20 August 2014

Another update with no pictures. We picked beans for dinner and freezing from the third bed last night. Great beans.

The last of the corn, though there are a few ears still on the stalks. These all went to the chickens as they are underdeveloped in a variety of ways. Still a success in my mind.

The aphids are getting to the squash with few ladybugs in sight. Last night Maureen released the last of the second batch of the little orange critters. We let them go too late it seems.

We also picked some Bell peppers.

Yard is still producing, though always some weirdness in the crops.

Garden Update

No pictures, just some thoughts. The corn has been a success in that we have been eating the corn as well as the chickens. The last count I heard was 65 ears and counting. We've picked some since then. The second bed hasn't done as well as the first, but it is another variety.

We put a few thousand lady bugs on the squash and they left for some other place. We'll try again soon.

The Anaheim peppers are still producing, even when covered with the squash plants. Maureen has made two batches of Pico do Gallo salsa. This year the Anaheims seem to be a bit hotter than years past. Still good salsa.

The last set of beans are up and growing well, but not ready for picking.

We have three water melon and have picked four cantaloupe. Not being a cantaloupe eater I can't tell you of their quality, but Maureen isn't complaining.

I'll try to get some pictures up soon.

Update on the Sharecropper Garden

Thought it was time to show the progress of the garden across the street. As usual, some successes and some not so successful. These are the good shots. I'm weeding in the background, but the green beans growing are the third of four beds planted this summer. Needs a bit of weeding care, but more food to come.

This is just to the west of the last picture and shows from the bottom watermelon, squash trying to suffocate pepper plants, and beans going to seed. The dry looking plant near the center is an artichoke waiting for next year. The O'Henry peach is in the back propped up to prevent limb breakage.

I'm standing between the corn beds. On the right is the first bed we planted and the left has the second bed that was planted two to three weeks later. We did pick our first ears of corn.  They could have waited a few days, but it looks like we will have more to come and we couldn't wait. (And we were hungry that night.)

One of two watermelon growing. The watermelon this year is going to be a race between growth and the aphids. Maybe a midseason/trade deadline deal for some ladybugs will help us.

And the always refreshing fruits of our efforts. The corn is ours. The lettuce for the salad was from the farmer's market. The goats milk used for the dressing was from our farm friends. The salad is topped with our green peppers, zucchini, hard boiled eggs and cracklins from the lard rendering process.

The next thing to do is make the wine to go along with the meal.  Our last wine attempt made good vinegar.

It's Been a While

It's been over a year and a half for a post about our across the street gardening adventure. It has been frustrating at times, but slow progress is being made. The pictures are a snapshot of where we are now, and not a full picture. The corn is a new attempt. So far much better than expected, and if nothing else it will become chicken feed. Just as a note, we are trying a new approach to the walkways. With our recent tree felling and trimming projects at home, we ask for the shredded remains from the tree people.  They gladly oblige saving them a trip to recycling. The chipped trees and leaves make a mulch for both the walkways and some of the beds. We'll see how this works out. The open bed just in front of the corn has just been planted with beans.

Enjoy.

Still Here. . .

. . .But not posting much. What will follow may be construed as excuses or reasons.  Take your pick.  Just some thoughts on the Suburban Sharecropping/urban growing/turkey raising experience.

I've been thinking of the gardens, probably because I haven't been able to be in them much.  Maureen has been doing the Lion's share of the work, tho I did help with the weeding.  The bermuda and weeds had gotten out of hand and we had to resort to a herbicide (for the first time and just in the walkways) and a lot of back-breaking work to clean the beds.  It is now a much better looking garden. Sorry no pictures at this time, and no 'before' pics because it was just plain depressing there for awhile and we both avoided even going over there....which just compounded the problem. Benign neglect makes for much weeds.

Another project has been the patch of grass that will be a fruit tree bed in the future.  We had removed all of our grass in our yard to put in vegetable gardens.  This was a dirt area the dogs liked to lay in and play in, so we thought to make it a bit more presentable for us and comfortable for them.

You can see by the progression of the pictures what happened.  I don't have pictures of the final result.  But between dog urine and thinking sod was a chew toy, you can guess the result.  We even sodded it again for Betty's memorial and it looks worse than ever.  Lesson learned and onto Plan C.

