Peanuts

Such an American staple, yet peanuts originated in South America. I was fortunate to obtain peanuts seeds from the USDA for testing. Initially I wasn't sure it would be a good crop to grow in Southern California. Even though my experiment is not over or conclusive, I get the feeling that with a bit more TLC, peanuts can thrive during our long and hot Summers.

If this is something you would like to try keep in mind that peanuts require about 4 months of heat, which will make it a very difficult plant to grow in many areas.

TLC-wise, I probably just have to make sure to provide more regular waterings than I did this time. And I should probably apply some natural fertilizers as the plants grow and bloom, as well as gypsum at bloom time as recommended by the Western Garden book of edibles (even though in this case blossoms were a few at a time but nearly continuous). This time I only fertilized when I sowed the seeds. 

I have to say that the plants did and continue to do very well. I had absolutely no pest or disease issues whatsoever. However a tomato plant in a higher bed, behind the peanut test area, grew invasively and at one point nearly covered the peanut bed. And because I took too long to clear its invasive limbs , I think the peanut plants were set back several weeks, even though they did not yellow or seem to have otherwise suffered from lack of light like many other types of plants would have. 

The plants are supposed to eventually die back and even though harvest should technically be after 120 days (very soon since I started in May), the plants are still green, thriving and blooming.

Out of curiosity I dug and searched for a sample peanut pod near one of the plants with a flower that appeared to have sent a shoot in the ground (that's where the peanuts appear). And I did find a pod. It's not yet harvest time so I only took out the one.

The pod is not shaped like I expected and I'm not sure if the ground was maybe too hard or if the shape has to do with this variety of peanuts which came from Ecuador. I'll probably know for sure at harvest time. 

Also, I'm not sure if this is typical but only about 8 seeds out of 25 germinated, which seems like a very low rate of germination. It could be because of my less than regular waterings though. I'll have to correct the problems in my next attempt, and see if the germination rate improves. 

Very likely I will only harvest enough peanuts to provide me with seeds for 2015. So I'm not sure how many I will be able to sample, for taste. But it is a fun experiment nonetheless. 

I will write more about the actual result at harvest time. 

Composting Faster

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Composting is fairly easy if you know the basics: Add a layer kitchen scraps; Add a layer of dead leaves; Start over... With time, the bottom layers transform themselves into "black gold," this amazing living matter full of nutrients, beneficial insects and microorganisms which will make your plants thrive!

But you need time AND patience, like saving with a piggy bank. Time passes and little by little the layers accumulate and one day: surprise! rich compost! 

But if you need your compost faster than you are able to produce it, you end up having to buy expensive organic soil amendments and fertilizers to supplement your needs instead of being able to use only your own high-quality home-produced compost.

Here are a couple tools, tips and tricks that should help you get the job done faster AND better. Better, because if you are composting weeds with their seeds, you want to make sure weed matter is destroyed, so your compost isn't going to help propagate weeds all over your garden..!

Compost Thermometer - Don't stop reading here! Using a compost thermometer is not as crazy as it might sound. 

Reotemp 20" compost thermometer. Excellent reviews
and as little as $25 on Amazon.

How hot your compost pile is has to do with the level of micro-organic activity in it. Hotter = working faster! High temperature also helps destroy weeds and their seeds as well as some pests, so it does not only speed things up, but does a more thorough composting job. 

A cool pile can easily take a few months to turn into compost, while a hot pile can become compost in weeks! Yes! Weeks!

Plus, during the Fall or Winter months (depending on your location), watching the temperature may prevent your pile from going completely dormant because it gets too cold and even starts to freeze. Though it may be hard to prevent if you live in a very cold winter area.

The thermometer allows you to gauge two important things: 1) aeration and 2) moisture. This in turn saves you work because it tells you when you can sit back and dream about the black gold that is being made, or when you need to do a little bit of extra work to make sure the process doesn't slow down or stop.

Here is what to watch for:

Compost is hot (100ºF +) - micro-organisms are chugging away. So most likely you don't have to do too much. No need to aerate or turn the pile yet. Just make sure that you add some water if the pile is not moist enough (especially if it's very hot outside, and/or your pile is very hot). Be careful not to add water that is ice cold, or this could send your pile temperature into a downward spiral.

Temperature dropping - things are slowing down. Find time to aerate the pile by turning it over and mixing it a bit. Also ensure it is sufficiently moist by adding water if necessary.

Compost is extremely hot (130ºF +) - this should not happen unless your pile is very large, but DO NOT LET YOUR PILE get above 130ºF. It is a FIRE HAZARD! Water your compost with cold water. Remove material from the pile and form smaller piles elsewhere to slow things down and make the pile cooler.


