Permaculture For Renters

I just added a new blog to my favorites list. It's the P4R/Permaculture for Renters one...it's under Blogs of Note on the right-hand side of this blog. I had seen a flier at a nursery for a workshop for those who do not own their own home and wanted to spread the word. I have since learned that the workshop has been cancelled due to too few people signing up. Maybe that's why we need to spread the word! :)

Terrarium Scentarium

Just for the smell of it! I've been wanting to assemble a terrarium for a while now, and finally all the materials came together. I found a large "one man's trash, one man's treasure" glass vase in my neighborhood and the race was on! Just the other day I found some polished pebbles on my street to add for surface decoration. I used some old brick/lava rock shards for the bottom to provide drainage.

As for the plants, I had a bunch of random cuttings in jars that I have been meaning to pot up. I tried picking ones that don't grow too large in too small a period of time. This is my prototype, so we'll see how things go. :)
I assembled it with the polished rocks and made my own setting and watered/sprayed a fresh helping of worm poo tea upon everything. Once everything settled in, I topped it off with a clear plastic lid to hold in the moisture. A bit later I opened it, took a big whiff, and for a moment I seriously felt and believed I was in the middle of a rich natural forest just after a light rain. A form of aromatherapy for sure! I added a few of my red wiggler composting worms to the terrarium as an experiment. Hopefully they'll fit into the tiny ecosystem in their way. :)


And the vessel for my next project...


Does anyone have any terrarium stories to share? Any fun ideas?

The Garden

I just finished watching The Garden by Scott Hamilton Kennedy. It's an Oscar-nominated documentary about a 13 acre community garden in Los Angeles.

I absolutely recommend it!

http://www.blackvalleyfilms.com/

I Got Bloomed Upon

Recently while tidying up my greenhouse I noticed that one of the orchids was growing a flower stalk. The had been sitting in there for probably about a year with almost absolute neglect by me. The photo below shows them tucked into the corner of the greenhouse, shabby as can be.

I had really not much interest in orchids, but maybe its because this has never happened for me before. But now that I know I can just put them away after the blooms fade, and bring them in again at the sight of a flower stalk, I definitely will not be throwing any away!

Gorgeous!

Investigardener At Work!

Just around the corner from my house, on an empty lot between a warehouse and a new home, lies a sort of community or guerrilla garden I stumbled upon! I wonder if this is just a temporary garden, or if it is the beginning of a more permanent community garden. I shall pull out my inner sleuth and investigarden!

SOOOOOooo San Francisco. I love my city. :)

Worm Compost Tea Part Poo

I applied my brewed-up worm poop tea to my garden today. I used a simple sprayer, shown disassembled in a milk crate in the photo below. For the most part it worked wonderfully, misting a nice layer of organic feisty beneficial microbes upon the leaves and soil. Though next time I think I will add LESS worm poo to the 5 gallon bucket, as there was a CLOGGING issue which led up to me getting sprayed directly UPON MY FACE! A nozzle was not screwed tightly enough, and the worm poo to water ratio was disproportionate. I need a shower.


The pink Echinacea above was started by seed in my greenhouse spring 2008. As many a perennial will do, this, the 2nd year, provided for us beautiful blossoms.

These guys above showed up on their own this year. It must have been a renegade composting incident, but they are welcome of course! I think they are some sort of squash.

The defunct sprayer....That'll teach you to NOT spray in my face again!

Tea for Poo...and Poo for Tea!

I finally got around to brewing my own worm compost tea! I just started yesterday; the process takes three days, so this blog will be a two-parter(a poo-parter!..eeewww!)

I have accumulated a large amount of worm poo compost over the last year; I've applied it directly or diluted it to feed my houseplants and outdoor garden but brewing the compost actually cultivates beneficial microbes and organisms on which plants thrive. It can help with not only the plant's growth, but can boost the plant's immune system as well as kill and deter many harmful insects and bacteria.

