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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.
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Keep In Your Pets: It is Predator Season
This juvenile coyote was playing with his litter mate at the Santa Rosa Preserve in plain site of the road. Youth just aren’t cautious, no matter what species. Photo by Miranda Kennedy We are entering the time of year when outdoor cats, small dogs, free-range chickens and any small pet go missing. Pre-adult (aka teenage) coyotes from this year’s early litters are just as hungry and just as fearless as human teens, and they are looking to fill growling stomachs during the day and night. (Besides, a study by University of Nebraska found that feral cats are responsible for the extinction of 33 species of birds worldwide. Keep your cats contained!) Can’t blame coyotes because this is their land. Preditors are an important part of our ecosystems and the removal of them have devastating effects on our ecosystems, all the way down to the plants in a process called trophic cascade. During this heat wave I’ve been sleeping with windows open. At about 5:15 am I heard the hens going crazy down in their Fowl Fortress . Throwing on my white robe and slippers I ran down the hill towards the coop. Just before I reached it, a young handsome coyote came around the corner behind the compost bins and we nearly collided. He was across the property and over the chain link fence in a heartbeat. The hens were safe because the Fortress is wired up both sides and across the top, and the wire goes into the dirt. However if the coyote were to have time to dig he could have been inside. The hens were so upset that they didn’t lay right for several days. Miss Amelia, the leader, was on top of the chicken tractor screeching away. Chickpea and even formidably-built Lark were on top of the smaller coop. These three survived the coyote attack that killed two of their friends last winter (pre-Fowl Fortress). The two adopted Rhode Island Reds were standing by the door wondering what all the fuss was about; they’ve seen our two elderly, partially deaf and blind dogs walk past all the time. General Mischief, whose probably only working park is his sniffer, lumbered excitedly around the property following the coyote’s path. At night I began to lock the hens inside the chicken tractor where they roost inside the Fortress, so that they’d have two lines of defense.
The next morning I arose to chicken screeching even earlier, and ran down there to see a coyote coming from around the back of the Fortress. I knew where it would jump the fence so I ran in that direction, which gave it quite a surprise as it had to pass me to get there. I stood at the fenceline brandishing a rake that I had caught up on the way down the hill, dressed in slippers and long white robe, shouting threats into the neighbor’s backyard like a lunitic. One thing about growing older is that eccentric behavior is excused.
I wasn’t about to let the coyotes believe they could hunt within my fence. The next morning I was up and out just after five, me and General, my rake and my white robe, over which I’d pulled a red jacket because the morning was misty. I stood at the fenceline, pulling some ragweed to not waste time. In about five minutes I felt that they were coming and stood waiting. Sure enough, halfway across the neighbor’s property were some bushes and from around behind them trotted a coyote. He looked pretty jaunty and sure of himself until he turned and caught an eyeful of me. I shook my rake and he seemed to shake his head disbelievingly. Then he cut out the way he had come. Victory for me!
I collected dog poo and dumped it along the fenceline, and stuck clumps of fur left from shaving General’s thick coat into the top holes in the fence. I love the country life.
Of course I didn’t bring a camera on my morning patrols. This coyote was in what is now the Bee Garden, several years ago. He looks worse for wear. Photo by Miranda Kennedy. For the next few mornings I’d roll out of bed, motivate Sophie and General to get up and go outside, and I’d patrol the fence and make my presence known at the entry point. Although I was sleep-deprived (with the late darkness I tend to only get dinner at about 9 and to bed by 11) I managed to to get some impressive gardening done, especially since I changed into old clothes before heading out. There was no more coyote activity, at least none that the hens told me about.
The other night the pack was running down in the streambed and were yipping and howling in communication. I think it was just past midnight, but I went out there just to make sure there were no visitors.
Sophie is a 14 year old rescued pit bull mix I’ve had since she was about a year old. I knew that she had run with coyotes as a youngster when her owner let her loose, and I never understood why she hadn’t been attacked. Her back legs don’t work well, and she’s feeling her age. She used to climb the chain link fence and roam the neighborhood. She used to kill cats, chase rabbits, keep the mice and rats out of the garage where they used to sleep. For the last few years it has been all peace and love with Sophie. She not only seems to be afraid of some of the cats in the house, but would walk past the ranging hens without putting any of her thoughts into action. I once went to wake her up when she was still sleeping outside, and a mouse ran out from under her. I’d disturbed its warm cozy sleep.
So this morning I let out the dogs when General woke me up and tried to go back to bed. It never works because when General is done he rakes the metal security door with his nails until I let him in again. Sure enough, in about five minutes he was demanding attention again so I put on my robe and went out to do the hens. I was just past the driveway when I caught sight of Sophie on one of the garden paths close to the house. She had a friend with her. A coyote. Sophie was just turning away from it to walk back to the house and the coyote was looking around at the bushes, hopeful for a rabbit breakfast until it saw me and scooted away. The fur was raised a little on Sophie’s back, but not all the way. I made sure he was clear of the property, and checked the hens who were still double locked in. Then I had a few words with Sophie about the choice of friends she asked over!
