6679 MEN Guide to Growing Your Own Food

M O R E T H A N A M A G A Z I N E . . . A W AY O F L I F E

10 STOCKFOOD/STEVEN MORRIS PHOTOGRAPHY; COVER: MATTHEW T. STALLBAUMER

18 KEITH WARD

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News From Mother Homegrown security

Mother Earth News Online

Top crops for food self-sufficiency; Fresh asparagus recipes; Succession planting; Plan your fruit garden; Free food-gardening app; Easiest way to find the seeds you need

Green Gazette

Killer compost update; Grasshopper control; How heirloom vegetables stack up against hybrids

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Cut Your Food Bills in Half !

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20 Crops That Keep and How to Store Them

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Putting Food By the Old-Fashioned Way

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Building Fertile Soil

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Organic Pest Control: What Works, What Doesn’t

It’s true! You can enjoy better and healthier food while spending much less to feed your family.

Stash a winter’s worth of delicious, homegrown produce in the cool corners of your homestead.

We looked to our readers to find out why home canning is experiencing a modern revival. Their answer: Canning produces flavorful, high-quality food that saves money, builds self-reliance and creates lifelong memories.

Use cover crops, mulches and no-till permanent beds to boost soil health and your garden yields.

Our nationwide reader survey reveals the best methods for managing common garden pests.

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Vertical Gardening Techniques for Maximum Returns

You can grow bigger, better cukes, beans, tomatoes and cantaloupes with simple, sturdy trellises.

28 MICHAEL ROTHMAN; BELOW: ELAYNE SEARS

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Wise Watering

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13 Ways to Beat the Heat

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The Mother Earth News Fairs: More Personal, More Inspiring!

Conservation-based watering techniques and equipment will keep your crops healthy and yields abundant.

Protect your crops from ol’ Sol’s relentless radiation, plus try these simple late-summer techniques for a bountiful fall harvest.

Meet some of our favorite M E N F speakers and find out what they’re most excited about in the ever-widening world of sustainable living.

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M O R E T H A N A M A G A Z I N E . . . A W AY O F L I F E

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Best Vegetables to Grow in the Shade

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Quick Hoops: Easy-to-Make Mini-Greenhouses

56 BARBARA DAMROSCH

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ROBIN ARNOLD

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Stretch the growing season and savor fresh, homegrown veggies all year by using quick hoops in your winter vegetable garden.

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Best Backyard Chickens

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Keep Bees, Naturally!

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How to Choose a Compact Tractor

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First-Class Tomatoes

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All About Growing Blueberries

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All About Growing Potatoes

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Grow Chives!

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All About Growing Asian Greens

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All About Growing Radishes

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The Incredible Versatility of Eggs

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Additional Resources

BONNIE LONG

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Even in shady conditions, you can bask in delicious garden harvests if you choose the right crops and make a few easy adjustments.

Learn about heritage breeds and find the best traits for your needs.

Grow Your Own Poultry Feed

Save money and raise a healthier flock by giving your birds homegrown, all-natural feed.

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Enjoy the sweet rewards of beekeeping by learning how to harvest fresh, delicious honey from your own backyard.

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Find the best multipurpose machine for mowing, digging, plowing and carrying your heavy loads.

Get delicious, hard-to-find varieties delivered to your door.

Discover how to grow blueberry varieties suited to your climate so you can harvest homegrown, antioxidant-rich berries all summer.

Gardeners can tap into a deliciously diverse selection of potato varieties, and it’s easy to save and replant your favorite varieties from one year to the next.

Snip fine-flavored, crispy green chives over a baked potato or salad for a colorful, tasty garnish.

Asian greens can slip into several culinary roles and are excellent sources of calcium and vitamins A, C and K. Learn how to grow, harvest and store a variety of these versatile veggies.

Fast and easy to grow, crisp spring and fall radishes sown directly in the garden are ready to eat in less than a month!

Pastured, free-range eggs can star in numerous egg recipes, from simple fried eggs and bacon to an elegant soufflĂŠ.

