Ludi's Projects 2016

Some support plants are growing in the infant food forest.  Here's Esperanza in the foreground with a Honey Locust behind:

Here's the graphic I made for the neighbors to show where it would be helpful for them to put basins to save their fence, our driveway, and the county road from being destroyed by flood:

Turns out, because of the contours of the land, we won't be able to connect up all our basins, but we will be able to connect one of the new basins to its own set of long swales, something like this:

That still looks like a great plan for collecting water.

Do you think your neighbors will also be adding basins and swales, per your suggestion?

Thanks!  When my husband posted the basin design to Facebook, the neighbor responded "Sweet!" so we hope that means they'll follow up on it.  

Oh I hope they will too as it will benefit all of you. I have neighbors on one side, downslope, so I am working hard to not flood their sideyard but they have zero interest in doing anything in the yard.

Tyler Ludens wrote:Proof of Turmeric:

How's your tumeric doing? I've got about 6 plants coming up. They are in a zone 4-ish area so have no watered like they need.

Mine aren't doing great - I suspect I'm not watering them enough and that the soil isn't rich enough.  I'm actually pretty surprised they're growing at all.

Tyler Ludens wrote:Mine aren't doing great - I suspect I'm not watering them enough and that the soil isn't rich enough.  I'm actually pretty surprised they're growing at all.

Getting a trickle of rain today so hopefully they are getting some. My soil is similar to yours and needs tons of organic mulch. Have been experimenting with making compost tea.

Attempting to start some Fall vegs under shade cloth in the horrible glaring hot sun!

Tyler Ludens wrote:Attempting to start some Fall vegs under shade cloth in the horrible glaring hot sun!

Know what you mean. Made a wicking bed yesterday.

The little patch of Fall vegs germinated pretty well and seem to be surviving the glaring sun.  I had to remove the shade cloth because the shade was too dense and causing legginess.   I planted another little patch this morning, including replanting squash for the third time.  The previous two tries either didn't germinate or were immediately eaten by critters.

Some things that are doing well in the garden right now are Garlic Chives, Walking Onions, Devil's Claw, Jerusalem Artichoke, Sweet Peppers, Malabar Spinach.  Sweet Potatoes are growing but not fabulously.  Chard is surviving but not producing much.  Luffa is climbing about 20 feet into the trees but not even blooming as far as I can see.

Devil's Claw

Ludi how did the elderberry work out? I am hoping to use greywater to water it.

The elderberry got so huge I dug it up and moved it and most of it died.  I think I still have one plant living in a pot but haven't figured out where to put it where it will survive but not be a problem if it gets huge.

I feel really fortunate in where I now live. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to grow food in your climate (and with your marauding deer!) Are you able to grow cool weather crops all winter, or do you get real winters? If you get freezing winters, then I guess the only way you can grow staple crops is maybe short season crops grown in spring and fall? Storing staples through the hot summer would be difficult, unless you freeze or can everything, I suppose. Or have a really good cold room/root cellar. I feel for ya, and wish I could send some of our rainy days to you!

I probably make it seem really difficult because of my black thumb!  A mild year, like last year, can be quite nice.  Last year I grew a bunch of winter squash and even still have a couple of them - they store just fine on the back porch.  Except for very cold winters, we can grow all through the cool season.  I think with a better selection of varieties, even a cold year wouldn't be too bad, because it rarely stays cold for long.  I'm making an extra effort to start my cool season crops early, but the next couple days will be a challenge as we top 100F.  Then we get some cooler days with a chance of rain so small it doesn't count.  But the coolth will be nice - all the way down to 90F for the high!    

90 would kill me. I'd just melt into a little puddle of Tracy, and seep into the ground. It's about 27C here today (which is about 80F) and I'm sitting in the shade with a fan blasting on me! I was just out in the garden a few minutes ago, and had to run for the shade after 15 minutes. You're made of sterner stuff than I, that's for sure. But my garden seems to be enjoying the heat, so all is well.

Snake in the water garden - watch out, frogs!

After about 6 inches of rain and much cooler temperatures, the plantings for Fall are growing like crazy and everything that survived the hot period seems to be taking off as well.

What kind of snake is that?

Probably a rat snake.  In any case, non-venomous.

Yay, rain and coolness! Glad things are growing. What have you got planted for your fall garden?

Red Russian Kale, Radishes, Mizuna, Beets, Melokhiya, Cilantro, Chard, Collards, Turnips, Arugula

I've got carrots, turnips, orache, and favas that I need to get into the ground. I think I can safely plant any of these up till at least early Oct, so I think I'll start on my next day off. I keep hoping Joseph Lofthouse will update his seed list so I can try some of his favas also. I've got an envelope of silver dimes waiting.

I think it might be too early to plant Favas - at least I'm going to hold off for awhile - I don't have any of the heat tolerant kind.  I'm also waiting to plant Carrots and Lettuce, because soil temps might be too high.

That's why I'm only going to start. I particularly want to experiment with the carrot variety that I purchased a bulk quantity of. I have enough seed to easily replant later. Some of the other things I might try starting in one of the summer shady beds that get full winter sun.

It's always worth experimenting!  I thought I might be starting all these things too early, with our temps up to 100, but most seem to have germinated except one bed that I might have exposed to sun too soon.  That bed is a little thin.

It's still too hot for some of the Fall things and they're getting heavily nibbled by bugs because stressed.  Also some soil issues as I got a bunch of wood chips mixed into the soil and I think there's some nitrogen deficiency.  So from now on I'm going to use wood chips only on the paths and not as mulch on the beds.  Wood chips should be fine as mulch on perennial beds, just not on beds where they might get mixed into the soil.  If the chips are largely composted ahead of time this might not be a problem, but I think a lot of my current problems are from getting relatively fresh chips in my soil.  I'll try watering with worm casting tea and diluted pee.

Pics of the kitchen garden, including a shot of the Luffa high up in a dead tree next to the garden.  But no flowers or gourds so far!

Fall greens are doing ok except for all these little caterpillars!

We're getting more basins and swales dug.  These should divert up to 1/3 of the flood water coming down the creek.

How many gallons will they be able to infiltrate?

I've not calculated that.  We only got the basin and swales done on the north end, not the small basin near the house.  We'll get that done next year.  We only wanted one day with the Bobcat.

Awesome pictures T! Way to catch some water! Sorry about the caterpillars.

They made the berms about twice as high as we requested - so it should hold a lot of water!

Added a ramp to my Black Soldier Fly bin to more easily collect maggots for the chickens.  I got the idea of the tube ramp from this webpage:  http://www.waldeneffect.org/blog/Homemade_black_soldier_fly_bins/

Hey Tyler,

Just thought I'd share my experience with Turmeric in case it helps you and others in our climate. We've been growing it inside a hoop house and outside for a few years and what we found is that they struggled until some of our Pawnlonia Fortunei shaded some of them like crazy. They look almost fully smothered, but the size of the plant is about 3-4 times the size of the ones in full sun here. It's been my experience here in central TX that a lot of plants that love full sun do really bad unless partially shaded as I'm sure you already noticed...

Anyways, hope it helps...

Cheers

Jan

Thank you, Jan.  I have the Turmeric in a spot that gets shade in the afternoon but I think it might still get too much morning sun.  I'm not sure how large the plants are supposed to get - mine are about 18" tall.

Water in the new basin after about 3.5 inches of rain: