I signed up on Flickr, I kind of liked it a bit better than picasa. Anyway, here's a link to the overal pic section:
http://flickr.com/photos/14254910@N04/
And here's a link to some garden photos I took in Shizuoka City, Japan (Mariko area, 4 chome):
http://flickr.com/photos/14254910@N04/sets/72157603577671314/
http://flickr.com/photos/14254910@N04/sets/72157603572034494/
http://flickr.com/photos/14254910@N04/sets/72157603570268346/
http://flickr.com/photos/14254910@N04/sets/72157603575076113/
Friday, January 18, 2008
Catching up.... NAH! No way can I catch up now...
So I a just starting over with the New Year ;o)
Status of a few things:
* Chickens! Of the original 27 birds, I have five left, three of which are laying eggs. Unfortunately they are still too crowded, so a second coop is in progress and is actually my big goal to complete for this weekend. Of the original 27 birds I gave a bunch away, ate a few, and, unfortunately, one of them died of misadventure, which I regret.
* Peanuts! Did not work out very well. I had maybe 6 square feet planted with peanuts, but they didn't produce very much, I don't know why. Maybe the soil was too hard, and I needed something sandier? Hard to tell.
* Right now I have one bin that is still "working," growing at about 80% capacity. I haven't replanted since I harvested the peanuts and the tomatillo. Another bin has some bird eye peppers, some sweet potato, and some lemon grass, but is about 60% empty. Another bin is about half full with ginger (Japanese kine), thai ginger (galanga?), and tumeric. And another bin is completely "empty." Last weekend I cleared out the luffa and beans from that fourth bin, then collected about three wheel barrels full of compost and distributed it across the empty sections, as well as adding some vericompost.
* Worms! Still going strong, BUT the clear plastic bins from Walmart have degraded (they're about three years old), so I need to come up with a longer term option. Still thinking.
* Taro! Starting to wither down a bit, maybe getting ready to be harvested?
* Fish! All of my tilapia died, and now I'm just growing guppies :o( But the taro growing in the fish bin is growing really well, I had one corm that was about 5 pounds. I need to finish (start?) the pond in the back of the house.
PLANS! This weekend, along with finishing the second coop, I have a bunch of stuff I need to get planted. Long beans. Broccoli. Tomatoes. More luffas? I finally found out how to cook them ;o) I have a bunch of stuff ordered from Baker Creek (rareseeds.com) which I am looking forward to.
Yep, gotta love the garden.
-Z
Status of a few things:
* Chickens! Of the original 27 birds, I have five left, three of which are laying eggs. Unfortunately they are still too crowded, so a second coop is in progress and is actually my big goal to complete for this weekend. Of the original 27 birds I gave a bunch away, ate a few, and, unfortunately, one of them died of misadventure, which I regret.
* Peanuts! Did not work out very well. I had maybe 6 square feet planted with peanuts, but they didn't produce very much, I don't know why. Maybe the soil was too hard, and I needed something sandier? Hard to tell.
* Right now I have one bin that is still "working," growing at about 80% capacity. I haven't replanted since I harvested the peanuts and the tomatillo. Another bin has some bird eye peppers, some sweet potato, and some lemon grass, but is about 60% empty. Another bin is about half full with ginger (Japanese kine), thai ginger (galanga?), and tumeric. And another bin is completely "empty." Last weekend I cleared out the luffa and beans from that fourth bin, then collected about three wheel barrels full of compost and distributed it across the empty sections, as well as adding some vericompost.
* Worms! Still going strong, BUT the clear plastic bins from Walmart have degraded (they're about three years old), so I need to come up with a longer term option. Still thinking.
* Taro! Starting to wither down a bit, maybe getting ready to be harvested?
* Fish! All of my tilapia died, and now I'm just growing guppies :o( But the taro growing in the fish bin is growing really well, I had one corm that was about 5 pounds. I need to finish (start?) the pond in the back of the house.
PLANS! This weekend, along with finishing the second coop, I have a bunch of stuff I need to get planted. Long beans. Broccoli. Tomatoes. More luffas? I finally found out how to cook them ;o) I have a bunch of stuff ordered from Baker Creek (rareseeds.com) which I am looking forward to.
Yep, gotta love the garden.
-Z
Monday, September 24, 2007
So far behind, it hurts...
Well, falling way behind in the blog world. Not sure anybody actually ever reads this, so probably it doesn't matter much, but I lose track if I don't write down what's going on.
The Three Sisters Garden. Ought to be called the "Three Sisters Failure." We had a dry period, and my corn was severely stunted (I didn't know that a lack of water would cause stunting, the corn did and does look really healthy, just super-short). And then I planted the squash and the pole beans at the same time. Apparently that's a mistake, it's supposed to be corn, then squash, then beans.
So what I have is a really huge, beautifully green, super-mess that is growing out of control.
Since it's been raining like crazy, the corn has crown another foot or so in the last couple of weeks, but I still don't think I'm actually going to see much in the way of corn at all. And I'm having some serious doubts about the squash. OTOH, I could end up with a LOT of green beans. Which of the three, are the ones I like the least, go figure.
