Diggin' In - Progress Journal (4/10 - 4/13)

Diggin' In - Progress Journal (4/10 - 4/13)04/13/2012

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4/10/12. Rainy Day Birds

Rain today! Such a difference than yesterday. The conservatory is as chilly as ever with no sun. But the wall of 1 pane windows at least provides us a beautiful view of the backyard now - instead of just letting the heat out. The wall of ivy right outside the conservatory used to block the sun as well as the yard. Now I can see all the plants and seedlings - observing how they grow. I can experience the sunlight and water with them, and see the birds that nibble on them.

Though the birds are eating "our" seedlings, answering a re-occurring question about the disappearances of the stevia, I feel ok about it. We did take down their oak tree pitch away, like wiping out a community in one fell swoop. But now they are enjoying hopping around the piles of branches that still sit in the yard. I never knew so many species visited us before! They seem happy about their new playground and rainy buffet. I'm pleased to feed them, it's a good trade for the sunshine we now have.

I want to build them bird houses, to help replace their home tree. I wonder if the birds are building nests in the branches. I hope not, since they won't be there very long. The dogs bark and chase them, so maybe they won't settle in. I would rather them nest safely in a bird house than temporarily in a stick-pile-nest. That will be another project to add to the list!

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4/11/12. Rainy Day Contraption

Today started out super rainy. Pum woke us up to help put the rain gutter tube back on - to prevent the conservatory from flooding. Now with the Ivy wall gone, the gutter drains on the cement. We had to quickly build a crazy contraption including a plank of wood, a chair, tape, and a rubber mallet.

The sun has been out since about 20 mins after the contraption was built. The rain filled up the huge pot and overflowed quickly. But now...sun. Crazy weather!

Melinda has had a rash on her hand (thumb web area) since Tuesday 4/3. She’s been confused about it for a while. We just figured it out! On Ivy pulling day on 3/31 she was in charge of the soil mixing while Eric and I pulled Ivy. She used her bare hands to mix in the vermiculite and manure to the new soil. Vermiculite = air puffed volcanic rock. BINGO! Hopefully it will clear up soon, but we’re glad to know the source of it now.

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4/13/12. More Rain and Sun

It’s been hard to get any gardening done because of the crazy rain and sunshine dancing the past few days. Last night it rained so much that the conservatory flooded!! Obviously there is something up with the house foundation. Maybe another topic/goal for our Green Building Project.

Diggin' In - Progress Journal (4/7 - 4/9)

Diggin' In - Progress Journal (4/7 - 4/9)04/09/2012

 

4/7/12. Let the Sunshine In!

We cut down the dead, mossy oak tree today! Our friend, Cam, came to visit for a few days, bringing his 3 chainsaws and loads of land developing experience with him. Absolutely surprising how we were able to fell this rather large tree within the confounds of our little backyard - without any damage! Or injuries!

All morning we worked to cut the limbs off the big tree. Cam climbed up and did the cutting, while Melinda and I either pulled on a rope to bring the limb down a certain direction...or stood in a safe space. Our yard is only about 50' x 50' and the tree managed to perfectly fall within the boundaries of the neighbors fences, and our other trees (1 plum, 2 cherries). We let it fall on our inner-fence as we hoped it would help us to bring that down also!

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After all the limbs were off and the trunk stood bear, we took a lunch break. Also had to run and get more gas for the chainsaws! Good thing Cam brought 3 because it took the different sizes to chop up the branches and trunk. Plus, Melinda and I got to learn how to use the small chainsaw! That was awesome! We managed to get back to work after our break to breakdown the obstacle course of branches and limbs, chop potential firewood, separate into piles, and rake it all up. Not to mention Cam took down half of the metal and wood fence that used to contain Ivy before the Ivy Pulling work day.

Pulling down the fence really opened up the yard, and will allow us to access the future garden beds from all angles! It feels so much bigger and we can see the house from the yard and vice versa! Additionally, we now have a truly significant amount of sun that shines on the Ivy patch, half of the yard, the back yard porch and our room patio. It's incredible.


