Friday, April 29, 2011
Grow Your Own Fresh Fruit Year Round 5-15-2011
The combination of our forgiving climate and the content of this class and detailed handout can enable you to slowly, affordably, convert your lawn and shrubs and trees into sources of fresh tropical fruits all year long. Grow your own for a fraction of the cost of pesticide-laden store bought fruit! The date of the class is May 15, from 11 AM until 1 PM and the cost is $20 per student. Call or check my blog for location. See you then! John 813 839 0881
Tightwad Gardening and Landscaping Techniques and Concepts
Tightwad Gardening and Landscaping 5-1-2011
Times are tough for lots of folks these days, plus many are trying to break their dependence on fiat currency, endless debt, store bought corporate-produced food, and soul-draining jobs. But if one is not careful, starting a food garden to “save money” can quickly result in a tomato that has $47 in hidden costs (just an exaggeration but you get my point). Plus one can spend a fortune on basic landscape and yard care supplies. But a lifetime of pathological frugality has taught me MANY ways to grow organic produce for VERY close to free, and to spruce up a tired landscape for next to nothing with free mulches and soil foods, plus low cost edgings, bird baths and more. I will use my back yard as a classroom to teach these tightwad techniques and ideas, plus I will have a handout listing many freebies to be had from our wasteful culture. My free range chickens may walk in and out of the “classroom”. I have some cool garden-related dumpster treasures to share too. I learned a lot of cool things during the 19 years I ran my organic landscaping business here and in Denver, "THE GARDEN DOCTOR". The class will be held here, 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611 (813 839 0881) on May 1 from 11 AM until 1 PM. To get you in the spirit of “tightwad gardening” I will have free seeds and horse poop. Please park along the south side of Paxton. The cost is $20 per student. This class should very quickly begin paying for itself many times over so you can pay down debt and save up for a rainy day AND end up with a lush and productive landscape and gardens.Happy Gardening! John Starnes
Times are tough for lots of folks these days, plus many are trying to break their dependence on fiat currency, endless debt, store bought corporate-produced food, and soul-draining jobs. But if one is not careful, starting a food garden to “save money” can quickly result in a tomato that has $47 in hidden costs (just an exaggeration but you get my point). Plus one can spend a fortune on basic landscape and yard care supplies. But a lifetime of pathological frugality has taught me MANY ways to grow organic produce for VERY close to free, and to spruce up a tired landscape for next to nothing with free mulches and soil foods, plus low cost edgings, bird baths and more. I will use my back yard as a classroom to teach these tightwad techniques and ideas, plus I will have a handout listing many freebies to be had from our wasteful culture. My free range chickens may walk in and out of the “classroom”. I have some cool garden-related dumpster treasures to share too. I learned a lot of cool things during the 19 years I ran my organic landscaping business here and in Denver, "THE GARDEN DOCTOR". The class will be held here, 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611 (813 839 0881) on May 1 from 11 AM until 1 PM. To get you in the spirit of “tightwad gardening” I will have free seeds and horse poop. Please park along the south side of Paxton. The cost is $20 per student. This class should very quickly begin paying for itself many times over so you can pay down debt and save up for a rainy day AND end up with a lush and productive landscape and gardens.Happy Gardening! John Starnes
Fermented Foods Making 101 5-28-2011
Fermented Foods Making 101 5-28-2011
Many folks are realizing the wide spectrum of health benefits of eating probiotic fermented foods, but that also they can be very pricey in the health food stores and grocery stores. Garden writer John Starnes (Fine Gardening, St. Pete Times, Florida Gardening) loves to grow and cook and prepare foods for friends and himself, and in this class will show easy very affordable ways to make your own kefir, natto, tempeh, kimchee, and cheese. There will be samples for tasting too. Be sure to bring a note pad and pen to write down the simple steps and ingredients, some of which can come from your own garden. The class will be held on May 28, from 11 AM until 1:30 PM, and the cost is $20 per student. The address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa 33611 813 839 0881 Please park along the south side of Paxton to spare the lawns of my neighbors on the north side. Thanks. Come hungry!
John
Many folks are realizing the wide spectrum of health benefits of eating probiotic fermented foods, but that also they can be very pricey in the health food stores and grocery stores. Garden writer John Starnes (Fine Gardening, St. Pete Times, Florida Gardening) loves to grow and cook and prepare foods for friends and himself, and in this class will show easy very affordable ways to make your own kefir, natto, tempeh, kimchee, and cheese. There will be samples for tasting too. Be sure to bring a note pad and pen to write down the simple steps and ingredients, some of which can come from your own garden. The class will be held on May 28, from 11 AM until 1:30 PM, and the cost is $20 per student. The address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa 33611 813 839 0881 Please park along the south side of Paxton to spare the lawns of my neighbors on the north side. Thanks. Come hungry!
John
Water Wise Container Gardening 5-22-2011
Hopefully, we are all making wise water use a central focus in our lives as Florida's population continues to boom. Water is scarce and expensive, so I've invented an alternative method of making home made container gardens that grows food and flower crops well with much less water, and that can be made for free to just $10. As a result, despite my yard being an urban farm, my June 2009 water use bill was just $1.35! Most months my water use bill is below $10 despite all the food and Old Roses I grow here. My March 2011 water bill was $3.84.
This class teaches you how to make your own from free recycled plastic containers, how to create a great soil mix for it, and easy ways to maintain and sustain yours using cheap and/or dumpster-dived supplies. This simple design avoids the problems that many have experienced with others often described as "self watering containers" and that can cost $100. You'll see several of mine in differing styles and stages of growth to help you decide what works best for you and your space and budget.
I love how they use VERY little water vs. my growing the same crops, including my beloved Old Roses, in my in-ground gardens. Growing food crops in this manner can also allow a gardener to avoid using Tampa's and St. Pete's reclaimed water that has caused severe difficulties for many folks due to the very high levels of salts and chlorides. Plus one is not supposed to eat raw veggies grown with reclaimed water, which rules out growing fresh salads and herbs from one's own garden!
Special attention will be paid to the very common problem of nitrogen deficiency often encountered in container gardening whether one makes one's own soil as I do, or purchases it in bulk or bagged.
You will get two packs of very hard to get vegetable seeds that will thrive all summer long in your Water Wise Container Gardens. The cost of the class is $20 per person. This class has been very well received, so I am teaching it again on April 24th, from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute Q & A session following.
My address is 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611. Phone is 813 839 0881 RSVP is not required but helpful in my planning each class. Come learn how to grow your own organic produce for a fraction of what you pay in the stores while slashing your water use and bill and avoiding the toxic-to-plants reclaimed water.
Happy Gardening! John Starnes
This class teaches you how to make your own from free recycled plastic containers, how to create a great soil mix for it, and easy ways to maintain and sustain yours using cheap and/or dumpster-dived supplies. This simple design avoids the problems that many have experienced with others often described as "self watering containers" and that can cost $100. You'll see several of mine in differing styles and stages of growth to help you decide what works best for you and your space and budget.
I love how they use VERY little water vs. my growing the same crops, including my beloved Old Roses, in my in-ground gardens. Growing food crops in this manner can also allow a gardener to avoid using Tampa's and St. Pete's reclaimed water that has caused severe difficulties for many folks due to the very high levels of salts and chlorides. Plus one is not supposed to eat raw veggies grown with reclaimed water, which rules out growing fresh salads and herbs from one's own garden!
Special attention will be paid to the very common problem of nitrogen deficiency often encountered in container gardening whether one makes one's own soil as I do, or purchases it in bulk or bagged.
You will get two packs of very hard to get vegetable seeds that will thrive all summer long in your Water Wise Container Gardens. The cost of the class is $20 per person. This class has been very well received, so I am teaching it again on April 24th, from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute Q & A session following.
My address is 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611. Phone is 813 839 0881 RSVP is not required but helpful in my planning each class. Come learn how to grow your own organic produce for a fraction of what you pay in the stores while slashing your water use and bill and avoiding the toxic-to-plants reclaimed water.
Happy Gardening! John Starnes
Urban Farming: Where To Start 5-14-2011
No longer seen as "just for hippies", urban farming is being recognized as a way to achieve greater financial and food security by transforming our yards into something that gives instead of takes. Why grow a demanding lawn and boring shrubs when the same areas can provide your family fresh, pesticide-free food? Your handout will address 15 basic concepts and techniques for achieving ever-increasing self sufficiency. Note: this is NOT a garden class but a way of life class that involves gardening. The class will be taught on May 14, from 11 AM until 1 PM. My address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa FL 33611 Call 813 839 0881 to confirm attendance or ask questions. See you then, John
Growing Food, Cultivating Joy and Harvesting Freedom 5-21-2011
Growing and raising much of your own food can free you from an unsatisfying job and addiction to the New Serfdom of endless debt as a "consumer". You will get two handouts with 30 key techniques, attitude shifts, and resources that can allow us to discover what we REALLY want out of life, how to live frugally, and ways to shed old, restrictive habits and replace them with pleasurable, expansive ones to create a self-perpetuating positive feedback loop of habitual joy and gratitude. People say my trippy livingroom exemplifies "thinking outside of the box that the box came in" so most of the class will be held in there after we tour my urban farm. I feel that happiness is a choice we can make daily, and that we can create our lives vs. them just happening to us, with productive gardening as the key. This class will be taught again on May 21, from 11 AM until 1 PM here at 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa, FL 33611 813 839 0881 to RSVP. Please park on the south side of Paxton. The cost is $20 per student. Each student will receive 1 free packet of easy-to-grow seeds with instructions on their culture and harvest and use. See you then! John
Hot Weather Crops for Summer Bounty
HOT WEATHER CROPS FOR SUMMER BOUNTY FROM YOUR GARDEN 5-7-2011
There is an unfortunate, widespread myth that summers are too hot, muggy and buggy in Florida to grow a successful organic garden here, but nothing could be further from the truth. Healthy soil and choosing subtropical and tropical crops that LOVE the heat is the key to fresh abundance from your yard for that long hot half of the year when so many folks let their gardens go barren and weedy.
