I’ve made a note to myself so that next year I will plant much, much less cinnamon basil.

It did 10x better than our regular basil, perhaps because it ended up in a prime piece of real estate. It quickly overshadowed everything else in its bed; I found red peppers drying on the plant buried underneath them. The bees loved the beautiful purple flowers and the taste…well, it’s cinnamon basil alright.

I cut the basil off at the base of the stalk, rather than ripping it out. As many leaves as I could harvest are now drying on my countertop, I have a bowl full of seeds and the rest went into the compost. As an experiment, we also hung some of the stalks upside-down to dry, as well.

In it’s place I added some organic amendments to the raised bed and put in some (late) lettuce, spinach and broccoli seeds. None of that indoor seed starting stuff this time since it’s cool and sunny and the ground is staying moist between waterings.

These past few weeks have been crazy hectic, but all in good ways. We’ve been working on the RV and I’ve been working on something else. Right now we’re in a mad scramble to pack our things and leave for our annual camping trip with our local unschooling group. And then we’ll be able to relax while we eat, hike and play with friends all weekend!

Have a great weekend!

Eep! Ignore that water runoff, will ya? Thought we’d fixed that!

That’s the view from the front. Not quite as pretty as most of the larger sunflowers have either cut or picked through by the birds. We’re leaving them up until the smaller heads are gone too. I’ve really enjoyed the birds this summer, although now that their food source is dwindling, they are beginning to forage in places I wish they wouldn’t.

Here’s the views inside the gate. These photos doesn’t do justice: it’s worse than it looks. The cukes have all died but we’re leaving them in place as mulch for now. The ants demolished the corn, and the pumpkins. We got what we could from the plants but it wasn’t much (handfuls of chick feed and one pumpkin). They are working on the melons now.

I’d like to blame it all on the ants but I really can’t. It seems no matter how much we compost or amend the soil, everything is depleted of nutrients. My best, uneducated guess would be based on how green and lush the ash tree looks. I’ve never seen it more beautiful! I’m sure it’s really enjoying our added attention to its soil, even at the expense of everything else.

Based off our “success” this year, I think replanning and replanting the front with nitrogen-building perennials is the best way to go. Once they are established, plugging in some edible annuals won’t be a total waste of time.

Here’s the backyard orchard. It’s doing pretty well with several deep waterings a week, although the more shallow-rooted alyssum underneath didn’t agree. We may go back to drip irrigation so that we can plant more under the trees. There is one tree that seems to be the least happy and most attacked. This morning I noticed many of it’s leaves seem to be stripped. None of other trees have a mark. I can’t find a sign of anything but I haven’t tested the soil yet. Hmm…

The 2×2 square foot gardens in the middle are “compost gardens” – as in, we amended the existing soil with compost, added some nitrogen building legumes and watched a whole bunch of other plants pop up from the compost.

Above would be the raised beds. Remember the last photo? Apparently, the heat doesn’t stop the tomatoes from growing. Unfortunately they aren’t growing much along the lines of edible. Our basil is still rocking, as are the jalapenos. But we’ve only gotten enough grape-sized tomatoes for a couple snacks and a meal or two, and only enough romas for ONE spaghetti dinner. But I’m too nervous to prune and they are newly covered in blooms so we’re letting them do their thing.

Hopefully we’ll add more raised beds this fall around the “orchard” and onto the other side of the house. Lots of trellis in mind to climb anything possible.

This is the tortoise habitat which houses one of the grapevines. We’ve finally made it through a summer without losing our entire vine to grapeleaf skeletonizers, but it was close. Most of our desert plants have died, except for the honeysuckle shown near the bottom.

:sigh:

There ya have it. I’m trying hard not to be depressed over it. It has been a learning experience at least.

They destroyed our corn. Did I mention that? Yes, with the help of their aphid butt-juice drinking habit our corn is nothing more than chicken feed and compost. And we’ve gotten all of 3 beans from our bush and pole beans. That’s right folks. The easiest thing to grow and we got nada. Right now they are working their way through our melons and into our raised beds.

But it’s the ants in the kitchen that have really killed my appetite.

Ants baited with boric acid and honey. They loved it. Wasn’t much help, though.

