Interesting Ideas for the Upcoming Garden Season

  
I've been looking into permaculture a bit recently.   There is really a lot of good information out there on the internet just for the cost of the time to find and study it. I started from ground zero as far as knowing anything at all about it, and I've learned enough to feel confident about doing some new things in my garden this year.  


One of the things I've learned about is "no till gardening", or "sheet mulching", also known as lasagna gardening.  There's a really good article at Ready Nutrition, which is a wonderful blog I follow, on the subject of no till gardening.  I'm glad I have learned about this now so I can get it started over the winter and begin experimenting with it all in the spring.  Journey to Forever has an online library with lots of good information as well.  There is so much more, but I can't list them all.  This is just a starting place.


Essentially, it's a plan to build your soil layer upon layer, as you would mulch, and as it would in nature. For instance, a forest, everything falls to the ground in layers throughout the seasons to create a rich, complex soil.  If you have a compost bin and build your own mulch, it's much the same process.  There's a good explanation of the process here at another great blog, Permaculture Pathways.  You have a layer of green/wet, such as plant material or kitchen scraps,  followed by a layer of dry/brown, such as newspaper and leaves as well as a few stick and bulky items to keep the whole thing aerated. I have always put a few shovels of dirt between layers, but I don't know that that is necessary.  You can add bacteria and enzymes as activators, even worms, but nature's magic will take over and you will have good, healthy dirt.  If you layer your garden in that same way you should attain the same results.  Come spring you just plant right through the top layer, as a seed falling to the floor of the  forest.  


God is so good.  He amazes me.  It's not new information, not by a long shot. God gave it all to us in the beginning.  It's wisdom of the ages that's been all but lost in modern culture to things like science and the educators who know so much more, after all.  I am sure it will take some time,  maybe several growing seasons to come into it's own, but eventually, if I allow it to go to this 'more natural' state, it stands to reason that it will strike a balance. During the process I will learn what to do to adjust for some of the bad things in my garden.  I'm sure I'll be dealing with over populations of certain bugs and weeds.  I will learn about the things I need to grow to attract the good ones and repel the bad, but I can clearly see the sense it makes already.  I will be doing this from now on.


Our growing season is long here, so I still have plants in the ground.  They are starting to die back for the most part, and many of the rest aren't producing much now, so I'm going to get out there and start preparing things.  I may get rid of the tomato plants next week. I still have a few with some green tomatoes on them, but they aren't ripening.  I don't think they get enough hours of sunlight now, or maybe it's a warmth issue.  At any  rate, I'm going to pick the green ones (and maybe fry them!  Mmmm...) and pull the plants soon. Tomatoes are particularly nasty to work around if you let the frost get to them.  I planted them in such a huge mass that I will have to get some of them out of there entirely.  The rest I suppose I will chop up and leave as a layer.  


Our melon and squash vines were practically decimated by mildew.  I have to pull them off of the fences, but they are half dead already. Mildew is a terrible problem, and it's grown all over my entire garden.  It's in the soil. For a long time I meticulously trimmed off the infected leaves and vines, and sprayed and fussed, but it got ahead of me no matter what I did, so unfortunately, underneath all the layers in both of my garden areas there is mildew. I know there must be some in the compost as well.  I think I'll try to get the worst ones out and then just go with what's left.   Hopefully if I use this method of gardening the temperatures of the composting going on in the different layers will be enough to kill off the darn stuff.  If not, I would have had to contend with it anyway, because it's in the soil that's already there.  I wish I had a good answer for how to deal with this stuff. It is a nightmare in a garden.  I'm confident that God factored that in to His grand design and that there is restoration in there someplace.  


I have plenty of fallen leaves, papers and things, dry stuff for the next layer.  My husband brought home some big sheets of cardboard to lay across the whole thing.  It all seems so strange because it's contrary to what I've always been told to do.  I will try to document the goings on and post some pictures.  I'm pretty excited.


"And He said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knows not how." ~ Mar 4:26-27 

Build a Rocket Stove to Heat Your Home with Wood Scraps

Build a Rocket Stove to Heat Your Home with Wood Scraps

I am going to definitely be looking into this, then I'm going to get on every junk mail list I can find. =D

Thumbs Up!!