In this class you will receive a handout with a long list of heat-loving crops, plus I will give you seeds of two kinds that utterly thrive each summer here. Be sure to bring a pad and pen as folks tell me my classes are information-dense. Growing these summer crops organically is easy in good soil and full sun, as very few pests attack them, but we will cover those few possible problems and how to deal with them cheaply and without using poisons. The class will be offered again on May 7 from 11 AM until 1 PM. The cost is $20 per student, and my address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa FL 33611 813 839 0881 JohnAStarnes @msn.com
RSVP is helpful in my planning how to best teach this class. Just think....as your winter garden fizzles out each spring, you can phase in six more months of productivity with a whole new range of tastes, textures and nutrition! See you then. John
There is an unfortunate, widespread myth that summers are too hot, muggy and buggy in Florida to grow a successful organic garden here, but nothing could be further from the truth. Healthy soil and choosing subtropical and tropical crops that LOVE the heat is the key to fresh abundance from your yard for that long hot half of the year when so many folks let their gardens go barren and weedy.
In this class you will receive a handout with a long list of heat-loving crops, plus I will give you seeds of two kinds that utterly thrive each summer here. Be sure to bring a pad and pen as folks tell me my classes are information-dense. Growing these summer crops organically is easy in good soil and full sun, as very few pests attack them, but we will cover those few possible problems and how to deal with them cheaply and without using poisons. The class will be offered again on May 7 from 11 AM until 1 PM. The cost is $20 per student, and my address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa FL 33611 813 839 0881 JohnAStarnes @msn.com
RSVP is helpful in my planning how to best teach this class. Just think....as your winter garden fizzles out each spring, you can phase in six more months of productivity with a whole new range of tastes, textures and nutrition! See you then. John
Basics of Frugal Backyard Chicken and Duck Raising
Basics of Frugal Backyard Chicken and Duck Raising 5-8-2011
Many folks these days are considering, or have followed through on, pursuing a long time desire to raise backyard chickens for fresh eggs or even meat they know the origins of. I've had chickens on and off since the mid 90s, and can share how to raise happy, healthy, antibiotic-free chickens and eggs VERY frugally. I am teaching this well-received class again on May 8, from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute Q & A session after. My address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611, about 6 blocks south of Gandy and 1 1/2 blocks west of MacDill, jungly yard on the south side. Please park on my side of Paxton off of neighbors' lawns. The cost is $20 per student. Please bring a note pad and pen as we will cover many points. You will receive a pack of winter greens seeds to sow next fall to provide raw green plant matter VITAL to having healthy backyard poultry. 813 839 0881 or e-mail to RSVP. See you then! Come see the baby Muscovy ducks too. John Starnes
Many folks these days are considering, or have followed through on, pursuing a long time desire to raise backyard chickens for fresh eggs or even meat they know the origins of. I've had chickens on and off since the mid 90s, and can share how to raise happy, healthy, antibiotic-free chickens and eggs VERY frugally. I am teaching this well-received class again on May 8, from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute Q & A session after. My address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611, about 6 blocks south of Gandy and 1 1/2 blocks west of MacDill, jungly yard on the south side. Please park on my side of Paxton off of neighbors' lawns. The cost is $20 per student. Please bring a note pad and pen as we will cover many points. You will receive a pack of winter greens seeds to sow next fall to provide raw green plant matter VITAL to having healthy backyard poultry. 813 839 0881 or e-mail to RSVP. See you then! Come see the baby Muscovy ducks too. John Starnes
Probiotic Gardening 101
Just as 70% of our bodies' immune system is comprised of trillions of beneficial bacteria residing inside us, a healthy organic garden is one that teems with a vast array and number of micro and macro organisms that prevent and control disease and insect problems FOR us. This approach is all-natural, completely organic and is very lost cost. Learn how to work WITH nature to create and sustain a probiotically vibrant garden ecosystem that blesses you with vibrant, pesticide-free fruits, veggies and herbs, even in the summer months. The cost is $20 per student, and the class is on May 29 from 11 AM until 1 PM. There will be a nice handout but please bring a notepad and pen. My address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa 33611 To ask questions or to confirm your attendance, feel free to call me at:
813 839 0881 Thanks, John
813 839 0881 Thanks, John
My Class This Sunday
Tightwad Gardening and Landscaping 5-1-2011
Times are tough for lots of folks these days, plus many are trying to break their dependence on fiat currency, endless debt, store bought corporate-produced food, and soul-draining jobs. But if one is not careful, starting a food garden to “save money” can quickly result in a tomato that has $47 in hidden costs (just an exaggeration but you get my point). Plus one can spend a fortune on basic landscape and yard care supplies. But a lifetime of pathological frugality has taught me MANY ways to grow organic produce for VERY close to free, and to spruce up a tired landscape for next to nothing with free mulches and soil foods, plus low cost edgings, bird baths and more. I will use my back yard as a classroom to teach these tightwad techniques and ideas, plus I will have a handout listing many freebies to be had from our wasteful culture. My free range chickens may walk in and out of the “classroom”. I have some cool garden-related dumpster treasures to share too. I learned a lot of cool things during the 19 years I ran my organic landscaping business here and in Denver, "THE GARDEN DOCTOR". The class will be held here, 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611 (813 839 0881) on May 1 from 11 AM until 1 PM. To get you in the spirit of “tightwad gardening” I will have free seeds and horse poop. Please park along the south side of Paxton. The cost is $20 per student. This class should very quickly begin paying for itself many times over so you can pay down debt and save up for a rainy day AND end up with a lush and productive landscape and gardens.Happy Gardening! John Starnes
Times are tough for lots of folks these days, plus many are trying to break their dependence on fiat currency, endless debt, store bought corporate-produced food, and soul-draining jobs. But if one is not careful, starting a food garden to “save money” can quickly result in a tomato that has $47 in hidden costs (just an exaggeration but you get my point). Plus one can spend a fortune on basic landscape and yard care supplies. But a lifetime of pathological frugality has taught me MANY ways to grow organic produce for VERY close to free, and to spruce up a tired landscape for next to nothing with free mulches and soil foods, plus low cost edgings, bird baths and more. I will use my back yard as a classroom to teach these tightwad techniques and ideas, plus I will have a handout listing many freebies to be had from our wasteful culture. My free range chickens may walk in and out of the “classroom”. I have some cool garden-related dumpster treasures to share too. I learned a lot of cool things during the 19 years I ran my organic landscaping business here and in Denver, "THE GARDEN DOCTOR". The class will be held here, 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611 (813 839 0881) on May 1 from 11 AM until 1 PM. To get you in the spirit of “tightwad gardening” I will have free seeds and horse poop. Please park along the south side of Paxton. The cost is $20 per student. This class should very quickly begin paying for itself many times over so you can pay down debt and save up for a rainy day AND end up with a lush and productive landscape and gardens.Happy Gardening! John Starnes
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Cancelled: Fermented Foods Class This Saturday
I had scheduled this class unthinkingly, forgetting I am attending, and giving a talk at, Pam Greenewald's Third Annual Roses Lovers Gathering, so I am cancelling it. I have received no inquiries about folks attending it but want to make sure that folks know it has been cancelled. I will offer it again in May. Sorry for any inconvenience. John
Thank You!
