Category: Growing organic

whats growing

By September the large tomatoes have passed their prime, tho the small varieties - Juliet, Black Cherry (our favorite), Jelly Bean, Sweet Cherry - are still producing. The Juliet is a hybrid and also grows well and tastes good. The burgundy okra is producing well - the smaller okra can be eaten raw off the plant, the oversized are tough and the covering is stringy even after grilling (we grill rather than fry) and the transition from small to oversized happens within a few days, so Read more [...]

2 good books, water sustainability, okra & butterfly season

I never used to read science fiction.  But technology and sustainability hold my attention and I read good futuristic books on these topics.  "Ghost Fleet" a technothriller on the next world war portends problems with technology and is well researched with extensive footnotes.  Now I have completed my interactive Python programming course with Rice University via Coursera, I have begun my next read, the Water Knife about a water starved west beset with dust clouds and violence.  Both are excellent Read more [...]

3 sisters, a new brush, problem = solution, food from the garden

3 sisters 3 sisters refers to the practice of growing corn, climbing beans and squash closely together with the corn providing scaffolding for the beans, the beans providing nitrogen fixing and their hairy stems dissuading insects, and the squash shading out weeds and enabling water retention by the soil.  My 3 sisters appear to be doing ok, though I now realize some fine tuning is needed for next year. You can see the beans wrapping round the stalks. But is the corn handy scaffolding, Read more [...]

what’s growing

An unending bonanza of tomatoes. The small one are more intensively flavored with black cherry (the round dark ones) leading the way.  So far very little pest pressure,  My recollection is the stink bugs and other tomato lovers proliferate toward the end of the season. Basil are growing strongly and in the pic below you can see watermelon vines spreading in all directions and burgundy okra which have some weeks to go. I again planted my peppers late (the first batch were freeze Read more [...]

a walk round the yard

The week of rains around July 4 really helped me out.  My rainwater tanks with capacity of 6,000 gals were empty and I was planning to pump from a disused well, when the rains arrived.  Solid drenching rains and my tanks are full. The Rose of Sharon hibiscus is in flower again - it must produce prolific pollen since all types of insects visit it, though the most industrious as usual are the bumblebee.  I was sorry to read that raised temps are adversely affecting them. Between Read more [...]

breakfast and garlic harvest

Breakfast this morning (Father's Day) was a simple affair.  We wandered to the top of the hill and picked a couple containers of blueberries and blackberries. The other ingredients were steel cut oats (pressure cooked 7 mins), flax for omega 3 fats, soy milk and a spoon of my own honey. And it tasted good and was filling. Also this morning, early, I finished harvesting my garlic.  May have left it a bit late since some of the stalks had detached and there are now garlic cloves Read more [...]

early summer activity

It's been a good April and May - frequent rain showers to minimize hose watering and keep my +6,000 gal storage tanks fully topped.  Lettuce, onions and garlic have grown well though the lettuce is now bolting.  My lettuce, kale, chard and turnip greens taste real, they have a flavor missing from store bought greens, a lot of which are raised in greenhouses or insect free conditions.   Now I am wondering if there is some advantage to eating kale, chard and turnip greens on which insects previously Read more [...]

2 simple lessons learned – garlic and the chicken coop

I first planted garlic in fall 2010 - 4 varieties 1) organic California Early White – softneck ($4.99 lb); 2) Elephant garlic – very mild like a leek ($4.99 lb);  3) organic Music Garlic – hardneck  ($12,99 lb.) – the only reason I bought this more expensive variety is because my family is into music; 4) organic Dujansky  – hardneck ($9.99 lb).   They grew well, I harvested them and each fall I planted out the cloves for the next year's harvest.  In fall 2014 I must have planted out Read more [...]

the beautiful and the ugly

This time of year we have at our feeder the residents (northern red cardinal, blue jay, mourning dove, chipping sparrow, indigo bunting, tufted titmouse, and our state bird the brown thrasher which has as many calls as a mockingbird) and the visitors (dark eyed junko, white breasted sparrow).  And this year a striking new visitor - the rose breasted grosbeak. I count the grosbeak and buntings among the beautiful. Next to the chicken coop is a mulberry I planted some 4 years ago and, tho Read more [...]

spring activity and some lessons learned

The garden is beginning to respond to spring.  Interestingly my diary (postings on this website) indicate activity is about 2 weeks behind where it was in 2012 - see my post on March 26, 2012 where growing was further advanced.  Attributable of course to the unusually cold periods in February and March. Last year I cultivated a strip between my apple trees for corn.  Not very successful but in the fall I seeded with turnip and clover and winter pea and it is thriving now. I am learning Read more [...]