Get your seed potatoes from your grocer's now...

Time to look for sprouting potatoes in your local produce section for planting! Be sure to get organically grown potatoes (ones grown conventionally can be treated with a chemical sprout retardant). Choose ones that are about the size of a large chicken egg. Also find ones that are already showing the first signs of sprouting. For more in-depth information, Sprouting potatoes? What to do.

The yellow one is showing the first signs of sprouting: tiny yellow sprouts at the site of the 'eyes'. That's what the red one looked like about a week earlier. 

One week later, both potatoes continue to sprout.

I have kept these sprouts under a towel while they are sprouting, in a cool (not cold) space. Once you expose them to light, they will pause extending their sprouts. Be careful handling them as the sprouts grow as they can be fragile at this stage.

Once sprouts are about one inch long, we move them to a room where they receive _indirect_ sunlight. This will 'chit' them (help them store up the sun's energy for better growing). Be sure they _aren't hit_ with direct sun.

The potatoes will turn greenish and the sprouts will stiffen. Once they are chitted, proceed with your favorite planting methods.

Here's a row of potatoes planted in our greenhouse about a month ago. Potato leaves are very frost-sensitive. We start early batches in our greenhouses in February and March (Oregon, USA, Zone 7b) and later batches in April and May once the threat of frost is past.

Happy planting!

Local food: Grow your own beans and grains

It's just about time to be planting grains and beans in our area (Willamette Valley, Oregon USA, USDA Zone 7b). Every year we grow a yellow corn and a blue corn, two kinds of sorghum and amaranth; all of which we dry down, hand-process and grind for use in cereal and baking. We also grow lots of Scarlet Runner beans (pictured left) and kidney beans to be dried and used for cooking throughout the year. Here are links to show you our methods. 

Grow Your Own 'Blue Corn' Blue corn is higher in protein than yellow corn and it makes a delicious, sweet addition to your hot-cereal mix or baking recipes - Crumb-Free, Whole-Grain Cornbread Recipe . Here is info on growing and processing this heirloom grain, native to north America.

Corn bread made from a combination of blue and yellow corn we grew ourselves.

 Grow Your Own Protein - Scarlet Runner Beans: If you're interested in growing your own beans for winter-storage, this is a great variety to choose. Because the beans are so large, they are easy to process in the fall after you harvest them. They DO need trellising but adapt well to growing on a teepee, giving you a beautiful and fun, shady hide-out through the summer. If picked young, the beans and pods are even edible!

Shelling dried Scarlet Runner Beans is a favorite activity in the fall....

 

Grow your own Sorghum for grain and flour: Sorghum is a relatively easy grain to grow and process on a small to medium scale. It doesn't require heavy-feeding/fertilizer nor lots of water. We grow two varieties, BaYeKi, short-season, short height, less sweet; ideal for chicken feed but also fine for human consumption. And Kassaby, tall, long-season (often needs trellising to prevent lodging), sweet, wonderful flavor. Canes can be used for making syrup (but you have to choose either syrup or grain; you can't have both).

 

Kassaby sorghum being laid out to dry before being removed from stalks.

Most seed-saving doesn't happen till the fall but, if you want to save seeds from your crops, here are some things to be thinking of as you plant your crops in the spring:  Basic Seed-Saving on a Small Scale Happy Growing!
 

Image credit: Seed abundance! Mike Brunt

Spring has sprung! Here we go again...

Greetings dear friends, near and far. Spring has sprung here in Oregon! A few weeks ago we had a flush of sunny days in the low 70's-F and it made everything surge into growth-mode! Fruit trees are blossoming, bulbs are blooming, grass is growing (which we harvest and use for mulch and to create compost in our greenhouse paths: LINK). Though winter isn't entirely over yet, it feels good that the seasonal wheel is turning toward warmth and longer days. (Image: apple blossom behind our farmhouse).

Rainbow over The Ark greenhouse.

This post contains several articles we hope you will find relevant to our times: Info on building a small greenhouse out of a metal carport frame; How to build a bean tipi/teepee and an organic solution to slugs. 

Two teepees in front of our greenhouses; ready for bean planting.

The opening article is a deviation from the usual "How To" posts on this site and addresses the enormous challenges of our times from a Gandhi-an, solution perspective. We hope you will find it inspiring.