Recommended books, online resources, seed sources, gardening tools, food preservation equipment and more.

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FOTOLIA; BELOW: DAVID CAVAGNARO

RICK WETHERBEE

Pamper yourself with your garden’s produce, healthful fresh eggs and homegrown peas and legumes.

DREAMSTIME

At stores or direct from farmers, organic and free-range eggs, dairy products and meat do cost more than their conventional counterparts, but keep an eye on those prices — the gap is closing significantly as mainstream food costs surge upward.

Foods derived from healthy, humanely raised animals that enjoy sunshine and exercise are worth the extra cost, as they provide added benefits when it comes to nutrition, food safety and basic morality. And if you buy locally, you can add the environment and your local economy to the list of beneficiaries.

For all these reasons, I gladly paid $2.55 a pound for the turkeys that a local organic farmer raised for me last year. The freshly harvested birds came with a hidden bonus: Simply having this caliber of meat in the house made it hard to make a case for a budget-busting lunch or dinner elsewhere.

Also consider that many homesteads can easily support a few dairy or meat animals, making laying hens, poultry, dairy goats or a family milk cow well worth their upkeep. The trick to producing your own eggs, dairy or meat economically is simple: Stick with animals that earn a food profit versus adopting too many as pets.

Improve Your Snacking Smarts. In defense of snacking, it is possible that grazing one’s way through the day is more natural, biologically speaking, than sitting down to ceremonial meals three times a day. We were hunter-gatherers not so long ago, which is fine if you’re picking blueberries or eating fresh snap peas off the vine. But when the hunter compulsion has you tiptoeing through a dark kitchen to harvest a bag of chips, you may have a costly problem, in terms of both calories and cash.

I am quite familiar with this syndrome, which is why I have learned to turn the most affordable and humble of ingredients — flour, water and salt — into otherwise pricey snack foods

Follow a Food-Efficient Diet Eat Mostly Plants. A diet rich in vegetables, fruits and grains typically costs 20 percent less than a diet that revolves around meat. From a practical point of view, a thrifty veg-first strategy will take you into a wonderland of inexpensive, protein-rich, and easy-to-store dry beans and peas. If you cook a batch of beans a week, you’ll have the makings for burritos, veggie burgers, salads and soups, all for pennies a serving. Try different kinds: Beans and peas come in a huge range of shapes, colors, sizes and textures. When you find beans you love, set some aside to grow in your garden.

Before you cook them, soak beans in water for eight to 24 hours (larger beans can soak longer). Drain and rinse to wash away the tummy-troubling oligosaccharides. Soaked beans can be simmered on the stove or in a slow cooker, or you can cook them (efficiently!) in a pressure cooker in less than 15 minutes.

(And you don’t even have to soak the beans: If you start with dry beans, a pressure cooker can have them ready to eat in about half an hour.)

Choose Pastured Meat, Dairy and Eggs. Pastured products are not only more nutritious than industrial meat, but also more eco-friendly. (You can read several articles about this at www.MotherEarthNews.com/SafeMeat. — Mother)

such as pita chips, pretzels or toasted bagel slices. I dry lots of seasonal fruits, too, so even after adding purchased nuts, my everchanging snack mixes cost 70 percent less than the store-bought versions. And then there are popcorn, parching corn, and several millets and amaranths known for their roasting qualities — any of which may be a perfect fit for your garden and your favorite TV chair. You really can do better than chips made hundreds or thousands of miles away that cost $3 or more a bag.

Learn to Use Locally Abundant Foods, including wild-gathered mushrooms, nuts and berries. Often these can be had for the harvesting (check to see if you need a permit to gather on public land), or you might find them as great seasonal deals at farmers markets. The price usually drops when the crop comes in, so buy when the supply is at its peak to get excellent quality at a good price. From pecans in the Southeast to wild Maine blueberries to the Pacific Northwest’s bounty of mushrooms, every area has its riches, and often you can harvest them yourself for free once you’ve educated yourself about what to look for and what to avoid.

Eat Whole, Eat Plain. Whole grains are super-nutritious, tasty and cheap. Whole oat grains, which are called groats, cook into a truly satisfying breakfast for about 25 cents per serving, and a $2 bag of gourmet brown rice can anchor many meals for the whole family. After they’re cooked, whole grains can go into spicy stir-fries, pair with roasted meats, or be taken in a sweeter direction with diced apples, cinnamon and brown sugar. The important thing is to have them around, ready to eat. Whole grains such as wheat berries, groats, hulled barley or brown rice take about an hour

top left: © Angela Ollison | Dreamstime.com

How to Run a FoodEfficient Kitchen

Cook and Eat at Home. Numbers from the U.S. Department of Labor’s 2005 Consumer Expenditure Survey showed that Americans spent about half of their food dollars away from home — a figure that has been in decline as food prices continue to go up. Still, it’s a no-brainer that home food is cheaper than eating out, even if you must buy all of the ingredients, or you are just learning to cook. You will not be alone. Restaurant revenues are down, but sales of cookware and cookbooks are on the rise. And few things are as enjoyable as savoring fresh and fragrant dishes that come from your own kitchen.

Make Big Batches. Consider a pot of split pea soup, easily made by soaking a pound of dry peas in water for a few hours, and then simmering them with onions, celery and carrots (and, some would insist, good bacon or ham). You now have enough soup for two, three or even four meals, depending on the size of your household. As soon as the mother batch cools, pack up

Freeze or dry your own foods for healthy and inexpensive snacks.

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to cook on the stove, or 15 to 20 minutes in a pressure cooker. (Some grains, such as quinoa and millet, cook up even faster. You can learn more about these grains at http://goo. gl/x2SZo.) By cooking two batches per week, you will have inexpensive, ready-to-eat whole grains available at all times.

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REPLACEMENT FOTO (TOP RIGHT -- BEANS): Fotolia

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A spare dresser in a cool room can provide convenient storage space.

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Winter squash keep well in a cool bedroom.

CROPS THAT KEEP and How to Store Them

By Barbara Pleasant

Stash a winter’s worth of delicious, homegrown produce in the cool corners of your homestead.

Illustrations by Keith Ward

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mix of storage vegetables and fruits varies from year to year and we’ve learned that putting by storage crops is something anyone can do — even if your produce comes from the farmers market. By making use of cold storage spots in your basement or garage, and perhaps adding a seasonal second refrigerator, you can easily store at least these 20 crops for winter eating using simple, time-tested methods.

ere in southwest Virginia, my partner and I take pride in growing and storing most of our fruits and vegetables. Knowing where our food comes from gives us confidence in its goodness, plus we save about $5,000 a year through our gardening and food storage efforts. There is another benefit, which is the utter convenience of having a selfprovisioned home. In early winter when our stores are full, I feel like I’m living in a well-stocked organic grocery store.

We bring many years of experiApple Grain corn ence to this quest, and we’re still Dry beans Garlic learning. Measured by weight, Beet Leek stored garden crops make up Cabbage Onion more than half of our overall harCarrot Parsnip vest, with every onion and potato Celeriac Pear just about as fresh as it was the Celery Potato day it came from the garden. Our

20 Vegetables and Fruits That Store for Two Months or More

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Pumpkin Rutabaga Shallot Sweet potato Turnip Winter squash

Sleeping Quarters for Storage Crops Success with storage crops hinges on finding methods that convince the crops that they are enjoying a natural period of dormancy in unusually comfortable conditions. This typically involves slowing physiology by controlling respiration (usually by lowering temperature) and/or providing moisture so crisp root

vegetables sense they are still in the ground. Some staple storage crops, such as garlic, onions and shallots, need dry conditions to support prolonged dormancy.

