20121120 Patio Veggie Pots 6 of 6

Nov 212012

Ground level (critter head height) entrance to Leaf Trench Highway.

Day 6 in this 6-day video series: Preparing patio pots for winter veggie planting.

First a video re “Leaf Layer Added to Leaf Trench Highway”, then some animal habitat pics (below the video):

Patio Veggie Pots 6 of 6 (video):

Leaf Layer Added to Leaf Trench Highway (pics):

Leaf Trench Highway with a fresh layer of tulip magnolia leaves. The trench along the walkway is three feet deep and filled with different organic/yard debris layers. The layers will break down and form rich compost in about 6 months to a year.

Leaf Trench Highway extends along the back corner of our yard to Salamander Resort (left). Besides storing organic material (twigs, leaves, straw, manure, pulled weeds), the trench also feeds the fedge (food hedge) along our property line. Pineapple guava, fig, and pomegranate trees, as well as annual veggies, grow in the compost-making veggie bed.

Critter level, perhaps the head height of a raccoon, skunk, or possum, of the entrance to Leaf Trench Highway. Personally, if I were a salamander, I would crawl under the leaf litter. Lots of tiny tidbit treats (FOOD!) under those moist leaves.

Kitchen dishwater ready for the compost pile.

Dishwater ready for the compost pile. Dishwater with soap and food (left bucket) is considered “blackwater”; rinse water is considered “greywater”. We pour blackwater directly into the compost where microbes and micro-critters will process it. The greywater rinse water makes a fine treat for most of the garden, with care not to pour it directly on fruit/vegetables.

Happy planting veggies on your patio and see you tomorrow (Happy Thanksgiving!).

Tony

20121119 Patio Veggie Pots 5 of 6

1- Residential Habitats -- Critters and Their Homes, 2- Food Forest Gardening, 3- Habitat It And They Will Come -- Tony's book No Responses »

Nov 202012

Anita dumps a new load of soil critter food.

Day 5 in this 6-day video series: Preparing patio pots for winter veggie planting.

First a video re “Patio Veggie Pots”, then some animal habitat pics (below the video):

Patio Veggie Pots 5 of 6 (video):

Soil Making in Leaf Trench Highway (pics):

Horse manure ages in leaf Trench Highway, on top of many layers of garden debris organics.

Mushrooms pop out of Leaf Trench Highway’s manure after the first rain. Good stuff! Having the fungi/mushrooms means the manure will break down faster.

Harvesting compost from Leaf Trench Highway.

Later that year, Tony harvests compost/rich soil from the trench.

Anita dumps a new load of soil critter food. These apples were “debris” for a neighbor that wanted under her tree “cleaned up”. The soil critters and we are sure happy to have the mess!

A short retaining wall is added to Leaf Trench Highway. The short wall of re-used fence boards will allow a higher pile of organics to be heaped into Leaf Trench Highway, yet keep the walkway clear. Note how the block keeps the sledge from splitting the dry fence board.

Leaf Trench Highway’s short retaining wall in place, holding back tulip magnolia prunings (limbs and twigs). Lichens, mosses, and algae so abundant! Does life get any better?!

Pics and captions from Tony’s new book, Habitat It and They will Come :

Figure 2.11 White Clover and Leaf Trench Highway. Leaf Trench Highway is about making soil — the 3 foot deep trench is filled with green mulch (for example, a whole lot of pumpkin vine prunings), then covered over with old (cool) manure and compost. Potato starts are dug in. Harvest, 6-9 months later, yields full-grown potatoes PLUS a long, deep trench of beautiful soil to use elsewhere in the garden. The white clover attracts pollinating insects to the potato flowers, adds nitrogen to green mulching, and is a sheltering go-between for critters to travel from one garden bed to another. Laying the slate pavers on soil, and not on sand or cement, allows soil fungi, microbes, and larger animals to pass through the soil, thereby assisting the growth of the clover cover crop.

