• Animals,  Gardening adventures,  Ponds,  Reptiles and Amphibians

    Kingsnake in the Pond

    Coming down to the watering hole.

    With the AAUW Garden Tour coming up in three days (yikes!) and so much still to do, and of course working in the 80+ degree heat this week, I haven’t been doing much else.  However the heat did bring out our annual visitor to the upper pond.

    More than a drink... he's going in!

    He (or she) visits a couple of times a year, and seems to enjoy the new shape of the pond with its long shallow end.

    Swimming the channel.

    I wish he’d go after the bullfrog!

    Beautiful bands. Siblings can be striped or banded.

    Kingsnakes are mild snakes that will eat other snakes, including rattlers.  I’m glad to see him!

  • Animals,  Chickens,  Compost,  Gardening adventures,  Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures,  Soil,  Vegetables,  Worms

    Fifty Ways To Leave Your Compost

     

    Its not fruit; its pre-compost!

    I have no idea how many years I’ve composted kitchen scraps.  So many that when I see anyone dump veggie bits, egg yolk and shells, plate scrapings, old leftovers and even floor sweepings into the regular garbage it sets off all of my alarms.  How can anyone waste all that good stuff?  That is like throwing gold away!  Its not dead stuff… its all living and ready to transform in to perfect soil, which shoots health into your plants!  Most people say that they don’t have the time to compost, or they don’t want to turn a heap.

    Well.

    Here may not be fifty ways to compost easily, but certainly enough for ANYONE to keep their compostables out of the mainstream trash.  And apologies to Paul Simon.

    A blurry glimpse into my sink composting bucket. Egg shells, tea bags, banana peels, and tissues!

    1. You Just slip out the back, Jack, with that little pail you have in or under your sink, into which you scrape everything compostable.  They warn you about bones and meat because of animals digging through your heap to get to them, but if you bury your compost deeply, you won’t have that problem.  I use a little bucket that they gave me for heaven-knows-what-reason at the hospital when I had my gall bladder out.  It isn’t pretty, but it does the job.  When I had both my children at home there was a lot more veggie peels to deal with, so in my kitchen I had a woven laundry basket, and inside I had two plastic liners, one for recycling and one for compost.

    Big ol' basket, divided in half inside. One part recycling, the other compost.

    I only emptied it once a week.  I didn’t like using so much plastic, but I’d put the plastic bag in the recycling.  They sell all kinds of really nifty compost buckets now.  Get one with a lid to keep those annoying little fruit flies from developing.  Or if you have an open bucket like mine, just fill it partly with water so that the compost is submerged.  It is easier to dump out that way and keeps cleaner, too.  Especially if you’re going to…

    Is it a Vita-Mix, or is it a composting machine?

    Make a new plan, Stan, and instead of making a compost heap, you put all those scraps (barring big pits and nut shells) with water into a blender and whip it up.   Then march outside and pour that brew around your plants!  You can always kick a little dirt over it if its thick.  This gives your plants a fantastic compost boost.  Since it is undecayed pureed plant matter, you don’t want to bind up the nitrogen around seedlings or young plants, so pour it outside the drip line (how far the roots come out), or in an area you are preparing to plant in the future.  This compost will decompose with days, depending on how warm the ground is (cold weather kills off or slows down microbes and wormies).  If it is snowy winter where you are, then you might just freeze the stuff, in ice cube form or in paper cups.  When the soil warms, plant those cubes!  (Be sure to label them when in the freezer so no one thinks they are smoothie-pops!)

    Freeze your blended compost, then empty the cubes into a bag and LABEL.

    You don’t need to be coy, Roy, but depending on your neighbors you may not want them to see you burying your compost.  That’s right, you don’t have to make a heap, or blend it up.  Just march outside with your bucket and a shovel or trowel, dig some small holes and bury it!  The wormies will turn it into soil for you in weeks.  Sometimes you’ll get surprises, like when a potato sprouts…. free veg!  Here again for those who have frozen winters, you can pop the compost as is in a bag in the freezer.  The only problem is freezer space.  Just think, though, every bit you can save helps your garden!

    Dig it in!

    Just get yourself free from all your hangups about compost heaps and go buy a compost bin.  I’ve a Rubbermaid bin for about twelve years.  When my compost container is full I march it down, open the top, toss in the contents and away I go.  When I pull weeds or thin the garden, I throw that in there too.  Do I turn it?  Heck, no!  But if I wanted to I could very easily.  The sides and two halves of the top fit together like enormous puzzle pieces, so I just need to take them all off, reassemble them right next to the heap, then pitchfork the compost back into it.  The stuff that was on the top would now be on the bottom.  Fresh compost can be shoveled out of a hole in the side on the bottom.  Compost that is turned is not only matured faster, but is of a better quality and more broken down than that which isn’t turned.  But as the bumperstickers say, compost happens!  Stuff breaks down.  Throw stuff into the top of the bin, and rake it out the bottom.  Free your mind from compost regulations!  Just go for it!

    Throw it on! Compost happens!

    Hop on the bus, Gus, and become a real composter.  You can build compost bins very cheaply.  If you can nail things together so that they actually stay together (I can’t), you can build a three-section compost bin out of old pallets.  There are lots of YouTube videos showing how.  The best kind have removable slats in the front so that you can start low and gradually add to the front as the heap grows.  Then when you want to turn it into the next bin, you may easily remove the slats for quick  access.  You can also just take a section of wire and make a cylinder out of it, then pitchfork in the weeds, grass, and throw in the kitchen trimmings.  When its time to turn it, just undo the wire or slip it off, and set it up next to the pile again.  Or have a line of wire cages.  I have three, plus my bin.  Do I turn them either?  No.  I keep throwing on excess weeds, and it keeps sinking down.  Remember: compost happens!

