Tuesday, November 30, 2010
An article from my old St. Pete Times column in 2004
If you live in a cold climate area, plant peas either in the fall JUST before the ground freezes, or in early spring after it has just thawed out.
GIVE PEAS A CHANCE
John and Yoko were planting acorns around the world when they sang that famous anthem many folks are singing once again, but today we can use that same spirit of hopefulness with a “garden bed-in”. The cooler months of winter here in central Florida are our chance to cultivate the sweet crunchy pods and even the soul-penetratingly fragrant sweet pea flowers all too many think grow only up north or in our memories of our grandmothers’ gardens.
While we rarely see either edible peas or “sweet peas” in gardens here they will thrive each winter and spring if given full sun, rich fertile soil that isn’t too acid, something to climb up and plenty of cool or even cold nights. October through February are ideal planting times as peas grow quickly then; even a frost won’t hurt them. Add plenty of bagged compost to your sandy soil, and if you have highly acidic inland soil also apply a light sprinkling of dolomitic limestone about as heavy as parmesan cheese on spaghetti then turn it all under. Peas actually like “sweet soil” so coastal folks need only add that compost. Feed the peas once a month with a good drench of “fish emulsion” from a garden center....3 tablespoons per gallon of water is fine. Once they start to climb just entwine them into the trellis or chain link fence you planted the seeds next to and they’ll take off on their own as their tendrils grab a hold.
Like snow peas? Plant them and enjoy both those tender pods and the equally edible leaves raw in salads or tossed into stir fries. For the most food per foot of garden row sow the irresistibly crunchy-sweet “sugar snap” peas, be they the modern dwarfs that need no trellis or the old original with 4 foot vines. Once again, feel free to harvest the pea flavored tender new leaves and tendrils till the pods form but these pods are stringless and filled with crisp plump peas that rarely make it to my kitchen...it’s hard to not just stand there in my peaceful garden tossing the whole pods into my mouth! While they will grow just fine I never grow English Peas because they need to be shucked and after the pods are discarded it seems I get very little food.
Many northern transplants sorely miss old-fashioned “sweet peas” and the heavenly perfume they oozed when we were children visiting grandma’s garden. By the 1970’s though that amazing fragrance was lost by breeders in search of new colors and bigger blooms. But luckily the wild species was rediscovered on the island of Sicily, plus some heirloom varieties were tracked down too and now appear on ordinary seed racks and in catalogs. And winter and spring offer native Floridians a chance to experience a quality of scent like no other flower...sultry and spicy and sweet and soulful. Just one cluster of those elegant blooms will perfume a whole room! While some modern hybrids have brought back fragrance due to new breeding work, my heart still swoons most over two very old strains, the magenta and pink and white “Painted Lady” and the brooding deep blue and plum 17th century stunner ‘Matucana’. Be sure to pick plenty of bouquets to keep the vines blooming till the heat returns.
All I am saying is give peas a chance in your garden, and try three sowings per season; one in late October after the cool down begins, another in December, and a last one in February for a steady stream of delicious pods and startlingly sweet flowers.
SOURCES:
Thompson & Morgan Seed Catalogue 1-800-274-7333
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds http://www.rareseeds.com/
GIVE PEAS A CHANCE
John and Yoko were planting acorns around the world when they sang that famous anthem many folks are singing once again, but today we can use that same spirit of hopefulness with a “garden bed-in”. The cooler months of winter here in central Florida are our chance to cultivate the sweet crunchy pods and even the soul-penetratingly fragrant sweet pea flowers all too many think grow only up north or in our memories of our grandmothers’ gardens.
While we rarely see either edible peas or “sweet peas” in gardens here they will thrive each winter and spring if given full sun, rich fertile soil that isn’t too acid, something to climb up and plenty of cool or even cold nights. October through February are ideal planting times as peas grow quickly then; even a frost won’t hurt them. Add plenty of bagged compost to your sandy soil, and if you have highly acidic inland soil also apply a light sprinkling of dolomitic limestone about as heavy as parmesan cheese on spaghetti then turn it all under. Peas actually like “sweet soil” so coastal folks need only add that compost. Feed the peas once a month with a good drench of “fish emulsion” from a garden center....3 tablespoons per gallon of water is fine. Once they start to climb just entwine them into the trellis or chain link fence you planted the seeds next to and they’ll take off on their own as their tendrils grab a hold.
Like snow peas? Plant them and enjoy both those tender pods and the equally edible leaves raw in salads or tossed into stir fries. For the most food per foot of garden row sow the irresistibly crunchy-sweet “sugar snap” peas, be they the modern dwarfs that need no trellis or the old original with 4 foot vines. Once again, feel free to harvest the pea flavored tender new leaves and tendrils till the pods form but these pods are stringless and filled with crisp plump peas that rarely make it to my kitchen...it’s hard to not just stand there in my peaceful garden tossing the whole pods into my mouth! While they will grow just fine I never grow English Peas because they need to be shucked and after the pods are discarded it seems I get very little food.
Many northern transplants sorely miss old-fashioned “sweet peas” and the heavenly perfume they oozed when we were children visiting grandma’s garden. By the 1970’s though that amazing fragrance was lost by breeders in search of new colors and bigger blooms. But luckily the wild species was rediscovered on the island of Sicily, plus some heirloom varieties were tracked down too and now appear on ordinary seed racks and in catalogs. And winter and spring offer native Floridians a chance to experience a quality of scent like no other flower...sultry and spicy and sweet and soulful. Just one cluster of those elegant blooms will perfume a whole room! While some modern hybrids have brought back fragrance due to new breeding work, my heart still swoons most over two very old strains, the magenta and pink and white “Painted Lady” and the brooding deep blue and plum 17th century stunner ‘Matucana’. Be sure to pick plenty of bouquets to keep the vines blooming till the heat returns.
All I am saying is give peas a chance in your garden, and try three sowings per season; one in late October after the cool down begins, another in December, and a last one in February for a steady stream of delicious pods and startlingly sweet flowers.
SOURCES:
Thompson & Morgan Seed Catalogue 1-800-274-7333
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds http://www.rareseeds.com/
AEROGAMI planes for sale
Tampa garden columnist John Starnes (St. Pete Times, Fine Gardening, Florida Gardening, Colorado Gardener, Sunset Magazine) is once again making and selling his flying sculptural paper airplanes called AEROGAMI he sold many hundreds of in Colorado. They are made from very heavy gauge paper, have reinforced fuselages, are painted in many colors, and each is hand signed and dated by the artist. There are many dozens of designs, but all are based are being aerodynamically correct with true airfoil wings, trailing edge camber, and control flaps to allow for banking, loop the loops, or smooth level flight. Due to their sturdy construction one needs a good throwing arm and a big open field to fly them in. If kept dry and picked up BY THE NOSE ONLY, each AEROGAMI plane will last for years. See below some of the designs available. They average 11 inches in length and are $10 each and may be picked up at: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa FL 33611 Call to place an order for a preferred design if you wish: 813 839 0881
AEROGAMI planes are the ideal unique and affordable gift for this holiday season for people who like to fly cool things.
AEROGAMI planes are the ideal uinque and affordable gift for this holiday season.
AEROGAMI planes are the ideal unique and affordable gift for this holiday season for people who like to fly cool things.
AEROGAMI planes are the ideal uinque and affordable gift for this holiday season.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Saturday, November 27, 2010
I know....nothing to do with urban farming and gardening....
