The Brinke Patch

05/01/2021

Go, garden, grow!!!! We wanted to update you with a few photos. Plants are coming up, sending out blossoms and shoots. Even our mullberry tree is finally setting fruit! We thought that tree would never give up a berry....... it just kept growing and growing in height and width. The kids can't wait to pick those sweet berries!

We have slowly been harvesting zucchini, sugar snap peas, snow peas, several different types of green beans and lima beans. There has not been enough beans to make a meal, but the kids love running through, picking and eating them, fresh off the vine and bush. There was one large zucchini we picked yesterday. So we had gluten free zucchini potato onion pancakes for dinner, made with our cage free eggs. What a treat! The pride the kids had, knowing they had a hand in all of it makes it all worth it.

The corn is starting to grow silk and our fig trees having been setting the cutest little figs. The organic compost we used made all the difference. It was worth the small investment, the yeilds are far earlier and fuller thus far (comparring to other gardens I have grown in Florida). We have another load of compost coming this weekend........... dig, dig, dig! There are still some empty raised bed boxes which we be filled and planted with quick growing veggies. Items like radish, lettuce, herbs. Under it all, we will plant parsnip, because they are a very slow growing item. Above the parisip, planting the radish and lettuce whose roots will not impede with the growth of the parsnip. Double duty or half the space, either way, we are making the most of our little Brinke Patch.

What have you been enjoying this spring? We hope the weather is lovely in your neck of the woods. Be blessed Beutiful People!

04/22/2021

Layers and more layers.......... both in the chicken coop and the garden.

Some of our chickens took to free loading....... eating feed, messing up the coop, but giving little output. Not good. I gave them veggie and fruit scraps, layer feed........ still only a few eggs a day. It wasn't until I added more protein that they started laying far more. Nearly an egg per chicken per day. I found some beans I wanted to get rid of, dropped them in the pressure cooker and those chickens were in for a treat! And so were we :) Side note: never feed chickens raw beans, it can be fatal.

Speaking of layers, the next layer we added to our raised beds was for improved drainage. After the cardboard we placed perlite, several inches thick. This helps excess water drain away and stop pooling, avoiding water logged plants. In our area, rains are heavy...... dumping buckets of water and overloading soils and streets. The perlite helps create a higher barrier from the water, when the bottom of the raised bed needs to drain quickly.

We also used the perlite throughout the soil. The perlite is very light and helps create aeration and pockets for roots to easily grow. Depending on how compact and heavy your soil can get, you can add more or less of the perlite. Fun fact, perlite is actually naturally occurring volcanic glass, created from obsidian and water. In the process of it's formation, the obsidian takes in much water. Due to this "trapped" water, when the pre-perlite is heated over 1500 degrees it "pops", creating the Styrofoam looking little pebbles we use in the garden. The pop is caused by water escaping, leaving little holes in the perlite, creating a very lightweight product.

Our garden currently has approximately 1000 square feet of gardening space. Consequently, we need a large amount of perilte......have you seen the price of perlite in stores and gardening centers???? Yikes!!! It's so marked up. Need some for your garden......well Facebook Marketplace to the rescue! We sourced ours for free...........

FREE!!!!!!!!!

Try searching for or directly contacting hydroponic farms. These farms give away the perlite they can no longer use for the hydroponic gardening, but it's perfectly useful in your garden. Our "suppliers" leave the spent bags in piles to be picked up during certain hours. We bring bags and fill them up........ dry perlite is very lightweight.

Alternatively try leaving a wanted ad at your local feed stores. Ask the manager if they have a public posting board and if you can leave a little note looking for perlite (or whatever rural type items you wish). It might surprise you to find, way in the back of the store, a community board with people leaving ads, just like you. A little piece of nostalgia and still an effective way to communicate with others. People love to help, and you might end up with some clippings of plants or cast off garden equipment when you go pick up your perlite. Gardeners and farmers tend to be very generous people.

Well, I'm off to take care of the chickens..........let's see if they continue with their productivity. If anything, at least they are fun to watch and keep away the grubs. Have a wonderful day, Beautiful People!

