Cozy Cottage Egg Farm's 1st egg, layed by our Bard Rock hen, Marmalade. The coins are used for relative size: a Norwegian 5 kroner coin and a U.S. quarter (25 cents) coin. The eggshell was very thin and split open in the coop. Still yummy out of the fry pan!
Cozy Cottage Egg Farm 1st egg was layed!
Watch the video:
Happy habitat food forest!
Tony
During each calendar month, Spore Lore will accept postings of residential wildlife habitats to Spore Lore’s facebook page, Habitat It and They Will Come.
Click to post your Habitat of the Month entry.
Contest entries must include:
1) The name of the garden habitat.
2) The 4 components of wildlife habitat:
SHELTER =
FOOD =
WATER =
SPACE TO RAISE YOUNG =
3) At least one picture of the the wildlife habitat.
All Habitat of the Month Contest entries will receive a “Habitat It!” bumper sticker. Habitat of the Month, as in the The Winner, will receive a signed copy of Tony McGuigan’s book, Habitat It and They Will Come. The month’s winning habitat will be chosen from a review of Comments (facebook) posted to the entry AND ALSO from Tony’s impression of the contest entry. In the case of a tie, two (2) winners, both declared “Habitat of the Month” will be announced.
Contest entries (postings to the facebook page Habitat It and They Will Come) will be accepted till noon (Pacific treefrog time) of the 28th day of the month (26th day for February). Contest winners will be announced by 6PM (Pacific treefrog time) on the 30th day of the same month (28th for February). Contest winners will be announced primarily at Spore Lore’s website (sporelore.com\Blog\Habitat of the Month Contest) and at Spore Lore’s facebook page (Habitat It and They Will Come).
To receive your contest entry “Spore Lore” sticker, and/or receive a book if your habitat is chosen as Habitat of the Month, please email your postal address to habitatofthemonth@sporelore.com; please include the name of your habitat in your email.
Please enter your garden habitat one time only. However, if significant changes have been made to the habitat and/or significant documentation (like pictures!) of the habitat is available, then the same habitat may be re-submitted as a new contest entry.
There is no cash value for any contest rewards or contest prizes.
Participants/Entrants of the Contest give Spore Lore permission to leave contest posts on Spore Lore’s facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/HabitatItAndTheyWillCome, and to post Contest entries and Contest winner announcements to Spore Lore’s facebook pages (Habitat It and They Will Come, Spore Lore, and Tony McGuigan), as well as Tony McGuigan’s/Spore Lore’s other social media sites (Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube) and Spore Lore’s website (sporelore.com). Spore Lore reserves the right to use the winner’s name (if provided in the contest entry), habitat name and habitat location (if provided in the contest entry), for publicity purposes only in connection with the Contest and for no other reason.
Spore Lore is not bound to announce contest entries/winner/winners.
GOVERNING LAW: Contest governed by the laws of California and subject to all applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations. Accordingly, all issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Official Rules, or the rights and obligations of the Contestant and Sponsor in connection with the Contest, shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of the State of California, without giving effect to any choice of law or conflict of law rules (whether of the State of California or any other jurisdiction). The Contest is void where prohibited by any applicable law. Contestants, by participating in this Contest, hereby waive and release, and agree to hold harmless Spore Lore and all of its respective officers, directors, employees and representatives and agents, from and against, any and all rights, claims and causes of action whatsoever that they may have, or which may arise, against any of them for any liability for any matter, cause or thing whatsoever, including but not limited to any injury, loss, damage, whether direct, compensatory, incidental or consequential, to person, including death, and /or property, arising in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, from their acceptance, possession, use or misuse of any prize, or their participation in this Contest, or any prize-related activity. By participating in this Contest, Contestants agree to be bound by these Official Rules and the decisions of Sponsor. Except where prohibited by law, by accepting a prize, winner agrees that Spore may use the winner’s name, address (state), photograph, likeness, and/or prize information for advertising, publicity and promotional purposes and to the use of statements made by or attributed to winner relating to Spore Lore or to this Contest and grants to Spore Lore any and all rights to said use without further notice and/or compensation except where prohibited by law.