Justin removed our RO system when he found it leaking. A few days later he admitted the water damage would require removing the walls and bottoms of the cabinets under the kitchen sink. That’s when he found the nest in the wall. From there the ants travelled from houseplant to houseplant, burrowing their larvae into the soil of each plant. After removing every plant from the vicinity and sealing every nook and cranny possible, I THINK we may have protected our kitchen.

Now, I’m okay with ants outside. In fact, I want some ants. They aerate the soil, even pollinate some plants. And..erm..I’m sure they do more than that. My problem is they also fight off insects that threaten their turf. So although our ladybug population initially increased with the aphids, it quickly disappeared. (Again.)

We tried a few things to decrease (not eradicate) the outdoor ant population. Cornmeal, essential oils, boric acid in several mediums. I’ve even encouraged the chickens to have a go at it. Nothing has worked. And I certainly don’t want to resort to anything stronger or deadlier.

Outdoor ants baited with boric acid and yogurt. Usually works great but these ants aren’t affected. They circle around in droves, eat it all up and skip away merrily.

Permaculture principles say to allow these imbalances to correct themselves. My role should be to support a healthy ecology by adding organic amendments to unhealthy soil, establishing appropriate plants and facilitating their growth. All of this of course takes time, which is my biggest frustration.

So I suppose my mission this fall, when replanning and replanting our yard, is to find and establish plants to repel ants and/or attract insects that eat ants. Any suggestions? Please?

I had only caught small glimpses of the books contents and while I had a mild understanding of permaculture, the practice of it had been eluding me. As I’ve come to find out, permaculture is a theory and describing it is a little like describing color to a blind man. Until you see it, you don’t really get it. Or at least I didn’t.

Gaia’s Garden cleared up any confusion! Not only did it clearly and concisely explain the theory, it gave numerous examples and applications. This book is jam-packed and my mind is still absorbing it. One thing is for certain, it has completely changed both Justin and my outlooks on gardening.
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Theory and Practice

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To put it as simply as possible, the theory behind permaculture (a contraction of “permanent agriculture”) is to design our gardens to emulate and therefore work *with* nature, rather than against it. Toby Hemenway, the author of Gaia’s Garden, draws on several references to explain the symbiotic relationships found in the wild – from “invasive” plants (which he describes as merely ”opportunistic”) to tree guilds, animals and insects. What he describes in his book are techniques to closely imitate these relationships, thus creating a self-sustaining and low-maintenance oasis with multiple functions.

The book covers such things as stacking functions, assisting soil life, greywater systems, insects and animals, and the abundant use of perennials. The author discusses things such as wind barriers, swales, land surveying, the efficient use of space and edges, poly-cultures and a myriad of diverse plants and their uses. He describes input vs output, describing that if we take the careful time first in design and planning a sustainable system, our input of both energy, time and resources (fertilizers, mulch etc) will gradually decrease overtime, leaving us with a natural eco-system that much like our wild forests need little help from us to thrive. The color photos, diagrams, and tables make understanding the principles and applications that much easier.
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Our Highlights

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There were some points that stood out to Justin and I. Well, really the entire book! But here are the primary ideas we took away from the book:

• Compost: Hemenway describes the biology of compost and the idea that the more it is turned, the less nitrogen is left. This really struck a cord with me after our sheet mulching/composting of the front yard left us baffled as we discovered so little nitrogen in our soil tests. We can now both see it was from our turning the matter in an effort to assist the breakdown. We’ve since stopped turning our compost pile as often and the breakdown has actually been more complete and gets much warmer.
• Keyhole Gardens: The book describes keyhole gardens as a way to maximize growing space and offers several ideas for design. This really confirmed the design of our own raised beds and after discovering the difficulty of accessing some of our front garden areas, our idea is to implement the same technique in the front yard.
• Perennial vs Annual: This is perhaps the biggest Ah-ha moment in the book for us. Hemenway describes the soil disruption caused by the removal of annual plants and the soil building properties of perennials. In our climate and soil conditions, I’m not sure that we could do away completely with raised beds but this has certainly changed our ideas of front yard usage. We now plan to redesign and replant the entire 645 sq ft area, based on the ideas in this book!
• Tables: One of the biggest benefits of this book is the use of tables to list hundreds of nitrogen-building, nutrient-accumulating, multi-purpose plants. This has been a non-stop resource for us and one of the biggest benefits in the book.
• Guilds: Many ideas and examples are given of ways to plant trees, shrubs and other plants together to assist the health and growth of each other. This is perhaps the most overwhelming part of the book for us, as we try to find our own climate-adapted plants with which to create guilds.
• Zones, Home, Community and City Permaculture: Hemenway discusses the use of zones in and around the home and even out into the community; what to plant or place within each zone of the garden and how to apply this principle within city design. I found it to be incredibly interesting.