That brings me to my Tip & Trick #2

Aeration tool

You may already own a compost aerator, or maybe you use another tool already, like a hoe. But if you don't have anything or aren't satisfied with what you use, you may want to give the Hounddog Stand-up Cultivator a try. Turning your compost pile can be a back-breaking exercise, but it does not need to be if you use the right tool. The stand up cultivators allow you to use your arms, not your back!

Hounddog Stand-up cultivator. Strong, sturdy, versatile.
In the U.S., you should be able to get one for under $25 from Home Depot or Amazon

Made of robust metal, I find that this tool works great to aerate compost. But more importantly, it works well to cultivate the soil all over the garden too. It's definitely not a 1-trick pony. 

Also, it's very reasonably priced and you can find it at both the Home Depot and Amazon for under $25 in the US. Lowes has another version of the same tool, for around the same price or a little bit higher, but still reasonable.

I use this tool to rotate the content of the compost. 

Turning it pointing straight down - rotates the decomposing materials horizontally from the corners or the edges to the center of the pile, where it can get hotter.

Turning it while holding the tool slightly tilted - rotates the decomposing material vertically, bringing lower layers closer to the top, and moving top layers further down. Note that if the lower layers have already turned into compost and you plan on removing compost from under the pile through the bin's bottom doors (if you have that type of bin), you may want to hold off on this step to avoid mixing the compost that is ready with the materials that have not yet decomposed.

The temperature of your compost will vary depending on weather, but here in Southern California, I can usually maintain it between 90ºF and 115ºF year-round, even during the colder winter months when our nights are long and cold (low 40's to mid 30s) and our days short and cool (mid 50's to low 70's). Do keep in mind if you are doing cold-weather composting and must add water to the pile that adding cold water from the hose will cause a sudden drop in compost temperature, therefore slowing down the process!

I hope this article was useful for you. Do let me know if this helps you with your composting. Do not hesitate to post any questions or suggest other composting topics which would be of use to you.

More on composting in future articles.

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Basil going to seed?

My basil does well for months and months so long as I do 4 simple things:

1. Do not let it dry too much between waterings.
2. Give it nitrogen-rich food (I use steer manure or blood meal) when it starts wanting to go to seed too aggressively. 
3. Prune it back to a few new small fresh shoots to allow it to grow back. 
4. Pinch the flowers off to stop it from going to seed

The plants wanting to go to seed is my biggest problem. If I have to pinch back buds more than once a week, then it's time for manure or blood meal. I find that method works well for me. 

Food is costly! Don't waste it.
Using a China Markers, write on containers
when food was made, or package opened!
Hot soapy water removes writing in a jiffy!

Even in Paradise, Birds vary in sizes & colors

No, this is not an post about birds, but about birds of paradise.

When you say Birds of Paradise, most see the Strelitzia Reginæ in their minds, a beautiful bright orange tropical flower, with a bright blue stamen, reminiscent of a bird taking flight.

Strelitzia Reginæ … Bird of Paradise

But few are those who imagine the very similar, but much bigger and less colorful version.  Nearly black and white, it is the bloom of the Strelitzia Nicolai, a much larger plant with leaves 5 to 10' long and that can develop a trunk and reach a height of 30' !!

Strelitzia Nicolai … Giant Bird of Paradise
This bloom is about 5' from the ground and
its two flowers are about 12-18" each!

The regular Bird of Paradise (Stretlitzia Reginæ) can reach 4 - 6' in height with flowers up to 9" long and never develops a trunk.  So what the Stretlitzia Nicolai does not have in terms of flower magnificence, it makes up for it with huge, lush and beautiful tropical foliage.

Those are the two most common types of Birds of Paradise you will find in California.  But there are at least 4 other varieties.

Fava Beans, Crop that keep on giving

Over the Winter, I discovered fava beans.  It was purely accidental, from a bin at the supermarket.  They are xxl bean pods, about the size of a felt marker and I thought "I wonder if I could grow these?" So I bought a few and planted them.  Then, as is often the case (ie after the fact) I read up on them and discovered that they are a Winter crop here....  YEAHHHHH!!!  I was lucky with the timing.

They grew well in pots for a while, then I transplanted them to a very small area (about 2 sq ft) of the courtyard garden.  They continued to grow well and as we headed toward Spring, got taller and taller, until they reached about 2 1/2 feet and had to be staked (with bamboo skewers, so no biggie).