First a video re “Planting Garlic”, then some pics of “Young Garlic Plants AND Leaf Mulch” (below the video):
Rows of young garlic and yellow onion sprouts. The shallots, planted in the foreground soil (next to the collard), have yet to sprout – the best for last!
Garlic, yellow onion, shallots, and collard veggie bed along the sidewalk. Sure beats a lawn! Note the light covering of oak leaves as mulch, a good erosion protection from the winter rains.
Tree collard cuttings 3 weeks after propagation. Some cuttings have been chewed down by snails or slugs, but others are going to thrive past that onslaught of Nature. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Plant enough cuttings to confuse the confounders! And, some of the collard cuttings will make it.
Shallot stalk, “Do you like my (oak leaf) hat?”
Rains are coming, so I fetched some sidewalk leaves to mulch the garlic/onion/shallots/collard veggie bed with. Cleaning up the sidewalk gives me plenty of rich, partially broken down leaves. The leaves were also used to extend the veggie bed in Tipped Wine Barrel (see blog entry next week?).
Garlic harvest from our sidewalk garden – Straw Bale Recliner Veggie Bed. Note how the garlic was rinsed to remove soil from the roots. The rack (a discarded baker’s tray) will allow the garlic to dry. Nice job, Frau Glory!
Happy mulching your veggie bed with leaves. See you tomorrow.
Tony
First a video re “Planting Garlic”, then some pics of “Garlic, Yellow Onions, and Shallots Planting Completed” (below the video):
Straw Bale Recliner Veggie Bed planted with garlic, yellow onion, and shallots. The dark red dust is blood meal, an attempt to keep local cats from using the unmulched soil as a litter box.
A raccoon paw print IN THE BLOOD MEAL! The raccoon walked over the bed the first night of the planted crop. Well at least the soil does not look torn up by animals digging deeper in the soil or by cats using the veggie box as a litter box.
Happy planting garlic, onions, and shallots. See you tomorrow.
Tony
First a video re “Planting Garlic”, then some pics of “Garlic Bulbs Dusted with Spore” (below the video):
A bucket is used to break apart garlic bulbs into individual gloves that will be planted. The garlic papers will be strewn on top of the planting bed’s soil for mulch and nutrition.
Garlic cloves are moistened with water to thinly coat with mycorrhizal spore.
Happy planting garlic, onions, and shallots. See you tomorrow.
Tony
First a video re “Planting Garlic”, then some pics of Tree Collard Planting (below the video):
The tree collard cuttings to be planted next to our sidewalk garlic bed came from this full grown tree collard. We harvest collard leaves to eat; the stalks leftover become cuttings to be propagated.
Tree collard cuttings to be propagated. Draw a line between the pruners and the leather sheath – that’s the expected soil line for the cuttings.
Tree collard cuttings left to thrive in water till planted SOON! The bucket contained rainwater and fallen leaves, a rich organic soup for the cuttings. Bacteria, fungi, and microbes in the water? Absolutely! And perhaps that’s a good thing. When I find out I’ll get back to you.
For more of Tony’s blog entries on tree collard, see:
20121106-Collard-Propagation–1-of-5-videos
20121107-Collard-Propagation–2-of-5-videos
20121108-Collard-Propagation–3-of-5-videos
20121109-Collard-Propagation–4-of-5-videos
20121110-Collard-Propagation–5-of-5-videos
Happy planting garlic, onions, and shallots AND planting tree collard. See you tomorrow.
Tony
First a video re “Planting Garlic”, then some pics of Soil Making in Leaf Trench Highway (below the video):
Leaf Trench Highway, a fedge (food hedge) and soil-making trench along our garden path. The veggie bed lasagna layer of compostables include (bottom to top): alfalfa straw, fresh greens (prunings and weeds), dead sticks and leaves, hay straw, hot (newer) horse manure, compost soil, mulch, and plants growing through the mulch.
View from Salamander Resort (the barrel pond is Salamander Sunny Swimhole) to Leaf Trench Highway. The “highway” refers to the trench’s habitat connectivity ability – the habitat food forest trench is a pathway between Salamander Resort animal habitat AND Cottage Pond animal habitat, which is under the deck in the background.
See blog entry 20121119 Patio Veggie Pots 5 of 6 for more pics of soil making in Leaf Trench Highway.
See blog entry 20121120 Patio Veggie Pots 6 of 6 for more pics of soil making in Leaf Trench Highway AND how the veggie bed not only makes soil but also provides animal habitat and habitat connectivity.
Read more about soil making in Leaf Trench Highway at blog entry Planting, finally! AND Soil Making in Leaf Trench Highway.
Happy planting garlic, onions, and shallots AND making soil. See you tomorrow.
Tony
First a video re “Planting Garlic”, then some pics of Skyward Pumpkin chop-and-drop (below the video):
See blog entry Skyward Pumpkins and Happy Halloween for another video of Skyward Pumpkins.
Skyward Pumpkin harvested, taken down from its altar in the crosshatch of bamboo teepee trellis poles. Note the forced out-of-round shape; almost hurts to look at! Also notice the cozy spider web in the cracked-open vine. A red-backed Thompson’s jumper is tucked away, hoping we will GO AWAY!
Millipede in Skyward Pumpkin vine. So much for hiding – this millipede was very concealed in the pumpkin vine till I split the vine open to look for critters. Judging from the mess in its room, I would guess this is an adolescent millipede 🙂 . Note the hollow structure of the vine that invited the millipede in; I have cracked the vine in two, spreading the halves open like a book.
Skyward Millipede on the move, all kazillion legs. Note the millipede’s segmented antennae and how each body segment has 2 legs on each side of the body. Watch out, millipede, you're headed for Skyward Pumpkin’s butt crack!
Skyward Millipede further on down the road. How graceful!
Figure 4.194 Right Side Up. Some of this millipede’s characteristics include: doesn’t bite (but does release a cyanide-based fluid that STINKS!), mostly a scavenger of organic debris, short antennae, slow crawler, legs are tucked under the body. Most of those characteristics are in contrast with a centipede’s: centipedes are fast, long-antennaed, predatory, and pack a mean bite. Figure 4.195 Up Side Down. Same millipede, probably more annoyed at this point.
Happy planting garlic, onions, and shallots and see you tomorrow.
Tony
Day 3 in this 6-day video series: Preparing patio pots for winter veggie planting.
First a video re “Patio Veggie Pots”, then some patio veggie planting pics (below the video):
Lemon Pot with a thick layer of "garden debris" (if there is such a thing!) under the planting soil. The composting organics will eventually turn to soil and add some richness to the existing soil. The process of burying organic matter in piles to breakdown over years is called hugelkultur, a German term and garden art.
For a detailed discussion,
clear graphics, and lots of pics of hugelkultur,
Click image to go to http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/
see Paul Weaton’s blog at:
Happy planting veggies on your patio and see you tomorrow.
Tony
You have landed on Day 5 in this 5-day series of videos depicting propagation of tree collard cuttings. Enjoy!
First a video re “Collard Propagation”. Today’s video is part 5 of 5 (1/day) for the series! THEN some tree collard pics (below the video):
Tree Collard cuttings/starts after 2 month's growth, left pot only. Healthy!
Close-up of tree collard cuttings 2 months old. Lots of growth.
2 month old tree collard cutting growing on Dragon Spine Ridge. The specimen of focus here is the collard plant on the right. I pulled it up to inspect the root growth (to show YOU!), dug the roots back into the soil, and pruned off its top. Pruning off the top was advised (by me) because the inspection most likely destroyed some root mass. Less root mass, THEN less foliage will be supported. I also wanted to top off the young plant to encourage it to branch out lower rather than higher. See the next two pics.
2-month old roots of the young tree collard start. Good healthy soil, good healthy root growth. A good day!
Young Tree Collard is back on its feet, a rock to help it hunker into the ground after my rude root inspection.
Happy collard propagation and see you tomorrow.
Tony