Most storage crops need to be cured to enhance their storage potential. During the curing process, potatoes and sweet potatoes heal over small wounds to the skin, garlic and onions form a dry seal over the openings at their necks, and dry beans and grain corn let go of excess moisture that could otherwise cause them to rot. Harvesting, curing and storage requirements vary with each crop — see the charts on Pages 21 and 22 for full details. In my experience, harvesting and curing vegetables properly leads to much more flexibility when it comes to long-term storage conditions.

Storing Spuds Seeking out good food storage spots in your home or on your property can lead to interesting discoveries. Take storing potatoes, for example.

When we asked the M E N Facebook community (go to www.Facebook.com/ MotherEarthNewsMag to join) to share favorite ways for storing potatoes in winter, we received dozens of great ideas, including these: Place cured potatoes in a burlap bag, tuck the bag into a plastic storage bin left open a wee bit, and keep in an unheated basement.

Line plastic laundry Corn, beans baskets with newspapers, and garlic are with potatoes arranged in easy to store. layers between more newspapers. Place the packed, covered baskets in an unheated garage.

In the basement, make short towers of potatoes by stacking them between layers of open egg cartons.

Cover the towers with cloth to protect the potatoes from light.

Place sorted potatoes in cloth grocery bags that have been lined with black plastic bags, and store in a cold

Some crops need high humidity; others keep best in dry conditions.

space under the stairs. A similar method: Sort different potatoes into paper bags, then place the bags in milk crates to prevent bruising.

Use an old dresser in a cool room or basement for storing potatoes in winter.

Leave the drawers partially open for ventilation.

In a shady spot outdoors, place a tarp over the ground and cover it with an inch of loose straw. Pile on potatoes and cover with more straw, a second tarp, and a 10-inch blanket of leaves or straw.

Bury a garbage can horizontally so that its bottom half is at least 12 inches deep in the soil.

Place potatoes in the can with shredded paper or clean straw. Secure the lid with a bungee cord, and cover with an old blanket if needed to shade out sun.

Here in Virginia, we have vole issues that require us to harvest our early spuds promptly, so my buried garbage can gets plenty of use for storing potatoes. Buried coolers or even buried freezer bodies (with machinery removed) can work in the same way.

Storing Crisp Root Vegetables Theoretically, root vegetables that grow well below ground can be mulched over in fall and dug as needed in winter. This often works well with parsnips, but most gardeners would risk losing much of an overwintered carrot or beet crop to wireworms, voles or other critters. Repeated freezing and thawing of the surface soil damages shallow-rooted turnips and beets. It’s always safer (and more convenient) to harvest root crops, clean them up and secure them in cold storage. In Zones 7 and warmer, you’ll probably need a second refrigerator, as you won’t have naturally cooled spaces that stay below 40 degrees Fahrenheit in winter.

In colder winter climates, you have several options: Try bins, buckets or trugs packed with damp WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM

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Mite Soil particle

Root hair cell Springtail

Pseudoscorpion

Mulch Is a Must

Fertile soils should be about 50 percent air (shown in white) and water (blue). Tiny mites, springtails and other critters move through the spaces, feeding on organic matter.

gests spreading it across the surface with a rake and covering it immediately with mulch. “The worms will move the compost into the soil.”

Weil advocates a no-till approach using cover crops for microbe management.

“Start by applying a layer of compost and mulch if the soil is decent,” he says. “The soil is not compacted if you can push a wire flag 12 inches into wet ground.”

If the soil is severely compacted or poorly drained, build raised beds. Weil likes to begin in late summer or early fall by staking out the beds and planting a cover crop mixture of rye and hairy vetch.

The following spring, he uses a scythe to cut the cover crop (electric or gas-powered weed trimmers work well, too), cutting as close to the surface as he can and spreading the debris to an even thickness

Instant No-Dig Garden Beds

A quick, raised garden bed can be built without any digging or tilling, preserving the soil food web. Try these options to get vegetables growing quickly without disturbing the life in your dirt: • Lay down cardboard, mulch and set out transplants.

• Plant directly into bags of topsoil with drainage holes.

• Make a frame from straw bales and fill with compost and topsoil.

• Build a “bird nest” from brush and fill.

• Make “lasagna” by alternating leaves, soil and compost.

• Add soil to your compost pile and set transplants in directly.

To learn about these methods and for more tips on how to build garden beds quickly and easily, read gardening expert Barbara Pleasant’s article “How to Make Instant NoDig Garden Beds” at http://goo.gl/racV4.

over the bed with a rake. You could also let Mother Nature handle this job by using a less winter-hardy crop such as oats, which will grow strongly in the fall and die in the winter in Zone 6 and north, and in much of Zone 7.

“The best mulch will be had,” Weil says, “if the cover crop is allowed to grow until it ‘heads out’ or flowers, and if high-residue cover crop species (such as rye) are included in the mix.” However, if the cover crop residue is too thin to completely cover the soil, Weil recommends spreading a couple of inches of mulch. To set out transplants, he simply makes a hole in the mulch and digs out enough soil to accommodate the root ball. The soil is replaced, and mulch is pushed around the transplant. Seeds can be planted by making a narrow part in the mulch with a rake, then drawing a small furrow with a pointed stick in which to sow the seeds. If the soil is too firm, Weil pulls an old meat hook or curved crowbar through it like a single tine on a harrow; the area of disturbed soil only needs to be a couple of inches wide.

Beyond the obvious benefits of suppressing weeds and preventing soil crusting, mulch helps maintain the soil food web. Mulch dramatically increases the amount of rainwater that enters the soil and decreases the amount of water that runs off the surface. Runoff takes soil with it, damaging the food web. Even modest mulch or cover crop coverage (10 to 30 percent), Weil says, substantially improves rainfall saturation and erosion control. (In some areas, mulch may keep the soil too wet or cool, in which case you can rake some of it back to allow the soil to warm up and dry out.)

Organic mulch also feeds soil microbes. Earthworms move organic matter from the surface down to root zones where it can be used by bacteria. Many diseases are prevented or slowed by beneficial fungi living in mulch. A North Carolina State University study showed that only 3 percent of tomatoes mulched with composted cotton gin trash became infected with Southern blight, a fungal disease, compared to 66 percent of unmulched control plants. The composted mulch was an ideal breeding ground for beneficial fungi (Trichoderma), which killed or prevented the blight.

Numerous disease-causing bacteria and fungi are found in the soil, but a healthy, diverse soil food web, nourished by mulch, allows beneficial microbes to

How Alive Is Your Soil?

You can test the health of your soil food web with a Solvita Garden Care Kit. The kit assesses the soil’s biological health by measuring how much carbon dioxide the soil food web produces. You just put a soil sample into the plastic jar, add a paddle coated with a gel that changes color when exposed to carbon dioxide, put on the lid and wait 24 hours. Then, compare the color of the gel to the color chart in the kit. If the test shows low activity, the kit tells you what steps you should take to improve your soil.

The Garden Care Kit also includes similar tests to assess pH and the quality and maturity of your compost. Each kit sells for $79.50 plus shipping, and includes materials for three soil tests and three compost tests. To order, call 800-451-0337, or go to www.

WoodsEnd.org/Store.

WOODS END LABORATORIES

Organic matter

Once a permanent bed is established, feed the soil food web regularly. Elaine Ingham, founder of Soil Foodweb Inc., a firm that specializes in growing plants without pesticides and inorganic fertilizer, says the best way to manage a healthy microbial ecosystem in a home garden is to routinely apply organic material such as compost.

Ingham suggests gauging the amount needed by what has disappeared from the soil during the previous season. Generally, adding one-half inch to 1 inch of compost every spring will be plenty. In hot climates, where decomposition is rapid, or in regions with heavy rainfall or sandy soil, make at least two 1-inch applications, one in early spring and the second in late summer or early fall.

naturally control or eliminate those that cause problems.

Start with a 3- to 6-inch layer of organic matter (tell your neighbors you want their bags of clean grass clippings and leaves). As the material rots and compacts, add more to maintain the depth.

If you don’t grow cover crops, mulch thickly so microbes and earthworms have cover and a food supply during the winter. Instead of discarding autumn leaves, shred them with a lawn mower and use them to mulch beds. Other easy-to-find mulch materials include hay, grass clippings and wheat straw.

Cover Crops Cover crops are the soil web’s best friend. They protect bare soil, add nutrients and offer a stable environment for microbes and earthworms when ground is

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fallow. Cover crops help reduce the harmful effects of erosion from rain and wind, and, by moderating soil temperature, prevent heaving caused by alternate freezing and thawing. As cover crop roots decay, they leave channels for new plant roots to find.

While Weil favors a legume-grass mixture (a hairy vetch and rye combination) for cover crops, Diver favors clovers. “I love crimson clover because it has such a pretty flower,” Diver says, “and subterranean clover because its plant residue is very effective at suppressing weeds.” He says the effectiveness of oilseed radishes as a cover crop also has been studied in cold climates. The radishes endure frigid winters, send taproots deep into the soil and manufacture glucosinolates that repel parasitic nematodes. Glucosinolates are sulfur compounds found in the brassica family, including radishes, that act as biofumigants for the soil. Consider using a brassica cover crop if pest nematodes are a big problem in your garden. (Some nematodes attack plants while others help control soil-dwelling insect pests such as lawn grubs. This second type can be purchased and introduced to the garden.)

It’s important to match cover crops to your region’s seasonal growing cycles. Some covers, such as buckwheat or sorghum, thrive during hot summer months, while others, such as oats or winter rye, will grow only when temperatures are barely above freezing. And if you are going to rake, dig or till in a cover crop, Weil cautions, do it at least 10 days before planting. “Some plant residues have short-lived allelopathic or ammonium-release effects, which could interfere with crop seed germination, as well as weed seed germination,” he says.

To learn which cover crops will work best in your region, Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education offers the online e-book, Managing Cover Crops Profitably, at http://goo.gl/HJgFg. Doreen G. Howard has been building her own soil food web for more than 30 years. When not in the garden, she lectures and writes about sustainable gardening.

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PHOTO CREDIT: Garden Care Kit photo by

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Slugs took top honors as the most bothersome pest in home gardens,

Our nationwide reader survey reveals the best methods for managing common garden pests.

with 55 percent of respondents saying the slimy critters give them trouble year after year. Handpicking was highly rated as a control measure (87 percent success rate), followed by iron phosphate baits (86 percent) and diatomaceous earth (84 percent). Opinion was divided on eggshell barriers (crushed eggshells sprinkled around plants), with a 33 percent failure rate among gardeners who had tried that slug control method. An easy home remedy that received widespread support was beer traps (80 percent success rate).

Relying on bigger predators — such as chickens, garter snakes and ducks — appears to be the most dependable way to achieve long-term control of garden slugs as well as several types of beetles, cutworms and many other pests. Ducks are reportedly sharp slug-spotters, whether you let them work over the garden in spring and fall, or enlist a pair to serve as your personal pest control assistants throughout the season.

“Hungry ducks follow me around the garden daily. They love slugs and turn them into eggs,” commented a Mid-Atlantic gardener with 10 to 20 years of experience. In the Pacific Northwest, several longtime veterans of slug wars said ducks are a gardener’s best (and the most entertaining) way to end chronic problems with slugs.

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Squash bugs had sabotaged summer and

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n 2011, M E N launched our Organic Pest Control Survey to learn more about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to limiting insect damage in organic vegetable gardens.

About 1,300 gardeners from across North America responded, providing new, region-specific insight into organic pest control.

Our survey had strengths and weaknesses. It included opportunities for open comments, which became the source for the practical tips in this article. But, although we asked many questions about specific methods, we failed to always list chickens and ducks, which we learned many gardeners regard as essential players in controlling Japanese beetles and other garden pests.

