Bonar Rape

By mid March the patch of 2nd generation Bonar rape from open-pollinated blooms last spring has grown lushly due to a top dressing with urine soaked horse stall sweepings and a few good El Nino rains. I've begun using scissors to harvest the tender mild leaves for salads, and to feed to the chickens and quail that scarf it down. It is now a favorite winter Brassica crop of mine and I recommend it heartily as a winter crop in mild areas like Florida, and as a spring crop in snowy regions. This lush patch is on the east side of my big pond in back that I raise Golden Apple Snails in for meat. John

Waste Not Want Not

Chickens' need for raw green plant matter never ceases to amaze me. A few weeks ago I began thinning a "border" of medicinal aloe that has gotten way out of hand in my fertile soil and begun to crowd a path. From now on I will grow it only in a large pot and instead grow colorful flowers in that border. Even though my chickens get tons of leafy plant matter, I decided to throw a big pile of aloe in the chicken scratch path that makes the majority of my potting soil for me, just to see how they'd react. At first them seemed baffled, but soon "got it" and in a little over a week they'd eaten all the aloe except for the toughest stems. No wonder I have such healthy chickens! John

Waste Not Want Not

Chickens are voracious eaters and I am always seeking ways to feed them healthfully but for free. A few days ago I dug up another chunk of Caribbean White Yam, and decided to simmer the peelings and freeze damaged upper portion for 20 minutes. I then chopped them with a potato masher. The chickens did not relish it, but did eat it. John

Nero Di Toscana Kale

I MAY have grown this very old heirloom kale several years ago....not sure. But I sure am growing it each winter from now on! Friends and students agree...the flavor of the tender leaves is VERY mild and sweet on these baby plants. I am growing it interspersed with flat leaf parsley in a buried Water Wise Container Garden made from a baby pool, and both have loved this chilly damp weather. I will be curious if it becomes "perennial" like that "Walking Stick Collard". See link below for more data and a source of the seeds. I expect that Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (www.rareseeds.com ) would carry it too, will check their catalog. John

http://www.territorialseed.com/product/892/s

100% Free Rain Collector

My friend Tim Vadnais gives me 55 gallon drums that held food grade propylene glycol used to cool beer and soda pop systems, and I use them to make rain barrels and buried 55 gallon Water Wise Container Gardens. Yesterday was a gorgeous spring day in Tampa, and after doing other chores and enjoying a great work out at the nearby Joe Abrahams Fitness Center, I indulged in getting "altered" and plunging headlong into completing/doing projects I've procrastinated on as I love the energtic, creative mindset that cannabis cultivates in me. So I FINALLY did an item that had been on my To Do list for ages....used a barrel and a plastic cover from a dingy boat I scavenged curbside two years ago to make a rain collector and barrel for the southern most garden area out back. I used a dumpster dived jig saw to cut out the center of the top of the barrel, leaving the rim intact for rigidity, set the dingy cover atop that, added an old Tampa street brick I scrounged years ago to hold it down, then used a dumpster-dived 7/8 inch paddle bit to drill two holes at the lowest point. I will see the next time I get a good downpour if I need to drill a third hole or not. Since it looks somewhat unsightly, and I am doing my best to make my yard look less like a Third World dumpster diving packrat lives and gardens here, I positioned in front of it a newly made and planted Restricted Drainage Pot in which I'd planted a roadside sugar cane plant I dug up south of Okeechobee the last time I drove my Dad to Big Pine Key to see his then-ailing, now-deceased sister Ola Mae. I will hide the bottom of the sugar cane pot with 6 inches of oak leaves. Sugar cane grows FAST in summer here, and by July it should largely hide the Water Collector and barrel. Here are pics of the Water Collector's component, and my Dad and Ola Mae from that last trip. Enjoy, John

Photos of that A C Greenfix Chickling Vetch

This trial patch of vetch I am growing atop the dormant sweet potato patch is growing well in soil that was already fertile top dressed with urine soaked horse stall sweepings and some wonderful cold El Nino rains we've had. Since I treated the seeds with a rhizobia nitrogen fixing bacteria specific to it, I expect it has begun further nourishing the soil in that garden. At first glance it looks much like a grass, but a close look reveals that classic Lathyrus foliage. Anyday now I will use scissors to make the first modest harvest to feed to the chickens and quail. I am hoping it gets at least knee high, but we will see. It would awesome if it proved to be a perennial here in Tampa but I am not holding my breath as it is usually grown by northern farmers in summer.

Food Self Suffiency and Urban Farming Class

There is wonderful security and satisfaction in being able to prepare many of our meals from abundant gardens around our homes. Imagine FRESH omelets and meat from a backyard henhouse, or expensive "exotic" crops such as arugula, Barbados Cherry, cassava, chaya, papaya, many herbs and staple crops for Thai and other ethnic cuisines fresh and all organic from your own yard. But where to start if you have a "normal" yard of high maintenance lawn and ornamental shrubs? Organic landscape consultant and garden writer John Starnes (St. Pete Times, Fine Gardening, Florida Gardening) shows how to make the transition in stages based on your time, temperament, budget and goals, using his jungly south Tampa "urban farm" as the classroom. Learn the ease of "sheet composting" vs. buying an expensive compost bin, using household graywater to nourish your crops and cut your water bill, cheap and easy organic pest control, plus a very effective, low-labor method for killing lawn areas in place and turning them into productive gardens. You will receive a detailed class handout, but be sure to bring a notepad and pen, and, if you wish, a camera, as people tell me that my classes are very information dense. I will be teaching this class again on March 27th, from 11 AM until 1 PM, from 11 AM until 1 PM followed by a 30 minute Q & A session. The cost is $25 per person, or $20 per person in carloads of four or more to help foster considerate parking for my neighbors. My address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa 33611, which about 6 blocks south of Gandy and 1 1/2 blocks west of MacDill Avenue. I love helping folks eager to transform their yards into sources of sustenance, personal independence, and spiritual satisfaction. Come see how little the freeze affected my food supply, and enjoy fresh raw nibbles as we walk amongst the free range chickens.