    You don’t need to discuss much with wormies because they can’t answer you: their little mouths are so full of your kitchen waste that they can’t talk!  Make yourself a worm bin.  Or buy one.  You’ll need two dark plastic bins (one fits inside the other).  Drill holes all through the lid for ventilation, and in just one of the bins drill some holes along the top of the sides, then drill tiny holes in the bottom for drainage.  Fit the drilled bin inside the non-drilled bin.  Put wads of newspaper, or paper from your paper shredder (unless you are saving it all to pack your mail-out Christmas gifts with instead of those nasty Styrofoam things) in the bin up to about half way.  Lightly sprinkle with water.  Throw a little soil in there, but not much for these kinds of worms.  Find someone who has worms, or buy some red wigglers.  You don’t want earthworms.  Put these little guys gently into the bin.  Take your compost and put it into one corner.  Cover with a dampened sheet of newspaper and put the ventilated lid on the top.  Keep the wormies from extreme temperatures.  Some people keep a bin under their kitchen sink.  Many school kids keep wormies as projects and for fun (baby wormies are white and wiggly!).  As the wormies devour your compost they’ll leave behind castings, which look like sticky dirt.  This is gold.  If they had worm castings in Fort Knox instead of all that gold bullion our dollar would never fluctuate.  What collects in the bottom bin is ‘worm tea’, which is just as valuable.  Pour this stuff into your houseplants or directly on your plants.  Commercial worm bins have several sections to hold more compost, are a little easier to manage and have a spigot for the worm tea.  A perfect Mother’s Day gift!  That or a compost bucket or bin!

    Just drop off the key, Lee, with your housesitter when you go on vacation, and don’t forget to let her know to throw those kitchen scraps in with your chickens!  Or goat!  Or miniature pig!  You don’t even need a heap when you have beaks!  All those scraps are pure vitamins and minerals and chickens will not only devour them, but give you the best eggs you have ever tasted.  Don’t forget to crush eggshells and give them right back to the chickens!  They need that calcium to keep their eggs nice and hard.  Chickens turn your compost into great eggs for you and great poo for the ground.  Chicken manure can be used right away in your garden.  Goaties will eat just about anything, as will piggies, so kitchen waste is perfect (slops).

    Feed it to the chickens!

    And get yourself free from all that guilt that you shoulder when you throw food into the trash.  Oh, and separate your recycling, too!

  • Animals,  Gardening adventures,  Heirloom Plants,  Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures,  Ponds,  Reptiles and Amphibians,  Soil,  Vegetables

    Earth Day at Finch Frolic

    Snowy egret hunting. "Get the bullfrogs!"

    In celebration of Earth Day, I worked in the garden.  You can stop laughing now.  Yes, I know that I work in the garden nearly every day, and then spend time not volunteering or exercising, recovering from working in the garden.  It was an overcast day, which beach-bound teenagers probably cursed, but I found perfect for working outside.

    Roses in bloom everywhere.

    I had a visitor wishing me a Happy Earth Day.

    Do you notice anything about this wreath?

    This is an alligator lizard.

    "Hello!"

    Hopefully he enjoyed the ride as I opened and closed the door several times to photograph him.

    Alligator lizard from inside.

    Among other things today, I sifted compost.  I had moved my compost bin, and this good compost was still on the ground from where it had been.

    Sifting compost through a screen.

    I put it into a new raised (and wire-lined) bed.

    Adding sifted compost to the bed, which has been dusted with organic non-animal based fertilizer.

    Then I planted two rows of rice in it. Yes, rice.  It is an heirloom variety from Baker Creek Organic Heirloom Seeds (http://rareseeds.com/rice-blue-bonnet.html), and it doesn’t need to stand in water to grow.  Just something new and fun to try out.

    The rubber snake guards a freshly planted bed of rice.

    I’m also growing red seeded asparagus beans, the seeds of which were given to me by the woman who made the quail house.  She also introduced me to Baker Creek, and for that I’m sincerely indebted. (http://rareseeds.com/red-seeded-asparagus-bean.html .)

    Spinach, carrots, edamame, sesame, Kentucky pole beans, endive and tomatoes are finally coming up.

    The other veggie beds are finally sprouting, now that the evenings have warmed up.

    Collards and carrots, transplanted from another bed and doing well.
    An incredible parsley setting seed, peas, parsnips, spinach, rhubarb, carrots and beans.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Castor bean seeds were in the mushroom compost, and I'm pulling them quickly.

    Here are a few views from other areas of the garden.  Three weeds until the AAUW Garden Tour.  Yikes!

    General Mischief waiting near the quail house for dinner. The hose connects to the 700 gallons of cootie water (compost tea) and is irrigating native plants.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    A happy harvest. Strawberries and eggs. I'm freezing the berries for later to make jam.
    Lamb's Ear, whitebud, passionfruit and Bermuda grass

     

     

    Stunning blue iris in the pond.
    Fringe tree in bloom.

     

    Iris

     

     

  • Gardening adventures,  Humor,  Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures,  Rain Catching,  Soil

    Seven Hundred Gallons of Cooties

    That's a lot of tea.

    One of the amazing and useful things I learned in my Permaculture Design Course was how to brew microbes in a bucket.  Yes, I know, most women like champagne and jewelry.  I like compost and worms.  Whatever.  Microbes are the microscopic creatures that make dirt into soil.  By brewing a microbial tea you can so supersaturate the water with microbes that giving your plants just a small drink of it will greatly improve their health.  That is because microbes eat plant litter and other decaying things and make available (and by ‘make available’ I mean ‘poop out’.)  (Sorry.)  more of the nutrients such as minerals that can be locked in the soil.  Adding microbes to poor soil is a good thing.