He also gave me a 44 lb. bag of the Azomite rock he is a distributor of for me to test and share with my gardening friends to see how we feel about its performance. When I Googled it I was very impressed by the broad range of trace elements it contains being, in essence, prehistoric volcanic ash. Thanks Jerry! John
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Guinea Pigs for the Urban Farm
I've looked into this extensively in the past and if I can ever get a breeding pair of the giant one bred as mini-livestock I may give it a try. I'd admire their closed loop approach to food self-sufficiency. John
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0BTctUfPvI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0BTctUfPvI
Molokhiya Plants For Sale
This is now one of my very favorite summer veggies as I love the mild tender leaves added to summer salads or used raw on sandwiches, plus used in stir fry and omelets and stews. It is a heat loving annual that LOVES damp rich soil in full sun...if you have a low-lying wet area grow it there. It NEEDS heat and can quickly reach 6-8 feet tall in good conditions and thus can provide hundreds of the nutritious leaves all summer. You can grow it in a 5 gallon capacity pot kept in a tray of water to keep the soil damp if you have no drainage ditch or air conditioner drip areas. It is the most widely eaten leafy veggie in Egypt and is grown in India and Pakistan and other hot humid areas. Its stems are the centuries old source of jute fiber, and the seed pods that form in the fall contain seeds that are an amazing blue-green malachite color! (be sure to save some for the next season). The flowers are small and yellow and inconspicuous, and if you look REAL closely you'll notice the similarity to okra blooms but on a TEENSY scale. (It is distantly related to okra). This year I am trying some traditional Egyptian recipes for molokhiya soups and stews. It is a VERY fast grower as heat and humidity increase.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jute
I have currently have 4 plants, each about 7 inches tall, grown in home made soil with no pesticides in 1 gallon pots for $4 each on glass tables near my front porch along with other edible plants, all labelled and priced. Just use my Honor System to slip your cash through the payment slot in my red office door on my front patio. The address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa FL 33611, about 6 blocks south of Gandy and 1 1/2 blocks west of MacDill, jungly yard on south side of Paxton. Please avoid parking on my north neighbors' lawns. Thanks and Happy Gardening! John Starnes
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
John and Yoko did much to shape our culture about empathy, creativity, and awareness...
...nice to see Yoko pulling out the stops once again, but live at a London music festival when she was 76. John
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj3XWYQoQio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj3XWYQoQio
Monday, April 25, 2011
African Jack Bean: Canavalia ensiformis
I've been debating how to redefine my west bed to address issues of weed control and had considered planting Bahia grass seeds as a source of poultry graze. But this and the other video they sent me fills me with visions of a massive bed of Canavalia ensiformis to choke out weeds, enrich my soil while providing young tender pods plus the dried beans for making soups and tempeh as part of my effort to achieve protein self sufficiency here in my south Tampa yard,
I have 5 African Jack Bean plants for sale in 1 gallon pots for $5 each on my front porch Honor System plant sales tables out front for local folks who'd want to give this rare, heat-and-humidity loving summer crop a try that will yield them seeds this fall for future growing seasons. John
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Den8FGbZzUY&feature=related
Heat Loving Egyptian Summer Leafy Green 'Molokhiya'
I have grown very fond of this heat-and-water loving summer annual whose central stem is the source of jute fiber. I love the leaves as a raw nibble and in sandwiches and salads, but this year I will be trying some classic Egyptian recipes like this one. I soon will have plants for sale in 1 gallon pots for $4 each. John
http://www.egyptgiftshop.com/egyptguide/egyptian_recipe_molokhia.html
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Friday, April 22, 2011
Poultry Mites.......YIKES!!!
A few years ago my hens, quail AND me got infested with poultry mites, apparently brought tino the henhouse by crows stealing eggs. They even got into my bed, leaving me at one point with hundreds of red VERY itchy bites. Who knows what hell the birds endured before I realized what had happened via Googling (they are VERY tiny and instinctively climb UP the legs of animals and people....thankfully, for some reason, they spared Sweety and my cats). But they were easy to wipe out and it is easy to prevent them ever since.
Back then I filled two kitty litter boxes with food grade diatomaceous earth (I'd bought a 50 lb. bag on-line for $22 as I recall) and put one in the henhouse and one in the quail pen. Once I realized they'd gotten in the house due to my bringing Mr. Rooster's sleeping cage into the laundry room at night I cleaned out the cage, then sprayed the inside with some permethrin I had dumpster dived, and put diatomaceous earth in his straw bedding. Ever since he now spends evenings in the garden shed!
But here is the biggy, which I did here 2 days ago......I put the hose end shower head sprinkler inside the henhouse as the girls roamed the yard and ran it full blast for 20 minutes as poultry mites want BONE DRY conditions, which they get during our annual spring drought. I did this with the quail pen too. Problem solved. I do this soaking each April now and have not seen (or felt!) a single poultry mite since.
Soaking the henhouse benefits both "Gracie's Grape" and "Gray Street Grape" not only by providing a deep watering, it also rinses all that accumulated chicken poop into their root zones.
Believe me...you DON'T want to experience poultry mites! John
Back then I filled two kitty litter boxes with food grade diatomaceous earth (I'd bought a 50 lb. bag on-line for $22 as I recall) and put one in the henhouse and one in the quail pen. Once I realized they'd gotten in the house due to my bringing Mr. Rooster's sleeping cage into the laundry room at night I cleaned out the cage, then sprayed the inside with some permethrin I had dumpster dived, and put diatomaceous earth in his straw bedding. Ever since he now spends evenings in the garden shed!
But here is the biggy, which I did here 2 days ago......I put the hose end shower head sprinkler inside the henhouse as the girls roamed the yard and ran it full blast for 20 minutes as poultry mites want BONE DRY conditions, which they get during our annual spring drought. I did this with the quail pen too. Problem solved. I do this soaking each April now and have not seen (or felt!) a single poultry mite since.
Soaking the henhouse benefits both "Gracie's Grape" and "Gray Street Grape" not only by providing a deep watering, it also rinses all that accumulated chicken poop into their root zones.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Thank You
I love sharing my experiences on this garden planet, third one out from a thankfully stable star, and am grateful to those folks that add to that synergy by sharing their own lessons and gifts. I am very thankful to Jim Porter for giving me a VERY potent computer tower that dwarfs the capabilities of my old Dell with 256 MB of RAM.
He will even help me learn how to work with it by transferring data and pics from my old Dell into it as he is a "nerd" and I am SO not. His yard in New Tampa is lawnless and thus bountiful with food crops for his all-raw vegan diet, and now with the two two chickens I brought him in thanks as his family does eat eggs. John
He will even help me learn how to work with it by transferring data and pics from my old Dell into it as he is a "nerd" and I am SO not. His yard in New Tampa is lawnless and thus bountiful with food crops for his all-raw vegan diet, and now with the two two chickens I brought him in thanks as his family does eat eggs. John
My Class This Saturday
HOT WEATHER CROPS FOR SUMMER BOUNTY FROM YOUR GARDEN 4-23-2011
There is an unfortunate, widespread myth that summers are too hot, muggy and buggy in Florida to grow a successful organic garden here, but nothing could be further from the truth. Healthy soil and choosing subtropical and tropical crops that LOVE the heat is the key to fresh abundance from your yard for that long hot half of the year when so many folks let their gardens go barren and weedy.
In this class you will receive a handout with a long list of heat-loving crops, plus I will give you seeds of two kinds that utterly thrive each summer here. Be sure to bring a pad and pen as folks tell me my classes are information-dense. Growing these summer crops organically is easy in good soil and full sun, as very few pests attack them, but we will cover those few possible problems and how to deal with them cheaply and without using poisons. The class will be offered again April the 23rd. The cost is $20 per student, and my address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa FL 33611 813 839 0881 JohnAStarnes @msn.com
RSVP is helpful in my planning how to best teach this class. Just think....as your winter garden fizzles out each spring, you can phase in six more months of productivity with a whole new range of tastes, textures and nutrition! See you then. John
There is an unfortunate, widespread myth that summers are too hot, muggy and buggy in Florida to grow a successful organic garden here, but nothing could be further from the truth. Healthy soil and choosing subtropical and tropical crops that LOVE the heat is the key to fresh abundance from your yard for that long hot half of the year when so many folks let their gardens go barren and weedy.
In this class you will receive a handout with a long list of heat-loving crops, plus I will give you seeds of two kinds that utterly thrive each summer here. Be sure to bring a pad and pen as folks tell me my classes are information-dense. Growing these summer crops organically is easy in good soil and full sun, as very few pests attack them, but we will cover those few possible problems and how to deal with them cheaply and without using poisons. The class will be offered again April the 23rd. The cost is $20 per student, and my address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa FL 33611 813 839 0881 JohnAStarnes @msn.com
RSVP is helpful in my planning how to best teach this class. Just think....as your winter garden fizzles out each spring, you can phase in six more months of productivity with a whole new range of tastes, textures and nutrition! See you then. John
My Class This Sunday
Water Wise Container Gardening 4-24-2011
Hopefully, we are all making wise water use a central focus in our lives as Florida's population continues to boom. Water is scarce and expensive, so I've invented an alternative method of making home made container gardens that grows food and flower crops well with much less water, and that can be made for free to just $10. As a result, despite my yard being an urban farm, my June 2009 water use bill was just $1.35! Most months my water use bill is below $10 despite all the food and Old Roses I grow here. My March water bill was $3.84.
This class teaches you how to make your own from free recycled plastic containers, how to create a great soil mix for it, and easy ways to maintain and sustain yours using cheap and/or dumpster-dived supplies. This simple design avoids the problems that many have experienced with others often described as "self watering containers" and that can cost $100. You'll see several of mine in differing styles and stages of growth to help you decide what works best for you and your space and budget.
I love how they use VERY little water vs. my growing the same crops, including my beloved Old Roses, in my in-ground gardens. Growing food crops in this manner can also allow a gardener to avoid using Tampa's and St. Pete's reclaimed water that has caused severe difficulties for many folks due to the very high levels of salts and chlorides. Plus one is not supposed to eat raw veggies grown with reclaimed water, which rules out growing fresh salads and herbs from one's own garden!
