Check out DIY Pest Control at Homegrown.org! I can't wait to find some great new ideas here, they've really made it easy to use.
Check out the comments also :)
GV
Showing posts with label around the web. Show all posts
Showing posts with label around the web. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Rainy Afternoon and Google Earth
Google Earth can be entertaining on a rainy November afternoon. I discovered the 'historical' image tool today and wandered off to find our house. The first image from February 2002
You can see the house with the front yard bisected by a walkway. The driveway is on the upper side of the house with a patio in the ell and garage to the back. Trees shade the whole backyard and the front is grass. Well, short green plants, some edible like dandelions and dock and hmm...well, ok other weeds. Forward to June 2006
Closer than this and it begins to look like pointillist art, but you can see the back yard has lost some tree cover and the front yard is dead grass/dirt being prepared for gardens. March 2007 is much clearer.
The trees are not in leaf yet, so you can see the back and front pretty well. The front has gardens with grass strips around them, there is a single fence across the front of the gardens. The fence helps the place look nice between crops and provides some support for vining plants like peas, hyacinth bean vine and the like. In the back, you can barely see some white X's, those are square foot gardens placed corner to corner. The X's are PVC pipe to make little hoophouses. You can see them closer here. The light 'trail' on the lower side of the house is our lesson on buying 'soil' and letting it be dumped without examining it. River silt is not good on gardens. Quite a contrast with the dark lovely soil Lee has created in the front yard, isn't it? Soil conditioner and compost are your friends when starting a garden.
The latest shot is from September 2010...
The front fence is covered with hyacinth bean vine..as is the arbor over the sidewalk. Gorgeous vine and vigorous grower. We won't grow it over an arbor again as we had to spend way too much time pruning so we could get to the street!
A note on tree cover. If you'll notice in the first shot above, the trees in the upper rear corner of our lot shade that area. They were spindly tired pine trees and by the third shot they are gone. You can see that by 2010, the neighbor's river birch again overshadows that rear corner. This isn't a problem for us as that tree is to the north, our cherry on the south side(which almost melds with our southern neighbor's maple) shades most of our back yard. However, when you are figuring out where to put your garden, watch out not only for shade or future shade from your own trees, but those of your neighbors as well.
The latest shot is from September 2010...
A note on tree cover. If you'll notice in the first shot above, the trees in the upper rear corner of our lot shade that area. They were spindly tired pine trees and by the third shot they are gone. You can see that by 2010, the neighbor's river birch again overshadows that rear corner. This isn't a problem for us as that tree is to the north, our cherry on the south side(which almost melds with our southern neighbor's maple) shades most of our back yard. However, when you are figuring out where to put your garden, watch out not only for shade or future shade from your own trees, but those of your neighbors as well.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Learning New Things!
Since Lee was busy at the CASA Garden this morning, I went to the 1st Annual Ethnic Food Security Network Conference by myself. Sponsored by ACES Urban Affairs and New Nontraditional Programs, Alabama Farmers Cooperative and 2733 Ranch, the conference covered grass fed beef, specialty vegetables and pastured poultry which are opportunities for farm diversification in the area.
I missed the welcome by Dr. Jannie Carter and Dr. Julio Correa due to a wrong turn (no GPS in my old Honda!) but got there in time to hear Miles Albright of 2733 Ranch speak on grass fed beef. He's passionate about the taste of his beef and carrying on the 9 generation stockman's heritage of his family. We'll never have cattle, but it's fun to learn little snippets. For instance, Miles' natural methods require the cattle to fertilize the pastures as they are rotated from field to field grazing. In the heat of summer, they like to gather in the shade of the trees at the edges of the pasture leading to very healthy trees, but perhaps not enough of the 'good stuff' being deposited around the middle of the pasture. He's beginning to breed for lighter colored cattle that will spend more time in the sun grazing than the black ones he's currently got. More grazing means more growth on the cattle and more 'growth stimulant' on the ground.
Dr. Rao Mentreddy spoke next on "Vegetable Production for Ethnic Markets". He outlined several niche markets that may exist around the area for exotic vegetables and herbs that seem to grow well here. After his talk, we got to go walk around his demonstration plot. The indian eggplants were still thriving in spite of the light frost. The basil had sadly succumbed to the frost but he was able to show some of the details of the variety of leaf shapes and scents. The odd little squash and melons were still trying to produce that last seed before the really cold weather hits.