    Fish tank water, paint strainer and aerator: tools for microbial brewing.

    To make a microbial brew, you put good compost in a mesh bag such as a paint strainer or layers of cheesecloth.  Obtaining compost from various sources gives you a good mix of microbes because not all the same microbes live in all soils.  Suspend this bag in a five-gallon bucket of water, add a little organic molasses for the microbes to eat (like sugar to yeast), and if you want other soil additives such as rock sulphate, blood or bone meal, etc.  I used water from my fish tank.  Then you oxygenate the water with a fish tank aerator.  After thirteen hours the microbes will have reproduced to a maximum capacity and the brewing is finished.  You should use the brew within a few hours.

    I'm not sure what made it foam, but it looked more like a brew.

    So, I did this a couple of times last Fall.  Meanwhile, Jacob, who still maintains the Aquascape projects and volunteers some time here, managed to have donated to me a 700-gallon tank.  It had been used for organic fertilizer.

    The tank. The target: under the balcony.

    Jacob brought it over in his pick-up, and with the building of an impromptu scaffold he, my daughter and I (but mostly him) rolled it into place by my garage without damaging the propane tank or each other.  Then he re-routed a rain gutter from my paltry 50-gallon rain barrel into the 700-gallon tank.

    Trying not to crush the propane tank.

    The tank filled after a few rains, and I used most of the water recently between rains.  Then the last two rains filled it to the top.  Jacob, who is into aquatic microbes with which to balance natural ponds, microbes being referred to as ‘cooties’, suggested turning the entire tank into a cootie-brewing container.  That way I’d not just be watering the plants, I’d be giving them a microbial smoothie.  A cootie cocktail.

    The tank, full of rainwater from the gutter, becoming a microbe farm.

    Always up for doing the improbable, I filled a paint strainer with some fine samples of soil from several long-established areas of my yard, and suspended it inside the tank.  In went an entire bottle of molasses, which is a drop in the bucket, so to speak.  Then in went my little fish tank aerator, quivering in fear at the impossible task of aerating 700-gallons of water.  I took a water sample and then plugged the thing in.  That was a few days ago.  I have no idea how well the microbes are brewing, since the aerator is barely stirring the water.  The water has turned brownish, which I take to be a good sign.  The warmer temperature is perfect for the little guys; springtime for microbes.  I think I may have a microscope left over from my older brothers – circa 1950-something – in the garage somewhere, with which I can compare water samples to see if anything is happening.  I figure, even if it isn’t, there is no harm done, and even if some microbes have flourished the water has improved.

    The aerator down inside the now-brownish cootie water.

    There are many quips I can make about this whole project.  For instance, here are several million pets I don’t have to take to the vets.  Or, I really love to cook, and since I enjoy making soup this project is a natural. However I just think the whole idea of making 700 gallons of microbial tea is so funny that no matter how the project ends up, I think the laugh is worth it.  If I can’t do something bizarre, it isn’t worth doing!

     

    Microbes are amazing, aren’t they?

    And so are tadpoles, which are thriving not unlike microbes, but in my pond.  (A belated happy April Fools.)

     

  • Gardening adventures,  Heirloom Plants,  Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures,  Ponds,  Soil

    Finishing Flagstone

    The task this morning: move and place flagstone and dirt.

    Today I finished cleaning up the disaster that I made when I dug out my upper pond (see Reponding).   There have been piles of dirt, stacks of flagstones and rocks, and mess everywhere for two months too many.  The reponding project is still not a complete success as the decomposed granite mixed with clay soil allows seepage in the pond.  I have to keep filling it up, but at least it is with well water, and eventually I believe it will seal.

    My faithful hound growing bored waiting for me past the heirloom daffodils.

    I didn’t want or need the same flagstone surround that I previously had holding down and covering the pond liner.  I wanted a more natural look, but yet I had all this flagstone!  So I completed the walkway around the pond, adding some overhanging flagstone under which the Pacific Chorus frogs may hide. One jumped out indignantly when I moved a rock.  I did a little planting, and Jacob began to plant aquatic plants now that the season is beginning and transplants are possible.  I found that the pond was full of mosquito larvae, and much to my surprise and joy, tadpoles!  More mosquito fish were added.  They are now lolling around groaning and holding their fishy stomachs with all the larvae they have (and still have to) eat.

    Moist soil and a tangle of flowers and weeds... magical.

    I made flagstone stairs through the overgrown embankment, for access to the bird feeders.  The grass, borage, daffodils, weeds and wildflowers are so dense in there that as I was kneeling in the moist dark soil I felt as if I were in a Beatrix Potter book, or some other English garden story.  It was magical and redolent of springtime.

    A pathway up through an English children's story.

    When I finally placed or stored all the flagstone, I had great piles of dirt to contend with.  Some I carried in buckets over to the side yard where I’d placed some flagstones. That got old pretty fast.  I only carried them full twice, then only filled them 3/4 full for the rest of the trips.  My arms are a little longer now. I really didn’t want to haul wagonfulls of dirt down to the lower property again, so I stood and thought about what I could do.  Then I spotted leftover scalloped edging bricks and decided to use them  and the soil to make another garden bed.  Why not?  I can always take it out. It sure beat hauling all that dirt out of there this afternoon!

    Have extra dirt and edgers? Make a new bed!