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There is so much more but these are the points that jumped out at us. I couldn’t begin to describe to you all the benefits and aspects covered in this book. I’m sure as time goes on, we’ll be referring back to Gaia’s Garden often and gaining even more insight in the months to come.
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Only One Complaint

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The only downside of Gaia’s Garden is the assumption of the reader’s climate. Most of his descriptions seemed to fit more temperate climates, nothing quite as cold as Michigan, nothing nearly as hot as our hometown. Although the book covered ideas of permaculture in the desert, the difference in climate and rainfall between New Mexico and Southern Nevada are vast. Many of the ideas he offered don’t apply to us (deer? what are those?) and the idea that the catchment of our four inches of annual rainfall in Las Vegas would suffice for much in temperatures above 110 F in the summer meant a bit of skimming the greywater chapter (we did however pull some inspiration for washer machine water). But then that’s a headache we Las Vegans have about any gardening books, isn’t it? ;)

Overall, this book is fantastic in laying out the principles behind permaculture and describing many effective and simple ways of implementation. We’re really looking forward to adapting the knowledge it gave us to our unique climate, as we learn more about the techniques and theories behind permaculture.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in green living, gardening, sustainability, self-sufficiency, urban homesteading or even just landscaping! It has ideas to offer everyone and may even change your entire outlook, much like it for did us. (In fact if you see an increased discussion and focus on permaculture on this blog, you can credit this book!)

If you are considering purchasing this book, would you consider purchasing it from the link above or the Amazon widget on my sidebar? All the proceeds we earn are going into our Five Year Plan fund and I’d love to say this book contributed both to purchasing and designing our new home someday!

For more book recommendations, visit our Amazon aStore!

Our tomatoes are very stunted, our corn is anemic, our melons are stagnant. The ants and aphids seem to be the most prolific commodities in our yard and we (Justin, the beneficials and I) can’t seem to catch up or get ahead.

Not all bad news, however. We have more jalapenos than one family needs. Our basil are all very happy campers. Our cukes have only just begun to slow down. And our tomatoes – stunted though they are – still taste yummy. We’ve also harvested quite a few sunflower heads for drying (but we left plenty for the birds).

Soil fertility is still our biggest adversary. The fact that anything is even growing at all is a real testament to the miracle of life. We spent last weekend with an organic fertilizer recipe and this weekend we’ll spend our time with an organic foliar feed recipe. We’ve seen some growth and recovery from our efforts thus far but we still have a long way to go.

I’ve seen so many exciting and yummy garden photos lately. One of these days mine will look just as abundant!

Here are a few recent photos:

Now that Justin and I have read Gaia’s Garden, we’ve been rethinking so much about this garden. We have a lot of new plans that we hope to get started on this fall when the weather dips back down. Justin has promised that we would soon work on a post together to share our thoughts on the book and how it’s shaped our ideas in regards to our own yard and goals. (Co-blogging! Yay!) We have other exciting additions to our “homestead” to share soon too! (Good news! Yay!)

Update: Gaia’s Garden review found here.

How is your garden growing…Or not?

The bees have been increasing but we’re not the sort to leave anything to chance, and when you’re looking for a reason to play in the dirt, you take what you can get. Even if it means feeling a bit pervy.

Justin has been reading from Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners about the pollination of pumpkins. It was something he had hoped to do but it seems our pumpkin flowers only open in the morning when he was at work. I’m not sure if this is normal or simply a result of our heat. This left the job to me.

First, Justin showed me the male flowers. Not sure how to tell a male flower from a female flower? If the pumpkin flower is open, its maleness is pretty obvious. That thing sticking out? It’s called a stamen. Or you can pull a Tara and refer to it as its “thingy”.