Image by Llyn Peabody

Lastly, if you are local to our town and would like to join us for a season of food-growing/seed-saving/food-preservation fun, there's a link to our volunteer page too. (Oh, and don't miss the short, sweet, uplifting video at the very end; a little wisdom from Andy and Opie Griffith)

Volunteers sifting mushroom compost.

At this time of world upheaval, environmental destruction and division among people, it is so good to hear coherent, wise voices, guiding us in ways that will help us heal the world. Nipun Mehta is one of those voices. He is the founder of ServiceSpace, a global ecosystem working at the intersection of technology, volunteerism, and a culture of generosity. Click here for an introduction to an article he wrote that explores the need to balance our activism/protesting (10%) with positive, creative actions (90%): Science of Soul Force: How Your Heart Changes the World. Brilliant!

Organic Solution to Slugs - Iron Phosphate: If you live in a moist climate like the Pacific NW, slugs and snails can be so destructive and disheartening! This post outlines our journey from the beginnings of our garden here in Monroe (2010) when whole rows of lettuce were consumed or damaged beyond recovery in a single night (!) to the present-day when we hardly ever see any slugs or snails in our gardens at all. If you don't want to read the whole post, the solution we found is: iron phosphate pellets (coated in something like oat-flour) - commercially known as Sluggo. It basically constipates the gastropods, disrupting their reproductive cycle.

Carport-Frame Greenhouse Design: Current world upheaval is catalyzing a resurgence in interest in growing ones own food. Having the ability to start seedlings at home and grow them to the point where they can be transplanted outside will give you a real jump on the season and it can be incredibly empowering (not to mention fun, and healing to one's nervous system!). All of our greenhouses have been positioned directly on the ground and we've built raised beds within them. We use saw-horses and slatted tables to start seedlings in the spring which are removed in time to plant in the beds later in the season for warmth-loving crops like tomatoes and peppers. An efficient use of space! This post will walk you through the step-by-step process of turning a metal carport frame into a sweet, functional greenhouse!

How to build a Bean Tipi/Teepee: In recent years, the Sharing Gardens have shifted the types of crops we grow towards a greater emphasis on storage crops like dried corn, sorghum and beans. Pole beans can take up a lot of space and resources if you trellis them in a straight line. We've found that growing beans on tipis is a very efficient use of space. Another advantage is that tipis can be disassembled and stored out of the way in the winter and then set up in a new site the following season. They also look great and make a fun hiding place for kids in summer's heat. Enjoy!

Potato harvesting at the Sharing Gardens

Volunteering and Garden Location: Participating at the Sharing Gardens is more than your typical volunteer experience. We welcome share-givers (volunteers) to share in learning how to grow food without chemicals or animal by-products to create fertility in a spirit of mutual generosity.

If interested, participants will learn about the full seasonal growing cycle: from planting seeds, growing them out, harvesting and preserving food, and saving seeds for the future. 

 

Everyone who contributes to the Sharing Gardens, whether through time, money or materials, shares in the the harvest. There is a wonderful feeling of camaraderie and closeness that develops amongst the people who help grow and harvest the food.  Our surplus fruits and vegetables are donated to local food charities. 

We have a limited number of spaces open for share-givers for the 2026 season. If you'd like to learn more, click here and be in touch.

Andy and Opie: Generosity, Charity and Being Selfish: The Andy Griffith Show often dished up some poignant lessons about being a good person in the world. Here's a precious little clip where Andy wrongly accuses Opie of being selfish. A great message overall...(and as gardeners who rely largely on worms to help us create compost for soil fertility, we especially enjoyed Opie's perspective on life as a worm!). (LINK) 

The Sharing Gardens is a registered non-profit and tax-exempt organization. We exist entirely through donations. If you have found benefit from our project or our site, please consider making a donation through PayPal. A receipt will automatically be provided for your records.

Locally Sustainable Gardening in the Face of Supply-Chain Shortages

Originally posted at the beginning of the pandemic, in May of 2020, this post is even more relevant this year! Seeds are becoming ever more expensive and in some cases, harder to find. Also, due to current world events (spring 2026) fertilizer and other commercial amendments may also become more expensive and harder to find.

