Gardening with Marmots, Part II

You may not realize it, but old sheets can make the difference between wildlife getting everything, and having food left over for humans to eat from the garden. I have lettuce growing all throughout this garden. In all places where it is out in the open, it is eaten down to nubs, mainly by marmots. However, within the circle of sheets, there are some beautiful lettuce plants especially for our family to eat. They were intended to be "round two" of successional planting, so they're not quite ready to sustain our salad habits, but they will be soon.

Big thanks to everyone who shared old sheets with me. Cheers -- it's working!

The sheets surround the majority of the Alderwood Patch. The fabric creates a visual and perhaps an olfactory barrier, so far making it much harder for the marmots to discover these plants. This is the first year that we have grown peas without them being eaten down -- not even once! It's not that the marmots couldn't get into the sheet house, it's just that they don't see what's inside, so it doesn't occur to them. (Let's hope this continues...)

My daughter and I build this cucumber tipi together. At first it was intended to simply be a trellis for the plants; then I draped an opaque curtain over one side as a wind break. 

When our cucumbers plants became a marmot target, I realized that I was "most of the way there" in protecting the cucumbers. I added one wall of plastic sheeting on the south side and used clothespins to keep everything in place. So far so good!

Now, if I were a marmot, I would want to investigate this further! It was our daughter's idea to camouflage the Havahart trap, then Lee suggested it as well, along with the strategy of a trail of goodies leading to the opening. Thank you Lee, for lending us your larger trap!

I didn't want to disrupt the trap's function but I layered on vegetation wherever I thought it would be out of the way. Notice the carrots growing in the foreground on the right, half-eaten by the marmots. They love carrot tops!

This was Marmot #3 caught this year, named "Chirpess" by our daughter.

Here M is releasing "Chirpess" at a location where another young marmot greeted us upon arrival. She is sure this other marmot was "Chirper," Marmot #1 caught and released earlier this year.

This is "Chirpess" after leaving the trap. Looks like a good release location!

I believe that in every situation in life, there is something to be learned. 

Okay, so what can you learn from marmots in the garden? 

Well, there is a good reason the marmots eat so many of the carrot tops. The greens taste great and are good for you! Carrots are part of the umbelliferae family (celery, parsnip, fennel, cumin, cilantro, and parsley, etc.). They do have alkaloids -- along with lots of other greens -- so I'm not going to over do it, but throwing some into my salads adds chlorophyll, potassium, and lots of other great minerals and vitamins. Everything in moderation, and it's always good to rotate your greens. I hear some people are allergic or intolerant of carrot greens, but I really enjoy homegrown carrot tops, knowing they haven't been sprayed with any pesticides. I'll follow the marmots' lead and harvest some before they do!

I first heard about eating carrot greens from local organic farmer and Netherlander, Ton Rietveld of Leaping Sheep Farms. I was thrilled to discover this additional crop (thanks, Ton!). As 'Garden Betty' says: "Just because these things are not culturally popular does not mean they’re not nutritious or can’t be eaten; in fact, the leaves of root vegetables tend to be more healthful than the roots themselves." So as you are thinning those crazy twisted carrots from your garden, don't forget to bring some carrot greens to the table, too! 

Most of my lettuce may be eaten down by marmots at the moment, but it will grow back. In the meantime, they won't stop me from enjoying salads! I made the above salad this morning from carrot greens, chopped snap peas, baby carrots (harvested during thinning), sprouts from a jar in the kitchen, and organic pinto beans from Azure Standard. A little olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and I'm in salad heaven! I may be frustrated that so much lettuce has been eaten down, but the marmots are causing me to be more creative in making salads -- and it's good to eat a diverse diet, right?

Do you like to eat carrot greens? 

If so, what's your favorite way to prepare them?

Please leave your comments below.

Going Vertical

"Before" 

This is what the central vertical pit looked like before digging commenced.

This pit began with a lot of weeds for green manure. Our neighbor Ron stopped by with a generous load of rotting pine. His timing could not have been better! I had the good fortune of a visit from the Tonasket Permaculture group planned for that same day... perfectly serendipitous timing. 

We were a small but hard working party of three and we got a lot done! This pit has the most pine of any, and it is on the bottom layer, where I'm most likely to use pine. However, if the pine is well on its way to being rotten, I've found it works well in any of the layers. In this photo, Jason is helping lay down the base layer of pine.

This work party happened in the fall of 2013, just as the first frosts were starting to claim some of the plants. It was handy to be able to use a lot of frosted or finished plants for green manure.

I took down my daughter's Mammoth Sunflower using my bow saw and here Jason is about to toss it in.

Lots of water in between layers...

Next a layer of horizontal spruce.

There was plenty of soil to work with, so we added a layer of dirt. 

And now for the vertical layer! This bed is an experiment that will allow plant roots to access the vascular tissues of the rotting wood more directly. A big thank you to Lee Johnson for bringing the exquisitely punky spruce that made this experiment possible. 

Why vertical? 

