Tag Archives: Gardening

Gardening

Friends in the garden

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A little help in the garden is always a good thing. Sometimes, though, you need helpers who can dig and pull and mow and do other things besides eat bugs and hang out on the bean trellis. Not that such hanging out is not helpful in and of itself: when we first moved in to the property, it was like living in a house on the beach. All the topsoil had been scraped off and sold, there was no sod or attempt to  do anything with the white sandy stuff that was left, but at least they left some of the scrub/water oaks. There were also no critters: no lizards, frogs, dragonflies, spiders, squirrels, snakes, nothing.

To combat this poor ecosystem, the past four years have seen a ton of work go into making the place less like a desert and more like a homestead. Granted, it will be a long, long time before the ground is rehabilitated and amended enough to plant things directly in the ground on a wide basis – hence all the raised beds around here – but if there is one thing gardening on any scale will teach, it is patience. Today, we have all sorts of critters on the grounds, and found a great (albeit sad) result of all the work that went into making the homestead…homey: a giant orb weaver spider  had a dragonfly hung up in her web on the side of the house. And the little guy above, along with a lot of extended family members, hangs out waiting for the next snack.

But as I said, there are times when you need bigger help than this. We decided to redo a few things around the place. The first step was to dig out a four foot circle around both almond trees, about two inches deep, and replace that clay with compost and topsoil, with a layer of a pasture grass mix, alfalfa, and buckwheat. That’s a lot of soil to move (twice). It was a necessary task, though, as nothing is taking hold in the clay around the trees, and without anything in the surrounding area, the trees will not be very productive. Enter James, the grandson of a friend of the family, who wanted and needed to work at something while he attends night school and waits for his temporary IT contract to renew. I was assisting with the digout, but rapidly found after several minutes of banging away on the hard clay that a) that motion was traveling right into my face and making all that dental work from yesterday ache like hell and b) that said motion also made that same dental work start bleeding. So, he dug, I seeded the circles, and we both spread the compost and topsoil. A fair division of labor.

In the meantime, my mom was working along the fence in the front garden, and we joined her in that effort after completing the great dirt haulout. We had decided to revamp the garden areas a bit, because it looked a little unkempt with the grass growing up around the edges of the fence. The plan was to pull up the fence, roll back the edge of the plastic that had been put down as a base to solarize the grass we’d previously got going after moving in (when this garden was still in the back), and mow along the line. With that done, we started laying another line of plastic to extend slightly beyond where the fence will be, so we can mulch and edge that area to make it more presentable. The fence is up, the mowing is done, and half of the plastic is laid in place. That’s where we stopped for the day, after just over four hours of backbreaking work.

Tomorrow, we will pick up where we left off, although I’m hoping to get a bit of the refencing started this evening. The biggest concern I have is the stake hammering triggering another round of bleeding. When you don’t have a lot of spit, it’s difficult to keep your mouth clear. When the front garden is complete, we’ll do the same thing in the back garden. That should be a bit easier than the front, and even if it isn’t easier, it will be shorter work: there are only three sides to redo, as the fourth side butts up against the pool fence.

There are other projects we’ll be having James help with, as well: the house trim needs to be touched up, and I’m hoping to repaint the barn this fall (about three and a half years in the Florida sun takes a toll), among other things. My sister will be lending a hand, too. It’s our own microeconomy here on the ranch.

Work funnies: today, compliments from several of the handful of clients who have contacted us for something: “You’re great, I’m never leaving!”, “Your support is awesome.”, and so on. That makes up for the occasional person who thinks they need to be a complete ass for no particular reason.

 

Gardening, Geek stuff, Homestead

No vampires here

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Last October – after recovering quite a bit from having a chunk of lung removed during the summer – my sister and I planted out 35 pounds of garlic. This July, I pulled up two of the type we had put in.

This is the Lorz Italian variety. It’s a milder garlic, one we use more for roasting. We won’t be planting this one again this season, as we really do prefer the stronger garlics.

This is the Inchelium Red garlic, one we like quite a bit. It’s a stronger garlic, and around here, that’s what we like.

The third variety, Chesnok Red, is also a strong garlic with a bite, and that one was pulled in late August. It’s currently curing in the garage, awaiting processing.

The other two, though, are cleaned and in storage.

Why yes, we do go through a lot of garlic around here. Tonight’s use was in a batch of guacamole whipped up for taco night. Unfortunately, yours truly was at the dentist for three and a half hours for two crown preps and was unable to partake in dinner. Ow.

Work funnies: one guy saying he was going to “rethink his relationship” with us, because the application he installed once upon a time and apparently hasn’t updated at any point has a component that doesn’t like one of the usual and routine updates run for security reasons. After over seven years with us. Interesting method of dealing with it, instead of simply taking care of your site maintenance, something with which we could certainly assist. Another guy insisting that the server where his site is located is down constantly, when a review of the firewall shows he’s locked himself out via login failures to a password protected area. Under his own site. Aren’t you glad you don’t work in tech?

Gardening, Geek stuff, Homestead

How the season flies

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Spring was fleeting. Summer was long, and hot, and humid, and sweaty, and buggy. And vulture-y.

