thoughts on weeds

Red Root Pig Weed

What is a "weed" anyway? Most of the the definition I see is "a plant where you don't want it". Some people seem to think everything that they didn't plant is a weed and must be totally eradicated.

For me most plants that others would call weeds, I just call doing their jobs. They are working hard for me and my garden. They are covering the soil to help prevent erosion and evaporation. Even if I've neglected the garden a bit and it is 'weedy' I don't go in and cut everything down at once. There are hundreds of lady bugs and praying mantis and other creatures living in those weeds. If I'm clearing out the garden I do it one bed at a time. Not only does that spread the work out, it also gives those creatures a chance to move out and find a new home. It just kills me to see people clear cut large areas of vegetation, they are losing a lot of beneficial insects. And if they rake up and throw away all that vegetaion, then they are also losing soil fertility.

Some plants are delicious to eat and can be even more nutritious than the ones you planted on purpose! A great example is lambs quarters, Chenopodium alba. This is a great thing to have growing everywhere! According to this wikipedia article   Lambs Quarters has significant amounts of vitamin A and C, with (73% and 96% of your daily requirement per 100 grams of raw plant) along with being a good source of several other nutrients. Steamed Lambs Quarters leaves are, to me, indistinguishable in taste from spinach.  Lambs Quarters is related to Quinoa and also has nutritious seeds.

I pick Lambs Quarters for cooked greens for myself and cut it for my chickens. Cutting a few inches above the ground will allow it to grow back to be cut again.

lambs quarters

Redroot pigweed, Amaranthus retroflexus, is another nutritious "weed", whose leaves and seeds are good sources of various nutrients. (reference http://web.ku.edu/~aihd/foods/Pigweed.html)

Pigweed leaves can be used like spinach, but has a 'chewier' texture. Larger leaves can have the stem and mid rib removed to make them more tender.

Pigweed, in good soil with plenty of water can grow 6-8 feet tall so I do pull out seedlings in my growing beds. I do leave it around the edges of the beds and wherever else it shows up. Like cultivated Amaranths pigweed is a hot weather crop and thrives during our monsoon rains. I cut it back as necessary and feed a lot of it to my chickens, knowing next week that there will be more.

Henbit and chickweed are two cool weather weeds that blanket the ground in winter and early spring. Chickweed has a pleasant green taste when raw and is nice in salads. Henbit is related to mint but has a strong medicinal taste and smell which I'm not fond of. I feed both to the chickens. They make a good ground cover and I often leave them in the growing beds between other plants as a living mulch.

Henbit

So it's good to know your weeds and what they can do for you. Don't be so quick to pull them out, they are busy working for you and your garden. If nothing else they will make a lot of biomass for your compost pile or can be pulled up and layed back down as part of the mulch.

Random Stuff

The tomatoes are finally trickling in. I have been really impressed with the Rio Grande variety. The tomatoes are huge and the plant was still setting fruit in 100+ temps.

Rio Grande tomatoes almost ready

baby fig tree

I took advantage of a special from Baker Creek Heirlooms and got 5 little fig trees for $25. I'll have to do a post on them later. 1 was damaged in shipping and doesn't look like it's going to make it, but the others look really good.

Trombonccinno

The Trombonccino squash are doing well and beginning to make babies. The bumble bees love the squash blossoms. I love how the vines are huge and make a lot of shade. The squash are tender and used like little zucchini as long as the skin is thin. Later the skin gets thicker, eventually turning tan and hard. Left until fall they are great winter squash, a couple of vines can easily make over 100 pounds of winter squash.

squash vines on the greenhouse / trellis

Arizona Dragon

This little guy sat in my drive way for quite some time. He was not at all bothered by me getting close for photos. Actually called a Horned Lizard (or Horney Toad) many people complain they don't see them any more. I think that is because people spray poison all over their house and yards and poison all the ant dens. Ants are part of the Horned Lizard's diet, so of course, no ants, no lizards. I don't spray any poison around my place and rarely do I poison an ant den unless it's like in my house or something.

