Wednesday, May 22, 2013
I used to think that cross pollination could not possibly affect fruit flavor, just traits in seedlings from those fruits/crops. But now I have doubts for a few reasons....LOTS of reports of this from reputable farmers and gardeners around the world, plus the remarkable discoveries being made about RNA and plant evolution that I am trying to get my mind around and that REALLY challenge long held views about DNA. I feel like I may have seen it happen here with my Malva sylvestris seeds from my Denver garden. These RNA discoveries not only lend further credence to Punctuated Equilibrium Darwinian Evolution theory, but even the long discredited theory of evolution that preceded it. (I forget his name but a classic example was his proposal that giraffes got their long necks by reaching for leaves and passing that trait on IMMEDIATELY to their offspring). And there is growing evidence that the first forms of life here were based on RNA vs. DNA. I LOVE scientific inquiry when it is not bogged down by dogma or politics. This RNA research is both exciting and humbling to me as a man who sees himself as generally "science literate" !!!
I would like to scavenge/barter for used gates of any kind and sections of 4 foot tall picket fence, wood or PVC, to formalize and make stronger the anti-chicken fence surrounding my now nearly-complete food forest in the center of my back yard. I'll be checking Craig's List plus posting an ad there. They would need to be delivered since I have a Honda Accord. My hope is that someone nearby is upgrading their fence line and needs the old one taken away.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Allen Boatman and I have been friends for 7 years now I think, he ran a WONDERFUL horticulture rehab program at the Falkenburg Jail for 14 years...brilliant horticulturist, passionately Christian but not in-your-face, fun to hang out and converse with, all around nice guy.. I had the pleasure of a nice long visit from him Monday, got caught up on things, swapped seeds and plants, he saw the BIG changes taking place here, and was pleased that I have resumed breeding roses after a 2 year hiatus during which I considered the many negative changes in the roses world.....drought, bankruptcies of growers, even Weeks Roses and Jackson & Perkins Roses. He gave me OODLES of molokhiya seeds and what looks to easily be 200 seeds of Tamarillo, which I THINK I ate many of in Costa Rica in 1991 and 1994. I tried growing them here several years ago and failed, but that was long before I devised my home made Water Wise Container Gardens. I'm sharing with friends here and Mary Jo's Mom on Key Largo where they might stand a better chance. Based on what the attached article says, I wonder if they could actually cross pollinate with eggplants and ruin BOTH crops...plus hybrid seedlings could be truly bizarre!
Today my yard helper Paul and I buried that 55 gallon Water Wise Container Garden I drilled the side drainage holes in a few days ago in the northwest corner of my center food forest, filled the barrel hugelkultur style with dead tithonia stalks, old leaves and long dead pulled weeds, horse stall cleanings, cheap white clay cat litter, a few handfuls of trace elements, a few pounds of dolomite to insure a near neutral pH, and a little "Super Poop" from the stable grooming platform, then planted in it one of the Strawberry Guavas I bought from H.E.A.R.T.. Other then some annual veggies and Okinawa Purple Sweet potatoes from Andy Firk and the primary ground cover (likely edible peanuts from Publix) all the planting is done!!! Woo HOO! All this summer I will be adding leaves, chop and drop green branches and dead tithonia stalks to bury that formerly hot sugar sand (enriched by nearly a year of several Muscovy ducks pooping in there!) in a thick layer of sheet compost and humus formers. Paul buried in a fenced off sweet potato patch that 'Christmas' loquat Andy kindly gave me last year that has been thriving in a 7 gallon Water Wise Container Garden. That whole bed gets a deep soaking, then in goes dead tithonia branches, horse stall sweepings etc. all summer for the sweet potatoes to regrow up through. (they were buzzed down to the ground during the two weeks the chickens could get in there to eat the bidens and other weeds).
Monday, May 20, 2013
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