To watch the video on this amazing progress, check out this DreemTV Episode:

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Not to mention, I'm sure the neighbors are pleased to open the sky-line up. We have thought to go around and tell the neighbors about DreemGardens, and give them some firewood. This will build the community and maybe the Garden Collective!

In other news, the warm season veggies, specifically the squash, cucumber lemons, and pumpkins are ready to transplant. We are eager to manifest these raised beds. We need tools, wood, and hands. 

4/8/12. Extra Sunshine

The extra sunshine on the house has been blissful. The "conservatory" (which is an add on to the yard-side of the house), has always been the coldest room in the house, as it was shaded by the oak tree. Now it is "Passively Solar Heated" and is warmer than the living room! The porch is more enjoyable to be on too, as it gets direct sunlight from the morning on. I'll have to do another sun tracking project when the wood poles are cleaned up out of the yard!

We really need to transplant the peas from the cold season round. We're thinking about putting them in "Pug's Garden Box", which is about 18 inches deep and 8 ft long. She made it with plywood and stained the outside. I'm slightly worried about the glue in the wood, as it's known to be able to seep into the dirt, but it has a cloth inside - so maybe that will stop the leaking. Perhaps we'll line it with plastic too. We want to also put it on wheels, to allow it to move around...It'll be heavy with all that dirt in it!

We've also noticed the beets are having a hard time, perhaps because the soil is too clayee. Though the 1 kale and 3 cauliflower that share the same pot, seem to be doing ok. The cabbage in the big green pot looks great - though may need to be transplanted again when the beds are made. We've heard they need more room to fluff out. The arugula, small pot, with 1/2 compost tea and the other not - looks like the tea side is more robust. The lettuce that is still in the strawberry and water container look like they're not wanting to grow more. Probably not deep enough.

Basically, we need to really transplant into the perminany, deeper homes. Raised beds!! We're in a limbo with the raised beds, not having the money to purchase the wood or tools...but really needing it. The herb trimmings seem to be taking root, even though we put them right into the soil, not leaving them in the mix (for a month) as the directions said. 

4/9/12. Hot Conservatory!

The conservatory was so hot from the passive solar heating...we had to open windows to ventilate! Wow! We may have to consider a shading vegetation - perhaps a living roof on the room-patio. I wonder if small raised bed gardens would do the trick - warm soil!

Diggin' In - Progress Journal (4/2 - 4/3)

Diggin' In - Progress Journal (4/2 - 4/3)04/03/2012

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4/2/12. Manager Ok!

We made contact with the property manager today! We gave him a brief outline of what we want to do and why - he gave us the green light to continue! This includes taking down the fence, pruning the dead oak, taking down more ivy, digging a compost and so on. So awesome! Eric is a certified chainsaw operator, so that’s perfect. We’re going to put together a more thorough proposal including goals, reasons, budgeting, etc.

Our warm seasons are starting to take off! Today the swiss chard for both of us and my lemon cucumber are hear...with leaves! Wow!

Tonight’s Hunt: 0 slugs, 3 snails

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4/3/12. Warm Season Sprouting Galore! 

More warm season excitement (* = sprouted today), we’ve begun moving the cells with these babies in them - outside! We don’t want stretched out necks like last time...

• * Yellow Pear Tomato (M & D)
• * Fennel (M & D)
• * Red Bulb Onion (M)
• * Pumpkin - moving the earth (M & D)
• * Basil (D)
• Swiss chard (M & D)
• Cucumber Lemon (D)

Diggin' In - Progress Journal (3/31 - 4/1)

Diggin' In - Progress Journal (3/31 - 4/1)04/01/2012

 

3/31/12. Ivy Pulling Day!

A very exciting day today! We drove to San Jose (30 mins) to pick up free dirt that we saw on craigslist. Though this may not have been “free” in the end, with the cost of gas - he did throw in three huge bags of perlite and some more potting soil! Plus, it was just a great adventure in the rainy, mud with myself, Melinda, and Eric who is proving to be our most avid volunteer.