Figure 3.37 The After of Salamander Resort. One year later and the resort is still operating. Driftwood creatures, a thriving beet crop, and Salamander Sunny Swimhole hide the goings-on eight feet below. See Figure 3.36 for “The Before”. Watering the pond waters the beets waters the compost waters the wood chips waters the oak rounds waters tank cavities waters Salamander Shady Shallows, AND waters the adobe clay earth surrounding Salamander Resort. Water + Cavities + Microbes + Mollusks (slugs and snails) + Worms + Insects = Happy Salamanders. The half wine barrel pond, with a 5’ x 5’ sheet of pond liner, was home this spring to Pacific Tree Frogs (and tadpoles). Many types of insect on the wing visit the pond. A salamander must be living somewhere in all that! Note some habitat features: clover on the slate path links this habitat to the rest of the garden, the pond’s surface rocks provide a critter rest stop, the “fedge” (food hedge of fig, pineapple guava, loquat, and pomegranate) along the fence provides flowers and food, and the compost in Leaf Trench Highway at the base of the fedge attracts its own ecosystem of soil makings and critters.

Happy planting veggies on your patio and see you tomorrow.

Tony

Planting, finally! AND Soil Making in Leaf Trench Highway

1- Residential Habitats -- Critters and Their Homes, 2- Food Forest Gardening No Responses »

Jan 112012

Garden Log (what I did):

071509 Leaf Trench Highway. Soil has been harvested from the trench, between the slate walk path and the planting bed. The trench will be prepped for more soil making, starting with a base of straw from the awaiting bale. Since this picture, lots of organics have been composted onto and into the trench. Those organics include: tree prunings, wheat straw, alfalfa straw, oak leaves, carbon harvest (for example, pumpkin vines), twigs and stout tree limbs, wood chips, and horse manure. Beautiful, rich, high quality tilth soil has been harvested several times from the trench.

1. Constructed a low retaining wall to increase the soil volume of a planting bed, Leaf Trench Highway. Leaf Treanch Highway got its name back in 2007 when we were installing irrigation supply to our garden’s back corner. The water supply was trenched along a walk path, buried about three (3) feet and encased in 3″ perforated plastic drainpipe. The depth and casement were to allow “mistakes” in the garden — a shovel could graze the drainpipe and might not break through and bust the water supply. Lots of digging since then, and no busted trench pipe, yet. The trench was called a “highway” because, when filled with leaves, or other organics, it’s a corridor for critters to move about the garden.

So, there we were, in 2007, with a sizeable 3-foot deep trench running along the property line’s planting bed. We decided to use the trench to make soil; we would use the trench to turn compostable material into planting soil.

"Opps! Did I spill that?" No, Anita, Leaf Trench Highway is getting a rotten apple harvest -- Sebastopol's finest for our dear soil-making critters.

About every six months, the trench is dug up for a soil harvest. That harvested soil is then used to amend the soil in the gardens. And yes, sometimes waiting the six months or so is difficult. But having fresh, new, teeming-with-microbe, alive! soil on hand when we do harvest is all that much more a treat after the wait.

Potato (broad-leaved), garlic (along fence), red and white clover grow in Leaf Trench Highway in the summer of 2010. The red and white clover serve as both insectary and nitrogen-fixing plants.

This time around, in 2012, I want to grow a crop above the composting trench. I want us to produce a garlic and vegetable crop WHILE the trench is composting. I have also found that new crop love a good compost under it. BUT, the compost can not be too hot or the new crop will burn. For this planting, there is a good base of wood chips, green manure, oak leaves, and a recent magnolia tree pruning. Especially with the magnolia twigs and limbs, those bulky organics will supply microbes, miosture, and nutrients to the growing crop. Also, as the crop plants grow, their roots will travel the moist, nutrient-rich paths along the decaying wood. Great mulch for the coming dryer months. Throughout the spring, we will harvest salad from the composting trench. By July, the garlic will be ready to be dug up — harvest garlic, harvet soil. Garlic for the kitchen, soil for the garden.

Low retaining wall built to increase the soil capacity of Leaf Trench Highway's planting bed. Old redwood fence boards were cut in two-foot lengths and pounded into the gap between the planting bed and the vertical slate border. Using a wood block between the fence board and the sledgehammer kept the fence boards from splitting.

20120108-LTH-retaining-wall, close-up. Note the beautiful mosses and lichens on the old fence board. Not only is this FREE!!! redwood fence board functional (it will last many years in the soil), it is also beautiful. Moist soil from the planting bed was rubbed into the board cuts to instantly age those fresh-cut surfaces -- we are talking art here! I am interested to see if that soil smear will promote moss growth on the top edges of the boards. Stay tuned.