    Finally I was able to plant some herbs and flowers I’d purchased for this area.  Violas and violets, two of my favorites!  I’ll plant seeds another day. I’m hoping all this newly moved dirt won’t wash into the pond when we have our predicted heavy rain this weekend.  Maybe I’ll cover the new beds, just in case.

    Violets and violas... big favs.

    I watered everything in, which caused mud to scum up the newly swept flagstones (grrr!), filled the bird feeders (it is Project Feederwatch count days Thurs. and Fri.), and closed the gate on this project (for now!).  Once again, I shall have no trouble getting to sleep, but probably some trouble getting up in the morning!

    A touch of flagstone and rock; plants will fill in.

     

    Finished!
  • Gardening adventures,  Humor,  Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures

    Questionable Carpentry

    A carpenter's nightmare.

    I’ve said it many times: I can’t build.  I envision what I want.  I go about the deed full of instructions and positive energy.  Somehow during the attempt I go haywire and what I create isn’t what I’d wanted.  I am the Cakewrecks of building.  Does that stop me?  Noooo!  Always optimistic, and without a handy carpenter, I seek to build.  This time it was a couple of trellises for the two passionvines which had taken over each other, a fence, a pathway, a dead tree, a live tree and a walkway.

    The vine mess.

    I didn’t want to cut the plants back.  They were fruiting and the small one was flowering.  So I spent hours untangling vines.  I finally sorted out the small one.  Then I began to be creative.  I had all this old bamboo that I had cut from plants at my mother’s house years ago, and it really wanted me to use it.  So I wired it together over the fence, going for a creative look that turned out looking more as if a couple had slipped, but no matter!  Then I got the idea to put some wire along the fence, behind the vines, so they would have something on which to grasp.  That took some interesting maneuvers as the wire curled and clung, as did the vines.

    Up, I say, UP!

    The small passionvine I tied onto the wire and flipped over the bamboo, without doing much damage to the plant, and felt pretty happy about the result.

    The little vine looking much happier.

    Then I looked at the huge, vigorous passionvine which was eating the world, and decided it would be good to make it grow over some trellises that spanned the pathway, and use old wire and wood  for the project.  (You should be squirming uneasily in your seats about now).

    Untangling a broken dead tree from the vines.

    Now here again, I KNOW what I wanted.  I saw it in my mind’s eye.  I can do that with cooking, just envision a dish or a taste and I can recreate it.  Probably because I can use measuring cups and spoons like a pro.

    A crysalis of a Gulf Fritillary butterfly, which lays eggs on passionflowers.

    Using a measuring tape is another story.  It always lies to  me.  Oh, and I try not to cut wood, because I screw it up so easily.  Anyway, I found wood that was pretty equal, nailed on a crosspiece, made a ‘T’ with scraps for the bottom, and found some unrusted wire that would do well.

    Strategically placing ladder to hold up post.

    To make a long story short, leaving out the wrestling with wire, using my head to hold pieces in place, hammering yet more reinforcements onto the bottoms to keep the whole thing from pulling itself down, I managed to get them up and the vines over the top.  They aren’t bad looking from a distance.  Just don’t get too close.  And in the big windstorm that is due Friday, don’t even come onto my block!  Who knows where these things will land!

    The trellis looks deceptively good... from a distance.

    Oh, and then glowing with the success and ease of that project (just short term memory loss), I wanted to make a wire walk-through squash thingy.  I bought the heavy gauge fencing wire, t-stakes, and measured and remeasured.  All looked okay, although the stakes looked a little short (perhaps I should have bought the six-foot rather than four-foot?) until I began playing with the wire.

    Dealing with reused wire... trying to get the bends out.

    As much as I dislike working with wire, I certainly end up tangling with it a lot.  I had a 50-foot roll that I wanted to cut in half, so I layed it out on the ground, walking on it to keep it from viciously curling and scraping my back or imprisoning me.  I  wired one side onto the t-stakes,  and then thought they weren’t high enough and found… what else?  Old bamboo!  On they went to hold the wire. Then I did the opposite side.  And at this point the realization that I’d been trying to fight came to me.  It did so as the wire, instead of reaching into a graceful dome, sagged so much in the middle that the structure now spelled out a capital letter M.  I had bought the wrong gauge wire.  It was too floppy to ever make a nice dome.

    The Vine Alley.

    So I did what I usually do when faced with the product of my ineptitude. I took a walk and did something else for awhile.  I do this often.  Coming back to the M, I thought of making two very slender passageways, but that wouldn’t work.  I considered tearing it all down, but I was pretty tired by then and I hadn’t screwed up the placement of the stakes, after all.  So I decided to make two parallel vine walls, like a viney alley.  No wonderful squash hanging down from overhead, but I’ll get over it.  I planted four kinds of viney veggies, and am now getting my mind convinced that walls are what I really wanted anyway.  Otherwise, between the viney alley and the wobbly passionvine trellises, this won’t be so much a garden as an amusement park! I also have another overgrown passionvine that needs to grow over a trellis, in a very visable area of the garden.   Anyone know a courageous  local carpenter?

    Sigh. It would have been lovely with a domed top!
  • Animals,  Bees,  Gardening adventures,  Other Insects,  Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures

    Catching My First Bee Swarm

    Today was warm but very windy, and I was stealing some time to work on trellises I’m building for the passionflower vines (another story for another time, and definitely for the humor section).   The area I was working in was close to my house.  Inside an enclosure for my trashcans there stands a stack of nine extra bee supers (or boxes).  Last year a swarm  moved in and I’ve let them stay since they were so happy (and had so much room!). I have a hive and two empty Top Bar hives down in my specially planted Bee Garden; why should a swarm go there when it can be near trashcans? So today I’m out there trying to unroll a roll of cattle wire without losing a finger, and I hear a loud buzzing.  I looked up to see bees  flying in ever widening circles around the trashcan enclosure.  Normally they are in and out in a straight line (a honey flow) when gathering pollen.  I wondered if they were being attacked or bothered by something because in my mind it is still early in the year.  Then I remembered it is March already!  The hive was swarming.