My husband and I have been talking, dreaming, planning a change.  We all have dreams.  Sometimes they are a long time coming.

I was waiting until I was sure, certain, without a doubt positive that things are a go before I dared to believe it myself, let alone to actually post any sort of an announcement or any thing, and I got that confirmation this week.  I heard him, but I waited.   I felt the situation out, just to be sure, and I heard it again.  I waited.  Finally, I said, "Have I heard it, right?  I have gotten the thumbs up?"  and indeed, it is so.  We are going to move.  We are beginning the process.  We are making preparations to go. We are actively seeking rural property and a travel trailer, and we are beginning our new adventure, and our new life!

Ooooo!  Anticipation!

New beginning!

Excitement!

ADVENTURE!

...to be continued.

Deal With It Quickly

I don't have much time to post today.  I have a list of things to do that I can not put off.  I wanted to come in and update my vast audience on a few things that might prevent some heartache down the road.

I got a terrible case of powdery mildew on my vining plants recently.  The stuff is awful!  I really thought mildew was a damp climate issue, but evidently that is not the case with plants. In fact, the hot dry days we have so many of out here seem to be the cause of the wretched stuff. It seems to love, but is certainly not limited to vining, big leafed plants, particularly cucurbitaceae.  

I had no idea what it was to begin with. It starts out in small, round patches and can be easily overlooked.  Well, I guess I should say that people relatively new to gardening,  as I am, can easily overlook it.  It spreads quickly and soon covers the whole leaf.  At that point the leaves become brittle and crush easily.  From what I've observed, when it hits that stage it is all but over for those poor plants.  

My cucumbers were hit hardest and first, and I didn't realize what it was.  Actually, I thought maybe it was heat and sun that caused it, but I thought it was burning them and drying them out, not causing mildew.  Like I said, I thought mildew was a damp climate problem, so I did not look into it until it got so bad that it was too late for some of them.  I got a few cucumbers, but quickly the damage got to the severe stage and the produce was stunted and, well, unappealing.  Sadly, it is a total waste. I can not compost any of the plants that have any mildew at all on them because it will infect the whole compost bin. 

I researched it a bit and found that there are two effective ways of dealing with it organically and inexpensively.  First, no matter which method you choose, you have to remove the leaves with mildew because it spreads so easily you would never get rid of it if any were left.  One is a mixture of water and milk of all things, mixed at nine parts water to one part milk. The other is baking soda and water mixed one tablespoon to a quart off water. Supposedly either will work better than any 'store bought' treatment. Although the information I found said the milk is actually the best treatment, I sprayed the plants with the baking soda water mostly because I happened to have lots off it and only a little milk.  I will let you know how it works.

There are fungicides you can purchase.  I can not use the oil  that some people recommend because I have read it is unsafe for the plants in climates where the temperatures are over ninety degrees. It doesn't seem like that leaves too many places where it can be used!  

My best advice after having gone through this:  BE AWARE!!  I think if I had seen it early and known what it was and what to do, I might have been able to curb it considerable or possibly head it off entirely.  If you see it do not wait to treat it.  That's probably one of the big lessons of this gardening season; keep watch and whatever it is, deal with it quickly! 

I do not know yet what I am supposed to do to treat the soil  to prevent it from coming back year after year.  If anyone knows, please tell me.  I would  like to keep it in the all natural/organic realm if at all possible.  I  must admit, though, I would be willing to cave in and use a chemical just this one time to treat the soil for this menace, if there is such a chemical and that were my only effective choice.  I will work on rebuilding it and overcoming the effects of the chemical later on if I must.  I do not want to do this again!  It is really bad.

On a good note, I have some girl pumpkin blossoms!!  I have had watermelon, cantaloupe, and a lot of gourds coming on their vines for a while now, but no pumpkins until now.  I'm very excited.  I love pumpkins.  I bought a variety that is supposed to be good for pie and hopefully pumpkin butter, which I've threatened to make for years and never have.  If I never made a thing I would still grow them if I could  because they are so beautiful.  I usually make a nice beef or elk stew in the fall and bake it in a pumpkin.  That is a family favorite, and almost a tradition now, so I need at least one nice, fatty for that!