2. Manure run. Collected both hot (fresh) and cold (old) horse manure from my secret source (nothing personal). The hot manure was laid down at the bottom of the fence boards to create a little heat for the wintering crops. The cold manure, which is pretty much a sandy loam soil because it has broken down for so long, was thrown on top of the bed. That cold manure was thrown into and on top of the magnolia tree prunings, enough of it to plant the crops in.

Collecting horse manure from a neighbor's pile. The bins/barrels help keep the job cleaner and easier. Using the barrels, my truck does not have to be washed afterwards and the manure can sit in the bins until ready for use. Sure is nice to load it once (into the barrels) but not have to clear it out of my truck's bed the same day. Note the looseness of the fresh (hot) pile at the rear of the truck. That pile was moved twice -- once to get it out of the way so the buried old (cold) manure could be harvested, then again to fill up the hole that cold manure harvest left. Perhaps in 6 months, that filled in hole will be cold manure soil itself. Just another example of our wondrous revolving World at work.

It's late, but the garlic is in. Come tomorrow, I will throw a thin mulch of rice straw over the veggie seeds and garlic starts. Note how the low retaining wall of recycled (reused) fence board allowed enough soil to be added to the bed to cover most of the magnolia prunings. Will be exciting to see what crops actually do rise out of the straw mulch and to see how well they thrive in this compost, soil-making bed. Oh, did I tell you -- it's an experiment. 🙂

You, the Habitat Gardener (reflections):

1. Leaf Trench Highway is a major no-toll pathway in our garden. True, there is often construction along this roadway, but the improvements are always worth it. This year’s road upgrades include last year’s woodchip pile from Santa Rosa’s waterways cleanup (oak and willow), oak leaves from the neighborhood, our ridiculous Jack-in-the-Beanstalk pumpkin patch green manure, the magnolia tree’s prunings, hot manure, and cold manure soil. Microbes party down! All insects and amphibians welcomed. Just add water, as the soon-to-come rains will do, and the entire length of Leaf Trench Highway will be a mess of healthy fungi, vegetables, flowers, microbes, crawly critters, and birds. And that’s just at ground level. The length of the trench, along the fence, is a fedge — food hedge, a permaculture term. That hedge planting includes fig, pineapple quava, loquat, and pomegranate.

2. Our soil gets better every year as we grow more food each year. And we share — without an atom of pesticide, herbicide, or fungicide, the trench and fedge will take on a natural balance. The critters will get some of the planted crop, but by far, we will get our fair abundant share.

Happy soil making to you.

Tony

The Next Day and Night:

1. More cold manure soil was added to the bed tocover the garlic and to give the veggie seeds more soil to establish themselves in.

Bowl-O-Seeds. Rooting powder was used to help the seeds germinate, a tall task during these wintery days.

2. The vegetable seeds were all mixed together with rooting powder (only because I didn’t have any mycorizzae spore on hand). Life is good!, especially when I get to open dozens of seed packets that I prepared throughout last growing season. Round and round, mixed in a large stainless bowl, or bucket, and dusted with a little love (spore or rooting powder). Then I’ll carefully toss the seeds out onto a prepared planting bed — a dash here, a dash there, some over my right shoulder, some underhanded between my legs. Most importantly, I get to have fun being ridiculous. I get to plant way too many seeds. Yes, I work hard to collect seeds all year long so that I can have a Chia Pet garden. Too many plants that grow too much means I will eventually get to havest them, in whole or in part, and reap the green manure they are. I will be harvesting carbon — all that alive, green plant material is merely bottled up sunshine to be poured onto the compost pile. Sun >>> plants >>> photosynthesis >>> juicy packets of carbon >>> Tony’s compost >>> SOIL MAKING. And with that carbon-rich soil, we will grow more STUFF, whether it be flowers, food, or fodder. And we will live happily ever after.

The seeds I grew and collected and mixed together are cilantro, parsley, Queen Anne’s lace, bok choy, gopher plant, impatiens, fennel, round zuccini, calendula, “Primo” danelion, and chard. Store-bought seeds that also became part of the mix are broccoli, cauliflower, and lettuce. SOMETHING ought to grow!