04/14/2021

What goes into making a raised bed? Well....there are many ways to create a successful raised bed. You need deep soil for roots to grow, proper drainage, ability for the soil to hold water and nutrients.

Do you know what else is a prerequisite for The Brinkes when creating a raised bed?

Yes, you guessed it............ it must be as low cost as possible.

In order for our garden to be worth our time, efforts and limited funds, ideally all costs associated (physically, monetarily or our time) should not exceed the yields.

To create the frame of the raised beds we started by looking for low cost and free wood. One source of free wood are pallets. You can find free pallets posted on Facebook marketplace. Also, you could ask businesses you frequent or drive by, that have pallets by their dumpsters. Ask first, before you take them (many businesses re-use their pallets). If you are open and inform the business what you are trying to create, you might be surprised to find businesses very supportive. They may even put some aside for you in the future.

In the end, we decided to make only a few of our beds with free pallets. If you are interested, check out Youtube, there are great instructional videos showing how to use pallets to create the beds. We stumbled across a business practically giving away 2x6x8's for $2 a board!!!! Yes, pallets are free, but when you factor in the amount of time and gas driving around gathering the pallets........ then sourcing the wood pieces from it.......... as my dear bestie reminds me, "your time is worth something". In our case, it made more sense to pay a little upfront and go with the 2x6x8's, then drive around, taking time away from our kiddos (and finding a babysitter).

After my talented Hubs built the wood frames, we placed the frames 3 feet apart, so that the rows would be wide enough to get a wheelbarrow through. In the frames, we tilled the ground to loosen it, careful not to turn over or disturb the soil layers. If we disrupt the ground too much, the natural bacteria and organisms would suffer. Most plants only need 12 inches of soil, but some benefit from deeper soil so that they may grow a long taproot. As such, we tilled the ground making it easier for those taproots to develop.

Next came a cardboard layer. Again, sourced for free from supermarkets with the "Just Ask First" Method........ works like a charm............everytime. :) Look for cardboard that has as little color as possible, and NO shine or plastic coating. A lovely shade of drab is best. Place a layer of cardboard and wet it well. This is to keep the w**ds down during the first few weeks, as our plants develop a stronger root system. One that does not have to compete with a quicker growing w**d root system for nutrients.

As the cardboard slowly breaks down it will compost, adding more nutrients into the soil. The breakdown will create a weak spot for the taproots. The taproots will gather water and minerals from a deeper source, helping to slow the depletion of nutrients from the top soil. Additionally, with our fierce Florida storms, the deeper root system will help our plants withstand the high winds and torrential downpours.

Next we added a "Drain Field" on top of the cardboard. We will look more into how we did it, in our upcoming posts.

What are your preferred methods of tiling? Any suggestions of what we can do better next time?

Kids are needing me to go over their school work with them this morning, so I must run.

Happy gardening, Beautiful People!

04/09/2021

We have been busy, busy, buzzzz-eeeee!!!!! The family spent some time away, visiting Branson. Missouri and Tennessee. The Sweet Hubs and I attended a Marriage Conference. It was wonderful! An awesome opportunity to get away, spend time together and make a great marriage, even better. The retreat was:

https://www.familylife.com/weekend-to-remember/

We cannot recommend it enough. We believe it is so important to have a marriage "tune-up" every now and then, to keep our relationship running at it's best. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me. No we are back at The Patch, rolling up our sleeves and off to work!

Right before we left for vacation, we got to planting..............big time! In the next few days we will be sharing posts and pictures of the newbie seedlings peaking out of the ground, and growing up. Green is our new favorite color. :)

Find out what over 1.5 million couples have experienced at FamilyLife’s Weekend to Remember® marriage getaway. It’s your turn to make a great marriage happen!

03/18/2021

BIG DAY at The Patch!!!!! We are growing!!!! Today Mr. Todd came with his big dump truck and brought in compost and topsoil mix. The kids cheered as they watched him maneuver his noisy truck in the yard. Later today we will begin to fill the raised bed using the "Lasagna Method". We will explain and post more of that as we fill them.

So grateful for longer days to get the work done!

