• Animals,  Bees,  Birding,  Gardening adventures,  Heirloom Plants,  Other Insects,  Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures,  Quail,  Seeds

    Growing Birdseed: Love Lies Bleeding Amaranth

    Love-Lies-Bleeding amaranth is a dramatic addition to your garden... ask a bird!
    Love-Lies-Bleeding amaranth is a dramatic addition to your garden… ask a bird!

    We’ve participated in Cornell University’s winter Project Feederwatch for about six years.  It is a volunteer amateur scientist-type program where, from November through March, you fill bird feeders and two days a week count how many birds come.  Then you report your results on an online form.  This helps trace changes in migration patterns and in habitats in wild birds, as well as sitings of diseased birds.

    The sound of dripping water attracts birds more than food does... from long distances, too.
    The sound of dripping water attracts birds more than food does… from long distances, too.

    This year I found out that most birdseed is contaminated by insecticide; some brands are reported to have illegal levels of pesticides in them.  Geez!  How am I going to get around that problem?  I’m not sure about this winter, but I’m going to grow more of my own birdseed.  In the past we’ve rolled pine cones in peanut butter and hung them out for woodpeckers and many other birds.  I’ve also grown sunflowers, for both their seeds and for their leaves, which lesser goldfinches just love to eat!  This year I planted heirloom Love Lies Bleeding Amaranth (Amaranthus caudatus) to some pretty spectacular results.  Yes, this is one of the types of amaranth that produces an edible seed for humans; the leaves are edible as well.  It can grow 3 -6 feet, with long ruby-red falls of seed heads that the birds just love.

    One of our Finch Frolic Finches feeding!
    One of our Finch Frolic Finches feeding!

    There are many other amaranths to grow for both your own consumption as well as for the birds.  Sometimes you grow it for yourself and end up feeding the birds!  Of course there are many plants which attract hummingbirds all year, especially those with tubular flowers. Why do you want to attract birds? Besides their right to habitat, and their appeal to our better selves, all native animals play important roles in the preditor/prey relationship in a healthy garden.  The birds may eat some of your produce, but they are also eating large amounts of bugs.  They are also pooping, and you know how valuable poop is to any garden!  If you plant a bird garden away from your vegetable crops, then plant your veg crops using the polyculture method, you will have birds and food for yourself as well.  Please, please don’t put up those dangerous tree nets!  They tear apart your trees when you try to remove them, they don’t really work, and birds can be stuck in them.  When they are on the ground snakes are trapped in them!  No plastic netting. Ever.  Please!

    Try planting some amaranth – especially this one with the dramatic name and dramatic fall of color – next spring when you plant a bird garden. Or in your edible forest garden and plant guilds.  Or between your fruit trees, or along the back of your flower beds.  Take a nibble for yourself if the birds will let you!

  • Dessert,  Fruit,  Recipes

    Melon Pie!?!

     

    Melon. Pie. Nom.
    Melon. Pie. Nom.

    It is melon time in the garden.  Fresh green melons served with a little lime juice, or fresh orange melons served with a little lemon juice, are just heaven.  When you have too many melons, it is time to look for things to do with them.

    Last year we froze melon slices in a mild sugar syrup.  This worked well when using the melons in something; the texture was too goopy for eating fresh with any pleasure.

    This year I found a recipe in my Baker Creek Heirloom Seed catalog for melon pie.  Melon pie?  I did a little Googling on the subject and found a lot of melon pie, cake and bread recipes.  Who knew?  Well, not me anyway.

    This recipe works for any melon, the more fragrant the better.  It was written for Mother Mary’s Pie Melon, an heirloom that we grew this year. It is small and fragrant, and just makes the right amount of melon the recipe.  The version of the recipe in the catalog – which is also in their book The Baker Creek Vegan Cookbook – is vegan. I’ve changed it to vegetarian and you can do what you want with it.  The cookie-like crust paired with the creamy yet firm filling is wonderful.  Top it with a little whipped cream!  They suggest topping with toasted coconut, but I’m not that much of a coconut fan.  However I could really see this topped with merangue, like a lemon merangue pie.  Yep.