3. The seeded bed, also with its garlic starts, was mulched with rice straw to keep critters away from the seeds and to keep the seeds moist for germination. The mulch will also help the seeds receive waterings and/or rain without being washed out of the planting bed. Perhaps too heavy a cover of straw to be left on the young sprouts. BUT, I will keep an eye on the bed and will thin off some of the straw in a week or two. I will be curious to see what plants actually do come up during these frosty nights and cool days. Nice to have some ground warm perculating upward toward the seeds from the hot manure below. Even if nothing were to germinate now, surely some seeds will germinate further down the year when the sun warms the soil and spring rains moisten it. How fun to wait and see.

The seeds have been sown and the rice straw mulch is in place. A little water. A lot of waiting. Soon enough, though, a forest of food and flowers.

Dano’s Great Newt Grotto

1- Residential Habitats -- Critters and Their Homes, 2- Food Forest Gardening No Responses »

Feb 022011

The new Olympic-sized swimming pool at Critter Convention Center.

Garden Log (what I did):

1. Installed an underground watering hole habitat, called Dano’s Great Newt Grotto.

Trellis habitat, House Finch Hideaway. The subterranean habitat, Dano's Great Newt Habitat, was installed while the Center Pole posthole was being backfilled.

You, the Habitat Gardener (reflections):

Center Post (2 posts) in ground, yet to be backfilled. The posts were dug in on the back side of Captain Cicada's Buried Treasure, a buried wood pile animal habitat. The adobe soil in the foreground is from the posthole digging and covers the small hill's topsoil.

1. The celestial heavens were so kind to me the other day. Dan and I were on our way to completing an awesome garden project — a 6-post two-tier trellis built to grow food and provide privacy. We had just lowered the Center Post (which is actually 2 posts; see House Finch Hideaway — Completed ) into its hole when the noontime lunch whistle blew. Dan was off to follow his stomach’s commands. Cool!, now I have some time to throw in a habitat up against the center posts before the area is backfilled. A quick search of material caches and I was back with a toilet tank top, a small piece of flagstone slate, two old kitchen tiles, a water-catching boulder, and a bucket lid. Habitat here we come!

The habitat's tiolet tank top will catch and hold water.

The habitat's toilet tank top will catch and hold water.

Water. So often when building a habitat, I include a focus of making water, or at least moisture, available for garden critters. Perhaps I am so drawn to water because one of my strongest passions in building animal habitats is to increase amphibian populations in residential gardens. And amphibians LOVE, thrive, and do water well (pun accepted!). This habitat’s major water feature is a toilet tank top rescued from a dumpster. “Help, help, please help!”, I faintly heard coming from the bottom of a commercial renovation project’s 10-yard dumpster. So I took the beautiful uncracked enamel critter swimming pool home with me and vowed to incorporate it in a habitat. Alas, Toilet Tank Top is delivered to the soil and its critters while Dan is off at lunch. A little water in the upside down lid helps me install it level (to hold the most amount of water possible).

The new Olympic-sized swimming pool at Critter Convention Center.

The enamel coated top side of the toilet tank lid seals the pottery and enables it to hold water. The underside of the lid, which is pictured holding water, will absorb some of that water because it is not enamel coated. But that’s okay — moisture-loving critters, like insects, snails, slugs, salamanders, frogs and toads, will seek out that cool dampness in the dryer months.

I stand on the upside down lid to press it into the adobe soil at the edge of the posthole and up against the Center Post. It sets in firmly and gives me confidence that it will hold at least some water, that is, stay level, for a long time.

Flagstone and kitchen tile cover the habitat's grotto.

Now to protect the top of the swimming pool to keep it from completely filling with soil. Some soil will likely backfill into the swimming pool, and that’s okay, but we would like some of the upside down toilet lid’s volume to be available for water. Completely sealed off would not be good either — the critters would think the pool is closed. “Oh man, we always come on the wrong day!” A small piece of flagstone slate and kitchen tiles are the strong, non-biodegradable materials I come up with to protect the habitat’s pool of water. Two kitchen tiles are used to add strength and to provide another crevice (between the tiles) that critters can take advantage of. Sure there’s a gap between the tiles and the slate but we’ll deal with that shortly. For now, we’re sitting pretty because the swimming pool was just upgraded to a grotto. How European! The subterranean pool, or grotto, will shelter and feed many a microbe and larger critter that had never dreamed of travelling to such places.

