Planting season is underway here at Smoky Mountain Center. Each month we have a plethora of seeds to plant. Some seeds can be started right in the garden- outside in the elements. However, to extend the season and protect delicate seeds, many should be started indoors in a controlled environment.
First things first, we had to bring our greenhouse back from the dead.
To start seeds in a greenhouse, you need to plant in potting soil…
Unfortunately, potting soil is expensive and not exactly what you would call sustainable. Potting soil that you buy at the store is generally some combination of peat moss, perlite and vermiculite, all of which need to be mined, processed, packaged, and shipped long distances to get to your garden. Peat moss, for instance, is found in wetland bogs in Canada or Michigan. Peat bogs are rare ecosystems that are home to many endangered species of wildlife and native plants, many of which live only in peat bogs. Additionally, mass mining of peat bogs for horticultural purposes contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. Similar stories exist for both Perlite
and Vermiculite extraction.
With all this in mind already, I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea of paying $8 for just one 16 quart bag of potting soil (up to $20 a bag for organic). We need A LOT of potting soil and this would break the bank pretty quickly. Luckily, it so happens that there is another way. It is not only possible, but pretty dang easy to make your own potting soil with just a few ingredients you have lying around your yards. Below is a quick guide to making your own potting soil, for those of you who, like me, would prefer not to unnecessarily spend big bucks on the store bought stuff.
How to make your own potting soil:
Ingredients/materials:
Finished compost/aged manure
Plan old soil
Sand (if available)
Glass baking pans
Tin Foil
Meat or candy thermometer
1. Gather materials. In my work area, I put out a bucket of compost, a bucket of aged manure (ours was left on the property from previous owners, but you can easily find manure on from farmers in your area, on craigslist, even at a local zoo), a bucket of soil, and a bucket of sand. You do not need all of these things if you don’t have them. Soil and some garden compost should work just fine if that is what you have.
2. Preheat oven to 200 degrees
3. Fill each baking pan with a combination of ingredients. I went about ½ soil, ¼ compost, ¼ manure, and a handful or two of sand.
4. Sprinkle a couple of drops of water on the soil to make it slightly moist (but not wet)
5. Cover each pan tightly with foil, stick a meat/candy thermometer in one of the pans and place all of the pans you can fit in preheated oven.
6. After 20 min or so begin checking on the soil. Once the temperature of the thermometer reads 150 degrees turn the oven off but leave the soil in for about 30 min more. If the temperature of the soil goes above 180 degrees at any point, remove from the oven. What you are doing in this process is sterilizing the soil to kill off any bacteria, etc. that could hurt your tiny plants. If the soil gets too hot, however, it could kill off good things too. You will know if it got too hot because it will smell very strongly. In general, it should fill your kitchen with an earthy smell, but nothing too potent.
7. Let cool and place in bucket/bin/holding container.
8. Get Planting
Next Blog: Planting Outside!
easy access.
the better part of an hour, we decided to forgo the store-bought carpet and look for “carpet scraps”. Carpet scraps are the ends of the long rolls they sell in stores or other custom pieces that are marked down from original retail price and are excellent for Do-It-Yourselfers. We checked craigslist for a few days and found the perfect piece, a 16’x12′ roll of high-quality carpet. The Hexahome is 16′ at its widest point and approximately 200′ square total. This roll was 192′ square and the exact length of the Hexahome’s widest point (16′), making it nearly perfect for the job.
leaving the space closest to the door without carpet to allow for a landing.
not immediately tell them about the time I cleared a three-mile trail up a mountain in eight days, or the time I helped build a beautiful carpentry bridge across a stream, or even about learning to wield a chain saw. What I would talk about was the time I teamed up with four other corps members to chase a rogue mouse around the walk in fridge for a half hour
, or the time when we went out onto the frozen pond covered in two feet of snow, spent hours shoveling an ice skating rink, and then, too exhausted to actually ice skate, spent several more hours just laying on our homemade rink swapping stories about life. I would talk about the night a bunch of us went dumpster diving, brought back an entire vans worth of dumpster chips, doughnuts, and chocolate Easter bunnies, and then the ensuing 
community discussion about whether it was okay to put “dumpster” food in the same storage area as “regular” food. I would recall spontaneous drum circles, themed coffee-house performances, hula hoop battles, and murder mystery nights.
Upon arriving back at camp, we immediately noticed something odd. Though the sky was beginning to darken, not a single light was on in our lodge building, where everyone was surely gathered by now. Sure enough, when we entered the building, all 30 members were indeed inside bustling around in minor chaos attempting to finish costumes and set up dinner amidst, what we soon found out, a large-scale power outage.
our third and final trek up the mountain we decided to take an alternative route aptly named: Chemin des d’Ames (The Way of the Ladies), which can only be described as epic. We were granted a short reprieve in the midst of our project by venturing down the mountain for two recreation days. During this time we; had pizza, played mini golf, went to the arcade, perused the shops around North Conway, and went swimming.
Our mission was to walk the entire section of trail through the preserve, a mere 32 miles, in two days checking the necessities of the trail for our 10-day project next month. I use the term “trail ” very loosely here, really, the only trail is a blaze on a small cypress tree every 100 feet that may or may not even exist anymore- since everything grows so quickly and there is very little dry, solid ground there is no trail corridor or bench cut. There are camps at miles 7, 13, and 17 which mark the rare portions of dry ground. If one leaves from the trailhead at the 
amps are staggering. From a distance they resemble a slight hill on the prairie, but as you approach it, the water gets deeper and the weeds get thicker, the opposite of what you would expect (a higher piece of land that might be dry). As the water gets deeper the cypress and mangrove trees are actually able to grow taller than those surrounding the deeper pool. This added biomass serves as the ecological hubs of the entire swamp; the water plants get thicker, birds fly in the trees, insects and frogs buzz or chirp, snakes and alligators sunbathe on fallen logs, panthers sleep in the upper branches. It is the most tropical spot in North America and could be taken right out of a stereotypical jungle in Asia or South America.
n somewhere along the way in this fire-scorched portion we realized we had not seen a blaze in quite a while. Someone noted this fact the rest of the group. “Hey, has anyone seen a blaze in a while?” To which we responded, “I thought so, but maybe that was a while ago”. We backtracked collectively, the darkness made our own path hard to follow, and failed to find a blaze. We split up, walked concentric circles within earshot of one another, but still found nothing. It was at this moment we learned that we were bewildered.
is upon us!!!! . Fresh, ripe, beautiful, juicy tomatoes! As many as I could ever want to eat!
from water with jar and lid lifters (dump the water that was in the jars back into the pot and keep it on low heat). Next, add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to the bottom of jar for acidity. Ladle boiled whole tomatoes into jars. Push down to fit more, and fill until there is just 1 inch of head space left at the top of the jar. Take a knife and run along the inside edge of jar to remove any air bubbles. Place lid and screw band on jar and secure finger-tight (do not screw tightly!)
