Jen Fulkerson

gardener
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since Jul 09, 2019
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Biography
My name is Jennifer, I'm married to a wonderful man for 28 years and counting. We have four grown children. Two girls and two boys. Being a mom is my most important and favorite job. I love to garden, paint, crochet, read, go to the movies, upcycle/refinish furniture, and do just about any art or craft project. We have 3 dogs, 5 indoor cats, ? cats that live on our property, and 21 chickens. All but the chickens are strays that just showed up and demanded we love them, so we do.
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N. California
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Recent posts by Jen Fulkerson

Does anyone have experience planting moringa in the ground?  I think I should plant them now. It's very warm, but not super hot yet. I'm just now sure they are big enough.  They are about 4" to 6" tall.
thanks.
2 days ago
I want to try again. I planted 4 seeds, and two germinated. I potted them up, and put them in the greenhouse. One eventually died, and the other doesn't look well. To be fair nothing did well in the greenhouse this year. Mostly my fault. I just haven't (I'm struggling to find the right words) I don't know, it been more of a chore instead of fun like normal. it's just an off year for me I guess. So my lack of attention, and the very strange weather which meant March was recorded breaking highs like summer then we were back to normal weather in April. The greenhouse could be 111 in the day and mid to low 40s at night. I still haven't bought shade cloth for it. Anything that managed to survive this year deserves a medal.
It's warm now, and I'm hearing all of you say what I experienced that it seems to bloom in late fall I'm hoping I can plant it by seed directly on the ground. The one I grew last year was given to me in a pot about 12" tall, so I have no idea if it will work. Has anyone direct sow roselle? Please let me know how it went.  Thanks
2 days ago
I have no idea about farm scale, but chamomile once it's established is a force to be reconnected with. I planted some seed in one of my raised beds last year. It really took over the space. This year I didn't plant chamomile, and it's more dense than last year, and there are little plants all over the place. Which I'm not mad at. I can think of worse weeds.
This probably doesn't help much. I think if you can give it a relatively weed free space to start, it will be fine.  Good luck.
2 days ago
I have a local tree service that's located not far from my house. So I'm lucky to be able to get wood chips relatively quick when I need them (except when they loose my request, but free is worth the inconvenience) It's a lot of work. My son inherited a bobcat from my father-in-law so a lot of times he will put the chips on or close to the area I want them. Sometimes he's not around, or it's a spot that can't be reached with the bobcat, and I have to make due with a wheelbarrow at a time. Either way, it's totally worth the effort.
2 days ago
I didn't ever get any sheets. The more I thought about it, the more I decided Barbara is probably right, the sheets will probably break down to fast. I may have tried it if I had an unusable sheet, but I didn't, so I didn't think it was worth buying. Mostly I use cardboard and wood chips. It does the job pretty well, even if I have to add new wood chips every year. There are a few places I still use weed cloth. Like my rose garden, and some paths. I am trying to reduce using it as much as I can.
I did use some gross old cotton curtains I made years ago to line a raised bed. It was pretty thick, and doubled. we will see how it holds up.
2 days ago
Wow Jamie thank you so much. I didn't realize fennel was a perineal, I really dropped the ball when looking into growing fennel.  You have really cleared upa lot of my confusion.  My daughter wants the seeds, so maybe it's good it's a perineal. The only real down side is it's in a small 4' X 4' bed, and it takes up 3/4 of the bed.  once it's done producing seeds, I may have to trim it, or use some chicken wire to make a little more space.  Maybe I could grow melon by it. It can help keep the soil moist and the melon can climb out of the bed to gather the sun it needs.
Thanks
4 days ago
If we are talking about seeds I started, i too many died to mention, this is just not my year for seed starting.
Zucchini seedlings. At first I was worried because they were planted by fennel, and I've read bad things about fennel, but they did germinate, something munched the leaves off. Luckily I have lots of others that made it, so I will just transplant them.
My son accidentally bumped my 4 year old cherry tree and broke it off and the ground level. I'm very bummed, but accident's happen. Looks like I'm in the market for a cherry tree.
Normally I only get cherry tomato volunteers, but I didn't grow cherry last year, and so far I have found 4 volunteer tomatoes. I'm going to transplant them and see what I get.
The weather has been very strange. I very mild winter I don't think we had even a mild freeze. Record breaking heart in March. April cooled down to normal, with a little rain. Something about this strange weather, or my lazy end of season last year has given me lots of wonderful plants, and I'm thrilled.
4 days ago
Thanks so much Jack that's very helpful.
This is the reason I love Permies. You can find a lot of interesting information on YouTube and the Internet, but it's difficult to know what is real in a real life situation, and what is false, or maybe technically it's true, but very dependent on the situation etc. With Permies it's a lot of smart people who are trying to do the best they can, and enjoy sharing what they know.
You are all awesome, Thanks.
4 days ago
I'm not really a fan of beans, but my daughter loves them, and my son eats out of the garden everyday, so I grow beans. In the spring and fall I grow Bushes beans, but regular beans will not grow in the Summer (I live in N California zone 9B) Luckily I discovered yard long beans those babies thrive in the heat and pump out tons of beans early summer through fall. The first year I collected lot of beans that dried on the vine. I have been using them for about 3 years now. Last year I thought I should gather new seeds. I let a bunch dry, picked them, and left them sitting on the outside table. They have been there long enough the box they were in isn't a box anymore. They have been exposed to the sun, and rain for many months, and I figured I would toss them out. No way they could be any good.
I have decided to use straw as mulch this year. The only straw I can get is not organic. I'm told it's perfectly safe, but I a suspicious sort. So I pulled out a little channel put some soil in it. put some straw in a bucket and filled with water. Now to plant the beans. oops! I'm out of beans. Impatient to start I grab 2 of the table beans. Several days later I planted a couple of beans I bought. I really can't believe it one of the table beans has sprouted.  Those are some very tough beans. I really can't believe they are still good. Amazing.
It's too soon to know if the straw is ok to use, but I should know soon.
1 week ago