On that note, I am going to opt for sleep instead writing a “real” post tonight. Expect a couple from me later this week though that talk about my school project, what flowers are blooming in these late winter months, and maybe some news about starting seeds!

Last year I attempted to prune my two grape vines and wasn’t really sure I did it right. With a gardening book in hand and raindrops plunking down, I tried to visual how the illustration in the book related to the gangely vines in front of me. With Tom by my side this year, I learned a lot more about how to prune grapes on the farm.

Tom uses the spur method, rather than the cane method. More specifically, he uses a four arm Kniffen system of spur pruning. It is fairly simple when explained properly (which I hope I can do).

You want the grape vine to have a central “trunk” and four vines coming off of it - two on either side of the trunk. You want to use the strongest, best vines for those four main side branches. You can mark them with a tag in the summer if you realize one branch in particular produced really tasty grapes. Or you can keep using the same four branches every year if they look healthy and perform well. The finished pruning is pictured here.

You cut off any stray shoots coming out of the “trunk”. Marking the four main side branches with colored tape may be a good idea to keep yourself from accidentally snipping off your prized side branches.

You then determine how long you want the grape to reach out. You can cut it way back if you have multiple grapes planted within a few feet of each other, to keep good air circulation and prevent them from becoming too intertwined. You can also let them grow out several feet on either side if you want to cover a fence or something. Be aware that grape experts think the quality can go down though if the side branches get too long, but I think they are talking about ten feet on either side.

We left these side branches about 4′ long on either side of the “trunk”. You then work your way along each of those four side branches and trim down the off-shoots. We can call the off-shoots from these four main side branches “sub shoots” or something. You snip those sub shoots down so just two buds remain on them. Here is a picture of sub-shoots with two buds on them.

You end up doing a LOT of trimming - much more than I thought. You will have the main “trunk” vine, two main side branches on the left and two on the right, and smaller sub-shoots coming off of those side branches that have been trimmed down to just a few inches that hold two buds. You can even decide to fully cut off certain sub-shoots, if they are growing too close to other sub-shoots or look damaged. I am including a sketch to help explain what things should look like.

Grapes can grow significantly over just one season, so these guys will be really full and grow longer branches come summertime. We were leftover with a large pile of grapevines that one could either dip in rooting hormone to try to propagate, or just reuse the bendable vines in a garden project outside.

Most of the larger vegetables in the ground are lettuce varieties: red butterleaf, romaine, green leaf, etc. The arugula is getting huge already. As the temperatures get hotter through the Spring, the greens will eventually give way for tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and other heat-loving plants. Careful crop rotation throughout the season is a smart way to maximize the variety of vegetables you can grow out back.

Red and green spinach leaves are looking really lush along the perimeter of the greenhouse. I am not sure if there is a taste difference between the two varieties, but I am looking forward to some experimentation.

We had a gorgeous, sunny weekend a few days ago and the greenhouse was incredibly comfortable to putz around in. It was warm and humid, reminding my of what summer feels like. I have secret plans to take a nap in there sometime soon and just enjoy being surrounded by my little green friends again. After experiencing what a difference a greenhouse can make in all-season gardening, I can’t wait to build a mini version in the future.

What is a first and last frost date, you ask? The first frost date signifies the end of winter, in a sense. Typically the ground will not freeze past this average date. The last frost date signifies the beginning of winter. The weather at this date will become too cold for most vegetables and will likely kill of those last tomatoes.

Knowing these dates will help you understand when different vegetables want to be planted. Some like to be in the ground when it’s still really cold. Others will need to be sown or transplanted after all danger of frost has passed. Find the average first/last frost dates for your location at the Old Farmer’s Almanac.

What does a hardiness zone mean? A hardiness zone tells you what plants will thrive and what plants will struggle in your location, based on climate factors. Zones reflect how severe the temperature changes are, how cold winter is or how hot summer will be. There are a couple sources for zone information: the USDA and Sunset. Sunset can sometimes be more accurate, as they often take into account microclimates in the area. Talking to your local nursery is another option to find out from locals what zone you fit into.

Let’s take Portland for an example. We have a pretty long growing season because our last average frost date is April 3rd and first is November 7th. That gives us roughly seven months to grow things outside of freezing temperatures. Our zone though is six, which means it doesn’t get really hot here. Growing things that need hot heat will most likely not do well here.

When it comes to planting vegetables, consider both your frost dates and zones. If Portland doesn’t get super hot, you might want to help heat-loving plants like tomatoes, peppers and melons. Consider growing them in black containers that will absorb heat. Pick fast-ripening varieties that require fewer hot days to mature. Another option is to cover your crops with plastic to raise the temperature level for your plants. You can do this to start vegetables outside sooner than they would otherwise prefer, or do this in the summer to get heat-loving vegetables extra warm.

I love referring locals in the Pacific Northwest to the vegetables calendar produced by Portland Nursery. They will tell you the best method to grow vegetables - either seeding indoor or direct sowing - and they tell you in what month to plant them. Easy-peasy.

If you live outside the NW, check out this great Excel spreadsheet from You Grow Girl. You enter in your first and last frost dates and the Excel form calculates when exactly you need to start seeding. Happy planting!

Since we are all busy these days with piles of reading, model making, sketching, writing, etc. the potlucks have proven to be an interesting challenge in making good food quickly. The homemade tiramisu, for example, turned out to be a fairly easy process - you just needed to allow time for things to set overnight. As someone who loves the process of cooking though, of bringing people into the kitchen together with glasses of wine and conversation, slowly watching a meal emerge, the college potluck thing has been challenging for me.

On a recent potluck evening, I found myself peeking up from a mountain of work to check the time and realized I had only an hour or two to figure out what I was bringing. I racked my brain for something relatively in season that I could make quickly. I raced to my favorite grocer and bought an equal number of beets to local apples. I didn’t yet know what I was making, but surely those things would taste good with each other.

When I got home, there was less than an hour to get out the door. I threw together what turned out to be a really delicious beet and apple salad. The key is using good quality beets - mine were organic and local. It was simple, healthy and delicious.

Beet & Apple Salad

• 8 beets
• 4 apples
• 2 T olive oil
• 2 T apple cider vinegar
• 2 T honey
• 1/2 cup hazelnuts, loosely crushed
• Salt and fresh ground pepper

1. Boil the beets for about 30 minutes, fully submerged in water. Don’t bother washing or trimming them beforehand. When you can pierce them easily with a fork, they are done.
2. Drain the beets. Run the beets under cold water while peeling off the skins with your fingers. Chop the beets into bit-sized pieces, about 1 inch.
3. While you are peeling beets, toast the hazelnuts on a flat baking sheet until lightly browned, either in the oven or a toaster oven.
4. Chop the apples into bit-sized pieces, about one inch, and toss them in with the beets.
5. In a small bowl, mix the cider, oil and honey together whisking briskly until combined. Poor over the apple and beet mixture and toss well.
6. Salt and pepper the salad to taste. Toss the toasted hazelnuts in with the salad. Refrigerate until serving.

I had some fresh chevre cheese in the fridge I decided at the last minute not to use, in case anyone had a dairy issue (which someone did end up having). The cheese would turn pink from the beet juice, but I think it would add a nice creamy texture. It appears my “throw it together quickly” cooking skills are improving and I hope you enjoy the recipe as much as I did!

I then recalled how my urban hens seemed to be making quite a ruckus on a recent morning - and the dots connected. Someone was laying eggs again and they were all celebrating it each morning with some squawking to announce it to the world. I was just too sleepy with late nights with grad school midterms to piece that together without seeing the actual egg.

Just when it felt like this rainy, cold winter would go forever, I get a hint of Spring. The chickens only made me wait a couple months before they started laying again. How wonderful to have something producing food in our backyard again. The ground is soppy and my seeds are not planted yet, but at least my days of buying eggs are over for the next ten months.

I believe Florence, the Rhode Island Red, is the champion layer yet again. Maude, our Brahma, should start back up soon with slightly larger brown eggs. And old Pearl can lay when she feels like it and surprise us with sporadic blue eggs.

Crocuses are popping their heads up and thick, green reeds of daffodils are reaching for the sky, soon to open their flowers. President’s Day is this weekend, which means our pea seeds need to get in the ground. This much we can do, right?

And maybe while we are out there, we can direct sow some arugula and lettuces. And we could probably take a moment to shove a few more garlic cloves, an onion set or two, and some potatoes into the ground as well. It just takes a little time and a drop of motivation to get outside this weekend and stick our hands in the dirt again. I know I’ll find some peaceful sanity and we’ll also get a good start on the growing season.

Go get dirty!

In the mean time, there are still things to do outside in the winter garden. The garden in the house I am renting is sleeping for winter. The soil was so compacted and sapped of nutrients that I chose to heavily mulch it rather than plant winter crops. (If I were really on the ball, I would have planted some cover crops in the fall) But the Urban Farm I volunteer at still shows signs of life and reminders of what we can grow here in the NW on these gray days.

Early February means it is time to “feed” the garlic with chicken manure at the farm. On my homestead, I didn’t really fertilize a whole lot because I would dig in a mixture of chicken manure and used straw before planting. It will be interesting to see what a difference fertilizing at this time makes. My garlic was typically an after thought crop - shove some in here and be surprised in the fall when it has multiplied despite the neglect.