03/17/2021

Let's talk about making a garden affordable, right down to the seeds. This year, I decided to try seeds from the Dollar Store, along with organic seeds, seed catalogs specializing in heirlooms, seeds purchased from small farms, and even the big box hardware store and wally-world. Here's a HUGE surprise...........

The Dollar Store seeds germinated at a high rate!!!!! And wait, it get's better. I found some old Dollar Store seeds that were packed for the 2018 growing season, and they did just that.............THEY GREW!!!!! I am seriously amazed. These seed packets are 4 for $1......... I mean, what did I expect for 25 cents???!!! Was I in for a shock!

What I like about the Dollar Store packets is that they do not contain a large amount of seeds (ehhh, what can I say......oh yeah..........25 cents....whoop! whoop! whoop!) So you can buy up a bunch, and have a wide variety to plant. That's especially nice if you do not have space to devote to lots of veggies, but want to try your hand at some gardening this year. But warning: they are selling up fast! Call around and ask your local Dollar Ski ;) store manager when they expect a shipment, and plan to be there that day or next. Seeds are the new toilet paper. I kid you not.

We are also experimenting with beans from the cupboard. Trying to grow a few limas, red beans, pintos......... what's the worst that can happen? Well, a few things, they may not be suitable for our area. The seeds could be hybrid and consequently, the resulting plant could develop the characteristics of only one parent plant. The potential outcome? Maybe a not so tasty bowl of beans and rice.

Each hybrid seed is carefully bred to create a plant with desired characteristics; things like disease resistance, size, productivity.........the list is endless. The process and time to develop a hybrid can take many years. But when we try to save and use a seed from the product of the hybrid plant it came from, we may only end up with a part of those desired characteristics. So the resulting fruit or vegetable, (or in our case, a legume) might be the "out bred" qualities instead.

Other variables such as moisture content and a host of other factors go into the potential germination of a seed. Either way, we are going to try! It's only a few pennies and a bit of space in the yard. I'll just laugh if those soup beans grow and the organic black bean seeds don't do as well. But vegetation grows in difficult places, here goes nothin'!

Next time, let's talk about creating low cost seed pots, grow mediums and other goodies. And seed saving. And where to get cheap or free compost. And green material. And brown material. And my kids. And my Better Half. And chickens.............

Yep, I am on my second pot of coffee. Wish my poor Hubs good luck........ Y'all know how much I like to talk.
Have a blessed day, Beautiful People!

03/15/2021

Heirlooms....... beautiful little seedlings of old time varieties. We are growing heirloom peas, melons, corn, squash, chard, beans...... the list of what we planted is long. Over 20 varieties of melons and watermelons! Wild African Wax Melon, Black Bean variants that are over 100 years old. Seminole squash and Everglades Tomatoes, native to Florida..... can you tell how excited I am ???!!!!

We started the varieties of corn, squash and beans first so we can plant the "Three Sisters". The corn provides a strong sturdy "pole" for the beans to climb and the squash spreads out on the ground, to help choke out w**ds. The squash also appreciates some shade from the harsh summer sun, as it hides under some of the corn leaves.

This mutual benefit is just one of the Companion Planting techniques we will employ to help cut down our use of pesticides and insecticides.

03/15/2021

Plans, plans plans!!!! I am so excited to share our progress. Look at all those wonderful raised bed planters my handy (and hunky) husband made!!!! We have managed to create 900 square feet of garden space, in our tiny yard. My husband said he has to hide the leftover scrap wood because I might find a space for him to build another raised bed. Not true, honey....... I want several more raised beds. I see a few more empty spaces calling out to be filled! LOL!

Soon these boxes will be filled with compost, seedlings and hope. Come along and watch us grow.

03/15/2021

Spring has sprung at The Patch. Our free range biddies are laying gorgeous tan, brown, small white and Easter Egger eggs. The kids are enjoying an Egg hunt everyday, sans the plastic candy filled eggs. Instead they look in the coop, nesting boxes, under the deck, behind wood piles, just to name a few. Fresh air, searching and fun. Can it get any better than that???
Childhood memories and laughter, sunshine and feathers. Blessed to be in our little Patch of the world.