Reading:Nature’s Garden, by Samuel Thayer

Posted on August 18, 2011 by leo

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I found this book at my local library and didn’t expect too much from it since I just stumbled upon it.   However, I’m loving it!   It is my favorite wild edible plants book yet!

I just read a bit that pushed me to tell you about it.  Page 429, in the “wild lettuce”  chapter:

So do not shy away from details; and don’t resent Nature for being so replete with complexity.  That is its glory, not its downfall.  We owe our very intelligence to this miraculous complexity.  It is not the burden of the naturalist to learn this complexity;  it is the awesome reality.  More than anything else, which of these attitudes you choose will determine your success as a naturalist.  So learn your details with joy, remember them with pride, and experience them with gratitude.  Let the details excite you — for there are enough of them to excite you for the rest of your life.

That is moving.  Thank you Samuel.

Also of note is the style of the book is both engaging with humoros tales of the author’s introduction to some of the plants as well as a focus on ensuring you understand how to find each plant.

Did I mention the chapter on acorns and oaks?  Think about how plentiful acorns are and then you’ll want to read the chapter too.  This book is definitely one to read and re-read.

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Two inches of rain in 24 hours!

Posted on August 15, 2011 by leo

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I’m excited to see how it effects the tomatoes.   More to come.

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.25″ of rain

Posted on August 6, 2011 by leo

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We had about a quarter inch of rain today.  Weather bug says it was only 0.12″  either way I’m  looking forward the the amazing things that happen in a garden after rain.

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Confession Time

Posted on August 5, 2011 by leo

Here’s the situation, remembering a picture is worth 1,000 words

What I’m showing you is my BEST performing corn (three stalks to a mound) and beans (I forget what variety I planted in this mound).  The corn is not thriving and the beans are nearly dead.  Here’s another mound

This mound of beans and corn is worse off.  The others don’t look good either.

So my attempt at gardening native american style has been very educational if not fruitful.  I’d like to say I’ve learned a lot.  I probably have, just watching the corn sprout, seeing its young leaves develop, waiting for it to reach about 4 inches high to plant the beans in the mound, and watching the beans sprout and develop.   There is so much that you learn by checking in on it.

As far as I know the only thing that is really wrong with my american style – companion planted garden is the lack of full sun.  When I picked the spot to place this garden it was winter.  The house and this yard were new to me.  The fact that this spot would be shaded 8 out of 10 hours each day was not obvious to me when the leaves were all gone in the winter.

Should you run in fear and never plant a garden until you know if there is enough sun in your chosen spot?  NEVER!  This failure has been very educational.  I know what to look for in my next garden spot and I know what to expect with the early growth of the corn and beans.

Here’s the spot I’m eying up for next year’s garden and this year’s cool season garden

Picture of Upcoming guerilla garden

Don’t wait for the perfect spot.  Make an educated guess, start digging, and plant today!

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Separated Elderberries — So far, so good

Posted on July 24, 2011 by leo

In this video for 5inacape.com I take you on a tour of the elderberrys I seperated in my previous video and an earlier blog post.

Long story short?  They’re looking pretty good.  I lost about 1 out of 20 plants.  I’m happy with those results.  What’s better?  The ones which I managed to get in the ground about a week before this video are really growing.  I attribute this growth to a steady soil temperature and moisture.

Take a look at these elderberry rooted elderberry cuttings that have been separated after a lot of rooting.

Grow well!

 

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Fungal disease and plants

Posted on July 22, 2011 by leo

I have persimmon seedlings with fungus near the top of the plants, a gooseberry with stems with a similar white feathery fungus, and worst of all (I think) tomatoes with a silvery-grey mold on their leaves and stems. I believe the tomato fungus is early blight and is usually fatal. I’ve been having a time of it. This is my first year gardening and everything looks like a problem. I’m hanging on though.

The infected tomato plant is isolated from the others by a road so I’m trying my hand at reigning in the disease instead of destroying the plant. I’ve read milk and cornmeal make good teas for applying to the soil around a plant to prevent fungus and maybe fight it. We’ll see.

Last weekend I showed my kids how to apply a 2 cups of whole milk to 1gal of water milk tea to all the garden plants with our $10 sprayer from lowes.  Additionally, I had them sprinkle cornmeal at the base of all the plants. Then we brewed a cornmeal tea to apply to the dirt around the plants. 1 cup of cornmeal to 1 gal water and let it stand for a couple of days until it ferments and stinks. Well, I checked today and it definitely was stinky. So I loaded my watering can and applied it to the bases of all the tomatoes.

The worst off tomato plant looks significantly better. The mold has faded and the leaves are more open and green looking. I’m thinking we have a chance of eating a couple of garden fresh tomatoes this year.

Next year I plan to have some form of drip irrigation in place. I read a post at http://www.thisgardenisillegal.com/2011/06/post-nozzle-drip-irrigation.html and it pushed me over the edge to try out drip irrigation.

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Battle of the invasives: wineberry vs Japanese honeysuckle

Posted on July 20, 2011 by leo

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Which will win? Isn’t it nice to see a couple invasives fighting it out? The funny thing is, believe it or not, this battle takes place next to a forest floor of English ivy, adjacent to a multiflora rose, and under a tree of heaven!!!

All invasives. All seeking supremacy.

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Separating Elderberries

Posted on July 7, 2011 by leo

In this video I show you how I (NOT a professional gardener) separated some elderberry cuttings that were rooted in a common pot. These cuttings are young but very tangled due to the small amount of dirt they were rooted in.

In this video I take you from four elderberries in one dirt ball with tangled roots to having four separate elderberry plants and repotting two of them.

In my next video I’ll follow up with how these plants are doing now that they’ve been man-handled like this.

 

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It starts here, in your yard. Collect your prunings, vines, leaves, grass clippings.

Posted on June 23, 2011 by leo

Take them here. Empty your load of yard waste. gpark as close to the pile as possible.

Watch out. While you load your trailer you might get your feet dirty.

Compost: The stuff of dreams

You’ll find the compost deeper in the pile and the most dirt like compost on the end of the pile closest to the office shed.

Mulch runs a close second

The mulch is most of the pile — most of the outer layers.

You’re now a rich person with your load of compost and mulch! Well, at least your soil will be.

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1/3″ of rain

Posted on June 20, 2011 by leo

It looks like the new rain gauge placement is shaping up to be good.  Last night the gauge read 2/3″ and this evening (we were out overnight) it read 1″.

My youngest son and I both have a rudimentary fascination with weather.  How it looks.  How it feels.  How to measure it.

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