Organic Gardening on a Cloven Hoof

Branching out a bit from my little patch of paradise to about a mile away. Here, under the high voltage transmission towers of our local utility, Southern California Edison, a tree nursery has some fallow land.

Being hot and dry summer conditions here in Southern California, the brush builds up only to dry out and cause a high fire danger.

The nursery hires a local goatherd for about $3,000. He brings his flock in and dozens of hungry lawnmowers get to work.

While dry grass and brush might not be a complete, nutritional meal for the goats, they have a feeding pen (at the top of their range in the above picture) that has supplemental feed and water

It also makes quite an attraction in our neighborhood.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Keeping up Appearances

Checking into the status of the garden. First, in this era a megadroughts, how about a look at water usage? It's raining today, that's good, but we're still under rationing.

Last month's bill was $17 and change. this compared to the same time last year when we paid, well, more (the water company's website is down and I can't look up last year's bill right now). There is also a strange credit on the bill of a couple of bucks, called the "CA: LA Payment Assistance" credit, that I don't know what it's for but in water usage, we used 6,732 gallons this May and 7,480 gallons last May.

My next door neighbor, who has a large green lawn that she only waters once a week, has a bill over $180 for the same period. Yikes!

The tomatoes are busting out all over. Many fruit on our hybrid plant and cherry tomato plant. The heirloom plant is showing lots of flowers but no fruit yet.

Our chiles are doing better this year. I used this Anaheim chile in our eggs this weekend and there's some gorgeous pasilla chiles on another plant. I'll maked stuffed peppers out of them someday.

Got six ears of corn showing so far. 

The grapes are showing slight signs of smut so I hit them with some sulfur dust on Sunday.

My wife made me take the cage off of our zucchini, now it's showing signs of animal damage and I still haven't gotten any fruit. I put the cage back on, let's see how it does.

It's June. The vendor at the farmers market who sold us the dragon fruit plants told me to cut back by a third and we should see flowers by May. I did. Got lot's of new growth but no flowers or fruit yet.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Carrots for Mental Health

Recently, my son had a bout with depression and anxiety. While we spent many hours with professionals, I thought of something we could do at home to take his mind off of things. I had him plant a mental health plant.

To do this, I showed him our collection of vegetable seeds and let him pick one. He picked carrots.

Taking a red solo cup and poking holes in the bottom, we filled it up with mix and he put the seeds in. He's been taking very good care and watering it every three days. Now it's time to transplant.

The picture above shows the plants ready to go, with a beer-bottle filled with a B1 mix to prevent transplant shock.

Now in the whiskey barrel, we'll see how these carrots do.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Nothing but Net

It's getting to the time where the grapes are getting too tempting to the local wildlife. We found a squirrel trying to get the the fruit just this morning.

If you follow this blog, you know that this is an ongoing problem each year.  We tried netting the entire plant but this just constricted the plant too much and we didn't get any grapes. Last year, we tried using holographic tape and was able to get about half a crop, the other was devoured by critters, so I guess it worked somewhat.

It also gave my wife something to take a picture of.

There's still some tape on the plant but this year, I'm taking the extra step of netting individual bunches.  We've been saving the nets that the fruits and vegetables come in from the store.

My plan is to put a net around each bunch, letting then breathe and get sunshine but providing a barrier for the animals.

I was able to net up eight bunches, about a third, before I ran out.  We'll see soon how well this works.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Battling at the Barricades

This is our plumeria. It's a beauty. In fact, we've caught strangers coming up and plucking bunches off for their bouquets. It has nothing to do with this post, just thought I post something nice to mitigate the ugliness that's below.

After 20 years, gophers have finally found my lawn. Strange, because it's surrounded by pavement and concrete, which should have kept them out. I'm guessing they got desperate since my nextdoor neighbor stopped watering her lawn and they must have struck out from there. Since the first hole showed up at the edge of the lawn closest to hers, that's my working theory.

Not too long after I first noticed the mounds, a dead gopher showed up on our driveway. I figured the local cats got it and left it as a trophy. Our lizards and other scavengers took care of the body before I got a chance to dispose of it.

I'd hoped this took care of the problem but more mounds appeared a few days later. It was obvious that they were headed across the lawn and to my garden. I had to take action before they decimated it.

There comes a time in every serious gardener's life where deadly action is necessary. It's either our garden or them. You can try as hard as you can to dissuade them but not all of those pests will take the hint.

So, finding the freshest mound, I put a garden hose in and turned on the water. About two minutes later, the soaked rodent popped out.

I dispatched him with a hoe.  I'll spare you the gory details and photo.

In other lawn news, I've planted feverfew in the deer buffet rose garden to deter pests of an insect nature.  They do seem to keep the aphids, mealybugs, and the like away (the deer are immune, though) but they tend to get out of hand once in awhile.

Before mowing, I rip off the longest bunches and throw on the lawn to be sucked up by the mower.

Once mowed, I've got the gopher holes flattened...

...and the deer buffet rose garden has it's feverfew back under control.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

From the Land of Free Flowing Water

...at least for this weekend.  We've got a late season storm to help ease our parched land. In fact, so far May is the wettest month of the season. An inch and a half of rain means we can turn off the timers for a few days and enjoy nature's complimentary wetness.

This tomato likes it. It's overflowed its cage but still no flowers. But wait, what is that?

That's right, there are some buds hidden below. Fruit is on its way.

Same with this hanging basket of cherry tomatoes.

This heirloom tomato is not growing as fast but is still looking good.

Zucchini is blooming, too. It should be the first producer.

Our hot red chili plant is also showing flowers.

So far, it's looking good.

The grape vine has many bunches of grapes like this.

Every now and then, though, I see a weakling like this one on the left.

Pluck...and it's gone. We want to channel the plant's strength to the best clusters.

It is just about time to put my little net bags on this fruit to protect it until harvest.

Darryl

Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick

All Rights Reserved

To Lawn or Not to Lawn...That is Today's Question

Before reading this, you may want to check out the posts leading up to this finale of our Earth Week series...

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

It's been portrayed as our patriotic duty. Much like Liberty Gardens or food rationing in World War II, we Californians are being told lawns are passe and we need to let them die to be good water users.

Funny thing is, we've been conserving water for years and still use a lot less than people around us. Now, partly because they couldn't be bothered to cut back, we have to cut even deeper and all eyes are on that semi-green patch in front of the house.

Part of me says, fine. Let it go.  You won't have to mow it anymore.  The other part of me says it'll be dusty, ugly, and the grass has other benefits besides looking nice and creating a soft place to step.

So what are the benefits of a lawn?  It creates habitat for bugs which feed the birds. It filters water going back to the aquifer. It keeps the dust down. It creates oxygen. It has a cooling effect on the air. It improves the value of a property.

What are the drawbacks? It takes water. In our case, about 10% of our monthly water. You have to mow it regularly. You have to do other maintenance such as feeding and de-thatching.

Now, looking at the pros and cons, what do I do?  

When a lawn goes dormant, such as in the cold of winter back east or the scorching heat of summer out here in the west, it doesn't really die and will sprout readily when fall rains come again.

I've cut back to where I still comfortably land in the water use guidelines and regulations to our state so I think I will continue until the lawn browns on its own when the summer heat gets too much for it. At that point, I will cut it off and wait for a wetter winter and fall to see how it comes back.

Sure beat mowing it every weekend this summer.

I hope you've enjoyed our Earth Week series and that it's helped you to be water-wise in your own gardening. Next time, it's back to our little patch of urban garden, our follies, and triumphs.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved