-
The Withy Hide at Ten Months
The entrance. Last February I wanted a photography hide and decided to make one out of willow (withy). I cut stalks of curly willow which I already had around the property, stuck them in the ground near the subterranean irrigation lines in a ten-foot diameter, and hoped for the best.
I see a bird! Curly willow tolerates less water, direct sunlight and heat better than the native willows, as well as being delightfully kinky.
Closer view of the front. The willow grew immediately, gradually sending out tall shoots and lots of leaves. Most withy structures are created with straight willow sticks that are crossed and either tied or woven into a pattern.
A duck’s eye view. Since I began with irregular pieces and the nature of the willow is very curly, I just let it do its thing and figured that abundance would make a good hiding spot. It did.
Inside.. A few weeks ago I took some of the tallest stalks and tied them together overhead to create something of a dome shape. I’m not sure how the willow will adapt to the changes, but they ought to begin to grow in that curved shape. I didn’t tie all of them because I wanted a wild look, just semi-tamed.
Tying the willow tops together. The willows are already beginning to lose their leaves, creating a wonderful mulch underneath. While the willows are bare there won’t be as good of a hiding spot, but as more stalks grow next year it should fill up beautifully.
Side view. 
A bird butt. Who is hiding from whom? You May Also Like
Native Insects and IPM
- Animals, Books, Breads, Chickens, Compost, Gardening adventures, Giving, Health, Humor, Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures, Pets, Recipes, Reptiles and Amphibians, Soil, Vegetables
The Life of Di, or Fall At My House
“And here’s another fine mess you’ve gotten me into!” I like to be involved with many projects at once. I picture my life as an opal, my birthstone, full of swirled colors and hues. I have several books going at once, projects chipped away at around the house, volunteer responsibilities strewn across my week, and far too many animals and acres to care for. When I’m exhausted I can spend a day on the couch reading with no trouble at all being the picture of laziness. Prior to Thanksgiving I underwent a skin cancer preventative treatment on my face and hands, which required applying a topical cream twice a day that brings suspicious cells to the surface and burns them off. By the end of the second week I was quite a mess, and then took another week to heal enough to be seen in public without alerting the zombie hunters. The treatment, needless to say, kept me from being in sunlight, therefore housebound. Always loving a clean, organized house but never actually completely cleaning or organizing, I figured I’d get some work done. I tried sorting about 15 boxes of photo albums left by my mother and grandmother… and got through one box before I had to stop. I wanted to bake bread, and I wanted to find something to do with the small amount of hops we harvested, so I experimented with a recipe that had a starter, sponge and rising that altogether took five days. The Turnipseed Sisters’ White Bread from the classic Bernard Clayton’s New Complete Book of Breads .
Turnipseed Sisters’ White Loaf starter made with hops. The starter really smelled like beer. Not in a pleasant way, either. However the bread was good, and baking was fun.
Good sandwich and toast bread. Just the extra carbs I needed for sitting on my butt for two weeks, right? Then I wanted to thin, clean and alphabetize the fiction section in my living room.
Books piled alphabetically… a little later there was a small avalanche. Yes, I have enough books in my house that they are in sections. Former school librarian and bookstore worker here. I haven’t done the non-fiction section as yet, which extends to most of the other rooms in the house. Maybe next year? I did a little writing, a lot of reading, surrounded by my elderly dog Sophie
Sophie enjoying good sleeps. who keeps returning from the brink of death to sleep about 23 hours a day, and one of my hens, Viola, who suddenly went lame in one leg.
Viola on a healing vacation. All advice was to cull her, but I thought that she pulled a muscle and hadn’t broken her leg, and being vegetarian I don’t eat my pets. Viola has been recuperating in a cage in the dining room, gaining strength in that leg, laying regular eggs, having full rein of the front yard, and crooning wonderfully. As I count wild birds for Cornell University’s Project Feederwatch, I keep an eye on the hen. The cats ignore her, thank goodness. I’ve quite enjoyed having a chicken in the house. Yep, I’m starting to be one of those kinds of aging ladies.