    Melon Pie
    Author: 
    Recipe type: Dessert
    Cuisine: American
    Prep time: 
    Cook time: 
    Total time: 
    Serves: 8
     
    A fragrant, yummy pie with a perfumy melon flavor and crisp cookie crust.
    Ingredients
    • Crust:
    • ½ cup butter or vegan alternative
    • ¼ cup packed brown sugar (or white)
    • 1¼ cups unbleached flour (organic if possible)
    • Filling:
    • ½ cup sugar
    • 3 Tablespoons cornstarch (organic if possible)
    • 1 egg, beaten
    • 1½ cups cubed melon, liquified in blender (makes 1½ cups)
    • ¼ cup water
    • 3 Tablespoons butter or vegan alternative
    • 1 teaspoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
    Instructions
    1. Prepare crust: beat butter and sugar in mixer until fluffy.
    2. Add flour and mix thoroughly.
    3. Press into bottom and sides of a 9" pie pan.
    4. Bake crust at 375F for 10 - 12 minutes until lightly browned.
    5. Meanwhile, stir sugar and cornstarch together in medium saucepan and set aside.
    6. Blend egg, melon and water together until smooth.
    7. Over medium heat, gradually stir melon mixture into cornstarch mixture, stirring constantly until mixture thickens and begins to boil, about ten minutes. Don't rush!
    8. Reduce heat and cook 1 minute more.
    9. Remove from heat and stir in 3 T butter and lemon juice.
    10. Pour into pie shell, cool and then refrigerate at least an hour before serving.
    11. Serve with whipped cream... or not.

     

  • Animals,  Bees,  Chickens,  Health,  Natural cleaners,  Other Insects,  Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures,  Pets,  Quail,  Worms

    DE for Birds, and More About Chickens

    A little mustard with your quail?  Cleopatra being treated.
    A little mustard with your quail? Cleopatra being treated.

    I’ve written about using Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth around plants to keep down ants and other sectioned insects.  It is also used around the feet of my bee hives; as long as it isn’t where bees and other beneficials go it won’t hurt them because it has to be on the bug to work.  I’ve also used FGDE around my cat’s bedding to kill hatching flea eggs, and have rubbed it into their fur. It is scentless, edible (will help kill interior parasites when eaten), tasteless, and the food grade is so fine that it won’t hurt your lungs if you breathe it in, although if you have lung conditions you should wear a mask.  More about FGDE in a minute.

    Some of our laying hens have difficulty laying eggs recently.  Chickpea we found panting on the ground in a wet spot, with ants on her.  She had a soft-shelled egg break inside of her.

    Madge in the house cage, recooperating.
    Madge in the house cage, recooperating.

    Madge, our partially blind RIR passed a soft shelled egg, then was ill for a day when she passed a broken shell.  Warm Epsom salts baths and time spent in the house cage with a heating pad helped both of them. Because of the threat of infection I used some of the Cephalexin left over from our dog (divided into small doses) on both of them and they recovered.  My daughter finally deduced that in the mornings when the pullets and hens were released the big girls ran over to eat the chick mash.  It probably tastes better than the lay pellets, and more importantly in their little brains it kept the pullets from eating it.  Even with the supplemental oyster shell the big girls were probably not getting the calcium and other nutrition their bodies needed to make good eggs.  It was time to switch the small girls to lay mash anyway, so I did and yesterday we had all four of our laying hens lay eggs… first time in a long time!

    While we were bathing Madge in the sink for her illness, my daughter noticed mites on her.  Now a few mites are usual on everyone and everything.  When you can see several on the skin when you blow on the feathers, then you have a problem.  She wasn’t having a problem, but at that time we still didn’t know what was wrong with her.  After she was better we instituted FGDE Day in the Fowl Fortress.

    Miss Lemon, one of three coturnix hens, is treated with FGDE.
    Miss Lemon, one of three coturnix hens, is treated with FGDE.

    You can buy pricey powder dispensers, which usually clog.  I bought a set of mustard and ketchup dispensers for less than two dollars and they work just fine.  We caught all the hens and our three quail and puffed FGDE into their feathers and, of course, all over ourselves.

    We treat ourselves, too.
    We treat ourselves, too.

    I puffed it into the nesting boxes, and into the ‘attic’ of the pullet house where they roost, and into the straw in the coops.  Since we don’t have a problem we don’t need to treat often, just every few months or so.  Any that they eat helps with any internal parasites as well.  We also had some wood ash left over from making pizzas in Harry Mud the cob oven and sprinkled them where the birds take dust baths.  That fine ash helps to keep their feathers clean and keep away mites too.

    Wood ashes are good for dust baths.
    Wood ashes are good for dust baths.

     

    Very little went a long way, so even after treating all the hens and the Fowl Fortress, the cat bedding repeatedly, several cats, the feet of the bee hives, a variety of plants, and the feet of the food tables I’d set up for a garden party to protect from ants, along my window sills and around the privy where ants were getting in, I’m still working on the first bag that I bought on Amazon.com.