But I love this group's covers of songs by The Beatles whose music I feel help to accelerate social changes that embraced gardening and honoring the global ecology. Enjoy! John
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=addNpGRQaiQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=addNpGRQaiQ&feature=related
Friday, November 26, 2010
Velvet Bean: Mucuna pruriens video
I am really glad that I learned about seven years ago of this remarkable tropical legume that enriches soil with nitrogen via its roots while providing in its seeds the richest known source of natural L-dopa, making it useful to Ayurdevic medicine for the last 4,000 years as an aphrodisiac and adaptogen.. As such this plant can be useful to many folks with Parkinson's and Restless Leg Syndrome, plus those seeking options with Life Extension plans and depression. I really enjoyed seeing this vine tip last summer after entering my back porch lusciously altered.....nice to hear again the tree frogs, crickets, and the coturnix quail I was raising then. I hope you enjoy seeing and hearing this. Enjoy, John
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34bxTxtZ7XY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34bxTxtZ7XY
Local Station WFLA Channel 8 Did This Nice Overview of my Water Wise Container Gardens
She was quite brave and nibbled quite a few plants and crops she'd never heard of. Cool to see how they edited the large amount of footage that she and the camera man shot. Enjoy, John
http://www2.tbo.com/video/2010/nov/26/gardener-saves-money-and-water-66816/video-news/
http://www2.tbo.com/video/2010/nov/26/gardener-saves-money-and-water-66816/video-news/
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Caterpiller Control for Tomatoes and Brassicas
The natural bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki has been my main defense against garden ravaging caterpillars since the mid 1980s, both here in Tampa and in Denver. Many brands sold in retail stores are greatly diluted, over-priced and often contain DEAD bacteria due to the products being stored in hot areas. So I buy and write and teach about the 'Dipel' brand. Just keep it in your fridge for YEARS of usefulness. One teaspoon of this POTENT concentrate in a quart of filtered, well, pond or rain water (don't use chlorinated tap water) in a spray bottle will let you treat easily a 10 foot row of Brassicas (broccoli, cabbbage, mustard, boy choy and more) for just pennies. Spray your tomato plants until dripping when they are 4-6 inches tall, then again when a couple of feet tall to protect them from tomato hornworm. For the 19 years I cared for my clients' landscapes, 'Dipel' allowed me to keep their lawns free from sod webworms and their veggies safe from ravaging Cabbage Looper, Army Worms and Cut Worms. John
Monday, November 22, 2010
European Crop 'Mache'
Now that things are cooling down in Florida I want to remind/tell folks about a wonderful, ancient European crop, an edible weed in the Valerian family, that I grew in Denver in VERY early spring when months of snow lay ahead, and here in south Tampa in winter. It has several names....Corn Salad, Mache, and Fetticus come to mind. The tender very nutritious leaves NEED cold weather to be vibrant, so farmers and gardeners in much colder areas east of Tampa where teens are common might find Mache worth trying. Plus it commands quite high prices as it is a true chef's and gourmet salad herb, so it could be a new source of revenue in lean times. Gardeners in snowy climate regions should consider trying it as a winter crop in cold frames, or sowing it in the ground in late summer, then covering the rows with a couple feet of straw JUST as the ground starts to freeze. All winter long just brush away the snow, lift the straw, harvest the tasty brilliant green leaves, and replace the straw just as you would kale as it is remarkably cold hardy! Attached is a pic of it with my hand for scale. John
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Thanks!
I want to thank the folks who support my blog sites with encouragement, ideas, by buying my plants and taking my classes, and swapping dumpster and other treasures with me. Of course I am thankful to folks who decide to use the "Donate" button at the bottom of my blogs to contribute to my PayPal account......I love the idea of my enjoying modest prosperity as result of my sharing with folks the concepts, inspirations, and pragmatic solutions and signposts that do so much to make me happy and grateful.
John
John
An article from my old St. Pete Times column that has relevance in all climate zones
GIFTS THAT MAKE SCENTS
Perhaps no other sense so touches the human heart as does scent...it can revive and renew cherished memories and create new ones to savor a lifetime. The holiday season is a blessed chance to give soulful living treasures to loved ones who will think of us every time they indulge in the sultry sweetness. And budgets of all sizes, even in these tight times, can accommodate the range of prices.
Fastest and easiest to grow and least expensive are bulbs of the Paperwhite Narcissus, usually about $1 each in bulk bins or mesh bags. Plant one to three of them in a small decorative pot 2/3's filled with bagged mushroom compost, water well, then cover the soil with an inch of glass marbles or rinsed pea gravel, or small seashells from the beach. In less than a month the lush foliage and flower spikes will emerge and fill your lucky recipient’s home with that astonishing musky sweet perfume. I for years have given them less than a week after planting the bulbs, so they can witness the entire growth process (a great gift for children to give OR receive). Other folks like grow them in advance so as to be in bloom when given. Either way, this gift from the heart is easy on the budget while offering priceless joy.
Have a local friend who loves roses but who laments the lack of scent and abundant hassle so often encountered by those who try to grow them in Florida? Have friends up north who miss fragrance too? Wow the northern folks first with the arrival of a gift card from the good folks at The Antique Rose Emporium in Brenham, Texas (1-800-441-0002 or www.antiqueroseemporium.com ), then later a husky own root rose growing in a 2 gallon pot in a tall and sturdy shipping box delivered to their front porch at the time best for their climate. They can take out the rose, feed and water it, and in six weeks have the heart stirring aroma of roses like our great grandmothers grew. Your Florida friends will get their rose before the holidays if you order by December 10. All can later transplant their rose gift into a five gallon pot filled with a 50/50 mix of potting soil and mushroom compost, with a dozen crushed eggshells buried deep to supply calcium for years of healthy growth. Lusciously fragrant roses for your Florida friends and family would include ‘Cramoisi Superieur’ (cherry red), ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’ (pale flesh pink), "Maggie" (deep magenta), ‘Blush Noisette’ (baby blanket pink) and my own snow white hybrid ‘Sarasota Spice’. Extremely sweet roses for northern gardens I grew in Denver include ‘Conrad Ferdinand Meyer’ (pale salmon pink), ‘General Jacqueminot’ (deep red), ‘Baronne Prevost’ (rose pink) and ‘Hansa’ (fuchsia). Imagine that....roses for the nose that will grow easily!
Folks with gardening souls living in condos and apartments would love to get potted plants that are easy to grow in small sunny spaces and that boast a whole spectrum of perfumes. The generations-old ‘Logee’s Greenhouse’ (1-888-330-8038 or www.logees.com) grows treasures just for the holiday season, shipped to the doors of the lucky recipients. And as they thrive and increase in size, they can be transplanted to larger pots. I’d suggest potently-perfumed gems like Sambac Jasmine, Night Blooming Jessamine, ‘Belmont’ gardenia, Osmanthus ‘Sweet Olive’, Murraya paniculata, dwarf Meyer’s Lemon, or Stephanotis floribunda. While the plants DO arrive small, they should grow quickly for many years of their heady aromas.
Go ahead.....touch someone’s heart and thrill their nose with lovely living gifts that make scents this holiday season.
Perhaps no other sense so touches the human heart as does scent...it can revive and renew cherished memories and create new ones to savor a lifetime. The holiday season is a blessed chance to give soulful living treasures to loved ones who will think of us every time they indulge in the sultry sweetness. And budgets of all sizes, even in these tight times, can accommodate the range of prices.
Fastest and easiest to grow and least expensive are bulbs of the Paperwhite Narcissus, usually about $1 each in bulk bins or mesh bags. Plant one to three of them in a small decorative pot 2/3's filled with bagged mushroom compost, water well, then cover the soil with an inch of glass marbles or rinsed pea gravel, or small seashells from the beach. In less than a month the lush foliage and flower spikes will emerge and fill your lucky recipient’s home with that astonishing musky sweet perfume. I for years have given them less than a week after planting the bulbs, so they can witness the entire growth process (a great gift for children to give OR receive). Other folks like grow them in advance so as to be in bloom when given. Either way, this gift from the heart is easy on the budget while offering priceless joy.
Have a local friend who loves roses but who laments the lack of scent and abundant hassle so often encountered by those who try to grow them in Florida? Have friends up north who miss fragrance too? Wow the northern folks first with the arrival of a gift card from the good folks at The Antique Rose Emporium in Brenham, Texas (1-800-441-0002 or www.antiqueroseemporium.com ), then later a husky own root rose growing in a 2 gallon pot in a tall and sturdy shipping box delivered to their front porch at the time best for their climate. They can take out the rose, feed and water it, and in six weeks have the heart stirring aroma of roses like our great grandmothers grew. Your Florida friends will get their rose before the holidays if you order by December 10. All can later transplant their rose gift into a five gallon pot filled with a 50/50 mix of potting soil and mushroom compost, with a dozen crushed eggshells buried deep to supply calcium for years of healthy growth. Lusciously fragrant roses for your Florida friends and family would include ‘Cramoisi Superieur’ (cherry red), ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’ (pale flesh pink), "Maggie" (deep magenta), ‘Blush Noisette’ (baby blanket pink) and my own snow white hybrid ‘Sarasota Spice’. Extremely sweet roses for northern gardens I grew in Denver include ‘Conrad Ferdinand Meyer’ (pale salmon pink), ‘General Jacqueminot’ (deep red), ‘Baronne Prevost’ (rose pink) and ‘Hansa’ (fuchsia). Imagine that....roses for the nose that will grow easily!
Folks with gardening souls living in condos and apartments would love to get potted plants that are easy to grow in small sunny spaces and that boast a whole spectrum of perfumes. The generations-old ‘Logee’s Greenhouse’ (1-888-330-8038 or www.logees.com) grows treasures just for the holiday season, shipped to the doors of the lucky recipients. And as they thrive and increase in size, they can be transplanted to larger pots. I’d suggest potently-perfumed gems like Sambac Jasmine, Night Blooming Jessamine, ‘Belmont’ gardenia, Osmanthus ‘Sweet Olive’, Murraya paniculata, dwarf Meyer’s Lemon, or Stephanotis floribunda. While the plants DO arrive small, they should grow quickly for many years of their heady aromas.
Go ahead.....touch someone’s heart and thrill their nose with lovely living gifts that make scents this holiday season.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
My December Classes
Basics of Frugal Backyard Chicken Raising
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 December 11, 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 chickens. 813 839 0881 or e-mail to RSVP. JohnAStarnes@msn.com See you then! John Starnes
Urban Farmsteading Basics 101
There is no security more reassuring than daily harvesting fresh meals from your front and back yard, just feet from the kitchen, even if just potted arugula or snow peas or cherry tomatoes for starters, or a fresh chicken egg or meat. But don't know where and how to start? Learn easy ways to deeply cut your water use, to insure fresh salads and root crops and fruits year round, a super cheap solar shower, and more. You'll get a lesson sheet of 15 topics to be covered; please be sure to bring a notepad and pen. Feel free to shoot pics and video. You will receive two free packets of cool weather veggie seeds, plus instructions on their culture, harvest and use. I've taught this class many times and folks say it it thorough and intense. It addresses a way of life and a mindset vs. being just a gardening class. I am teaching this class again on December 26th from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute Question and Answer 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. Happy Gardening! John 813 839 0881
Grow Your Own Salad Bar
Many folks want more than anything to simply grow a luscious, crisp, pesticide-free salad to enjoy each day. The winter season is stellar for the classic salad crops like arugula, chard, romaine lettuce, broccoli, sugar snap peas, scallions, cherry tomatoes and more, plus our hot muggy summers boast their own unique salad crops. This class covers the basic of making a Water Wise Container Garden, creating fertile soil for it, crops selection and planting them from seeds to cut costs (most are VERY easy from seeds), pest control, proper watering and organic soil feeding. You will quickly recoup the cost of the class in your first dozen harvests of many many dozens to come this winter season. You will get two free packets of unusual seeds for vigorous, mild flavored leafy greens you will never see in the grocery store, and instructions on their easy culture. One nice thing about winter salad gardening here is that, except for the tomatoes, the crops not only are cold hardy they LIKE frosts.....makes them sweeter. December through February are thus ideal times to sow their seeds.Garden writer John Starnes (St. Pete Times, Florida Gardening) is teaching this class twice in December, on the 4th and the 18th, from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute Q & A session after. The cost is $20 per student. My 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. Why buy pricey little bags of corporate salads when you can grow fresh salads for just pennies a day?
Fermented Foods 101
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 December 5 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!
Growing Food, Cultivating Freedom and Harvesting Joy
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. I will offer this class again on December 19, 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
Growing Cold Hardy Veggies and Herbs in 'Water Wise Container Gardens' Winter is here so now is the perfect time to plant the cold hardy crops that love chilly temps. I had my first veggie garden here in 1967 when I was in 9th grade at Madison Junior High, and have learned since then core principals and techniques that make winter food gardening in central Florida both pleasant and productive. Forget pesticides, forget wasting money on plants and seeds and crops that fail, and forget thinking that you have a brown thumb. Learn how to create a fertile garden site that will bless you with fresh pesticide-free produce for the six cooler months of the year, plus learn how to make your own 'Water Wise Container Gardens' for cheap to free...hey, the idea is to SAVE money, right?!. I am teaching this class again on December 12 , 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. You will receive two free packets of winter crops seeds. I will provide a handout, but be sure to bring a notepad and pen. See you then! John Starnes 813 839 0881
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 December 11, 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 chickens. 813 839 0881 or e-mail to RSVP. JohnAStarnes@msn.com See you then! John Starnes
Urban Farmsteading Basics 101
There is no security more reassuring than daily harvesting fresh meals from your front and back yard, just feet from the kitchen, even if just potted arugula or snow peas or cherry tomatoes for starters, or a fresh chicken egg or meat. But don't know where and how to start? Learn easy ways to deeply cut your water use, to insure fresh salads and root crops and fruits year round, a super cheap solar shower, and more. You'll get a lesson sheet of 15 topics to be covered; please be sure to bring a notepad and pen. Feel free to shoot pics and video. You will receive two free packets of cool weather veggie seeds, plus instructions on their culture, harvest and use. I've taught this class many times and folks say it it thorough and intense. It addresses a way of life and a mindset vs. being just a gardening class. I am teaching this class again on December 26th from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute Question and Answer 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. Happy Gardening! John 813 839 0881
Grow Your Own Salad Bar
Many folks want more than anything to simply grow a luscious, crisp, pesticide-free salad to enjoy each day. The winter season is stellar for the classic salad crops like arugula, chard, romaine lettuce, broccoli, sugar snap peas, scallions, cherry tomatoes and more, plus our hot muggy summers boast their own unique salad crops. This class covers the basic of making a Water Wise Container Garden, creating fertile soil for it, crops selection and planting them from seeds to cut costs (most are VERY easy from seeds), pest control, proper watering and organic soil feeding. You will quickly recoup the cost of the class in your first dozen harvests of many many dozens to come this winter season. You will get two free packets of unusual seeds for vigorous, mild flavored leafy greens you will never see in the grocery store, and instructions on their easy culture. One nice thing about winter salad gardening here is that, except for the tomatoes, the crops not only are cold hardy they LIKE frosts.....makes them sweeter. December through February are thus ideal times to sow their seeds.Garden writer John Starnes (St. Pete Times, Florida Gardening) is teaching this class twice in December, on the 4th and the 18th, from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute Q & A session after. The cost is $20 per student. My 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. Why buy pricey little bags of corporate salads when you can grow fresh salads for just pennies a day?
Fermented Foods 101
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 December 5 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!