Water-holding boulder sits above the grotto.

Now to cover the small gap between the tiles. And I just happen to have a bucket lid that will cover that gap. One good thing about the plastic lid is that it will last a zillion years. Sure, some people would cringe about burying plastic in the garden but I figure that the trade-offs here are worth it. If it never breaks down, then some critters will have shelter security. If it does break down, then we are doing our part to return this human-made atrocity to the soil. Hey, why get out of bed in the morning if your rationalization system is not intact?! And now back to the plastic bucket lid on top of the kitchen tiles and the flagstone slate. Yes!, the bucket lid turns out to more helpful than I thought it would be. Not only will it cover the gap, but also it is a coaster (like a table coaster protecting delicate wood) for the brittle tile and crackable slate. Now a good-sized rock, AKA boulder, can be stacked on top of the grotto, tiles, and slate.

Leveling the boulder to hold water. Wood frame protects the tile.

Multi-tasker boulder will 1) keep the materials below it securely in place because of its heavy weight, 2) provide temperature modulation to the habitat, and 3) hold a smidgen of water in the small indentations on its top surface. That’s pretty much the bulk of the habitat, but now I want to take measures to protect this underground waterhole, this subterranean grotto. Because it’s underground, or hidden, foot traffic could easily kick it apart by accident. I grab a couple of fireplace logs and frame the exposed tile corner. That sits pretty but why leave things up to chance?

Firewood log staked with gap awaiting compost fill.

I take the extra time to secure the downhill side of a log with a hefty wooden stake pounded into the ground. The stake is surely very secure BUT I missed my mark. The stake is a couple of inches away from the fireplace log instead of snugly up against it. Once again, THE PROBLEM IS THE SOLUTION (a permaculture axium). In other words, there’s good to be found here so why not go with that? Lucky for me, I sometimes take my own advice. I snug the firewood log up against the post to expose a gap alongside the habitat. That gap, or couple of inches “off”, will now allow me to throw in some nutritious compost soil. There will be more good soil for the jasmine vine I will plant above this habitat.

Jasmine vine planted above Dano's Great Newt Grotto.

Time to plant the jasmine vine that will grow up Center Post and create a thicket on the trellis. The grotto habitat is nearly complete except for planting and cosmetic issues. The jasmine vine’s roots will help secure the “hillside” of soil and help tie together the habitat’s elements. Perhaps those roots will find the grotto and drink its water — hard to say because the roots will not develop in the intended air cavity of the habitat. In the end, though, I vote that the jasmine will be a happy camper as a result of the grotto habitat. If nothing else, the poop factor will benefit the jasmine — there will be so much poop (that feeds the soil) from the snails and slugs that come to vacation at the grotto.

Compost soil is strewn over the habitat and surrounding area. The jasmine vine is wiggled into position next to the boulder and surrounded by as much compost soil as will stay on the little hill of Captain Cicada’s Buried Treasure. Forget-me-not plants that were moved to the side for protection are returned to the hill, above the habitat. Some bamboo stakes are pounded into the ground and strung together to make small fences to protect the area from foot traffic. Lastly, old straw mulch is used to keep the compost soil and plants in place. Also, the old straw mulch will keep the area moist and humus-rich as it breaks down. The decaying straw is a habitat unto itself!

Dano's Great Newt Grotto habitat is buried under old straw mulch (left). Grape cuttings at a post's base for the trellis habitat, House Finch Hideaway.

What a great day! A habitat within a habitat day. Hard work and looking forward to my vacation. See you at The Grotto.

……………………………………………………. Tony

House Finch Hideaway — Completed

1- Residential Habitats -- Critters and Their Homes, 2- Food Forest Gardening No Responses »

Jan 302011

Trellis habitat House Finch Hideaway will support a thicket of vines.

Garden Log (what I did):

1. Completed installation of the trellis habitat, House Finch Hideaway.

You, the Habitat Gardener (reflections):

Trellis wire on center post. Note the crevices in the post's wood -- great shelter for small criters willing to make the climb.