Supplies Needed:
To brew compost tea, you'll need a pump, some air tubing, a gang valve, and three bubblers.
• An aquarium pump large enough to run three bubblers or air stones
• Several feet of tubing
• A gang valve
• Three bubblers
• A stick to stir the mixture
• Unsulfured molasses (preferrably organic)
• Something to strain the tea, like an old pillowcase, tea towel, or a nylon stocking(I simply add the worm poop directly into the water; it dissolves just fine whereas regular compost has insoluble solids)
• A 5 gallon bucket

*** And about 1 pound of Worm Poop!

If you are using city water as opposed to well water, you will need to take an extra step to get out the chlorine in the water. This MUST be done, as the brewing will be done in vain for chlorine will kill all the beneficial organisms we're trying to cultivate! SO, I've read that an hour or two of aerating the water will take the chlorine out; other sources say leaving the water out for 24 hours OR 12 hours if you're aerating it will take care of it. I put in the aerators before bed and turned them off in the morning to be safe.

Above is my under-harvested worm poop bin. I took what I think is about a pound, maybe a little extra.

I stirred in the worm poo and added about an ounce of the organic blackstrap molasses, unsulphured! This gives the microbes a source of food so they can thrive and reproduce.

I will wait for 2 1/2 to 3 days to harvest. I will do a 2nd part to this entry showing the frothy top of the "brewing" tea. Stay tuned for more Poo-tales!

He's Back!

Busy summer! That's no excuse for not having written, but I've definitely been busy with my own garden as well as taking on more clients for my gardening business. I'll be chronicling the progress of a front-yard patio makeover project I've recently been hired to do. And soon there'll be more photos of my own plot's progress!

Volunterus Botanicus

A couple weeks ago I volunteered with the San Francisco Botanical Society doing some garden work at Strybing Arboretum. Though all they had me do was weed a hillside, I still was granted access into the not-for-public-access greenhouses and nursery to meander and snap some photos. I hadn't been to the Arboretum in a while and had forgotten just how spectacular it is! I kept adding plants to my list of must-haves. Enjoy the photos!

(Above: Leucospermum "Scarlet Ribbon")

(Above: Rhodocoma Gigantea Dekriet)

I was once told by a nursery worker that here in SF the climate is not cold enough for Lilacs because they need a period of dormancy or something...but this guy above looks just fine! I've seen them in various parts of the city as well.

The best part about volunteering???.... making new friends. This guy seemed to be really curious about me.

Mission: CORN. Pt 1: Corn in the Mission

My experience is that the third year of any garden is really the when the magic takes hold. Perennials have had time to get situated and the gardener has had time to create a vision of what he wants the garden to be. But of course gardens, and gardeners!, are always in flux.

I'm so excited that my Lobster Claw(photo above) produced its first flowers. I planted it last spring. This year the vegetative growth really took off and now you can see here its very first bloom. Also blooming for the first time is my Calla lily below.

And now the corn...

Corn isn't really a crop that is usually grown in San Francisco, but I'm hoping that the warmer micro-climate of the Mission district in which I live will do it some good. So far it looks happy. I plan on feeding it the best of my compost, which apparently is also producing beautiful black gold. In fact, as I was turning it yesterday I found a Mango pit sprouting! Unfortunately I hacked it with my shovel on accident. Next time I'll have to sift through delicately to see if I can pan out any other gold nuggets.

Pole beans below are looking very healthy as well.

Vim and Vigor

Up from my garden to add a little vim and vigor to the house!

Four Seedlings And A Funeral

Last night I discovered that the last of the four pine tree seeds I planted had keeled over allowing entropy in. :( Of the four seeds, three had sprouted. Two had just given up on their own, while the third, above, was really showing promising signs of making a beautiful holiday tree someday(a potted holiday tree of course). But woe is me...woe is tree! I think I may be a bit to blame as I got a little prematurely excited and thought it could handle being put into the greenhouse from its protective terrarium womb. But alas the shock was too much too soon. I'm sorry little tree-ling, and may you rest in pe...compost.