 

For years, the Sharing Gardens has been anticipating shortages, and higher prices on fertilizers and soil amendments. This is why we've been developing and perfecting our methods of creating soil-fertility from locally available materials such as leaves, grass-clippings, wood ash and coffee-grounds. (See links below).

Fertility without fertilizers (commercially-made ones that is...). Sharing Gardens - July 2019

Sharing Gardens - late July - 2019

This year we didn't purchase or use any fertilizers or amendments (including livestock manures) and we created our own potting mix from the worm-castings we harvested from our greenhouse paths, mixed with a courser compost our neighbor produced from hard-wood sawdust, coffee grounds, leaves and grass clippings (with a lot of help from his worms!)(Spring 2026: this will be our 6th season using 'veganic' methods). Here are articles about this "veganic" method we are using with great success.

Lovely compost!

Making your own "Veganic" (no animal manures) Potting Soil

Grass Clippings and Leaves for Mulch

Coffee Grounds and Wood-Ash for Fertility

 

The Ground to Ground Primer - Coffee grounds for your Garden

We have seen many headlines, and heard from fellow gardeners  about vegetable-seed shortages. If you would like to learn about saving many of your own seeds, here is a post with info on saving many kinds of seeds in your own garden for use next year.

Saving squash-seeds

Family Heirlooms: Saving Your Own Seed

Please keep in mind that sustainable gardening practices at a local level will be far more successful if you build cooperative relationships with your neighbors instead of trying to do it all alone. Here is a link to many resources about how to start a Sharing Garden in your own community.

Gardening with a group! Many hands make light work...

Seeds of Abundance - early spring garden Links

Good day to you all. Here in the Willamette Valley of Oregon (USDA zone 7b) spring planting has begun! Since we have large hoop-houses, we are able to start some cool-weather-loving crops even in January (see below) but for most folks, even with greenhouses, seed-starting doesn't usually begin until some time in February. This post contains links to info you may find useful in your own gardens at this time of year. Happy spring planting! (Image: Llyn Peabody "Radiance")

Organic solution to slugs: Here in western Oregon, slugs and snails can have a devastating effect on early spring plantings. Interestingly, the native Banana slug is a composter and only eats dead material but several species of non-natives prefer live foods. Iron phosphate is considered safe by organic standards. Effectively, it constipates the gastropods, interrupting their reproductive cycle. To read more:  Organic solution to slugs

Coffee Grounds and Wood Ash for Soil Fertility: At the Sharing Gardens, we have weaned ourselves off commercial fertilizers and other soil amendments. In our search for readily available additives to the composted leaves and grass that make up the majority of our soil's fertility, we have found that wood ash in particular, has really helped to keep our soil's mineral-content high. And, since we heat our home with wood, it's an abundant and free resource. Here's a post about using wood ash (and coffee grounds too).  Coffee Grounds and Wood Ash for Soil Fertility  (Image: Digging in wood-ash to our raised beds)

Why sunflowers are so great for bees: We all know that many species of bees are in trouble; both the imported honey bees and the diverse native varieties. In fact many other pollinating insects are also showing steep declines worldwide. They need all the help they can get! Researchers have found that there is a specific ingredient in sunflower pollen that acts as a boost to bees' immune systems. Growing sunflowers is great for birds too as their seeds come ripe in the fall when birds need to store up on a diet high in protein and fats for migration and winter health. Why sunflowers are so great for bees

Growing Celery from seed: We began growing our own celery many years ago with great success. The seeds are extremely slow to germinate but once established, a celery crop can be harvested multiple times (cut and 'come again') This feature extends this highly nutritious food with diverse uses well into the following early spring. The crop we have now (early March) is now on its third harvest and we're still cooking it into soups and juicing it fresh. Growing Celery from seed (Image: Chris and Donn take a celery snack-break mid-summer)

Growing Kale from seed: Kale and collard greens are the two most nutrient-dense foods (per calorie) available! Kale is easy to grow, can be harvested over and over again and fall-crops will often winter-over providing fresh greens during the early spring 'hunger gap' (a traditional term for the time when storage crops may be running low). When kissed by a touch of frost, the plants increase in sweetness and tenderness and, as they begin to flower in their second year, this 'raab' (pronounced "rob") is even more packed with nutrition than the leaves alone! No-Fail Kale: The Powerful Health-Benefits of Kale and How to Grow It (Image: Bella loves kale!) 