Growing Food, Cultivating Freedom and Harvesting Joy
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. I will offer this class again on December 19, 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
Growing Cold Hardy Veggies and Herbs in 'Water Wise Container Gardens' Winter is here so now is the perfect time to plant the cold hardy crops that love chilly temps. I had my first veggie garden here in 1967 when I was in 9th grade at Madison Junior High, and have learned since then core principals and techniques that make winter food gardening in central Florida both pleasant and productive. Forget pesticides, forget wasting money on plants and seeds and crops that fail, and forget thinking that you have a brown thumb. Learn how to create a fertile garden site that will bless you with fresh pesticide-free produce for the six cooler months of the year, plus learn how to make your own 'Water Wise Container Gardens' for cheap to free...hey, the idea is to SAVE money, right?!. I am teaching this class again on December 12 , 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. You will receive two free packets of winter crops seeds. I will provide a handout, but be sure to bring a notepad and pen. See you then! John Starnes 813 839 0881
Seeds of Forage Brassicas for Sale
Bred to have a low mustard oil content to avoid tainting grazing cattles' milk, these tasty, edible, very cold hardy brassicas thrive in winter in central Florida. In cold climates, sow them in early spring. Sadly, they are sold to the public only in 1 to 50 lb. bags. My goal is to make these more widely available to gardeners while recouping my costs. I am selling 1 tsp. of seeds (approx. 600) for $3 and a A Self Addressed Stamped Envelope sent to me at:
John Starnes
3212 West Paxton AvenueTampa FL 33611
I have the following:
Barnapoli Rape-large mild tender leafy tops
Bonar Rape- reminds me of a mix of broccoli leaves and collards, beautiful light silvery green, no bitterness, tender and sweet
Pasja-I believe it is a hybrid of Mizuna and a turnip, a classic salads green also good in stir fry, great for grazing right from the garden
Appin-Similar to Pasja, also mild flavored, tender, and a vigorous grower. Sow them all from October through February in central Florida.
Thanks and happy gardening! John
John Starnes
3212 West Paxton AvenueTampa FL 33611
I have the following:
Barnapoli Rape-large mild tender leafy tops
Bonar Rape- reminds me of a mix of broccoli leaves and collards, beautiful light silvery green, no bitterness, tender and sweet
Pasja-I believe it is a hybrid of Mizuna and a turnip, a classic salads green also good in stir fry, great for grazing right from the garden
Appin-Similar to Pasja, also mild flavored, tender, and a vigorous grower. Sow them all from October through February in central Florida.
Thanks and happy gardening! John
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
My Monster Home Grown Quiche
I used one of my two dumpster-dived long Pyrex baking dishes today to make a huge quiche that tonight I will cut into SMALL slices (8-10 lbs. of body fat more to lose to get my abs back) and freeze them. I admit that it came out YUMMY! The crust was biscuity...I made a wet dough of flour, olive oil, sea salt, bran, and baking powder and spread it about 1 inch thick in the baking dish after spraying it with lecithin then drizzling a little extra virgin olive oil ( 1 liter for FIVE dollars at Big Lots!). I put about 7 chopped yellow onions atop that batter, a half pound of cubed Publix Swiss cheese, then poured over that the mix a big tub of herbed eggs I'd found in my freezer of a LOT of eggs from my chickens plus already salted and herbed.....I thawed it last night. Today I added two fresh eggs and chopped Allium canadense garlic and mizuna and purple kosaitai for color, fiber and nutrition, plus added a few drops of iodine and a sprinkle of food grade diatomaceous earth to provide silica and dietary iodine. I baked it at 350 degrees for one hour.....a table knife inserted in it came out clean. Damn I love my own cooking! John
"Cow Peas": Vigna unguiculata
Fertilizer experiments on potatoes, corn, cow peas, peanuts, and effect of fertilizers on the germination of seeds (Bulletin / Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Tennessee)
I can't imagine my urban farm absent this super-productive crop. John
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSfFHNpX0vI
I can't imagine my urban farm absent this super-productive crop. Johnhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSfFHNpX0vI
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Seeds of "Filipino Mexican Tree Pepper" for sale
This is the perennial (if protected from frost) "Tree Pepper" (Capsicum frustescens) I recently posted a video of here. The heat and flavor are on par with a good Thai pepper. I am asking $3 and a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope for 5 ripe pods that once you've dried indoors a few weeks, will yield a few hundred seeds to sow in the spring if you live in a cold region, now if you garden in a mild winter area. If you have winters harsher than Tampa's, I strongly suggest that you grow them in pots you can place indoors in front of a south window each winter. Just mail your payment and SASE to me at:
John Starnes 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa FL 33611.
Thanks and happy gardening! John
Bush joking about no WMDs
In his "book" he claims to be "sickened" that no WMDs were found in Iraq. So what's with his "joke" at a dinner when at that point over 2,800 American soldiers, and many tens of thousands of Iraqis had died? When will this spoiled arrogant monster face charges for war crimes and treason instead of getting a huge pension, a health care plan that none of us could dream of, and a book deal?! John
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_tFKa2_YBQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_tFKa2_YBQ
Friday, November 12, 2010
Class: Easy Frugal Organic Winter Veggies and Herbs Gardening
The autumn cool down is here, so this is a great time if you are a super busy family person with either no garden site created yet, or if your past efforts yielded crops of disappointment instead of food for the dinner table, to get started. I had my first veggie garden here in 1967 when I was in 9th grade at Madison Junior High, and have learned since then core principals and techniques that make winter food gardening in central Florida both pleasant and productive. Forget pesticides, forget wasting money on plants and seeds and crops that fail, and forget thinking that you have a brown thumb. Learn how to create a fertile garden site that will bless you with fresh pesticide-free produce for the six cooler months of the year. I am teaching this class again on November 27th, 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. You will receive two free packets of winter crops seeds. I will provide a handout, but be sure to bring a notepad and pen. See you then! John Starnes 813 839 0881
Class: Urban Farming 101 for the beginner
There is no security more reassuring than daily harvesting fresh meals from your front and back yard, just feet from the kitchen, even if just potted arugula or snow peas or cherry tomatoes for starters, or a fresh chicken egg or meat. But don't know where and how to start? Learn easy ways to deeply cut your water use, to insure fresh salads and root crops and fruits year round, a super cheap solar shower, and more. You'll get a lesson sheet of 15 topics to be covered; please be sure to bring a notepad and pen. Feel free to shoot pics and video. You will receive two free packets of cool weather veggie seeds, plus instructions on their culture, harvest and use. I've taught this class many times and folks say it it thorough and intense. It addresses a way of life and a mindset vs. being just a gardening class. I am teaching this class again twice in November, on the 13th, from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute Question and Answer session after, then again November 28th, same times. 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. Happy Gardening! John
Class: Basics of Frugal Backyard Chicken Raising
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 class again on November 14, 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 this fall to provide raw green plant matter VITAL to having healthy backyard chickens. 813 839 0881 or e-mail to RSVP. See you then! John Starnes
Class: Growing Food, Cultivating Freedom, and Harvesting Joy
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. I will offer this class again on November 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
Class: Least Toxic Pest Control, Indoors and Out
Say "gardening" and many homeowners and gardeners and pet lovers alike cringe and think of plant-ravaging bugs and diseases, plus swarms of fleas and roaches and mosquitos making 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. 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 November 20th, 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
Edible Native Garlic Plants for Sale
If you love garlic and onions you must grow this relative of both called Allium canadense that is native from Canada all the way down to Florida. The flavor is much like a mix of garlic and scallions, and you can eat the leaves, bulbs and flower stalks that appear in spring. Often these stalks bear baby clones that can be cut off and planted, much in the manner of Walking Onions. It very much prefers boggy soil, so set the pot in a tray with an inch of water, or in a sunny wet area of your yard. The plant seems to die back in spring, with no sign of life all summer, then BOOM once the fall cool down arrives the shoots appear like crazy. The bulb itself also multiplies underground, so in a few months you will have a clump that can be divided. I have 10 plants in 1 gallon pots available for $5 each, along with other edible crops plants, on my Honor System plant sales tables out front; just slip your cash through the payment slot in my red office door on my front porch. My address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa FL 33611 Thanks and happy gardening John
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Natto
Google the history of this ancient Japanese soybean probiotic food called 'natto' and consider fermenting and eating your own. John
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSUQdogKVOg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSUQdogKVOg
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Free Mini-Greenhouse for Rooting Cuttings
These tubs that cooking oil come in are a common sight in restaurant dumpsters.....they can be useful for storing bulk bird seed and fertilizer, or for transporting compost and manure teas. But if you root lots of cuttings, try using a sharp knife to stab the side near the top, then cut around in both directions, leaving a few inches of plastic intact on one side to serve as a hinge. Using a pencil thick drill bit, make 2 air and drainage holes per side, about an inch from the bottom to make it be a Water Wise Container Garden, then add the medium of your choice......builder's sand, garden soil, perlite, vermiculite, compost, etc. Set the rooting greenhouse where it will get INdirect light, like beneath a tree, or along the north side of a structure (if you live in the northern hemisphere), insert your cuttings, then control humidity levels with a combination of how tightly you close the lid, and whether or not you have the lid screwed on. For high humidity levels for the first week or so, tape it shut with cheap, wide, scotch style packing tape, which I often find near-new rolls of in the dumpsters behind warehouses.Whatever kind of plastic they are made from, it becomes brittle in less than a year here in sunny Tampa. But hey, they are free for the taking-and-use in most restaurant dumpsters!