KINDA SEEDY IF YOU ASK ME...

Yesterday afternoon I finally got around to planting my seed starts. I pulled out all my six-packs(not beer!...that was later in the day:P ) and grow pots, gave 'em a good rinse, and tore into all my seed packets.

I did my usual...tomatoes, green beans, cucumber, zucchini, caulifower, and bell peppers. I also am attempting eggplant this year. For some reason I had this idea that it is difficult to grow, but I'm hoping to change that idea this season. Dill and lemon verbena have also been planted in little grow pots...oh, and a mixture of different kinds of sunflowers for fun.(definitely NOT funslowers) It's for the birds and bees.

I'm also attempting to grow sweet corn this year, not sure if San Francisco summers will be good for it, but I'm happy to try. Last week I planted that as well as snap peas and pole beans directly into my garden.

...That Keeps On Giving

Here is a great example of how, in gardening, a little bit goes a long way. Last gardening season I planted a few leftover finger potatoes(correct name?) I had around the house and got a nice little crop out of that. I must not have gotten them all out of the ground, as shortly after the harvest new shoots popped up out of the ground. I just let them do their thing over our San Francisco winter without really any attention or care at all. I actually figured I wouldn't really get anything out of this second bunch of leftovers I didn't even plant! Au contraire! While doing my spring clean-up of the garden yesterday I indeed got an even larger harvest than the first time. Soon-to-be a virtually free meal of mashers. YUM.

Noe Valley Design Project or: My Work is Play

Garden design challenge!

Over the weekend I took on a project to makeover a house-front planting strip for a client in the Noe Valley neighborhood of San Francisco.

Many clients want a gardener just for the maintenance and to occasionally add or replace a plant or two, but I really become alive when I get to be creative. It's so exciting to take a plot of shabby land and transform it into a feast for the senses.
I had a color and texture palette in mind to play into the style and paint color of the house, a stony gray with a sort of charcoal-purple trim. So I headed over to Flowercraft nursery on Bayshore Blvd to realize the design image I had in my head.


A goal of mine was to update the garden, modernize it a bit. From my gallavanting around town over time and with a keen eye on any garden I see, I had a sense of which plants were being used for what type of homes and what areas of the city, etc.


I am very happy with the outcome(as is my client!) and most importantly none of it felt like work! Gimme MORE!

The Outstanding Organic Obamas

Hillary, now you know I hold you in high esteem in your time as first lady, and of course your extensive service beyond that...but Michelle is capturing the hearts of gardeners everywhere! She took a huge leap forward today as it was reported that she has begun the task of building an organic garden on the White House lawn! Alas!(correction: At Last!) This is truly a momentus step forward to support all of us gardeners out there who have been promoting a grow-it-yourself-local-organic-healthy-diet agenda!

YES WE PLANT!

I love my snakey...-plant!

I had some host renewal issue I had to deal with but I'm back! In the time, my forced bulbs fully bloomed(above is my belated March Bloom Day offering!) and are now turning into compost...and the pineapple top is growing roots!

Also, my snake plant (aka: mother-in-law's tongue) has sprung up two new shoots. And it looks like a little visitor came to check out the new growth as well!

The Buck Starts Here

Recently I found this little buckeye tree opening and reaching its taproot in search of soil. It would not have found a place to plant its roots had I not interfered. I decided to make it a pet project and give it a good chance. Perhaps buckeyes are rapid growers, because this guy is really taking off!


I also went on a propagating spree this afternoon. Several friends have been talking about wanting plants for their homes, so I potted up some spider plants that have been just living in glass jars of water for some time now. I also took cuttings of a spindly coleus and potted up a couple pothos. It's always good to have extra toddler plants around to take care of...and to have in my arsenal whenever I need to dole out a gift-plant.

I think propagation may just be my favorite aspect of gardening, whether it be the sprouting of seeds as small as lettuce or as large as a buckeye, or taking cuttings straight from a mother plant. I'm in awe of the possibility to create an infinite amount of plants from just one starter plant.