The corn is corning, and the cow peas are peaing (LOL).  The tomatoes are amazing, delicious, very productive, and as tall as my head!  I am having onions now although they are a bit small.   I was sort of unclear on how to deal with them and I think maybe I should have thinned or separated them early on.  Yeah, okay, a no brainer, but lesson learned.  I did not handle my potatoes quite right either, I don't think.  I have yet to check up on them. I may do that later today.  

On that note, I leave you with a favorite quote:

“Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to it’s liberty and interests by the most lasting bands.”

-Thomas Jefferson

Be blessed!

God's Bountiful Blessing!

Ok, so everybody who has a veggie garden is posting summer pics on their blogs right now, but I'm going to do my own anyways.  Gardening in the deserts of the southwestern US can be challenging to say the least, but the second year into this attempt has actually given us some quantifiable results.

The biggest success (and blessing) has been the tomatoes.  Up till now, we have never been able to do very well with them.  This year, we have really gotten quite a lot.  We are still trying to figure out how to keep the tops from splitting and the bugs and birds from thieving, but we have enough to harvest and eat every day.

We sort of stumbled on to a solution that keeps the hot desert sun from just cooking them on the plants, without rigging shade screens.  I suppose tomatoes are supposed to be planted 3-4 feet apart in order to keep them from growing together.  Well, ours are about a foot apart.  We affectionately call it 'the tomato mass'.  It makes them a little bit difficult to get to, but they seem to be self-shading.  We are actually able to get a fair percentage of un-split fruit out of them.

We have also gotten some decent cucumbers too, although we seem to be having a battle over them with mildew.  It has been attacking the leaves.  Removing the affected leaves seems to help, but we are having to remove so many of them, they are really sad to look at.

We also have had elephant garlic (already harvested), and onions.  Still waiting to see what the taters do.  We aren't even sure how they will do here.  The plants themselves look great though.

We have some corn that is fixing to bear:

We now also have a few melons and cantaloupe starting:

The spaghetti squash was a big fail, not sure why.  Probably not enough direct sunlight.  The zucchini are growing great plants, but are failing to produce any female blossoms.  Pumpkins seem to be battling with the leaf mold as well...

However, we did have this tasty garden medley for lunch.  Sliced cucumbers, onions, and tomatoes.  The only thing store bought was the Italian dressing.  Yum!

Of course all the peelings and such are headed back out to the compost bin.

A couple of take-away lessons that we have learned so far about desert gardening:

1. Can't say enough about soil preparation.  There is a lot of nutrient material in the desert, most of it was sea-floor at one time.  The problem is alkalinity.  Lots of fertilizer and mulch can neutralize the ph, or you can treat the ground with muriatic acid.  Be very careful when using the latter method, as it can be very dangerous.  The former method is better and more rewarding in the long run.

2. Irrigation:  It's dry in the desert, fact of life.  A once or twice a day watering with the hose just doesn't get that moisture down to the roots where it needs to go.  Water evaporates right out of the upper layers of soil too fast.  Deep watering is critical.  We put in a drip irrigation system with soaker lines for about 40 bucks,  and the plant life has simply exploded!  Also it's a bit easier on the wallet when the water bill comes due, unless you have a well.

Well, that's about it for now.  Stay tuned for further updates.

Free Food!

Well, free of charge, but I've worked for it.   For the record, I've loved every minute!  I loved all except for the failures of a beginner, the decimation of my lettuce by some kind of a critter, and the withering away of my squash and some of my cucumbers due to, best I can figure, lack of pollinating bees.  I learned too late for the spaghetti squash that I could go out and pollinate them myself with a small paint brush or something.  They had already quit producing anything and withered away.  I'll know next time and head it off at the pass.  I  love it.  Love my garden. :-)


The green beans have been a disappointment.  They looked fairly nice but they didn't give us too much to eat.    The melons are suddenly growing like crazy.  They must be heat lovers. The gourds, too. They are climbing and beautiful.  The potatoes are still just sitting there, pretty, green and growing.  We'll see how they do one of these days, I guess.  They are taking longer than I realized they were going to take. I'm getting impatient!  The blackberry is beautiful.  It should produce something for us by next season.  The  onions are great, the chard is great. The whole thing is beautiful!