In between I’d spend time crawling under bushes to push and shove my 100-pound African spur thigh tortoise out of his hiding spot and into the heatlamp-warmed Rubbermaid house he shuns so that he wouldn’t catch cold in the chill damp nights. I always come out victorious, with him angry and begrudgingly warm, and with me wet, muddy, hair full of sticks and hands full of scratches. Does anyone have a life like this?
“I’m performing advanced trigonometry in my head, don’t bother me, Woman!” Finally my skin healed enough so that I was able to venture outdoors.
Garlic and seed sprouts guarded from birds by a rubber snake. I planted seeds of winter crops: collards, kale, garlic, onions, carrots, Brussels sprouts and broccoli rabe, and prepared raised beds for more.
Yellow perfection tomatoes still ripening, as are the green zebra. I ordered organic pea, lupine and sweet pea seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds , all nitrogen-fixers to plant around the plant guilds.
Pepperoncini still producing. On Thanksgiving I hiked 1200 feet up Monserate Mountain in a record slow time; all that sitting and all that bread causing me to often stop and watch the slow holiday traffic on Hwy. 15, and be very glad that I was on a hike instead.
The neighbors had their annual tree butchering, paying exorbitant sums to have the same so-called landscapers come in and top their trees (shudder!) and thin others… for what reason I have no idea. Because being retired Orange County professionals they believe that trees need to be hacked back, contorted, and ruined? Possibly.
Please, please, please, friends don’t let friends top trees! Find an arborist who trims trees with an eye to their health and long-term growth and immediate beauty. A well-pruned tree is lovely, even just after pruning. A topped tree is brutal and ugly.
A topped coral tree. Ugh! Anyway, the upside is that I claimed all the chips, giving new life to the ravaged trees as mulch for my pathways. Two truckloads were delivered. I think I have enough for the whole property.
“The bear went over the mountain to see what he could see. He saw another mountain…” How to spread it? Yep, one wheelbarrow full at a time.
One wheelbarrow at a time. I can now condition myself for more hiking and weight lifting without leaving the property. The heaps have a lot of pine in them (they thinned the pine trees!???) so there is a pleasant Christmassy smell emanating from the heaps.
Hot steamy mulch. They are also very high nitrogen and were hot in the center on the second day and this morning were steaming right after our brief rain shower. Mulch piles can catch fire; when I worked for San Diego County Parks we rangers would joke about who had been called out by the fire department when their newly delivered mulch pile had caught fire in the night.
Steam from the mulch mountains. I stood on it just now and steam went up my pant legs and warmed me up! I also received a gift of seven 15-gallon nursery containers of llama poo!
The wealth of llama poo. Hot diggity! Early Christmas: My diamonds are round and brown, thank-you. I layered them in the compost heap and am ready for more.
I also wholeheartedly participated in Small Business Saturday, finding happy locals and crossing paths with friends and aquaintences at several stores. I received my first Merry Christmas from a man at Myrtle Creek Nursery’s parking lot as he waited for his son’s family to pick out a Christmas tree. I do love this town.
Sweet potatoes ready to harvest for Christmas dinner. That catches me up. Lots of projects, lots of volunteering, lots of cleaning up to do before my daughter comes home for the holidays and despairs at my bachelorette living. Lots of mulch to move. Lots of really great friends. Lots of sunscreen to wear. Lots to be thankful for.
You May Also Like
Native Insects and IPM
- Animals, Gardening adventures, Natives, Other Insects, Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures
At Least 78 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t ‘Clean Up’ Your Garden
The idea of cleaning up all the dead plants out of the garden in the Fall has been so drilled into us that it is almost second nature. There are a certain amount of things to do in a garden in the Fall, but second-guessing nature’s usage of plants shouldn’t be one of them. Leaving seedheads standing provides birds with something to eat when scavenging becomes difficult – and for a perch. Not being so radical about cutting back or pulling out plants that don’t look as good as new may provide you with pleasant surprises. For instance, last month I saw that milkweed plants had been eaten down by Monarch butterfly larvae until there wasn’t a leaf on them. The caterpillers were gone and there were a couple of the beautiful Monarch butterflies landing on the lantana and butterfly bush for a drink. I left the plants, and sure enough, they produced more leaves. Then this week, the week before Thanksgiving – so late in the season – I happened to look at the milkweed and saw that it was bare again.
