Florida's Water Woes Worsen

This is scary indeed.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/water/floridas-vanishing-springs/1262988

Hose Repair Tip

I have a sprinkler that got stuck onto the end of my backyard hose, so I cut it off and bought a black plastic male hose end repair kit at Home Depot. It can be VERY hard to insert the ribbed fitting unless you soften the hose end by letting it sit in VERY hot water for a minute or two...once the hose is hot and flexible it readily accepts the repair insert. As it cools it shrinks and grabs the repair insert tightly. Then just slip up the collar around the repair insert and tight both phillips screws. Water in a saucepan coming to a boil now.

January 26, 2013 at 3:00pm until January 27, 2013 at 10:00am BAMBOO GROVE HOMESTEAD, 2460 SW Mixon Street, Arcadia, FL 34266 Garden Tours of our young edible forest at 3 p.m. & 5 p.m. (200 types of fruit, 35 bamboos, etc.). Plant trade at 6. Potluck & Campfire at 7. Slide show on Wild Medicinal Plants of Florida at 9. Everyone is free to pitch a tent and camp with us. Everything about this event is free. Feel free to use the house (kitchen, living room, back to the land library), plus outdoor shower, hammock, picnic tables and chairs under the oak trees. PLEASE BRING: Food to share (vegetarian, wild pescatarian, local, organic, raw, fresh - labelled), friendly friends, well bahaved children, plants to trade, acoustic instruments, camping gear if you plan on staying the night. WE WILL HAVE AN ALL-RAW FOOD VEGAN TABLE AND A PRESS-YOUR-OWN FREE FERAL CITRUS TABLE SO PLEASE BRING RAW THINGS TO SHARE!!!

Pig Chaya v.s Picuda Chaya

My new plants of Pig Chaya SO out performed my old Picuda chaya (vaguely resembles cannabis) this year that I am likely removing the latter. Pig Chaya leaves are MUCH bigger, far more tender, lower in cyanogenic glucosides, and the plants themselves grow MUCH faster. I forget the name of the strain of Pig Chaya I have  (Ellen?) but I love the tender nutritious leaves in many cooked dishes. They very rarely flower unlike the Picuda strain...maybe that is why they grow SO much more vigorously. Special thanks to Mary Jo and Vicki Parsons for my starts!

This nursery looks fascinating!

http://sacredsucculents.com/

Over the years I've given many potted Paperwhite Narcissus bulbs to friends as a living holiday gift, usually three bulbs per pot. I prefer to plant them JUST before giving the present to them so they can witness the emergence of the shoots followed by the lusciously fragrant white flowers, especially if they have kids. Some people find them TOO sweet, but I love that smell...then again I love night blooming jessamine, gardenias, certain Old Roses, citrus blossoms and Confederate Jasmine. You can get the bulbs locally or mail order. SUPER EASY to grow and can be very affordable. Perfect for children to participate in.

http://www.kilianhardware.com/papflowbul.html

I've loved glads since seeing them towering next to me as a young child in my Great Aunt Ella's incredible gardens in Charlevoix, Michigan. I found this company by Googling 'gladiolus bulbs bulk'. Wow....500 No. 1 size bulbs, mixed color commercial mix, for just $60 and $9 shipping! My front yard will be stunning!

http://www.nagelglads.com/

Ryan Iacovacci just picked up 18 Meyer's Lemons for the bash at Ella's, and I gave him a quick tutorial on spotting the 'Citrus Greening' disease that has ravaged many/most citrus trees here in south Tampa. A few months ago I attended a presentation about it at the Tampa Rare Fruit Council. The easiest way to spot it is to look at the leaves....a citrus tree in need of zinc or iron or manganese or magnesium can have varying leaf patterns of yellow....they are SYMMETRICAL.....the patterns of 'Citrus Greeding' are ASYMMETRICAL. See the link. A sick tree is easy to spot...lots of dead branch tips, then entire branches. The tree can die in less than a year. The bacteria is spread by a psillid (sp?) insect. Best to cut down the tree and BURN the branches. I'd love to hear from folks if it is their area too.....in my travels to assist my Dad I saw entire orchards in south Florida dying or dead from it. So far, my own root, probiotically grown citrus trees here in south Tampa are symptom free despite it being epidemic in south Tampa. It is a global citrus disease now rampant in Florida.

http://www.crec.ifas.ufl.edu/extension/greening/symptoms.shtml

One of my friends in Occupy in the bay area set this up in front of her home...she and neighbors keep it stocked, and I know that she is very low income. Folks I know who think that Occupy is a bunch of lazy, parasitic, corporation-hating hippies I've found to have had actually very little contact, if any, with Occupy, of which I am part. I am so glad to see that Occupy Sandy is getting media attention for their spontaneous effective work in New York that MANY people say greatly eclipses that by the well-funded Red Cross. Occupy is what democracy looks like! John

Several years ago I dug a HUGE DEEP hole in the center of my back yard, lined it with scavenged carpet, then with the liner for an 18 foot diameter above ground pool I got on Craig's List for $20. I took two scavenged plastic milk crates, tied a swimming pool noodle to the top of each, then packed them with Louisiana iris and hot water cabomba,...this made them floating water purifiers. Goldfish controlled mosquito larvae. I could swim two lengths, and the depth was up to my lower chest. But in time the sides starting slowly pushing in, making it smaller and smaller. So I then added more water plants, pond snails, and Golden Apple snails which I harvested and ate for years. But last year I went in, punctured the sides about two feet from the bottom with my machete to set it up to evolve into a gigantic "Water Wise Containter Garden" that will support one 'Raja Puri' banana and one 'African Rhino Horn Plantain' once I fill it with logs, bags of leaves, plus the sand from a smaller, similarly lined pit I am digging soon a few feet southeast of to grow my guava in. The pic is of the west end from when it was a wonderfully ecologically balanced Golden Apple snail pond that helped to meet my protein needs. Each winter I grew arugula and various brassicas all around it. Cool to be consciously evolving it into a third incarnation!

I met this interesting man at Andy Firk's Permaculture event in Arcadia...

Mycol sure walks the talk!

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2011/10/living-off-the-grid/

Giant pot of soup simmers on my stove...from the store: garlic, frozen green peas, yellow onions, olive and coconut oil. From my urban farm....Muscovy duck meat, leaves of Pig Chaya, katuk, sweet potato and Allium canadense, green papaya, dried "Clay" cow peas, hot peppers, Caribbean White yam, Satsuma Imo sweet potatoes, velvet stage Velvet Beans. Some smart sweet guy with nice pecs should marry me for my cooking and insatiable sex drive!

Occupy Sandy!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/01/occupy-sandy-occupy-wall-street_n_2061067.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

Yam Leaves As Food

http://hihort.blogspot.com/2011/10/greater-yam-dioscorea-alata.html

How brilliant!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQGvXx4rfUY&feature=share