The leeks that were planted in the Fall are now big enough to harvest. We have been eating a lot of soup, since I am not savvy enough to do anything else with leeks. Their tall stalks and lush leaves are a welcomed sign of life in the vegetable beds.

Kale seems to be holding on for dear life. It appears to have made it through the winter, although it looks a bit pathetic. But new, dark green leaves are uncurling with the promise of iron and other nutrients that will keep us healthy and energized.

And finally, the brussel sprouts look good enough to cut off and enjoy (well, if you peel a couple outside leaves from them). My favorite method of preparing them involves a quick steaming until barely fork tender, then tossing in a fry pan with butter and pecans. Simple, but delicious.

Now get back to starting those seeds and planning the garden!

This larger, more serious problem I noticed a few days ago. Mounded soil, like a mole hill, began appearing right inside the coop fence with a small hole. I narrowed the culprit down to either a rat or an opossum. The critter did not seem to be after the hens sleeping upstairs in the hen house, so I assumed it was coming in to steal food under the cover of darkness.

I searched for the entry point to the tunnel on the outside of the coop to no avail. An hour or so later, I had managed to detach the hen house from the run and moved both away from the coop site. Unfortunately, when I moved the hen house, I discovered large droppings under the floor which sits about 4″ above ground resting on cinder blocks. Ew: A rat had taken up residence.

Mice = I can deal with. Rats = yuck.

I still hadn’t found the source of the hole, so I began moving cinder blocks. I traced the hole under several cinder blocks until it eventually went underground deeper. This is all a rather disgusting treasure hunt I had been on. I was now deciding whether to fill the hole, cover it with a heavy object, or flush it out. I figured I would flush it out with water to discourage the rat from returning to live in damp quarters.

Here I am: three inches from the ground, crouched over a gross rat hole, shoving a hose down there and filling it with water. Everything seems to be going fine. Sometimes the water gets plugged up, so I shove the hose further down until the water gets cleared again. A couple minutes into this endeavor, the water begins gurgling. An air pocket perhaps is rising to the surface. But, no…

A GIANT RAT!!! It flies out the hole, inches from my fingers, right in front of my face! It’s little beady eyes… It’s wet, scraggly fuzzy fat body goes scurrying across the yard!

Pearl, my old americuana, decides to make a run for it. Hey, protein is protein I guess. Luckily (I think?), Pearl was not fast enough and the rat got away.

Why do I share this totally jarring, gross story with you? It’s entertaining. It’s disgusting. And it is just one of those ridiculous stories that comes with the territory of keeping urban livestock. I have been so fortunate to avoid run-ins with pests and disease in general, but it is all too common to have an occasional pest problem.

The next step is to trap the rat and I look forward to returning to the days of pest-free chicken keeping.

One spot that still sits bare in my garden is on the north side of our house, which is in mostly full shade. I focus largely on edibles and it can be slim pickings finding a shade-loving fruiting plant. Enter this great problem solver: Evergreen huckleberry.

Evergreen huckleberry, botanically known as Vaccinium ovatum, is an evergreen shrub native here in Western Oregon. It is actually native all the way from British Columbia down to the California coasts. The shrub can grow anywhere from 3′-15′ wide and 3′-5′ wide, although most nurseries estimate it will grow to about 8′ in the shade.

It prefers shade, but does well in partial shade too. I have seen people plant it in full sun and it stays quite small and seems to struggle. If you live on the coast, it can do well in the sun because coastal air and soil stays quite moist and cool.

(Photo courtesy of One Green World)

In Spring, the plant will produce delicate little pink-white flowers that will turn into black huckleberries in September. The twigs have a red-tinge to them, contrasting with the dark green leaves. It does well in moist, well-drained and acidic soil.

There you have it - an evergreen, structural shrub that loves shade, produces both flowers and berries, and cane do well in acidic soil. Problem spot solved!

I’m dreaming about 5-way pear trees that produce five different varieties on the same tree. The multi-variety grafted trees are also a wonderful way to stretch out the harvest season on small urban plots. The nurseries are all brimming with wide varieties of fruit and nut trees and shrubs. As always, buy from a quality nursery you trust and I urge you to buy local when possible to support the little guys.

Planting bare root is done while the trees are dormant and they wake up in the Spring to their new home. Buying trees bare root is the most economical way to get purchase trees as well. Just be delicate with that root ball as you transport the trees.

When planting, dig a very wide hole so the roots can lay down and spread out around the truck. I have heard recommendations of about 6″ or less in depth. Hammering stakes down on either side and tethering the tree in the middle is not a bad idea. It will help the tree grow in a straight, stable manner during high winds.

Happy planting!