    Amelia objecting to her dusting.
    Amelia objecting to her dusting.

    When you compare with buying expensive different poisons for all of these problems, the health hazards and impact on non-target species including ourselves, and the negative impact on the Earth, one bag of FGDE  is such a deal that you really can’t not try it.

  • Arts and Crafts,  Gardening adventures,  Living structures

    The Mock Pavilion

    The ground is covered with straw now, and the passionvines have grown about a foot in two weeks since this photo was taken.
    The ground is covered with straw now, and the passionvines have grown about a foot in two weeks since this photo was taken.

    It was clear that if I wanted to have any group of people over in the summer and have them survive, that I’d have to have a shade structure.  I have an EZ-Up, which is anything but easy especially when going down, but the shade it provides is minimal and only appropriate at high noon.  I had a look at the line of Eugenia trees right behind Harry Mudd, the cob oven.  The trees had been planted by the previous owner to block the view of the horrendous piecemeal sheds he’d nailed together (most of which have now become walkways and structures).  They had been trimmed up during the removal of the sheds to giant lollypops with floppy arms.  Floppy arms that often broke under the weight of the fruit the trees bore.  I thought that some of these trees could make a good gazebo. Click here to learn about the benefits of tree trimming

    I talked to Steve about it.  Steve works on my ponds and irrigation, and now just about anything else I need to have done since he is skilled in carpentry and other talents which I am not.  Steve cut down some of the trees and for some he used professional services – check this link right here now, brushed them and we discovered that they weren’t very tall at all.

    Steve cutting down some of the Eugenia.  Harry Mudd is covered with the blue tarp.
    Steve cutting down some of the Eugenia. Harry Mudd is covered with the blue tarp.

    At the time I was touring a new friend through the garden who offered some very long cedar logs.  Here began a fiasco having to do with hauling a trailer, misunderstandings, and a lot of very heavy long logs which weren’t used and now need to be returned, but I will not explore that here.

    I had a garden party planned; the first large party I’ve ever had.  I thought that the end of June would be a perfect time before the hot weather hit.  Life laughed at me and began a series of intensely hot days more associated with the end of July.  So I told Steve to just buy the wood and build the thing.  He did, and I covered it with some very expensive shade cloth.  By two of the pillars have been planted red passionfruit vines.  When they grow to the top, I’ll replace the shadecloth with wire so that the passionvines can become a living shady roof with fruit dangling down.

    This structure, along with some borrowed EZ-Ups, saved the day for the party, which had temperatures in the low 90’s (lower than anticipated, thank goodness!).  The structure is similiar in look to the Fowl Fortress, so it doesn’t seem so out of place, and it is very comfortable to be under during this intense summer.

    Nice and cool, with easier access to Harry Mudd.
    Nice and cool, with easier access to Harry Mudd.

    Why the Mock Pavilion?  Perhaps because it isn’t really a pavilion, just a large shade structure with a piece of plywood over a couple of wooden pallets as a stage.  Really it is because Steve’s last name is Mock, and I couldn’t resist.

  • Animals,  Bees,  Gardening adventures,  Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures

    Why Is July So Busy?

    Quentin holds a frame full of wax-capped honey cells while Miranda looks on.
    Quentin holds a frame full of wax-capped honey cells while Miranda looks on.

    Whew!  What an early hot spell, and what a lot of things to do!  The daylight is longer but animals, plants and people have a way of filling it all up.  It is almost 9 pm again and still no dinner for humans this night.  It is cooking.  We’ve had a sick kitty, Maow, who we had to put to sleep due to kidney failure yesterday, and our ancient dog Sophie keeps us busy nursing her.  She refuses dog food and only will eat veggie sausage and eggs, but none of our hens are laying in this hot weather.  One of our chickens, Chickpea, had an egg break inside of her and had to have an Epsom salts warm sink bath which worked its chicken magic and pulled her through.  Tonight our partially blind Rhode Island Red, Madge, has been acting funny so into the sink she went.  The hens all like the warm bath so much that we don’t have to hold them down.

    The garden produce has been good and keeping up with ripening fruit while beating the birds to it has been my newly graduated collegiate daughter’s role.  Irrigation difficulties have created large problems, however, and lots of seeds never germinated, and several crops have shrivelled due to irregular or not enough water, while some others were drowning because of holes in the lines.  Minerals from our hard water have clogged up holes in the lines, and running vinegar through the system seems to dissolve the calcium pretty well.  If only it repelled the gophers who occasionally nip the underground lines, or the weeding tools that unerringly nick them.