Our goals for the day are:

• Dig a new compost
• Pull Ivy from the fence
• Transplant
• Relocate the snails

So we and Eric are getting to work!

Notes from work:

Soil Mixing - the soil we got today had a pretty high clay content in it, so when we got back to town (with three huge tubberwears full of dirt, and a back seat stuffed with vermiculite and Eric)...we stopped by Soil Solutions to talk to Jim. He’s basically our “soil guy” and it’s turning out to be a great relationship. He examined our soil and suggested that to amend the clay and introduce nutrients we may be interested in:

• GroBetter All-purpose Organic Fertilizer & Soil Conditioner ($) - which contains rice husks that slowly break down to amend soil
• Bob’s Best Cow Manure, by Point Reyes Compost Company ($) - containing a bunch of nutrients for the microbs in the soil
• He also gave us some more free compost tea to continue sampling

*Jim had an important suggestion to avoid using dirt near Eucalyptus or Walnut Trees, as they release a hormone into the soil to kill other seeds!*

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So we came home and set to work. Eric and I worked hard on pulling down some intense ivy that is taking up the backyard and inhabiting a perfectly beautiful garden space. We discovered many treasures in that ivy, including more pots, a rusted through wheel barrel, various dog toys, a watering head, and that the fence the ivy is clinging to is falling over! This gave us all teh great idea and motivation to request permission to tear down the fence, which would allow access to the garden from both sides!

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Melinda spent her time getting dirty - mixing up the various soil components we had to play with by pouring them onto a large tarp and massaging the clumps out. Here’s the general mixture she created:

• 50% Craigslist Free Dirt
• 15% Old potted soil
• 20 - 25% Perlite (free!)
• 15 - 20% mix of: Bob’s best, GroBetter, and the free potting soil from craigslist

We realized that we have to plant a bit deeper, so another transplant may be in order when we have the raised beds ready. We really have a lot of seedlings that are going to need some space! Now that the Ivy is cut back, perhaps we will be able to plant raised beds in the sunny area...that is if the owners of the house give the ok to take the fence down! 

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Finally, Eric dug the next compost hole - we wanted a big one. He dug about 2 feet down in a 3x3 square. But, as I’ve mentioned before, our yard’s dirt is pretty clay-ey...so it retains water longer. Well, Eric struck water at about 14 inches down and we watched it seep out of the sides. Wonder how this will work out...







Here's the video for today's Adventure!

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4/1/12 - April Fools!

Yesterday we (M, Eric, and myself) kicked booty in the garden. We are learning so much and have decided to create a big proposal to the owners of the house. We’d like to convince them to let us “green up” the property and perhaps even the house! Perhaps our DreemGarden will expand into a DreemHouse too!

But, I want to make note of some observations from today:

• That compost hole that Eric dug flooded at 14 inches. Not only was the ground saturated originally, but it rained profusely after our gardening adventure. We’re not really sure if we should compost in the standing water (by covering food mound with dry dirt) or would that contribute some kind of rot? Perhaps we’ll pick a new spot or make a worm bin...and propose to turn that area into a small pond instead!
• From taking down the Ivy, we have increased the sunlight that goes into the “conservatory” (the extension on the house). By removing the old, dead oak tree and the ivy - we imagine a significant increase in passive solar heating! Which will severely increase the energy efficiency of this old house.
• The snails and slugs were relocated to the eucalyptus forrest down the street, hopefully they’ll like they’re new home! We noticed a LOT less of these guys around after taking out the Ivy:

Tonights Hunt: 0 slugs, 1 snail!

Oh and a few of the warm season veggies have already started to poke through, after only 4 days!