Special attention will be paid to the very common problem of nitrogen deficiency often encountered in container gardening whether one makes one's own soil as I do, or purchases it in bulk or bagged.
You will get two packs of very hard to get vegetable seeds that will thrive all summer long in your Water Wise Container Gardens. The cost of the class is $20 per person. This class has been very well received, so I am teaching it again on April 24th, from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute Q & A session following.
My address is 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611. Phone is 813 839 0881 RSVP is not required but helpful in my planning each class. Come learn how to grow your own organic produce for a fraction of what you pay in the stores while slashing your water use and bill and avoiding the toxic-to-plants reclaimed water.
Happy Gardening! John Starnes
Hopefully, we are all making wise water use a central focus in our lives as Florida's population continues to boom. Water is scarce and expensive, so I've invented an alternative method of making home made container gardens that grows food and flower crops well with much less water, and that can be made for free to just $10. As a result, despite my yard being an urban farm, my June 2009 water use bill was just $1.35! Most months my water use bill is below $10 despite all the food and Old Roses I grow here. My March water bill was $3.84.
This class teaches you how to make your own from free recycled plastic containers, how to create a great soil mix for it, and easy ways to maintain and sustain yours using cheap and/or dumpster-dived supplies. This simple design avoids the problems that many have experienced with others often described as "self watering containers" and that can cost $100. You'll see several of mine in differing styles and stages of growth to help you decide what works best for you and your space and budget.
I love how they use VERY little water vs. my growing the same crops, including my beloved Old Roses, in my in-ground gardens. Growing food crops in this manner can also allow a gardener to avoid using Tampa's and St. Pete's reclaimed water that has caused severe difficulties for many folks due to the very high levels of salts and chlorides. Plus one is not supposed to eat raw veggies grown with reclaimed water, which rules out growing fresh salads and herbs from one's own garden!
Special attention will be paid to the very common problem of nitrogen deficiency often encountered in container gardening whether one makes one's own soil as I do, or purchases it in bulk or bagged.
You will get two packs of very hard to get vegetable seeds that will thrive all summer long in your Water Wise Container Gardens. The cost of the class is $20 per person. This class has been very well received, so I am teaching it again on April 24th, from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute Q & A session following.
My address is 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611. Phone is 813 839 0881 RSVP is not required but helpful in my planning each class. Come learn how to grow your own organic produce for a fraction of what you pay in the stores while slashing your water use and bill and avoiding the toxic-to-plants reclaimed water.
Happy Gardening! John Starnes
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Waste Not, Want Not
Having lived in bone dry New Mexico and Colorado, plus seeing my native Florida enter a long term "drought as the new norm" era has triggered my innate obsessiveness to find ways to use less, and gather more, water. The air handler for my AC heat pump has its drip line at ground level out doors, so a few months ago, FINALLY, I thought to disconnect it and put a bucket beneath the indoor drip spout, which is located behind my 'Incredibly Red Hall' art project. The bucket gets filled about once a week and I use this pure distilled water on my tomatoes growing in 5 gallon Water Wise Container Gardens. The bucket, the giant Fresnel lenses that add a delightful trippyness to the Incredibly Red Hall project that hides the air handler, were all dumpster dived and scrounged. But I DID buy the programmed Christmas lights at an after-Christmas sale.
Saving this AC water plus my kitchen graywater, along with my rain barrels, will allow me to further reduce my use of potable water, and hence, my water use and sewer charge bills.
Hey, free and cheap is good for my budget AND the planet. John
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZRHytnkELo
Saving this AC water plus my kitchen graywater, along with my rain barrels, will allow me to further reduce my use of potable water, and hence, my water use and sewer charge bills.
Hey, free and cheap is good for my budget AND the planet. John
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Today on the farm
A great day soon to be followed by a relaxing decadent evening of altering and great music and videos while cleaning house....
I FINALLY got germination this spring from Ashwagandha (Withania somniferum) so today I potted up 15 seedlings to later give to friends and to add to the inventory of my Honor System Plants Sales tables on my front porch that helps much to keep the bills paid. It has a very long tradition in Ayurvedic medicine as an adaptogen and a POTENT aphrodisiac (especially in combination with Velvet Bean, to which I can personally attest!) and is a distant relative of eggplant.
After burying and deep-soaking the Jamaican Cherry, I today planted in the mulch layer around a banana by my south fence three EXTREMELY vigorous seedlings of a calabaza that in 2008, my friend Allen Boatman had bought a bag of AS A SNACK at an Hispanic store. I gave them and the banana a 30 minute soak using the "shower head" type sprinkler from Lowe's I am so fond of, then spread over the area three bags of oak leaves and catkins. My intent is to rehydrate that corner desiccated by years of drought with many buckets of kitchen graywater and a monthly deep watering with the shower head sprinkler in hopes of fruit production from the banana plus seeing if this calabaza bears desirable pumpkins.
In my late teens then again in my early 30s, poetry was my main creative vehicle and I recently found files of poems I wrote from both eras and will now and then share a few here and at my Starnesland blog. I'd love to learn how to make e-books of them to both share them AND, hopefully, add a bit to my income.
Tomorrow I pot into 4 inch pot seedlings of Holy Basil to share with friends and to sell, and then will continue to consider sowing African jack Beans as a nitrifying weed-choking summer cover crop in my west bed that last year got over run BADLY by a creeping CLIMBING grass that I suspect was 'Starre Grass'......one of my blog readers in Indonesia (as I recall) sent me great videos about efforts to cultivate this wonderful crop there and he REALLY has my gears turning. After seeing "Fresh" at a local raw foods restaurant I'd considered sowing that area with Bahia grass seed as a periodic poultry pasture, but I am now drawn even more to make it a dense patch of African Jack Beans. (Canavalia ensiformis)
This morning I slipped into the duck pen a shallow plastic storage tub I'd been using to bottom water plants for sale, then filled it with fresh water as the ducklings have grown a lot and I felt they'd enjoy daily swims. Soon I will post on YouTube the video I shot of this new feature of their pen that I hope gives them added daily pleasure and health and fun.
I noticed at a car forum I love to visit (too often) called http://www.gminsidenews.com/ that some stunning to behold cars were unveiled at the Shanghai Auto Show, some electric hybrids, so I will be sharing links and photos here and at my Starnesland blog.
Very dry and hot here with zippo chance for rain the next week...good thing I pee and shower outdoors plus save my kitchen graywater!
A baby chick hatched in the incubator today, where I saw that apparently yesterday two had TRIED to hatch but died with just their bills poking out of the shell.
Quite the day. John
I FINALLY got germination this spring from Ashwagandha (Withania somniferum) so today I potted up 15 seedlings to later give to friends and to add to the inventory of my Honor System Plants Sales tables on my front porch that helps much to keep the bills paid. It has a very long tradition in Ayurvedic medicine as an adaptogen and a POTENT aphrodisiac (especially in combination with Velvet Bean, to which I can personally attest!) and is a distant relative of eggplant.
After burying and deep-soaking the Jamaican Cherry, I today planted in the mulch layer around a banana by my south fence three EXTREMELY vigorous seedlings of a calabaza that in 2008, my friend Allen Boatman had bought a bag of AS A SNACK at an Hispanic store. I gave them and the banana a 30 minute soak using the "shower head" type sprinkler from Lowe's I am so fond of, then spread over the area three bags of oak leaves and catkins. My intent is to rehydrate that corner desiccated by years of drought with many buckets of kitchen graywater and a monthly deep watering with the shower head sprinkler in hopes of fruit production from the banana plus seeing if this calabaza bears desirable pumpkins.
In my late teens then again in my early 30s, poetry was my main creative vehicle and I recently found files of poems I wrote from both eras and will now and then share a few here and at my Starnesland blog. I'd love to learn how to make e-books of them to both share them AND, hopefully, add a bit to my income.
Tomorrow I pot into 4 inch pot seedlings of Holy Basil to share with friends and to sell, and then will continue to consider sowing African jack Beans as a nitrifying weed-choking summer cover crop in my west bed that last year got over run BADLY by a creeping CLIMBING grass that I suspect was 'Starre Grass'......one of my blog readers in Indonesia (as I recall) sent me great videos about efforts to cultivate this wonderful crop there and he REALLY has my gears turning. After seeing "Fresh" at a local raw foods restaurant I'd considered sowing that area with Bahia grass seed as a periodic poultry pasture, but I am now drawn even more to make it a dense patch of African Jack Beans. (Canavalia ensiformis)
This morning I slipped into the duck pen a shallow plastic storage tub I'd been using to bottom water plants for sale, then filled it with fresh water as the ducklings have grown a lot and I felt they'd enjoy daily swims. Soon I will post on YouTube the video I shot of this new feature of their pen that I hope gives them added daily pleasure and health and fun.
I noticed at a car forum I love to visit (too often) called http://www.gminsidenews.com/ that some stunning to behold cars were unveiled at the Shanghai Auto Show, some electric hybrids, so I will be sharing links and photos here and at my Starnesland blog.
Very dry and hot here with zippo chance for rain the next week...good thing I pee and shower outdoors plus save my kitchen graywater!
A baby chick hatched in the incubator today, where I saw that apparently yesterday two had TRIED to hatch but died with just their bills poking out of the shell.
Quite the day. John
Mr.
Colonel Applegate walks alone into the street of the night
looking like someone's uncle but he isn't and he wanders
in his baggy brown pants down empty gray streets
of the city
and he stands thinking beneath a street light
each night
as he pensively holds a fresh rose
And Mr. Colonel Applegate has no hopes or dreams
but still he strides, journeyman of the city streets
in the morning
looking like someone's uncle and the children playing
look up from their skipropes and jacks
and marbles
as he stands there smiling, pensively holding a dewy rose
with a hand in his baggy brown pants
and the children are spellbound by his brown fantasy eyes
glimmering like warm diamonds just above
his somehow summer smile just below
his nose quietly savoring the fresh rose
and then Dr. General Applegate
turns away
walking down the morning streets getting warm,
looking like a king
carried in by a wave from the sunrise
and each day Captain Admiral Applegate
will be a journeyman of the city streets
with his smile below the rose beneath his diamond eyes
and curious, dull, fish-like eyes of lonely people
will turn his way with a hint of envy
but he will stride down the warm streets,
leaving footprints of liquid sun
as he turns words into butterflies
And someday you may hear the sound of him walking past your house
as Superintendent Applegate's baggy brown pants rustle
as they stride through the cool, blue morning air.
John A. Starnes Jr. 5-29-1970
looking like someone's uncle but he isn't and he wanders
in his baggy brown pants down empty gray streets
of the city
and he stands thinking beneath a street light
each night
as he pensively holds a fresh rose
And Mr. Colonel Applegate has no hopes or dreams
but still he strides, journeyman of the city streets
in the morning
looking like someone's uncle and the children playing
look up from their skipropes and jacks
and marbles
as he stands there smiling, pensively holding a dewy rose
with a hand in his baggy brown pants
and the children are spellbound by his brown fantasy eyes
glimmering like warm diamonds just above
his somehow summer smile just below
his nose quietly savoring the fresh rose
and then Dr. General Applegate
turns away
walking down the morning streets getting warm,
looking like a king
carried in by a wave from the sunrise
and each day Captain Admiral Applegate
will be a journeyman of the city streets
with his smile below the rose beneath his diamond eyes
and curious, dull, fish-like eyes of lonely people
will turn his way with a hint of envy
but he will stride down the warm streets,
leaving footprints of liquid sun
as he turns words into butterflies
And someday you may hear the sound of him walking past your house
as Superintendent Applegate's baggy brown pants rustle
as they stride through the cool, blue morning air.
John A. Starnes Jr. 5-29-1970
Jamaican Cherry (Muntingia calabura)
I've wanted this tropical fruit shrub/tree for a few years and have always failed with seeds...they sprout by the HUNDREDS time after time, then refuse to grow. But my new gardening friend Jim Porter scored me a 7 foot tall one in a 3 gallon bucket for $27 while volunteering for the Tampa Rare Fruit Council booth at the USF Botanic Gardens Plant Sale! About an hour ago I buried the 7 gallon Water Wise Container Garden I transplanted it into yesterday in the SW corner of my main back bed, then gave it a 45 minute deep soak using the Mist setting on the hose nozzle plunged into the oak leaf/catkins mulch I covered the area with after planting it. It is already in bloom and like I e-mailed Jim it is very vulnerable to cold so I WILL, at last, get good at propagating it! Woo Hoo! John
Monday, April 18, 2011
Free, Mostly Wild Pest Control
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Summer Seeds Crops for Sale by Mail
"Clay" cowpea (Vigna unguiculata)- 50 seeds $4.00 plus a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope. Heirloom and rampant grower, young leaves edible too raw or cooked.
Velvet Bean (Mucuna pruriens)- 10 seeds $4 plus business size SASE with two stamps (big heavy seeds of the non-stinging food grade medicinal form that is the source of natural L-dopa as used in Ayurvedic medicine as an adaptogen and aphrodisiac. Grown commercially to treat Restless Leg Syndrome and Parkinson's)
Send to: John Starnes 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa FL 33611
"Clay"
Velvet Bean blooms
Velvet Bean pods, harvest size
Velvet Bean (Mucuna pruriens)- 10 seeds $4 plus business size SASE with two stamps (big heavy seeds of the non-stinging food grade medicinal form that is the source of natural L-dopa as used in Ayurvedic medicine as an adaptogen and aphrodisiac. Grown commercially to treat Restless Leg Syndrome and Parkinson's)
Send to: John Starnes 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa FL 33611
Velvet Bean blooms
Velvet Bean pods, harvest size
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Today in my gardens......
Nice productive day after a few fun days with out of state visitors, like Michael and Amy here from Denver. They took back seeds of Velvet Bean and Vigna unguiculata, plus the forage rapes Bonar and Dwarf Essex, plus a young plant of 'Lesbos' basil. They both collect succulents, so yesterday while we walked Cracker around the block we scored from an empty lot several volunteers of a kalanchoe I was unfamiliar with despite decades of living here. I told Michael today by phone I feel their biggest challenge will be keeping the soil in the pots WARM as Denver window sills get chilled by the many nights of 30s and 40s to come. It will be fun and informative learning next fall how they all did in the Mile High City.
I cut down the Finnochio fennel to give to the chef tomorrow when I go the restaurant a few blocks away for kitchen scraps for the poultry, then replaced it with three Thai Hot Pepper plants I grew from seeds from a bag of dried peppers from south Tampa's DoBond Market....a great place. This took place not in the ground but in a Water Wise Container Garden made from 1/3 of a white plastic 55 gallon drum a neighbor threw a few of away a couple of months ago. I potted three specimens of my own Denver-bred hybrid rose, 'Ruby Voodoo' into 1 gallon pots....I bred it in 1998 and if all goes well it gets a commercial launch next year by 'Colorado Plant Select'! The Ethiopian Kale in a 15 gallon Water Wise Container Garden tipped over due to the weight of a MASSIVE seed head (!!!) so I tied it to a rebar with a strip of panty hose to keep the ducks from stripping it of seed pods. The barrel next to it yielded a rich compost I used to sow Velvet Bean seed pods (Mucuna pruriens) into 1 gallon pots for my Honor System plant sales business on the front porch. I was very pleased to see good germinations of African Jack Beans (Canavalia ensiformis) in 1 gallon pots to be ready for customers in a few weeks.
All the water containers for both sets of ducks, both drinking and swimming, were soiled, and so I gave them a good rinse and refill. My dog Cracker, still recovering from getting neutered last Thursday, exhibited rare poor behavior by BADLY digging up a ground level baby pool Water Wise Container Garden after I'd drenched it with kitchen graywater he apparently liked the smell of. I scolded him and sent him inside....since he'd previously shattered the lip of the pond made brittle after 3 years in the sun, tomorrow I will take out the rich soil and put the pool fragments in the garbage can.
I drenched all these plus many other plants, including the zucchini thriving in 15 gallon Water Wise Container Gardens with 1 year old home made fish emulsion made by tossing many bodies of winter-killed fish from the bay (the winter of 2010) into a 55 gallon drum of horse manure I'd just made then....I expect to see RAPID growth very soon.
The seedlings of Black Surinam Cherry that Tim gave me a few weeks ago seem happy in their 1 gallon pots, and it looks like Jim scored me a 6 foot tall Jamaican Cherry (Muntingia calabura) for $27 last Saturday at the USF plant sale after my lusting for one for years now! Woo hoo!
Next I bury another 55 gallon Water Wise Container along my west fence, then will plant in it my Lychee tree that has struggled in the drought for years, then another for my long-suffering jaboticaba as both are almost swamp trees they are so thirsty. I am sure they survived these years ONLY due to many many buckets of kitchen gray water. I hope to se them fruiting heavily by my early 60s (I turn 58 this August 15 so here's hoping!). Another barrel gets buried soon for the super dwarf super sweet banana that Jon and Debbie Butz gave me last year when they had me on their radio show 'Sustainable Living' on WMNF here in Tampa....their colony THRIVES at the edge of a swamp. ( I learned last year why bananas are failing all over Tampa except in yards along lakes and rivers...they do best in areas that get.........160 inches of rain annually! No wonder my vast number of buckets of kitchen gray water has just kept them alive, with my getting almost fruit sinces the frequent hurricanes ceased in 2007.
Today I ran an ad on Craig's List to sell Mr. Rooster as he crows too much now, and will let the HUGE Barred Rock rooster he crows about take over...plus another one of Mr. Rooster's kids turned out to be a rooster also pissing him off. Plus it has been boinking hens that are his sisters.....I can't risk hatching incest-produced eggs for fear I'll get chickens that look and act like Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh. So Rooster Slaughter No. 7 looms close.
Now off to tidy the kitchen, enjoy a few Miller High Lifes with lime and salt, get altered on a certain herb and get lost later on in fine music on my stereo and YouTube.
