Spring tire planters

So in my tire planters this spring I've added ornamental flowers known as Angles Trumpet. They have a huge flower that is rather eye catching and the plant itself tends to stay a nice green. I imagine these will get about 10 ft tall which will add a "castle wall" effect for my fence line. Also in each tire I have Luffa and a few caster bean trees in 2 of them. 

Things grow remarkably well out of the tire planters. 

Luffa coming up, I tend to pull of the lower leafs of the angles trumpet to give more light to the new Luffa as well as to improve their appearance. 

On either side of the tires I've planted Cuban Oregano. The goal is to have a green wall of it around my property to discourage inbound pests. Also I'd like to have enough Luffa so little or none of the actual fence shows. Green walls. :) 

Last years Luffa tire with new Luffa coming up from last years seed. 

So these tires for those of you who wish to duplicate what I've done with such success -

1. Go get tires - You can get these from used tire shops typically. They may try to charge you for them but the reality is that they actually have to pay to get rid of them. So if anything you should talk them into paying you a small amount for each tire but I wouldn't pay a dime for a tire. If your paying you got hustled. 

2. Take these tires home and wash them off, preferably in the shower so all the run off goes to never never land where all our waste magically disappears and never hurts or harms anything in the process. After washing you can choose to spray with a toxic paint to get the desired color which is a great way to put toxins into the air you breath. If the price of hurting everyone around you is worth having a different color tire then go for it. If you look you may even be able to find a non toxic paint but the cost of not poisoning all your friends and family may be a few extra bucks. Are they worth it? Are you?

3. Fill tire with your compost. Bills, bank statements, letters, old paper, weeds from your garden, leftover dinners, dead animals, twigs, logs, leaf mulch, and so on. Since I only grow non edibles out of my tires I don't worry so much about what I put in them. I've even put old dog food in one and things are growing great. Be sure to pack it in the sides of the tire first before filling the middle, bottom tire first and then top. When you get to the top mound it a little as it will settle as time goes on. You can toss in a few worms, water the thing good, and or ad some ants or help them find it with a trail of food. 

4. Wait a few months. If you didn't do all the above in the fall (when I should have posted this haha) just ad a flower pot worth of dirt to the top part of the mix. You can plant in that dirt and maybe that will give the rest a chance to break down a little before the roots reach it. 

5. Plant your seeds or plants and forget about them. Some may wish to water a little bit in the beginning but once the plant has any root to speak of it shouldn't be an issue. Personally I just plant my seeds and forget about them, has worked for me every time so far. The lip of each tire will hold the water in the tire but under the soil safe from mosquitoes. The rain is enough to keep things going great. I can't imagine having to actually water any of these but maybe I'll water a few here and there as a test this season.  

Making the shed take over climb. I can hardly wait :)

I'm now on gofund.me/tswy68

For those of you who wish to help with the cause

Word of Wisdom for the day-

Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Slow is fast. 

Video of the day

New Camera!

New camera and spring!

Trash bags full of leaf mulch that my neighbors throw out. Why they throw out such good mulch has a lot to do with societal ignorance or perhaps stupidity. Either way more good mulch for me.  It's funny how our culture thinks it's best to throw out valuable resources and then complains about having to work all the time. They create work for themselves. They create suffering and then have to work hard to counteract it. They act like they have no choice but in reality they have the choice to be wise with their resources or foolish. Who knows maybe they will throw away the money they earn next because it doesn't look how they like or whatever. I can't wrap my head around it but more for me :)

My first nastertium flower, I ate it. :)

Fresh bananas, I ate some and the rest are still getting ripe. :) Way better than anything I've ever gotten in a store. 

So many bananas this season :) I think it's going to be a great year. 

Happy gardening!

word of wisdom for the day -

A business man doesn't throw away product, at least not a good one.  They use it however they can.               

video of the day

camera

Well folks, it seems my camera decided to kick the bucket.  So today is just a text update.

Got rainbow corn growing, kale, peanuts, onion, potato, stevia, garlic, nasturtium, strawberries, and just planted a lot of hollyhock today.

Eating fresh bananas, loquats, and greens from the garden.

Had a few cold days so my Cuban oregano got "burnt" a good bit but it should bounce back in a few weeks. Cuban Oregano is a fairly cold sensitive plant. It doesn't even have to get to freezing for it to show damage.

This looks to be the first year that I'll get mulberries from 4 or 5 of my trees and the one older tree is loaded with green berries... more than I have ever seen on it before. I'm especially happy that my dwarf mulberry trees look like they will be producing for the first time this year.

I have a lot of banana tree's that are fruiting right now also so I should be set on bananas for a few months, by next year I should have enough banana tree's to produce all the banana's I eat so store banana's will be mostly a thing of the past for me.

This may also be the first year for one of my mango tree's to produce.

In other news, spring is nearly here! This looks to be a great year for gardening. I plan to teach a few garden classes this spring.

"The garden tour" A informational tour of the garden that will leave you with general knowledge of a lot of hardy plants as well as a LOT of plant starts.

Cost - $25
Time - About 2 hours.
You get - Knowledge and plant starts that will make the price well worth it.
Skill level - "I don't have a green thumb" to advanced gardeners.

