Happy Halloween

Halloween 2008, originally uploaded by gardenpunk.

Hi all,

Happy Halloween - try not to each as much candy as we have!

Katie & Chris

Thievery

Something ate some of my seeds. Turkey? Raccoon? I haven't any idea. Please identify this poop for me, and then we'll all know.



Scene of the crime:

I planted the fava beans in small pots lined up against my fence where they could climb up the trellis apparatus we built with wire... I will give you a moment to go check out that old post... I'm waiting...

I planted most of the beds with a fall/winter crop of different vegetables, and thank goodness whatever pilfered my fava beans is leaving the beds alone.





Jerk left all the pots askew too. I am going to have to restart the seeds in the pots on top of my glass top table in the backyard, and away from the beds.

So, what do you think it was?

Why hello

Texas sunset, originally uploaded by gardenpunk.

Wow. It's been a while since I've missed 10 days of posts.

Anyhow, I went to Texas and all I got was sick. har har

So I've spent the last 24 hours trying to get better.

My head is swimming with thoughts and posts from Dallas and the energy industry software convention I attended. It was great to meet a lot of people in the industry, and realize that many of them want to see amazing changes take place - solar, wind, shrinking carbon footprints, carbon caps and less green house gases.

I hope to share some of these thoughts over the coming days.

For today, enjoy the sunset picture shot with my Canon SD400 (point and shoot).

Many hands make light work

This is post #2 in a series of 3. Click here to read post #1.

Long time readers may remember that we used cardboard moving boxes for the first sheet mulching project in the backyard (we had them from when we moved, good thing I kept 'em!) The cardboard worked well, but I wanted to try another material that I kept seeing used as sheet mulch: burlap. We ordered two rolls of 40" x 300' burlap from Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply, and ground staples to help secure the base in preparation for the next ingredients: organic compost and mini bark from Sierra Nursery & Rock.

Sheet mulching how-to
1. Invite a couple friends over to help you move 14 yards of landscape material in one windy day. Promise it will only take a couple hours... (a HUGE thanks to Taryn and Joe for their help. We could not have done it without you guys!)
2. Mow lawn really low and trim edges
3. Roll out and secure burlap with ground staples (2 layers)
4. Spread 1" compost all over burlap
5. Spread 4" mulch over compost (we used mini-bark)










The bulk of the project is complete, but in post #3 I will show you the front yard + side in their entirety after we've made the final touches!

FYI
If you live in the Sacramento Region (or the Bay Area), there is a excellent free resource from the Sacramento Stormwater Quality Partnership called the River Friendly Guide. (Bay Area info here). On page 25 there is a how-to on sheet mulching. we followed the guidelines and used 1" of compost followed by 4" of mini bark mulch.

To be Continued in Part 3

Really?

I'm splitting our recent sheet mulching project into a few posts over the next couple days because there is a lot of information I want to share, and I want to tell the story in order. Here is post 1 of 3:

A few weeks ago, Chris and I saw the side lawn of our front yard for the first time in a long time and gasped. "Oh my god, the lawn on the side is totally dead."

The bright side is that we had planned on sheet mulching the side anyway because it is useless for us - grass that we never see because there is no easy access point through a gate. So we bumped up the project by a couple months.

On Friday night Chris mowed the grass really short and edged the sidewalk. Our lawn butts up against our neighbor's lawn behind us, so we went to go talk to them about what kind of mow strip they would like us to install (trying to be a good neighbors!).



We walked around the corner and behind our house and I was kind of tickled, I noticed they had an Obama sign out front...now let me fill you in, we live in a very conservative neighborhood in Folsom (25 miles east of Sacramento) - a neighbor in this same court has a McCain/Palin sign and another has a Yes on Prop 8 sign (you know, the California proposition that will change the state constitution to define marriage between a man and a woman?!?) Really? Wow...anyway. I was just surprised to find that we weren't the only folks of a liberal persuasion in the 'hood.

We talked to the wife for a good hour out front about our plans and life in general. And she hit me like a ton of bricks when she said 2 things,

"We figured you were letting the grass die because you were going to cover it with mulch, we weren't worried."