1. Today’s job was to finish the trellis habitat, House Finch Hideaway. For previous entries re this project, see HFH — Installed Posts and HFH — Trellis Wire Installed. To most people, this job would be a trellis installation to create back-fence privacy, period. But for me, this project is a great opportunity to grow food for our table. Also, the trellis will provide food and shelter for critters. I see a thicket of perennial jasmine vines with knock-me-out fragrant flowers, a sun-basking wall of hanging fruit, subterranean crevices and water for amphibians, a ladder system of wood posts for insects and lizards, perches and nesting shelter for birds, and a rising sun backlighting enormous grape and fig leaves.

Top cross wire loosely in place (before stapled). Note the post's lean away from the back fence.

After laying out and attaching the top wire loop with a Gripple lock, I realized that the wire was not as tight as I wanted it to be. The distance between the two center posts was too long. A 5th post, a true center post, will bridge the gap and prevent the someday vegetation-laden wire from sagging in the middle. All the better to know now that my original plan for four posts was unrealistic. Besides we can milk this mistake. I’ll get the most out of changing the plan by a) charging more for the job, b) installing more beautiful driftwood in the garden, and c) installing a separate animal habitat when digging the hole for the new center post. About a) charging more — Oh well, I forgot this is an unpaid job. About b) more driftwood — YES!!! How better to fix a problem than to pull out the driftwood? Better yet, the center post is a union of two pieces of driftwood. About c) another habitat — Dano’s Great Newt Grotto is born; see my future post (I’m going to bed!).

Base of center post yet to be backfilled with rock, gravel, and soil.

We want Center Post to rise about a foot above the 7-foot-high top cross wire. That one foot height over the wire will be a critter perch. Perhaps a bird, squirrel, or a very stupid insect or lizard (wanting to be so visible) will use the lookout. Our post is 9 and 1/2 foot long, so that does not leave too much wood to be buried below ground. First off, give up on the one foot and settle for a 6″ perch. Then, the post can be buried 2 feet (9.5-7.5) — way not enough for that heavy piece of tree to stay vertically suspended AND support the heaviest load of the trellis. What to do?

Center post base (left) supporting center post pole (right). Note the available critter shelter between the two pieces of wood.

Another piece of driftwood comes to the rescue. The second piece of wood to become Center Post is a glorious redwood root section. Being of redwood root stock, it is extremely dense, insect resistant and strong. That piece is dug into the ground about 5 feet and snugly holds up the center post pole. In fact, the base piece perfectly cradles the post piece, making a perfect lean forward away from the fence. Perhaps that lean away from the fence will keep the someday rotting posts from crashing through the back fence. Fences make good neighbors AND busting up the fence between you and your neighbor makes for trouble. Therefore, the heavy and strong Center Post has a slight lean away from the back fence.

Grape cuttings at left end post. The small "wood chip" pieces of grape vine will make friendly mulch for the soon-to-thrive vines.

Plenty of rocks were used to fill in Center Posts’ hole. The rocks will better pack around the wood posts because they will not compress like soil fill does. Also, the rocks and gravel will help the posts stay dryer in the ground, which will slow down their rotting. Not only will water filter through the gravel better than soil, but also the rocks and gravel will not retain moisture like soil or clay does. Less water retained means dryer posts. I also like the use of the larger rocks because cavities will be created around them during the natural settling process (of the soil, gravel, and rocks). Those cavities will shelter critters.

Compost soil was used to fill in the remaining post bases and grape cuttings were planted at the base of a couple of posts. The Center Post’s habitat, Dano’s Great Newt Grotto, incorporated a healthy transplanted jasmine vine rootball and short vine strands. Those short vine strands will quickly thrive and climb up the waiting stake, to the Center Post, and then off in both directions along the cross wires. Short stake “fences” were made around a couple of the post planting to keep foot traffic from destroying the plants. The planted cuttings were then mulched with old straw to protect the soil from heavy rain.

Vines at base of posts -- caged and mulched. Jasmine is far left, next to tallest stake. Grape is right, inside short stake fence.

So exciting to have a planting in place. Training the vines up the posts and weaving a living wall with flower and fruit vines will be fun. What neighbors? Oh yes, we have neighbors to the back of us, behind the vegetation wall.

Enjoy the regeneration of spring.

…………………………………………………………………… Tony

Fava Bean Planting AND Pruning Gravenstein Apple Tree

1- Residential Habitats -- Critters and Their Homes, 2- Food Forest Gardening No Responses »

Jan 142011

Last season's artichoke is overwintering insect habitat.