    Quentin and Miranda with one of the new  hives of Italian bees put up two months ago.
    Quentin and Miranda with one of the new hives of Italian bees put up two months ago.

    We have two co-op bee hives, set in place by Quentin Alexander of BeehiveSavers.com.  He performs humane bee removal, and also has the co-op program where he sets up hives in your yard with calm Italian bees. You pay for the equipment, and he monitors the hive for a year to study the bees and see what is affecting  the disappearance  of  European honeybees.  He harvests the honey and gives you half of it, too.  This is a perfect set-up for me since I just don’t have the time to deal with the bees anymore, and because I swell up when stung now.  We had a swarm in a stack of empty bee boxes next to our trashcans for a couple of years and they never gave us any trouble, but I wanted to move them to the Bee Garden.

    Quentin beginning to move a two-year hive that had settled in my stack of supers. The bees objected.
    Quentin beginning to move a two-year hive that had settled in my stack of supers. The bees objected.

    When Quentin moved them a few months ago, he found out that they were an enormous ‘hot’ hive… pretty aggressive.

    Bees complaining about having their home ripped apart... I can't blame them.
    Bees complaining about having their home ripped apart… I can’t blame them.

    Yesterday he came with two ‘nuc’s, or ‘nucleuses’.  A ‘nuc’ is a new queen bee and about a pound of workers devoted to her.  With my daughter’s help, and with me hanging back with the camera, he opened the moved hive.  It was breezy, humid, mid-day and in the 90’s, all bad conditions for opening a hive.

    The wild hive wrapped with the 'hot' queen isolated in one of the supers by queen excluders.  She will be replaced by a gentle queen.
    The wild hive wrapped with the ‘hot’ queen isolated in one of the supers by queen excluders. She will be replaced by a gentle queen.

    He looked for the old queen and couldn’t find her, so trapped her in one of the three boxes he thought she was in, moved honey and larvae over to two new boxes and set up the new queens.  The idea is that the new kinder and gentler queens will breed more docile bees, and in a few weeks the whole swarm will not only have been divided into two but will have produced calm bees.

    Explaining this to bees who were stressed from drought, heat, direct sunlight and humidity while tearing apart their hive, taking out brood and honey and looking to kill their queen, was a different story.  A normal hive can have 60,000 bees or more in it at its peak.  This was a larger hive.  The bees decided that Quentin – and anyone else in the area – were going down with them.  I don’t blame them.  Attack my family and I’d come after you, too.  Quentin’s gloves were studded brown with a forest of stingers.  The neighbor called asking about bees because his gardeners were stung.

    Miranda surrounded by very angry bees.  No stings penetrated her bee suit, but on a humid day in the mid-90's that suit sure was hot.
    Miranda surrounded by very angry bees. No stings penetrated her bee suit, but on a humid day in the mid-90’s that suit sure was hot.

    We had to walk the property, roll in some jasmine to mask the ‘anger’ pheramone with which our bee suits were covered, and dash into the house.  Quentin drove off in his suit with bees in his car – not an unusual sight for a beekeeper, but with the BeeHiveSavers logo on the side it looked very appropriate.  We had to stay in the house until dusk when the bees went to bed (they don’t fly at night).  Today the rest of the property was back to normal, but we did stay away from the Bee Garden for several more days. There are peaches to harvest in there, too, but we’ll have to donate some to the birds.

  • Dessert,  Fruit,  Health,  Herbs,  Recipes,  Vegan,  Vegetarian

    Black Plum and Basil Granita

    Basil plum granita 008This is an interesting and delicious way to use some of those plums that ripen overnight.  Basil is also in season, and combining it with the heavenly, winey flavor of ripe black plums is amazing.  If you grow other types of basil such as lime basil or cinnamon basil, use those instead, reducing the lime juice to 1 tablespoon.

    Granita is juice that is partially frozen, forked around a little, then refrozen.  You don’t need an ice cream maker.  Easy, quick and nutritious, too!

    Black Plum and Basil Granita
    Author: 
    Recipe type: Desert
    Cuisine: American
    Prep time: 
    Cook time: 
    Total time: 
    Serves: 8½ cup servings
     