"Peek and You Shall Find" John Starnes
Waterboxx- VERY innovative for dry regions!
I am thankful to my friend Michael Mowry in Denver for sending me this link. Be sure to watch the animation showing how it works by duplicating Nature. John
http://www.groasis.com/page/uk/index.php
http://www.groasis.com/page/uk/index.php
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
The Beatles performing 'Hey Jude' on The David Frost Show
I feel that The Beatles gave us not only wonderful music, but also breathlessly fresh and culturally needed energies to help fuel each choice we make every day to be free yet responsible, empathetic human citizens of this lovely world. John
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv-pPMd_awQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv-pPMd_awQ&feature=related
Farmageddon
Food is power, and those elite "public servants" who perennially send our children off to wars of choice for profit, and who exempt themselves from the laws they try to bind us to, know this. Grow your own food, support local farmers, boycott Monsanto's GMO crops and products, enjoy if you wish cannabis as did Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, all the while remembering that Jefferson was a gardener and a farmer. I bet he'd be livid to see these videos of raids on family farms. John
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/11/09/the-return-of-fresh-milk-from-the-king-dairy.aspx
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/11/09/the-return-of-fresh-milk-from-the-king-dairy.aspx
Opuntia Cactus Pickles Update
Well yesterday I popped open that apothecary jar of cactus refrigerator pickles.....DAMN they are good! Nice and crisp, the pickle juice did not become slimy as I expected, and great flavor. The taste is close to bread-and-butter pickles but much less sweet and with a ton of garlic and a fair amount of hot peppers. I took a small tub to my gym for folks there to taste and they loved them. The success of this first batch insures I will be making more, plus inspires me to re-look at the pickled fish recipes I've been collecting as someone who LOVES pickled herring. Now that the mullet are running and spawning I may well try my hand at making pickled mullet for the first time. For me, there is a near-spiritual satisfaction that comes from intimately growing and harvesting and preparing my own food. I just can't imagine living off of processed "food"! John
Monday, November 8, 2010
The Mullets are Running!
So starting this week I will cast net 1-2 times weekly as today a fisherman said they are spawning, with the females big around as footballs due to all the roe. Not only do I love making and EATING smoked mullet, I am determined to get a few pounds of mullet roe to try my hand at making this traditional Old World delicacy. The pics are of mullets and other fish I've smoked in winters past as part of my ongoing efforts to achieve ever-greater food self sufficiency. John
Saturday, November 6, 2010
'Soil to Live For'
I wrote this article in 2008, but forget where it was published...'Heirloom Gardener'? The basic principles in it should be valid in most climate zones. John
Have you ever walked through an old growth forest and felt beneath your feet that rich spongy layer of natural compost accumulated over many human lifetimes? Year after year, a steady rain of falling leaves, bird droppings, pine cones, expired perennials and annuals, fallen fruits and the nutrients dissolved in rain water recreate and revive the soil beneath the green canopy of trees. This life-giving mantle of organic matter is a far cry from the lifeless sprinkling of decorative red bark nuggets, or occasional bag of peat, or a "miraculous" blue chemical fertilizer that many of us have attempted to heal our soil with. So how can we bring Nature’s soil enriching methods into our gardens?
"Sheet composting". Many of us have never gotten around to conventional composting because we don’t have a compost bin, or aren’t thrilled by the thought of having to turn the compost pile monthly, or spreading the finished product all over the far reaches of our landscape only to start all over again. Sheet composting eliminates those hassles by simply spreading compost-forming materials all over one’s gardens in a "sheet" of compost that builds up and decays and feeds the soil directly and steadily. It is an easy way of duplicating the forest’s method of constant soil improvement. Just think, with every good rain or deep watering, that sheet of organic matter leaches into the soil beneath it a life-giving broth of nutrients and beneficial bacteria and fungi. What was once funky lifeless dirt soon is rich humusy soil teeming with earthworms and healthy garden plants, all for free.
Recycling has progressed from being a "hippie fringe behavior" to a respectable mainstream habit our society embraces more and more in an effort to protect an environment under daily assault by a burgeoning human population. "Sheet composting" allows each of us to keep valuable organic matter out of landfills by healing our soil with an intriguing array of freebies. Why buy expensive bags of lifeless perky red mulches made from killed trees once you start noticing the boxes of cabbage leaves and corn husks your grocer will give you, or the kitchen scraps you’ve always sent down the disposal? Duplicate that forest and mulch your veggie or flower garden with chopped up bush trimmings and pesticide-free grass clippings, or leaves covered up with the horse manure the neighborhood stall pays to have hauled away. Buzz each evening’s kitchen scraps in the blender with water and toss that nutrient-rich slurry onto your sheet compost to feed the soil without attracting raccoons and opossums with intact table scraps. Use cheap clay cat litter, or plain garden soil or tree grindings mulch instead of the anti-bacterial clumping stuff in the litter box and toss that nitrogen rich mixture into the rose garden. Stop at your local coffee shop once a week and bring home big bags of coffee grounds and sprinkle them onto that sheet of compost forming steadily in your landscape beds. You get the idea…..if it will rot and it is free, bring it home and sheet compost with it.
Of course, esthetics are important, and who wants to gaze at a flower bed littered with decaying fruit, cat litter and corn cobs…hardly the cover of "Better Homes and Gardens". Just sprinkle a more attractive mulch material over your newest "deposits" to your soil’s fertility account, like tree chips mulch, pine needles, raked leaves, or a bale of hay shredded quickly by hand…one $5 bale will easily cover a 10 foot by 10 foot area with a pleasing blond mulch hiding all those decaying treasures while minimizing flies.
As your sheet of compost becomes a continuous mantle over all your gardens, you’ll notice that the soil stays damp and dark and earthwormy between rains and waterings, and that your plants are perking up big time. You’ll notice too that your deposits to the garbage man have shrunk, and that you’ve started coveting neighbors’ yard waste… "Hey man, can I have your pine needles?" "What are you going to do with those bags of leaves?" You’ll also notice that your gardens need less and less fertilizer. Why? Compost is the gold standard of soil amendments. A light sprinkling of fish meal each spring and fall all over the sheet compost will insure perfect plant nutrition. If your soil is acid, a light sprinkling of dolomite or garden limestone each spring will keep your soil "sweet" while supplying vital calcium and magnesium. While ordinary mulch primarily keeps soil moist and cool, modifying it into sheet compost turns it into a continuous Thanksgiving Day feast for your gardens. And a thick damp mulch will help slowly acidify alkaline soils.
Poor soil, be it clay or sand, causes most of our ongoing gardening frustrations, and is crying out for us to imitate Nature’s ways. "Pit composting" is another dramatically effective way of recycling garden waste and organic soil foods into little "heavens" for extra hungry plants like peonies, roses, squash, asparagus, baby trees and fruit trees. Autumn is the perfect time to start creating them as we clean up our yards of garden waste and leaves, or in spring if we prefer to shield our gardens from winter’s harshness with freeze killed top growth and leaves.
Sounds fancy but "pit composting" is nothing more than digging pits of varying sizes, and filling them with organic wastes that decay into compost. Each pit then serves as a highly fertile planting hole for trees, shrubs, perennials and hungry veggie crops the following season. Long employed in highly alkaline regions of the desert southwest like arid Arizona cursed with caliche soils, this technique is a godsend for folks gardening in packed alkaline clay soils, or in loose nutrient poor sandy soils.
