Garden aquaculture June 24, 2013
There were some roots to battle but like most ponds mine started with digging a hole.
The hole was then lined with cardboard boxes taken from a store dumpster, a blue tarp found along the side of the road, and finally a pond liner. The liner is part of a poond kit I bought on clearance over the winter. The fake lilypads were part of the kit as well. I also added a small formed plastic part to help form a small waterfall. Shallow areas got a thin layer of pebbles.
I added plants and fish soon after that. There are some real lilypads in the deep area. The more shallow areas got a mix of pond plants and plants usually used in aquariums. Within a day of adding the first plants a toad came in and laid eggs. You can tell they are from a toad, not a frog, because the eggs are laid in a chain instead of a cluster.
Less than a week later thousands of tiny tadpoles hatched.
I found a swamp hibiscus at a local nursery and added it to the edge of the pond as well. One of the secrets to a successful system is having a balance of fish and plants. The plants use the fish wastes which keeps algae overgrowth from becoming a problem.
Since this is a garden feature, as well as a place to grow fish, I am aranging stone around the waterfall. It isn’t completely pretty yet and you can see all of the stuff that makes it run. There are 2 solar powered water pumps and a solar powered air pump. The small solar pannels can be seen sitting on te rocks around the waterfall area. I would like to buy a bigger solar pannel and put a battery in to store the energy so the pond will circulate at night but it is fine for now. The real secret to keeping water oxygenated enough for fish is to have a large surface to volume ratio. That is part of the reason for the large shallow areas in the pond. These areas also give space for shallow water plants to live with just their toes in the water and a safe, warm area for baby fish and tadpoles to hang out.
These are not the fish in my pond, but the grown up version of one species. These golden talapia are a great food fish and capable of surviving a variety of water conditions. I have several babies in the 1-2″ size range (I think there are 7) in my pond. I have also added tropical fish including paradise fish, white skirt tetras, black fin neons, and tiger barbs. The tropical fish will thrive and breed over the summer but when cooler weather gets here I will have to either set up an indoor aquarium, adda a heater to the pond, or sell the originals and their offspring to a fish store. Most tropicals will thrive but eat less during the winter with water temperatures as low as the mid-low 60s. They will slow growth and eat less in cooler conditions so expect that if over wintering tropical fish in an outdoor pond. Temps much below that will kill most tropicals so there does need to be a plan for their safe keeping.
I am still waiting for the lilypads and other plants purchased dormant to grow but the rest of the stones are in place around the edge. I will tweek things a little, especially around the waterfall but for now it is complete. I’m sure I will add more plants and maybe try growing lettuce floating around on top or some other such craziness but I am already enjoying my little pond. It is both an attractive garden feature and a place to grow fish for both food and sale in the aquarium trade. Total for supplies, including pond kit with liner, waterfall liner, water pumps, air pump, stones, plants and fish is less than $200. This is because I buy things on sale or clearance. The pond is about 5’x8′ and 3′ or so deep in the center. It is home to a variety of life already and I can’t wait to see how it changes as nature works its wonders.
Memorial garden May 27, 2013
Planted in loving memory of the trees which once stood here. They are buried here btw 🙂
Early peach May 22, 2013
Not really ripe just yet, but here is one of my first small fruits. Good thing I have friends that know more than me and tild me to take most of the fruit off the tree because this tree was loaded with peaches after breaking dormancy and coming into full bloom back in February. I took off all but 5 for this first year.
Today in pictures April 14, 2013
Strawberry plant with dew on the leaves
The beginnings of my first bkueberries of the year
Yay mushrooms....ugly ones even as mushrooms go but they help break things down so that my plants can use the nutrients.
The view along the moat/ditch
Stevia that truely is in the raw. It has lettuce and peas in the background as well.
Crazy wild blueberries
My not so lovely nemesis. This is a lone star tick. Please note the white dot on the back.
Sorry to my friends and family up in Michigan, still covered in snow...here is my first ripe tomato of the year.