They bloomed and bloomed but no beans appeared, until about Spring.  Then, a decent number of beans started appearing on each plant and growing.

I started picking them as I walked by, eating them raw and sharing them with the dogs.  Then I had no time to look after them and they got very large, and they started being a little too fiber-rich to eat raw; even the dogs did not like them anymore.

So last Sunday, I harvested them and shelled them.  I also discovered that they have to be blanched for about 1 minute in order to be able to strip the harder outer layer of the bean.  So I did.  And inside each bean, was another softer, greener been that was rich and delicious, which we ate as part of a vegetable medley: home-grown carrots & fava beans with romano beans (also delicious though store bought).

But the amazing, almost magical, thing about fava beans is that they are a nitrogen-fixing winter cover crop.  The plant absorbs nitrogen directly from the air and grows well during the Winter when we get more rain and the weather is cooler.  Because they are nitrogen-rich, you can just work them into the soil after harvesting the last beans, where they can release their nitrogen, decomposing themselves and also fertilizing the soil.  How cool!!

So next Winter, expect to see more about fava beans.  And I won't be growing only a 2 square foot patch! Oh no!

I will also grow them twice: first in late Summer, early Fall, to harvest as a late Fall/early Winter crop, and second in the later Fall, to be harvested as a Spring/early Summer crop.  More on this in September!

Is My Weeding A Micro-Contribution to Global Desertification

TED Talks are fascinating, and this is no exception. But as I watched this one, I could not help but wonder how my gardening work fits in.

The talk is not about urban microfarms, but - in an itsy-bitsy, teeny weeny way - am I playing a role in greening or desertification...? Or am irrelevant?

I live in a city; cities are artificial deserts. But L.A.'s coastal valleys are natural ones too. Getting dryer? Probably, if not for the massive quantity of pipeline-imported water we flood our gardens with.

As I listened to Allan Savory, I think of my work.  My March garden is naturally green and lush with wild grasses and plants. So what do I do? I pull out the weeds out and expose the bare soil...

Weeding? - My Micro-Contribution to Desertification ?

I compost it all though, so nutrients are not shipped away in my yard waste bin. And I make mulch with the coast oak leaves and use it to cover the soil. I am also carving depressions with overflows, so that the fresh water from our big Winter storms does not make its way to the street, and down the storm drain to the Pacific Ocean.

But could I do more, something different, to help this tiny land we own thrive with life, naturally.  Was it not thriving with life when we bought it, after being neglected for decades?  Am I killing it, even with my organic methods? Can I do anything? A giant herd is out of the question... But with 10 chickens, could I mimic the grazing herds mimicking nature? In a very small way? Or is that ideal laughable?

If you are like me, this talk will throw you for a loop. But regardless of your background, Allan Savory's talk is fascinating and stimulating, like all TED Talks. It will challenge ideas you may have about climate change and cattle farming. Enjoy!

The Vanishing of Bees

I'm only half way through this but already felt it's worth sharing, because it gives an insight into agribusiness from a new angle: the pollination of crops.

Some of the reviews I read on Netflix are critical of it for being overly religious.  The jury is still out on this as far as I'm concerned but that may be because I'm only 1/2 way through.

God is mentioned in the film, and a lot more than once. And the most prominent people in the movie are very religious.  But I'm not convinced that the the point of the movie is going to be the rapture. But those who made the critical reviews might have watched the whole movie while I haven't. Let me know your thoughts if you take a look at it.

This is both interesting and disturbing and yet another snapshot of agribusiness and how lack of finesse with Nature.  Agriculture is now an industry and it's eerily similar to other industries, whether they build cars, refine oil, or make steel. The agricultural industry produces plants to make food or feed

And when I look at agricultural workers, at all levels, I see people like us.  Some just do their jobs, some do it more reluctantly occasionally stopping to scratch their heads and themselves "what on earth are we doing here??!!"

See for yourself.  Hopefully this preview will make you curious enough about this documentary to watch it yourself.  It's available on Netflix for streaming.

Botany of Desire & apple tree seedlings experiment

With *video previews!

* Please let me know if the video is not available where you are.  I know it is here in the United States, but I do not know whether this content is made available elsewhere in the world.

The Botany of Desire is a fascinating documentary about the world from the point of view of plants; how certain plants may be gratifying our desires for their own purposes.  


This film is about 4 plants that have travelled the road to success by satisfying human desires (1). 

I was fortunate to learn about this through the book on which this documentary is based, also called The Botany of Desire, which was graciously given to me as a present by our long-time friends, Juliet Huntly and Michael Cooke, during their March 2010 visit, when they asked me to come with them to tour the Huntington Botanical Garden, which I had been dying to see since moving to Southern California.