Plant perspectives -
This class is for everyone. You likely will never view gardening or plants quite the same way again after taking this class. Practical hands on training.  This class presents many alternative uses of plants from a "first human" approach to understanding plants.

Cost - $50
Time - 4 to 5 hours
You get - Knowledge and skills, plant crafts, and starts.
Skill level - "I don't have a green thumb" to advanced.
This is a hands on class so wear something you don't mind getting dirty... just in case.

Just leave a comment if you would like more information about class times and to find out how to sign up.




                                            Word of wisdom for the day.
                       Use those around you as mirrors to see where you need to grow.

spring

This is this busy season so sorry for not posting as often. Good chance I won't be able to post again till after the 14th cause I got a lot goin on.
Have a great week or 2 everyone.

Making a pond

With an island! One of the traveling folk that stayed here helped me a good bit on this recently. Another friend from Nicaragua also helped me on this pond. I asked her to name it for me so she named it "Lago de Nicaragua" which is fitting because it's right next to "little Costa Rica" 

The pictures don't really do it justice. 

This is a pile of dirt. 

di

It's a good idea to dig to see what your growing in.

It's some crazy art like sunrises and the sea

Not to knock the big sites like the Rocky mountains, Smokey mountains, the Grand Canyon but look at the dirt! haha. I know it's different but the beauty of the earth is all over the place. I enjoy looking at nature even if it's just a leaf. 

Building another hugal mound. 

Art is everywhere

Banana tree make great shadows. 

Word of wisdom for the day:

Take cold showers. It causes the blood to rush into your internal organs and then back out to your skin when your done. This flushes your internal organs and skin. Also the mindset required to step into a cold shower willingly is a good one to become familiar with. 

vid of the day 

Mini post

Mulch! It looks like I'll be getting a truck full a week.  Check out a vid called "back to eden" for more information about mulch gardening. 

callaloo! This is a small plant now but these get over 7 ft tall. To the right is dragon fruit. Callaloo is a plant that I grew for a good 6 months before I knew what it was. It's a great green cooked but you could eat it raw. Sometimes I have visitors that tell me what I have been growing. Sure I could look up plants and I do sometimes but I'm taking a first person approach to gardening. The first person approach is where I learn from God and the plant about the plant as if I were the first human. The first humans didn't know the names or how to use them.. They didn't know all the technical mumbo jumbo. They learned from the plant instead of a book. I've learned about plants in this way and then looked them up only to find that I had learned things that were not in the books. First hand direct information vs second hand information. Both forms of information have their place, that's just what I'm doing.  Some people I know can even hold a plant they have never seen before in their hand and tell you what it's good for. 

My cat Tarzan, king of my little jungle. He's got quite the personality and can climb nearly anything. I'll try and get a better picture of him when he's not on the move. 

Word of wisdom: 

Teaching is not the filling of a pail, it's the lighting of a fire.

before and after

This is a picture around the time when I started this project. I wish I had more but I didn't have much camera access back then. 

This is the exact same view taken today. 

This is the hidden aloe flower. I'm still learning about aloe and found this during my self education. Seems that just when I know all the uses of this plant I find another. This "flower" is probably best used to make the ladies happy.

Found this little guy while gardening.

I think it's a baby rat snake but it could be a baby black racer. 

Last year I found 3 eggs while gardening and put them in a bucket to see what would hatch out of them. I ended up with 3 little snakes that looked like this. They were released on my property as yet another means of pest control. My cat however tends to like to kill snakes... 

Word of wisdom for the day:

Treat others as you would like to be treated. If you live this good things happen.

random day

The beach! It was a little chilly that day but good times anyhow. 

Found this little guy. FL is full of critters. 

Yum yum

Fresh garden greens and eggs. A+ double + good

Some starfruit and orange. My neighbor has a starfruit tree that's full of them. 

Lettuce burrito 

Good memories

I may not celebrate xmas but I do enjoy a good xmas tree fire.

So this did scorch a banana tree or 2 but still good times. I'd say the fire went a good 10 ft high at least.

And last but not least,  pigeon peas! Great all around plant. Helps the soil when you cut it back. Helps your face when you want some awesome Jamaican food.  This is a high yield plant and a great addition to gardens. Provides just enough shade to prevent your tender garden plants from wilting too much in the sun. I have so much FOOD! I have a rule in my house - If your the least bit hungry eat whatever you find in the fridge or around. Even if it's the last one. I don't plan meals and I'm just happy to see all this food getting used before it goes bad. I can only eat so much. Often when I tell this rule to people who visit they don't seem to take me serious. I guess our society has taught us that food is expensive or hard to come by or something. I'm not really sure but it is a bit annoying when my friends ask me if they can have this or that after I tell them the rule. EAT! haha don't ask, just eat your fill. This is a house rule. Let the mainstream, fearful, and stingy worry about having enough food. I got other problems. 

Word of wisdom for the day:

Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. ~Christ.

Found in Matthew 6. 

I gotta say, I've tested this passage (see context) and find it to be true. I've lost count of the number of times I didn't know where my next meal was coming from. If you only knew a tenth of the stories. 

vid of the day