Garden Log (what I did):

1. Scattered red and white clover seeds and fava beans on Straw Bale Recliner Bed in front garden. Harvested potato crop soil from The Bog; see http://sporelore.com/food-forest-gardening/caterpillar-winter-resort-next-to-our-front-door/.

2. Pruned the gravenstein apple tree in our front yard.

3. Staked up rotting artichoke stalks (last season’s crop).

You, the Habitat Gardener (reflections):

red and white clover seeds with fava bean

Red clover (small brown), white clover (small yellow) seeds with fava bean (large flat).

1. A light, misty rain this afternoon. Time for me to get another crop in the ground. Last season’s green mulch supplies are still on hand; might as well use the seeds up while they are still viable. Found paper bags with fava bean and both red and white clover seed in our cold storage (sealed plastic bin in unheated shop). Perfect! The fava bean will both enhance the soil and provide veggies in the spring. The red and white clover will also nitrogen fix the veggie bed’s soil AND the insects will love the flowers. Bees and other polinator insects will be buzzin’ in the front garden — our little pollinator helpers to ensure all those fava bean flowers develop into pods.

The front veggie bed was just recently half planted with garlic cloves. It was then covered with a light mulch of old straw. Even though that straw mulching was mostly to protect the garlic starts and the new soil that was used to plant the garlic, the entire bed was mulched with straw — even the unplanted half of the bed was mulched. I figured that the straw layer over the unplanted half would bulk up the organic matter in the bed and be ready and waiting for a new crop. Well, now that new crop is here. I mixed all three seed types (fava, red and white clover) in a large bowl and sprinked them out onto the bed’s unplanted half, the half alongside the sidewalk.

A thin layer of soil over the beans and seeds will suffice as “planting” them. Luckily, the rich soil from our harvested potato crop is avalable to throw over the planted bed.

I’ll feel lucky when the garlic on the other half of the bed comes up. We used straw to mulch over the planted cloves and soil layer. The expected hard rains demanded that the soil be covered, that is, not exposed and vulnerable to harsh rainfall. The downside of that mulch is its insulating nature — the weak winter sun will have to warm both the straw mulch and the garlic to germinate it. So, for this half of the bed, the fava bean crop, we are not mulching over the soil.

2. Pruning time for our dwarf Gravenstein apple tree. We want to encourage the tree to provide fruit low to the ground — no sense in having to pull out a ladder just to pick an apple. So hard to prune this already small tree but our patience will be rewarded some day with a full-figured, strong-limbed, laden apple tree. The prunings were chopped into small bits and placed around the trunk; every plant is entitled to its decaying minerals. Just a hunch, but I bet that the tree, and perhaps its co-existing fungi, will appreciate dead wood of a similar species, if not from exactly the same plant.

Chop and drop at base of apple tree. Note the limb prunings left as small apple tree "wood chip" mulch.

Lastly, the base of the tree was chopped and dropped. In other words, the resident dandelion (has been living for many months) and a new arrowhead plant was chopped at their base, BUT NOT PULLED. Doing so, the plants’ roots will die back and leave loose organic matter in the soil. Yummy!, says the tree’s roots. The greens left on the wood chip surface will mulch the surface, with the organic matter in the leaves feeding the top layer of soil. Then the “weeds” will grow back, Tony will chop them again, over and over and apples and apples again.

3. I once heard that artichoke plants ought to be cut to the ground in winter in preparation for the spring’s new growth. Well, another “ought to” that I am not getting to. I have enjoyed witnessing the full cycle of these enormous thistle-like plants. Up. up, and up grow the stalks, bulking thicker and thicker as they grow. Heavy duty veggies! Then, the joy of the flower bud, which is the “artichoke” itself. And sometimes I don’t want to harvest that bud. I egg on the magnificent flower that follows. Come butterflies, bees, wasps, beetles, and all pollen lovers to Artichoke’s purple carpet in the sky. But, alas, the end is then near. The flower dies back, bleaches silver in the sun, and becomes a highrise insect commune. But beware — spiders are the landlords and the rent they charge will suck the life out of you! Soon the entire shrub-like plant, both stalk and spent flower, takes on a sun-scortched, wind-twisted tangle of gracefulness. Art in the garden. And all I did was plant an artichoke plant. And, the best is yet to come. This decaying artichoke stalk is both GARDEN SCULPTURE and HABITAT.