Dig a pit 2-3 feet wide and deep and pile the waste soil all around the hole in a big ring as you stand inside the deepening hole...it will look like a moon crater or low volcano when you are done. Then use that hole as a "landfill" for your household’s wastes…bush trimmings, limbs from this spring’s snow damage to your trees, organic grass clippings, autumn leaves, spoiled bales of hay, kitchen scraps, dog dooky, soiled kitty litter (not the scented deodorized kind but cheap clay), spoiled dropped fruits and such, old firewood, plus hopefully a generous dollop of fresh manure of some kind, horse poop being my favorite. If you are fighting highly alkaline soil as is the norm west of the Mississippi, sprinkle in 10 pounds of cottonseed meal from a feed store, or a few handfuls of agricultural sulfur. If you are dealing with acidic soil, sprinkle in a few handfuls of powdered limestone. When your pit is filled with organic wastes you will have a mound 2 feet higher than the hole’s rim: place into that "organic salad" several earthworms from your compost bin or garden soil so they can feed and multiply, then cover it all up with the soil you dug out. You’ll end up with a tall funny-looking "dome". (be mindful that until it is filled, the pit is a stumbling hazard for young children and tiny dogs.)
Give this a good deep watering and let it mellow and compost all winter long, or for 3 months if you make one in spring. It will settle until it is a slight dome a year later. At planting time go ahead and plant your hungry babies or seeds in the center. The roots will luxuriate in that humusy, fertile, pH-balanced underground compost-filled pit that will absorb and hold water wonderfully, yet that porous medium will allow for good drainage and oxygen flow for the roots. If you have never succeeded in growing a huge bumper crop of winter squash or pumpkins, (both are very hungry plants), planting their seeds above a "compost pit" may well bring to mind Jack and the Bean Stalk! And compost pits are perfect homes for super-productive asparagus if you sprinkle a 5 pound box of cheap rock or ice cream salt into the pit before covering it up with that soil. Why? Asparagus is a brackish water plant from European coastlines and some of us already sprinkle salt on our patches annually anyway.
By creating compost pits steadily, side by side, all over our property year after year, we can reinvent our soil, recycle our wastes, conserve water, elevate low lying areas, and enjoy vibrantly healthy plants. And transforming "garbage" into beautiful blooms, tasty fruit, plump squashes and pumpkins, fragrant Old Roses and sensuous peony blooms is a touch of the alchemist’s dream.
Once we have created healthy soil, we need to feed it. While you won’t find this recipe on the Food Channel, it’s been a staple of European gardeners for centuries. To brew that nutrient-rich elixir called "Manure Tea" or "Russian Tea" or "Poop Soup" relied on by millions, all you need is a non-leaky garbage can, water, a stir stick and, you guessed it, fresh manure.
Horse manure is far and away everyone’s favorite, but you can settle for bagged sheep or poultry manure...but do take a few garbage bags to a neighborhood horse stall and treat your self to "the real thing" for best results. Fill the garbage can four fifth’s full of water and let the chlorine out gas a day or two, then fill the remaining fifth with fresh manure, stir, and let it "brew" for two weeks with an old window screen on top to keep out flies and breeding mosquitos. Stirring daily with an old broom handle will mix the sunken "goodies" with the foamy top. At the end of two weeks, "it’s time for tea!"
Just use an old mop bucket to bail out the barnyard- scented elixir onto your hungriest plants like corn, all manner of greens, squash, sunflowers, annual flowers, bananas, hibiscus, taro, true yams (Dioscorea species) and especially roses.. Then water it in deeply. They will lap up the combination of dissolved plant nutrients and beneficial bacteria, and you may soon be convinced you can see them growing.
For young seedlings of veggies and flowers just feed them a dilute mix of one half "poop soup" and water, then water that in too. This weakened strength insures you won’t "burn" those teensy young stems and roots. And use this dilute formula for a real pick-me-up for all your potted patio and indoor plants and orchids too...don’t worry...that musty barnyard fragrance many folks actually like will pass in a few hours.
When the tea is all drawn off, just spread the dregs at the bottom around your gardens as part of your ongoing mulching habit. Or toss it atop your compost heap. Hey, many of us save our tea bags and coffee grounds for the garden, why not this too?
As with all recipes there are variations, and people think of new ones all the time. Us "rose freaks" like to toss in five pounds of alfalfa pellets from the feed store. Passionate veggie gardeners will add a few pounds of dried kelp meal from the feed store to add the valuable trace minerals all plants need for optimum health. Tossing in two cups each of Epsom salts and rock phosphate supplies extra magnesium, sulphur and phosphorus. Stir five pounds of menhaden fish meal to make your own home made ‘fish emulsion’. Sprinkle in sources of beneficial bacteria and yeasts like compost starters, Calf Manna (from a feed store) or ‘Primal Defense’ (from the health food store) to broaden your garden’s ecology to ward off fungal and bacterial disease. If you are lucky enough to have access to potent poultry and pig poops, use one part to ten parts water.
When I moved to Denver in 1987 I devised a potently acidic version to combat the excess alkalinity that is the norm on the plains, and that many coastal and south Florida folks here face. I called it "Puke Juice" due to the effect its horrid smell on the human gag reflex has when being applied. Don’t worry...that charming "perfume" fades a few hours later in the garden. Plus it is easy and FREE to make.
Just toss in a bushel basket of FRESH green, pesticide-free grass clippings and some manure, stir, then brew with the garbage can lid tightly on for two weeks also....with no air available your tea will soon be being brewed by anaerobic bacteria who will produce so many natural acids that the resulting tea dissolves egg shells and chicken bones! Sure it stinks, but is a remarkably fast, cheap and natural way to acidify alkaline soils while also supplying a whole range of dissolved nutrients. I made and used many many gallons of "Puke Juice" my first year of gardening in my northeast Denver yard back in 1988 to quickly heal my then-packed, 8.5 pH bentonite clay "soil". Julia Child was a gardener I hear, so I bet she’d even give these recipes a try...ready, set, brew. (But don’t sip!)
Vibrantly healthy soil is the key to successful, pleasurable organic gardening....give these techniques a try and watch your soil evolve into a living fertile medium that some gardeners would either kill or die for.
Have you ever walked through an old growth forest and felt beneath your feet that rich spongy layer of natural compost accumulated over many human lifetimes? Year after year, a steady rain of falling leaves, bird droppings, pine cones, expired perennials and annuals, fallen fruits and the nutrients dissolved in rain water recreate and revive the soil beneath the green canopy of trees. This life-giving mantle of organic matter is a far cry from the lifeless sprinkling of decorative red bark nuggets, or occasional bag of peat, or a "miraculous" blue chemical fertilizer that many of us have attempted to heal our soil with. So how can we bring Nature’s soil enriching methods into our gardens?
"Sheet composting". Many of us have never gotten around to conventional composting because we don’t have a compost bin, or aren’t thrilled by the thought of having to turn the compost pile monthly, or spreading the finished product all over the far reaches of our landscape only to start all over again. Sheet composting eliminates those hassles by simply spreading compost-forming materials all over one’s gardens in a "sheet" of compost that builds up and decays and feeds the soil directly and steadily. It is an easy way of duplicating the forest’s method of constant soil improvement. Just think, with every good rain or deep watering, that sheet of organic matter leaches into the soil beneath it a life-giving broth of nutrients and beneficial bacteria and fungi. What was once funky lifeless dirt soon is rich humusy soil teeming with earthworms and healthy garden plants, all for free.
Recycling has progressed from being a "hippie fringe behavior" to a respectable mainstream habit our society embraces more and more in an effort to protect an environment under daily assault by a burgeoning human population. "Sheet composting" allows each of us to keep valuable organic matter out of landfills by healing our soil with an intriguing array of freebies. Why buy expensive bags of lifeless perky red mulches made from killed trees once you start noticing the boxes of cabbage leaves and corn husks your grocer will give you, or the kitchen scraps you’ve always sent down the disposal? Duplicate that forest and mulch your veggie or flower garden with chopped up bush trimmings and pesticide-free grass clippings, or leaves covered up with the horse manure the neighborhood stall pays to have hauled away. Buzz each evening’s kitchen scraps in the blender with water and toss that nutrient-rich slurry onto your sheet compost to feed the soil without attracting raccoons and opossums with intact table scraps. Use cheap clay cat litter, or plain garden soil or tree grindings mulch instead of the anti-bacterial clumping stuff in the litter box and toss that nitrogen rich mixture into the rose garden. Stop at your local coffee shop once a week and bring home big bags of coffee grounds and sprinkle them onto that sheet of compost forming steadily in your landscape beds. You get the idea…..if it will rot and it is free, bring it home and sheet compost with it.
