The neighbor is back on my "compost" list

You know, "compost happens." But it doesn't have to happen due to someones purposeful bad Intel. Remember my naughty neighbor? She's struck again. For those of you in the Sacramento area, you know how hot it was this weekend. I knew that Sunday was going to be too hot for any real garden work so I came out to the garden late on Saturday night (about 8:30 p.m.) to check on things, give everything a good soak in preparation of the 102 degree day to come and pull some weeds. You know who came up to the fence to say hello. Or so I thought she just came by to say hello. While pointing at my pumpkins she said, "You know, I've been watching your garden. What are those?" "They are really big! And I can't hardly see your corn anymore. I've been watching the corn and I have to tell you that you have suckers growing on them that you need to trim off." Oh is that so... "You need to cut those off because my corn is much farther along than yours and I already had suckers that went to seed and that means that I won't be getting any corn. You need to cut those off right now!"

I just shined her on and told her how great it was for her to tell me that but I was running an experiment on that exact subject and that I was going to let them go. She gave me the craziest look and then walked away.

Now, I can tell you that you should NOT cut off the suckers. After she told me this I quickly looked it up and everywhere I've read, it said specifically not to or that the removal of suckers had no benefit.

Remember that most of us are happy to share tricks and we want to nurture each other's green thumb but always check scholarly documents or books before acting on something that doesn't sound quite right. Some may give you misguided information accidentally.


Daphne

Wild Pumpkins and Roses

Crazy pumpkin plants are taking over. The leaves are probably 2 feet in diameter.

This post is kind of a cheat because I wrote this last week and apparently forgot to post it. It is a week old but it's new to you, right? I'll have some neighbor sabotage gossip for you in my next post.

06/21/10
Since my last post, I’ve been foraging once more, had an eight hour beekeeping class and celebrated Father’s Day by hacking the crap out of a rosebush. What a way to get out some aggression however, it does bite back.

The second foraging adventure was dedicated to collecting more river grape leaves because I figured later in the season the leaves will be tough and I only want the succulent and tender light green ones. Then I decided collect the available green walnuts to make nocino. So far I have bags of these things in my refrigerator but tonight I’ll start processing everything I’ve harvested. Tonight will be dedicated to preserving the grape leaves and making elderflower syrup.

The garden is at that “pretty” phase where everything thing is growing in nicely but things aren’t so big and crazy that they look wild. There are nice punctuated paths between all of the plants and the rich dark soil that we brought in really contrasts nicely against the bright green new foliage and vibrant orange of the marigolds. I picked two handfuls of green beans, a few zucchinis, chard, beet greens and herbs to cook with this weekend. I caught some ducks meandering around in the garden and I noticed that they don’t have a care in the world about the plants that they step on with their webbed toes. I witnessed them smashing all kinds of things. And then they started rooting around like little pigs in the mud. I’m starting to really wish I would have made that fence now but I suppose the ducks offer a bit of pest control.


The bee class was amazing. One thing that I’m so thankful and lucky for is that we have the top bee researchers in the world so readily available and close to us and I’ve found them to be extremely accessible. For Father’s Day, my dad wanted to take this intermediate beekeeping class and I’m really glad that we did. The class was taught by a top researcher and I learned things that I don’t think I could read in a book. I felt better about allowing my eggplants and tomatillos to get eaten based on one of the things that he discussed. He talked about neonicotinoids which are a type of systemic pest control. These are the things that you would put on the back of your dog or cat’s neck to control fleas – these are also the same product that you would see on the front (for example) of a garden fertilizer/pest control product that says, “No pests for 6 months!” or something like that. It’s true but you won’t have any bees or other beneficial insects either. This is because the bees collect the pollen and if it doesn’t kill them, it most certainly kills the brood – if you don’t really care about that then you might care that this means the wax, pollen and propolis has the pesticide in it. The researcher didn’t have any sad feelings about this except for the fact that you can’t sell honey on the comb as “organic.” I didn’t get the feeling that he was a warm and fuzzy but he taught me the things that I needed to know to extrapolate my own feelings on things. So my feeling was that if you kill off all of the friends of the garden, then you will have to use more and more of these pesticides to take care the bad bugs. And like I’ve said in a previous post, you need to be careful about your organic controls too – some of them are very powerful and should be treated with care.