I missed the welcome by Dr. Jannie Carter and Dr. Julio Correa due to a wrong turn (no GPS in my old Honda!) but got there in time to hear Miles Albright of 2733 Ranch speak on grass fed beef. He's passionate about the taste of his beef and carrying on the 9 generation stockman's heritage of his family. We'll never have cattle, but it's fun to learn little snippets. For instance, Miles' natural methods require the cattle to fertilize the pastures as they are rotated from field to field grazing. In the heat of summer, they like to gather in the shade of the trees at the edges of the pasture leading to very healthy trees, but perhaps not enough of the 'good stuff' being deposited around the middle of the pasture. He's beginning to breed for lighter colored cattle that will spend more time in the sun grazing than the black ones he's currently got. More grazing means more growth on the cattle and more 'growth stimulant' on the ground.
Dr. Rao Mentreddy spoke next on "Vegetable Production for Ethnic Markets". He outlined several niche markets that may exist around the area for exotic vegetables and herbs that seem to grow well here. After his talk, we got to go walk around his demonstration plot. The indian eggplants were still thriving in spite of the light frost. The basil had sadly succumbed to the frost but he was able to show some of the details of the variety of leaf shapes and scents. The odd little squash and melons were still trying to produce that last seed before the really cold weather hits.
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Edible Red Amaranth, Ethnic Vegetable Research Project at the Upper Marlboro Research and Education Center, University of Maryland. (Photo: Stephan Tubene) |
Dr. Ken Macklin from Auburn/ACES spoke on Profiting from a Small Poultry Flock. Lots of good information there. Tho he comes from a commercial production background, he's full of great information on small scale production and had lots of slides on the interesting variety of 'chicken houses' found around the state. He showed everything from PVC pipe 'tractors' to houses that looked good enough for humans to live in. He shared several tips and tricks and things to keep in mind as you customize your production model on everything from feed to watering to 'doctoring'.
Overall a very informative day!
Friday, October 14, 2011
Broken link on an Important Article
The link to the New York Times article appears to be busted. Here is a pdf of the article on our website Foodscapes.
Is there someone you know who needs help getting started? We can help!
Is there someone you know who needs help getting started? We can help!
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Go Local Food!
Talk about local food ... or better yet, eat some! Thanks to the Huntsville Times for a great article!
You can learn more about local food happenings at North Alabama Food Policy Council where you'll find information on hosting a local food dinner and other events. HSVGreenLink also keeps up here.
Pass the word and keep us informed of other local food events and sources!
You can learn more about local food happenings at North Alabama Food Policy Council where you'll find information on hosting a local food dinner and other events. HSVGreenLink also keeps up here.
Pass the word and keep us informed of other local food events and sources!
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
This Why We Do What We Do!
Link broken..check here for pdf of the article!
This article in the New York Times recently is a perfect example of what we love to help folks do, feed themselves fresh, healthy and frugal food! It takes time and effort, but it is oh so worth it!
This article in the New York Times recently is a perfect example of what we love to help folks do, feed themselves fresh, healthy and frugal food! It takes time and effort, but it is oh so worth it!
You can tell yourself anything is too difficult, or you can just do it. And you do not need to reconstruct your worldview or take issue with others.
You just need to be hungry.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Tis the Year of the Grains!
I'm looking forward to trying the grain as a pancake flour, if it makes....and testing the cane for 'sweetness'. I've often read of folks enjoying it as a fall treat. I LOVE sorghum syrup from Sand Mountain, so I'll leave the sorghum pressing to the mules, since it's not an easy process for micro homesteads.
Along the side of the house, we've created a new row/bed outside the bed that now has wheat (to be followed by winter squash shortly). We chose Golden Amaranth for a drought tolerant grain which can be "ground, sprouted, popped or used as hot cereal". As it grows, we hope the squash twining around it's stalks won't bother it, rather like corn. It is up and growing, so we'll see what we have in about 70 days!
We really like oatmeal more than other hot grain cereals. "Real" oats are hard to process, especially at home, so we're going for the newer "hulless" variety Pennuda. Even the hulless varieties are harder to thresh than other grains, but we're going to try it. Maybe some friend's chickens will get lucky if we can't eat it! These will have to wait til later in the year to be sown as they prefer cool weather, not soil temps over 90 degrees.
Here's a couple of resources you might look into... we'd love to hear of anything you've found helpful!
Alabama Extension pamphlet on small grains. They have a lot of specialized information on grains, aimed for the commercial grower, but this gives a nice overview.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/1978-01-01/You-Can-Raise-Grains-Right-in-Your-Own-Garden.aspx
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| July 21, 2010 |
We're experimenting this year with deliberately growing our own small grains. Here's last years buckwheat, grown as a cover crop which was very quick to 'freely self-sow". If you are growing it for a summer cover and nitrogen 'fixer' crop, chop it when it blooms or you'll be raising buckwheat everywhere. But it is nice to know that one can get a crop of whole grains really quick; "they say" 80 days, but we think it happened quicker. Buckwheat is hard to process for flour, so we'll not be growing for the grain. We've also had some volunteer oats (from not thoroughly composted manure) that actually produced!
On to this year and more easily edible crops!
I planted organic wheat (hard red wheat, unknown variety from my bulk purchase bucket ) in a bed along the side of the house back in October of 2010. The wheat 'grass' kept nice and green and fairly short until the weather warmed up this year. And of course, I can't find the picture of that, but here's June 8, ready for harvesting!
The majority of the heads are 'nodding', heavy with seed. The wheat did "lodge' (fall/got pushed over) a couple of times during the winter/spring storms. The Garden Master even practiced his scything on it once after it lodged, but it came back! Apparently, farmers can allow cattle to graze the wheat one time and still have a harvest.
Here's another view and a lesson in microclimates.
The wheat is growing on the south side of the house. Can you see how golden the wheat closest to the reflected heat of the house is? The wheat on the outside is just that tiny bit cooler and is ripening a bit slower. Take advantage of microclimates in your space. Look around at your space, growing lettuce in the shade would be welcome in this heat wave.
Sorghum grain went in the front yard since I think it makes an interesting specimen. We chose an heirloom Mennonite variety good for both cane syrup and seed grain.
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| Agriculture Marketing Resource Center |
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| Seeds of Change |
We really like oatmeal more than other hot grain cereals. "Real" oats are hard to process, especially at home, so we're going for the newer "hulless" variety Pennuda. Even the hulless varieties are harder to thresh than other grains, but we're going to try it. Maybe some friend's chickens will get lucky if we can't eat it! These will have to wait til later in the year to be sown as they prefer cool weather, not soil temps over 90 degrees.
Here's a couple of resources you might look into... we'd love to hear of anything you've found helpful!
Alabama Extension pamphlet on small grains. They have a lot of specialized information on grains, aimed for the commercial grower, but this gives a nice overview.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/1978-01-01/You-Can-Raise-Grains-Right-in-Your-Own-Garden.aspx
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Need a Plan for a Compost Bin?
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Few Activities Inspire Hope and Promise for the New Year quite like perusing a Seed Catalog
Here are a few of our favorites.
Sustainable Seed Company
Seeds of Change
Abundant Life Seed Co.
High Mowing Seeds
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
We enjoy this catalog as well
The Cook's Garden
A fun paper catalog is R.H. Shumway's Illustrated Garden Guide Thier website is here.
Does anyone know of local seed sources? What are some of your favorites seed sources ?
Sustainable Seed Company
Seeds of Change
Abundant Life Seed Co.
High Mowing Seeds
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
We enjoy this catalog as well
The Cook's Garden
A fun paper catalog is R.H. Shumway's Illustrated Garden Guide Thier website is here.
Does anyone know of local seed sources? What are some of your favorites seed sources ?
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Clean Food Network - Your Real Local Farmers
I would like to tell you about some friends and mentors of mine, Dove and Russell Stackhouse, owners of Rusl n Doves farm in Geraldine. They are founding members of the Clean Food Network. They are also two of the best farmers in the South. Their love for the soil and their knowledge of plants and their ability to teach others is awe inspiring.