    Basil and allspice give a wonderful depth of flavor to winey black plums in this frozen treat.
    Ingredients
    • 1 cup water
    • ⅔ cup granulated sugar
    • ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
    • ⅛ teaspoon salt
    • 6 whole allspice (if you don't have allspice berries, use a small piece of cinnamon stick)
    • 1½ pounds black plums, pitted and quartered
    • 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
    • ¾ cup basil leaves (not packed)
    Instructions
    1. In a large saucepan combine water, sugar, vanilla, salt, allspice and prepared plums and bring to a boil.
    2. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes or so, stirring occasionally, until the plums begin to fall apart.
    3. Pour into a small bowl set in ice water in a larger bowl and cool completely.
    4. Fish out and discard the six allspice.
    5. In a blender or VitaMix process plum mixture, basil and lime juice until well blended.
    6. Press the plum mixture through a fine sieve over a bowl and discard solids. If you have a VitaMix you may not have any residual solids; the granita will be cloudier but will be more nutritious. Don't worry about it.
    7. Pour the mixture into an 8-inch square glass or ceramic baking dish.
    8. Cover and freeze until partially frozen, about 2 hours.
    9. Scrape with a fork, crushing any lumps, and smooth down again.
    10. Freeze for 3 more hours, scraping with a fork every hour so that it doesn't freeze as a cube, until completely frozen.
    11. Serve in small scoops; really nice paired with little vanilla cookies.

     

  • Bees,  Gardening adventures,  Other Insects,  Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures,  Seeds,  Soil

    Hairy Vetch

    Attractive flowers and seeds.
    Attractive flowers and seeds.

    Hairy vetch (Vicia villosa), also known as winter vetch is a nitrogen-fixing plant that is used mostly for cover-cropping in monoculture fields. Native to Europe and Asia, it is a winter plant sown in the Fall and, in places where it snows, is killed off with the cold or tilled into fields.  When a nitrogen-fixing plant dies or is cut back, roots die and release the nitrogen nodules into the soil.  Here is sunny San Diego the vetch thrived since I sowed it in Spring of last year.  It is a pretty, vining plant, with lovely dark purple blooms that bees and other pollinators love.  It produces pea pods like its edible relative the fava bean, but I wouldn’t eat them.  The seeds may be bad browse for livestock as well.  The roots help hold soil during winter rains, too.

    Hairy vetch clamboring all over the place
    Hairy vetch clamboring all over the place

    Vetch can be hard to get rid of because it reseeds easily.  It will also climb up bushes, competing with the bush for sunlight.  If I didn’t know about the nitrogen-fixing properties and if the bees didn’t like it so much, I’d suspect it of being an invasive.

    To control it I take my trusty hand scythe and cut the vetch out of bushes and close to the ground.  I leave the vines to decompose and protect seedlings that I plant to take advantage of the newly-enriched soil.

    A mass of sweet peas climbing a dwarf orange.
    A mass of sweet peas climbing a lavendar.

    If you don’t want a cover crop that is so aggressive I suggest sowing a mixture of lupine, sweet peas, edible peas and fava beans in the Fall here in Southern California, and again in early Spring.  In cold areas check with your farm advisor on when to plant.

  • Gardening adventures,  Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures,  Soil

    Fruit Tree Guilds: Making Your Trees Healthy and Happy

    An unripe Buddha's Hand citron.  When bright yellow it freshens a room with a citrusy floral fragrance; is zest is wonderful in cooking and it can be candied.  Or simply stuck up a sleeve and used to frighten people.
    An unripe Buddha’s Hand citron. When bright yellow it freshens a room with a citrusy floral fragrance; is zest is wonderful in cooking and it can be candied. Or simply stuck up a sleeve and used to frighten people.

    A guild in permaculture terms is, as you know, an arrangement of symbiotic plants that serve as a plant community for the benefit of the whole.  Visitors to Finch Frolic Garden often remark that planting guilds sounds so difficult; that they’d need to study so much about plants that it would be impossible for them to do.  Not so. However, it isn’t just a whole bunch of plants planted so that they are stepping on each other’s shoes. The typical permaculture plant guild is defined by plants which do these functions: an upper canopy tree (shade, mulch from falling leaves, deep tap roots, roosting for birds which poop, hunt, etc., traps humidity, catches and filters rain and fog moisture), a lower canopy tree (same functions but shorter), a ground cover (habitat for small hunters and moisture trap), a miner plant (deep tap root to bring nutrients from deep in the soil to its leaves which deliver said nutrients when they decompose, and tap root breaks up soil and gives passage for water and worms), a nitrogen-fixing plant (works symbiotically with bacteria to trap nitrogen from the atmosphere on root nodules, which release into the soil when the top dies), and a pollinator-attractor (flowers for bees and all the tiny native bees, wasps and flies).

    Buddha's Hand citron (Citrus medica) happy in a guild of yarrow, sweet peas, artichoke (the leaves of which are regularly slashed and dropped), Cleveland sage, scented geranium and a variety of bulbs.
    Buddha’s Hand citron (Citrus medica) happy in a guild of yarrow, sweet peas, artichoke (the leaves of which are regularly slashed and dropped), Cleveland sage, scented geranium and a variety of bulbs.