Of course, esthetics are important, and who wants to gaze at a flower bed littered with decaying fruit, cat litter and corn cobs…hardly the cover of "Better Homes and Gardens". Just sprinkle a more attractive mulch material over your newest "deposits" to your soil’s fertility account, like tree chips mulch, pine needles, raked leaves, or a bale of hay shredded quickly by hand…one $5 bale will easily cover a 10 foot by 10 foot area with a pleasing blond mulch hiding all those decaying treasures while minimizing flies.
As your sheet of compost becomes a continuous mantle over all your gardens, you’ll notice that the soil stays damp and dark and earthwormy between rains and waterings, and that your plants are perking up big time. You’ll notice too that your deposits to the garbage man have shrunk, and that you’ve started coveting neighbors’ yard waste… "Hey man, can I have your pine needles?" "What are you going to do with those bags of leaves?" You’ll also notice that your gardens need less and less fertilizer. Why? Compost is the gold standard of soil amendments. A light sprinkling of fish meal each spring and fall all over the sheet compost will insure perfect plant nutrition. If your soil is acid, a light sprinkling of dolomite or garden limestone each spring will keep your soil "sweet" while supplying vital calcium and magnesium. While ordinary mulch primarily keeps soil moist and cool, modifying it into sheet compost turns it into a continuous Thanksgiving Day feast for your gardens. And a thick damp mulch will help slowly acidify alkaline soils.
Poor soil, be it clay or sand, causes most of our ongoing gardening frustrations, and is crying out for us to imitate Nature’s ways. "Pit composting" is another dramatically effective way of recycling garden waste and organic soil foods into little "heavens" for extra hungry plants like peonies, roses, squash, asparagus, baby trees and fruit trees. Autumn is the perfect time to start creating them as we clean up our yards of garden waste and leaves, or in spring if we prefer to shield our gardens from winter’s harshness with freeze killed top growth and leaves.
Sounds fancy but "pit composting" is nothing more than digging pits of varying sizes, and filling them with organic wastes that decay into compost. Each pit then serves as a highly fertile planting hole for trees, shrubs, perennials and hungry veggie crops the following season. Long employed in highly alkaline regions of the desert southwest like arid Arizona cursed with caliche soils, this technique is a godsend for folks gardening in packed alkaline clay soils, or in loose nutrient poor sandy soils.
Dig a pit 2-3 feet wide and deep and pile the waste soil all around the hole in a big ring as you stand inside the deepening hole...it will look like a moon crater or low volcano when you are done. Then use that hole as a "landfill" for your household’s wastes…bush trimmings, limbs from this spring’s snow damage to your trees, organic grass clippings, autumn leaves, spoiled bales of hay, kitchen scraps, dog dooky, soiled kitty litter (not the scented deodorized kind but cheap clay), spoiled dropped fruits and such, old firewood, plus hopefully a generous dollop of fresh manure of some kind, horse poop being my favorite. If you are fighting highly alkaline soil as is the norm west of the Mississippi, sprinkle in 10 pounds of cottonseed meal from a feed store, or a few handfuls of agricultural sulfur. If you are dealing with acidic soil, sprinkle in a few handfuls of powdered limestone. When your pit is filled with organic wastes you will have a mound 2 feet higher than the hole’s rim: place into that "organic salad" several earthworms from your compost bin or garden soil so they can feed and multiply, then cover it all up with the soil you dug out. You’ll end up with a tall funny-looking "dome". (be mindful that until it is filled, the pit is a stumbling hazard for young children and tiny dogs.)
Give this a good deep watering and let it mellow and compost all winter long, or for 3 months if you make one in spring. It will settle until it is a slight dome a year later. At planting time go ahead and plant your hungry babies or seeds in the center. The roots will luxuriate in that humusy, fertile, pH-balanced underground compost-filled pit that will absorb and hold water wonderfully, yet that porous medium will allow for good drainage and oxygen flow for the roots. If you have never succeeded in growing a huge bumper crop of winter squash or pumpkins, (both are very hungry plants), planting their seeds above a "compost pit" may well bring to mind Jack and the Bean Stalk! And compost pits are perfect homes for super-productive asparagus if you sprinkle a 5 pound box of cheap rock or ice cream salt into the pit before covering it up with that soil. Why? Asparagus is a brackish water plant from European coastlines and some of us already sprinkle salt on our patches annually anyway.
By creating compost pits steadily, side by side, all over our property year after year, we can reinvent our soil, recycle our wastes, conserve water, elevate low lying areas, and enjoy vibrantly healthy plants. And transforming "garbage" into beautiful blooms, tasty fruit, plump squashes and pumpkins, fragrant Old Roses and sensuous peony blooms is a touch of the alchemist’s dream.
Once we have created healthy soil, we need to feed it. While you won’t find this recipe on the Food Channel, it’s been a staple of European gardeners for centuries. To brew that nutrient-rich elixir called "Manure Tea" or "Russian Tea" or "Poop Soup" relied on by millions, all you need is a non-leaky garbage can, water, a stir stick and, you guessed it, fresh manure.
Horse manure is far and away everyone’s favorite, but you can settle for bagged sheep or poultry manure...but do take a few garbage bags to a neighborhood horse stall and treat your self to "the real thing" for best results. Fill the garbage can four fifth’s full of water and let the chlorine out gas a day or two, then fill the remaining fifth with fresh manure, stir, and let it "brew" for two weeks with an old window screen on top to keep out flies and breeding mosquitos. Stirring daily with an old broom handle will mix the sunken "goodies" with the foamy top. At the end of two weeks, "it’s time for tea!"
Just use an old mop bucket to bail out the barnyard- scented elixir onto your hungriest plants like corn, all manner of greens, squash, sunflowers, annual flowers, bananas, hibiscus, taro, true yams (Dioscorea species) and especially roses.. Then water it in deeply. They will lap up the combination of dissolved plant nutrients and beneficial bacteria, and you may soon be convinced you can see them growing.
For young seedlings of veggies and flowers just feed them a dilute mix of one half "poop soup" and water, then water that in too. This weakened strength insures you won’t "burn" those teensy young stems and roots. And use this dilute formula for a real pick-me-up for all your potted patio and indoor plants and orchids too...don’t worry...that musty barnyard fragrance many folks actually like will pass in a few hours.
When the tea is all drawn off, just spread the dregs at the bottom around your gardens as part of your ongoing mulching habit. Or toss it atop your compost heap. Hey, many of us save our tea bags and coffee grounds for the garden, why not this too?
As with all recipes there are variations, and people think of new ones all the time. Us "rose freaks" like to toss in five pounds of alfalfa pellets from the feed store. Passionate veggie gardeners will add a few pounds of dried kelp meal from the feed store to add the valuable trace minerals all plants need for optimum health. Tossing in two cups each of Epsom salts and rock phosphate supplies extra magnesium, sulphur and phosphorus. Stir five pounds of menhaden fish meal to make your own home made ‘fish emulsion’. Sprinkle in sources of beneficial bacteria and yeasts like compost starters, Calf Manna (from a feed store) or ‘Primal Defense’ (from the health food store) to broaden your garden’s ecology to ward off fungal and bacterial disease. If you are lucky enough to have access to potent poultry and pig poops, use one part to ten parts water.
When I moved to Denver in 1987 I devised a potently acidic version to combat the excess alkalinity that is the norm on the plains, and that many coastal and south Florida folks here face. I called it "Puke Juice" due to the effect its horrid smell on the human gag reflex has when being applied. Don’t worry...that charming "perfume" fades a few hours later in the garden. Plus it is easy and FREE to make.
Just toss in a bushel basket of FRESH green, pesticide-free grass clippings and some manure, stir, then brew with the garbage can lid tightly on for two weeks also....with no air available your tea will soon be being brewed by anaerobic bacteria who will produce so many natural acids that the resulting tea dissolves egg shells and chicken bones! Sure it stinks, but is a remarkably fast, cheap and natural way to acidify alkaline soils while also supplying a whole range of dissolved nutrients. I made and used many many gallons of "Puke Juice" my first year of gardening in my northeast Denver yard back in 1988 to quickly heal my then-packed, 8.5 pH bentonite clay "soil". Julia Child was a gardener I hear, so I bet she’d even give these recipes a try...ready, set, brew. (But don’t sip!)
Vibrantly healthy soil is the key to successful, pleasurable organic gardening....give these techniques a try and watch your soil evolve into a living fertile medium that some gardeners would either kill or die for.
Waste Not, want Not
Since many organic gardeners favor fish meal and fish emulsion, I can imagine this approach being used to create both from fish products currently discarded. John
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101006104011.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101006104011.htm
Friday, November 5, 2010
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Cooked Frozen Velvet Bean Pods for Sale Locally: $20
I have 5 bags available, each containing 63 or more cooked pods, enough to allow for six cycles of one pod daily for three weeks, none for three weeks, back and forth as favored by body builders due to the L-dopa content boosting Human Growth Hormone levels via the pituitary gland. Ayurvedic medicine has prescribed Velvet Bean (Mucuna pruriens) for thousands of years as an aphrodisiac for men and women alike. Works for me, and I have a healthy libido already. Some folks with Restless Leg Syndrome use Velvet Bean capsules due to that same L-dopa content. I see that some folks consume Velvet Beans to ease depression...makes sense since natural L-dopa is a precursor to the brain chemical dopamine associated with the feeling of well being.
They also make pleasant snack food, simmered in a curry or Thai dipping sauce ,then eaten as finger food like edamame soybeans. Check out the link below to my video about their preparation and preservation as food and medicine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikHADVwb2_g
I am asking $20 for each bag of 63 cooked pods. I hope that folks will let me know if they like the taste and texture of the "beans" inside each pod as a savory, high-protein finger food like edamame soybeans, and if the L-dopa content benefited their sense of well-being.
John
They also make pleasant snack food, simmered in a curry or Thai dipping sauce ,then eaten as finger food like edamame soybeans. Check out the link below to my video about their preparation and preservation as food and medicine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikHADVwb2_g
I am asking $20 for each bag of 63 cooked pods. I hope that folks will let me know if they like the taste and texture of the "beans" inside each pod as a savory, high-protein finger food like edamame soybeans, and if the L-dopa content benefited their sense of well-being.
John
I TOLD ya'll I'd obsess on getting seeds of this tree!
See below the good overviews of this tree mentioned in the "Evergreen Agriculture" post.....I just bought 5 seeds on E-Bay for $1.50 and $2 shipping. Due to its frost sensitive nature I will be growing at least one in a pot I can bring in during freezes. John
http://www.plantzafrica.com/plantefg/faidalb.htm
http://www.worldagroforestry.org/evergreen_agriculture
http://www.plantzafrica.com/plantefg/faidalb.htm
http://www.worldagroforestry.org/evergreen_agriculture
I watched your video about the solar hot water heater and laughed out loud… you are the only person besides myself who I know of who has bell ends from recycled water and potable water as containers… each time I find the city running pipe I make a deal with the foreman to pick up the bell ends… they are great container planters that last forever… from one forager to another… keep up the good work… free’s my best price… ;0)
Lynda
Thanks Lynda...nice to get support from a fellow tightwad scrounger! May I post your comments with your first name only at my Urban Farming blog? John
Well sure… you can use my last name… I’m proud… ;0)
Lynda Mink
Lynda
Thanks Lynda...nice to get support from a fellow tightwad scrounger! May I post your comments with your first name only at my Urban Farming blog? John
Well sure… you can use my last name… I’m proud… ;0)
Lynda Mink
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Rain after this VERY dry autumn?
I told my gardening friend Peggy that I take credit for yesterday's brief rain in south Tampa.....I'd left a full load of dry clothes on the clothesline. But now it seems that NOAA is agreeing with a local weather station about VERY good rain chances tomorrow! John
http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?CityName=Tampa&state=FL&site=TBW&lat=27.959&lon=-82.4821
http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?CityName=Tampa&state=FL&site=TBW&lat=27.959&lon=-82.4821
"Evergreen Agriculture"
Two guesses who's going to be obsessively googling for seeds of 'Faidherbia albida'?!!! John
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101102083149.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101102083149.htm
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
article from my old St. Pete Times column, 2005, applicable to other very mild climate regions
Garlic leaves: use like chives
Chinese Chives (Allium tuberosum)The sensuous warm flavor and aroma of garlic, onions, shallots and other savory members of the Allium family make me one of many who can’t cook a meal without them. Plus medical research has proved the old lores that those sulfur-rich tasty herbs can lower cholesterol and combat bad microbes. And the next 6 or 7 months of cooler weather in central Florida make growing them a breeze if we but improve the soil.
All the Alliums love rich, humusy, pH neutral soil in full sun. Before planting, spread a 3 inch thick layer of organic matter like horse stall sweepings, compost, old leaves, bagged humus, or alfalfa pellets from a feed store, plus a generous sprinkling of cheap clay cat litter will trap moisture and provide the clay Alliums love. If your inland soil is very acid as is so often the case, apply a liberal sprinkling of dolomite annually about as heavy as parmesan cheese on spaghetti. Alkaline coastal soils can be acidified with a heavier quarterly sprinkling of cottonseed meal from a feed store….sprinkle it right along with the organic matter. Getting your soil’s pH (acidity vs. alkalinity) tested by your local extension service will confirm which is the best course of action. It sounds wacky, but adding to that organic matter and cat litter a 50 lb. bag of cheap dry dog food nuggets over a 10 foot by 10 foot garden before turning the soil will feed the earthworms wonderfully who will in turn nourish your garden. A 4 inch thick layer of mulch, like coastal hay or tree trimmings mulch will do wonders to keep the soil moist and cool but not inhibit the emergence of the bulbs’ foliage. Let all this "ripen" for two weeks then plant away.
Scallions are simply the tasty results of planting ordinary onion sets "too deeply" and harvesting them "too soon"… let them mature a few months more and you’ll have regular onions.
Want "nouveau" scallions that will delight dinner guests? Just plant deeply (about 6 inches) in that improved soil either red Bermuda onion sets, some shallots from the grocery store, an ordinary bulb of garlic broken up into cloves, or even yellow onion sets for unexpected color and rich flavor. Pull them up when about as thick as your index finger for a break from ordinary store bought white scallions. Use their leaves as you would chives and enjoy the subtle differences of their "bouquets" in salads, simple broths, rich casseroles or that occasional impetuous gravy or omelet. ( Friends visiting my winter garden always marvel at their first taste of raw garlic leaves nibbled right there in the garden.)
Experienced gardeners might try growing Leeks and Chinese Chives from seeds planted in shallow 1 inch deep furrows. A little slow, they are worth the wait. When your alliums’ emerald spiky leaves are 8 inches tall, feed the soil again with a sprinkling of ‘menhaden fish meal’ from a feed store or a good drench of ‘fish emulsion’ solution at 3 tablespoons of it per gallon of water. A deep weekly soak will meet their needs and conserve precious water.
Life’s most reliable and memorable joys are the simplest ones, so indulge yourself this winter with a bumper crop of tongue teasing Alliums.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Healthy Weight Loss While Facing Up to Depression
Check out my Starnesland blog to see some techniques I'm using to lose fat, build muscle, and deal with the first time I've been depressed since the VERY snowy, cold, challenging spring of 2001 in Denver where I both faced and witnessed in people I cared for some very real disheartening challenges. One day, one bite, one exercise at a time. John
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