From Rows to Groceries...

Since this is a (b)log of our garden, I want to make sure I remember how our garden changed over time.

Besides the research I think its important to see our progress... and since I am an amateur Paint artists (lol, I love Paint, great program) I have been working on this to track the changes in the garden. 

Please click to enlarge

The first image is what the planned our rows were supposed to look like

This is what survived after the original planting and second round (because of those birds!) All pieces in green are seeds that didn't take, and no crop yield.

The garden before planting Beans & Squash

Here is when we inserted the beans

and squash to complete the three sisters..... 

After our mishap with stink bugs, and having to

get rid of some of our stalks this is what survived....  Notice how some areas no longer have the corn stalks, simply bean and squash.

June 15: Clean-Up, Ears & Hojas

Earlier this week, I went out into the garden and was overcome with what I saw. Through all the research I had been reading about stinkbugs, I realized that what I feared was happening to our garden. Last we learned that if Stinkbugs take over your garden it can potentially ruin your crop. Anything sucked of its nutrients can wither and die.

Our garden looked in bad shape! Saturday (June 15) we went out to the garden to do and discuss a few things: survey damage, cut down dead stalks, decide what we would do with corn, figure out what was salvageable and make a plan to keep what we could do to maintain a healthy garden.

Here are some notes of the day:
Corn

• Many stalks were damaged, however once we viewed them closely quite a few were salvageable. So we removed what we felt like we had to. 
• To remove the corn, we decided to cut the base instead of pulling out- to ensure new squash/bean seedling roots weren't interrupted. Reminder: squash/Beans can both grow without the corn stalk.
• The corn we chose is absolutely beautiful! When you look at it it shines, literally, it looks shimmery, it was so beautiful to hold.
• We have hojas to save for Tamales!

Amaranth

• Is big! The inflorescenes (tassel-like parts) are getting huge!
• Weeds grow really fast! Gotta keep an eye on the imposters...

Sunflowers

• The 1st sprouted sunflower, although wilted looks like it can survive with more care and water. We will leave it as is.

Tomatoes

• We need to watch out for the Caterpillar attacking the tomato. However in the time being we have quite a few small bulbs!!!

Onions

• Are growing, need to do reserach about harvesting.

Seed Saving

• We need to figure when/how to seed save for amaranth and corn!

Pests

• Ants! They can be nasty little things with their friends Aphids! We found 1 stalk that had damage from Aphids (no we didn't put it in the compost), but we do need to treat with grits/coffee more
• We need to get more coffee grounds from people... 

Compost

• This is hard for me to do, because in my home we eat every inch of a vegetable, except the little colitas of fruits and vegetables... Either way, I thought I would attach a friendly link of items you can compost for reference.

Watering

• Decided that we needed to water more. The damage had to be a combination of both lack of enough water and the stinkbugs. 
• Solution: Dee will water in the morning, and I will (most) evenings.

Juanes- Thank you for trimming the weeds around the garden. We appreciate both you and Juana's patience with us and for the space! Jane- Thank You for the wisdom and experience you have shared from your gardening. It is much appreciated.

Stink Bugs!! & Other Things

There were three main tasks on this visit: clean/replenish (with compost) Amaranth bed, do something about stink bugs, and compost.

Pests: STINK BUGS!!
Last time I wrote I briefly mentioned stink bugs. We have noticed there has been a large number of them on the corn. After some research on both parties we learned quite a bit, here are the essentials.

Stink bugs use their clypeus to penetrate and suck nutrients out of crops!! (similar to what a mosquito uses to suck blood.) No es bueno. Some of their favorite crops to eat are sweet corn, amaranth, okra and tomatoes (three of which we have!)

We actually saw a baby stalk have the life sucked right out of it. It was so sad to see it go from green to pale yellow and crusty. We decided we would remove the stalk, and possibly put it in the compost.

Some of the methods we read about included:

• pesticides (of course)
• spraying the plant with a lemon/water mixture
• drowning the bugs in a soapy water solution
• plant sun flowers to deter them from the crop being eaten

Some of the solutions were eliminated right away because we run an organic garden that has sunflowers in it. We strayed away from the lemon/water mixture because of the acidic properties and decided to go with drowning the bugs in soapy water. (helpful hint: they move slower in the morning)

We rolled up our sleeves, put on our gloves and got ourselves some bugs! At first my sister and I stared at each other, each anticipating the other one to begin. I don't know who did it, because the garden was soon filled with yelps and shrieks of  having to grab those bugs. If we accidentally squashed the bug with our hands we understood why they were called stink bugs. I got terrorized as one "screamed" (fluttered and hissed loudly) in my ear, it was one of those feelings, where you think they are crawling all over you at one point. *shudders*

We will have to give the garden some time to digest what's happening to it, but the research hasn't stopped! Natural predators include:

• Lady Bugs (which also fight aphids-but thankfully we don't have any of those!) *cross your fingers*
• Mini Wasps (parasitic size)
• Ants
• Ladybird Beetles
• Lacewings

OTHER NEWS:

After the dirty work was done we stopped and noticed our seeds had sprouted! All the commotion from the bugs had deterred us from noticing. It was a beautiful thing to see.

