Monday, November 26, 2012

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.

Monday, November 12, 2012

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!

Saturday, November 3, 2012

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!