• Swiss Chart (Dani’s)
• Steevia (Melinda’s)

Diggin' In - Progress Journal (3/24 - 3/29)

Diggin' In - Progress Journal (3/24 - 3/29)03/29/2012   3/25/12. Peas' Net! We hung out in the garden today, creating netting for the rapidly stretching and reaching peas. We took the netting from a cantelope 3-pack bag, cut the seam, and stretched it across the box - connecting it to two strong sticks. Then tied it to tighten the net - very McGuiver style! Then we “trained” the peas, helping them wrap their tendrils around the netting, that was fun. We also moved the newly sprouted, second round of peas outside - they grow really fast! Tonight’s snail hunt: 11 slugs, 9 snails 3/26/12. Scallions outside Scallions have now been permenantly moved outside. It seems like the cold season veggies have all sprouted except for M’s beets and the celery root. They just barely popped up and didn’t really grow. Perhaps they were burried too deep or went out in the cold too quickly? Tonights hunt: 1 slug, 5 snails 3/28/12. Warm Season Veggies and Herbs We got our warm season veggies and herb trimmings in Edible Landscaping class today! Seems like we’re running out of room already...still needing to perminantly plant the cold seasons. We have to finish making the materials list for donation requests (wood, tools, etc) to get the raised beds and compost made. Here’s the warm season veggies we each got tonight: Basil-Italian Large Leaf (12 ea) Fennel - Zefa Fino (6 ea) Cucumber Lemon (3 ea) Onion - Red Bulb (10 ea) Pumpkin - Jack O’Lantern (3 ea) Tomato - Yellow Pear (6 ea) Tomato - Orange Short Vine Orange Blossom (6 ea) Zucchini Squash - Costate Romanesco (4 ea) Swiss Chard (6 ea) And some of the Herb Trimmings we got: Mint Black Berry  Basil Sage Our directions for at home care are: Seeds - check daily to see if mix is moist, water with spray bottle. Keep indoors near a south or west window until at least 75% of seeds germinate, then move outside during the day and in at night. Cut back watering once seeds have come up! Cuttings - will need to stay in the mix for at least 1 month, and should remain outside from the time they arrive home. Can test to see if they’ve rooted by pulling them up very gently - can just put them gently back in. *oops! we transplanted the clippings into soil! Should have read the directions better!* And about the Snail hunt...we are having a hard time killing all those snails and slugs. It’s so brutal! We heard that people have had success crushing up eggshells and encircling the plants. The snails aren’t supposed to cross because she shells are too sharp for their soft, squishy bodies. Well, we tried crushing a bunch and making a ring-oh-shells around our captured snails to see if they would cross the threshold. They didn’t hesitate. See video So we’ve decided to just relocate them from now on. Tonight we found: 1 slug, and 6 snails 3/29/12  I want to log an observation about the cold season veggies - most (all but the onion families and celery root) have been transplanted either into salad mix bins, a pot, or various plastic containers. It seems the ones in salad containers (about 4” deep of soil) and pots (12-24” deep) are doing the best in growth. And I’m intrigued to see if there has been a significant difference in how the compost tea treated plants do in comparison. Maybe some pics are in order soon! Warm season veggie and herb progress to be explored soon!

Diggin' In - Progress Journal (3/22 - 3/23)

Diggin' In - Progress Journal (3/22 - 3/23)03/23/2012

 

3/22/12. New Water Nozzle!

We bought a cute hose nozzle yesterday, to assist in the crucial watering process of the transplants (2x a day while they recover from the shock). I took a stroll through the garden section of the hardware store to get some ideas. How helpful it was! I also got the price check some things - check out my findings: insert findings

The hose has been nice to keep the plants moist. They are definitely getting some sun - and no incidents of snail feasting. But those 16 - 1 (fed to turtle) are still in the clay pot with leaves...in the shade. We’re at a loss as to what to do with them. I resist going out to hunt again for fear we’ll get another 20 more!

I want to look into adding vermiculite to the transplant mix (using “Happy Medium Potting Soil”) to hold moisture and nutrients. I noticed the seedlings aren’t growing as rapidly as they were before. Maybe I should email Jim at Soil Solutions and ask his thoughts. Perhaps some compost tea is in order.

Also, need to put together a materials wishlist for donations from stores. We want to build garden boxes (cedar or redwood last longest), hay bale beds, etc. A goal for tomorrow.