    Can you see the swarm? Right in the middle.

    Just before a new queen hatches, the old queen takes a group of bees (depending upon the size of the hive, it could be 20,000 bees) to go find a new home.  First they exit the hive and find a place to rest and reconnoiter.  This is when people see them hanging from trees, underhangs, trashcans, whatever.  Scouts are sent out to find a good place to stay.  Sometimes they will stay where they are, even if it isn’t a good idea, such as the underside of a palm frond which a swarm built comb on for a short time some years ago in my yard.  This swarm mercifully gathered in a guaje tree just opposite the enclosure.

    There they are.

    I let the wire go and realized how unprepared I was.  I hadn’t completely finished preparing the bars for the top bar hives (so much to do!).  My daughter and I have kept a hive for years. I really wanted that swarm, and although I’ve read about it and watched YouTube videos about it, just haven’t captured a wild swarm myself. I decided to try and get them.

    First, I ran inside and rewatched a YouTube vlog on capturing a swarm, just to refresh my memory and boost my confidence.  Then I ran down to the bee garden and prepared a top bar hive.  I moved it to a better location, poured oil in the cups it sits in to keep out ants, and then finished preparing the bars.  I’d serendipitously purchased craft sticks just yesterday ( a special stop at JoAnns), and I rubbed old wax into the grooves to make the craft sticks stick.  Top bar hives have no foundation like Langstroth hives.  The bees are encouraged to build their own comb, using the bit of craft stick hanging down from the bars as a guide.  This is a healthier way to for bees to live when captured.  Then I dropped a few drops of lemongrass oil into the hive; bees really like it and are attracted to it.  I also smeared a little organic honey inside for some instant food.  This sounds so smoothly done, but actually there were a dozen trips between the bee garden at the bottom of the property, the house, the shed and the swarm, all done in a crazed, frantic and nervous sort of way.  A mad woman.  Again I’m grateful for good neighbors.

    Top bar hive, with craft sticks waxed onto the underside of a bar.

    I suited up in full bee gear.  Many people catch swarms without protective gear, or with just a veil.  When bees swarm they are the least likely to attack because they aren’t defending a hive.  They are clustering around their queen, not wanting to be separated from her.  However, since I now swell up dramatically when stung, I decided to take no chances.

    Hi.

    Fortunately the bees weren’t high up.  I dragged out a stepladder and found a smallish cardboard box.

    Fortunately within easy reach of a stepladder.

    Standing on the ladder and shoving the box under the swarm, I shook the branch, knocking the bees into the box.  When I thought I had most of them, I carried the box, full of crawling bees, down to the hive.  I wish I could have taken a photo, but with the thousands of bees in the box I didn’t want to go get the camera and fumble with it with my gloves; I didn’t want to hurt any of the girls and they needed to be relocated before they took flight.  I shook the box into the open top of the hive, and then put the top bar lid on.  There were still bees back on the tree.  I didn’t see the queen, and I really needed to make sure I got her.  I shook in the rest of the bees and then carried them back down to the bee garden.

    I shook the cardboard box of bees onto the ramp.

    I didn’t want to open the hive again, so I propped a board up to the entrance holes, then shook the box of bees out onto the ramp.  Bees will climb, and climb they did.  I used a bee brush to carefully collect bees that had clung to the outsides of the hive, and dumped them on the ramp, too.  There was quite a traffic jam for awhile.

    Traffic jam of bees climbing up the ramp into the opening.

    Eventually all the bees were in.  I removed the ramp and cleaned up… not a sting.  Actually, once I first climbed the stepladder I felt and heard the lack of anger in the swarm.  They weren’t making a high-pitched angry buzzing noise.  Tradition has it that you should talk to your bees; make sure to tell them about any change in the household.  So I talked to them as I transported them down to what would hopefully be their new home.  Just before dark I rapped once on the side of the hive and all 10- or 20-thousand of them hummed at me.  If I got the queen and they are happy, then they will stay.  Otherwise they’ll swarm again.  No bees were harmed, and the few left up by the tree wondering where the old queen went were close enough to the old hive to go back, and make their allegiance to the new queen.

    Almost all in.
    The girls are spraying pheromones to mark their location.

    I came inside feeling good about gently relocating them, and had some dark chocolate to settle my nerves! Then I went on to wrangle with the wire and the trellises, which was far more trouble than moving a swarm of bees.

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

    Soil: Weeding by Sheet Mulching

    Sow thistle

    For this next part of how to build soil by weeding, I’ll discuss one of the easiest and laziest ways.  If you want nothing to grow in an area, and don’t care about how it looks or length of time, then sheet mulching may be for you.  I’ve used cardboard and newspapers around my vegetable beds with great success.  To fully knock out tough weeds such as Bermuda grass, you should put down a good inch of newspaper or cardboard (or a combination).  If you are using newspaper, leave the sections intact or else the wind will blow it everywhere, or cover it with a piece of cardboard.  Water it in and let it rot.

    If you have old plywood lying around, drag it over to your weed patch and pop it on top.  Walk over it all you want, just watch out for old nails.

    Sheet mulching with plywood... at work!

    Another method is to water your weeds, then cover them with thick black plastic held down with rocks.  On hot days the weeds will cook under the plastic.  I’ve used this before successfully, but now I would only use it if I had the plastic already.  I’m trying hard to not contribute to the creation of more plastic.

    The area after the plywood was removed.

    Then there is sheet mulching where you actually build your soil over the top of weeds.  The new catch-phrase for this is lasagna gardening.  Start with a layer of corrugated cardboard or three layers of newspapers (or a combination!) right on top of your weeds and where you want to plant (this isn’t for clearing pathways). Water this in really well.  Then gather together compost items such as coffee grounds, weeds (without seeds), grass clippings, shredded paper, seaweed or algae… whatever you can compost.  Sort your compost into browns and greens.  Browns are mostly dead stuff such as leaves, shredded paper, pine needles and dried plant clippings.  Greens are fresh things like dinner scraps, green cut grass… anything with some life still left in it.  Manure is perfect for your ‘greens’ pile.  Chasing down landscapers as they rake leaves and bag up grass from their lawnmowers is a good way to collect ingredients.  Now start layering.  The best ratio would be two parts brown to one part green, but don’t stress over it.  The green stuff will heat up and cook the browns.  Depending on how much stuff you can layer, your bed should be about two feet high, and however long that you want it.  Water it regularly.  Within weeks your lasagna will have sunk down into fantastic garden soil.  If you want to plant right away, then add several inches of compost to the top.  Otherwise, let it sit a season and you’ll be able to plant right into it.  The newspaper or cardboard at the bottom will help suppress weeds and keep it moist.  Remember that the deeper your loam, the more rainwater it will hold and the less you’ll need to water.

    What all of these methods of weeding does, is to decompose the weeds right where they are.  The minerals that they hold in their leaves are distributed into the soil, and as their roots decompose they leave tunnels for worms and other soil creatures to move around in.  You are keeping the soil moist and dark, which are wonderful conditions for our soil friends to flourish.  I’ve left plywood down on pathways during the entire growing season, and when lifting a piece have discovered treasures such as newts and salamanders underneath, that I wouldn’t have seen otherwis.  They are great bug eaters for the garden.  Sheet mulch also can harbor slugs and ants, but they are easily dealt with, especially if you have chickens!

    Sheet mulching is very easy, it combats even tough weeds, it builds soil, and it repurposes things you might normally put into the trash.  So save all those boxes from Christmas, the contents of your paper shredder, what newspapers you didn’t use to light the fireplace, your garden waste, your kitchen waste, and whatever your neighbors want to get rid of (tell them you’re making lasagna with it!) and begin layering.  You are helping your garden, helping your soil creatures, building loam, opening underground stores of minerals for usage by plants, making your fruit and vegetables rich with nutrition, lightening your impact on the dump, creating a beautiful garden, and all without backbreaking work and certainly no chemicals!  Just say, “NO!” to Monsanto!

  • Birding,  Chickens,  Gardening adventures,  Houses,  Living structures,  Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures

    Building a Withy Bird Hide

    I was going to continue my series on weeding, but I’ll pick it up next post.  Yesterday we received almost an inch of rain.  Whoopee!  It wasn’t the damaging downpour we had a few weeks ago, either.  It was steady and soaking.  The temperatures dipped but not to frost (what a strange February!).  This morning after I sat clutching my warm tea mug and doing some Internet research, I went outside to check out the yard and it felt like the first day of spring.  Cool but not cold.  Wet but not soggy.  Cloudy and a little threatening but with patches of sunlight.  Birds going nuts in all the bushes and trees.  It reminded me of our first trip to England during Easter week five years back.  There was this feeling, both there and here today of movement everywhere.  The soil was stirring with awakening seeds and slumbering creatures.

    I put on a knit hat and old clothes and a jacket (ever the lady!) and was all set to pull weeds from the wet ground.  Instead I felt inspired to create a bird hide.  So, right now you’re thinking of places where birds can hold up.  Actually I already have these; they are brush piles all around the fence just for the purpose of providing shelter and escape venues for critters.  A bird hide is actually a structure where bird watchers may watch and photograph birds without being seen by them.  We have mallards, wigeon and egrets coming to our pond, as well as plenty of songbirds in the surrounding trees.  I wanted a bird hide for us and visitors in which to sit and watch.

    Since I can’t build anything (the whole measurement thing… I’ve already told you about that) I obtained prices from Quality Sheds in Menifee who built my two sheds so well.  Expensive… yep, but not as much as hiring a carpenter, even if he used scraps from my old sheds.  Then this morning I started browsing the Internet (trying to stay by that warm teacup as long as possible) and researched withy structures, tree branch structures, living buildings…. all fascinating.  Withy is a bendable piece of willow, and sometimes other wood.  I’ve always wanted to make a living thing out of willow; stick pieces in the ground, weave together the shoots and it roots and grows!  I’ve seen living willow benches before.

    So I figured I’d seize the day, this beautiful unofficial start of spring, and see if I could make a decent hide.  There are other wonderful structures on the property build by Roger Boddaert and crew, so something natural would not only fit in and be ecologically more sound (than having a structure built), I know the wonderful feeling of being in a structure that is made of natural materials.

    The spot.

    This spot was left untouched during the creation of the garden because somewhere in the area there had been a fairy ring, which is a ring of mushrooms growing out from a central fungus.  I’ve given up hope that its still alive, and this is an ideal spot for watching birds both in the pond and in the trees behind.

    A ten-foot circle.

    I guessed where the center was, measured roughly five feet (I stepped on the string and held it to my head… I’m 5’3″) and made a ten-foot circle.  Why ten?  Eight looked too small and twelve too large.  I also uncovered the irrigation lines so that I could avoid breaking them (only one casualty).