Life is good!
John
I cut down the Finnochio fennel to give to the chef tomorrow when I go the restaurant a few blocks away for kitchen scraps for the poultry, then replaced it with three Thai Hot Pepper plants I grew from seeds from a bag of dried peppers from south Tampa's DoBond Market....a great place. This took place not in the ground but in a Water Wise Container Garden made from 1/3 of a white plastic 55 gallon drum a neighbor threw a few of away a couple of months ago. I potted three specimens of my own Denver-bred hybrid rose, 'Ruby Voodoo' into 1 gallon pots....I bred it in 1998 and if all goes well it gets a commercial launch next year by 'Colorado Plant Select'! The Ethiopian Kale in a 15 gallon Water Wise Container Garden tipped over due to the weight of a MASSIVE seed head (!!!) so I tied it to a rebar with a strip of panty hose to keep the ducks from stripping it of seed pods. The barrel next to it yielded a rich compost I used to sow Velvet Bean seed pods (Mucuna pruriens) into 1 gallon pots for my Honor System plant sales business on the front porch. I was very pleased to see good germinations of African Jack Beans (Canavalia ensiformis) in 1 gallon pots to be ready for customers in a few weeks.
All the water containers for both sets of ducks, both drinking and swimming, were soiled, and so I gave them a good rinse and refill. My dog Cracker, still recovering from getting neutered last Thursday, exhibited rare poor behavior by BADLY digging up a ground level baby pool Water Wise Container Garden after I'd drenched it with kitchen graywater he apparently liked the smell of. I scolded him and sent him inside....since he'd previously shattered the lip of the pond made brittle after 3 years in the sun, tomorrow I will take out the rich soil and put the pool fragments in the garbage can.
I drenched all these plus many other plants, including the zucchini thriving in 15 gallon Water Wise Container Gardens with 1 year old home made fish emulsion made by tossing many bodies of winter-killed fish from the bay (the winter of 2010) into a 55 gallon drum of horse manure I'd just made then....I expect to see RAPID growth very soon.
The seedlings of Black Surinam Cherry that Tim gave me a few weeks ago seem happy in their 1 gallon pots, and it looks like Jim scored me a 6 foot tall Jamaican Cherry (Muntingia calabura) for $27 last Saturday at the USF plant sale after my lusting for one for years now! Woo hoo!
Next I bury another 55 gallon Water Wise Container along my west fence, then will plant in it my Lychee tree that has struggled in the drought for years, then another for my long-suffering jaboticaba as both are almost swamp trees they are so thirsty. I am sure they survived these years ONLY due to many many buckets of kitchen gray water. I hope to se them fruiting heavily by my early 60s (I turn 58 this August 15 so here's hoping!). Another barrel gets buried soon for the super dwarf super sweet banana that Jon and Debbie Butz gave me last year when they had me on their radio show 'Sustainable Living' on WMNF here in Tampa....their colony THRIVES at the edge of a swamp. ( I learned last year why bananas are failing all over Tampa except in yards along lakes and rivers...they do best in areas that get.........160 inches of rain annually! No wonder my vast number of buckets of kitchen gray water has just kept them alive, with my getting almost fruit sinces the frequent hurricanes ceased in 2007.
Today I ran an ad on Craig's List to sell Mr. Rooster as he crows too much now, and will let the HUGE Barred Rock rooster he crows about take over...plus another one of Mr. Rooster's kids turned out to be a rooster also pissing him off. Plus it has been boinking hens that are his sisters.....I can't risk hatching incest-produced eggs for fear I'll get chickens that look and act like Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh. So Rooster Slaughter No. 7 looms close.
Now off to tidy the kitchen, enjoy a few Miller High Lifes with lime and salt, get altered on a certain herb and get lost later on in fine music on my stereo and YouTube.
Life is good!
John
Rush Limbaugh LAUGHING about the tragedy in Japan
I should not be surprised that a prescription drug abusing, "Christian", pro-war yet draft dodging poster child for ignorance on a wide range of environmental issues, and an obvious example of eating disorders would stoop EVEN lower...but he managed to. Sickening. I wonder if he feels the Jesus he claims to worship would be amused. John
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBskDv4LvwM&feature=fvwrel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBskDv4LvwM&feature=fvwrel
My Classes This Weekend
GROWING FOOD, CULTIVATING FREEDOM AND HARVESTING JOY 4-16-2011
Growing and raising much of your own food can free you from an unsatisfying job and addiction to the New Serfdom of endless debt as a "consumer". Learn three basics of successful gardening in central Florida, see the ease of a few backyard chickens for fresh eggs, plus get two handouts with 30 key techniques, attitude shifts, and resources that can allow us to discover what we REALLY want out of life, how to live frugally, and ways to shed old, restrictive habits and replace them with pleasurable, expansive ones to create a self-perpetuating positive feedback loop of habitual joy and gratitude. People say my trippy livingroom exemplifies "thinking outside of the box that the box came in" so most of the class will be held in there after we tour my urban farm. I feel that happiness is a choice we can make daily, and that we can create our lives vs. them just happening to us, with productive gardening as the key. This class will be taught again on April 16, from 11 AM until 1 PM here at 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa, FL 33611 813 839 0881 to RSVP. Please park on the south side of Paxton. The cost is $20 per student. Each student will receive 1 free packet of easy-to-grow seeds with instructions on their culture and harvest and use. See you then! John
BASICS OF URBAN FARMSTEADING AND FOOD SELF SUFFICIENCY FOR BEGINNERS 4-17-2011
There is wonderful security and satisfaction in being able to prepare many of our meals from abundant gardens around our homes. Imagine FRESH omelets and meat from a backyard henhouse, or expensive "exotic" crops such as arugula, Barbados Cherry, cassava, chaya, papaya, many herbs and staple crops for Thai and other ethnic cuisines fresh your own yard. But where to start if you have a "normal" yard of high maintenance lawn and ornamental shrubs? Organic landscape consultant and garden writer John Starnes (St. Pete Times, Fine Gardening, Florida Gardening, The Sustainable Rose Garden) shows how to make the transition in stages based on your time, temperament, budget and goals, using his jungly south Tampa "urban farm" as the classroom.
Learn the ease of "sheet composting" vs. buying an expensive compost bin, using household graywater to nourish your crops and cut your water bill, cheap and easy organic pest control, plus a very effective, low-labor method for killing lawn areas in place and turning them into productive gardens. You will receive a detailed class handout, but be sure to bring a notepad and pen, and, if you wish, a camera, as people tell me that my classes are very information dense. You will also get two free packets of rare food crops seeds with instructions for culture and harvest and use.
I will be teaching this class again on April 17th from 11 AM until 1 PM, from 11 AM until 1 PM followed by a 30 minute Q & A session. The cost is $20 per person. My address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa 33611, which about 6 blocks south of Gandy and 1 1/2 blocks west of MacDill Avenue. I hope to help folks eager to transform their yards into sources of sustenance, personal independence, and spiritual satisfaction.
Come see the transition from winter crops to summer ones, the new baby Muscovy ducks, and enjoy fresh raw nibbles as we walk amongst the free range chickens. Feel free to bring food scraps or unwanted pet kibble to feed to the poultry. John
Growing and raising much of your own food can free you from an unsatisfying job and addiction to the New Serfdom of endless debt as a "consumer". Learn three basics of successful gardening in central Florida, see the ease of a few backyard chickens for fresh eggs, plus get two handouts with 30 key techniques, attitude shifts, and resources that can allow us to discover what we REALLY want out of life, how to live frugally, and ways to shed old, restrictive habits and replace them with pleasurable, expansive ones to create a self-perpetuating positive feedback loop of habitual joy and gratitude. People say my trippy livingroom exemplifies "thinking outside of the box that the box came in" so most of the class will be held in there after we tour my urban farm. I feel that happiness is a choice we can make daily, and that we can create our lives vs. them just happening to us, with productive gardening as the key. This class will be taught again on April 16, from 11 AM until 1 PM here at 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa, FL 33611 813 839 0881 to RSVP. Please park on the south side of Paxton. The cost is $20 per student. Each student will receive 1 free packet of easy-to-grow seeds with instructions on their culture and harvest and use. See you then! John
BASICS OF URBAN FARMSTEADING AND FOOD SELF SUFFICIENCY FOR BEGINNERS 4-17-2011
There is wonderful security and satisfaction in being able to prepare many of our meals from abundant gardens around our homes. Imagine FRESH omelets and meat from a backyard henhouse, or expensive "exotic" crops such as arugula, Barbados Cherry, cassava, chaya, papaya, many herbs and staple crops for Thai and other ethnic cuisines fresh your own yard. But where to start if you have a "normal" yard of high maintenance lawn and ornamental shrubs? Organic landscape consultant and garden writer John Starnes (St. Pete Times, Fine Gardening, Florida Gardening, The Sustainable Rose Garden) shows how to make the transition in stages based on your time, temperament, budget and goals, using his jungly south Tampa "urban farm" as the classroom.
Learn the ease of "sheet composting" vs. buying an expensive compost bin, using household graywater to nourish your crops and cut your water bill, cheap and easy organic pest control, plus a very effective, low-labor method for killing lawn areas in place and turning them into productive gardens. You will receive a detailed class handout, but be sure to bring a notepad and pen, and, if you wish, a camera, as people tell me that my classes are very information dense. You will also get two free packets of rare food crops seeds with instructions for culture and harvest and use.
I will be teaching this class again on April 17th from 11 AM until 1 PM, from 11 AM until 1 PM followed by a 30 minute Q & A session. The cost is $20 per person. My address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa 33611, which about 6 blocks south of Gandy and 1 1/2 blocks west of MacDill Avenue. I hope to help folks eager to transform their yards into sources of sustenance, personal independence, and spiritual satisfaction.
Come see the transition from winter crops to summer ones, the new baby Muscovy ducks, and enjoy fresh raw nibbles as we walk amongst the free range chickens. Feel free to bring food scraps or unwanted pet kibble to feed to the poultry. John
Friday, April 8, 2011
Like Okra?
I love it raw right off the plant (zero slime), or fried in a thin film of very hot oil with salt and pepper, no breading, till nicely browned, almost burnt along the edges....yum!!!. 'Clemson Spineless' is a tried and true variety one can find on any seed rack, but 'Fife Creek' is an heirloom strain I've grown fond of due to pods that stay tender when quite long, plus they are numerous. Remember...okra is a thirsty hungry crop that loves humid heat and dislikes heavily acidic soils. Remember too that the young leaves are tasty and nutritious in stir fry, soups and casseroles. One source of 'Fife Creek' okra is Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. http://www.rareseeds.com/
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
My Class This Sunday
Non-toxic "Green" Pest and Disease Control 4-10-2011
Many homeowners and gardeners and pet lovers alike think we MUST use toxic pesticides to control plant-ravaging bugs and diseases, plus swarms of fleas and roaches and mosquitos that can make make life miserable for us and our animal companions, and poultry mites in our henhouses biting us AND the birds. This class will teach you a great many natural, non-or-least toxic methods of controlling and eliminating those scourges, including biological methods that need be purchased just once from mail order or local sources. I shared some of these techniques with my readers for the eight years I had a gardening column in The St. Pete Times. All of these control methods are VERY inexpensive (hey, I’m a lifelong pathologically cheap tightwad!) and easy to acquire or make at home. Food self sufficiency gardeners like me CAN enjoy fresh produce all year long by defeating pests without poisoning those crops or the environment. A detailed handout, complimented by the notes you take (bring a pad and pen please) will let you begin right away winning the “battle against bugs and fungus” all year long. I am teaching this class again on April 10, from 11 AM until 1 PM. My address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611, about 6 blocks south of Gandy and 1 1/2 blocks west of MacDill, jungly yard on the south side. Please park on my side of Paxton off of neighbors' lawns. The cost is $20 per student. To RSVP call: 813 839 0881 Happy Gardening! John
Many homeowners and gardeners and pet lovers alike think we MUST use toxic pesticides to control plant-ravaging bugs and diseases, plus swarms of fleas and roaches and mosquitos that can make make life miserable for us and our animal companions, and poultry mites in our henhouses biting us AND the birds. This class will teach you a great many natural, non-or-least toxic methods of controlling and eliminating those scourges, including biological methods that need be purchased just once from mail order or local sources. I shared some of these techniques with my readers for the eight years I had a gardening column in The St. Pete Times. All of these control methods are VERY inexpensive (hey, I’m a lifelong pathologically cheap tightwad!) and easy to acquire or make at home. Food self sufficiency gardeners like me CAN enjoy fresh produce all year long by defeating pests without poisoning those crops or the environment. A detailed handout, complimented by the notes you take (bring a pad and pen please) will let you begin right away winning the “battle against bugs and fungus” all year long. I am teaching this class again on April 10, from 11 AM until 1 PM. My address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611, about 6 blocks south of Gandy and 1 1/2 blocks west of MacDill, jungly yard on the south side. Please park on my side of Paxton off of neighbors' lawns. The cost is $20 per student. To RSVP call: 813 839 0881 Happy Gardening! John
Scalding The Rooster To Make Plucking The Feathers Easier
Class This Saturday: Water Wise Container Gardening
Come learn why in part my most recent water bill was just $3.64! John
Water Wise Container Gardening 4-9-2011 and again 4-24-2011
Hopefully, we are all making wise water use a central focus in our lives as Florida's population continues to boom. Water is scarce and expensive, so I've invented an alternative method of making home made container gardens that grows food and flower crops well with much less water, and that can be made for free to just $10. As a result, despite my yard being an urban farm, my June 2009 water use bill was just $1.35! Most months my water use bill is below $10 despite all the food and Old Roses I grow here.
This class teaches you how to make your own from free recycled plastic containers, how to create a great soil mix for it, and easy ways to maintain and sustain yours using cheap and/or dumpster-dived supplies. This simple design avoids the problems that many have experienced with others often described as "self watering containers" and that can cost $100. You'll see several of mine in differing styles and stages of growth to help you decide what works best for you and your space and budget.
I love how they use VERY little water vs. my growing the same crops, including my beloved Old Roses, in my in-ground gardens. Growing food crops in this manner can also allow a gardener to avoid using Tampa's and St. Pete's reclaimed water that has caused severe difficulties for many folks due to the very high levels of salts and chlorides. Plus one is not supposed to eat raw veggies grown with reclaimed water, which rules out growing fresh salads and herbs from one's own garden!
Special attention will be paid to the very common problem of nitrogen deficiency often encountered in container gardening whether one makes one's own soil as I do, or purchases it in bulk or bagged.
You will get two packs of very hard to get vegetable seeds that will thrive all summer long in your Water Wise Container Gardens. The cost of the class is $20 per person. This class has been very well received, so I am teaching it again on April 9th and the 24th, from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute Q & A session following.
My address is 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611. Phone is 813 839 0881 RSVP is not required but helpful in my planning each class. Come learn how to grow your own organic produce for a fraction of what you pay in the stores while slashing your water use and bill and avoiding the toxic-to-plants reclaimed water.
Happy Gardening! John Starnes
Water Wise Container Gardening 4-9-2011 and again 4-24-2011
Hopefully, we are all making wise water use a central focus in our lives as Florida's population continues to boom. Water is scarce and expensive, so I've invented an alternative method of making home made container gardens that grows food and flower crops well with much less water, and that can be made for free to just $10. As a result, despite my yard being an urban farm, my June 2009 water use bill was just $1.35! Most months my water use bill is below $10 despite all the food and Old Roses I grow here.
This class teaches you how to make your own from free recycled plastic containers, how to create a great soil mix for it, and easy ways to maintain and sustain yours using cheap and/or dumpster-dived supplies. This simple design avoids the problems that many have experienced with others often described as "self watering containers" and that can cost $100. You'll see several of mine in differing styles and stages of growth to help you decide what works best for you and your space and budget.
I love how they use VERY little water vs. my growing the same crops, including my beloved Old Roses, in my in-ground gardens. Growing food crops in this manner can also allow a gardener to avoid using Tampa's and St. Pete's reclaimed water that has caused severe difficulties for many folks due to the very high levels of salts and chlorides. Plus one is not supposed to eat raw veggies grown with reclaimed water, which rules out growing fresh salads and herbs from one's own garden!
Special attention will be paid to the very common problem of nitrogen deficiency often encountered in container gardening whether one makes one's own soil as I do, or purchases it in bulk or bagged.
You will get two packs of very hard to get vegetable seeds that will thrive all summer long in your Water Wise Container Gardens. The cost of the class is $20 per person. This class has been very well received, so I am teaching it again on April 9th and the 24th, from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute Q & A session following.
My address is 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611. Phone is 813 839 0881 RSVP is not required but helpful in my planning each class. Come learn how to grow your own organic produce for a fraction of what you pay in the stores while slashing your water use and bill and avoiding the toxic-to-plants reclaimed water.
Happy Gardening! John Starnes
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Meet Your Meat
Today, after finding excuses the last week to avoid dealing with the fact that two of my egg-raised chickens were maturing into roosters wanting to crow while making Mr. Rooster crow midday by violating his harem, this afternoon I finally took a young rooster from his overnight sleeping box that had spared neighbors from his juvenile crowing, hung him by his feet from a nylon rope affixed to my telephone pole and chopped his neck with my machete. His head did not come off but all movement stopped in half a minute. This was my sixth rooster kill, and it was still SO intense for me....I literally had to "man up" and make myself do it as an omnivore opposed to factory farming. This was my first rooster kill where all the water used, from the scald that makes the feathers easier to pluck, to the rinsing of pin feathers from the plucked carcass, was all from a rain barrel. Once again I was amazed at the LACK of blood. And once again I literally got dry heaves when I sliced the abdomen and shoved my hand inside the body cavity to pull out the still-warm organs. I saved the gizzard and, as Julia Child would have advised, I saved the liver. I pulled up two 'American Flag' leeks, chopped off the roots and rinsed them, then folded them a few times into a fist-sized ball and stuffed that in the body cavity, sprinkled sea salt and powdered sage all over the bird then cooked it for 45 minutes at 350 in a Pyrex dish. Soon, with reverence, since I as always thanked the bird and apologized before killing it, I will eat a rooster-and-rice stir fry with fresh broccoli and kale and scallions, all from the gardens. A warm, powerful way to end a day that began with a nice rain. John
Monday, April 4, 2011
Excellent Mail Order Resource
I have been VERY happy with the Evergreen type daylilies (the kind for Florida vs. cold hardy types) I've bought from these folks...great prices, good sized clumps. I've also purchased a few Bearded Iris and Peonies (super risky in Tampa but I just have to try as I loved both in Denver) that thrive in cold climates. The daylilies are coded for type and climate and I misread it the first two orders I placed...if you are a Floridian it is definitely best to buy only the Evergreen type. I love to eat daylily blooms in salads, as a plate garnish and for adding a nice yellow color to savory broths.
http://www.gilberthwild.com/
1-888-449-4537
John
http://www.gilberthwild.com/
1-888-449-4537
John
Barter With Local Blog Readers
I'd love to barter plants, seeds, perhaps a class or two, for these items I can use below:
1. Garden gates or chain link gates
2. Flatscreen monitor for my PC if someone is upgrading
3. Stainless steel saucepan, wok or skillet if someone is upgrading
4. A specimen of Jamaican Cherry (Muntingia calabura)
5. Yellow Cannas
6. Dry kibble being refused by a pet to feed my poultry
7. a 1/2 Double A battery for my Mac that Mary Jo gave me
8. Above ground swimming pool
Thanks! John
1. Garden gates or chain link gates
2. Flatscreen monitor for my PC if someone is upgrading
3. Stainless steel saucepan, wok or skillet if someone is upgrading
4. A specimen of Jamaican Cherry (Muntingia calabura)
5. Yellow Cannas
6. Dry kibble being refused by a pet to feed my poultry
7. a 1/2 Double A battery for my Mac that Mary Jo gave me
8. Above ground swimming pool
Thanks! John
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Hi-Res Images of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant
Go to my Starnesland blog to see very hi-res pics taken by a drone of the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan....the damage from the hydrogen gas explosions is MUCH more severe than I'd imagined. With iodine 131 now showing up in rainwater on the east coast of the U.S. at MANY MANY times above the level allowed in drinking water, (after our being told it could not even reach the West coast) I am glad I took daily a 130 mg. tab of potassium iodide the first five days after things looked grim there, and I will now take the remaining 7 tablets over the next 7-10 days. John
Calabaza Pumpkins derived from the tropical species Cucurbita moschata
Given rich soil and abundant moisture, this WILDLY varied group of squashes and pumpkins trace their origins to central and South America and hence love humid hot summers. The last couple of days I've planted in 4 inch pots a very eclectic mix of open-pollinated seeds I'd accumulated the last several years to test for viability since some date to 2005, plus I'd not been always faithful to my mantra of "Keep All Your Veggie Seeds In Your Fridge" with them. A VERY good source of squash derived from C. moschata is:
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds http://www.rareseeds.com/
When I lived in Denver I had great luck each summer with squash bred from Cucurbita maxima...here they tend to do poorly for me. But my friend Allen Boatman has had great success with them at the gardens at the Falkenburg Jail.
Seminole Pumpkin is a C. moschata native to the Everglades and has done well for me, as has 'La Primera' (bred in Florida for Florida) and Japanese kabocha (some feel it is C. maxima X C. moschata) plus 'Argonaut' a LONG squash. Even if you are not in Florida and you have hot muggy summers and warm nights, give some cultivars of C. moschata a try as they often have deep orange very flavorful flesh. Plus the young vine tips can be used in stir fry and the male blooms make lovely edible plate garnishes. Cultivars of C. moschata almost always have beautiful silvery markings on the leaves that some folks mistake for disease.
La Primera
Kabocha
John
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds http://www.rareseeds.com/
When I lived in Denver I had great luck each summer with squash bred from Cucurbita maxima...here they tend to do poorly for me. But my friend Allen Boatman has had great success with them at the gardens at the Falkenburg Jail.
Seminole Pumpkin is a C. moschata native to the Everglades and has done well for me, as has 'La Primera' (bred in Florida for Florida) and Japanese kabocha (some feel it is C. maxima X C. moschata) plus 'Argonaut' a LONG squash. Even if you are not in Florida and you have hot muggy summers and warm nights, give some cultivars of C. moschata a try as they often have deep orange very flavorful flesh. Plus the young vine tips can be used in stir fry and the male blooms make lovely edible plate garnishes. Cultivars of C. moschata almost always have beautiful silvery markings on the leaves that some folks mistake for disease.
La Primera
Jamaican Pumpkin
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Reefer Madness
Both my enjoyment of life, and creativity, have been enhanced by smoking cannabis since 1971. Up until 1937 it was legal and widely cultivated in the "Land of the Free", was in the U.S. Pharmacopeia, plus was grown and enjoyed by Founding Fathers George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin (and we all know they were lazy, dangerous drug crazies, right?). MANY MILLIONS of Americans have had their lives ravaged NOT by cannabis, but by the senseless draconian laws against it, with an American arrested for it every 37 seconds. It has been a part of human culture for many thousands of years as a mind enhancer and source of fiber, paper, oil, and medicine. Yet any American who enjoys its simple pleasures faces prison and fines and confiscation of their home and property. Let's contrast that to the following:
Despite their siezing power via two tampered-with elections, George Bush and Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and the rest of their cabal, and subsequently launching TWO illegal immoral wars, violating the U.S. Constitution, the UN Charter, The Geneva Conventions plus standards of common human decency, who also took record U.S. budget surpluses and via tax cuts for their already-wealthy constituents (Bush called them "the haves and have mores" the night he joked about no WMDS as thousands died in Iraq) and turned them into record breaking deficits, savaging our Constitution repeatedly with illegal wiretaps and the sickenly named "Patriot Act", and more......despite all these crimes whose scope boggles the mind, they get taxpayer-funded pensions that dwarf most Americans' annual pay, health care and no prospect of time in court, much less the jail cells and water boardings they so richly deserve.
But an American can be thrown in jail for growing or smoking a medicinal plant cultivated by The Founding Fathers. As George Carlin would have said....."This is fucked up". And as The Beatles said in 'Revolution'...."Don't you know you can count me out".
Time to RE-legalize cannabis...NOW. And massive civil disobedience on the matter in the manner of the people of Egypt could be a powerful catalyst to that end. It's a plant that can be very good for the body and mind. How dare genuine criminals of the highest order who have the raw audacity to call us their "fellow Americans" get away with mass murder and war crimes, deny us the simple safe pleasures of cannabis?
THAT is the only madness regarding reefer! John
Despite their siezing power via two tampered-with elections, George Bush and Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and the rest of their cabal, and subsequently launching TWO illegal immoral wars, violating the U.S. Constitution, the UN Charter, The Geneva Conventions plus standards of common human decency, who also took record U.S. budget surpluses and via tax cuts for their already-wealthy constituents (Bush called them "the haves and have mores" the night he joked about no WMDS as thousands died in Iraq) and turned them into record breaking deficits, savaging our Constitution repeatedly with illegal wiretaps and the sickenly named "Patriot Act", and more......despite all these crimes whose scope boggles the mind, they get taxpayer-funded pensions that dwarf most Americans' annual pay, health care and no prospect of time in court, much less the jail cells and water boardings they so richly deserve.
But an American can be thrown in jail for growing or smoking a medicinal plant cultivated by The Founding Fathers. As George Carlin would have said....."This is fucked up". And as The Beatles said in 'Revolution'...."Don't you know you can count me out".
Time to RE-legalize cannabis...NOW. And massive civil disobedience on the matter in the manner of the people of Egypt could be a powerful catalyst to that end. It's a plant that can be very good for the body and mind. How dare genuine criminals of the highest order who have the raw audacity to call us their "fellow Americans" get away with mass murder and war crimes, deny us the simple safe pleasures of cannabis?
THAT is the only madness regarding reefer! John
Conserving Water At Home
I just got my new water bill....$3.64 despite all the food crops and Old Roses and plants-for-sale and poultry I raise here, the usual laundry use and giving Cracker a weekly bath in the tub, plus my showering INDOORS using hot tap water on several chilly days. How did I pull off this water tightwad's dream come true? My native obsessiveness once again proved handy as I saved, as always, kitchen graywater with a 4 gallon bucket beneath the sink, my solar-heated 1 gallon outdoor showers, several rain barrels, lining up 5 and 7 gallon buckets along the eaves before a rare rain arrived, peeing outdoors only, mulching, and growing the great majority of my food crops and Old Roses in varying sizes of Water Wise Container Gardens. John
Friday, April 1, 2011
Well it DID turn out to be a rainy week!!
The first system a few days ago drenched my gardens with 3.3 inches......Wednesday I got just under 1.5 inches...then yesterday all hell broke loose (INTENSE gusts and lightning, no electricity most of the day and night so out came the candles) and I got ANOTHER 2.5 inches! Woo Hoo! John
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