I think planting our tomatoes in the "mass" turned out to be a blessing.  The greenery and the fact that they all grew together is actually protecting the fruit from the harsh sun.  We have been getting anywhere between three and maybe eight tomatoes a day out of there.  In the past they would  burst on the vine before they had a chance to ripen, but this year we've had some wonderful, red tomatoes.  I'd say only about a third have split, and not too badly.  They are ripe and delicious!


The mass is getting really big, so I went out with some tomato tape to raise up some of the heavy, sprawling branches. I picked up this tape at the hardware store and it's a bit like velcro, for lack of anything better to compare it to.  It sticks to itself, and it's reusable.  It's also very handy, I might add.  Anyway,  when I raised them all up and taped them to the supports I could see bunches and bunches of green tomatoes!  Lots!  Dozens!  Maybe a hundred or more!  That's so exciting!  We are all huge tomato lovers here.  I doubt any will go to waste.


My corn is getting big.   Some of the ones that came up volunteer early on are probably as high as my shoulders.  I planted two more rows,  both on the same day, and for some reason one row is about hip high, the other only to my knees. It could be that one row gets just a bit more shade than the other.  I'm not sure.  I think I  have a cat coming over the fence at night and getting into them, too, because I wake up many mornings to some of the stalks leaning heavily to one side or the other.  I just prop them back up with dirt and so far it seems to be okay.


I'd say we have a 'trickle' garden. I get a little of this and a little of that trickling in every day.  It makes for a wonderful snack or addition to our dinner, and something fresh to eat every day!  It is absolutely wonderful, but I am beginning to wonder if there will ever be a big 'harvest day' for canning and drying and freezing.  It's probably just as well until we move, because I have such limited space here, and no really good place to process anything.  If I actually do get a sudden burst of produce you can bet I'll figure out how to handle it, though.  I have a couple of small dehydrators and quite a few jars; more than I'll use for a garden this size even if it all comes in at once.  I have a water bath type canner. I will need to get a big pressure canner, but I was just hunting an excuse to go get one of those anyway.


So, on that note, I'll leave you with a little funny I heard once:   


"My grandma used to can a lot when I was growing up.  I never could understand why she did it during the hottest part of the summer, though."


Be blessed!

Live It!

When asked recently if I would attempt the skywalk at the Grand Canyon, my answer was an emphatic NO.  Well, today I had ample opportunity to eat my words.  Right up until the time we were to enter, I was still somewhat reticent to go.  I have always had problems with heights.  I would not claim to be acrophobic per se, but vertigo can be a problem.  I see it this way:  Most of your life is spent with a fairly fixed field of depth perception.  The land, the sky, the horizon is fairly constant.  Your brain gets used to it, and you suffer little discomfort.  To ascend to a great height and look down, challenges this fixed perception, and things tend to get a little weird. Realizing this however, does not help much when faced with it.

All that to say this:  After debating with myself, I reasoned that I may never pass this way again.  So I went for it.  Fear might be a little bit of an extreme way of relating what I went through, but beyond that, it's difficult to describe.  Mentally, I was able to catalog the facts.  This thing is built stouter than most bridges that we drive across.  It's capable of supporting 71 million pounds.  The glass (that you walk on) is laminated 5 layers, several inches thick, and is capable of stopping bullets.  Still, there is something very surreal about looking straight down between your feet- for 4007 feet!

Would I do it again?  Hard to say.  On the surface, I'd have to say no.  But Having already conquered the beast, maybe.  Of course this little day-vacation is typically a bit on the cost prohibitive side, at about 75 clams or so, per person.  But today, being the 10th anniversary of it's opening, the local Hualapai Tribe (on whose reservation it is located) opened the attraction up to the public for free.  Many thanks to those friendly native Americans for sharing this once in a life time experience.  Also in the mix, they put on quite a spread for lunch.  So we spent our midday meal perched at a picnic table on the cliff edge near Guano Point.

All in all, it was a pleasant day out with the family and our church group.  It's about 75 miles north of Kingman AZ on the western edge of the Hualapai Indian reservation, near Meadview.  All but about 15 miles or so of the trip is paved.  Helicopter tours are also available.  So if you are looking  for a day trip and have a bit of cash to invest,  get ready for an adrenaline rush, and GO!