After last year's turkey harvest, we bought a frozen bird this year.  Not that we won't try that again; we just didn't plan ahead. Soup, our turkey hen, has become too big and tough to harvest, so for now she is guarding the chicken hens. We also heard that there is something in the turkey manure that is beneficial to chickens and a preventative for some disease.  Still looking into that. (edited by Maureen ~ Steve is putting off harvesting 'Soup' because he has become attached to her...so her benefits to the other birds might just be rationalizations.)

That's Soup on the left.  She got into the nesting box and couldn't get out...often.  We eventually had to block the bottom two boxes to prevent another stuck turkey.

We had a pretty good garden harvest this fall. After a horrible tomato season last year, this year was pretty good.  Maureen canned up quite a bit of tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce, catsup and Rotel.  The asparagus will have it's first full harvest this year and is being anticipated with glee. The winter garden is in and growing, except for the plants that aren't.  Every year we have about a 25% rate of unsuccessful plantings.  By that I mean, they don't die, they just sit in a kind of suspended animation.  We put them in and while most around them get bigger (aka GROW) these little buggers just sit there....not dying, but definitely not growing.  Very weird.  We have gardened for over 20 years and have yet to figure out what causes this or what to do about it.  Our solution....plant 25% more seedlings than we will need.  Problem solved. 

A decision we are mulling over now is taking out the pecan tree in the back yard at our house.  This tree was a sapling when we moved in.  It is now over 50' tall and 14" thick at the base.Besides starting to push against our water main, it is a mess....24/7.  One season it drops allergy causing "flowers" and another it's the gooey aphid sap that sticks to everything, on top of leaves that seem to multiply and drop for months.  The shade is nice in the late afternoon summer, but the neighbor has an oak tree that duplicates much of the shade. That same shade though limits what can be grown in that section of the garden.  The nuts are wonderful; but a pain to extract from the shells.  The short story is we are considering taking it out.  The wood would be used for BBQ and a special woodworking project, but will be difficult to cut down because of the tight quarters.  Always a new adventure on the horizon.

P.S. Turkey Thoughts

After the harvest of our 40+ pound turkey I have an observation that should be obvious, but just became evident. The remaining chickens and turkey are sure eating less food. I used to give them two 1kg. containers of food a day. Without Dinner, it is now one container and some days there is some left in the feeder.

No wonder he was 40 pounds dressed out.

You Decide

There is a controversy in Oak Park, Michigan over a vegetable garden in the front yard of a family trying to feed itself and become a bit more sustainable in troubling times. Above is the picture of the garden. Here is a news piece on the story.

This is a defense by a recent law school grad that formerly lived in Oak Park and the daughter of a Oak Park city employee....and the rebuttal by Julie Bass (whose tale can be followed on the blog Oak Park Hates Veggies).

This article is a commentary on lawns.

Seems to me Oak Park may one of the few places in the United States that hasn't had it's citizens affected by the Recession if they can worry about vegies in the front yard.

Garden Update for May Day

It is always fun to cross the street and see the garden, even doubly so when Pecan our transplanted cat greets us. Quickest purr in the West.

This is one of my responsibilities, the compost pile. Actually quite a fun venture. Pile a bunch of stuff and watch it rot. This is the half that is left over after sifting the good stuff out. This will break down for a while more. Some will be added and then the sifting will begin again. Probably not the "correct" way, but it works for us and we get good compost.

The next three pictures are of beds recently planted. In the first you might just be able to pick out the new O'Henry peach planted (way way back there) near the shed on the right (note from Maureen~ I will post a close-up photo in the next day or so). The rest are general pictures of the beds and some of the many tomatoes that have been planted this year. We are now up to 74 plants, counting the ones in our home garden, of the 110 eventually going into the ground.

12 more slicing tomatoes...mostly heirloom.

10 more paste tomatoes...also mostly heirloom.

Maureen is weeding around the artichoke, cilantro going to seed on the left there and oregano in the foreground of the photo.

Look close and you will see one artichoke and three smaller ones in this picture.

With all said and done, a good weekend.

...and in case you were playing the 'Where's Waldo' game with us~

Peach tree....

...and baby artichokes.

His Empire of Dirt

I found this by reading a magazine, which led me to a book, which I Googled on the web and found the New York Magazine article and this video. Maybe we should be more enterprising and get ourselves published in New York.



The article spells out more of the travails.

Weeding Inhales Deeply, But

It will pay off in the end.  The truth of weeding is a little done each day adds up and the job is done in a zen-like fashion.  Truth in gardening is better than truth in lending.