    These logs have to go over there.

    Old burnt tree stumps had been given to me by Juan, who constructed most of the garden.  They’ve been happily growing fungus and providing some habitat as they’ve sat waiting for me to figure out what to do with them.  Of course, I wait for the day after a heavy rain when they are good and soaked to move them, and uphill at that!  Most of them were old and light enough to roll without too much effort.

    This didn't work. I ended up walking it.

    Then there was this squat, misshapen devil.  It was just oddly shaped enough to not roll, too short and heavy to move with the dolly.  Finally I just walked it, bit by bit, curse by curse.  I laughed like a madwoman when I put it in place.  I’m really glad that I have tolerant neighbors.  I often tell my chiropractor about my garden projects.  He seems to really like them, and encourages me to keep on hauling flagstone, rolling logs, etc.  Hmm.

    Besides growing interesting fungus, a sleepy lizard was hiding in the log.

    Of course, right as I position it, some of the back breaks off.  There was a sleepy Western fence lizard trying to keep warm.

    With some interesting swearing, I tipped it onto my wonderful wagon.

    Just when I thought I’d moved the heaviest, the last one proved to be a monster.  It wouldn’t roll.  It wouldn’t wheel.  I brought out my incredibly handy garden cart, tipped it up, hoisted that guy onto it and off we went!  It wasn’t that easy, but I did it.  I had a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment similar to when I took Tai Kwon Do with my kids, and broke a board with my hand and one with my foot.  I felt as if I could chop down walls!  Anyway, making this ring felt right, and perhaps their acid decomposition will inspire another mushroom ring.

    If Stonehenge caught fire.

    Then I scavenged for old twisty branches and willow.  Although I have native willow growing in the streambed, I opted for curly willow for the sides.  Not only is it more architecturally pleasing to my eye, it likes full sun and is more drought tolerant than other willows.

    Cut oak trees stuck in for camoflage.

    Since the willows would just be whips yet, I wanted to kick-start the hide with some camouflage in the form of dead oak trees that hadn’t yet shed their leaves.  I stuck them in the mud on either side of the main viewing window.  They can be incorporated into the design as the willows grow, or come out easily.  Everything is reversible!  (I try not to build anything that isn’t).

    The girls helping me plant the willow withys.

    I managed to find some long curly willow off of the plants that aren’t even a year old in my garden yet.  I want the withys to meet overhead.  The ‘windows’ will be over the stumps, except for the main window looking down to the pond.  The hens came over to help plant willow by standing on the shovel and in the hole slurping valuable worms.  I sure loved the company.

    From the entrance.

    I planted all the willow, but didn’t really finish working on the upper portion before sunset.  I really wanted to finish, too, and move on to weeding.  Giving the project a little time will help me in finishing it, especially since I’m making it up as I go!  I’m not weaving the structure like many willow structures are, but I will be shaping them so that they grow in the right way.

    As it looks to ducks.

    A little anticlimactic, but I’m not done yet!  The willow will be growing and filling out with leaves, making the roof canopy all in good time.  I bet there are ducks in the pond right now not paying any attention to the hide! 🙂    Tomorrow I might look at it , recoil in horror, and pull everything out.  Or not.  I’ll let you know.

     

     

     

  • Gardening adventures,  Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures,  Ponds,  Rain Catching

    Soil: Weeding

    Lesser goldfinch eating sow thistle seeds.

    Good soil is the basis of life as we depend upon it.  Rich, loamy soil with a neutral pH is what every gardener dreams of.  The smell of fresh soil is called geosmin, which is a scent released by happy soil.  Good soil makes for healthy plants, which in turn grow healthy fruits and vegetables.

    Soil is different than dirt.  Dirt is what happens on a roadway after a lot of traffic passes over it and the oxygen is compressed out of it.  Dirt is what is left when erosion is allowed to carry off topsoil.  Dirt is what remains after unsustainable farming practices where chemical fertilizers are dumped onto plants year after year until nothing will grow anymore.  Dirt is what most people have when they move into a new house, because to make the property level all the topsoil has been scraped off and buried.  Dirt is nearly dead.  But dirt is an ingredient in soil, and luckily Mother Nature is always trying to repair the soil.  What we call weeds grow in dirt because these are plants on a mission to bring dirt back to life.

    Plants have different jobs in nature.  Some have deep tap roots to mine minerals from deep down, bring them up to their leaves which die and transfer the minerals to the surface.  Some are groundcovers.  Some attract insects.  Some fix nitrogen in the soil.  Some provide a shady canopy.  Most provide mulch in the form of fallen leaves, twigs, flowers and fruit.  Some provide habitat for animals, whose droppings fertilize the ground.  Plants help each other in a symbiotic relationship, and permaculturalists call a set of these plants guilds.

    Now look at weeds in a vacant lot and try to identify them.  Wild radish?  It has an enormous taproot that breaks apart hard soil, then mines deep minerals and delivers them to the topsoil in the form of leaves.  It also attracts bees and other pollinating insects.  As does mustard, which has a very tough root system that also breaks up hard soil and creates tunnels for worms and other soil creatures to move through.  As the plants die off, so do the roots, which decay and feed the microbes and worms, whose castings turn dirt into perfect soil.  Grasses hold onto the soil keeping it from eroding away, shades the soil from harsh sunshine, retains water  and provides good habitat for worms as well as food for birds, depending upon what type of grass is growing. All plants have a purpose, even if they aren’t in their native environment.

    However we don’t want our gardens to be like vacant lots.  Usually, quite the opposite.  Many people will look at their backyard full of weeds and poor soil and decide just to dump white sparkly rock all over it and stick in some unhappy cactus.  These people are actually much kinder to the soil than those who start the relentless, expensive, laborious and deadly cycle of spraying chemical weed killer, dumping on chemical fertilizer, forcing plants to grow in areas not suited to them and yet never creating soil.

    When you use permaculture practices in your garden, the most work is done in the first year.  You plan your garden for functionality, plan plant guilds, plot out your own usages and desires, and then plant accordingly.  You may plant close together, but keep in mind the needs of the adult tree.  Don’t plant invasive plants unless they are properly contained.  Don’t plant vines without installing support systems such as trellises first.  Lay the groundwork for your garden.  Don’t spray.  Don’t pour lots of money into chemicals.  Don’t even till unless your soil is horrible and you can’t wait to plant (and then, only till once and then never ever again!).  There is a lot less physical labor to do in a first year permaculture garden than one with chemicals, and none of it involves poison!

    Permaculture makes you look at everything in different ways, even things that conventionally seem bad.  Instead of looking at your weeds as devil spawn, look at them with a view to what their purpose is in the garden.  What are they telling you about the soil?  I’ve talked about this in earlier posts, about what type of soil supports different types of weeds.  For instance, nettle grows in high nitrogen areas.  Now think of the weeds as a potential crop.  Lambs quarters, purslane, even stinging nettle are all edible (boil the nettle briefly to dissolve the acid) and very healty for you.  Dandelion wine!  Or think of the medicinal values.  Watch your weeds for awhile. Do birds eat the seeds?  Are they covered in ladybugs?  So now that you know your weeds a little better, you may think more fondly of them and perhaps allow some of them to live.  Or even reserve a corner of the property for weeds to grow just for those birds, insects and your own harvesting.  I’ve allowed purslane and scarlet pimpernel to grow over newly planted areas because they helped hold the soil, preserve moisture and helped prevent more nasty weeds from growing.  Now you’re thinking: but what if they reseed?  Well, of course they’re going to reseed unless you don’t let them live that long.  Seeds are coming onto your property via air, animals and your own shoes every day.  There is a horror about reseeding weeds that is all blown out of proportion.  Have you ever cut all the weeds and had none come up the next year?  Only if you dump Roundup or other chemicals on plants and kill them and everything around them in an annihilation of all that’s good along with all that you don’t want, do you keep anything from growing in that area.  So how do you get rid of weeds?  Okay, hold that thought.

    How makes up good soil?  Decomposed organic matter.  It is actually the microbes and worms in the soil that make soil alive and healthy, and they are decomposing all that organic matter.  How do you get good organic matter?  Haul truckloads of horse manure from a farm?  Save kitchen waste?  Have a worm bin and harvet the castings every six months?  Wait until trees are mature and harvest the leaves?  Well, yes to all of these, but in the meanwhile, as it often is in nature, the answer is right in front of you: the weeds!

    That’s right!  Weeds are just compost that hasn’t happened yet.  The fastest way to develop good soil when you have no other resources (or not enough resources) is to help nature along.  Define your walkways (where foot traffic will compress the soil and where you don’t want anything to grow), and then when you pull weeds, toss them in your garden beds.  If you weedwhip or mow, rake the cuttings into the beds.  If you do this prior to the weeds setting seed, fine, but don’t lose sleep if you haven’t.  You’ll grow some more weeds… great!  More compost!  I hand pull most of my weeds and then throw them in the guilds under the plants, root ball up.  Within a few weeks they have decomposed, and all those nutrients they were holding in their leaves and roots have been delivered to the soil in the same areas. (If you have different types of soil on your property, keep the weeds near where they grew because they were busy amending that particular soil).  The layer of weeds will also suppress other weeds from coming up, and will hold in moisture.  Sure beats hauling weeds to a compost heap, and certainly beats having the trashman haul off plants that are holding nutrients from your garden soil!

    There are exceptions to this practice.  Invasive weeds such as Bermuda grass, Johnson grass, and anything that spreads via underground runners (rhyzomes) should not be handled this way.  These useful plants for a vacant lot are terrors of your garden.  However they can become useful.  If you have a compost heap that really heats up, you can cook the weeds in it.  What I do is put the weeds in an old trashcan, put the lid on it and let it sit in the heat for weeks until the weeds are cooked and completely dead.  If it is Bermuda grass or Johnson grass, I also pound a stake through its heart.  Then I compost it.  Putting it in a trashbag works, too, but then you’d be contributing to the plastic industry in one more way and also to the landfill.  I have set out trashcans with Johnson grass in it to go to the dump when I had so much that I had no place to cook it, and figured that sending organic weed material to the dump really can’t hurt.

    How does one get rid of invasive weeds without spraying?  Relentless hand-pulling in combination with occlusion, which is covering it with plywood, thick layers of cardboard, black plastic or whatever you have that will deprive it of what it needs to live.

    This has been a long, lecturing post, and I apologize (if anyone actually has read to this point!) .  I want you to look at the varied functionality of everything in the garden.  If you have a problem, can you turn it into a benefit?  For instance, if you have a wet clay area, why not harvest the clay from it to build a cob oven or garden feature, and let the depression become a natural pond?  Or sheet mulch that area (what some people call lasagne mulching), which I won’t go into here but simply search the Internet for it and you’ll find hundreds of examples.  Or plant peppermint or spearmint, or some other wetland-loving plant such as watercress… all of which are edible.

    In subsequent posts I’ll talk more about different types of weeding and soil building.  For now, go