This Saturday, 3/24, is going to be our first work party. “Ivy and compost day” - we’ll see how it goes! Wonderful I’d imagine. Also in the works for D.r.e.e.m. Reality is creating a Santa Cruz DreemGarden Collective. This will allow for a network of locals to share produce, eggs, honey, etc - perhaps eventually using the surplus for a CSA or Farmers Market!

So far, locally we have: Eric, Melissa, Sara Pop, and us!

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3/23/12. Snails and Transplanting

Snails...oh yeah, we have to sacrifice those snails from the other night. We’ve been putting it off because it’s so intense to think about killing such obviously alive creatures. We’ve decided to send them back to the earth via the compost hole, a large rock...and gravity. It was quite the experience (see the end of this video for the action)

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And now it’s time to continue transplanting! We found several planting pots around the house and are going to use them as a middle step before the raised bed and hay bales. We went to visit Jim at “Soil Solutions” today, to buy more “Happy Medium” potting soil ($18.12) and he gave us a bit of his Compost Tea for free to try out! We’re supposed to spray it on the leaves and soil.

In the compost tea:

• Native microbial culture - woodchips (5-15yrs old), earthworm casting, concentrated compost, viatl earth compost (organic veg waste and fruit trees), and “Baseline” (peat moss)
• Fish hydrolysis - to feed microbs in soil

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We performed a few experiements with the compost tea that we got...

Arugula layout & compost tea trail - in small-medium pot: Melinda put together a mix of soil using about: 60% local soil and 40% Happy Medium potting mix.

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Cilantro layout & compost tea on roots - in big pot: Some tea put directly on the roots others on the soil. 

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Cauliflower, Kale, and Beets - high clay content in mix, using mulch from the front yard, some top soil from yard (lots of clay), and soil from old pots.


The transplanting happened late in the day, leaving the seedlings without much sun afterwards...hope that’s ok. Oh, and we don’t really like our fancy new watering nozzle very much - it’s not gentle enough on the babies.

Also today, we measured the yard and garden space! The intention is to draw up some plans for the beds and such. Insert drawing

Tonight’s snail hunting around 10:15 pm yielded: 3 Slugs, 24 snails! Sacrifice completed.
Another round of snail hunting at 12 am: 7 slugs, 10 snails!

Oh! There was a baby snail on the pea leaves and there was evidence of munching for the first time!

Diggin' In - Progress Journal (3/19 - 3/21)

Diggin' In - Progress Journal (3/19 - 3/21)03/21/2012

 

3/19/12. Notes on Gardening

Notes from Edible Landscaping by Creasy, on planning garden:

• Create base plan: measure/draw, make copies to sketch on
• Choose design: take inventory: temp zones, soil type, drainage
• Do bubble drawing: identify, present layout and problem areas (slopes, drainage, roots, sun)
• Soil elements: air (oxygen/nitrogen), water, living organisms (microbacteria, viruses, worms), humus (organic matter - leaves, lawn clipping, compost, manuer), inorganic matter (particles of minerals/rock)
• Mineral components: sand, silt, clay
• Sandy soil - lots of pore space to allow air and h20 to pass (roots don’t get h20 logged), warms in spring quickly and easy to till. Need frequent watering and fertilizer because nutrients and h20 drain through
• Clay soil - retain h20 and nutrients well, but doesn’t drain h20 well. harder to till, doesn’t warm as quick in spring
• BEST - “Loam” contains fairly equal parts of sand, silt, and clay
• Test by balling up soil with some water to see how sticky, clumpy (clay), or crumbly (sand/org matter) it is Show picture
• Most veggies thrive in slight acid -> neutral soil (pH 6-7). We can get a pH test kit, but professors says not to waste money on it. Can send away for soil sample if really want to know.
• Important nutrients plants need: nitrogen, phosophorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulfur (especially 1st three)

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Notes on seedlings we have (taken from EL book)