A bare looking milkweed plant. Then I took a closer look.
And then I stared.
One one milkweed plant there were well over fifty Monarch caterpillars, and on a smaller plant over twenty.
They were hurrying to eat what they could.
Many wouldn’t make it through metamorphosis this late in the season, but many will.
However I’ve since seen these beautiful creatures all over the yard looking for suitable places to fasten on to, to form their green and gold cases and try their luck at metamorphosing. Perhaps there will be Monarchs in the yard at Christmastime.
I’m glad that I’m a sloppy gardener.
You May Also Like
Native Insects and IPM
- Gardening adventures, Natives, Other Insects, Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures, Soil
Native Planting
Milkweed and wildflowers are host to butterflies, and the garden is still full of them. Today the forecast searing sun hid behind clouds all morning, making it a perfect Fall day for planting natives. The area all along the northern property fenceline is dedicated to plants found in our San Diego coastal sage scrub habitat. The dirt along this area is bad. It is sandy dirt over hard clay, a product of years of runoff flowing in from the neighbor’s yard.
The native California strip with dirt, not soil. Last year coastal live oaks, cork oak and Engelmann oak were planted along this strip, and little else. The soil was covered with sheaths of palm leaves, and they helped protect the soil and hold in some moisture, but there is little decomposition rate from them. The soil needed oak leaves.
A coating of oak leaves will help fire the soil; more leaves will be coming soon. Last Monday Lori, a friend who is working here weekly did a tremendous job carefully raking back all the palm sheaths, then bagging oak leaves from the walkways around the massive old oak on the embankment and spreading them around between the new oaks. There are plenty of leaves left for the health of the big oak; just the leaves on the slippery stairs were moved. The oak leaves will decompose and provide the soil with the nutrients to host fungal action in the ground; the start of soil building.
Planting lemonade berry and sugarbush. Today Jacob and I planted a number of lemonade berry, sugarbush and deerweed, as well as two replacement coastal live oaks. I had purchased packets of seed mixes as well as several types of lupine (nitrogen fixer), making sure there was no alyssum, evening primrose or borage in the packets (they do very well on their own on the property!).
Take a lot of seed packets, empty them into a bucket, stir and voila! Diversity! I also took some seedheads from a couple of non-native sunflowers and threw them into the mix.
Breaking up a sunflower for seeds. In every damp spot from the subterranean irrigation we planted wildflower seeds.
The subterranean irrigation leaves damp spots on the soil, where I plant flower seeds. They’ll choke out future weeds as well. We’ve had stunning results from this method for several seasons. It is the middle of October and there are still flowers blooming, providing beauty and food for insects and birds.
Stands of wildflowers feed the insects and look wonderful. Some herbs such as purple basil and parsley have come up late.
Purple basil showing up between the last of the squash vines. Either I use it or let it go to seed to feed insects and reseed itself. California poppies that have died off are showing new leaf growth around the base of the plants. So all-in-all a very successful day, thanks to the hard work of my helpers and the cooperation of the weather. These native plant guilds of plants, mulch and flowers will all work towards turning that soil alive and begin the communication between the native plants that will make this habitat for native animals priceless.
- Compost, Gardening adventures, Other Insects, Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures, Soil, Worms
Compost Happens
Good rich soil that needs screening Compost happens, whether you fool with it or not. Given moisture, air circulation and the creatures that help decompose and you can compost anything. Without these factors you have mummies. Or zombies, but that is another discussion. If you want to read about the many ways to compost without a heap, please read Fifty Ways to Leave Your Compost.
I am a lazy composter. When I weed I usually throw what I pull up under the growing trees to quickly mulch down. Excess weeds and branchy things I throw into a compost bin made of wire. Rats and mice enjoy the structures.
Wire bins of weeds have been gradually settling over the months. Kitchen scraps, paper towels, tissues, tea bags, paper cups and plates all go into a Rubbermaid compost bin I bought years ago. I don’t turn the piles. Compost happens, but it happens slowly. A little kitchen waste goes into another bin to feed sorely neglected worms.
I am also composting in place. A raised garden bed lined with wire to keep out gophers was empty, so I’ve been throwing in weeds and dirty chicken straw. By next spring it should be ready to use.
In this bed I’ve been composting in place. The Rubbermaid compost bin is in an inconvenient place. I’d moved it in early spring and now I’m moving it again. This doesn’t count as turning the pile, really, because the last time it sat in situ for years. It had the best soil under it on the whole property. Even without turning, and only over about six months, you can see that compost has been happening.
A lot of debris on top of the heap…. After I took the sides down, below the layer of debris there was about four inches of compost.
After about six months with no turning, there is great compost at the bottom This I screen and then use in the raised vegetable beds.
My garden’s demand for compost is more urgent these days, and the amount of debris to compost is larger. If I had a chipper or shredder, much of the debris would be composted in a short amount of time. However I’m going into the regular compost bin operation. I had a three-bin compost bin made out of old pallets. I already had the green metal stakes to hold up the pallets, and three pallets to use. Unfortunately they weren’t all the same shape or size, so the two wonderful men creating this for me, Jacob and Steve, went on a pallet hunt in their yards and came back with what was needed.
Wooden pallets make a great compost bin. Debris and yet-to-be-collected-from-a-friend’s-house llama poo will be layered in the first chamber and watered. As it decomposes it will be turned into the second bin, and the process begun again in the first. Then each will be moved again and all three chambers will be filled with compost in three degrees of decomposition. It should be easy to fill a wheelbarrow from the last chamber, screen it and deliver the rich compost to the base of the fruit trees and my raised veggie bed. Meanwhile, weeds that have recently been gathered, especially ‘trouble’ weeds such as Bermuda grass, are stuffed in black plastic sacks and cooking in the sun until they can’t reproduce anymore, and then will be added to the heaps. I don’t like using plastic, or contributing to the amount of plastic on the planet, but I am reusing and recylcing the bags.
Screening compost twice, once with smaller holes. -
Protecting Fruit
Strange fruit. We have many young fruit trees, including three figs. We have a Black Mission, a white and a Strawberry Jam fig. The trees are a year in the ground and not quite head-height, but all produce small amounts of fruit which ripen sequentially.
The birds know about the figs.
I’m glad to share a percentage of my crops with wildlife; this is a habitat after all, and there is more than enough for me and for sharing. However, there aren’t a lot of figs to go around. My daughter while home from University this summer took on a competitive attitude when harvesting the figs. She was out early testing for perfect ripeness, testing again as the sun set, being foiled by pecked fruit when it was at its peak of perfection.
Netting trees is not a good idea. The netting sits on the trees and the birds sit on it and peck through. Meanwhile it snags and sticks on the trees and is almost impossible to remove without doing damage to the trees. Also that plastic or nylon netting, if left on the ground, will often be deadly to beneficial snakes which become entangled in it (read about how I released one here).
Miranda came up with a wonderful, easy solution that re-purposed something of which we had plenty: plastic berry baskets. These baskets were hard enough to form a space around the fruit so that a bird couldn’t get its beak down through it. They also allowed air to flow around the fruit and sunshine in to ripen. They were also incredibly easy to quickly twist-tie onto the branch around an almost-ripened fig, and reposition to the next fig when it was time to pick the first one. The long twist-ties often used to hold heads of lettuces together worked best. Extra baskets were handy to put the picked figs into as well. This solution could be used for small grape clusters as well.
Obviously this solution is for small trees; but then, when the tree is large it will be producing plenty of fruit to share with the birds. Or, we can get a ladder and a lot of berry baskets and twist-ties.