We were surprised by some of the results. For example, we suspected gardeners would report that coping with various root maggots was a challenge, but 90 percent of respondents reported getting good control with crop rotation. Similarly, flea beetles didn’t make the list of worst pests because most gardeners achieve good control by using row covers and growing susceptible greens in fall rather than spring.

Ultimately, the survey revealed 12 widespread pests that give gardeners grief.

Here are the nitty-gritty details, including down-in-the-dirt advice on how to manage each pest, plus details on which pests are the worst in each region.

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Aphids were on the watch list of 50 percent of respondents, but the

success rates of various control techniques were quite high. Active interventions, including pruning off the affected plant parts and applying insecticidal soap, were reported effective, but so were more passive methods, such as attracting beneficial insects by planting flowers and herbs. Several readers noted the ability of sweet alyssum and other flowers to attract hover flies, which eat aphids. “We attract a lot of beneficials by planting carefree flowers in the vegetable garden, including calendula, borage, zinnias, cosmos and nasturtiums” (Midwest, more than 20 years of experience). Other respondents commented on the importance of having some aphids around to serve as food for lady beetles, hover flies and other well-known beneficial insects.

KEITH WARD (3)

By Barbara Pleasant

winter squash for 51 percent of respondents, and even ducks couldn’t solve a serious squash bug problem.

Most gardeners reported using handpicking as their primary defense, along with cleaning up infested plants at season’s end to interrupt the squash bug life cycle. The value of companion planting for squash bug management was a point of disagreement for respondents, with 21 percent saying it’s the best control method and 34 percent saying it doesn’t help. Of the gardeners who had tried it, 79 percent said spraying neem on egg clusters and juvenile squash bugs is helpful. About 74 percent of row cover users found them useful in managing squash bugs.

Several respondents pointed out that delaying squash planting until early summer and growing the young plants under row covers results in far fewer problems with this pest. This makes sense, because natural enemies of squash bugs become more numerous and active as summer progresses. Until then, keep scraping off those egg clusters, and handpick as best you can.

Three readers shared this tip: In the cool of the morning, place open pizza boxes beneath squash plants. Jostle the plants and let the adult and juvenile squash bugs fall into the boxes, and then slide your captives from the boxes into a pail of soapy water.

A creative idea from Editor-in-Chief Cheryl Long is to create a simple Squash Bug Squisher out of two thick boards and a hinge. For more details on how to build the squisher, and to read comments from fellow readers who are battling squash bugs, go to www.MotherEarthNews. com/Squash-Bugs.

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ILLUSTRATIONS: All illustrations excluding “Garden Pest Control Trends” sidebar are by Keith Ward.

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QUICK HOOPS

BARBARA DAMROSCH

Easy-to-Make Mini-Greenhouses

Stretch the growing season and savor fresh, homegrown veggies all year by using quick hoops in your winter vegetable garden.

By Barbara Damrosch and Eliot Coleman

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ardeners through the ages have tried to extend summer, and inventive minds have worked hard to find ways to keep fresh food on the table with year-round gardening. A sheltered area used to protect plants from cold and wind in a winter vegetable garden can often take those plants past their normal season. A south-facing stone or brick wall will absorb enough heat from the sun’s rays — even in winter — to create what’s called a “microclimate” at its base. At night, the heat radiated from the stones creates warmer conditions for anything growing alongside the wall. In fact, placing

vegetable growing areas against the south wall of any structure will have that effect. Even the south side of a board fence or a thick hedge blocking the cold north winds will provide a slightly more benign climate. Old-time gardeners took advantage of these warm, sheltered spots to keep the fresh harvests going as long as they could in their winter gardens.