This guy was sitting quite calmly on top of one of the compost piles during one of the hottest days in the season. I suspect he was waiting for me to keel over from heat exhaustion, but I outlasted him.

More stuff to come about the summer season. There was a lot of weeding, lots of pickling, and the tragedy of tomatoes.

Banner day around here today in “real” work, as well: this morning, someone telling us to fix a problem at their ISP. This evening, someone calling us incompetent  – on facebook, no less, where naturally we can’t respond – and accusing us in a ticket of “deceiving” him because we didn’t read his mind about using a nonstandard mail format. Nice bookends to the day. Fortunately, not all of our clients are like that.

Gardening, Homestead, Life in general

So you say you want a revolution?

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It can be rather ironic sometimes – in the true sense of the word, and not the Alanis Morissette sense – that people who advocate for a certain change get change. It just isn’t quite the one they thought they would be getting.

For a case in point, we need look back no further than the antics of the Dervaes family and the rather disastrous public relations/business debacle they’ve created. For those not familiar with the subject, just read the post linked above, and then come back to this one.

From what I have been able to glean, the first notices sent out by Dervaes were on or about February 13. This flew under the radar for a few days and then really exploded on February 18-19. In that span, word spread, someone created a new Facebook page (over 4000 people now) in support of the pages that Facebook had pulled down, and, most importantly, an “Urban Homesteaders Day of Action” was organized to take place today, all via the Internet. In a broader sense, this, to me, is one of the most useful aspects of the ability to share information in the times in which we live. Despite protestation from the Dervaes that they were not “suing bloggers” and not “sending out cease and desist” notices, this is exactly what they were in effect doing, semantics aside. Because they love to talk about themselves, and because people had posted the very notices they had sent out, it was very easy to confirm all of this, and point to their own Tweets as less than truthful.

Reading through some of the backhistory of the Dervaes’ various enterprises, it is clear that they – or at least the patriarch of the clan – believe that what they are doing is some kind of revolutionary act, even though people have been doing exactly the same thing for hundreds of years. It’s rather self-aggrandizing to claim that you are the “founder” of urban homesteading or that what you are doing is so distinct and unique that you are deserving to be the sole holder of claims to phrases that have been in use for generations before you came along.

Still, there is and never has been a doubt in my mind that people will often work against their best interests. For people whose first exposure to urban homesteading was the Dervaes’ rather flashy, photo-laden (but practical information poor) site, the family may hold a higher rung on the ladder than other people who simply blog or write about what’s going on in their back yards or on their properties without constantly patting themselves on the back as if they’d invented the very concept and without constantly shilling for donations to continue their “outreach” (which apparently includes trips overseas). In this case, the Dervaes have certainly worked against any goodwill they have built and worked on for the past ten years. It takes a stunning amount of arrogance to believe that you are the center of any universe, whether it is in politics, sports, or urban homesteading. While the Dervaes may get a lot of press and a lot of coverage through their efforts to obtain same, much of that serves whatever other purpose lies behind the facade of their greater plan to – again, ironically, given the furor over the trademarks in question – get away from the urban and form a commune in the middle of nowhere. The question has to be asked: if that is your intent, what is the point of claiming these specific phrases as your own? The other thought that comes to my mind is that the stated goal, plus the other various writings from Dervaes, reminds me much more of Jim Jones than it does The Beatles.

Today, various people around the globe – because yes, the Internet is a global sort of thing – are declaring themselves urban homesteaders, in defiance of trademark claims that cannot possibly stand any legal test. Why the USPTO approved these, after denying the Dervaes back in 2008, is a complete mystery, and someone was clearly asleep at the wheel on that one. While the Dervaes point to other common terms that people have trademarked, that does not excuse their actions in this case, either by gaining the trademarks or by foolishly attempting to enforce them.

With that said, here’s the beginning of the roundup of posts people have made today in support of a movement that began long ago and, luckily for us all, remains fluid and growing today.

There will be more to come as folks pop up with their posts, and of course the various sites above, plus the Facebook page, will have links.

One very real result of the Dervaes’ actions is one they likely never anticipated: they have managed, in the span of one week, to create an even more integrated, more associative urban homesteading community than they could have created otherwise. Unintended consequences, I’m sure, but it has worked out in the best sense of the word “community” for everyone else.

Food, Gardening, Movies

A way to get angry, and a way to get motivated

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No, it does not involve brainless or rude clients this time.

The other day, I sat down and watched some documentaries, mostly (of course) related to food and the production of it, one after another.

We Feed the World – Subtitled. About the production o food in various countries and the lives of people who create it.

Our Daily Bread – No dialogue. Images of production and processing of foods from tomatoes to beef, and the people working on the lines or in the fields (or, in some cases, in what amount to hazmat suits, spraying down the vegetables).

The World According to Monsanto – This is, as you would imagine, about Monsanto, the giant conglomerate that controls a lot of how food is produced. The format is a little cheesy, with segments starting off with Google searches, but the information is sound. And a little scary.

The Future of Food – Primarily about GMO (genetically modified) and GE (genetically engineered) foods, and the companies that want to control food from the seed to the supermarket.

Food, Inc. – An overall look at how a handful of major corporations control about 80% of the food that is produced and the conditions under which livestock is raised and processed. There is also a segment on organic foods, and ironically, some of the more well known organic outfits are owned or are subsidiaries of giant multinational companies, something many people don’t know. There is also a segment on Monsanto’s “farm police” who go around to farmers and accuse them of infringing on Monsanto’s patents just because their GE crops cross pollinated into another field. I have to admit, this sort of thing as seen in various of these movies really did make me angry – and it’s why that while I hold a number of stocks in my portfolio, Monsanto will never, ever be one of those.

Watching all of these back to back is enough to get angry and disgusted, but also enough to boost up the motivation to grow some things on your own if at possible. And really, it is possible: you don’t need acres of land like I have (even though it will take years more of work for me to rehab the soil to make it viable, leaving me to grow in frames for the time being), and you don’t even need a huge back yard to do it. From people growing tomatoes in pots on their balconies to people who have built a couple of frames in their tiny back yards, it is possible to supplement or replace the often tasteless things you can buy at the store. And it will be something where you know exactly how it was grown, how it was handled, and who grew it. Because you grew it yourself. Anyone who has plucked a ripe tomato off a plant and eaten it while standing in the sunshine breathing in the green smell of plants and the gritty earth knows the difference. I highly recommend that everyone give it a try.

Gardening, Homestead

No vampires, please

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I have to admit I don’t quite get the whole Twilight thing. From what I’ve caught of the movies in the wee hours when I’m not sleeping – most nights, that would be – quite frankly, they’re not very good. And what’s with the strange blue pall over everything in the first one (I think that was the first one)? Is that some kind of symbolism about the deadness of vampires, or, as with most “literary interpretation”, total bunk and just something the filmmaker thought would be kind of cool? My guess is the latter. To me, it just looked like my fingers on a really cold morning.

However, in the event there are vampires out there in the world, of the real, rather than cinematic versions, we are stocking up nicely.

Thirteen frames of garlic this round. Next season, I intend to have more, given the way we go through garlic around here, and in order to have enough to replant. Despite the variable weather, it’s all holding up quite nicely and looks very healthy.

We won’t have any particular issues with bloodsuckers around here, I think. Zombies, on the other hand – well, let’s just say that I firmly believe that because zombies live on brains, they’ll rapidly starve to death out in the world in general.

Gardening, Homestead, Life in general

Nine down, five to go

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In our latest round of activity on the ranch – now that the weather is friendlier than it has been – and after a spate of buying at the nursery for more edible/pretty things, today we (myself and the dogs) put in the four mature blueberry plants. Actually, I dug the holes, mixed some compost, got the plants in the holes, leveled, filled, and watered. The dogs were either supervising, or, in the case of Einstein, dropping a ball into one of the holes for me to fish out and throw.

In addition to these four, in the past week we’ve put in a mature dogwood, which should flower this spring, and four azaleas, which we hope will grow to a decent enough size to block out the neighbor’s garage mahal across the main road. Said monstrosity is actually larger, in terms of square footage, than his house, something I find fairly bizarre. The other day, one of the bay doors was open, and the space was packed, front to back, floor to ceiling, with….stuff. I suppose George Carlin was right.

Speaking of stuff and George Carlin, in the wee hours the other night, I saw an ad that started off with “Too much stuff?” and then proceeded to shill some bag thing that you cram your stuff in and suck out all the air. Here’s a novel idea: stop collecting so much stuff.

Back to the planting: there are five more plants on the pad awaiting planting: two figs, a meyer lemon to replace the one Mom killed, an Indian sweet lime (even the leaves smell like lime!), and a variegated pink lemon. Alas, Monday will be a no physical labor day for me since I have a followup PET scan on Tuesday, and we don’t want any false positives. After that scan, though, it’s into the ground with these remaining. The figs are starting to bud and the meyer has flowers all over it. These have to get out of the way to make space for the next round of live plants that are inbound and that will also have to be set somewhere around the ranch. Before we know it, it will also be time to start transplanting out the flats that are dutifully waiting under the lights in the barn.

Is there anything else in the world as great as the beginning of the season?

Gardening, Homestead

Sprouts

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I was, admittedly, being a bit impatient. It is not the fault of the seeds that they do not instantaneously sprout up and grow like wildfire, ready to transplant out and bring forth the fruits of my labor. The impatience is borne at least partially out of the strangely frigid weather we’ve had, and partially out the desire to try to recoup the time lost to family issues and my own illness during the height of last year’s season.

I’ll also admit that the first task of putting up the lights in the barn made it look strangely like a horror movie set.

Barn lights

Let me assure my gentle readers that I have no intention of inflicting any bodily harm on anyone. Bugs that attempt to gnaw my plants down to nothing, yes. Weeds, certainly. But people are safe, unless they happen to stumble in and get tangled up in things. Or unless they happen to crash a body part on one of the grow lights.

The first two flats were tomatoes (stupice) and a variety of herbs, since some take forever to germinate, much to the dismay of the more impatient farmer types.