I harvested compost at the end of last month, got enough to fill a 50 gallon rubbish bin, and then harvested again today, got about half as much. So composting is starting to work out for me. I think it's the addition of the chicken manure that's finally kicking in.
The chickens are fine, though I need to build up more coop space. They've gotten pretty big, and they eat a lot. No eggs yet, but they're just hitting 4 months old next week. So that's fine. Definitely gotta build up some more coop space soon though. And I answered a question I'd had: yep, chickens definitely eat slugs. They'll gobble down any and all bugs: I've fed them slugs, worms, and black soldier fly larvae. All of it went fast. I'd like to set up some more efficient way to feed them the worms and BSF larvae that I have growing in my worm bins. Picking the bugs out by hand and tossing them in seems tedious.
My bell pepper plants have taken a real beating, as many of the fruit were stung by some sort of fly. The worms in the fruit seriously degrade the quality. Right now the plants aren't doing anything. I need to throw some more fertilizer on them to see if I can boost them up again.
Basil's growing, onions are growing, tomatillos are growing really well, the couple of kale plants I have are doing well, the peanuts look really good.
In the other bin, well, I had a whole bunch of decorative sunflowers spring up. Wonderful. Well, at least they're pretty.
My faux earthbox is doing ok, though probably I need to fertilize it some. The mesclun I planted in it is growing, but isn't looking as happy and shiny as it ought to.
Taro is growing fine.
A couple of other experiments of note. The first is I'm growing amaranth, which is a "dual use" plant, in that the leaves can be eaten as greens, and the seeds are very similar to grain. It's high protein, and pretty complete. I've read that the type I'm growing can produce up to a pound of seeds per plant. I'd like to see if between the seeds and the bugs I can produce all my own chicken feed.
The other experiment is growing stuff upside down. I'm using used plastic milk jugs, cut the bottoms out, stick the stem of the plant through the spout, wire it up and hang it. I'm trying tomatoes and tomatillos. Fingers crossed.
Haven't gotten anywhere with building the new fish pond. Disappointing, but I just don't have time. All the materials are lined up, but... The couple of tilapia and the guppies I have left in the stock tank are doing pretty well though, and the taro growing in there seem to be doing fine.
The Three Sisters Garden. Ought to be called the "Three Sisters Failure." We had a dry period, and my corn was severely stunted (I didn't know that a lack of water would cause stunting, the corn did and does look really healthy, just super-short). And then I planted the squash and the pole beans at the same time. Apparently that's a mistake, it's supposed to be corn, then squash, then beans.
So what I have is a really huge, beautifully green, super-mess that is growing out of control.
Since it's been raining like crazy, the corn has crown another foot or so in the last couple of weeks, but I still don't think I'm actually going to see much in the way of corn at all. And I'm having some serious doubts about the squash. OTOH, I could end up with a LOT of green beans. Which of the three, are the ones I like the least, go figure.
I harvested compost at the end of last month, got enough to fill a 50 gallon rubbish bin, and then harvested again today, got about half as much. So composting is starting to work out for me. I think it's the addition of the chicken manure that's finally kicking in.
The chickens are fine, though I need to build up more coop space. They've gotten pretty big, and they eat a lot. No eggs yet, but they're just hitting 4 months old next week. So that's fine. Definitely gotta build up some more coop space soon though. And I answered a question I'd had: yep, chickens definitely eat slugs. They'll gobble down any and all bugs: I've fed them slugs, worms, and black soldier fly larvae. All of it went fast. I'd like to set up some more efficient way to feed them the worms and BSF larvae that I have growing in my worm bins. Picking the bugs out by hand and tossing them in seems tedious.
My bell pepper plants have taken a real beating, as many of the fruit were stung by some sort of fly. The worms in the fruit seriously degrade the quality. Right now the plants aren't doing anything. I need to throw some more fertilizer on them to see if I can boost them up again.
Basil's growing, onions are growing, tomatillos are growing really well, the couple of kale plants I have are doing well, the peanuts look really good.
In the other bin, well, I had a whole bunch of decorative sunflowers spring up. Wonderful. Well, at least they're pretty.
My faux earthbox is doing ok, though probably I need to fertilize it some. The mesclun I planted in it is growing, but isn't looking as happy and shiny as it ought to.
Taro is growing fine.
A couple of other experiments of note. The first is I'm growing amaranth, which is a "dual use" plant, in that the leaves can be eaten as greens, and the seeds are very similar to grain. It's high protein, and pretty complete. I've read that the type I'm growing can produce up to a pound of seeds per plant. I'd like to see if between the seeds and the bugs I can produce all my own chicken feed.
The other experiment is growing stuff upside down. I'm using used plastic milk jugs, cut the bottoms out, stick the stem of the plant through the spout, wire it up and hang it. I'm trying tomatoes and tomatillos. Fingers crossed.
Haven't gotten anywhere with building the new fish pond. Disappointing, but I just don't have time. All the materials are lined up, but... The couple of tilapia and the guppies I have left in the stock tank are doing pretty well though, and the taro growing in there seem to be doing fine.
Monday, August 6, 2007
Catching Up!
I have been just super busy for the last month, so am way behind in posting, time to catch up.
The corn has grown to about 8 inches tall. Late last week I transplanted in the crook-neck squash seedlings and the other squash seedlings, as well as one pumpkin seedling. I'd like to grow a lot of squash, but have had so many bad experiences with the squash vine borer that I'm not going to get too crazy. Today I transplanted some bean seedlings. These are my first pole beans, hoping the corn will outpace them and provide something for them to grow up.
This is my first attempt at a "Three Sisters" garden.
I've started planting seedlings in bin numero dos. I already had my green pepper and banana pepper plants in the back, and some peanuts in the front, so I've been filling in stuff between. Added about six square feet of peanuts, a square foot of leeks, a square foot of green onions, some kale, a couple other things.
I need to fill in the other two bins as well. Right now I have a pretty big cherry tomato monster in one, as well as some ginger, and in the other I have some lemon grass, tomato, and sweet potato. Still, wasting about 45 or so square feet that I need to get something planted in.
I've been reading Mel Bartholomew's book "Square Foot Gardening," which is mostly about garden management, with some assisted info on what to plant and what to plant it in. I think it fits in pretty well with John Jeavons & Co's books. Mr. Bartholomew has you break everything down into one foot squares, keeping it simple enough to manage, and he has you plant crops in a certain order and using certain amounts, so that you can pretty much always have something ready to eat. His claim is that two of his flats (each flat being 4 feet by 4 feet) can provide a single person with all their vegetable needs. I think this is a reasonable goal for me, and it just so happens I have the equivalent of 8 of his flats, which probably ought to cover me and the family.
Plus I think I might be able to extend some of it to the jungle in the back, so that'd be a nice usage of space.
I keep planning to start the upside down tomatoes. I'm planning to take a plastic milk jug, cut the bottong off, stick the bottom back on, turn the jug right side up, plant a tomato seed in the pour hole, let it sprout, then hang the thing upside down. Tomatoes can take a LOT of space, and are susceptible to a lot of garden pests, this might solve a bunch of problems. My only worry is that they'll be too difficult to water.
The chickens are doing fine. They eat a lot. They're about 9 or 10 weeks old. I should start getting eggs anywhere from 6 to 14 more weeks from now. That'l be a nice score. Eggs in the store are now about $2 per dozen, if the chickens start producing an egg a day, that'll run me about 75 cents per dozen.
Of course, with ten birds, what the hell am I going to do with ten eggs a day?
The turmeric that Doug gave me has sprouted, big stem, big leaves, though one of the stems has the top bitten off by something.
I put up some images of my first garden from three years ago. At the time everything was pretty much hydroponics and containers. My first garden.
Monday, July 23, 2007
It lives!
Ok, I was wrong about the one banana plant dying. After taking a closer look today, and moving aside the copious amount of bean plants, I found that a pup or something like it was growing out right next to the plant that was looking bad. So I definitely can't write that one off, at least yet.
I'm a little bit nervous though, I bought some synthetic fertilizer today, a banana specific blend, like 10-5-40 or something crazy like that. I put a small amount of it around each banana. I'm pretty paranoid about synthetic fertilizers ever since I killed off a whole crop of soybeans a few years ago. It was my first experience with non-organic fertilizers, and I applied it pretty much the same way I applied the organic fertilizer. BIG mistake, everything was dead the next day, nitrogen burn. Who'd a thunk it.
Hopefully I haven't just killed off my banana plants. If they look fine, I'll probably apply a little bit every week, I figure that's better than one big blast a month.
As a side note, I gotta figure out something else to do with the compost, it just takes too long. Right now I have three piles, one of them pretty processed but still needing at least a month before its ready, another that's going to need at least two months, and a fresh one I made today from mowing the lawn and cleaning out some sunflowers. And I have more lawn to mow, so what am I gonna do? And a ton of material from chopping down the back lot. Hmmmm.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
The Peanut Project
At the end of June I planted some peanut seeds that were sprouting (sprouted them using raw peanut seeds in a ziploc with a wet paper towel). They look like they're going pretty good, though it's a very small patch, maybe 14 inches long, 8 inches wide, just a little sample really. I peeled some more of the peanut pods and stuck them in another ziploc with another wet papertowel.
I think peanuts are a pretty cool plant, lots of fat and protein. I think they'd be a pretty valuable food for someone who was trying to grow all of their own food. Eventually I'm going to try inter-cropping peanuts and corn.
Oh yeah, bananas
Of the four original banana plants that Alan gave me, three seem to be doing really well, but one looks like it's not going to make it. It's the third largest one (the bigger two and the smallest all seem fine), and it really didn't look any better or worse than the others when I got it, so I don't know what might be wrong. I'm thinking about using a banana specific fertilizer there, though I'm worried that'll kill or damage the beans I inter cropped. We shall see.
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