Mustard greens going to seed, peas 5' tall and blooming, figs starting to leaf out....spring has sprung 🙂
The area I was working on today can be seen in the background here
My moat (aka the ditch) and lovely raised planting mound currently starring tulips
Pink tulips out in full effect
The shirt and I were both white when I started
that’s so CORNy
I have 4 types of corn. 2 are heirloom varieties, “festivity” and “truckers favorite”. I would really like to save seed from the festivity because it is a fairly unique variety, having multicolored kernels at the stage when sweetcorn is picked and eaten. Most multicolored corns do not develop color until well past the eating stage. Corn can cross polinate with other varieties from miles away because the pollen is carried on the wind so having pure seed to save and growing other varieties at the same time poses a bit of a challenge. If I have other corn on my tiny property with pollen at the time my festivity corn is being pollenated I will have a hard time getting anything but hybrid seed. There are a couple of different ways to tackle this problem. One is to plant the corn at different times to make sure that the festivity corn is not being pollenated at the same time my other corn is producing pollen. The second way is to cover several ears with bags as they form and do the deed by hand and then recover those ears. I have never tried either method before so I don’t know which is best. When in doubt try everything, right? I am going to try planting just the festivity this week and wait a couple weeks to put in the other varieties. I will probably try hand pollenating a few ears anyway just to help ensure seed purity. Luckily I am not in an agricultural area so there is not as much pollen from outside sources to worry about. Wish me luck because I will not know if it worked for a year and a half! The other corn I bought seed for is hybrid. These 2 varieties are a silver queen hybrid and a peaches and cream hybrid. With hybrids it is nearly impossible to get any seed true to the parent plant but modern hybrids are usually far superior in flavor and production to heirlooms. Corn is one of the few things you will ever hear me say this about. I don’t mind buying some seed every year to have delicious, extra sweet, sweet corn. I am really hoping that my heirloom varieties do well here but planting a diversity seems better to me than just crossing my fingers.
Today’s flower seeds
This is far from being everything for the day, but here are the flower seeds I plan on planting today. Some are being planted for specific purposes. An example of this is the marigolds that will help keep root nemotodes away. Others, such as nasturtium, will hopefully act as a trap plant drawing pests away from my fruit and veggies. Some of these flowers have medicinal uses as well. The purple coneflower is a great example of this. It is also known as echinacea, known worlwide for immune boosting properties. Even the flowers with no specific purpose will add beauty for us humans and a varied food supply for beneficial insects throughout the year. Some insects have a relationship with specific plants such as swallow tail butterflies and pipe vine. Others have more general needs such as european honey bees, which will take just about any nectar or pollen they can get. This makes it important to plant a diversity including native plants in your garden. I have some transplants and veggie seeds planned for today as well…..let’s see how far I get 🙂 I’ll try to remember to update as the day progresses but my regular readers know how that goes sometimes.
Trying concord grapes April 10, 2013
These are not particularily well suited to my area but they are my favorite grape so I am going to give them a try anyway. I bought 2 bareroot plants and put them in the ground while dormant. Now they are coming alive. I better hurry up with some trellis 🙂
Pecans in peat update April 6, 2013
OMG…it actually worked. 2 out of 20+ is not too great but I’m sure others will come along as well. For anyone who hasn’t been following along these are pecans foraged last October from a grove in West Ashley. They were nice full nuts with great flavor so with any luck the babies will be good producers as well.
That silly peach tree April 5, 2013
Remember that crazy peach tree that popped open buds way back in February?
Now I have baby peaches and the other 2 peach trees are just starting to bloom. The trees are all small at this point so numbers are limited, but I should have a couple months of peach harvest this year. When these trees grow up some it is going to be just great.
Abandoned garden greatness March 19, 2013
For anyone who uses the excuse “gardening is too much work” I say your excuse is invalid. These wonderful veggies are from seeds planted at my mother-in-law’s back in December, before I left my husband. I planted the seeds and gave them no other care. The radishes were a bit overgrown and tough but sweet. The lettuce is wonderful and shows no signs of suffering from the lack of care. This is just a small part of the crop I gathered and it was really no work at all. I was not even around and my mother-in-law didn’t even know what it was and did not care for it in anyway. Moral of this story: stop making excuses and just plant something!
Peach tree guild update March 13, 2013
What a little oasis of life. Onions and garlic are the root crops here. They will help keep certain insect pests away. Strawberries and red clover are the ground cover. The clover adds nitrogen to the soil and the strawberries act as a trap crop for some very destructive little moths. Oats and wheat were sown as a cover crop, to be knocked down later to enrich the soil. Mums and bee balm are also a part of the herbacious layer and will help to attract beneficial insects, as will the “Blue Girl” rose bush. There is some russian sage I was given thrown into thr group as well. I also have scattered wild flower seeds here. I can’t wait to see what all comes up as the season progresses 🙂
If at first you don’t sucSEED March 11, 2013
Remember the post about damping off?….well it only got worse. I will spare you the grewsome details but let’s just say “total loss” would be an appropriate term for my baby tomatoes and peppers. Some of the tomato seeds I did not have extra of so I guess I will not be growing them this year. I have restarted Cherokee Purple, Roma, Rutgers, and Chadwicks Cherry varieties and still have the tree tomatoes and italian heirlooms growing. I also restarted all of the peppers and a couple other varieties of hot pepper as well. Now I have Serrano and Ancho (Poblano) in addition to the Early Jalapeno. The sweet peper varieties are Jimmy Nardello’s Sweet Italian, California Wonder, and some sweet baby bells from seeds I saved. I am not sure of the actual variety of the baby bell peppers but I saved seeds from yellow, orange, and red ones.
