Jackie Bodiou

Hey y'all! Sorry I've been away for awhile. My Amazon fire decided it didn't like permies and kept giving me an error message. I have been working on my soil and things are getting better. I still have some chunky spots but after mulching with lots of mulched fallen and green leaves, grass clippings,adding compost and worm castings things are improving! I can't wait for spring!!!

Oh darn Jay, I had written a big long reply of my plans of what I want to do with my property but I guess it didn't take. I'll take more pictures and be able to explain it better to you. Today I pulled more vines, pulled some weeds and tucked them under the leaf mulch, trimmed up the bottom leaves of my tomato plants, thinned out my mustard greens and volunteer cantaloupe, I planted green onions yesterday and trimmed them up because some of the leaves were withered, watered my new hosta my neighbor gave me, checked on the moisture level of the soil of my pepper plants and it still doesn't seem dryer to me so I'm holding off on watering them. My problem pepper has a new flower so I guess it's doing better! One of the cayenne peppers is finally red. I have one tomato that should be ready to pick in a day or two. My naked lady lillies are blooming and I have new blooms on my rescue phlox is pushing out new blooms as the old ones wither. After only 2 weeks after transplanting. What a champ! I planting these everywhere next year.

Such fantastic information! I've been gathering wild mushrooms and left over super market mushrooms and putting them in my main garden I have dubbed "The Swamp" I am using leaf litter as mulch and chopping and pulling weeds and tucking under the leaves. I enriched the clay soil with composted manure, peet moss and leaf mold. I'm anxiously staring willing mushrooms to pop up even though I know the real action is happening under the leaves. So far my tomato plants are doing great but my peppers aren't. I think I may have loved them a little too much. I've backed off on watering and pulled the mulch backup so they can dry out a little. I've planted mustard seeds, lentils, green onions, and some flowers and mint to attract the pollinators. Oh and I have some volunteer cantaloupe sprouts that I've thinned out and tucked under the leaves too. The important thing is that I'm enjoying myself and Permaculture is just so much more fun than regular gardening! I love your blogs and thanks so much for all the great information you share!

Fascinating blog thread Simon the chickens names and jobs cracked me up, thanks so much please update us!

We have a bag of grass seed we're planning on planting as soon as it cools off. Yes I think I've got a pretty good idea of what I want to grow....ALL THE VEGGIES!! We're doing raised beds on the sunny side of the yard and the middle front yard I want a mix of flowers and purple veggies, rainbow swiss chard, and red lettuce, snuck in here and there, the leaf pile side is next to undeveloped land so I want to have my yard birds over there. Geese, ducks, chickens, pigeon, quail ect. I also want some rabbits and bees. Then in the back it's sloping some gentle some steep and in the very back there's a creek that's pretty dry unless it's flooding, then it's trees and...I'll give ya one guess...VINES!!! So after we get rid of all the vines and harvest some trees back there I want to, have pastures for my birds, have an area to try to grow my birds some food, hydroelectric waterfall that empties in to a pond, terrace it, build decks, have an above ground pool. I want to plant fruit trees and berry bushes, paw paws, persimmons, cigar trees and other trees that would be good for wood working and use for smoking meats. I mixed the charcoal like stuff left over from our bon fires into the swamp garden but I don't know if it was enough. I'll take a picture of the back yard and better pictures of the leaf pile side where I want my birds. I have about an acre to work with not sure if that includes the house. So I should sprinkle something on the lawn until it's cool enough to plant the grass? I have some chia seeds, bird seed, mung beans, and field peas and lentils. Problem is it's really hard to get the water hose over there. I'll find a way though. Thanks again for all your advice you're just lovely!

Hey Jay! Thanks for the great advice and solving the mystery of the tiger lillies! I have considered the cardboard smothering technique but was afraid the vines would just continue to grow underneath! I hadn't thought of wearing outvthe roots though that's brilliant and I'm trying it tomorrow! I also have really heavy old blow up mattresses that I've repurposed into vine barriers around my leaf pile I'm going to use for this purpose too. We pulled a lot of vines out of the yard today. Our yard is going to be so bare and sad until we get the seed down. Any advice about that? The ground is very lumpy because it's been a mole super high way and roots from the gun tree. We got some of those mole repellant super sonic stake things so we shouldn't have anymore hills. Should I get some top soil to even things out? Awww no not your fig tree! Dang it! Maybe it'll be good for it to be pruned because it'll focus on developing roots and then put out more leaves. I have one and it's not fruiting. I'm going to get him a friend I heard that can help. Yes I have some somewhat rotten logs I'm burying in my raised beds next year and in my flower beds too. So excited about this idea. Here are some progress pics of my swamp garden and some other pretties.

Thanks Eric I remember reading that in Red Hawks thread now. I'm just going to relax about it. I think they're looking better now only one still looks sickly. A bell pepper. The jalapeno only has a tinge of yellow on a few leaves. Yesterday we pulled a crap load of vines out of the lawn, the lentil sprouts I put in the pot are all peeking their heads out of the dirt and I had a daisy open up and it's so pretty! So glad I didn't aggressively weed that bed! Oh and I found a lot of wild mushrooms and put them in my swamp garden next to the tomatoes. Got some mushrooms from the store too and I'm going to make a slurry and pour them on.

Ok thanks Chon you're right. 😊😊

Thanks Eric will be getting comfrey asap, wood chips I'm waiting for my chip drop while scouting for other sources. I watered with some lawn clipping tea, will get the blood meal asap and I saw an oyster mushroom kit today at the store I'm getting asap and will order wine caps. I'm trying hard to incorporate as much Permaculture as possible I have learned so much from you and this wonderful forum thanks so much for sharing all your wisdom! Hey do you think that pine needles could cause the leaves of my pepper plants to yellow? I have a lot of them in there from the loads of leaf mold. Maybe some baking soda mixed in their water will help balance the ph a little? Trying everything I can to get these puppies to grow I don't want my bf to be right!

Thanks Eric! So happy to see your comment! I know the plant sticks are a cheat but man these peppers are so sad and my bf thinks I won't be able to get anything to grow in my swamp garden and so the ol' competitive spirit came out in me and I caved and used it. I want to use urine but my bf freaks out about it and says he'll refuse to eat anything out of the garden. I am discontinuing the sticks next year though. I read where I can make a tea out of yard clippings and use that for nitrogen but my property is covered in English Ivy! Do you have any remedies for getting rid of it? I'm waiting anxiously for some wood chips from chipdrop.com. Hopefully soon. Again thanks for taking a look at my crazy ramblings you're just the best!!!