Pineapple Martini

What to do with an over-sized Martini glass??? Why, make a pineapple martini of course! My roommate Alex was asking if it's possible to propagate a pineapple he got from the market. And of course I jumped at the opportunity. In its previous life this tacky glass was used as a receptacle for wine corks...that filled up a little too fast(Yes! I love me some wiiiine.)

I love recycling the fruits and veggies I get from the market. One time I replanted the rooted bottoms of a handful of green onions. In fact, they are still down in my garden; last week I added fresh diced green onions to my scrambled eggs. Now I don't know if I'll manage to grow an entirely new edible pineapple, but it'll be fun and experimental enough to watch it grow.

February Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day

Today I am participating in my first Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. This is a sort of tradition set up by May Dreams Gardens. On the 15th of every month bloggers can post a picture of something blooming in his/her garden as well as enjoy the blooms of fellow fleur-enthusiasts!

The hyacinth have really taken off...so far 3 are blooming, all a light lilac color. And so fragrant! I'm hoping the other two will add some variation in color.(I'm hoping for red!)

One in my tulip dish is close to blooming, perhaps in time for March's Bloom Day they'll be ready to pose for me.

I-V for the Ivy

This past summer my friend Lara enticed me with some wine to help her clean up her back yard. Lara works for a wine distributor here in San Francisco, so I knew she would have some goooood samples! So me being a wino of sorts, I of course accepted her offer. :P I was also interested in seeing what kind of plant treasures might be hiding in her yard. There was so much ivy crawling around! We had to clear a lot of it as it took over much of the garden so I went ahead and took some clippings home for rooting. They had been in glass vases for the past 6 months or so. I virtually nursed the Ivy with an I-V!

Tall plants are a minority in my indoor garden, so I decided to create an Ivy column today. My method is rather simple as I simply tied up the Ivy vertically along some bamboo. Perhaps I'll upgrade later and surgically insert a sphagnum moss-filled chicken wire column if I so choose. For now I think she's beee-uuuu-tee-fulll!

SPICY HOT RICHNESS!

Here's a little garden art I made this morning from the chili peppers I grew in my greenhouse. I wish I could have had enough little chilis to spell it out in one photo! DERRRRR!

The bag of hyacinthes I bought for the my forcing project was of mixed colors so I am excited to be surprised at what the palette will be. A couple are starting to blossom and it looks like two may be purple or blue. Check it out:

Jolly Green Bryant!

I live on Bryant street in San Francisco. It is not one of the "greenest" streets here, but I'm hoping a little community action can change that. The flier above is from the San Francisco Dept. of Public Works; they actually encourage residents to take up the sidewalk in front of their houses and plant a garden. It's fantastic that the city offers such support. The permits are relatively cheap, and I've even heard of some people getting grants to pay for the concrete removal and plants! The residents are expected to put in the man-hours.

Above is the corner of my street...the sidewalk sort of curves outward into the street here. It's an expanse of concrete that could very well be a jolly green garden! My friend, neighbor, and fellow gardener Jaren over at Plant Rescue is also interested in greening our street. She literally lives half a block down on Bryant. We are hoping to collaborate in our efforts and see if we can get a little neighborhood group together to green as much of the street as we can! We could help each other carry the burden of labor and maybe even some cost if we, say, buy plants in bulk, or share the cost of a rented sidewalk-remover-machine-thingy. Maybe we could even make quirky fun nerdy permeable landscapers T-shirts that say "Jolly Green Bryant". Dorky enough for you?!

The DPW's PR card above reads: "A green sidewalk looks great, helps with storm water runoff, and is good for property values!" More information can be found at this link: Permeable Landscaping. A successful example of this permeable landscaping is only a block away on a York street, parallel to Bryant. York Street inspiration:

In front of my house on Bryant and lining York street(pictured below) are beautiful cherry trees such as these now in bloom:

NYCTINASTY:

"the nighttime folding up of leaflets, as occurs, for example, in some Oxalis species."

