Hugelkultur Herb Spiral

When I started reading about permaculture, every single book mentioned hugelkultur. Here's a good description by www.richsoil.com:

"Hugelkultur is nothing more than making raised garden beds filled with rotten wood. This makes for raised garden beds loaded with organic material, nutrients, air pockets for the roots of what you plant, etc. As the years pass, the deep soil of your raised bed becomes incredibly rich and loaded with soil life. As the wood shrinks, it makes more air pockets, so your hugelkultur becomes sort of self tilling. The first few years, the composting process will slightly warm your soil, giving you a slightly longer growing season. The woody matter helps to keep nutrient excess from passing into the ground water - and then referring that to your garden plants later."

Everything I read raved about how good this system was - and how anything planted in it thrived.

I also couldn't get away from herb spirals. Here's an explanation from www.gardeners.com:

"Unlike a flat garden, an herb spiral is in three dimensions. The high spots get the most sun and have the best drainage, making it ideal for plants that thrive in sunny, well-drained sites. The bottom of the spiral is the right place for plants that like more moisture and some shade. Plants planted on the eastern side will get shade after noon, while plants on the west side will take the brunt of the afternoon sun."

So I thought, why not put the two together, and make a hugelkultur herb spiral? Sounded like a good idea. I have a place next to our driveway that gets a LOT of afternoon sun, and it's under a valley oak tree, so I don't want to use the sprinklers there too much. The only other things I had growing were some native plants seeds and some drought tolerant plants, plus some bulbs like daffodil and naked ladies. Perfect place, right?

I got some wood from our wood pile - not much, just some clippings from some trees in our garden. I also grabbed a bag of sawdust Dad had given me. I also had a ton of moldy leaves next to my compost bin. Then I went and begged grass clippings from the neighbors. I piled it all up.

And covered the whole thing with compost.

Our neighbor Pia donated the stones. She has a whole pile of them in her backyard - her ex-husband used to collect them. She has said anytime we need stones, just come get them. It was fun picking out the pretty ones.

Then, I planted 8 different herb seeds in pockets all over the hooba. (Tom and I call this the 'hoobastank' instead of the hugelkultur. I have no idea why - we never listened to that band - it's just a fun word to say, I guess.)

That was over a month ago. Since then, very little has changed in the hooba. There are a few sprouts. But nothing like what I expected.

I have a few theories about why the hooba's not taking off. One, I think I created a 'living' compost pile, with serious heat. Maybe the seeds burned up. Or two, all the neighborhood dogs and cats have decided this is their favorite pee spot, and the ammonia killed the seeds.

It's also possible that herb seeds just take more time to germinate than veg seeds. But I do have cilantro, oregano, basil, and borage seeds sprouting in the raised beds, and they were planted more recently, so I'm doubtful about this theory.

An interesting note is that seeds are sprouting on the cool eastern side, and nothing is happening on the hot western side. ???

So, I gave up and bought some small herb seedlings today, if for no other reason than to stop all the passerby from wondering what kind of Wiccan mound I was worshipping on my driveway, or what was buried there.

It looks better, even though the stones are all buried in soil now.

And hopefully, in a couple of months, there will be herbs all over this baby. I'm hoping it takes off.

We'll see. So far, the jury is out on the hugelkultur.

Spuds, or duds?

I planted potatoes about a month ago. I bought seed potatoes from Orchard Nursery (Yukon Gold), brought them home, kept them cool and dry in a brown paper sack, then built a potato cage to plant them in. Tom and I chose a small-mesh chicken wire, made it into a cage, then put it in the dirt in full sun. I placed newspaper around the sides, put in two inches of compost, planted six potatoes (with sprouts), added two more inches of compost, planted six more potatoes, and finished the whole thing off with a couple more inches of compost.

Since then, we've been waiting anxiously to see growth. Nada, day after day. It's been incredibly discouraging.

Everyone's told me how fun it is to grow potatoes, and I did extensive research to figure out how to grow them in less space. The cage seemed ideal. As the potato plants grow, you add more compost until they are flush with the top of the cage. Then, at the end of the season, when the foliage dies off, you just pick up the cage and shake out all the glorious potatoes.

