amounts to a lot of bird netting.  We installed a vertical pole in the middle of the garden which is approx. 9 feet tall to hold up the center of the netting.  I did several searches on the internet and finally came across a reasonably priced roll of netting which measured 14 feet by 300 feet.  Once I received the netting I laid it out and cut it into pieces 14 feet by 60 feet and then sewed the sides of the pieces together with fishing line until I had 5 pieces of netting sewn side by side measuring approx. 60 feet by 60 feet.  Next my husband, daughter, and I rolled the netting up on two sides towards the middle into a long roll and carried it into the garden, placed the center of the roll on top of the pole which now had a plastic saucer sled screwed upside down atop it so as to keep the netting from tearing on the pole.  This process went relatively smoothly, although would have been much simpler had it been done prior to the garden getting as tall as it is now and so many obstacles within it.  Next we pulled the netting out in all directions and where it draped over the sides of the round corral we tacked it in place on the outside of the top railings with miscellaneous boards we had lying around the place.

So now the guineas have a relatively safe place to roam inside the garden amongst all the plants, plenty of natural hunt-and-peck food to eat, and little chance of an owl plucking them off at night.  Hopefully.

Michelle Grosek
Bear Butte Gardens
Michelle@BearButteGardens.com
http://www.bearbuttegardens.com/

Time to Blog!

Yay, I have a blog now!  For whatever reason I like blogs more than most other social methods of sharing info.  Maybe because you can read as much or as little as you want and generally it follows a theme.  Kind of like reading a book.

So the reason I'm starting this blog is so I can share my experiences (successful as well as failures) with others who may be interested in gardening and all the things that can be associated with gardening.  I've got a hundred ideas about what I should blog about first!