Oh Tomatoes!

Way Back Garden 42 tomato plants

Has been a long hot week here, pushing 90 some afternoons. Crazy early spring, I can remember years I was still making an occasional fire this time of year.

This is the way back garden, because it was "way back" of the house, it's really not that far from the house tho. Some pick and shovel work and I planted 42 tomato plants, they seem to all be doing well.

Tomato Cage

Since I had to move in with mom my old chicken pens are empty. Well now they are full of tomato plants!  Gives a whole new meaning to tomato cage doesn't it?  I have gotten 86 plants in the ground, with 40-50 more in pots waiting to be planted. I have 12 plants in permanent pots at mom's house.  Why so many? I sell eggs and veggies at our farmer's market from June through September. For the past 2 years there have been almost no tomatoes from any vendor because we have all had a horrible problem with viruses and wilts. So I just decided to plant lots of different kinds and see what happens.

Found one of my lost marbles

carrot seedlings

ripening mulberries

nasturtium

You know nasturtiums are edible, right? Blossoms, leaves and seedpods have a spicy flavor reminiscent of watercress to which they are related.

A pot of flowers

baby silkie

zucchini blossoms

And in an exciting development we have zucchini blossoms at about the time of year I am usually just planting seeds!

Around the Garden

pots of flowers

I have put some pots of flowers in mom's front entry, snapdragons, calendula, petunias

Her climbing red rose is blooming.

red rose

lettuce & red mustard in the hoop house

The red leaved mustard is bolting, but the mixed lettuces are still doing OK.

about 40 potted tomatoes

a 'few' more tomatoes

the junk pile

I have been working on the junk pile out back. On the other side of the rock wall to the right is a garden area that I made a long time ago. It's been abandoned a few years now due to javilina issues.

back garden

I' hauling pallets to fence it off from the pigs. Then at least some of the tomatoes will go here.

Making Some Progress

early bearded white and purple iris along the driveway

Some of these pictures are from the end of March. There were tons of these short, early blooming bearded irises around my house when I moved in. They are pretty drought resistant, as long as they have a bit of afternoon shade in the summer. As the front yard grew overcrowded I would transplant them along the creek bank and up on the hill above the house to help hold the soil. The best time to divide iris is after they have bloomed. I usually get around to them in late summer, sometimes early fall.  The thick rhizome, what some think is a bulb, is actually a thickened stem. When planting bearded iris do not bury the rhizome. You just want to cover the small feeder roots that come off of it. The fall rains will bring them out of dormancy and they will put out new leaves over the winter and early spring. Newly planted rhizomes may not bloom for a couple of years, just let them get established, and they will bloom when they are ready. I do whack down spent bloom stems, but never remove green or dead leaves from the clumps. They leaves help to mulch the roots and keep them a bit cooler.

pistachio tree seedlings

I bought this pot of pistachio tree seedlings from Bob Zache at our farmer's market last summer. Of course then stuff happened and I just got to them in March. I planted out the 2 biggest ones along the side of the creek where I built the new chicken yards. There were 6 smaller seedlings that I potted up in 1 gal pots for this year.

My goal this year is to plant 100 trees and shrubs on my property. Not sure how close I'll get but so far this year I have planted the 2 Pistachio trees, 9 cherry bushes, 1 Goji berry, an olive, a fig and 3 sweet broom so that is 17 to start. In the past 3 years I've planted a fig, a red locust, 2 ash trees, a mulberry, and 5 live oaks,

The mulberry was a seed dropped by a bird into one of my flower pots. The fig was a rooted cutting from Pat Romero (who also started the olive that I planted), the Arizona Ash trees I planted were also from Bob Zache. The red locust I purchased from Golden Hill Nursery and I grew the live oaks from acorns.

The cherry bushes, I know there is another name but I can't remember what it is. I grew them from seeds given to my by my friend Annie, of Annie's Edibles.

All planting at my house begins with the pickax

olive tree

The caliche drains slowly, but that's a plus come summer. Everything will get a heavy mulch as I have time to get it spread.

cherry bush

A few of the cherry bushes had blooms and set a few fruit. They are like tart pie cherries. I think these may be called Nanking bush cherries.

Sweet Magnolia purple snap peas

Over in the garden the Sweet Magnolia, a purple podded snap pea is doing great. This pic is from almost 3 weeks ago, they are now beginning to bloom and I'll be able to pick some later this week.

Spring is Coming!

Granny Smith apple blossom

Oh dear, it's been forever since I made a post here! Well here are some pictures from my house about the middle of March. Since Mom sleeps late most mornings I go over to my place and work for awhile.

Cecile Brunner

I have the climbing sport, the branches are about 7-8 ft

I adore my Cecile Brunner rose. The dainty pink buds are very fragrant. I have the climbing sport and it has grown huge, with branches 7-8 feet tall. The original plant was introduced in 1881 according to this article.

Creekside garden

The garlic and snap peas were doing well.

Tucson Poultry, Pigeon and Fancy Fowl Show

Buff Orpington pullet #93 Reserve English

I went to the Tucson Poultry show last week end put on by the Tucson Poultry, Pigeon and Fancy Fowl club in Tucson AZ

Pretty much every kind of fowl was represented with over 1100 birds present.  My Buff Orpington pullet #93 was Reserve English.

Blue Ameraucana Hen Best of Variety

My 2 year old Blue Ameraucana hen was Best of Variety

Black Ameraucana pullet Reserve AOSB

My black Ameraucana pullet was Reserve Any Other Standard Breed (ASOB)

My Black Copper Marans pullet of which I have no good picture was Best of Breed and my old trio was Reserve Continental Trio. My Black Silkie pullet was Best of Variety. All in all not too bad for a beginner to the show circuit.  This is my 3rd year showing in Tucson and I always have a great time.

just part of the show hall

There is a costume contest for the kids to dress up their chickens

Lots of poultry of all kinds!

Well as you can see it has been a long time since I've posted. Mom fell and hit her head shortly after my last post and the summer was one long nightmare, 9 weeks between two hospitals and a nursing home. And I had to move in with her. Physically she's doing ok except for her arthritis. But she's forgetful and needs help.

So, I spent the summer putting up new pens and moving birds into her big tin barn, originally built to house their motor home.

Even as big as the barn is tho I still have fewer pens than I did at my house, so  lot of birds had to go.  But less space just means culling harder and more meat in the freezer.

I am trying to hang onto some of my breeding projects if I can. It just means hatching fewer chicks at a time and spreading things out more.

Mom has a lot of space that I am slowly trying to rejuvenate and get ready for planting. Mostly flowers and herbs in the front yard. I seem to be missing the pictures I took of the front yard.

We do have a great view from up here on the hill of a mountain called Sleeping Beauty.

WHAT'S UP?

Stage One. 

I swear if I had neighbors they would be calling the men in white suites. "What is that crazy chicken lady doing now?!"

Some friends gifted me a lot of 3" PVC drain pipe. I didn't need it for drains and it's been laying around with the intention of cutting it half long ways to make feed troughs out of. Then I got an idea.

Stage one, cut the pipes in half. Now this is a good lesson in never assuming anything. I assumed these pipes were 20 feet long and never measured them. Since I assumed that length I just measured 10 feet and cut them. Then I realized that they weren't all 10 feet long. Apparently they were really only 19 feet, not 20.

Now wire them up to the pens every few feet.

Stage 2

Stage two; drill holes in them and run wires out to the fence line.

Stage 3

Stage 3. Clip some shade cloth to the wires. I was lucky enough to have most of a roll left from last year.It covered the whole stretch.

I wasn't so lucky in the process that my ladder twisted out from under me. It happened in kind of slow motion and all I could think of was "Don't hit your head!"  I'm OK, just stiff, sore and bruised up. And I didn't hit my head.

Now all the chickens and Giotto have some afternoon shade to help them stay cooler.

So maybe I'm not so crazy after all!