I know all of this sounds to good to be true, but these folks are here, not on the West Coast. The CFN provides the highest quality, hand selected and picked produce year round. The network also provides grass fed beef, free range pork and lamb, chicken as well as eggs. These products contain no antibiotics or growth hormones. The network's farmers adhere to national standards or exceed them in actual practice.
CFN also provides you with value added products ranging from Cheeses and Jams, Baked Goods, to Soaps and Lotions. You can buy fair trade coffee ground and roasted locally. The proceeds from the coffee go to help Mayan women and children with education and health care.
The goals of the CFN are to provide the highest quality food, picked at the peak of it's nutritional value. The produce is usually less than 24 hours from the field. They strive to offer people choices beyond what the consolidated food system offers. The Clean Food Network's goal is not to just save family farms in the area, but to grow more farms to feed Huntsville and North Alabama. Sharing knowledge and experience to help new farms as well as farmers transitioning from conventional farming to sustainable, less toxic, soil building farming techniques. The network is working to broaden markets for local eco friendly farmers and to increase the number of sustainable farmers to maximize consumer choice.
The Clean Food Network farmers truly are your Real Local Farmers. Once you try Clean Food you will understand why so many customers say “Thank you for growing such good tasting food. This reminds me of the garden fresh vegetables my grandfather used to grow.”
To get started with CFN, click here.
The Clean Food Network (CFN) is a network of 18 small to medium eco-friendly local farms. Eco-friendly means they strive to be sustainable and minimize the use of off farm inputs. It also means these farmers use regenerative techniques to build soil and improve the micro climates they impact through their farm operations. Most importantly it means Clean Food, food that has no synthetic pesticides on it. The physical removal of insects and the cultural practice of sanitation to remove infected or diseased plants is always the first choice of these farmers. As the CFN Farmers improve their soil each year the need to use pesticides, even the “organic” ones decreases.
CFN also provides you with value added products ranging from Cheeses and Jams, Baked Goods, to Soaps and Lotions. You can buy fair trade coffee ground and roasted locally. The proceeds from the coffee go to help Mayan women and children with education and health care.
The goals of the CFN are to provide the highest quality food, picked at the peak of it's nutritional value. The produce is usually less than 24 hours from the field. They strive to offer people choices beyond what the consolidated food system offers. The Clean Food Network's goal is not to just save family farms in the area, but to grow more farms to feed Huntsville and North Alabama. Sharing knowledge and experience to help new farms as well as farmers transitioning from conventional farming to sustainable, less toxic, soil building farming techniques. The network is working to broaden markets for local eco friendly farmers and to increase the number of sustainable farmers to maximize consumer choice.
The Clean Food Network farmers truly are your Real Local Farmers. Once you try Clean Food you will understand why so many customers say “Thank you for growing such good tasting food. This reminds me of the garden fresh vegetables my grandfather used to grow.”
To get started with CFN, click here.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Ginger is good for what ails you...
and tastes great too! Here's a link to some recent research on ginger that I know we'll come to appreciate more and more as the gardening season goes on. Seems that it reduces muscle pain caused by overexertion if taken daily. I'll have to find some more to plant..thank goodness it is a lovely plant that will grow in our hot summers (that's August 2009)...and even survive this last really cold winter.
We thought we had lost the one in the front garden, but it's peeking up now!
Friday, January 8, 2010
Ahhh, The Art of Manliness
From Art of Manliness article on 45 Manly Hobbies comes this on Gardening:
"Perhaps one of the most powerful manly images in America is that of the yeoman farmer- he’s the self-reliant man who cultivates his own land to provide for his and his family’s needs. You don’t need a homesteading plot to start getting in touch with the land; a small square in your backyard will suffice. If you have a job that keeps you cooped up in an office all day with artificial light and stale recycled air, gardening is a great hobby to pursue in order to get some exercise, sunlight, and fresh air. As you watch your garden grow from seeds to plants, you’ll find yourself becoming more in tune with the seasons. When you harvest your small crop, you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment that beats any high score on a video game. And when you make your first meal with vegetables grown in your very own garden, you’ll feel a surge of manly pride."
The Cultivator
"Perhaps one of the most powerful manly images in America is that of the yeoman farmer- he’s the self-reliant man who cultivates his own land to provide for his and his family’s needs. You don’t need a homesteading plot to start getting in touch with the land; a small square in your backyard will suffice. If you have a job that keeps you cooped up in an office all day with artificial light and stale recycled air, gardening is a great hobby to pursue in order to get some exercise, sunlight, and fresh air. As you watch your garden grow from seeds to plants, you’ll find yourself becoming more in tune with the seasons. When you harvest your small crop, you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment that beats any high score on a video game. And when you make your first meal with vegetables grown in your very own garden, you’ll feel a surge of manly pride."The Cultivator
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Trying to Choose Veggies?
Here's a cute chart for choosing vegetables...What Should I Eat in the Produce Aisle?
So many veggies...so little time! Enjoy!
GentleVoice
So many veggies...so little time! Enjoy!
GentleVoice
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
It's Up!
The website is up! Maybe now I can get back to the blog a little more often...
Please wander over and let us know what you think!
foodscapesinc.com
thanks!
GentleVoice
Please wander over and let us know what you think!
foodscapesinc.com
thanks!
GentleVoice
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Listen carefully...
The nice USDA lady mentions that the size they are putting up is a good size for a home garden. The farmers' being larger of course. The hoophouse program is based on 20'x100' hoophouses. These do a wonderful job in our climate of letting you do 4 season gardening. (yes, I know the link isn't live yet, but soon!)
You won't do tomatoes and eggplant in December, but you can do lots of greens and cabbages and root crops. And those are just as wonderful...fresh from your yard!
GentleVoice
You won't do tomatoes and eggplant in December, but you can do lots of greens and cabbages and root crops. And those are just as wonderful...fresh from your yard!
GentleVoice
Monday, December 21, 2009
A Few Notes....
What a pleasure to have "pool ball tomatoes"! Ok, so it just means I got a bit overwhelmed this summer and threw ripe tomatoes in a freezer bag to wait for a more auspicious time. They don't stick together when frozen and they sound like pool balls when you move them around. Take out as many as you like and leave the rest...or dump the whole bag in hot water and 'squish' off the skins as they thaw. Lovely base for soups and chili!
A lovely day today yielded a laundry basket full of carrots to be skinned and chopped tomorrow. I'm reminded to plant carefully, spacing is very important for having nicely shaped carrots.
We're moving along on the website!! HiWaay gets our business, being local and all. I've heard great things from folks about thier service and support. Sometimes it's so hard to define 'local'... I mean most of the franchise places are 'locally owned', does that count? How much does the parent company take out of the local economy that would otherwise stay here? If Joe had a burger joint "Joe's" .. he's responsible for advertising locally, etc., which is expensive and he may fail for lack of exposure. If Joe has a "BrandBurger" place, there's a bit better chance he will 'make it' due to nationally broadcast advertising and branding that he pays for, but out of increased revenues. A conundrum. Seek out and support local business and pass the word...that is the best and cheapest advertising there is.
A bit of work on the website and up it goes...
GentleVoice
A lovely day today yielded a laundry basket full of carrots to be skinned and chopped tomorrow. I'm reminded to plant carefully, spacing is very important for having nicely shaped carrots.
We're moving along on the website!! HiWaay gets our business, being local and all. I've heard great things from folks about thier service and support. Sometimes it's so hard to define 'local'... I mean most of the franchise places are 'locally owned', does that count? How much does the parent company take out of the local economy that would otherwise stay here? If Joe had a burger joint "Joe's" .. he's responsible for advertising locally, etc., which is expensive and he may fail for lack of exposure. If Joe has a "BrandBurger" place, there's a bit better chance he will 'make it' due to nationally broadcast advertising and branding that he pays for, but out of increased revenues. A conundrum. Seek out and support local business and pass the word...that is the best and cheapest advertising there is.
A bit of work on the website and up it goes...
GentleVoice
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Just "Wow"
There are many reasons to enrich your soil and make and use compost and gather leaves in the fall and all the effort that goes into maintaining fertility. But, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Take a long lingering look.
Gentlevoice
Gentlevoice
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