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- 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
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The Vine that is Eating the Chair
The flowers dangle in the breeze, always watching…. A curiosity plant in my garden is Dutchman’s Pipe (Aristolochia trilobata), also unpoetically called birthwort. The flowers aren’t actually pretty. The politest description of them is that they resemble a large pipe. The flowers dangle in the breeze from the vine, which is evergreen with glossy leaves. It doesn’t produce a fruit.
Kind of like a pipe; kind of like a nose. Dutchman’s Pipe is an ornamental, fast-growing vine that can grow 20 -30 feet in all directions. Including up. Up and up. Onto the second floor balcony. And around everything in its path.
Climbing two stories and beyond. In other words, the vine is eating my balcony and my patio furniture.
I’m glad I wasn’t asleep in it! Dutchman’s Pipe emits weak unpleasant odor when disturbed; otherwise the flowers don’t have a scent. It grows so quickly that the idea of pruning it down is daunting but must be done (… what is that tapping sound I hear on the sliding glass door right now?). It twists and winds around and up the posts to the roof (… hmm… are the cats in the attic again? I’ve never heard them make thatnoise). Soon it will probably be over the roof, and I’ll have an unmanagable amount of vines to clip and haul to the compost heap (… excuse me, someone is at the door. “Hello? Who’s there? Hello?”). I’ve been putting the job off, but today seems like a good day to….. (“What the heck is…. nooo!!…
NOMNOM - Compost, Gardening adventures, Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures, Soil, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Fava Beans
Fava flowers Have you ever eaten Italian, Greek or Middle Eastern food and found some enormous beans in it? Most likely those were fava beans. Commonly called broad beans or horse beans, these ancient beans are native to Africa and Asia, but can be found in cuisines worldwide.
There are a lot of reasons to grow them, even if you don’t eat the beans. First of all, they are nitrogen fixers, being a legume. However they don’t tendril like green beans do. The plant is a tall stalk (different varieties grow different heights) that sets beautiful flowers down the trunk. From these flowers grow some very weird-looking veggies. The pods look like clusters of swollen green fingers, I kid you not. The stalk can grow unsupported, but may topple over once the heavy pods are set.
Another reason to grow them is that they are hardy and can tolerate cold, and soils that are heavy in clay and salts (which pretty much describes my yard). Often broad beans are grown as a cover crop, then cut and allowed to decompose on the soil surface while the roots release the nitrogen under the soil.
Then there is the reason that these very industrious plants produce an interesting protein-rich bean that enjoys notoriety worldwide (hence, easy to find different recipes for them!). The young leaves and flowers are edible as well.
To harvest favas, pull the swollen (but not too lumpy or they’ll be tough) pods from the stalks. Here comes the drawback: you have to shell the beans and it is a chore. Turn on a movie, pull up a bag of fava beans and an empty compost bucket, and go to. You may want to use a sharp knife to run down the seam, but I just used my fingernails. I watched the 1980’s TV show Cheers, which I never saw because I haven’t had television in about 17 years. Three episodes and I finished a big bag of favas!
When you’ve shelled the beans, you must blanch them for 3 minutes, then drop them in an ice bath. Rub the beans to remove a waxy coating. Then you can sautee them, mash them with potatoes, use them in fritters and soups, try an exotic Middle Eastern recipe with them. Fry them until they are crisp and serve salted as a snack. If you want to freeze them, then give the beans the blanch and ice water treatment, dry them and freeze them on a cookie sheet. Put them into a freezer bag. When you want to use them, then thaw, remove waxy shells and use. Some people don’t remove the coating, but its better if you do.
Fava beans have a nutty, slightly bitter and earthy flavor that becomes quite addictive. Two warnings, though. Some people, particularly those of Mediterranean decent, may be allergic. Also if you are taking anti-depressants, the beans are rich in tyramine and should be avoided by those taking monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors – a type of medication used to treat severe depression.
Add fava beans to your garden and landscape. Just tuck the seed into the ground and stand back. Mine weren’t nibbled by rabbits or bothered by anything; however last year I grew six plants in a raised bed, and something opened all the pods and ate the beans. This year I have them planted all over the property to help build the soil, and the harvest appears to be all mine. I’m glad that Cheers ran so many seasons!
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Integrated Gardening
Wildflowers, tasty borage, milkweed for the Monarch butterflies, and herbs. There are still those who prefer to have all their plants separate, each plant type confined to its own space. Vegetables should definitely not be allowed in the flower garden; herbs may be there only if more ornamental than useful, but don’t ever mix desert, country cottage or rose gardens together. That style of design is a matter of preference, and many gardens following those rules are very beautiful. They are usually also high maintenance, heavily fertilized, watered and sprayed, with poison set out for rodents.
A breadseed poppy is emerging in the sage. The blending of useful and ornamental plants is certainly not a new idea, and yet it isn’t often done. When it is, gardeners should find that the loss rate of plants to pests is quite low, and the yield of the vegetables is high.
