Things were moving along well in the compost making, but I hit a temporary snag this morning. The chipper/shredder has been bogging down lately when I feed material into it, so I checked the flails for sharpness. They were completely rounded off.
So it's time to sharpen them again. The machine had been left outside in the weather for years, so when I inherited it there was a lot wrong with it. One of the problems is that the system of pins that holds the flails in place got corroded and froze up. I tried fixing that, but never got anywhere with it. So my only way of sharpening the flails is to hone them with stones mounted on an electric drill while the chipper is lying on its side. It's tedious, but doable. Replacing the whole machine would cost about five or six thousand dollars...so that's not an option for me.
I need that shredder to work well, so it's time to get busy grinding. I'll get it done.
This has become a miniature farm here, since I grow a lot of my own food. In the enterprise of farming, fighting with old and heavily used machinery is generally where you spend a lot of your time. It helps to know of a good welding shop, or know how to weld things yourself. I bring my welding jobs to a local shop, they don't charge me that much to do small jobs.
Tomorrow is the official date for harvesting my potatoes...eighty days from planting. I'm optimistic about a good harvest, the vines grew well. So maybe by the end of the week I'll be eating homegrown new potatoes...looking forward to that. The last bag I bought in the store were all green from being left out in the light too long. Only two left, I'll be glad to see the end of those. I've read that you should never eat green potatoes, but I can't afford to go throwing out a whole bag of potatoes on my income. I'd be happy if I never had to buy another bag of store potatoes again.
My homegrown potatoes are so much better that there's just no comparison. They're usually perfect...no greening, no soft spots from blight, no scars from digging tools, no rotting at the core. The quality of produce sold in stores has been declining steadily since I was a kid...along with everything else I have to say.
Sunday, May 18, 2014
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Back to Basics
Had a good morning of gardening today. The air wasn't too smoky, so I got to work mixing soil for the planting bed I'm amending. I got six batches done, and the bed is rising up now.
The pole beans were disappointing. I planted them March first, that's too late in this new climatic regime of warmer temps. I should have planted something in the genus Vigna instead, like blackeyed peas or long beans. When the daytime temps are above 32 Celsius, the common beans in the genus Phaseolus don't set pods reliably. I got some bean pods when it was cooler, but now the vines only have a scattering of pods. I'll probably pull them out and plant something else. I've had much better results planting pole beans in January.
Mixing soil is tedious, it's boring, but it works. I like things that actually work. I knew someone who took a much more laid-back approach to gardening. He would buy a packet of flower seeds and just scatter them among the weeds. He said..."What comes up, comes up." I'll say this, there were a few flowers among the weeds, but that approach to gardening doesn't suit me personally. I call it the "drinking man's method" of gardening.
To each his own, I suppose. I'll stick to my labor-intensive methods.
The pole beans were disappointing. I planted them March first, that's too late in this new climatic regime of warmer temps. I should have planted something in the genus Vigna instead, like blackeyed peas or long beans. When the daytime temps are above 32 Celsius, the common beans in the genus Phaseolus don't set pods reliably. I got some bean pods when it was cooler, but now the vines only have a scattering of pods. I'll probably pull them out and plant something else. I've had much better results planting pole beans in January.
Mixing soil is tedious, it's boring, but it works. I like things that actually work. I knew someone who took a much more laid-back approach to gardening. He would buy a packet of flower seeds and just scatter them among the weeds. He said..."What comes up, comes up." I'll say this, there were a few flowers among the weeds, but that approach to gardening doesn't suit me personally. I call it the "drinking man's method" of gardening.
To each his own, I suppose. I'll stick to my labor-intensive methods.
Monday, May 12, 2014
Back At It
Haven't been gardening much lately due to a very bad smoke problem. I've had to accept the fact that I can't cope with heavy air pollution, so I stay indoors in filtered air whenever I get respiratory irritation from being outside. I have problems with both smoke and caustic chemical fumes in the urban area where I live.
But this morning was OK, so I watered the garden well, pulled out the dead kale plants, and mulched the kale that's still green with more wood chips. My Basella aka Malabar spinach is growing rapidly now, it loves these tropical days and nights we've been having. The plants have almost grown enough that they can take the place of the kale, which doesn't agree with me when it grows in the heat. Instead of kale, lettuce, mustard, and other such cool-season greens, in the coming months I'll be cooking with Basella, bayam aka vegetable amaranth, purslane, and molokhia aka Egyptian spinach. I'm looking forward to that, the cole crops like kale and turnip tend to give me indigestion at times.
It felt good to be back outside working with plants and mulch, I wish I could do that every morning.
But this morning was OK, so I watered the garden well, pulled out the dead kale plants, and mulched the kale that's still green with more wood chips. My Basella aka Malabar spinach is growing rapidly now, it loves these tropical days and nights we've been having. The plants have almost grown enough that they can take the place of the kale, which doesn't agree with me when it grows in the heat. Instead of kale, lettuce, mustard, and other such cool-season greens, in the coming months I'll be cooking with Basella, bayam aka vegetable amaranth, purslane, and molokhia aka Egyptian spinach. I'm looking forward to that, the cole crops like kale and turnip tend to give me indigestion at times.
It felt good to be back outside working with plants and mulch, I wish I could do that every morning.
Friday, May 2, 2014
Keep It Moving
Didn't feel well this morning. There was a lot of smoke around during the night, that's probably why. I guess they burn trash at night to avoid being cited for burning without a permit, but that's only a guess on my part. It's a particularly bad time to burn trash, because the smoke is trapped near the ground by a thermal inversion and can't rise like it does during the daylight hours. But then it's a living nightmare for people like me who have respiratory problems.
But after I managed to get myself moving, I did manage to do some work outside...pulled some weeds and mixed more soil for the planting bed. The bed is starting to rise up now as I keep adding amended soil back into it. When I've used up all the soil that I removed from the bed, I'll rake the bed smooth, plant seeds, and lay wood chips everywhere but down the middle where the seeds are planted.
My well water has lime in it, so allowing the sun to dry the surface of the soil and constantly wetting it with the hose is not a good way to do things. That causes even more lime buildup in the soil, which is exactly the opposite of what I'm trying to do. I want to lower the pH, not raise it. I've tested that soil out there and, without amendment, it runs close to 8.0. It's hard to grow much in that...especially if it's hot, sunbaked sand with almost no humus.
Tropical and subtropical soils can be like that. The torrential rains of the rainy season leach out all the soluble minerals like nitrate and potassium, and the high temps cause very rapid oxidation of the organic matter. Add to that the local custom of burning the land periodically to keep it clear of brush, and you have a recipe for barren soil.
If the land is allowed to revert to forest, the organic matter builds up. But that can take a very long time. I'm short-circuiting the process and putting it into high gear by making literally tons of compost from brush clearing and control of invasive exotic vegetation. The most important crop I grow is soil.
I've settled on blackeyed peas as the crop to plant in that bed I'm working on. They can produce an impressive quantity of food, they're high in protein, and I happen to like them. If I grow too much to eat fresh, all I have to do is let them form dried seeds inside the pods, and I'll have something I can harvest and store for future use. I have seed for a variety called Ologwe that's grown widely throughout Nigeria. I'm trying to grow food, not challenge myself...so I like to plant crops that are tough, reliable, and heavy producers. I hope I like the taste, because I have a feeling that there will be a lot of them.
I'm still picking string beans, I'll have some of those for supper tonight. Since I'm growing a variety that's popular in warmer climates, I'm confident that I'll get enough to make a lot of tasty stir fries. I have them growing in a 57 cm nursery pot and they seem to be doing well. They're what's generally known as pole beans. You don't see those in the markets anymore, but I remember seeing bins piled high with them in my younger years. They were very inexpensive in those days...what you might call "dirt cheap". I don't think any vegetable is "dirt cheap" anymore. I've seen common green bell peppers selling in supermarkets in recent years for four bucks a pound. I'd better not start talking about the "good old days". Nobody wants to hear about that anymore.
But after I managed to get myself moving, I did manage to do some work outside...pulled some weeds and mixed more soil for the planting bed. The bed is starting to rise up now as I keep adding amended soil back into it. When I've used up all the soil that I removed from the bed, I'll rake the bed smooth, plant seeds, and lay wood chips everywhere but down the middle where the seeds are planted.
My well water has lime in it, so allowing the sun to dry the surface of the soil and constantly wetting it with the hose is not a good way to do things. That causes even more lime buildup in the soil, which is exactly the opposite of what I'm trying to do. I want to lower the pH, not raise it. I've tested that soil out there and, without amendment, it runs close to 8.0. It's hard to grow much in that...especially if it's hot, sunbaked sand with almost no humus.
Tropical and subtropical soils can be like that. The torrential rains of the rainy season leach out all the soluble minerals like nitrate and potassium, and the high temps cause very rapid oxidation of the organic matter. Add to that the local custom of burning the land periodically to keep it clear of brush, and you have a recipe for barren soil.
If the land is allowed to revert to forest, the organic matter builds up. But that can take a very long time. I'm short-circuiting the process and putting it into high gear by making literally tons of compost from brush clearing and control of invasive exotic vegetation. The most important crop I grow is soil.
I've settled on blackeyed peas as the crop to plant in that bed I'm working on. They can produce an impressive quantity of food, they're high in protein, and I happen to like them. If I grow too much to eat fresh, all I have to do is let them form dried seeds inside the pods, and I'll have something I can harvest and store for future use. I have seed for a variety called Ologwe that's grown widely throughout Nigeria. I'm trying to grow food, not challenge myself...so I like to plant crops that are tough, reliable, and heavy producers. I hope I like the taste, because I have a feeling that there will be a lot of them.
I'm still picking string beans, I'll have some of those for supper tonight. Since I'm growing a variety that's popular in warmer climates, I'm confident that I'll get enough to make a lot of tasty stir fries. I have them growing in a 57 cm nursery pot and they seem to be doing well. They're what's generally known as pole beans. You don't see those in the markets anymore, but I remember seeing bins piled high with them in my younger years. They were very inexpensive in those days...what you might call "dirt cheap". I don't think any vegetable is "dirt cheap" anymore. I've seen common green bell peppers selling in supermarkets in recent years for four bucks a pound. I'd better not start talking about the "good old days". Nobody wants to hear about that anymore.
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