That, however, may just cause talk in the neighborhood.
-
Jujube: a wonder tree
A handsome fruit. We mostly know the word jujube from having snacks as a kid in the movie theatre. Jujubes were once unchewable resinous candies of many flavors, and then were changed to something akin to gummy bears. Jujubes are a general term for a variety of candies in many countries. Oddly enough, and for reasons I know not, there is a tree called a jujube that bears wonderful fruit.
Jujube tree with fruit (a drupe, actually) ready to pick. Jujube trees (Ziziphus jujuba) have been cultivated in China for over four thousand years, and are gradually catching on in other countries. The first jujube fruit I ate was last year in a dried form. It was good, faintly reminiscent of a date. Now I have a tree that has just begun to bear fruit, and I am in love with it. The fruit is small, like very large olives. They begin green and then quickly turn to a reddish brown color, usually in blotches of color.
The fruit turns brown in patches, but can be eaten before completely dark. You can eat them fresh; in fact, I haven’t had them cooked yet. They are delightful. There is a center stone, such as in a date, but it holds two seeds.
Thin skin, crisp flesh like a green apple with a hint of date. The skin is thin and tender. The flesh is crisp and reminiscent of a green apple with hints of date. I love them. Many wait until the skin begins to wrinkle to eat them. You may pick the jujubes as they start turning color and they ripen quickly in the house without loss of flavor, or let them dry on the tree. Jujubes are high in vitamin C, and have been used medicinally in other countries, especially as a tea for sore throat. Best of all, so far the local birds ignore them, and there don’t seem to be any insect pests that love them.
Jujubes are a lovely reddish brown when ripe, and darken as they wrinkle. What makes the jujube a wonder tree is that it doesn’t seem to mind intense heat; in fact, it loves full sunshine and dry conditions. It also can survive a chill factor down to -28 degrees F! It doesn’t mind clay or alkaline soils, although good drainage and regular watering insures a good crop. They require little or no fertilization. There are many cultivars, the best being from China and more inferior ones from India and Japan. Many are thorny but some are virtually thornless. The trees can grow 30 feet high, have an attractive drooping appearance and are deciduous, the leaves yellowing before dropping. Suckers can appear several feet away from the trunk and can be controlled by mowing or pruning. You can read more about this remarkable tree here.
Why not try a jujube tree? They provide food, windbreak, mulch and have a very hard wood, and take just about any conditions. And the next time you go to a movie theatre you can bring your own jujubes… dried!
- Compost, Gardening adventures, Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures, Rain Catching, Soil, Worms
Why Plant Natives?
The following article was written for and published in the summer 2012 Fallbrook Land Conservancy’s newsletter, the Conservation Chronicle (http://www.fallbrooklandconservancy.org/News/Chronicles/Summer2012/Summer2012.pdf, pg. 6). It was slightly edited and retitled for publication.
Why is planting native vegetation a good idea? We all know that native plants arranged in natural combinations and densities provide safety corridors for our native animals. San Diego’s plant communities have, like all established ecosystems, developed a symbiotic relationship with native and migratory fauna. Our plants leaf out, bloom and fruit when native animals and insects need the food, and provide appropriate nutrition that imported or invasive plants may not. Wildlife then disperses seed and pollen in methods that suit the plants, as well as providing the fertilizer for which the plants have adapted. Flora and fauna have set up symbiotic relationships to an extent where some species rely solely on a single other species for their existence. A balanced ecosystem is a dance between inhabitants who know each other’s needs and satisfy them for their own survival.
We plant natives in our yards because they are hard-wired for our soil and climate. They naturally conserve water and do not need fertilizer or insect control. They also can be beautiful. Planting native plants is good for our wallet, our resources and our health. But there is more to the equation. Living in every handful of good soil are billions of microscopic creatures and fungi collectively called microbes that make nutrients available to plant roots. The smell of fresh soil is a chemical released by these microbes called geosmin. Scientists now know that the microbes in undisturbed soils form a communication network between tree and plant roots. When a tree is attacked by insects, communication is sent out chemically by the tree’s roots and carried via this microbial network throughout the ecosystem, and other trees set up defense mechanisms to lessen their own damage.
