Winter prep time

Winter time is a great time to prep the garden. In some areas I'm starting with sheet mulching. I use palm leaf and cardboard as the base layer. Sometimes I will put a layer of grass or something like that under the initial cardboard layer. 

Here you can see bits of palm trunk cut up. When the inner layer is more exposed it is more likely to soak up water. This is an important feature of my irrigation system. 

Larger rotting out branches can be used to hold cardboard down. On a windy day it doesn't take long to realize that chasing cardboard around isn't near as easy as just putting a thin layer of soil and or a few branches. 

During the making of these garden beds I throw a lot of compost from the kitchen in. My first layer of mulch over the cardboard is what I call rough mulch. It's mulch with a lot of twigs, branches, pine cones, and other such biomass. 

These banana trees were planted before I got here. Once the sheet mulching is done they should really grow well. You can see bits of egg shell and peppers as compost here. Some people don't add citrus, garlic, onion, and such to their compost on account of the fact that the worms don't like them. The way I see it I'm working with a larger area so I imagine the citrus and other things will have long since decomposed before the worms run out of citrus free areas and other things to eat.  If I have a more focused compost pile to make potting soil I don't normally mix in the citrus and such. 

This is my cat, Tarzan. He is adjusting to this new home fairly well. Still the coolest cat around. 

Just behind the fire pit you can see my friends ingenuity. 

Back on the sheet mulching topic. I am taking a lot of the water weeds from the local canal and putting them as a layer in the sheet mulching. I find them to be a worthwhile addition so far.

So 3 to 6 months is a fairly standard wait time on building soil. It's ideal to do this step first. Planting and being with plants is fun but if the framework is built first it's a lot less work in the end. 

You can plant immediately after sheet mulching but I prefer to wait. Just makes it a bit easier, particularly if you started with poor soil. 

Winters also a great time to learn more cooking skills. I'm learning to cook more things and yes the above was a great meal. 

Fish soup! I don't typically like fish soup too much but I think I finally got it right this time. 

I've also been making bean burgers a lot. For those low income people out there bean burgers are a great way to save money.  Each of the burger patties come out to be roughly 20 cents each. You can make them for less I'm sure. I don't have any pictures of the bean burgers as they have all been devoured. 

Word of wisdom. 

Clean your mind and put good things in it. 

video of the day

General update

This and that 

One of my clients had a tomato that wanted to propagate. I like this picture because it's a good reminder that composting is one way to plant your seeds. 

The general area where I currently live. Lots of an invasive known as Brazilian pepper. Brazilian pepper, as I understand it, was introduced to Florida as a landscaping plant. It was soon realized to be an invasive. It's a problem in this area because it has a tendency to grow vertically past most plants and then branch out and shade them. It's tricky to cut due to the many awkward angles. Some have an adverse reaction to the plant. In some it can produce a rash and lung issues. Better not to burn this one as the smoke can compromise a persons airway.

Found this guy while hanging shutters for Matthew. I scared him off rather than killing him since he didn't bite me. My clients son in law was content with that choice to his credit. I'm not a big fan of the mindset that says we should kill anything that can do us harm although I do recognize that there is a time and place for that. I prefer to be at peace with all animals whenever possible. 

A picture out the windshield of a car. I try to find the beauty in simple things. 

The front path. I don't care to use rocks much in gardening as they tend to be a lot of work to maintain. I prefer mulch and find it more beneficial

Word of wisdom for the day. 

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when it comes it's as a tree of life. 

Video of the day- 

Duckweed aka water lense aka Lemnoideae aka bayroot

I have the opportunity to acquire some fish but before I do that I need to be able to feed them. I could go buy feed but that puts me in a position of being dependent on a store.  I'm not a dooms day prep guy but I do like the freedom of not needing to go buy all the time when I can get what I need elsewhere for free.

Duckweed is a great food for fish and can be used as a primary food source with some fish and animals although it's good to have other things in their diet also. (in the future I may evaluate it as a bird feed.) 

Step one was to acquire some small ponds that I could use for food production. I got two kiddie pools for that. One was taken from the trash down the street and the other was found on the side of I95. It had apparently blown out of someones truck apparently.

If you want to buy ponds like this they typically run around 10 bucks each. '

Step 2. I placed them on boards that we had laying around. It's particle board which isn't ideal but it's what I had on hand. The reason for this is so that I can easily mow/weedwack around the ponds without damaging them. It also saves me the bother of hand weeding around the ponds. I placed the ponds in full sun and put some grass cuttings in one of them while leaving the other without. This is the beginning of many such experiments to optimize production. 

Step 3. Then I acquired some duckweed from a local ditch. To harvest it I used a 5 gallon bucket with holes drilled in it so that it acts a bit like a net. A net would be ideal but I didn't have one on hand.

Some info on duckweed: The plant may not have a root depending on the species.  Reproduction is mostly by asexual budding which occurs from a meristem... so similar to cloning in that it has the same make up as the mother plant. The flower is the smallest known measuring roughly .3 mm and the seed is produced in a sac that has air so it floats.  

Duckweed reduces or prevents algae growth and greatly reduces evaporation. It's use extends beyond food. It could be used for bio fuel among other things. 

http://www.mobot.org/jwcross/duckweed/Fish.htm#Nutritional%20Value has some good info on duckweed as a food source.

I plan to throw some minnows in each pond as a means of preventing mosquito larva from surviving to maturity. 

I estimate that I should be able to harvest half the pond roughly every three days. The harvested duckweed will either be dried for storage or frozen in ice cube trays so I can just toss little blocks of it into the fish pond. 

By the time I get the fish I should have plenty of food in storage for them. 

Edit - So it's been a few weeks and my observations have been that while duckweed does slow algae growth it doesn't prevent it enough to thrive. My initial estimations of production were off but I have a few ideas to correct this. When I have the learning curve worked out I will update with my findings if possible. 

Word of wisdom for the day - 

use whats around you. You don't have to buy to survive.

video of the day

This video is a beautiful expression of loving your neighbor as your self.

new epic garden

I should have a few more pics soon but here is the start of my new garden. The soil here isn't alive yet like at the last place but I'm working to build it. Putting in a lot of Hugal culture here as I've found that to be highly productive. Also making a decent bit of biochar. Also adding a lot of in soil water catchment.



Mostly working with some of my favorites and most frequently used right now but am already adding more biodiversity. I'm adding a lot of native plants to the surrounding area also by throwing seeds around.

Quote of the day:
There is no substitute for experience.

Video of the day.

Spring prep

Spring is here sort of. It's a busy season for me, I'm moving a lot of mulch, weeding,, harvesting, and prepping for marketiing.

When I dig out soil for potting I replace it with lawn cuttings and wood.

I try to get a decent amount of green in the mix.

Then I cap it off with mulch or dirt and mulch.

To a good new year.

Word of wisdom: listen to the crickets sing.

Got a new tablet and not sure how to ad video links to the post with it yet