• Broccoli and Cauliflower - plant annnual, need moisture/fertilizer, grows 8-36” tall, needs full sun, harvest the main head - let stay in ground for small shoots
• Cabbage (leaf not head) - annual, moist/fertilizer, 6-8” tall, full sun, havest - cut individual leafs from outside when have 8 edible leaves. Don’t take all
• Chives - perennial, 12-24” tall, full sun, harvest by cutting off tops (flowers best when just open)
• Kale - annual, moist/fertilizer, 8-36” tall, full sun, harvest - pick young leaves as soon as large enough to withstand. Cut out as needed, young leaves keep growing
• Lettuce - successive planting annually, 6-12” tall, full sun (tolerates partial shade), harvest - entirely or few outter leaves (transplant seedlings into holes)
• Peas - annually, tendrals 2-8ft tall, full sun, harvest about 3 weeks after blossoms set

Soil depths for our seedlings (taken from EL book)

• 6-10” deep: arugula, beet, chive, cilantro, lettuce, onion
• 10-15” deep: celery, chinese cabbage, leek, lettuce
• 15-18” deep: kale, peas
• 18-25” deep: broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower

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3/20/12

Today we transplanted a lettuce cell into a strawberry/h20 container. Also! We planted a whip of an apple tree that was clipped as a demonstration in class on Feb 29. Melinda took it home because it looked like a magic wand, then stuck it in a glass of water. Yesterday it started growing buds/leaves! So we tipped it, to encourage root growth by eliminating the auxin hormone, and transplanted it. We’ll see what happens!

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3/21/12. Snail Coed Mixer

Last night at 10pm-ish we took the advice from our EL book to “hunt” the snails in our backyard. Since we usually only see a few here and there we weren’t expecting much. With a headlamp on and a terra cotta pot in hand, we set out. We figured we’d scan the yard onced over and find maybe 5 or 6...within 10 mins, and ¼ of the yard perimeter, we found 16!! We were unprepared mentally to dispose of so many! Watching them for a few minutes made it very challenging to commit snail genocide. So we covered the pot for the evening, providing a few Ivy leaves inside (We figured we’d encourage Ivy eating over seedlings). Today we intend to relocate them to the river/eucalyptus forest...where they may seriously propogate after their 16 snail mixer last night!


Either that or we will have to commit them to the compost...

Diggin' In: Progress Journal (2/29 - 3/18)

Diggin' In: Progress Journal (2/29 - 3/18)03/18/2012

 

2/29/12. Moving Outside!

Today we moved the germinated plants out into the sun and in the aquarium to protect from rain and cold. Was hoping for a slight green house effect. The seeds that have only just poked the surface were left inside to germinate a bit more. It’s probably about mid 50’s and cloudy today. I hope our spindally seedlings will be ok!

I found out that what I thought was impressively healthy growing ended up being our babies stretching their necks to find the sun. Oops! Needed to put them into sunlight as soon as they started showing green leaves. Something to keep in mind for next round of seedlings coming up.

Plants we left inside to germinate more:

• Leeks - M & D
• Beets - M
• Cilantro - M & D
• Lettuce - M
• Onion - D
• Scallions - D
• Celery root - M

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3/18/12. Transplant to salad mix bins.

Today we transplanted several seedlings into a mid-rand “pot” of salad mix bins. They’re great planters! And set them on benches in the yard to catch max sun - though it has been very rainy for the past 4 or 5 days. The separation of M and my own trays are no more. We’ve joined forces to mother all plants equally as a team.

Plants transplanted: Cabbage Peas Broccoli Arugula Spinach Kale

Still in cells: Lettuce Beets Cauliflower Scallions Celery root Chives Onion bunches Cilantro Leeks

We have also started more peas and scallions that we bought from the garden store. We are using the left over mix from the original plantings, while adding "Happy Medium" potting soil we bought today. That brings me to the point of talking about Soil Solutions and Jim Neves! We found a wonderful soil store on the outskirts of town - a local, organic store. Jim, the owner was wonderfully informative and kind - we talked for a while about our project and goals. He was open to share and we'll be for sure going back to him! He even offered to give a power point presentation and workshops for D.r.e.e.m. Reality!