Yeardly Arthur

L Anderson wrote: I’ll know I’m done when the lawn mower dies of loneliness.  

Life goals.

Judith Browning wrote:
Are you heatiing it up just the once every day as Christopher mentions or on a low simmer continuously?

We have an electric stove. It's the first thing I turn on in the morning, the smallest burner on the lowest setting with the lid on tight, and it usually is bubbling by noon. We turn it off at bedtime, and it stays warm through the night. Our kitchen is on the shady side of the house, so the heat isn't really noticeable in summer, but it's definitely a bonus heater in winter.

Among of the many things my kids never want to hear me say again is “Use available materials.” It was my standard response when they tried to wiggle out of doing a particular chore:

“I couldn’t find a shovel.”
“Then use a stick.”

I taught them not just by decree, but by example as well, mainly through a lifelong practice of inherent laziness. Why walk all the way over to the shed for a hammer to drive a stake in the ground when a brick is just a step or two away?

I have found infinite value in leftover broomsticks and shovel handles of all sizes, so much that I keep several scattered around the gardens for seeding, digging, and poking anthills and hugelkultur beds. Similarly, since I’m always misplacing my pocketknife, broken kitchen knife blades are safely hidden outside in stump splits and wall cracks for trimming weeds, splitting bark, and cutting twine. I’ve been known to use an old serving spoon to plant seedlings, and a tin can for digging small furrows...

What odd things do you find are handy around the garden?

We've kept a perpetual stock pot on the back burner for decades. It's hardly a novel idea, as the practice goes back centuries, at least in Europe. It's a wonderful way to use vegetable ends and tops, and nothing works better to rid bones of meat and gristle. The broth is always on hand for making soups and sauces, deglazing pans, sautéing veggies, and even poaching eggs. We only change it out when it gets filled up with more solid than liquid. Then we strain it all and use the juice to start the next batch of broth.

The bones and other undissolved material goes right into the compost pile. I have a bone bucket close by to save whatever skeletal remains are sifted out later. These are almost always buried beneath our tomato plants to prevent blossom end rot and add potassium and phosphorus. Other than coffee grounds, green mulch, and a little Vitamin P,  I never have to add fertilizer to the tomatoes.

Yeardly Arthur wrote: I'll grind up the berries and add it to the big jar of plantain and curly dock flour, my go-to for recipes calling for extra whole grain.

After ten minutes of harvesting, a day of Passive Vehicular Dehydration, and another ten minutes of hand-rubbing and winnowing, I decided to go ahead and make some bread.

I have old broom sticks and shovel handles stationed at strategic points around the garden for seeding, digging, and sounding hugelkultur beds. I suppose I could try the pipe and funnel method, but so far it doesn't seem necessary. Just poke a hole, and drop in a seed. If I miss, or if the wind blows it off to one side, I knock the seed back down the hole with the stick. Good to have a back-up plan, though.

Fred's Mystery Plant looks an awful lot like ground cherry.
After 11 years, it's probably taken over the whole farm.

This is a very timely subject to revisit, given that global weather shifts are stressing traditional coffee farms, and recent supply chain issues are likely to increase the price and reduce availability of coffee for a lot of people. We've seen this coming for a while, and have been looking into a number of alternatives.

As noted above, cleavers (Galium aparine) is the popular go-to alternative, at least for discussion, and we actually enjoy steeping the plant as an early spring green tea.  But it will be a challenge for our small garden to grow enough of them to make roasting the tiny seeds a viable option. Fortunately we have LOTS of herbal options for hot morning beverages. Our wild blackberries give us leaves all year long, and we have hibiscus, mulberry, curly dock and pine for flavorful alternatives. Spring greens (chickweed, speedwell, purple dead nettle, etc.) are also nice options.

We've solved the caffeine by planting yaupon holly, widely advertised as the 'only native North American caffeinated plant'. (Apparently the caffeine content of cleavers is negligible by comparison.)

Roasted coffee substitutes besides cleavers include dark-roasted peanuts, pecans, and dandelion or native desert chicory roots. If things get bad enough, we may even give roasted acorns, hackberry seeds, or mushrooms a try.

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:

Yeardly Arthur wrote:Redbuds are left alone around the borders, but their branches make great tomato cages, and you don't even need twine to tie them - just strip the bark.

Nope, you're not getting away with that one. I require pictures!

Here ya go. They ain't pretty, but I think they tell the story.
I probably should make a separate post on the process, but it's pretty straightforward: Cut the branches. Peel the bark. Use the bark strips to tie the cage together.
Happy to answer any questions.

This has been a perennial question since we moved to our half-acre yard three-plus years ago. The wood-adjacent space had been neglected for years (except for the four hundred pounds of non-native grass seed the former owners added in hopes of enhancing curb appeal), and was being taken over by thickets of thorny olive hedge. The thorny olive was the easy choice. We have been systematically removing it, and replacing it with native plum and elderberry.

Rather than mow everything else into submission, we spent over a year just looking and letting things grow, transplanting wildflowers and native edibles into more practical locations. As for the hundreds of tiny trees marking their places out in the lawn, we're still mostly watching, but we have a tree-age plan.

Pecan saplings get to stay. If they wind up being in the way, we'll relocate them to the woods or to a pot to share with friends.  Cedar sprigs get transplanted in the woods, to replace the trees I harvest for projects (posts, etc.). Elm and ash are allowed to stay and grow until they are shovel-handle or tomato cage size. Pines: To the woods, though we are keeping a few close by to make pine needle soda-pop. Redbuds are left alone around the borders, but their branches make great tomato cages, and you don't even need twine to tie them - just strip the bark.

Oaks? We literally have thousands of saplings from the ton of tiny acorns that fall on us every season. They are on the chop-and-drop list, knowing they will all be back next year. One day I may make an effort to shell the acorns and leach them for flour, but for now they make great barbecue fuel.

At some point I'll probably establish a dedicated stand of mixed species for utilitarian purposes, but for now, small trees are just part of the scenery.