Onions, native mallow, tarragon and sweet potatoes under a white fringe tree. Why is this? For one thing, planting mixed seeds which include ornamentals, herbs and vegetables masks the scent of the most yummy plants from its preditors. There aren’t rows of the same type of plant for the insects to find. Since different plants take up different nutrients from the soil, the soil isn’t depleted of one particular nutrient, so mixed plantings usually make for healthier and tastier plants.
My first tomatoes of the season, off of a volunteer along the pathway. Oh so yum! Wildflowers with cilantro, dill and basil not only are more successful and appealing to look at, but if let go to flower are excellent pollen sources for bees.
Young parsley, California poppy, cilantro and dill by rain lilies. Allowing desirable plants to reseed not only saves you money, but makes the new plant hardy and adapted for your particular garden.
Volunteers are welcome, such as this squash. Of course mixing plants is what an edible forest garden is all about, although the mixing isn’t random. Each plant serves a purpose. I use fava beans as a great edible nitrogen-fixer, along with other beans, peas, sweet peas, lupine, and nitrogen-fixing trees and shrubs. Artichokes grow quite large, and their leaves when cut and left on the ground make superb compost, as do the leaves of comfrey. Artichoke leaves keep growing back, and the plant will produce many very yummy artichokes. (Artichoke hint: wipe Vaseline around the stem below the bud to keep ants and earwigs from finding their way between the leaves.)
Artichoke and fava beans beneath an apricot tree. Melons and squash make an incredible ground cover during the hottest months. Their large leaves shade the soil surface and block evaporation. Remember that raccoons aren’t supposed to like going through squash vines, so plant them around your corn.
Green melon and corn by a variegated lemon (Sophie the dog by the car). Integrating your plants, especially when following the edible food forest guidelines, helps increase soil fertility (different plants remove different things from the soil). Mostly this is done by keeping the soil a more moist and inviting habitat for soil microbes and worms, but also by dropping their leaves which become mulch.
A guild: kabocha squash, heirloom squash and gourd (on wire) with onions interplanted to keep seedlings safe, along with something else that I don't remember planting, wildflowers, artichoke (under the milk carton for bunny protection), scented geraniums, lavender, borage, orgeano, sweet potatoes (not up yet), cowpeas, fava beans and Swiss chard by a small avocado tree. You May Also Like
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Edible Food Forest
This is a cheat blog, because I’m simply going to give you a link to a newspaper article. This is about land that has been dedicated to an edible food forest, which the public may enjoy. I hope it is the beginning of a new government trend to help feed the hungry. It also has a nice diagram about what a food forest may look like. Here it is: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/united-states/food-forest-takes-root-in-seattle-242907.html .
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A Cob Table, or How To Camouflage Tires
The project: tire table and Harry's hat. When I moved to this property thirteen years ago, I inherited a lot of ‘leftovers’ from the previous owners. Included were three truck tires, one with the wheel. I’ve used them over the years to block a hole under the fence to keep my dogs in and to direct rainwater. When rolling them once again across the property to hide them, I realized that they needed to be re-purposed. If I stacked all three tires together, they’d be just tall enough to be a table. And a table is just what I needed next to Harry Mud, the cob baking oven. Cob, you remember, is an olde English term for building material made of sand, organic material and clay. I wanted to demonstrate cob building material at the AAUW Garden Tour, so earlier that week I cobbed.
I also wanted to add a chimney (or stovepipe hat!) to Harry, since I found a piece left over from my wood burning stove. The chimney would direct smoke up rather than out the front and into one’s face. A chimney isn’t essential for a cob pizza oven, but it can’t hurt.
Harry's fancy new stovetop hat, in progress. I built a sand base to represent the new hollow space in front of Harry. I cobbed around the sand, and around the top hat (stove pipe). Joining wet cob to dry cob can certainly be done; I moistened the dry cob slightly first and had no trouble with separation with this small project.
I sifted some dirt, but then realized for this layer I didn't need to. Cob can be done on a tarp, which helps mix the ingredients when you pull the ends towards you. Making cob is simple and everyone can enjoy it!
Marge does a great job mixing cob! (She adds some organic material, too!) The tires were stacked with the wheeled one on top; a post just taller than the middle of the wheel was inserted down the center for stability and then filled with leftover sand, rubble left over from urbanite, and broken bottles that had been dug up on the property. All candidates for landfill, all of which became useful. Across the top I put a board to firm the counter
Broken bottles joined bits of rubble and sand as filler. I began to cob around the bottom of the tires, making a thick base.
A wide cob base. I kept mixing and cobbing, making sure to push the new layers of cob well into the one below so they wouldn’t crack and fall off.
The work area; about 85 degrees that afternoon, too. I was trying very hard to make a mushroom-shaped table, but I failed completely and settled for a cylinder. This layer is shaggy with straw because I needed very firm cob to hold together, since it wouldn’t adhere to the tires. Another time I’ll put a smooth, decorative slip coat on both the table and Harry.
Nearing completion. The cob was done for the tour and there were many interested people looking it over. I especially saw many husbands shrink into themselves as their wives grew more excited about an outdoor cob pizza oven!
Cob table and Harry's hat, with information sign for Garden Tour.