New Year New Path Cover

This is where the old fish pond was. It was an above ground pool. I'd throw weeds in the pool from time to time for the fish to eat as well as to create muck at the bottom. The muck can be harvested for use from time to time. 

Sheet mulching, cardboard is great for sheet mulching, just make sure you get the tape off. I've come after others who have sheet mulched and spent a good bit of time picking up plastic tape. Plastic does not belong in soil. 

This is one of the paths that I'm sheet mulching currently. I'll use newspaper to get the edges good. After working the land you will start to know which weeds do what. Some areas have weeds that don't die easy so I put the cardboard on a little extra thick in those places. 

an example of what it looks like after the mulch gets added. In this case I used pine needles, complements of the the neighbors trash. 

update on that banana tree.

Some people wet the cardboard right after they put it down. Some do it before. That allows it to conform to the earth a bit. It also starts the rotting process on the weeds you covered up. I normally prune a few papaya trees or banana trees and use that to hold it down. If you like to wet the cardboard consider doing it before it rains.  I do this in the rain sometimes. :)

Partly sheet mulched path on right.

Critter bedding used as mulch, complements of the local pet store. Down side of using old pet bedding is that occasionally there will be seeds in it. 

More sheet mulching

Normally I cut up the banana leaf a bit before putting it down for mulch. If you have ever worked with banana tree's you know why. Banana and papaya leaf can make the path a little slick, which can be fun as long as everyone is cool with it. I tend to put full leafs in low traffic areas.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!! Hope it's a great one for you.

Word of wisdom for the day: 

If you plan to drink at a new years party, make sure you drink a lot of water also. Get yogurt or kefir for the next morning. Cheers!

I now have a donation button! If you would like to donate it would really help me speed up this project. $200 give or take pays for a dump truck full of mulch. 10 to 15 dollars helps me buy a new machete (one of the best farm tools ever) $1000 would probably be enough for me to get a new roof to replace my currently leaking one. Around $100 would let me buy 500 flower pots or more. $60 or so should let me get a bag of diatomaceous earth for organic pest control. 30+ ft extension ladder $300 to $500. Cat litter (clay) for sealing the ponds runs 1 dollar a bag. Mulch is currently the most pressing need... unless you consider a leaky roof pressing haha. Thank you all. 

If you want your money to go specifically to any one of these needs just drop me a note with the donation. 

                                                                    

"tired" Lufa so energetic

So I took 2 used tires and filled them with all sorts of stuff. Garden weeds, dead animals, a little dirt, maybe even a log, lots of compost of various sorts. After a month or 2 I planted some Luffa sponge seeds (soon I'll have some available for purchase). This pic is part of the harvest I got. 

The peeled sponges ready to hang.

a sponge being peeled. The outer layer was then used as mulch... which we quickly found to be rather slick. Lucky for us nobody wiped out hard although. I personally enjoy slick mulch as it's a bit of a challenge and typically after a few days isn't so slick. I feel that using plants to challenge ones movement abilities is yet another great use that's often overlooked. 

Using a paperclip as a needle and hemp cord as the string we strung up some of the lufa to dry. 

I put the larger end up so that when it dries it won't dump the seeds all over the ground.  That way I can harvest the seed and sell them online to support my gardening habit. 

Tried sticking a few through the lattice work to see how well that works. This is my first real season to get a solid harvest on these. I'm learning a lot from the experience. 

I have a bit of random lattice in an area of the garden I named "Little Coasta Rica. I used some of this for hanging the lufa once I ran out of space on the lattice.

I hear you can eat the luffa when they are small (under 12cm according to wiki)

Ewwwwww haha this is slim from some of the younger lufas.. I harvested a decent bit of it for my first attempt at making body wash. During the harvest I put a good bit of this slim in my hair and on my skin. It works a lot like hair gel and I feel it does something beneficial for the skin. If the body wash turns out to be any good I may sell it at the local farmers market.  I mixed in salt so hopefully it will keep. I may pasteurize half of it as an experiment. 

Random Aloe! I'm not sure what kind this is but it grows like a bush. I've seen it growing at least 5 ft tall but I don't think that's as large as it can get. This particular variety of aloe is better for cuts and burns than the 2 other variety. The sap or gel from this plant is more likely to give you the runs also. Aloe gel and luffa gel are not quite the same although some of the applications are similar. Has anyone tried luffa gel on burns, cuts, or abrasions?  I'd be interested to hear your findings. Also has anyone tried the gel in cooking applications? Aloe gel can work as a binding agent in raw breads for example but I haven't tried the older luffa gel like that yet. I'm not even sure if the gel from the larger and older luffa is edible. I may try a small bit of it next season but I didn't think of it in time for this season.

I like to break up the work day a bit with random task. This is from rocks that I'm clearing from the soil. Rocks like this could come in handy one day. These rocks were not here to start with, someone put them in. Moral of the story, if you put rocks down for one project  someone will probably have to pick them up for another. 

Random side note on picking up after old projects - Plastic does not ever belong in the soil. I know it's a popular trend to use plastic weed prevention liner, pond liner,  ID cards for plants, fence, or whatever else.. I have spent a good deal of time picking small bits of plastic out of soil. Short term it looks great, long term it looks horrible. Short term it may seem logical, long term it's counter productive. With so many alternatives out there, plastic should never be used in a garden. Biodegradable plant based plastics might be a little better but I probably wouldn't use those either. For the love of gardeners please don't resort to plastic, it's just a stupid idea typically had by those who don't actually go outside much.

left overs from building the stage, haven't figured out what to do with them yet. 