More updates soon!

Peace,

June 02: Seeds, Scents & Sense

This week & "The Plan":
All week I have been thinking about the garden: trying to organize help for Sunday morning/afternoon, I was worried about soil, I was looking for a truck, trying to find a wheelbarrow and fretting about the rain forecast. It was exhausting, trying to deal with the day-to-day functions of life, supporting family and friends in their journey of life. The plan was simple (ha!) find a truck, drive to the soil depot (wholesale), pick up enough soil to re-soil the entire garden, plant the rest of the three sisters: bean and squash, put up tomato. Psssh....

What actually happened...

The Back-up Plan:
Sunday turned out to be another long day full of work! I woke up to the sound of thunder and rain and was worried I wouldn't be able to get in the garden. Turns out the soil depot was a little bit of a bust: they had no hours on the site/brochure, 3 different phone numbers no one would answer and were closed on Sunday! I blame it on hippies, gotta get organized... So we stuck to our back up plan: ditch all the fancy stuff, hit up a regular store to get the soil we needed and just do what we could around the rain, specifically plant the other two sisters, the clock is ticking and we are in a bit of a crunch!

Surveying:
When I arrived to the garden I was met with drizzle and clearing skies, I quickly surveyed the garden to find: fallen corn stalks, BUGS (yuck!), damaged onions and blooming sunflowers and tomatoes! We made a mental note to invest in some reinforcements and got ready for the store.

Store:
One of the things we learned last week was that we needed a stronger base for our tall crop. Since our plan to go to the soil dump went awry, we went to the store consulted a nice gentleman named Huellete Packard (he joked and said like Hewlett Packard minus the money- ha! he was nice), we picked out an organic compost soil, and he laughed when we declined Miracle Gro because we don't trust what they put in their soil. While walking around we picked out stuff for ourselves, debated bird feeding stuff, admired beautiful garden decor talked ourselves out of some fancy garden tools, and got talked out of a wheelbarrow by a passing gentleman. After about an hour, we walked out with 5 bags of organic compost soil, some sticks to support our fallen stalks and a bell made of bird feed.

The work:

• Weeding/Mending - I will be honest, this is NOT my favorite part to do, but I do recognize that it needs to be done on the regular. It was a lot easier since we did heavy duty weeding last week, but the sun did beam down pretty hard, however it did even out my tan :D There were 8 different plants that had fallen, we were lucky to have purchased a few extra support sticks because it was a bit hard to tell from first seeing the crops.
• We did note that we need to probably invest in bamboo sticks to help the corn, we had to use bamboo before, and we like it because its natural and its tall enough to hold the corn high. In addition to the new soil, we are sure this will be better.
• Soil - It was nice to place a new base around each stalk/crop. It looked so healthy. Hopefully it can provide some of the nutrients we need! The crops are looking healthier and are attracting more pests which is a good and bad sign. (see below)
• Seeds & Planting - YAY!!!! Frijoles (beans) y calabacitas (squash). I am a major frijolera (bean eater) I think they are the best component for a meal and or snack, so I am excited to harvest these! We have talked about the different types of seeds we got in the past, but just to recap we have Hopi Pinto beans, Mexican Calabacitas (MexCal) and Yellow Crooknecks (YellowCrooks) [please see slide below for preview]. I love touching and seeing seeds. They really amaze me. After figuring out we had less Mex.Cal than YellowCrooks and doing some quick math we decided to plant this way:
• 2 small rows with the Mex.Cal. and beans each stalk (or set of stalks-since more than one have 2 to 3 stalks in one place.) 
• each set had 4 pozos (holes) for one bean seed and 2 pozos for one MexCal seed 
• and the rest of the rows (other 5) with YellowCrooks and beans.
• each set had 4 pozos for one bean seed and 2 pozos for one YellowCrooks
• Pests - uuuuughhh!!!! Peee-yeeeeewwww Stink bugs are invading! We haven't figured out a natural cure for this yet, but we are researching, so far I learned they are originally from Asia. More info to come.
• Compost- We are working on this! I have some editions being stored right now... but I will say its stinky... lol

Retrospect/To-Do:
So much to say, but I will save it for another day. Random thoughts:
- Bamboo
- Love
- Weed
- Clean Amaranth Bed
- Soil Amaranth Bed
- Lay our usual pest solution, we should give that solution a name... 
- Sign
- Nails
- Compost

EXTRA EXTRA: Read all about it!!

Flowers blooming & other pics

Friday night pics 05.31.13

Thank You's for the week:

Mr. Huellete Packard, for being helpful and cheery. To the Barrio for allowing us to borrow a grocery basket randomly stored on the side of the road. It came in handy transporting all that soil. Hahaha, that provided many giggles to start us off! And to my sister, Dee, thank you for opening the space and for being dedicated with me as we continually move forward. We're doing the damn thing and its so hard for me not to be emotional in the palabra, but I am so happy to be a part of this with you. 

Peace and Love in the struggle,

Gritona