I managed to get a good population of fruit flies going in addition to the bacterial problem and ended up pitching most of my baby citrus. What I didn’t pitch some nocternal critter was nice enough to destroy for me.
Enough bad news….the Dragon Fruit plants are really starting to take off.
I ate a delicious pineapple and have started the top, based on the directions from last month’s Lowcountry Fruit Growers Society meeting.
Chris Carnevale sent me some “Ruby” blood orange seeds via USPS and I have them and some grapefruit seeds germinating.
I have some sweet potatoes soaking, hopefully depeloping slips for me to plant.
I have a cutting from a LSU fig rooting (hopefully) in some damp peat.
Last but not least, I bought myself a cute garden sign 🙂
2-17-13 Lowcountry Fruit Growers Society (Pineapples) February 18, 2013
Yesterday was the third meeting of the Lowcountry Fruit Growers Society. The main topic with how to grow your own pineapple fruit and a presentation was given by Kathy Woolsey. Kathy has a website of her own http://www.CypressGardner.blogspot.com. She did some great demonstrations and gave tips on how to grow your own pineapples started with a pineapple from the grocery store. She gave some really great tips including how to pick out a good pineapple at the store. I would like to pass on those interesting facts and tips on to you guys, so here goes.
To get a good pineapple at the grocery store make sure it has some yellow on it and make sure you smell the pineapple. It should smell sweet and delicious when you smell it. It is always very important to smell your produce. If it doesn’t smell good it probably won’t taste good either.
If you plan on keeping the top in order to grow a pineapple, make sure that the tops in pretty good shape in has a nice shape to it. Before getting the core of your pineapple, which it helps to have a special tool for, cut off the top of the fruit. After that you can go ahead and eat your pineapple. If you have a pineapple corer that makes it a lot easier.
After that you can break the edges off of it and this will actually expose little roots that are already growing.
Pull off the leaves on about the first inch or so of the stem. You might find roots growing there as well. Set it in some damp soil. The soil should be well-drained soil, like a cactus mix potting soil. Make sure that you do not over water your pineapple or you will cause it to rot.
Keep your pineapple in what might seem like a very small pot for the size of it. This helps get air into the root system, preventing root rot. In about 4 to 6 weeks your pineapple should be starting to get some pretty good roots on it an after 2 to 3 months your pineapple will be ready to be planted into a 1 gallon pot. Fertilize your pineapple with a good water-soluble fertilizer about every 2 weeks. By the time your plant is 6 months old the roots should be filling the pot and ready to go into a 2 gallon pot.
To overwinter a pineapple plan on bringing it inside your home are in a green house or even your garage, as long as it won’t get below freezing. Stop fertilizing during the winter and expect your pineapple’s growth to slow down significantly. By spring your pineapple will probably be ready to go into an even larger pot, but always make sure that the roots actually fill the pot it’s already in before transplanting. You should resume fertilization and place the pineapple in a location with full sun.
Many people are able to get a pineapple to grow but unable to get it to produce fruit. If you seem to be having this problem try using over ripe apple slices or banana peels in the pot and covering it with sheet. The fruit will produce ethylene gas which will cause the plant to go into flowering mode. What’s your pineapple plant produces a flower, make sure that it is outside so the pollinators can get to it. Poor pollination causes small fruit. As your pineapple fruit begins to form and gets larger place bamboo sticks around it to keep it from falling over. For the sweetest fruit, allow the pineapple to fully ripen and turn yellow on plant. After the first fruit, most pineapple plants will produce 2 or 3 smaller pineapples.
The dangers of damping off
I had expected some problems from leaving my seedlings out in the storm a couple weeks ago and now I have many of them falling over dead. They are a sad sight indeed.
One of the cucumber plants is going to make it but the rest are in bad shape. One other one might pull through. The healthy one is in the front and the one that I still have hope for is to the right of it. The others, in the background are basically dead already.
The Roma tomatoes were hit pretty hard too. Only one is left standing and it is looking pretty sad too.
I have lost some others as well but those seem to be the worst off. Most of the peppers look ok and some varieties of tomato seem to be doing very well.
This tray has Rutgers, an improved beefsteak called ‘Delicious’ and Cherokee Purple. They all seem to be doing great.