Didn't get to this luffa in time. I had a few like this but I still dry them. Although I wouldn't want to use one like this in the shower they still come in handy for cleaning out a bucket or other dirty tasks. 

Coffee grounds, complements of Starbucks. Most Starbucks will give you their left over grounds for free, simply for asking. I've placed over 300 bags of coffee grounds in this garden so far. Worms love it after about 2 weeks. 

Progress check on that banana tree, it's grown a few inches! I'll try to document the process from stump to tree.   Actually calling it a tree would be technically incorrect, it acts more like a grass from my observation. 

Word of wisdom for the day:

walk barefoot on the earth... and eat lots of garlic.

Today pics not from my garden but I had a hand in making this one.

This is a pineapple hand picked by myself just a few days ago. Pineapple take a few years to get stated but are easy plants to tend to. I tend to put them far away from areas I frequent as they don't produce too quickly. This leaves space near frequently traveled paths for edibles that I use on a regular. To plant a pineapple you can just stick the top of one you got from the store in some dirt. Some start them first in water but I don't typically bother as they seem to root quite well just in the dirt. 

An egg with a wart! haha My cousin tells me that this irregularity is just some extra calcification. I'd never seen it before, Sorry the pics not that clear.

This is em, her fellow hen ployee died when a raccoon ripped her head off. I then gave this hen to some people who live in a more chicken friendly area. I do believe that it has been renamed "Chicken". 

Perhaps one day I'll have some chickens myself again but not till I get this huge coon problem under control.   I've already trapped 10 of them and they keep coming. 

Rain barrels a bench and a shaded area for the chickens to relax in. The white thing to the right is a 550 gal fish pond that was part of an aquaponics system I helped install. 

This is part of the flood and drain aquaponics system  If you don't know much about aquaponics I recommend checking it out. There can be a learning curve with these systems. Some of that for this one involved the grow medium. Should have gone with the clay balls rather than the pea gravel. Pea gravel gets too hot which makes a shade cloth necessary. It's also not the most ideal for root growth in my experience. The 55 gal drums cut in half eventually may bend and dump your water out. These accidents can drain the fish pond before they are caught. I'd go with a little more added reinforcement next time. 

Small diameter pipe tends to clog once a week or so.  Some plants root systems can prevent proper drainage, such as mint. It will actually grow into the drain pipe. I have an idea for a much more simple system that I may test here before long, 

Words of wisdom for today.

Use what you have rather than wanting more. I've found that want is sometimes my only "need". 

Welcome to my epic garden

I garden, it's just one of many things I do. I've learned a good bit about plants and yet still know almost nothing. Plants keep me humble.  I am working to create a garden that reseeds itself. That has texture. That has produce.

This is a variety of Okinawan spinach. I put a hand made rope net over it for looks. 

This plant does well in shady areas and is a great way o fill spaces. It typically stays on the ground but if you put it next to something occasionally it will climb. I eat this in my eggs, soup, rice, beans, salads and raw as I feel inclined while walking in my garden. 

This banana tree fell down so I chopped it off about a foot off the ground. This is the new shoot starting to grow. Sometimes it's easier to chop the tree down the rest the way rather than correct a heavy lean. I use the trunk as a punching bag till it falls apart, then it gets used as mulch. True I may miss out or delay fruiting, but I have at least 5 other tree's with fruit on and next year looks to be at least double. 

Art, it's everywhere, you just gotta pick it up... which is why this is still here. After much digging, chopping, and a few good beers, this is ready to come out of the hole. The hole will then be made into a fish pond and the roots will be the backdrop to the fire pit stage area. I just need a bunch of folks to come help me lift. During the digging I spent one night sleeping under this tree. 

Scrub a dub dub, these green things here are LUFA!!,This is the kind of sponge sold worldwide for showering. When harvested a little early I find there is typically a lot of slime in these. My findings thus far show the slime to do something of benefit for the skin and hair.  One of my friends said it made her skin feel softer. Having only tested that aspect of the plant on 4 people so far I can't say for certain the slime will be good for everyone. I use these sponges for dishes, general cleaning, showers, and gifts. I also plan to sell them once I do the big harvest. 

False Turkey Tail 

I used to toss these logs in my old fish pond for 24 hours and then they would produce a lot of mushrooms. Sadly my fish pond sprung a leak and drained leaving my 30 or so Tilopia dead. Sad day but the banana tree's will "dig" the fertilizer. Moral of the story, plants grow, even through the lining of a pond, or in this case, above ground swimming pool.

One of my smaller banana trees. I typically trim off the yellow leaf and use it as mulch. 

This is a poor view of one of my classroom areas.

I do like having a lot of food next to my paths. It's nice to be able to munch on plants all day

Quality is better too. I have found a bit of a learning curve in eating healthy but I'm sorting that out. I just have to learn to prefer eating that way more and more. That is done by eating only healthy food when hungry. It helps to retrain the brain that healthy food is YUM YUM YUM.. 

This is... was, the tilopia pond. I had put a 55 gallon drum of garden weeds in the pond as a natural heater, however I was unable to see how well that worked as the leak occurred shortly after.


my word of wisdom for the day
Keep a good headspace, no need to worry about what might not happen at all. No need to get in or stay in a funk. If your in a funk go for a  long walk or work in your garden while meditating on what you have to be grateful for.