Posts Tagged ‘garden’

3 Mar 2010

Snow Day..Green Juice..&..Spreading Compost!

Posted by Jake. 6 Comments

It snowed this week…it’s seldom when this happens (not enough moisture in these parts)…so I took a few pics of the white splashes around the garden…and decided to make a GREEN JUICE…while I was at it.  There’s a video at the end…of this post…ENJOY!

It’s also been a week of spreading compost around EVERYTHING!  Found a great local source for fresh cow manure and composted cow manure.  So I LOADED up on the composted material..and started spreading.  Took me two days…to get it all spread, but with the new swales on contour…these nutrients and topsoil will now be staying on the property..instead of running down to the gutter!

Garlic..no problem with the snow..melted the next day anyway.

brassicas…kale, chard, broccoli…I think they actually enjoyed the hit of snow!

Lacinato(Dino) Kale..what a hardy plant.

Looking down the east side of the lower yard..peas will be planted..and growing up the vertical beds soon.. this week.

Looking west..down the lower yard..toward the dome and terraced beds. Honeysuckle is the snow covered vine you can see a long the borders.

Inside the dome…snow melting off. Calendula in the foreground…with Mango and Avocado nearby.

The BIGGEST load of compost..I’ve ever moved around..cow manure/wood shavings/straw..composted for 1.5 years..great stuff!

Black GOLD!

A view from the swale..on the second day of the GREAT-compost spreading…Zion National Park..in the distance.  Might turn that into a SONG….

Post compost spreading..and mulching. I also gave the trees some Azomite with the compost. Mulched the swales and the trees..you can see clover coming up all around.

ahhh….GREENING UP…clover coming up everywhere…and the swales..(dug one more in the front right corner)… are catching all the runoff…such JOY!  More joy can be seen in the driveway..in the form of fresh horse manure, a friend just dumped.  Will be adding it to the compost pile..for nitrogen…dose it with some ROCK DUST and compost it for a few more months.

All in One Almond…starting to bud up…can’t wait…this could be the year…went to buy another one the other day…and they were out…so I scooped a Santa Rosa plum tree instead…planted her nearby…yikes…running out of room here!!

Here’s a look at the property..before beginning the food forest and dome build..this was about 2 years ago.  Glad I caught the satellite before and after…thanks for the idea Anthony Anderson!

Here’s what it looked like..about.. 6 months later…before fruit trees…. much has changed since this last shot taken from the eye in the sky…it will be fun to watch it continue..to change!!

Been enjoying fresh juice out of the garden lately..mixing it up with green smoothies.  LOVE mixing it up with different greens…SO FRESH!  You can feel the LIVING LOVE…oh how I love chlorophyll!  Doing a few juices a week right now…it goes really well… in combination with SUPERFOOD ELIXIRS!

The end accidentally got cut off to the video..whoops..but the juice was very TASTY…quite a zing with the lemon and ginger in there.  Have fun designing and creating your own food forest!

We don’t have our own water source here..we’re reliant on city water..and we aren’t allowed farm animals like chickens or goats…arghhh…I’d love to close the loop on self reliance.  We’ll get there..soon..very soon!

For now…I’m importing fresh cow and horse manure, to supplement the nitrogen component of my own compost.  Just not creating my own fast enough..for my current needs.  If I had a few chickens or a goat…this would be great…but I’ve contacted the city…and there’s LAWS against small farm animals around here…but they’re reviewing it…until then…just doing the BEST with what I have.  GREEN MANURES ..will work great too..but mid winter..hard to come by.

Bees are the next step…as they don’t make noise …just quietly go about their beautiful business!

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6 Feb 2010

Why grow your own food? Why grow in raised beds?

Posted by Jake. 2 Comments

Had to do another post on John Kohler’s project…INSPIRING!!  John’s really doing IT WELL.. and PASSIONATELY.  Thanks for sharing.. SO much info John..these videos are a HUGE resource for all those wanting to do the same!!

 

 

 

growingyourgreens.com

remineralize.org

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3 Feb 2010

Sepp Holzer – Farming with Terraces and Raised Beds

Posted by Jake. 2 Comments

Sepp Holzer..is one of my HEROES.  He’s growing in one of the highest, most northern..and COLDEST climates to grow in..the mountains of AUSTRIA.  He’s a Permaculture designer..taking it to the EXTREME!  Passionate..Genius!!!  If he can do it in that environment..everyone around the world can do it also! 

Sepp…our…HUGE gratitude for setting the pace!

 

  

 

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2 Feb 2010

Ordering Seeds for your Spring Garden

Posted by Jake. 2 Comments

In this video, John Kohler, from GROWINGYOURGREENS, shows a couple of seed companies he uses.  His videos are absolutely some of the best urban gardening videos on the net…SO INFORMATIVE!!

Thanks John..I’ll definitely be picking up these suggestions…..very SOON!!

REALLY like that he’s sharing wild strains and diverse greens!  Here’s the sites he mentions:  That Egyptian Spinach sounds amazing!

BOUNTIFUL GARDENS

TERRITORIAL SEEDS

WILD GARDEN SEEDS

BAKER CREEK HEIRLOOM SEEDS

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9 Jan 2009

GROWING GREENS YEAR ROUND!

Posted by rawutah. No Comments

 

We’ve been applying some information we read in a book called, “Four Season Harvest“ by Eliot Coleman. It’s full of interesting tips on how to successfully grow in any climate, in any season. He lives in Maine on the 44th parallel. He explains that his most recent book is based on the year round agricultural practices of French farmers, also living on the 44th parallel. He has studied their practices and mixed it with his own work! The result is this insightful book on growing food year round! He says that if he can eat great salad in Maine year round, then anywhere to the south of Maine can also!

 

He shares tips like what crops grow naturally in cold temperatures, crops like: mache, arugula, claytonia, and minutina. All which grow very well and naturally in winter. He explains that even with greenhouse or tunnel covered crops, it’s more natural to work with nature and plant cold hardy crops that enjoy the cold and even increase in flavor as the temperature drops!

Looking down at the tunnel


Venting the tunnel

We’re re-creating something similar to what happens in nature when we put a cover, like plastic, glass or polycarbonate over our garden.
For example:  French peasants, at one time, foraged for greens all winter long, by going out into the forest and looking under brush and logs, because they realized cold hardy greens, would often be growing under fresh fallen snow!
The greens continued to photosynthesize under the blanket of snow!
This is now re-created through modern innovations like greenhouses, cold frames and low or high covered plastic tunnels.
Another great insight I enjoyed from the book was, in a greenhouse, he says, instead of heating it, just cover your veggie beds with a plastic sheet or floating row cover cloth, supported by arched wire frames. This creates a secondary temperature barrier against the cold. This “twice tempered climate” becomes what he calls a “protected microclimate.”
It makes year round growing affordable in greenhouses, especially if you’re not trying to grow tropicals. Just stick to the leafy greens that love the cold!

 

The picture above is, Collard, Kale and Chard. All grown under a plastic tunnel, in highly mineralized soil, supplemented with local rock dusts, such as volcanic cinders and Azomite, written about in “Secrets of the Soil.” The Azomite deposit is found here, in Utah. We also used ocean water – from growgreens.com !!

The condensation created inside the tunnel evaporates up hits the plastic, dripping back down as moisture for the plants, the additional mulch around the plants retains most of this moisture! I haven’t needed to water most of the winter!

As I mentioned earlier, you can use plant cover cloth, like Agribon, which adds an additional layer of protection. Also, the plants can breathe through it, keep warm, keep protected from insects and wind, and the plants actually push the Agribon up as they grow!

 



Viola – Pansy (edible) – for the salad….and to attract beneficial insects. They’re beautiful too!

If you don’t have a greenhouse, or a plastic tunnel, he shares that a different method the French have historically used is: cold frames.

There is a whole chapter in the book dedicated to these old methods of growing food in winter. Which can be manually vented by the grower everyday, or, you can install an automatic window vent. The venting is created as the bees wax filled cylinder heats up, then through pressure, it forces the tube open. Brilliant!

This is also how the dome greenhouse vents itself! The history behind these vents is worth checking out as well!

Since the advent of plastic, French farmers have been using a method which creates “low tunnels” of plastic, supported by PVC pipe or wire, under which plants thrive! “Four Season Harvest” by Elliot Coleman, has definitely helped us extend our grow operation, by helping us with alternative methods of growing greens through winter!

Here’s to the GREEN SMOOTHIES!

We hope to have 4 tunnels by next winter! Supplying our GREEN SMOOTHIE habit!! The dome is only so big inside, and we want to stop buying greens from the grocery store!

This book was amazing!

We fully recommend it to anyone wanting to grow through the winter and just grow period! It’s full of techniques for composting, root cellars, regular-season growing and on and on!!!

Check it out!

 

lady bugs in winter?

 

Happy little plants in here….and lady bugs!

Eat home – grown leafy greens year round!!!!

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5 Nov 2008

GETTING BETTER!

Posted by rawutah. No Comments

GROW YOUR OWN FOOD!!!

FOOD CRISIS! SICKNESS! DEPRESSION! SOLUTION…………? One solution may be growing food with OHANA! Meaning family in the Hawaiian language. This blog is about family…in all it’s forms and the nutritional and spiritual holocaust we’re seemingly just emerging from.
Well, after years and years of illness and just feeling sick……..and being sick and tired of being sick and tired……we’re ready for something different! It’s time for CHANGE! Can we be painless and free of ill health as an individual and a family…….even a planetary family??? It just may be possible…….in fact…….it’s feeling more like it everyday…….this is our experience so far. I’ve personally been sick for well over a decade…..no more!!!! This is an attempt to take personal power back and reclaim the synergy of family and community near and far!! Our intention is to share the excitement and exploration of all these things, RAW LIVING FOOD, Bio-dynamic GARDENING, GREENHOUSES, green foods, SPRING WATER, super-outdoor ADVENTURES, …….and…….having no way as way and no limitation as limitation!!!!
Jake

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