Plants also communicate via scents not detectable by humans. Lima beans and corn planted downwind of brother plants which had been subjected to grasshopper attack lowered their sugar content to be less desirable. Such plants received 90% less insect damage than those planted upwind. California sagebrush (Artemisia californica) allows sibling plants to grow nearby because when attacked, it emits an airborne chemical to repel insects. The more sagebrush in the area, the better the protection as other sages respond in kind. Some plants when attacked will release a chemical that attracts the predatory insect which will feed upon the bug that is attacking the plant.
Thus plants communicate via airborne chemicals and through their roots via the microbial network. They call for help, they send out alarms and insect invitations and what’s more, they respond to each other. The why of planting natives is therefore also this: It is important to plant natives because they all speak the same language. Plants introduced to an area by humans are like strangers in a strange land. They cannot communicate well with other plants. They don’t know which bugs are bad until it’s too late. They have no one to call for help; the pheromones they emit are for beneficial bugs that live far away. Their seeds cannot supply the proper nutrition for the wildlife, and the wildlife may not be able to supply the plant with what it needs to keep healthy. They struggle to succeed in our soils and become stressed and sickly. We pour fertilizer and pesticides on them to help them survive, which kills the microbes that create good soil. Also, without the natural checks and balances found at the plant’s native ecosystem it may well become invasive and rob space, water and nutrition from our natives. The weeds you see in reclaimed properties are mostly non-native. Foxtails and wild radish do not belong here. Hike in some of the preserves which have not been previously farmed. There you’ll see the real native wildflowers, such as California peony, rattlesnake weed, tidy tips and Blue-Eyed Mary, living in harsh decomposed granite soils on little water, in relationships with the other chaparral surrounding them. You’ll understand a little more about how plants form guilds to support each other, and create that wholesome rightness that we feel when we walk in undisturbed nature. Recreating those guilds in your garden, adapted to provide human food, medicine and building materials, is called Permaculture.
- Gardening adventures, Heirloom Plants, Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Fun Vegetables
A small green zebra, not quite ripe In a past post I related how my mother had witnessed a woman staring hands-on-hips at the produce selection in a grocery store and exclaiming, “I wish they’d come up with some new vegetables!” How true is that? How many ways can you cook the limited offerings in your average supermarket produce section without going out of your mind? That’s where a trip to an ethnic grocery store can be a life-saver. Or, plant some fun new varieties in your garden.
Thanks to Baker Creek Heirloom (Organic) Seeds and their fantastic catalog, I was spoiled for choice. I also buy a lot from Botanical Interests , an organic seed company which has packets for sale in stores such as my neighborhood Joe’s Hardware. Their wildflower seed mixtures are highlights of my garden and attract birds, butterflies and other insects. Here are some newbies I tried this year, and the keepers:
Zucchino Rampicante : an heirloom zucchini that grows on a vine. This squash grows curled or straight on long vines that need support. The fresh squash can be used like zucchini, but are firmer and have a mild butternut flavor that goes well with everything. I am completely in love with the taste of these.
Some zucchinos are straight, some follow their own tune PLUS: if you leave the squash on the vine, it grows huge and unlike those monsterous zucchini clubs that are practically inedible and unwanted, zucchino then hardens and you can store it and use it as a winter squash! How marvelous and unwasteful is that! Zucchini without the pressure. No more alienating your neighbors and friends with excess squash.
Zucchino shapes are marvelous Green Zebra Tomato :a large, lime-green striped tomato that develops a slight yellowish tinge between the stripes when ripe. These gorgeous tomatoes are rich and slightly tart, but without heavy acid. Marvelous on a open-faced sandwich or in a caprese salad to show off the color inside.