Goodnight Oxie...XO

My garden dictionary is full of these fun jardin-specifique terms...more to come...

What Seeds May Come

I was down in the garden today on my day off to do some early spring cleaning. It was in the high 60's here in San Francisco today. I noticed the straw and manure I applied late last fall had begun decomposing. I dug it under a bit more, and cleared a couple even patches to sow some early spring crops...couple rows of beats, a line of snow peas under my makeshift trellis against the brick wall, and a first shot at trying brussel sprouts.

Whilst my tinkering, I thought about how much the Oxalis in my garden must loooove me. It must just want to see me any chance it can get...I mean, why else would it pop it's clover-shaped leaves out of the ground other than in anticipation of my very presence??? It's one of the most stubborn weeds here in San Francisco, as its difficult to pull it out by the roots. They grow from tiny little bulbs and when trying to pull them out they often snap off at the stem, allowing the bulb below to boost back up a week later. I'm slowly ridding the garden of the unwanted bulbs. I'm sorry Oxie, but we're just not meant to be.


Clearing away and pruning some perennials gave me a good perspective on just how much some of last year's plants have grown. The mint has taken off; I planted it inside a container and then planted that container in the ground so that it would not take over my plot. I have two plants that I believe are both named Parrot's Beak, but when I did research the one in top photo is the only plant that comes up under said name. The one on the bottom also has similar beak-shaped flowers, so I guess I'll have to do more research.

When Life Gives You A Lemon Tree....

....take care of the darn thing!

I decided today to check in on my forgotten-about Meyer lemon tree. When I bought it last spring it had two gorgeous full lemons on it already and was looking handsome. I plucked the lemons and tucked the slices into a certain Mexican beer and couldn't wait for the little tree to produce more! So I put it into my greenhouse, fertilized it for a while...but became discouraged when the blossoms turned into nothing but dried-up falling-off morsels. And then the leaves dropped. I made sure to water it as it needed(which I researched online) and continued to give it fertilizer. The tree shot out new leave branches but still had the same issue with the blossoms. I may have to manually pollinate as I did with my squash plants over the summer. You can see in the photo below it is producing blossoms right now.

So today I gave it a nice tune-up prune-up, and while doing so I found that a certain type of tiny caterpillar was using the leaves as shelter for his cocoon-building project. There were several pairs of leaves that were sort of "sewn" together by the insect's silk. It didn't appear that they were actually eating or harming the lemon tree, but I still had to pick them off and let them fend for themselves elsewhere. Below is a photo(as clear as I could get)...that little brown guy between the two leaves in the center of the shot is the culprit.

I also fertilized the tree with a slight acid solution and last week it got a worm-poo treat just like all my other plants.

What Can GREEN Do For You Today???

Initially this morning I was discouraged by the drizzle here in San Francisco. I was hoping to get some primping done in my garden. Despite the "unfair" weather, I headed down into the garden just to take a peek at what was happening. And I'm glad I did. Gardens are gorgeous in a light rain. There's something about that fresh wetness that gives the garden a rich glow. There was a fresh green-ness to everything and the blue of the leeks had a much more succinct hue to them. I gave the garden a fresh churn, as it was pretty much covered in the straw and manure I applied over a month ago.

Two years ago I planted patches of a low-growing chamomile in hopes that it would spread around the stepping stones and brick borders as a nice traffic-friendly ground-cover. Thanks to the drizzle's ability to enhance my garden's details, it hit me that it has become a success.
While tinkering around my plot, pruning this and plucking that, a feeling of serenity came over me as I caught the scent of Yarrow wafting up as I was tidying up the plant. Instead of just throwing the pruned parts into my compost, I thought I might bring it upstairs to do a little aromatherapy. I simply heated up some water almost to boiling point and poured it over the plucked leaves.

The scent is in the air as I write this!

Just because it's a rainy day in January does NOT mean I can't enjoy the fruits of my garden. Another purple flowering bush(the name of which escapes me right now) also needed a cutting-back. I did so and now have a fresh floral display in my home. The garden abounds. It gives to you as you give to it.

And I learned a little something today. In the face of a negative expectation that a rainy day meant staying indoors and limiting my day's possibilities, I decided to make it an opportunity to step beyond those limitations. And I was hence rewarded. The afternoon became a virtual therapy session. Not only were the plants getting love and care, but so was I. In the garden I am free. In the garden I am not judged. In the garden I have no possession. In the garden I am zen.

In the garden I am. 'Nuf said.

Worm Castings Tea, A Mid-Winter Treat

I hope my worms stop looking at me with that disapproving lack-of-a face they've been making. I had kinda neglected them longer than I should have. I had been feeding them pretty regular enough, but the castings they were producing was building up and I wasn't adding ample dry newspaper to the top to give them a nice sound barrier and temperature regulator. So today I finally went into my two worm bins and harvested some fresh organic natural fertilizer so that they may produce more of the black gold...

...and of course so that my plants would get a January tilthy rich treat. I took little clumps of the worm poo and mixed it about 1 PART POO to 10 PARTS WATER. I then gave all my houseplants a once-over with the solution. This is the first time I have used this fertilizer; I hear the results are pretty astounding so I shall keep posted on this. There is actually a method where one can indeed make worm castings tea(for plants, not humans!) by indeed brewing the castings in air-filtrated water over a few days. I intend to do this as well; they say the best time to apply the "tea" is right after the brewing time is up so some scheduling must be considered in doing this.
Worms are extremely easy to please and what a better way to environmentally dispose of those veggie kitchen scraps?!

Below is just one plot in my indoor garden.


In other news, the forcing of my bulbs seems to be going well. All have rooted. The tulips are growing rather rapidly. The hyacinths have produced an extensive root system and have even shot out a little healthy nub, a precursor to what I hope will be a rich and perfectly healthy bloom.
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Salvia Divinorum: A Different Kind of Garden Trip

Last week I had bartered with a gardener-friend of mine. I wanted to grow Salvia Divinorum; he wanted some worm poop. Presto! I packed up some black gold, along with some worms as a starter pack for his own vermicultural endeavors, and made the trade. Aaah, bartering...the poor man's currency! (But Tilthy Rich in spirit!)

I had heard of Salvia Divinorum and had always wanted to grow it. It literally translates to "Sage of the Seers", and for good reason. If smoked, chewed, or applied as a tincture it can induce bouts of laughter to much more intense mind-altered states. In fact, a friend of mine who had tried it reported to me that he witnessed a tree stump jump out of the ground and begin to dance around! Man Alive! The effects if smoked last only about 1-5 minutes; if chewed they come on more slowly and last from 10-20 minutes.
"The most commonly reported after-effects include an increased feeling of insight, an improved mood, a sense of calmness, and an increased sense of connection with nature."(from Wikipedia) I must say though I haven't any plans to try this soon, the after-effects don't sound like a bad deal, now do they?! It's actually not understood to be toxic or addictive, and in fact it is not an illegal substance.
I really just enjoy growing a plant that has such a powerful and unique potential.

...and I really like the boxy square stems!

Now who wants to dance with the Tree-stump Man? ....Anyone???

For more information: Salvia Divinorum

Little Tree, Big World

The pine tree seeds sprouted! And they did so earlier than the little "instruction" card said they would. Three to four weeks?? Not in my name! They sprouted in about 14 days! It makes me feel like a proud papa. Take a look:

Elsewhere in my indoor garden I have been tinkering away and added a new plant shelf. I am continuously working on achieving my goal of turning my living space into an indoor jungle of sorts. Just recently has it really started to give off that jungle feeling. Here's one more piece to my plant-room puzzle.

The plant on the left actually started from just one small cutting. It's doing so well and I've already started another plant from this one. I believe it is in the wandering-jew family, though I have yet to find the exact variety. It has a purple underleaf and is rather fuzzy. Anyone know this one?