I've been gardening for most of my life and have been a devoted fan of organic gardening the whole time. It just makes so much more sense to work in harmony with Mother Nature than to fight her. Besides which it is better for the planet and better for our bodies. Here you can see what I'm planting and harvesting, with gardening hints and resources thrown in for good measure.
I thought today I'd give you are little taste of my mornings. Of course everyday is different but this should give you an idea.
Alarm set for 4:30. I got up at 5: 15.
Good Morning Giotto
(I have no clue what the issue is with these pics. They are all right side up on my computer but coming in sideways to blogger.)
Time for tea and Facebook ;-)
Front yard garden
OK, time to get dressed and get going. Nice and cool and cloudy this morning.
The barn
That wooden box in front of the barn is 4 pallets wired together with more board screwed over the gaps. It's growing luffa, Jack Be Little pumpkins and Black Tail Mountain watermelons. I filled it with shredded paper and chicken manure over the winter. This was an experiment to try and grow vines to help shade the big tin barn without the pigs (javalina) getting into them.
scooping up fermented feed
I ferment the chickens feed because they don't waste as much of it, wild birds aren't as attracted to eating it, it is full of probiotics to promote good health, it pre-digests the feed so the birds can absorb more of the nutrition from it. I've been doing this for about 5 years now and will probably never go back to feeding plain dry food.
The bucket garden
The bucket garden looks good, tomatoes, potatoes and eggplants all growing in 5 gallon buckets.
fresh water and feed for duckies
Good morning duckies!
Good Morning Silkies
Smokeyson and Precious
Miss Bianca
Giotto, what are you barking at? (it was a javalina in the brush)
Good Morning Chickens! A quick trip through the barn so you can see them before I dish up breakfast and check waterers.
empty feed buckets
So 3 empty feed buckets back to the store room. Mix up more feed to feed the chicks this afternoon and the grownups tomorrow.
add water and feed until...
its as thick as oatmeal
Now just set in a warm place. It will fizz and bubble when you stir it up and smell a bit strange. Not quite sour dough or working beer smell. Not quite sour milk smell. As long as it doesn't smell like mold, we're good. Some people cover the feed with water and strain it to feed. I just really didn't like it that way and this way seems to be working OK.
Giotto's breakfast
Time for Giotto's breakfast, raw hamburger and a meaty bone. Although it's been so hot he barely eats anything.
paper and cardboard to recycle
Now time to go to my house and work in the gardens. But first, load up the box of newspaper and cardboard.
And some feed sacks of manure.
feed sacks 1/3 full of manure
I don't fill the bags very full, maybe about 1/3 of the way. Just easier to handle them that way.
Now lets get going. Off to my house. I am letting it all hang out today but you will see why I don't usually do distance shots, way too much junk laying around!
Big locust tree out front
That is a big honey locust out front, at least 50 feet tall and probably 70+ years old. I just hate the 4 inch thorns on it. I"m looking for the thorn less variety to plant around back.
front steps
lets take a walk around the property
falling down sheds out back
Yes I am a pot hoarder
pallet fence potted tomatoes
creek side garden
big tomato garden
looking up to the chicken pens
The chickens are all over at Mom's house right now. There is one old duck who is hard to catch and just goes crazy when you do, so I've just left him here, don't want to stress him out too much.
red neck electric fence
The pigs (javalina) were getting into my little trees and things up by the chicken pens so I ran some electric fencing. I was in a hurry and short of money so I just used any old piece of metal, rebar, water pipe, gas pipe, angle iron, other junk laying around, that I could pound into the ground. Then I slipped a piece of PVC pipe over the metal and wound the wire around that. It works fairly well.
hoop house with pig damage
Of course they still find ways to get in. It looks like a smallish one managed to get in the fence, pushed the chicken wire up on the hoop house and snacked on some squash leaves. Also tore up the baby sunflowers that were at the bottom of the wall. Sigh. I've planted sunflowers there 3 times now.
hot wires tangled
Ah there's the culprit. I imagine the javalina just walked right into the fence, which tangled the wires together as they aren't very tight. There's another spot on the other side. I pushed the lower wires down a bit, but there's a lot of slope so I may have to add a wire in on that spot.
compost happens
OK, now that the fence is fixed, unload the manure and dump on the compost pile.
Unload the newspaper and go mulch a few tomato plants.
tomatoes in caliche
paper down
compost on top of paper
I put down a thick layer of junk mail, cardboard and newspaper, right over the soaker hose, with just enough compost on top to keep the wind from blowing the paper too much.
beans are coming
cucumbers are doing really well
Hello Kitties!
Lil' Bit
Tink
Our new kitty Tink is settling in well. She's a bit skittish but seems content and is getting along OK with Lil' Bit
June planted potatoes
a bed of rainbow beets
golden beet
rainbow carrots
back garden, squash running for the roof
sweet potatoes in pots
little hoop house
(I swear these pics are right side up on my computer!) Little hoop house has some tomatoes and chard, along with some little pots of things like my baby fig trees.
Spanish lavender
mmm. I think this lavender needs some mulch. My favorite mulch is compost or rotted manure.
getting mulch
ah, that's better
live oaks, cherry bushes, herbs
6x6 chain link panel
Time to tie some wire. I'm taking down an old rabbit/duck pen. Covering the 6'x6' chain link panels with chicken wire. I'll be highlighting the project on a separate page later on.
wet rag for the heat
It's getting hot, time to get a wet rag.
moving the panel on my back
The easiest way to move the panel is on my back. Wire all done.
compost & mobile coop
I'll be adding it to the enclosure around the mobile coop and compost pile.
under the squash vines
Canna lilies
volunteer potato in a pot
messy patio
The sunshade broke under a wet snow last winter and the javalina came in and knocked over a bunch of pots and made a mess. Just haven't had time to clean up out here.
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.
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.
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!
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.