"I'd love to rip out the grass and plant a garden and have chickens and whatnot."

I nearly fell over.

I told her about what we've done in the backyard, how we want chickens, and how we're going to plant veggies and fruit trees in the area we are sheet mulching and she thought that was pretty cool. I thought they could see into our backyard, but apparently not! Then I invited them to dinner one of these days.

I was on cloud nine all night and could hardly sleep. Here I had been feeling like a fish out of water and she totally hung me out to dry with her like-minded attitude. It felt awesome, and definitely set a good tone for the weekend ahead.

To be Continued in Part 2

Shining light

Porch light, originally uploaded by gardenpunk.

I have had a really rough week at work. This probably registers on my radar as the second worst week ever in my professional life.

But I'm done complaining about that. Life is all about attitude and I'm going to go into work tomorrow and do my job because you know what? I like my job, damn the torpedoes and anyone who tries to change my course! Smile and nod.

I really just wanted to pop in and thank all of you for your blogs. Yes, seriously. This week has been an especially good one in that respect, and you all have kept me sane, laughing, admiring your gardens, and thinking about the things you've posted. Like a light at the end of a dark tunnel.

Thanks again for all of your hard work.

Oh, pets

[PICTURE REMOVED]

Yesterday Chris was messing with the camera while I whispered sweet nothings into Travis' year while we both teetered on the edge of the couch.

Or maybe I was telling threatening Travis with his life if he doesn't stop scratching on my house and furniture.

October Watermelon

Chris' alternate post title: Disappointment

Last night we had cold front roll through that dropped 0.25" of rain and carried with it some strong winds. This morning a survey of the damage included most of the Mexican Sunflowers, our monster basil plants, and a few other items in the raised bed garden area.

Chris spent this afternoon cleaning up and began cutting the tomatoes back (each year around this time we kind of give up on them and the fruit flies move in). We planted a 'Moon & Stars' heirloom watermelon vine that spread all over the side behind the raised beds, but never saw any fruit. We figured there would be some when we cleaned up behind the raised beds.

Yep. Two to be exact.

Chris brought them inside and cut them open; one watermelon was underripe (my fault?), and the other was watery. Bummer. This variety was supposed to be flavorful...but I don't think this vine had the right cultural conditions. Oh well, next year!



1. 'Moon & Stars' Watermelon, 2. With Action!, 3. Well, it looks good, 4. Jake likes watermelon

Gratuitious camera shot

[PICTURE REMOVED]

Last weekend, my coworker (and good friend) David and I went out on a field trip for our photography classes. Apparently, someone was quite the shutter bug ... taking pictures of people when our assignments were light and f-stops.

I guess it wasn't me. Hmm...

Anyhow, this is a lot of what I've been up to lately. Building a portfolio, learning more about photography, and taking pictures. But I haven't neglected the garden, I promise.

No Way

The powers that be say it is going to rain up to an inch between Friday and Saturday.

Oh, please let it be true!

Updates as things change...

Winter Sowing

Over the last few weeks I have been sowing my winter seeds. I read The Four Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman last spring, and I am determined to keep the garden going! We actually live where Coleman says we don't need floating row covers to overwinter crops, or any of the fancy gagetry he has built to keep crops going in Maine's winter weather.

The Sunset Western Garden Guide (zone 9) says we have about 10.5 months in which we can grow stuff - I think that's pretty dang cool. So we really never have to put the garden to bed, but instead we can continue to succession plant well into November.

While the cold won't get our winter crops, the wind certainly might.

Oh the wind!

We had terrible wind in the winter/spring/early summer of '08 - I've lived here my whole life and I can't remember another year it had been so windy. It tore many of my plants to shreds; I just hope the same doesn't happen next season.

My planting activity picked up as each subsequent bank failed, so that way if shit goes bad, at least we have food.

Why are you laughing?

And for those interested we've sown the following seeds:

Broccoli
Parsnips
Carrots
Onions
Leeks
Beets
Peas
Garlic
Turnips
Pak Choi
Swiss Chard