But nope. It looked like our spuds were duds.

I went outside to take this picture and write about this failure. I decided to look a little closer, because the soil seemed excessively dry (you want it dry until they grow foliage - but this seemed too dry). And guess what I found?

Yahoo! Growth! The spuds aren't duds, after all. Or at least two of them aren't, as I have two small seedlings.

So! I will update the potatoes as they grow. Supposedly they will bear beautiful blue/purple flowers.

Last week, since I was feeling morose about the potatoes, I decided to try to grow my own sweet potato slips. SP's aren't really potatoes. They belong in the same family as morning glories. White potatoes are part of the nightshade family, like tomatoes. Anyway, I bought some organic Japanese sweet potatoes at Whole Foods and set about making my own slips. They have to be organic - if they are not, they will not sprout. By the way, many SP growers will not ship slips to CA, I'm not entirely sure why, but apparently it is super easy to make your own. We will see!

I cut the SP's in half.

Then I set them in a dish, cut side down.

I added water and put them in a sunny, warm window.

In about six weeks, they should have significant growth, and then I will transplant them to the garden. I'm hoping to put them in where the peas are right now, as they will likely be done fruiting by then. If not, I may build more cages. SP's need HOT weather, so my timing is good, I hope. I'll keep you updated.

I adore sweet potatoes and eat them a lot. But they are not to be eaten fresh - they need to 'cure' for a while after harvest. So this is something that we are planting for future eating. That's a hard way to think, but more and more I am thinking ahead, when it comes to eating out of the garden. I imagine that food preservation will become a prevalent part of our summer.

Meanwhile, in the garden, some interesting things are blooming:

Goldfields and Tidy Tips, both CA native annuals.

Mallow, which always reminds me of hibiscus. I can't remember which kind of mallow this is, but I believe it's a native.

A peony someone gave me as a gift years ago. I planted it near our mailbox and it's never bloomed again. But it has this spectacular bloom this year!

Along with orange, yellow, red, and white poppies, I have these pink beauties. I believe they are from a mix "Mission Bells" that I got from Larner Seeds.

Hummingbird sage, which creeps along the ground and likes the shade, and is a native.

Speedwell, not a native, that I planted in hanging pots.

And the Sticky Monkey Flower has started blooming, as well.

I hope to have an exciting veg garden update for you this weekend. Everything is sprouting!

Garden Markers

It became clear to me in the last week or so, that since I had planted more kinds of seeds than I usually do, I was having trouble remembering what I had planted, and where. Now that the seedlings are coming up, it's easier to tell what veg is where, but I still wanted a handy way to see what I was growing quickly, rather than having to consult my chart (which requires running into the house). Also, I wanted people walking by to know what they were looking at. And, I wanted to add beauty to the garden.

I didn't want to just go out and buy something - rather, I wanted to invest time and talent in some sort of way to the garden. I love homemade things, whether it be cookies or paintings, and I love looking around at things that I (or loved ones) have made.

I spent some quality time researching how other folks have marked their garden. There are some great ideas out there, but what I decided on ultimately was to paint stones. I went to Home Depot to see if they had large river rocks on the cheap. They didn't, but they did have lots of paving options. I finally chose something called a 'rumbled' brick.

I bought 30 of them. They were about $.50 per brick.

I already had lots of paint on hand, as I like to paint. But you could just buy craft paint (acrylic) at the craft store. A small bottle will go a long way. I had all the colors I needed already.

You'll also need various brushes, I like very thin ones for better control, and some sort of palette or a tray where you can put the colors, and mix them if you need to. A paper plate would work.

I went online and printed out pictures (clip art or cartoon pictures, not real pictures) of the plants in my garden. I find it's easier to paint if I have a picture to look at, rather than painting just from memory.

IMPORTANT: When painting or creating, you must give yourself permission to just try it and possibly fail. If you mess up, big deal. Turn the brick over and try again on the other side. Or paint over it with white or black and try again on top of that. Or, if all else fails, buy another brick for a measly fifty cents. No sweat. When I started my first brick, Tom said to me, "you are a fearless painter." Well, not really - but the stakes here are very, very small, so it was easy to give myself permission to try. I'm an amateur artist and it shows, but it gives me pleasure, makes my brain work differently, and makes things in the house personal. I believe my kids will remember, someday, that instead of just going and buying more stuff, their mom took time out of a busy schedule and did something that made her happy, and that made their environment more pleasurable.

I decided to paint a picture and words, but you could do either or, or anything you want to, really.

And it was fun! And I was really pleased with the results.

And they look really nice in the garden, out amongst the plants.

They look nice around the beds, too - and will look even nicer once the plants come in.

Opening the Hive

I opened the hive five days ago to take out the queen cage. At the time, I couldn't see any comb being made, just swathes of bees in small catenary curves. The queen cage was empty - all the candy in the plug gone, and worker bees crawling in and out of it.

I have been noticing lots and lots of activity near the hive. I often take my morning coffee out and sit right near the entrance, watching the bees. They've been bringing in nectar and pollen. I can't SEE them bringing in nectar, but I see them in trees and flowers where I know they are collecting nectar. The pollen can be seen, as the bees stuff it in sacs attached to their legs. They look like bright yellow pillows. I've been continuing to feed them sugar syrup, and they've been going through it at an alarming rate, so I was hoping that meant that they were busy building comb. In a top bar hive, that's the first job - they have to build comb, in order to lay eggs, raise young, and store pollen and honey.

So I hoped to see comb when we opened the hive today, and boy, did we!

The comb is a beautiful, fresh white. In it, we could see pollen being stored, and honey as well. What we didn't see is eggs. Or the queen. So, next week I'll open up the hive again and see if those things can be spotted. The bees will probably also need another bar or two to build on. I gave them 7 bars to start, and each one has comb on it. This is exactly how bees build their hives in the wild - in hollowed out trees or logs - these wonderful U-shaped curves. I thought the comb might be twisted or several bars worth attached, but each bar had a perfect, straight comb on it.

I'm so thrilled. Everything looks good with the bees. They are so calm and happy, we barely needed our hoods today; they didn't bother us at all, even though we were bothering them plenty.

Aren't they beautiful?

Easter Eggs

When I read this post on The Kitchn, I knew I had to try dying our eggs naturally. We've always just used food coloring, but I liked the idea of using things from nature.

And let me just say from the outset, it was a hassle. It required many pots and pans, I had to go to the store especially for some of these ingredients, and it took half the day. Also, this was kind of a one-person job; no one helped me, and honestly no one really could. It didn't have that 'sit around the table and have family time' feel. But my kids are getting older, they didn't really seem into it this year anyway, so I went ahead with this. I'd like to find a way to do this that includes others.

Those are the cons. But I still really enjoyed this project and I'm glad I did it.

Last year, with the Girl Scouts, during a Native American-themed week, I experimented with smashing different fruits and vegetables on a  white muslin cloth with a hammer. We wanted to see what colors they made. Imagine our surprise when red cabbage made dark green marks on the cloth, and onion skin made bright yellow. So in the spirit of that kind of experimentation, I went into this with high hopes.

I used yellow onion skin, red onion skin, turmeric, spinach, broccoli, red cabbage, and hibiscus tea.

First, boil eggs. You can use white or brown; I used a dozen white. (I think it would be fun to see how the brown turns.) Then you put each ingredient in its own pan, cover with water, and boil for 1/2 hour. Strain the produce out and mix some vinegar in to the colored water. Put the eggs in mason jars (or something that won't stain) and pour the colored liquid over the eggs. (The instructions were to wait until the liquid cooled; I didn't do that. I imagine my eggs might be colored/flavored inside, as well.) Then you put them in the refrigerator to soak for a good long time.

After many hours, take the eggs out and let them dry.
Here's the finished result:

From left to right: spinach/broccoli, red cabbage, turmeric, red onion skin, hibiscus tea, yellow onion skin.

I think the tea reacted with the vinegar somehow, because those eggs ended up speckled. My favorite are the blue ones made with red cabbage. I wish I could have found a way to make a spring green.

They look nice in a crate, ready for Easter.