A sad but heartwarming story the researcher shared was another example of bee teamwork. Say a bee colony decided to build their new home inside the wall of your house and in an effort to stop this from happening, you place screen over the hole that they came in thus trapping the bees inside the wall and leaving some of the foragers outside. The foragers know that the bees in the inside can’t go on with out water so they will collect water and bring it back to offload through the screen to one of the workers trapped inside. The researcher didn’t mean anything by the story except for the fact that you really need to get the bees out of the wall because they can sustain themselves for a quite a while and then when they die in there they will stink. I took it a little bit differently. They are truly amazing creatures. I realize they are just “bugs” and I’m not trying to anthropomorphize but because I’ve taken the time to learn about them and adopt them as my pets, they’ve made me wonder what types of interesting things there are to learn about other, less-studied insects and animals. I suppose it’s made me think that most things, if not everything has a purpose and that everything has a “family” that cares about them…except for mosquitoes, I’m unclear on their purpose.

That's my dad holding a almost complete and capped frame of honey.

After getting pumped up in the class on Saturday, we went into the hive and took it all apart. No gloves and no stings –whew. I have all kinds of information on bee stings but I doubt there is any interest here. If there is, let me know. Anyway, all that I know is that my bees are nasty little women with quite a temper and it looks like they are trying to replace their queen based on the presence of supersedure cells located on the frames. That’s OK by me but I’d really like to replace the queen with a store bought one. Store bought queens have been bred for mild temperament and superior egg-laying patterns, etc. If my bees supersede themselves, the queen that they get will have the same genetics as my current queen because it will be her egg. Therefore the offspring will continue to be hot tempered. On a good note, the honey super is starting to get filled! We took out a few frames of pure capped honey.


The Father’s Day destruction of the rosebush was for its own good. I planted the rose from a start I took from my grandma’s plant when I was 13 or 14. It is a smallish blossomed light pink, climbing, vintage rose with a lovely fragrance. Since it was my project and I was allowed to let it grow on the fence, it was my job to keep it pruned and healthy. I loved taking care of that thing. When I grew up moved away many years ago I suppose that is when it was last cared for and it showed. The bush was huge and kind of growing wherever it pleased and it needed to be a gown up shrub that showed a sense of controlled maturity. Most of the branches were dead and left there woven through the fence like skeletons from the past. Some of them I even remembered weaving and winding through the no-climb fence and barbed wire. I hacked the heck out of it and got it back under control. It now needs to fill with some new shoots and foliage a bit and there is plenty of room for growth and a sturdy foundation of a mature woody trunk but I left no skeletons behind.

Daphne

The Bounty in My Paper Bag

 
To me summertime means relaxing evening strolls, getting together with friends and family and riding around town on my bike. Throw in a little adventure and that’s exactly what I got tonight. It was a very sensory experience -- sweet smells of flowers and fruit, earthy smells of dried grass and soil, savory and spicy tastes, softness of leaves, pricks from thorns, reaching and pedaling and walking, the sound of creatures munching on seeds, cool blue water gliding swiftly and steadily, the warm sun on my shoulders and the cottonwood’s cotton floating across my arms.

Based on my previous post, you know and I can admit that I have been irrationally obsessing about elderberries. These things have lead me down a road to a cornucopia of crazy thoughts. I’m almost willing to think I’ve been in a trance of unusual edible river plants. Say that three times fast. Thank goodness I have partners in crime willing to entertain my -- lets say -- creative ideas. My goal was to collect elderberry blossoms, elderberries if possible, wild river grape leaves, scout for blackberry bushes and walnut trees. We did it! I have three bags full of bounty and found even found a wildflower patch, some date palms, fig trees and wild fennel for next time. And for me, I found so much more. I found a new side to my city and my creativity.

You may ask, what does this have to do with gardening? I think it has a lot to do with it -- paying attention to what is going on around you is a necessary tool for a gardener. This is why my garden went in the ground “late” and my neighbors’ garden is dead but went in “on time.” And as long as your purpose for gardening is to provide healthful food to you and yours, foraging is a perfectly acceptable gardening adventure. You still need to have your home garden but why not supplement it if you have rich surroundings full of edible things that grow naturally. Plus you don’t have to use up precious space in your yard for things that already exist and are up for the taking. I also take the time to observe insects, the conditions of plants, what is blossoming, fruiting, leafing out, dying and I visually check the soil type. In a way this is adding to my education and I believe will help me as a gardener.

While we were out pedaling around I noticed that the places we were finding food were also the places that I found an abundance or wild animals. There were quail, a mother turkey with her poults, an owl, many many voles, and I saw the scat of maybe a mountain lion. This sounds like we put a lot more pedaling power in than we actually did. The fact is that we didn’t ride more than three miles from my apartment. It’s pretty ridiculous to think that we were able to find all of this so close to the metropolis. It just goes to show that if you take the

time to take a focused look, you can see where you live, where you walk, where you work everyday in a whole different way. It’s pretty neat I think.

So, what am I going to do with my loot? I’m going to make the strawberry and elderberry jam tarts just as I said I would and I’m going to preserve the wild grape leaves to make dolmades. For me it’s mostly the experience of searching and finding. While I was collecting these things it so reminded me of when I was a kid and how we would mix alfalfa pellets with our chickens eggs and mix in daisy petals and probably some type of poisonous berry. We would make patties and dry them in the sun. It was just fun to find things that seemed edible and mix them together. We would never eat them but it was the adventure of the pretend and it felt magical to us. To me, this was a similar experience but it wasn’t pretend and I’ll actually use these things to make something delicious.

It seemed that with the swish of a wand we were dumped back into the city. It was actually more like a “weeeeeeeeeee” on our bicycles down the side of the levy that brought us back but I was still living in a magical childhood moment at the time. By the time we rode back to my neighborhood I felt like my city -- the one that I know like the back of my hand -- had transformed into something that I wasn't familiar with. I actually took my camera out and took a picture of my "front yard," something (that tourists take pictures of all the time) that I take for granted. As I took the picture I got smirks from people that probably thought I was a cheesy tourist but I didn’t care.

Go out and find your local bounty and see your town, city or pastures in a whole new light - I think you’ll find that you won’t have to go far.

Disclaimer: Of course always make sure that you are not taking anything that is a protected species or something that is located in a preservation site or revegetation area. Always leave plenty of goodies for the creatures that depend on it as their food source and enough for the plant to reseed or return in the coming year - simply choose to be smart and ethical about it.

Daphne

Elderberry Quest

I am on an elderberry quest! These elderberries have been making random repeat appearances in my life for the past few months. The first time they really sunk in my head was about six months ago when I was watching an episode of “Gourmet’s Adventures with Ruth” on my local PBS station. She was on location at a sustainable farm in the Smokey Mountains – it was such a neat show. They had the most beautiful gardens and which collectively made up their farm. Not only did they cultivate crops but they would forage in the surrounding forests for things to enhance their crops and preserves. One of the things that really stood out to me was an elderberry tree. They didn’t pick the berries but they picked the lacey butter cream colored flowers. Based on their expressions, the blossoms smelled heavenly. They took the blossoms and included them in their fresh made strawberry preserves and then made tarts. I wanted to taste them so badly!

Time went on and I left that thought on a dusty bookshelf in the back of my brain. Then one day months later, I read about a lemon grass and elderberry infused ice cream. That sounded really good too but where on earth can I find these little devils?

This past weekend was the kicker. While on a tour of a bee pollination garden (THE Haagen-Dazs bee pollination garden at UC Davis), I stumbled upon a shrub and asked the docent what type of shrub it was. He quickly said, “An elderberry.” WHAT!!! It did smell good. I wanted to dig it up right then and there and take it home with me. My better judgment insisted that instead of sitting in a jail cell with my Elderberry plant I should to go on a quest and find my own or at least my own to visit and pick from.

Amazingly enough, a quick Google search informed me that they grow all over the place in my town but near the rivers. There is one thing that I have an abundant access to and that is various rivers. I am literally surrounded by them and within a five minute bicycle ride I can be at one or the other. Tomorrow is the night that I will go on a hunt.

In the meantime, if you know of any elderberry secrets, recipes or if you have a personal story, I’d love to hear them.

More on the elderberry quest later,

Daphne

Squash Bugs

Last night I found some mating bugs on my zucchini plants. They were pretty unsavory looking creatures so I grabbed them and squished them with my spade. Recently, I've had a hard time killing bugs because I felt sorry for them but for some reason I instinctively smashed them without giving it a second thought.

This morning after further discussion with one of my colleagues and fellow gardening friend, we've realized that what I saw was most likely a squash bug. Makes perfect sense as to why I saw them on my zucchinis.

  

Luckily, I killed them while they were mating so I've stopped them in their procreating tracks (though I'm sure there are more). This week I'll be on operation kill squash bugs. I read that the best way to handle them is to pick them off individually and place them in a soapy bucket of water. As for the eggs (which are laid on the underside of all cucurbit plants (squash, cucumbers, melons, etc.), they need to be smashed so that will take time to check and take care of on a leaf by leaf basis.

Keep watch for these little nasties.

Daphne

All it Takes is a Day Sometimes

First Crookneck Squash

All of yesterday’s drama in the city have made things quiet tonight -- and boy do I need the peace and quiet more than ever. After a horrendous week of needless beekeeper association havoc and a weekend full of activity and hard work, I couldn’t be more happy to just sit down at my computer, pet Charlee and put on an old Sex and the City DVD and enjoy the quiet city outside my open windows. I suppose my choices of relaxation tonight are a complete diversion of what my life has been like recently. Sometimes people just try to make things more exciting because they don’t have enough going on. I have to remind myself of that. I won’t get into the details but basically, there are too many people that don’t have enough to do. All I want to focus on are my bees and my garden and friends and family. Unfortunately, my new role as VP is leaving most of it out in the cold but I dedicated a full day to my garden today and I’m feeling much better about things. I’ve gained a sunburn and regained my perspective -- all it takes is a day sometimes.

The garden continues to grow and so does my faith in it actually producing something. I ate a green bean today! It’s fun to think back to the days when they were growing in my apartment. It’s amazing how quickly they are growing now that the days have grown very warm. The nay saying neighbor actually said that the garden was looking very nice and growing quickly. Whew. All is good in the neighborhood.

I was on a weed pulling tirade today. The weeds are very tiny because I’ve been keeping up on it but I went through and hand pulled most. Then went back an hour later and went through with the same vigor. Then another hour later I went out there with a spade and hacked all around the edges trying to get all of the beloved Bermuda Grass out. Then this evening around 8 p.m. I went out again for a final walk-through. I would like to report that there is not a single weed in my garden now. I know that next week will require a full day’s work to keep it in the same shape but I think it will be worth avoiding the nightmares later.

I started staking up the tomato plants! I’m placing a stake on either side of the tomato row and then running twine around the stakes to somewhat encase the plants. It holds them up nice and straight and it takes up less room than tomato cages. Oh and it’s much cheaper too. I’m actually using tree branches that we’ve recently pruned as the stakes and an old kite string as the twine.

The fence project has come to a stop, I’ve realized that I like it fenceless for now. It’s really easy to weed and access everything. It might be a problem when the cottontails find the garden but I’ll have to address that when the time comes.


Here are some pictures from today.

Squash

Pumpkins, Corn and Beans

Sweet Potato

Potatoes, Peppers, Pole Beans and Tomatillos

Chard, Beets and Okra

When things don't go as planned, remember what a difference a day of soil under your nails can make.

Daphne

What I'm Willing to Sacrifice

Sunday was the first time in a long time that I felt hopeful about my garden. It seems that with one really warm week, everything is doubled in size and doing marvelous. I have one zucchini, one crookneck squash, one bell pepper and several green beans. None of which are ready to harvest but it’s still encouraging.

I gave a good soaking of fish emulsion solution again, pulled all the weeds and thinned out some of the seedlings that I didn’t expect to all come up. Things are looking good!

I have one problem however. All of my eggplant leaves are getting chewed down to look like Swiss cheese. I haven’t seen any culprits yet but I’ve searched online to find that it may be the work flea beetles. Apparently, flea beetles are the arch nemesis of eggplants.

I’m really dedicated to be as organic as I possibly can and if it means that I lose a crop, so be it. I don’t want to but it’s what I find to be important in my garden. I’ve spent a lot of time in the garden pulling weeds by hand and while I’ve sat their pulling weeds, I’ve observed a lot. And what I've realized, is I don't want to kill something unnecessarily just to save a couple of plants. I've planted enough and I have enough to share with these free-loader insects. Small tree frogs hop about and munch on various bugs and I would hate to sacrifice one for an eggplant. I’ve seen lots and lots of ladybugs. I have to put my trust in them to eat the aphids and to be honest, I haven’t seen any aphids on my plants but I have seen some on the weeds. I’ve seen various predatory wasps that I’m trusting to eat the eggs and larva of “bad bugs” and I’ve been overjoyed to see my bees in the garden. So far, they’ve been visiting my herb garden (which I put in specifically to attract them to the garden) and I’ve noticed some have decided to imprint on the soaker hoses. Imprinting means that the bees have chosen it as their water source.

I was a bit troubled and saddened when I went to OrganicGardening.com (which I’m very fond of) and saw that they were suggesting two organic solutions for flea beetles that are harmful to some beneficials, particularly honeybees. Two of the three are not OK by me and they are: Beauveria bassiana and spinosad. Beauveria bassiana is a fungus that kills the insect by not allowing nutrition absorption and then the fungus takes over the body and kills it. It is cautioned to not be applied where bees may forage and it is toxic to fish. Spinosad is interesting enough but it is a bacterium that attacks the insects’ nervous system – this one is highly toxic to bees and is moderately toxic to amphibians and birds.

However, to their credit, they suggested a kaolin clay dusting as a first resort. This is something that I’m totally fine with. I’m setting off to purchase it right now from Mountain Rose Herbs. For 1 lb. of it they are only charging $4.95 and it is something that can be used in my beauty case as well. They are a beauty and health site but I’m happy to find my garden solution from them!

I hope that I have leaves left to dust by the time the clay gets here. If you know of a retailer that has a physical storefront that sells it, please let me know.


Daphne

Herbed Duck with Frog Legs - Well Not Really

I’m a bit behind on documenting my gardening because I’ve just been dumped on by the beekeeper’s association. This is a lot of hard work! Just to give the gist of it, I am now working with our very energetic president and I’ve found myself caught in the middle of what appears to be a bunch of association politics and years of bad feelings. So far it’s going OK and I hope it improves as the dust settles.

As for the garden, it’s doing marvelous considering our wacky weather. This past weekend was a nice weekend to play a little catch-up on the plot. I spent a good while pulling tiny little weeds out. My mother spent a little time pulling tiny little seedlings out – oops. She felt bad and I was a bit sad. She was just trying to help and to her benefit, they did look like the weeds.

I went to the local garden center and picked up a few extra things just because I feel that our growing season is shrinking. For example, today is June 4 and it might rain. This is just unheard of. For that reason, I picked up three established tomato plants, a few eggplants and a whole lot of herbs. I was really excited to find Stevia at the center because I’ve always wanted to grow one and I forgot to purchase seeds for it a while back. I think it will make for pretty looking lemonade – put some of the fresh leaves at the bottom of a glass and crush them like you would for a mojito, squeeze fresh lemon juice, toss in some lemon slices and then add some chilled water. I think that would be great. I haven’t tried it but I think it would work! Oh and I bought some Lemon Balm too – hey I could throw some of those in there too.

Here are some pictures of the garden as it was this past weekend. I still need to make the fence and arbor but I have some of the base branches installed.

Sunflowers and cucumbers

Peppers

Various Squash

Herbs - many are so small you can't see them.

Tomatillos

Who ate my eggplant?

My first bell pepper.

My first green beens!

These are THE babies that I tormented over (tomatoes).

Potatoes!

Baby ducks were born this weekend. They are just so precious and darling. I ran over and gave the hen some rolled oats so that she could still nest but get something to eat. I also made a little puddle for them to play in. They had a great time. Here are a few pictures of the cuties - they grow up so fast.

And a random frog that I thought was cute:

I hope everyone's garden is growing with grandeur,

Daphne