    The formula isn’t that complicated.  I challenge you to come up with an example of each right now.  Yes, you can do it.  (Dum dee dum… I’m waiting for you to be done before I move on. ) Have it?  Okay, here’s a quick example.  Mulberry, dwarf peach, strawberries, carrots, sweet peas, dwarf yarrow and fava beans.  The canopy trees will lose their leaves allowing sun to warm the understory plants in the winter.  Strawberries make an excellent ground cover that grows food and loves the fungus-rich loam made by decomposing leaves.  Carrots like cool weather and will thrive until ready to be pulled (and tops broken off and thrown on the ground) about when the trees fully leaf out.  Sweet peas attract insects, smell great, and as a bonus are nitrogen fixers, and can twine up the tree trunks.  Dwarf yarrow helps choke out grass, is used for many purposes including as a dye plant, and its flowers are clusters of small flowers perfect for the tiny pollinators, and bush peas are completely edible and also fix nitrogen.  See?  Easy.

    Just in time for summer's heat, a kabocha squash is rapidly covering the ground around the variegated dwarf orange and a young pink guava. I have to pull squash out of trees because they think they own the world, and it hurts to hit your head on a dangling pumpkin.  I leave the vines to decompose in place after harvest.
    Just in time for summer’s heat, a kabocha squash is rapidly covering the ground around the variegated dwarf orange and a young pink guava. I have to pull squash out of trees because they think they own the world, and it hurts to hit your head on a dangling pumpkin. I leave the vines to decompose in place after harvest.

    I have many, many trees which were all planted at the same time, and some of them have been neglected.  A combination apple tree had been planted in extremely heavy clay and it hasn’t grown much in two years although it keeps trying to produce fruit.  Bermuda grass (I cross myself when I mention it) has infiltrated the area to about four inches down.  It is helping to break up the clay, but it is also choking out everything else.  Plant guild time.

    Bermuda grass in heavy clay right next to the trunk: no good.
    Bermuda grass in heavy clay right next to the trunk: no good.

    Last weekend I spent about three hours in the morning (mercifully before the June gloom dissipated so I didn’t roast in the heat) digging up and pulling out as much Bermuda grass as I could from the clay.  I’d even soaked the area well the night before.  That was the stuff of cob ovens.  When I’d finally cleared past the tree (I’ll continue another day; there’s only so much of that my hands can take!), I shoveled in some pigeon guano that my good friends up the street deliver to me (tied with a ribbon!  Christmas comes all year for a gardener!).  The guano is very high in urea… you can smell the ammonia, but it also has feathers, corn and pigeon peas in it.  Pigeon peas are a perennial legume that set nitrogen and produce wonderful pea pods for stir-fry.  I watered it in well.

    This apple was planted in clay in this planter.  Never create a planter around an existing tree; mulch around the trunk will kill it.
    This apple was planted in clay in this planter. Never create a planter around an existing tree; mulch around the trunk will kill it.

    I had purchased some plants for the area, but to keep costs down just chose some that would fill out and help choke out the angry Bermuda grass bits yearning for revenge.  Also, the tree is close by Harry Mud, the cob oven, so I wanted  pizza-themed plants for easy picking.  I planted strawberries right by the trunk inside the gopher cage in which the tree is planted.  They will help retain moisture without compromising the bark of the tree.  You never want to pile mulch up around the base of a tree above the root ball because you will rot your tree.

    I also planted a tomato, a perennial basil, garlic chives all around the edge (bug protection), sunflowers, a prostrate rosemary and French tarragon.  The pigeon peas and corn will very likely sprout.  What I didn’t have was an upper canopy, but the tree is on the east side of a shed which protects it from the worst of the summer afternoon sun, and there is a grapevine nearby which produces leaf litter.  When daffodil bulbs are readily available in the late Fall I’ll plant a ring of them around the drip line.  Gophers don’t eat them, they help keep away the grass, they break up the soil and they are one of my favorite flowers (ranking second to sweet violets).  All these plants as they grow up, down and across will help the apple tree, and the apple tree will help them.  All of them produce food within easy reach of the cob oven and outdoor dining, are attractive and smell good, too.  The tree should flourish.  I don’t kid myself that I won’t be pulling Bermuda grass in the future, but the plants will help control it by shading and crowding out.

    It doesn't look like much now, but there are eleven support plants/seeds to help the apple tree now.  Friends!
    It doesn’t look like much now, but there are eleven support plants/seeds to help the apple tree now. Friends!