The tulip, by gratifying our own desire for beauty has gotten us to take it from its origin in central Asia, and disperse it around the world...  Marijuana, by gratifying our desire to change consciousness, has gotten people to risk their lives, their freedom in order to grow more of it, plant more of it. The potato, by gratifying our desire for control, a control over nature, so we can feed ourselves, has gotten itself out of South America, and expanded its range far beyond where it was 500 years ago. And the apple, by gratifying our desire for sweetness, begins in the forests of Kazakhstan, and is now the universal fruit! These are grate winner in the dance of domestication.   <...>  And this relationship with the plants learning how to gratify our desires and our working for them in exchange for this is what I call The Botany of Desire (1) 

When Juliet described the book to me as we visited the Huntington's gift shop, I was a bit puzzled because it did not seem like her to be talking about a book that really sounded  weird.  After they gave it to me, I distractedly skimmed over the first couple pages and it seemed to confirm my first thought.  But a while later, with more time on my hands, I started reading it and thought it to be the most fascinating idea.

Humans often see ourselves as the center of it all.  Even though we are continuously reminded by Mother Nature that we're not in control of it all, we pretend that we are.  So this was for me the beginning of an awakening, of looking at nature and the billions of life forms that surround us, just here on earth, as separate entities with their own needs and their own goals, so to speak.

All of us, earth's life forms, are interdependent but not independent or separate from one another.  We are a whole. It taught me a new respect for nature and is now helping me rethink my place, my role, as a a living thing, being given an opportunity to participate in this continuously evolving scheme that we are a part of but don't fully comprehend.  In other words, it made me a little more humble.

(1) quoted from the documentary The Botany of Desire, by Michael Pollan

More information in addition to this preview can be obtained on the PBS website at:
PBS - The Botany of Desire

Interested in my apple seedling experiments, then click here!

Apple Seedlings EXPERIMENT

I started this experiment a couple months ago, following my watching the PBS documentary by Michael Pollan, The Botany of Desire.

Apples contain a few seeds, each of which will grow a tree with different genetic properties.  No one seed is alike.

So I started a dozen or so seedlings from store-bought apples, to see what will come of them.  I don't know that they can produce here, in our semi-tropical climate, due to our low number of hours of winter chilling (when temperatures are below 45ºF).  Only certain varieties of apple trees can produce here for that reason.

But if this fascinates you like it does me, I will be posting regular progress reports and photos, as the trees grow and develop.

Pasadena - City or Garden?

Mexican Fan Palms - Wall-to-wall

Mexican Fan Palms are L.A.'s Signature Palms.  They line hundreds and hundreds of residential streets throughout Southern California, and can exceed 100 feet in height.  They are native to this region.

* * *

Lush Desert 

 

 

The San Gabriel Valley, where we are, is one of many distinct microclimates found throughout Los Angeles County. Almost all of the rain falls in Winter over a period of 2-3 months, Spring and Fall are moderately warm and fairly dry, and Summers are very hot for about 3 months.  The air can be very dry, especially when offshore winds (like the Santa Ana winds) dominate.  For this reason, desert plants thrive here.


Spring is coming

Radishes Nouveaux!

5 radishes a day ...

a) ... are better than a kick in the mouth?
b) ... keep the dentist away?
c) ... both of the above are true, as a pair?

First crop of 2013 (excluding oranges or course, and possibly cayenne, bay leaves, rosemary, sage, oregano...)

Are Non-Native Palmtennas invasive and becoming naturalized in So-Cal?

Non-Native Date Palmtenna Specimen

If you are a connoisseur of plantenas, a sort of hybridized mutation of large trees commonly used in landscaping, you will probably agree that this is one of the most spectacular palmtenna specimens to-date.  At least it's the most beautiful and perfect one I've ever seen.

Taller than its cousin, the Phoenix Dactylifera, the typical date palm of the southland and low deserts, its fronds are also significantly shorter than those of its cousin.  But if you are a southern california resident, wouldn't you agree that it is much healthier looking than some of the specimens one might see in the Inland Empire, along the I-10 corridor?!

This is the first specimen I see in an urban setting, near residential areas.  Palmtennas appear out of nowhere, like a giant mushrooms, but only for their development to then be frozen in time, with no further measurable growth. Are they borg equivalent of vegetation?

Unlike normal palms and trees, they do not produce oxygen, but contribute to the health of cellular phone networks, allowing bars to grow on your cell phone screen, as if by magic!

What an interesting and useful mutation...