If the pumpkin flower is closed, look at the stem directly under the flower. A male flower will be only a stem, while a female flower has what will become the pumpkin, its size depending on how soon its flower will open. This is the size of the pumpkin the day it opened, but we first saw it when it was the size of a pea:

When the female flower opens, it’s difference is easy to tell. Instead of a single stamen, it has a multi-segmented stigma. Or what I lovingly refer to as it’s “girly stuff”.

Hand-pollination was simple, albeit embarrassing. After asking permission and apologizing profusely, I rubbed a Qtip around the males stamen, picking up the pollen. (You can also use your finger, but I really felt that was taking it too far.) I felt more than a little dirty inserting that Q-tip into the females stigma. We both blushed, had a moment, moved on.

Within the day, the flower had closed up and began drying and it’s baby bump had already begun growing. Five days later, it’s grown exponentially (proof of my prowess, perhaps?):

This is our Howden pumpkin, BTW, planted for jack ‘o lanterns this Halloween. Who knew they’d also offer so much s*x education? Life learning at its best!

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For more great info on growing from and saving seeds, as well as how to pollinate, harvest and more, I highly recommend the following book. It is jammed packed with information from cover to cover; nothing superfluous or uninteresting. It even covers some of the history of the plant breeds and crosses. It’s one of our favorite and most used gardening books.

]]> http://theorganicsister.com/2009/06/hand-pollinating-pumpkins/feed/ 16 http://theorganicsister.com/2009/06/affirmwater-winner-and-sunflowers/ http://theorganicsister.com/2009/06/affirmwater-winner-and-sunflowers/#comments Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:25:54 +0000 TheOrganicSister http://theorganicsister.com/?p=1918 And the winner of the AffirmWater giveaway is….

Congrats to Sherry at Living & Learning!

Thanks to everyone for playing along and making this such a hit!

In other news, I have discovered a love for sunflowers. One by one our sunflowers are blooming, and although they don’t follow the sun like I thought they did, I’m in love and can’t stop singing “You Are My Sunshine” when I see them. Perhaps it’s because of their height and we can see eye to eye that I love taking them in. Perhaps it’s because they are the fastest growing and biggest things in our yard. Whatever it is, my new favorite flower is the sunflower. And as coincidence would have it…

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Let me share a few of the 2984665 sunflower photos I’ve taken.
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This one surprised us. We weren’t expecting such vibrancy. These are from our funky seeds gifted from another blogger last year. This is the only one to turn red so far.
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These are the other seeds from the same batch, red and yellow and gorgeous.
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Beginning of May
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Same sunflower a month later. It has over 3 dozen flower heads opening or getting ready to open and we’re counting more every day!
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Not a sunflower but still fun! Our first tiny cucumber!
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What fun things are happening in your garden right now?

Where has my week gone? I construct 100 mental blog posts, only to have my days slip away before I find the time to sit. I’ve spent my time elsewhere instead, trying to meander through my fast-paced days and focusing on the things that bring me joy. It’s been the kind of week that has made it hard but park days and Mama’s Nite In with unschooling friends, and the good conversations that arise among us help to center me.

We pulled most of our broccoli plants. You can visit Gardenaut to see what we did with the broccoli leaves. Once they were out of the way our tomatoes started taking off, as did our peppers. We just found our first of both beginning to grow! Everything is opening up – our sunflowers, squash, corn. Our onions are starting to flower. I have no idea what that means but I hope it’s an indication our dang onions will finally start to grow underground.

Mostly we’ve just been enjoying our days outside. Justin set up a small table and chairs in the front yard and we spend as much time there as possible. I start my day with a book and chair in the garden. He unwinds from work every afternoon by watching the praying mantis eat our pests or hand-pollinating the squash. Zeb is “not feeling” the garden bugs, so other than enjoying the sunflowers, he’s rediscovered his love for RuneScape and has been experimenting with cookie recipes.

So despite there being so much to blog about and so many thoughts to share out loud, I’m enjoying our cool front that is coming through and immersing myself in my own tiny slice of heaven instead. I’m sure I’ll be back as soon as the heat returns and forces me inside again.

And if you haven’t already, you can still enter the AffirmWater giveaway.
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Have a beautiful Sunday all!

