Category: Growing organic

ferry service and spring seeding

Past week I have operated a ferry service for the ladybugs/ladybirds which hibernate each winter in the northeast bathroom.  Each day about 20 new ones appear and since the windows are screened it is easier for me to collect them in a small glass jar and carry them to the raised beds area where I release them.  It is easiest to catch them when they are on the ceiling - simply hold the jar below them and nudge them with paper and they topple into the jar where they may momentarily play dead before Read more [...]

long hibernation ending

My last post was November 25.  As we moved into winter my growing activities were largely shelved. In November/December I cleared and weeded some beds and planted out, closely spaced, several 100 garlic cloves.  They are all descended from 3 varieties of garlic I purchased from California 4 years ago.  After harvesting last year I strung them together and hung them from joists in the carport.  Fewer rotted compared with previous years where I had stored them in laundry bags hung in the basement.  Read more [...]

Muscadine grape juice

With my bobcat I excavated a level terrace along the slope of the hill, then I dug a ditch down the middle of it, filled it with logs and ran a single cable about 5 ft high on either side of the ditch.  The cables are threaded through posts planted every  35ft for a total length of about 110 ft.  Then I relocated my muscadine vines from the vegetable growing area to the terrace where they have thrived.  The problem with muscadine vines is their roots can extend up to 50 ft so they were mining Read more [...]

sweet potato, pests, a broody hen

I had my best harvests this year.  Everything did well and while the weather, rains and fewer pests all helped, mostly I think is I am getting better at growing.  (I mention rains because all my irrigation is with rainwater).  Last year, my first with sweet potatoes, I produced finger sized specimens.  This year, tho I left it a bit late, they are big. Pest pressure has been minimal which I attribute to increased biodiversity and natural predators etc. tho this week I noticed two instances Read more [...]

jujube, 3 Canadian aids, a feral bee colony

With unexpectedly cooler weather here in N Georgia in September, I am spending more time in the vegetable garden and orchards.  I had planted jujube saplings a few years ago in the terraced orchard and neither irrigated nor tended them until recently I noticed small round fruit.  At the time they were green and tasteless.  Now they are brown or red with wrinkled skins and a delicate flavor, a bit like an apple.  There are two small jujube trees - the Li Jujube provided just one fruit, the Lang Read more [...]

a 2nd use for old beer

In the past week I noticed my chard and toscano kale were being ravaged by slugs/snails or caterpillars, and I discovered in a cupboard, packs of beer with a January 2011 expiration date.  Adopting the permaculture mantra, the problem is the solution, last evening I buried an old cup at rim level in between the victimized chard and filled it with beer.  And this morning I was pleased to find a large slug: I scooped out the slug and small wasp and will visit the site again tomorrow.  And Read more [...]

what’s coming in

Before the harvesting roundup I must return to my favorite - the industrious bumblebee.    The Rose of Sharon, hibiscus, thrives alongside the deck and each morning their pollen offerings bring in the bumblebees. They scramble deep into the flowers and their activity sprays the air with pollen which bespeckles them. And they load their saddlebags with food. Much as I like my honey bees and appreciate their excellent honey, the bumblebees cannot be supplanted in my affections. The Read more [...]

a surfeit of tomatoes

This has been a good tomato year for me.  I made several big changes to the way I grow tomatoes and perhaps this helped.  The big challenge right now is to use them all. I pick the tomatoes a little early when they show an orange or yellow tinge and allow them a couple days to ripen, therefore the green ones in the picture.  I may sacrifice some taste but this puts me ahead of the line.  Of whom you may ask? These are the secretive ones which, like a squirrel, quickly move to the Read more [...]

season update – what grew, is growing, and still to come

This morning the sun ducked behind clouds and instead of retreating before the heat I took some pics of growing activity. At the top of the hill stands a solitary thistle. Thistle, a symbol of Scotland, brings back memories of vacations in the Highlands. And the pipes of the Black Watch swirling through our living room when my Dad, who fought in a Scottish regiment in WW2, would play our favorite record.  Not that it is universally admired - here is a quote from Botanical.com: In agriculture Read more [...]

leveling my fig tree and preparing the tree nursery

The property came with a big fig tree about 15 ft high and 15 ft broad which bore delicious figs each year for the wasps and me.  Then came the cold January weather when the temperature fell close to 0 deg F, which is cold for this area and unaccustomedly cold for fig trees which had not seen less than 10 deg F in the past 30 years.  Most of the fig tree died and, as they will do, it has produced growth at the foot of the tree.  My neighbor came by and nicked the tree in various places and suggested Read more [...]