Indoor Garden

Right under the lights are two orange trees I started from seeds.  They came from my friend Janice’s cousins tree in Mandarin.  I heard after they sprouted that they were hard to sprout, but after pricing citrus trees I decided to try.  They took 2 months to sprout between wet paper towels.  They are about 5 inches tall now…

Finally.. A Garden Update

It’s been a hectic few months..new job..stuff going on…I started in January sproutin’ stuff in the kitchen…then all the new little plants grew under grow lights until about two weeks ago…when I put them all out front and they sprung up like crazy…  I have been picking cucumbers for about a week.

Last spring, when I built the 5 gallon grow buckets and started tomatoes, peppers and greens in them…  I noticed a tiny lettuce plant growing at one point, but ended up covering it up when I covered the dirt and top of bucket with plastic (to keep out pests and retain moisture). 

A month or so later I noticed it growing downward, from under the edge of the plastic.  I thought to myself that mother nature sure was tenacious.  Then this thing started growing upward…looking very Dr. Suessian.  At the end of fall I picked my last tomatoes and cleaned out all the grow buckets. 

Jump ahead to the coldest day we had, sometime in January, I think…and I looked out the window…after all it was 21 degrees outside.  Bear in mind that I live in Jacksonville, FL…so this is highly unusual…  But, in my flower bed that day…a tiny lettuce plant pooped out of the soil..  I was amazed..

then I learned about over-wintering seeds..  makes ‘em hardier…and they know just when to sprout out..  Amazing…Anyway, that’s it above…I haven’t eaten any yet… I just want it to go to seed…  It’s cool to watch how it grows…I have never given a thought to lettuce having flowers…I can’t wait to see ‘em.

Here’s the Stevia plant…one leaf in a cup of tea is perfectly sweet..  It was a slow starter, took 2 months to get to two inches high…but now it doing good…going to plant more..

Here’s my greens..I’ve been eating off of these plants since December..growing in my kitchen..now they are outdoors…they will keep me in greens until about November or so…I’ll start more in August…  I have beets and I eat the greens as much as I can, my faves. The other is Swiss Chard.

Cherry tomatoes…with Dill and Parsley growing under them..

And last …my bran d new little orange trees.  They took 3 months to sprout…I about gave up! 

Creating community is easier than you think.

From Good.Is

Is it just me or, is the modern urban neighborhood getting remarkably old-fashioned? In the Los Feliz (locals pronounce this los-FEE-liz) community of Los Angeles where I live, it feels like everything that was old is new (and smart) again. Things my grandparents in Kentucky have always done—checking in on neighbors, sharing a new crop of tomatoes—seem not so much folksy as generally just a good way to live, even if you are in the big city.

1.Turn your front yard into a farm.
Grass is an expensive, water-intensive waste of space. Rip out the sod and start a small front yard farm to produce food for your household and some of your favorite neighbors. Sounds daunting (or don’t have a yard)? Organize some other like-minded urban agrarians and transform a vacant lot into a community garden. You may even get a tax credit.

2. Make every Sunday a block party.
Sundays are lazy time, and the worldwide movement Ciclovia has taken advantage of our weekend sloth. “There’s less traffic on Sunday,” says Tim Joe Linton, one of the organizers of cicLAvia an initiative to bring the car free days to the car capital of the world. Aside from the obvious benefits of music and picnics in the street, letting the bikes take over can be a boon to the local economy. “Many local shops see their business double,” Linton says.

3. Throw a potluck with your neighbors.
All of them. This may mean inviting people you may not know, like, or otherwise find interesting, but that’s what makes this fun: everyone is invited. If you want to ,add some entertainment.

4. Install a bench in front of your house (and create other types of informal public spaces).
Temporary dog parks, hop scotch zones, and dumpster pools work too.

5. Say hi to your neighbors.
Now that one’s not so hard, is it?
Here’s to dynamic neighborhoods, smarter communities, and the treehouse making a comeback. How are you breathing life back into your neighborhood?

Cucumbers Have Sprouted! Finally, a Garden Update…

I’ve always liked cucumbers, not loved them..but enjoyed them.  Just not to the degree to which I love , say…tomatoes..or onions..  until this year.  As I have begun growing them, and making pickles…I have grown to love them. Mainly because they are such beautiful, delightful plants..to grow.  They pop right up out of the soil, quickly…looking robust and they just burst forth in growth immediately…and they are so beautiful…the delicate leaves and tiny vines that twist around everything are such a gorgeous shade of green.

Then there are the flowers. The sweetest yellowiest delicate little things, they just make me happy to look at them.  I grew them indoors last year, didn’t get much fruit…mainly because I didn’t get the hang of helping them pollinate..but I had hundreds of beautiful flowers in my living room! 

Then I sat a grow bucket on my front step…the plant loved it, it grew up a chain by my front door.  All I had to do was reach out and grab one or two. 

I used to think February was such a drab month, always overcast and cold…but now inside my house are seedlings popping out;  Beefsteak and Roma tomatoes, cucumbers, Swiss chard, beets, scallions, Stevia, lettuces red and green.  Outdoors the greens are recovering from the cold of a few weeks ago…

Gotta get these strawberries planted, I’m making growing bags out of burlap, like hanging shoe pocket things…will keep you posted…..

Growing Potatoes in a Container

Potatoes are not difficult to grow in the ground, they are much easier to grow in containers. And the most practical container for growing potatoes is a half-barrel container.

Make certain that any container that you use has drainage holes in the bottom. If not, drill four 1-inch holes. You will want to set your containers on bricks to elevate them and keep them from direct contact with the soil.

Next, purchase a good potting mix to use in your containers. To this potting mix add about one shovelful of premoistened peat moss to each 1 cubic foot bag of potting material and mix thoroughly. The peat moss provides the potatoes with the acidity they require. Initially you are going to fill each container only half full of the potting mix.

At this point I already have my potatoes sprouting; some sweet potatoes and some new potatoes, sprouted in the kitchen in water.

Fill your container a third full of potting mix-peat-compost mix.

Water the container two or three times a week during the entire growing period. Because of the drainage holes and the rapid draining nature of the peat mixture, overwatering will not be a problem. Let the hose run gently in the barrel until you can see water escaping from the drainage holes.

Try not to disturb the root system too much, and leave some of the small potatoes to mature to full size. When the plants turn yellow and start to dry up, the rest of the potatoes will have reached full size. Pull up the plants and remove the potatoes. Store your potatoes in a cool, dark place. While in storage, if they develop any green sections or sprouts, cut the sections off before cooking.

When the young potato plants emerge through the surface and are about 8 inches tall, fill the remainder of the barrel (partially burying the young plants) to within 3 inches of the top with the other half of the soil mixture.

The potato plants will grow to about 3 feet tall from the soil surface of the container. The container will soon fill with a network of underground stems, bearing many potatoes. When small blossoms appear on the plants, the tiny, tender new potatoes will be ready to harvest. Simply feel around in the container and pick some.

As the potatoes grow, add more soil and compost. After they reach
the top of the barrel, plant a couple of bush beans in each barrel. This
is a companion plant for potatoes. The beans protect the potatoes
against the Colorado potato beetle, and the potatoes protect the
beans against the Mexican bean beetle. Horseradish is also good for
the potato and distasteful to pests.   DO NOT co-plant with onions or
garlic.

As soon as the potatoes flower you will find little spuds in the soil.

Pee-Cycling

According to PopSci.com, researchers from Finland are claiming that tomatoes fertilized with urine show a four-fold increase in crop yields. And it doesn’t end there – the same tomatoes also showed higher beta-carotene than unfertilized ones, and much more protein than traditionally fertilized plants. A panel of (presumably unsqueamish) blind tasters also attested to the fact that the flavor was just as good too.

In a way it’s no surprise – studies have already shown that urine in the garden is a good thing, and Josh has given us some guidance on how to garden with pee. But a four-fold increase in fruits?! That’s huge.

And for those wondering why I’m mixing urine with charcoal – there’s some evidence to suggest that DIY biochar can help retain nutrients for longer, and it can also provide a habitat for important microorganisms. I’ll let you know if it works out for me.

Here’s how to fertilize with urine;

When you use urine fertilizer in your garden, make sure to use the urine as soon as you make it. Old urine won’t keep. It will go bad. Don’t apply the urine to the leaves of the plants. The urine needs to go in the soil around it.

If you find yourself, with too much urine, you can always put the urine on the compost pile. It’s the best compost activator there is!

If you have been reading my blog long, you know I use a sawdust toilet and use high heat composting to break it down.  You can read about that here;

Yellow is the New Green

Pee-Cycling

I use a sawdust toilet, and use this Tupperware pitcher for a urinal.  It is easy to use and then I empty it into the compost bin (it’s the best compost activator there is!)

Or you can get any flat (slim line) pitcher.  It fits easily under the sink, out of site.  I marked where I fill it to, then where an 1 to 8 ratio is when diluted with water…and water my inside and outside plants.

Here is a great site for learning more about all this;  Humanure Handbook

Read also Pee in the Shower, Save your Rivers