Technorati Tags: Organic Vegetable Gardening, vegetable gardening, victory gardens

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When this Bradford Pear was planted in the 70s (?) it had plenty of room. Now it’s almost outgrown it’s tiny square of soil, making it difficult to water. Since it’s planted next to our sloped driveway it’s basically only getting water from the soaker hose on the other side.

Frankly, it looks kind of sickly. Now maybe it’s just the fact that it’s an older Bradford Pear. Bradford Pears have some problems, such as weak branches that break easily in stormy weather. Our tree, in fact, has a broken branch hanging off of it right now. We need to figure out how to get it down without hurting ourselves or the tree or just hire an arborist.

Below is my roommate Kym, attempting doing surgery on the japanese maple in our back patio. For some reason a previous resident of Aurora house tied a piece of thick black plastic rope around the trunk of this little tree. If you look closely you can see that the tree trunk had started to grow around the rope.

I have seen trees grow to incorporate lots of foreign materials, but this situation is dangerous for the tree because if the tree trunk became completely girdled, the rope could cut the tree’s circulation systems, making it impossible for the tree to pass nutrients and water back and forth from its roots and branches. I’m hoping that by cutting off the rope we have saved this little tree, although we couldn’t fully remove the rope since the tree had already grown over most of it.

I’m not sure if the damage to it’s canopy was caused by the rope. It might be sun burn or frost damage. Most of the tree is sheltered by the walls of the house. I’m going to try to get up there and cut out the damaged areas before I leave in the fall.

Technorati Tags: gardening, japanese maple, patio, tree care, trees

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For now, here’s a picture of some Lantana in the front yard of my summer home. Mostly the garden here is a mess, but despite the neglect the Lantana is doing beautifully. Gardening snobs might not be fans of Lantana because it is so ubiquitous in this part of the country, but it’s the kind of plant that can make anyone feel like a successful gardener. It’s a great groundcover or perennial for places you don’t want to spend that much time on. Lantana does well in summer or part shade and tolerates forgetful watering. In some parts of the country it can become invasive, but I have never seen it cause a problem here in California.

Since I’m only here for another six or eight weeks I have a limited amount of time to get the garden here straightened out. Luckily my roommates have both expressed an interested in learning more gardening, so expect to see more posts in the coming weeks as I attempt to get them started.

Technorati Tags: easy, gardening, gardens, lantana, low maintenance, Organic Flowers

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A similar company is now getting started in the San Francisco Bay Area. MyFarm provides vegetable gardens to residents in San Francisco and the East Bay. They were recently featured in the SF Chronicle.

While I think these companies are providing a great service for those who really aren’t interested in learning to garden for themselves, I think it’s too bad that more people can’t make the time to learn some gardening basics. I realize that there are lots of folks out there with more money than time, but growing your own food can be a great pleasure and isn’t as difficult as people make it out to be. It wasn’t that long ago that most families in this country were farm families and grew the majority of their food themselves. All it takes is slowing down and taking the time each day to observe your garden, noticing changes and taking action. I love to watch my garden grow. Taking the time to notice changes in your plants slows down your persective and tunes you in to the wider world, the weather, the cycles of the moon, and what insects are flying or crawling around your little plot of land. Having a garden is so much more than simply getting fresh organic produce, although some fresh, sweet strawberries might be the catalyst that gets your butt into gear.

Technorati Tags: backyard farm, gardening, gardens, growing vegetables, organic, Organic Vegetable Gardening

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“Bark dust — the landscaper’s finish coat — is now selling for roughly $232 per unit (which is 7.4 yards, or about two and a half pickup loads), up 62 percent from last spring.

Bark, a byproduct of lumber milling, is in short supply because of the dramatic housing slump. Reduced demand for lumber translates to idle mills and less bark.”

Luckily there are lots of cheap alternative to buying bark. In Sacramento SMUD, the local power company collects all the trimmings from their work keeping power lines safe and supplies gardeners with free wood chips.

Even if your city doesn’t produce anything similar you can call local tree trimmers and ask them if they have an extra load wood chips they would like to get rid of. Often it cost them to get rid of the stuff so you are doing them a favor. You might think you don’t need an entire truck load of wood chips, but a thick layer of mulch is the best thing you can do for your garden. It keeps your soil cool and moist during these long Western summers.

Compost, either homemade or municipal is another great alternative. Davis, my home town offers free compost, made from local green waste twice a year. Residents have to shovel and transport the stuff back to their own gardens, but with a little planning local gardeners are able to get a few large bags or a trunk full each April and October.

If you live in San Francisco, then you can participate in their groundbreaking municipal composting program. Residents and restaurants compost food and yard waste and it all gets processed in a huge facility near Vacaville. The resulting compost can only be bought from Jepson Prairie Organics if you are a wholesaler. Technorati Tags: gardening, gardens, composting, compost

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Amaranth is an easy to grow summer annual. In fact, in many parts of the country members of the genus grow as weeds as the name “pig weed” indicates. I wouldn’t recommend trying to grow it to harvest the seeds unless you have an exceptionally large garden, but the greens and flowers could both be pleasant additions to the home garden.

Technorati Tags: greens, Organic Flowers, Organic Vegetable Gardening

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photo credit: Dan4th

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photo credit: denn

Ever since my Permaculture training, I have been interested in growing mushrooms at home. Amy provides a nice set of pictures that show how to get started:Heavy Petal: Growing shiitake mushrooms if you want to grow mushrooms outside in your garden or yard. If you have the right kind of hardwood on your property all you need is a drill, some wax, and some mushroom plugs (wooden dowels with mushrooms spores growing in them.) It takes 6-12 months for the mushrooms to grow and spread throughout the entire log and during that time you need to make sure the logs stay damp, either through rainfall or regular watering. If you don’t want to wait that long, you can buy this shitake mushroom log. It comes all set up and “aged” so that you can grow your own fresh Shitake mushrooms in just a few weeks.

You can also grow mushrooms inside. The best techniques depend on your situation and the type of mushrooms you want to grow. Depending on the type mushrooms will grow in wood shavings, coffee grounds, and even damp strips of newspaper. Growing mushrooms at home isn’t difficult, but it requires some precision and some patience, like brewing. You need to make sure that the edible mushroom spores you buy are the only thing growing in your substrate, which means you need to make sure everything is sterile. You can buy the spores and setup the sterile grow bags yourself, or you can buy a premade mushroom growing kit.

The ultimate place to go for all things fungal is Fungi Perfecti, founded by Paul Stamets, mushroom growing guru. He literally wrote the book on mushroom growing.  If you are serious about growing mushrooms at home, you should buy his book, the book on growing mushrooms: Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms.

Technorati Tags: fungi, growing edible mushrooms, growing fungi, growing mushrooms, mushrooms

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