We were nervous about introducing more insects into our yard with the free mulch, so we opted for straw instead. I’d heard of the use of straw for soil moisture in many places and rather than doing a bit more research, we jumped the gun. We needed something and we needed it fast, since temps were already reaching 100 degrees by that point.

Talk about buyer’s remorse. If you’re wondering whether or not to try it, let me tell you my four five reasons I’ll never use straw in the garden again.

Reason #1 It’s ugly. Really, this was reason enough. About 30 minutes after we started laying it down, I looked up and visibly grimaced. All that pale yellow constrasting against our soil made things look bleak. And as practical as I am, I want to see some (natural) beauty in my yard.

Reason #2 It’s messy. Somehow it ended up everywhere we didn’t want it and nowhere we did. The wind blows it around. The birds toss it (and likely steal it). The walkways were sprinkled with it but the melon patch was bare. It’s even dragged in on our shoes. Not cool.

Pictured above is one “zone” where the straw has been removed and
compost and mulch is being laid down. You can see the straw still in
other areas. And in the paths. Not pictured is the straw in my hair.
Or on my living room rug.

Okay, those two things may not bother most people, but the following two reasons were the clinchers for me:

Reason #3 Straw adds little value to the soil. It’s not “alive”. Adding something like compost or mulch to retain water adds many more nutrients, healthy microbes and bacteria and amends the soil. It feeds the insect life crucial to creating a thriving habitat, helps to create a lighter loam and feeds your plants while preventing evaporation. Even for garden paths I want to be adding to my soil, not taking away from it. Which leads me to my next point:

Reason #4 The carbon to nitrogen ratio of oat straw is 74:1; wheat straw has an 80:1 ratio. As only a mulch this isn’t an issue. But it’s nearly impossible to keep the straw on top of the soil, instead of in it. Once the straw gets into the soil, it begins to break down. Because decomposer organisms need a 20-30:1 balance of carbon and nitrogen, they begin to burning through your nitrogen too quickly to balance their high-carbon diet. Thus, our nitrogen-depleted soil would struggle even more and I only have so many beans (nitrogen fixers) left to plant!

Reason #5 It’s very hard to remove it all. Given Reason #4, we wanted to get as much as possible out of the soil before adding compost and mulch. But it’s nearly impossible to get it all out, leaving me very apprehensive about our already low nitrogen levels.

When to use straw:

Animal bedding! Miranda mentioned this to me and I researched it a bit more. The nitrogen in the animal’s manure is a great balance to the high amounts of carbon. The heat from the breakdown should also help to keep your animals warm in cooler climates (would it be too warm in our summers?).

Compost, but only a little! Again, because of the large amounts of carbon, straw should be used sparingly in your compost or the same depletion could occur.

Which leaves me with one question: Do any locals have a need for a whole lotta free straw?

(Click here for the what’s, why’s and how’s of mulching.)

I’ve been reading Gaia’s Garden, which has systematically changed my plans after each and every page. I need more perennials! I need more mulch! I need to move somewhere that rains! We went to Plant World on Saturday. Way too much money later, we walked out with another grapevine, many more strawberries, a flat of alyssum, a few lavendar and rosemary plants and so much more. A Dusty Miller called out to me from the aisles and upon researching, we found it will help prevent soil erosion in a rather eroded area of our yard. Gotta love that intuition. So while Zeb played LEGOs in the yard, we dug and planted and mulched.

Justin spent most of the weekend in the yard, waffling between boredom and relaxation, unsure what to do with himself. Enjoying it. I think he is beginning to see the possibilities of how grand life could be if we could meet our goals and he could be at home.

Remember all these hopeful photos? It’s finally starting to look like I’ve imagined it. I think I need to make some more hopeful photos, slightly more filled out perhaps.

Then:
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And now:
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We laid down straw. Big mistake. We’re working on removing it. (Here’s my Five Reasons Not To Use Straw in your garden.)
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You can see where we began to replace the straw with compost and cedar mulch.
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Justin’s strawberry patch (more strawberries have been interplanted throughout the front and back):
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The backyard; most of the broccoli was pulled, the irrigation redone, some perennials planted amongst the trees, more seeds in the beds, the onions and garlic are about to bloom and our peppers and a few tomatoes are flowering:
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I have so many more photos of tiny artichokes and pumpkin blooms and a new grapevine and and and…

Maybe another day. Right now I’m ready to move.