Onions...how prosaic

It would be easier to make sense of all the seed charts and growing information and helpful hints if they would all just agree with each other! I was under the impression that the tomato seeds needed to be started in January to be planted in March/April, but it seems they can wait another month or so. Everyone agrees, however, that the onions should be started now, or maybe last week. I bought 2 packets of onion seeds (Seeds of Change, Valencia onions) from Common Ground yesterday and put 78 seeds into pots today, hopefully I'll end up with 30-something plants from these. The Sustainable Vegetable Garden says 67 onions for 2 sq. ft.!!!!!! I guess I have to believe them...I'll start these and then put some more directly into the ground later and it'll just be nonstop onions for a while. I hope.

I loosened the soil for the 100 sq. ft. bed yesterday and today. The spading fork goes down 8 inches in some places and 12 in others. I'm hoping that the next round of single digging will be easier since the rain will get down further into the ground and loosen things up a bit more. LOTS of earthworms in the soil already, thank goodness.

Trying to find ways to get compost and topsoil for free or cheap, instead of buying many bags of potting soil for the raised beds. I suppose it would be nice to just be able to throw money at the garden, and I probably could do that if I really wanted to, but I'd rather be creative and frugal. As usual.

Happy new year!

I went to my second round of Grow Biointensive classes today in Palo Alto: Introduction to GB and Composting. The Introduction class was very well done and presented a large amount of information well within the class time, along with gorgeous pictures in the Powerpoint slides. It made everything sound very easy and logical. The Composting class was mostly people who didn't seem to know about GB methods so there were a lot of tangential questions to be dealt with, but answers were provided (or at least local resources to find the answers) and things moved on. Again, very straightforward, except I don't have giant piles of compost material ready-to-go...

So I picked up a copy of The Sustainable Vegetable Garden and headed home (after the thunderstorm, thankfully). And I read my new book. And I got VERY nervous...I was planning to prepare the 100 sq. ft. bed (recommended for beginners) this month and let it sit for a while, and then plant in March when I have a week off from my morning job. However, I need to start seeds (I want to do this RIGHT!) in January and February and prepare the bed right before the actual planting. Ack! I think if I get the flats and get them ready, it'll be easy to put the seeds in at the right times and then I can do all the serious work over that last week in March. So, flats and seeds on Jan 12, start sowing Jan. 19/20, continue through Feb., and so on. Hope the compost pile actually did its thing...once it stops dumping rain on us, I'll see what's at the bottom and if I can use it. Flat soil is just going to be regular potting soil, I can do it properly next year.

Also, there will be 3 raised beds with potting soil and plants from the nursery. I feel like I need a control group :)

Reinterpreting the title of this blog

So...I've decided that this blog title could just as easily apply to gardening as it could to the process of eating. Seeds go down, food comes up. Usually. I haven't had much success this year...herbs were good, but the grand total of the other produce is 1 squash, 10 tiny tomatoes, and 4 bell peppers that are still ripening, so anything could happen. Not really something you can live on for very long. I took a class at Common Ground Garden Center in Palo Alto on Saturday (we rode our bikes! yay!) on double-digging. Double-digging involves preparing the soil down to 24 inches if possible and is the first step in the Grow Biointensive method of farming. The end goal is to improve the health of the soil by putting in more nourishment than you take out of it: no chemical fertilizers, of course, and a good steady diet of compost geared to the pH needs of your particular patch of land. Sustainability, plus a little bit more...It's complicated and somewhat time-consuming but I think this is the way I want to go as far as gardening.