Green Zebra: beautiful inside Thai #2 Red Seeded Long Bean: The seeds were given to me by the woman who introduced me to Baker Creek Seeds, and who built my chicken and quail coops. I planted the seeds by stakes that turned out to be too short for the vines.
Long beans growing very long. However, these beautiful flowers eventually came, followed by spectacularly long thin green beans two feet long! One bean per person! (Just about, anyway). They are good stir-fried. I haven’t tried to tempura one yet, but its tempting.
Six long beans slice up to a serving for two! Mortgage Lifter Tomato : Now THESE are the ultimate sandwich tomato. These heavy pink-red fruits have mostly meaty insides and have an incredible savory flavor. I have found my favorite red tomato. Beefstake has nothing on this baby. It also has a cool name.
Mortgage Lifter is very meaty and savory 
Rice Blue Bonnet: the jury is still out on this one. This is a dry-land rice. I didn’t thin it when I should have, so it is growing in clumps and hasn’t progressed beyond the thin leaves. My fault. It is growing and would probably be successful if I handle it right.
Basil Custom Blend HEIRLOOM Seeds : I planted a row and have regular and purple basil, lime basil, and cinnamon basil (one of my favorite scents). Today I used the regular and purple chopped over an open-faced tomato sandwich, and my daughter added leaves from the other two to a fruit salad.
Sesame, Light Seeded : Beautifully flowered plants with seed pods full of sesame seeds! How great is that?
Sesame pods. Broad Windsor Fava Bean : I planted a lot of legumes to help build the soil (they set nitrogen), and tried fava beans this year. They grow like crazy, take a lot of neglect, and produce a fantastic protein source in the form of a tasty bean. They are a little trouble to shell, but well worth it. I wrote about favas here.
Blue Potatoes: These I started several years ago from an organic blue potato I bought at a grocery store. Since there are usually some small tubers left in the soil, I have volunteers sprouting every year. These blue potatoes – whatever their true variety is – are a lovely purplish blue outside, with a lovely purple center as well. They aren’t starchy, but are best used like red potatoes. Very fun.
Peeled purple potatoes - Animals, Chickens, Gardening adventures, Heirloom Plants, Herbs, Other Insects, Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures, Photos, Ponds, Quail, Vegetables
What’s Happening in the July Garden
A banana squash stealthily growing huge 
An apricot tree with fava beans, squash, herbs, artichokes, and tomatoes 
The withy hide growing beautifully 
Kabocha and delicata squash on the ground, zucchino rampicante on the trellis, Christmas beans, favas, Swiss chard and medicinal plants around a small avocado tree 
Favas: great for the soil, great for the dinnerplate 
Heirloom tomatoes. Why do they all come ripe at the same time? 
Sugar pumpkins are ripe already in the Mediterranean guild. Also figs, paste tomato, dill, fennel, thyme, pickling cucumbers and artichoke. 
Plant guilds of squash, beans, flowers, etc. are flourishing. 
Heirloom green melons hiding from the hot sun. 
By now the wild buckwheat has dried up, which starves the bees. But not here. 
Matilija and Flanders poppies over banana squash 
Monarchs are so plentiful this year that we have to take pains to avoid them. 
Wildflowers host an incredible diversity of insects 
Dill flowers looking like a spectacular firework 
In a balanced wildlife habitat, bunnys do little harm 
All five girls waiting for treats in the Fowl Fortress 
Pumpkins, bananas, bamboo and much more by fescue paths. 
Fresh grape leaves, dill and garlic from the garden for the pickles 
Hot weather? Must be canning season! Pickled cucumbers, zucchino and onions, and peach pit and peel jelly. 
Very large yellow waterlilies 
Native salt heliotrope by the big pond. 
Volunteer tomato in the shade of the Nest, by palm tree bench. 
Wisteria, grapes and zerpheranthum lilies around the Nest 
Blooming banana 
Quail eggs! 
Double heirloom hollyhock 
Egyptian lilies 
Fourth of July rose celebrating the holiday You May Also Like
Native Insects and IPM