Planting techniques we use: Over the years we've developed different techniques for germinating seeds. Here are a few...

Planting seedlings in raised beds (for later transplanting): For crops that can germinate in cool soil, and that transplant easily, such as lettuce, cabbage, kale and beets, this method works very well. We plant dense lines of the seeds directly in our raised beds (see image at right). It's easier to maintain temperature and moisture-levels more consistently than by some other methods. When the seedlings are large enough to transplant well (and before their roots get too entangled or deeply established) we gently tease them out of the bed and transplant them into pots, egg-cartons (see below) or into their permanent growing spaces in other beds. (Note, this only works if you have very loose soil). Planting seedlings in raised beds 

Planting lettuce in egg cartons: Whether we start our lettuce seeds in raised beds (above) or tofu-containers (below) they need an interim planting before they can go into the ground in their permanent spots. Egg cartons work really well for this. They use less soil than plastic 6-packs and, because the egg cartons are biodegradable, the seedlings' roots grow right through them. This makes transplanting them very easy (even for children and inexperienced volunteers) without causing root-damage or transplant shock. Planting lettuce in egg cartons

Starting seedlings in repurposed tofu containers: We try to garden with a minimum of environmental impact so, if we can repurpose things, keeping them out of the waste stream, we're all for it! Being vegetarian, we eat a lot of tofu. For many years, our favorite brand came in plastic tubs (image, right). By drilling holes in the bottom, we can use them to start, and grow-out many varieties of seedlings. The tubs are re-usable and use less soil than small plastic six-packs which extends our use of this precious resource. Starting seedlings in repurposed tofu containers 

Best video on pruning table grapes: Early spring is the time for pruning grapes. For many years we struggled to find a method that was easy to understand and implement, and that had great results. The following post links to a video which is the best, brief explanation for this process that we've found. Best video on pruning table grapes

Why we grow and eat organic food: There's an old saying..."You can pay your farmer or pay your doctor". Eating foods grown without the use of toxic chemicals or genetically engineered seeds just makes sense! But if you need some more evidence-based reasons to increase the amount of organically-grown foods in your diet, this post is jam-packed! Why we grow and eat organic food (Image: all, organically grown at the Sharing Gardens!)

May this spring season be full of abundance and blessings in your life and all those you touch. (Chris and Llyn in front of our first Monroe greenhouse, 2011 - with a spring rainbow)

Abundance through Sharing: Our goal is to teach and demonstrate not only the 'how'  and 'why' of growing healthy food but also to communicate the philosophy that underpins our project. We aim to: 

Follow this LINK to read a brief quote from a Lakota Sioux elder on the importance of 'teaching the children a helping way'.

Transplanting Beet Seedlings

A few years ago, we discovered that beet seedlings transplant quite readily. Your nursery soil must be quite loose (so the beet roots don't get damaged when you dig them up). This saves seed, and room in the germination process as you only transplant the viable seedlings.

First we dig a shallow trench and water thoroughly. The trench assures that future waterings channel the water directly to the seedlings and their roots and they're less likely to dry out between waterings. 

Seeds are planted about 3/4" apart with a light sprinkle of sifted soil to cover them; gently pushing them into the soil so they have good contact. 

Beet seeds in the lower, left foreground. A clear plastic nursery cover placed over them keeps them moist (showing at left of picture). We've used plastic sheet-cake covers too, that we rescued from recycling. If the soil starts to dry out, water gently using a watering can (so the seeds don't float away).

Before transplanting, we again make grooves in the soil and water well. The grooves channel subsequent watering down to the seedlings' roots.

Here, Donn uses a piece of bamboo to make holes for the seedlings. They are planted about 4 inches apart.
 

In this picture, Donn is transplanting beets. Llyn, on the right is planting lettuce seedlings. (for more info, see below). 

Our current favorite way to grow lettuce seedlings: in egg cartons. Each seedling is torn individually from the carton, including the egg carton cell, seedling and soil. The roots grow right through the egg cartons. Transplanting them this way reduces transplant shock. Each 'cell' is planted 6-8" apart.  When they get big, we harvest every other one so the remaining ones can get even bigger.(Growing Seedlings in Egg Cartons).