The theory is that placing the wood vertically allows the direction of the vascular tissues in the wood to help make moisture accessible to the plants' roots. If you picture the tubular structures of the xylem and phloem running lengthwise through the trees, it makes sense that the roots of your plants might more easily access water by growing into those structures, which are opened into cross sections when the logs are cut to length (like straws within the logs). Compare that with plant roots meeting the smooth natural edge of a log, and it seems feasible that the orientation of the log might make a difference. I haven't seen any scientific studies done to prove one method over the other, but someone did get creative in doing comparisons of wood orientation in large tubs: http://lowcostvegetablegarden.blogspot.com/2012/07/vertical-hugelkultur-eliminates-wilt.html. Also, if you look at John Elliot's video post on this thread: http://www.permies.com/t/28038/hugelkultur/Direction-sticks-Hugel-vertical-horizontal, you can also see how roots may like to grow in between the bark and the wood. Pretty interesting!

(Pasted from the comments section of another post, as it's relevant to this situation)

Here you see Jason and Barbara placing Alpaca manure on top of the vertical pieces, a beautiful dressing to use near the surface where plants can best benefit from the nutrients. (The Alpaca manure came from Chuck and Kathy Mowry on Nine Mile Ranch and can be purchased for $25/pickup load, loaded for you with a tractor). It is an incredible material to bring into your garden. I like to put a handful of it in with every transplant if I can! 

More plants for green manure and lots more water...

And a final layer of soil for planting into.

The following growing season, 2014:

"After"

And to recap...

Mid-stream:

After:

(June 28, 2014)

Side note: It always seems like I have gargantuan amounts of path space in June... but somehow by August there is hardly any place to walk! So I must be on track. The bulk of the vertical spruce bed is planted with potatoes, which are interspersed with onion, cabbage, and marigold companion plants. Sunflowers volunteered throughout the garden and are a welcome addition in most places. 

I would like to put out a hearty thank you to the Tonasket Permaculture group for being involved, and particularly to Barbara and Jason for their hard work in helping build the central vertical spruce bed! What fun it is to work as a team. Thanks again!

Keep it Growing

Cultivating More Food at Both Ends of the Growing Season...

Earlier this spring, I was finishing up the final bit of last year's cabbage (grown in the garden of friends in Havillah), and I noticed that the base had sprouted roots. "Hmmm..." I thought. "Roots..." I could not resist, so I put it in a pot in the house and watered it. Soon after, leaves emerged.

Amazingly, the plant continued sprouting and has been growing robust yet tender leaves, a most wonderful surprise when the garden is just starting to take off. I think this is going to be a new tradition! It provides a great source for early spring foraging at salad-making time.

The cabbage head spent the winter in my fridge, and I ate from it throughout that time. Imagine this much life coming from a wee little root base! I am not concerned about getting another cabbage "head" -- I am more than satisfied with these wonderful leaves!

I have done this with celery also (planting the base after eating the rest of the plant), although the celery has never looked as vibrant as this cabbage does. 

And of course there is the joy of overwintering sweet peppers, and eating red ones mid-June! This is a lipstick pepper from Harris Dunkelberger's seed, when he had the Good Seed Company (local seed from Chesaw, WA).

*        *        *

I'm always looking for ways to extend the productivity of established plants. I was really happy with the celery last fall, which was growing in the aspen hugelkultur hotbed and continued to produce through the end of October (when the above photo was taken). It's an exciting process to see which plants can do well in early spring and into autumn, and where they seem to grow best. The aspen hotbed had many thousands of tons of manure and hay dumped into it along with the aspen logs, so it is undoubtedly my warmest garden bed. It's also at the south facing edge, and the hill drops off below it, creating more exposure to the sun.

Above is the part of the aspen hotbed bed in which the celery was growing, at the end of last summer.

It's good to think about the fall garden now, so that I can be sure to get seeds in the ground on time for the plants to be mature in September/October.

The swiss chard and daikon radishes also flourished in the autumn garden last year. I want to be sure to get some of both established for fall again this year!

What are your favorite plants for producing food at the extreme ends of the growing season?

Weeds to Riches

A Glimpse Back to 2012: "Before"

This is the earliest photo I have of this site, located just above the main garden. 

St. John's Wort can be a great medicinal plant, but when it is set free in the wild, it takes over with no regard for what it is overriding. (Here it is seen with an orange hue as the flowers begin to set seed.) Unlike knapweed, St. John's Wort does not stick to areas where the soil has been disturbed. I have watched it swallow up native sagebrush plant communities. In the past there was a lot of houndstongue here too, most of which I pulled manually in 2010 and 2011 before learning about sheet mulching. However, my attempts at pulling the St. John's Wort made it clear that I needed to take a different approach. Enter many truckloads of cardboard and a whole bunch of barley hay...

After applying a generous dressing of fresh manure for heat, then laying cardboard down and layering the barley hay on stop: smothering works! I used barley hay because it was available for free, and because it came with a cover crop seed built in. (Funny how this made it undesirable to others, but doubly useful for me!)

Little by little, the St. John's Wort retreats.

2013: The barley seed has sprouted and I've planted a few tiny rhubarb plants from my neighbor's garden. I've also moved some extra strawberry plants in from the main garden area and added more apple trees.

The rhubarb is growing, and the first smothered area is taking on new life... but in the foreground you can see there is still a lot of St. John's Wort to contend with.

I saw no reason why this project couldn't happen during winter, so I gathered up as many leaves as possible in the valley and brought them home at every opportunity -- for mulch on top of the cardboard.

This time around, I went without manure. While this method lacks the heat component, it also avoids introducing new weed seed to the site. The manure worked great for helping rot the St. John's Wort plants under the cardboard (and for building rich soil), but I did find new weeds cropping up as the cardboard decayed. I'm always up for tweaking the process and comparing results. 

Slowly the weeds made way for cardboard and leaves. I also added an above ground hugelkultur bed, but that is a topic for another day. 

In some places I experimented with using old cotton fabric sheets instead of cardboard, and they were a lot easier to work with, with the added benefit of being much more durable. 

I am thankful for all the people and businesses who have shared cardboard and leaves with me!! Thank you!

Early May 2014:

The snow is gone, and so is the St. John's Wort! 

I added Ponderosa Pine branches from some forest thinning that my husband did. These branches turned out to be critical to the success of the cardboard/leaves method, as we had some strong spring winds that began blowing the hard-earned leaves away! As I ran about laying more branches on top, they did the trick in securing the leaves to the ground. *Whew* This ain't Kansas, but the winds sure can blow sometimes. 

I'll take layers of debris over weeds any day. There can be concern about fire hazards when layering debris. However, if you irrigate, pine needles and leaves turn into beautiful compost. Even without irrigation, over time this is a soil-building process.

This is how it looks today, May 31, 2014. The orange hue you see now is from pine needles, which will rot and make the soil richer -- helping other, more desirable, plants to grow. 

Zooming out a little, you can see the context of the larger area. The posts form cages around apple trees, six different varieties. What was once a choked-out noxious weed zone is now supporting rhubarb, strawberries, horseradish, garlic, lettuce, valerian root, and asparagus. I didn't actually intend to make a garden here, but after hauling in loads of manure to help rot the weeds out, and after seeing the space open up, it naturally became our "garden annex." 

Weeds to riches, no doubt about it!

Gardening with Marmots

Yellow-Bellied Marmots are, admittedly, very cute. They are also voracious eaters and especially enjoy mowing down promising-looking carrot and pea plants. We have a lot of rock outcrops and piles of boulders, making our property excellent marmot habitat. They are here to stay, so I've been thinking long and hard about how to successfully grow a garden in tandem with their appetites... I mean, a garden that we get to eat from too! 

Hardware cloth is the first order of the day. I've been running it along the bottom of the deer fence, making it less convenient for marmots to run into the garden whenever hunger strikes. As you can see, I've run it vertically along the lower 2-3 feet of fence, and then horizontally along the ground for another foot or so. I placed cardboard underneath for weed control -- fencelines just seem to invite difficult weeding situations. Then on top of the ground-laying hardware cloth I piled wood chips and rocks.

You will notice I said, "to make it less convenient." We have watched baby marmots climb up and over 4 foot tall chicken wire, so I am not under the illusion that the hardware cloth can actually prevent them from entering. They are good at burrowing under barriers, so on the south section of the garden that faces their favorite rock hangout, I piled many gallons of small rock on top of the hardware cloth. But if I stopped there, I would still be inviting disaster. 

Second order of the day: Sacrificial garden beds. Above is the first garden bed offering for the marmots. It is a raised bed (made with, you guessed it, rock!), and here you see various weeds I pulled for a nitrogen layer in the soil. Under the weeds are some pieces of wood... Yes, even the Yellow-Bellied Marmots get their own hugelkultur bed here!

Next a layer of hay... I'm sure it will sprout lush orchard grass, which they will probably appreciate. Even if they don't eat the grass, it will help draw their attention. 

Then a layer of soil and a wide variety of seeds: carrots, lettuce, sunflower, calendula, radishes, peas, etc. This may not be enough, in which case I'll add more sacrificial beds.

It can be very challenging to grow food in a dry climate with lots of hungry animals all around. The chipmunks love cherry tomatoes, the gophers love carrots, the deer get desperate in September... the list just goes on. You've heard it all before. But there are benefits too, besides the fun of seeing so much wildlife. I am looking forward to (hopefully) having the Dusky Grouse in the garden again this year... they love to eat the slugs, and I just cheer them on! (Yes, we live in a semi-arid climate and we have thousands of slugs... but that is a topic for another day.)

In the meantime, we're hoping for harvest success through the combination of making it harder for marmots to enter, and enticing them with greens outside the garden fence. Fawn and I have also added cages around some of our favorite asparagus and strawberry plants, just in case the marmots get in, for a double layer of protection. Thankfully they estivate starting when summer gets hot, so we only need to keep them out of the garden for the first part of the growing season. (Estivation is a summertime hibernation to avoid the dry part of the year when food is scarce. I'm grateful that the marmots employ this survival strategy -- it takes some of the pressure off the garden!)

What do you do, to preserve some of the harvest for human consumption?  

I'd love to hear about your creative ideas and techniques; please comment below.