Urban Farmer

Since last week we have had near record temperatures and humidity – still.  It has been an unusually hot summer so far.

We got some rain Friday overnight and a couple of days thereafter with temperatures in the low 90′s.  That was enough water, with the mulch in place, to keep the beds moist even with the subsequent hotter and more humid days that followed.

Here are the updated photos for the herb garden:

Herb Bed 8-4-10 West

Herb Bed 8-4-10, East

These photos, and the ones below, were taken near nightfall so I used the flash.  Doesn’t give great depth of field.  You can tell they are kind of just holding their own right now.  The compost tea applied last week certainly hasn’t hurt, however.

Here are the veggie bed photos:

Tomato bed, 8-4-10

Squash and Brocolli

The tomatoes as you can almost see are mostly doing well and outgrowing their supporting strings.  Need to add some higher support.  The first row closest to you is the row that had the yellow leaves and is not doing so well.  That variety I’ll avoid next year; it just has not taken off like the others.

The squash is outgrowing its fence, coming right through and onto the lawn!  The brocolli is getting big as well.  Expect to see some fruit budding soon.  The tomatoes are beginning to blossom as well.

Although little or no activity by me has been done on the outside this week, I read Don Elwood’s book on using Pyramids in the garden.

This is a bit of a hard read since Mr. Elwood is a NASA scientist and writes like one.  However, what he has to say is great stuff.  More than just pyramids, he really talks about a variety of subtle energies including color, water, sound, pyramids, crystals, reiki, prayer and others I am forgetting.

It got my mind to racing and thinking and I’ll have to start experimenting and applying some of the principles he points out.  Turns out the more “primitive” cultures were into many of these things.  Native Americans, for example, used the “tepee” (pyramid) over beans, and corn that was prayed over – their medicine men were Reiki masters.  Their results still are far better than those obtained by all the newest and best chemical fertilizers and genetically modified strains.  Who is surprised??

Enough for now.  Rethinking the water fountain location.  More about that next time, and hopefully there will be some progress made in that direction.

See you in the garden!

Jon

Wow! This week has been REALLY hot and humid!

I mean, REALLY.  Was out mowing with son Philip on Friday and Saturday and just about went into heat exhaustion on Friday.  Was smarter and took better care of myself on Saturday, but this kind of weather is really exhausting.

So how is the garden faring?

Actually, pretty well, thank you.

The brocolli is growing.  The squash is spreading out.  The tomatoes are getting tall.  The cauliflower and cabbage are a little slower but coming along.  The tomatoes that were getting some yellow leaves have had a couple more, but not drastically so.  Fortunately, in the middle of all the heat and humidity, we had some decent rain which was perfect for the plants.

The herb garden has also done pretty well.  One of the dill plants has succumbed.  Two were in one starter pot and when planting them I separated them.  In hindsight that was probably a bit too stressful and they never really quite recovered.  The borage, a survivor from my first fertilizer fiasco, also finally gave up part of its ghost.  What remains is doing OK but it is a lot less of a plant than it had been.

Regardless, the beds need fertilizer and that brings us to the exciting part!

I got my compost tea bags from Haven Brand (see last week’s post) only two or three days after I ordered them!

Their compost tea comes from either cow manure, horse manure or alfalfa which you can get separately or in combination.  They send you a “tea bag” which you then brew.

I got the combination.  The horse and cow varieties are for veggies and garden plants, flowers or grass.  The alfalfa is specifically for roses.  Since we have a bunch of those (one is in the center of the herb garden) I had to get that, too.  So the combination was a no-brainer choice.

I put the tea bags in the 5 gallon bucket of water on Saturday and let it brew for the prescribed three days.  Then tonight I dipped from that bucket this wonderful, deep rich brown nectar, diluted it in a pitcher and poured it on the plants.  Can’t wait to see the improvement!  (I have this sense that my soil is really lacking.  Should do a soil analysis and will before next spring but needed just to get the whole project going this year.)

I’ll also put some more mulch on the beds this week; will help keep the water in with all this heat.

With all the heat and extra mowing, the other projects have been on hold.  Haven’t spent any more time on the pyramid array book.  Haven’t been up to working on the fountain, either.

Here is the link, though, for the mandala, as promised:

http://www.crystalawareness.com/mandala-charger/index.html

There are lots of other ways listed on that page to use a mandala.  Be sure to come up with your own as well!  (And let me know).

Next week I want to talk about a compost maker one of my readers has designed.  Really neat – you’ll love it.

See you in the garden!

Jon

This week saw more spectacular growth in the tomato and vegetable beds in the backyard garden.  Pruned again the tomatoes and added more string up higher.  One variety of tomatoes is really growing tall; the others are more “conservative” in their approach to expanding their height (in other words, they are staying shorter).

One variety of tomato is also getting yellow on some of its leaves.  This prompted a big search on the internet for the reason why.  Guess what I discovered?  Nobody really knows why!

The options included: deficiencies of magnesium or calcium or iron and all kinds of various pests such as worms, viruses, and blight.

Here’s what I took home from this:  rather than trying to figure out exactly what one thing is the problem, find a broad solution that covers all the problems.

(This is exactly how I approach medical problems as well.)

For the ground/garden, the fix-all solution is (are you ready?) – COMPOST!

I tried the natural fertilizer and we saw how that worked out – too hot, too concentrated the way I did it.

So this time I took the suggestion and followed the link from my friend Chuck: Haven Brand Compost Tea.  On Sunday ordered their assortment pack that includes Cow Manure, Horse Manure and Alfalfa that comes in tea bags.  You let brew for 3 days in 1-5 gallons of water then apply up to 4 times per season.  You get 3 bags, either of each type or one of each, for $12.95.  This is unbelievable!

And on Monday I had an email response that the tea bags were on their way.  Amazing customer service!

Can’t wait to see how the tea works.  I’ll let you know in future postings.

Besides the compost tea, I decided it was also time to explore the use of subtle energies in the garden beds.

First I took a mandala and used my pendulum to test its most effective spot in each bed and in the herb garden.  Then I placed the mandala on the site where it was tested to be.  Will see what happens.  (A mandala is an energy antenna.  I’ll find the link from where I got mine and share it next time.)

I also did a search and found Don Elwood and his work on subtle energy.  Bought his book on phased pyramid arrays in the garden and am working my way through it.  Expect to build some pyramids in the near future and watch to see what happens.

This is exciting stuff and harkens back to my days on the organic farm in Virginia.

Enough for now.  That will keep me chewing for a while.

See you in the garden!

Jon