    If you have citrus trees you should plan a little differently.  When trying to understand a plant, think of where it came from and in what growing conditions it thrived.  Avocados are from South America, with humidity, rainfall, protection from intense heat, deep leaf litter and adequate drainage.  Stonefruit are from areas with cold winters; their leaf drop keeps the roots protected from the freezing that triggers the trees to set fruit (chill factor).

    This citrus was planted before the bamboo grew up to shade it.  Notice how the leaves grow straight up, and none below?  It is aiming to collect light at noon, which is the only direct sun that it receives.  He needs to be moved.
    This citrus was planted before the bamboo grew up to shade it. Notice how the leaves grow straight up, and none below? It is aiming to collect light at noon, which is the only direct sun that it receives. He needs to be moved.

    We think of citrus trees perfuming the air of Spain, Greece or Arabia, but actually they come from Southeast Asia and before that, New Guinea and Australia.  All of these places have warm or hot temperatures and plenty of sunlight.  Although you can plant stonefruit close together, for citrus it is best to ensure that the trees receive lots of direct sunlight or they will drop leaves and have stunted growth.

    This citrus receives sun all day, and is very happy with the tomato, roses and sage that surround it.
    This citrus receives sun all day, and is very happy with the tomato, roses and sage that surround it.

    Raking all the leaves out from under your trees is so wrong.  The tree drops leaves because it needs them on the ground around its roots, not because its careless or its waiting for a human to come by and clean up its mess.  Leaf mulch makes the ideal conditions for microbial growth and perfect soil, so let it sit.  Augment the mulch by giving your tree company of other plants.  Unless the tree is allelopathic (secretes a substance that keeps anything from rooting nearby so that it doesn’t like competition, such as walnuts and eucalyptus) then in nature it reseeds close by and allows other plants to grow under it.  Give your trees some appropriate company, and you’ll be rewarded with lots of food, medicine, habitat and very little work except for harvesting.  Can’t beat that with a stick.

     

  • Animals,  Chickens,  Humor,  Pets

    Release of the Pullets, and No More House Chicken

     

    The Fowl Fortress and its many inhabitants.
    The Fowl Fortress and its many inhabitants.

    It was time.  The little chicks were half-grown and beginning to eat scratch and pelleted chicken food along with their chick starter.  They had finally figured out how to go upstairs at nighttime although it took several tries where I had to pick them out of their chick pile and shove them through the upstairs egg window.  A couple of times when I’d let the big girls out into the garden, I had let the little girls out into the Fowl Fortress.  They had run around stretching their wings and barreling into one another. So it was time for them to join the big girls as one large flock.

    Four of the seven little girls. L-R: Belle, Charlotte, Esther (or Myrtle. They look and act the same), and Mulan (please don't be a rooster!).
    Four of the seven little girls. L-R: Belle, Charlotte, Esther (or Myrtle. They look and act the same), and Mulan (please don’t be a rooster!).

    And then there was Viola, the house chicken.  She’d been a house chicken for over half a year, enjoying her special front yard paradise, coming when called, stealing some dog and cat food, caging herself at night, and crooning away whenever I sneezed or made noise while she slept.  I really loved to have my house chicken.  However she was alone a lot.  She protested her aloneness by shrieking horribly for long periods of time.  She could shriek with both exhaled and inhaled breath so that the noise didn’t stop.  Even when at the end of my rope I yelled at her to shut up, she shrieked.  She was becoming a spoiled and lonesome chicken.  Her leg, the reason for her separation from the flock, was doing well again.  I thought that if there was ever a good time to reintroduce her it would be at the same time that I let loose the little girls.  There would be less hostility against Viola when the hens reinforced their pecking order.  It was a very hard decision to make, but I thought it was for the best.  I left the cage up in the house, though, just in case.

    Madge: not just a rescue anymore!  Uber hen!
    Madge: not just a rescue anymore! Uber hen!

    Last week I gave Viola a surprise and brought her down to the coop when I let the hens out of their chicken tractor.  Viola wasn’t happy about it.  Immediately Madge, the one-eyed Rhode Island Red who had been caged with Viola at the feed store when both had been seriously pecked, who had been her only friend for a year with my other girls, decided to punish Viola for her absence and make sure she knew she was at the bottom of the pecking order. She didn’t just give Viola – who is smaller – a peck, she tried to remove feathers.  She jumped her and chased her.  I had to get between the two of them.  Pushing the vicious Blind Pirate Madge away just made her more intense, so I tried picking her up and giving her attention.

    Paritally blind Madge... who'd have thought that she'd give the others the fish-eye?
    Paritally blind Madge… who’d have thought that she’d give the others the fish-eye?

    That worked better.  Still, Viola had to hide.  With Viola between my legs for protection I released the little girls.

    Viola staying close.
    Viola staying close.  L-R: Madge’s butt, Malaika, Esther (or Myrtle), behind is Bodacea, crouching is Belle, Charlotte, in the back is Myrtle (or Esther), Mulan, and on the right is Lark.  Not pictured: Chickpea and Miss Amelia, the flock leader.

    The big hens… pretty much ignored them.  The little girls were so happy to be free.  I kept their food inside their coop and propped the door so that only the smaller birds could get in there, but the big girls managed to shoulder themselves in anyway.

    Madge shows her ranking to Myrtle as others look on in alarm.
    Madge shows her ranking to Myrtle as others look on in alarm.

     

    Lark, the Barred Rock who has been barren since she survived egg binding and who has been enjoying her work-free status has developed some kind of uncomfortable swelling.  At first I thought she was just fat, but her tummy swelled like a balloon over several weeks.  She lost her feathers on her red rump.

    Lark's uncomfortable ailment.
    Lark’s uncomfortable ailment.

    It became awkward for her to walk so I gave her a couple of Epsom salt baths in the kitchen sink, and she became a house guest for a couple of days.  She wasn’t as pleasant as Viola, but enjoyed the new experience.  I returned her to the coop, and just today the swelling seems much less, thank goodness.  The whole illness has not, however, affected her appetite.

    Belle, the crossbill Americauna, had such difficulty eating that she is smaller than the rest and seemed to always be famished.

    Belle, the Americauna who has the cross-bill trait.  Small but sassy, and usually covered with mash.
    Belle, the Americauna who has the cross-bill trait. Small but sassy, and usually covered with mash.

    I finally found a small, deep tupperware container that I could wedge between a piece of wood and the side of her coop where it wouldn’t tip over easily, and filled it with chick starter and water mash.  Belle was eating heartily for the first time since her bill began to cross and for once she had time to spend goofing around with a full tummy.  And a messy face and breast.  Since I’d tried trimming her beak, and since I make the magic mash for her now, she has become not only an energetic chicken but a devotee of me.  While the other ingrates run away as if I were an axe murderer rather than the vegetarian that I am, Belle flies onto me at any chance.  With Viola between my ankles and Belle running up my back I feel very much a part of the flock.

    Ah haz a friend!
    Ah haz a friend!
  • Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures,  Ponds,  Rain Catching

    New Bog

    Steve demostrating years of expertise by finessing this large piece of equipment.
    Steve demostrating years of expertise by finessing this large piece of equipment.

    Last week a new bog area was added to the main pond.  The first bog area was dug by hand, created so that there would be a shallow, flat habitat for wading birds and tadpoles.

    Preparing to start.
    Preparing to start.

    This is called adding edge, which is an important component of any permaculture design.  The first bog is connected to the series of rain catchment basins and now is the link between rain overflow system and the large pond.  This year no rainwater left the property; it was all captured.  Edge areas in both water and plant design provide more sun and growth areas than a round or straight design.  More interesting things happen on the edge.

    Gentle scraping with the bucket to discover where the subterranean irrigation lines were without stretching them.
    Gentle scraping with the bucket to discover where the subterranean irrigation lines were without stretching them.

     

    This bog area was dug up by a tractor bought from a farm auction that I’d shared rental with a friend.  It took a large mound of dirt and filled in some dips, leveling a walking and working area.

    Another, cross-pond view of the new bog.
    Another, cross-pond view of the new bog.

    Steve, who among his many talents is also a heavy equipment operator, did a terrific job grading and then expanding the pond.  A small problem is that he found some more porous soil with the clay, so the water level on the pond dropped.

    Water is filling in.
    Water is filling in.

    We’re seeing how far it goes down to tell if the seepage is occurring on the edge or on the bottom of the new area.  Once found, we’ll move extra clay over and tamp it all in.

    The first, hand-dug bog now filling with plants.
    The first, hand-dug bog now filling with plants.

    Plants Jacob has put into the first bog include graceful cattails, which are a dwarf cattail that isn’t so invasive, iris, rushes, watercress, and some Mexican waterlily.

    Sophie admiring the first bog.
    Sophie admiring the first bog.

    Very soon the plants will cover the bog areas providing excellent cover for many animal species which… wait for it… live on the edge.

    Waiting to see how it sealed and then ready for planting.
    Waiting to see how it sealed and then ready for planting.