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that the plastic nursery tag for the Green Globe heirloom artichoke planted on Dragon Spine Ridge had fallen away from the plant’s base. Not wanting to throw away the tag because the perrenial artichoke lives on, I thought to stick it into the plant’s spent stalk. Amazing how nicely the pointed tag cut into the vertical fibers of the old stalk. Wow!, that’s habitat material.

Close-up of old artichoke stalk. Note the thick vertical veins of the stalk. The stalk's pulpy interior seems the perfect insulated over-wintering habitat for insect eggs and larvae.

If the thin plastic nursery tag could penetrate the artichoke’s stalk so easily, you can bet for sure that some insects have bored holes into this plant. Sure, some of those insects will thrive inside the plant stalk to emerge, as larva or adult insects, and eat next summer’s artichokes. But, we have plenty to share.

If we focus on growing biodiversity, and not just this plant and that plant, we will have strong gardens.

Stay warm in your over-wintering habitat.

Tony

Do I bother YOU when you’re eating?

1- Residential Habitats -- Critters and Their Homes No Responses »

Dec 022010

A male Anna's hummingbird at our back deck.

Garden Log:

1. Not much in the garden today, on this near-winter day. A brief hello while moving our 4 small potted citrus under a jasmine vine thatch along the deck lattice.

2. Divided up the kitchen washbasin water between the citrus, avocado, and paw paw tree pots. All the trees are young and small. The 4 avocado and 4 paw paw are patiently waiting to be unpotted and are residing in Anna’s Avocado Aviary alongside are back deck.

You the Habitat Gardener:

1. Our back deck has lattice along one side to increase privacy from the next door neighbors. Then, we planted jasmine at the base of the deck to grow on the lattice — awesome privacy, EVERGREEN plants and beautiful, fragrant flowers. Great cover for brave nest-building birds, wasps, and spiders. Habitat! Nowadays the jasmine could use a trim, but I knew there was a reason I didn’t get to it. Okay you young citrus trees in pots, wanting to escape the night’s frost, hide under here. So the citrus pots were pushed up against the lattice wall and are tucked under the overhanging jasmine thatch. The frost, which falls straight down, will fall directly below the canopy line of the jasmine and won’t leaf damage the citrus. Mission accomplished and I didn’t have to move the trees and cover them with a sheet elsewhere.

Jasmine Gondola Apartments alongside back deck. Since this pic (last March), the jasmine has grown much thicker. The citrus are resting comfy tonight up against the lattice, protected by the jasmine vine thatch overhead. The empty gourds hanging in the jasmine thatch provide shelter for spiders, crawling insects, and wasps.

2. Our Sunset zone here in Sebastopol, California is 15. Pretty cushy weather-wise. Dry summers with morning fog, cool winters with some frosting, almost no snow. So we are going to grow avocado and paw paw (the largest native North American friut, native to east of the Mississippi). Frost protection, especially during the trees’ young years will help them get to the old years. And some work may be worth it — both tree species deliver exceptional fruit and the trees are long-lived and attractive.

In order to more easily throw a tarp above the trees, they will be planted alongside our back deck. The deck structure will enable an easy secure point to toss a tarp above the trees. Note that I say “above” and not “on”. The covering, whether it be a sheet of cloth or plastic, should not rest on the trees wood or foliage. If touching like that, the cold above the tarp will transfer through the covering directly to the tree. So the key is to provide a covering AND an air space above it. And because I envision an aisle of avocado, paw paw, guava, and honeysuckle, all in bloom some day, the habitat is called Anna’s Avocado Aviary. Anna’s frequent our garden, even beyond the hummer feeder that hangs on the back deck.

Anna's Avocado Aviary alongside deck lattice frame. The area was chosen because a frost-protecting tarp can be easily spanned, on especially cold nights, from the high lattice wall over to the honeysuckle trellis. The large potted trees alongside the deck are avocado, the smaller are paw paw.

A closeup of Anna’s Avocado Avairy’s guest of honor:

A male Anna's hummer wants to know, "Do I bother YOU when you're eating?"

That’s all folks!

Tony

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