Simpler, Lighter and Less Expensive Harvesting winter fare is so satisfying that, after you try it, you’ll probably want to extend your repertoire. But adding cold frames to winter gardens means time and money spent acquiring them. That’s why we came up with simpler,

BARBARA DAMROSCH JOHNNY’S SELECTED SEEDS (2)

Gardeners at the authors’ Four Season Farm in Maine spread row covers over hoops to protect winter crops.

lighter, less expensive structures the edges of the row cover around we call “quick hoops.” They’re the perimeter of the structure with just sheets of clear plastic or row sandbags. These can be recycled cover material supported by 10plastic bags filled with soil, or you foot lengths of pipe bent into can purchase sandbags and fill half-circles and then poked into them with sand or gravel. Be genthe ground. Quick hoops operate tle with the row cover fabric, but as 3-foot-tall mini-greenhouses. try to secure it without any slack You can use two types of pipe so the wind is less likely to catch it material to build quick hoops. One and blow it around. is plastic electrical conduit, which Year-Round Gardening is cheap, lightweight and easy to bend by hand. This option is fine You can plant much more in parts of the country where no ground under quick hoops than more than a few inches of snowfall under a cold frame, and you can can be expected in winter. But to also grow and protect taller crops, support the amount of snow we allowing for more extensive winter get in Maine, we found that we gardening. You might start seedneeded half-inch galvanized metal lings in one covered bed and grow conduit, sold as “EMT” (electrical early salads in another. Because metallic tubing) at most hardware spun-bonded floating row cover stores. In addition to its strength, is self-venting, there’s no need for the advantage of EMT is that, afautomatic vents to prevent overter it has been bent, it holds its heating. You can access the crops shape permanently and is thereby removing the sandbags and fore easier to work with. folding back the cover.

To give EMT a curved shape, Another trick is to add a layer bend it around a quick-hoop of clear plastic over the row cover bending form (see photo, above). for extra protection during extremely cold weather. With added You bolt the form to the top of a plastic in place on your minilarge, flat surface such as a workgreenhouses, you can overwinter bench or a sturdy picnic table.

Top: Heavy-duty quick hoops are shaped using a bending form bolted to a picnic table. Middle: Sandbags prevent crops such as spinach, lettuce and Insert one end of the pipe, pull it covers from blowing away. Bottom: Quick hoops protect onions without worrying about against the curved surface of the plants from freezing cold and snow. the snow load, which can rip row form, slide it in farther, and pull cover fabric. The plastic layer can again until you achieve the desired be held down with sandbags along the perimeter and ends, shape. The form itself is reasonably priced and could be purjust as with the row cover. But, because we live in a windy chased by a garden club or a group of friends and made availarea, we also use form-fitting plastic clips (available at www. able to everyone for year-round gardening projects. (Quick JohnnySeeds.com) to secure the plastic to the bowed pipes. If hoop benders can be purchased from Johnny’s Selected Seeds, the temperature inside a quick hoop can rise to 75 degrees www.JohnnySeeds.com, for $59 plus shipping.)

Fahrenheit, you’ll need to vent the plastic by opening the If you take a 10-foot length of EMT and bend it into a ends, or remove the plastic entirely so only the underlying half-circle bow, it will have about a 6-foot diameter. That row cover material remains.

6-foot width will cover two of our 30-inch-wide beds, leaving a 1-foot path between them. We make 10-inch-deep holes with an iron bar on either side of the two beds and Barbara Damrosch and Eliot Coleman are insert the ends of the conduit into the holes, placing one of organic gardening pioneers whose Four these conduit bows every 5 feet along the beds. Just three Season Farm in Maine produces vegetable bows cover a 10-foot-long area. crops year-round. They have authored a Then, we drape a 10-foot-wide piece of floating row cover number of books on organic farming and material over the bows. This spun-bonded, white polyester gardening. This excerpt is from their latest fabric lets in water and light, provides up to 4 degrees of frost book, The Four Season Farm Gardener’s protection, and excludes insect pests. We cut it long enough Cookbook, available at http://goo.gl/4hEKk. so that it drapes down to the ground on both sides, with an additional 2 feet at the ends of the structure. We then secure

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Photo: Barbara Damrosch

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8/28/18 11:07 AM