Much progress here in my renewed effort to be neater and less of a packrat....even though my foreclosed neighbors Jerry and Heather set out on the curb yesterday a LOT of indoor and outdoor furniture and other stuff.....I DID NOT BRING HOME ONE SINGLE THING! Plus I weekly set out stuff for a woman who patrols the neighborhood in her old white Toyota pickup to scavenge for items she can use or sell. The front yard is nearly opened up from the summer scourge of Spanish Needle (bidens) and today I paint more of the now-exposed concrete edgings with white latex that Mary Jo gave me, more pathways get mulched, I mulch the big center garden I finished weeding yesterday, with another rose (haven't decided if it will be "Maggie" or 'Graham Thomas' or 'Abraham Darby') in a 7 gallon Water Wise Container Garden getting buried. Surplus water hyacinths in the pond come out to be fed to the ducks and chickens, and three young trash tree seedlings come down. Nice to see SO many previously planted perennials and roses in bloom as the nasturtium and other winter annuals come up. The view from the street is nice indeed....so much color, so many birds and butterflies.
I am stuffing the fresh green bidens and Momordica into 55 gallon drums a friend gives me (I drill many holes in them for airflow) along with citrus rinds and poultry poop and mulch to become compost for use next spring and summer. I use kitchen graywater to keep the contents damp. Each summer I spread myself too thin with my fun form of ADDHD and the bidens takes over! Thankfully, the Muscovy ducks and chickens this year, via Joel Salatin-style selected grazing intervals, wiped out 99% of that super-invasive grass I got here 2 years ago out back (Starre grass?). Nice to see weeds I loathe turned into eggs and meat.
MANY seedlings of veggies and flowers MUST be set into 4 inch and 1 gallon pots SOON for further growth to sell, share with friends, and plant here thanks to excellent germination in home made compost from previous seasons. I am most excited about the seedlings of Allium fistulosum as it seems to be, at last, the perennial onion for Florida I've long sought.
I'm looking forward to taking fresh greens from the gardens, fresh hard boiled eggs from my flocks, and fresh citrus to the Occupy Tampa potluck today to help revitalize the dedicated sleep over folks who've been eating a lot of processed foods. Their resiliency and positivism and dedication is inspiring and uplifting.
Yesterday I set a very large scavenged plastic dog carrier cage in the center garden that is now home to I think eight semi-free range Muscovy ducks after puuting in a nice fluffy layer of "wood wool" I scavenged a few days ago, then set atop it a rain shield of a large corrugated plastic sign that Mary Jo gave me, laid a log atop it to hold it down in winds....the ducks have been mating frenzily, daily, so I felt certain they needed a place that would offer a very obvious, cozy dry place to make nests and lay eggs. It can easily hold three nesting females. The sound of ducks fucking can be quite comical!
I love to be busy, and am relishing seeing positive changes on my urban farm, especially in these delightful cool temps. I WILL be a tidier man!
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