In this tray I have had some damping off but have thinned out the worst of it. I lost some. Evergreen, Big Rainbow, and Brandywine tomatoes, but except one pot of Evergreen there is still a tomato plant in each pot.
Damping off is caused by bacteria which can come from unsterilized pots, potting soil, or rain water. Most seedlings will be strong enough to withstand it once they are a couple inches tall. I did not know rain could cause such a problem and thought it would be good for them. Lesson learned. I guess I will be starting more Roma tomatoes this week.
The potato plan February 9, 2013
I posted the process of creating a bed for a double row of potatoes a couple weeks ago and, after a little research, I plan to plant companions in the bed tomorrow. Plants from the cabbage family seem to grow well with potatoes, so most of my cold weather veggies can be planted in the middle of the potato rows. This includes cabbage, kale, and broccoli. In warmer weather beans and corn both do well with potatoes. Perhaps I will plant beans here as the cabage family is finishing off in late spring.
Some plants help to repel Colorado Potato Beetles. These include tansy, nasturtium, coriander, catnip, flax, and lamium. I already have nasturtium seeds and will sow them directly into the soil after the danger of frost has passed. Nasturtiums also repel a wide range of other pests. One possible problem is that they prefer poor soil. I have not ammended this bed with any compost or manure so hopefully it will be poor enough for them.
If I plant beans and corn here at the same time as the nasturtium the vines, which generally stay under 2′ tall, should grow up the corn. Eventually the beans may over take them but that is ok. Nasturtium leaves and flowers are edible and delicious in salads. I may add some flax, catnip, or coriander as well but I do not have a definate plan to do so. I do not really use coriander in my cooking, nor do I have a cat or care for catnip tea. Flax interests me but I know there is not the space for much. Still, I would like to try my hands at making linen and do use flaxseed oil. These are all things to consider when planting your companions. Each plant should be useful to you as well as groupings being planted to benefit each other.
You can also interplant crops that will grow quickly and be finished before potato digging time. Radishes, scallions, spinach, and leaf lettuce can all be good choices for this. Since I am not living on the property to be looking after such crops I do not plan to do this but if you are planting in the yard where you live and want the most productive space possible give it a try. one nice thing with potatoes is that they store well in place so if a longer standing crop is planted over them you can just wait to dig the potatoes. This does leave them in a place where root pests can get at the though so keep that in mind when planting.
Some plants should not be planted near or after one another due to similar nutrient needs or similar disease and pest problems. For potatoes avoid planting after or before tomatoes, eggplant and peppers. A few others are rumored to increase the risk of blight as well so avoid cucumbers, raspberries, sunflowers, pumpkin, squash (both summer and winter) and tomatoes for this reason. Tomatoes and potatoes seem to be especially good as passing pests and diseases back and forth so absolutely avoid planting them near each other or planting one after the other.
Finally starting my tree tomatoes February 8, 2013
Ever since seeing a picture of a tomato plant trellised to look like a tree I have been excited to try one of them. All it took was a quick search on e-bay and I was able to find “Giant Italian Tree Tomato” seeds from e-bay seller aprilshowers2010. This was months ago so I do not know if there are more left or not. You can try contacting the seller I got mine from or just do a search of your own and see what comes up. The seller also sent along a couple of bonus seed packets, one labeled “Italian Heirloom” and the other “Roma” but I will not be planting the roma variety right now since I already have 6 pots with roma seeds from a different source. I am going to start the Italian Heirloom and Giant Italian Tree tomatoes tonight.
To be clear the “tree tomatoes” are not a tree. They are simply an indeterminate variety of tomato that grows very large and can be trellised to look like a tree. I am growing quite a variety of tomatoes already but this one still excites me. The seller sent a sheet of “tomato basics” with tomato germinating, fertilizing, and pruning tips.
These will be getting a late start but there is still plenty of time left before spring. I’m not sure how many more seedlings I can reasonably take care of in a travel trailer but hopefully at least 12 more since I plan on starting 6 pods each of the Italian Heirloom and Giant Italian Tree tomatoes.
Maybe it was a bad idea…
To leave my warm weather seedlings out in the storm last night. I have been bringing them in if it is supposed to drop below 45F at night and leaving them out if it is not. The well water here smells like sulfer and I figured the rain water would be good for them. Now I am thinking I should have just collected some in buckets for them. It did stay warm enough but it rained harder than I had anticipated, creating a problem I have never had to deal with before. The splash deposited soil on the stems and leaves causing some to fall over and others to just look rough. I tried cleaning them up this morning by spritzing them with a water bottle. This did very little to help so I did my best to remove some of the caked on soil with my fingers. They all still look a little rough but I think most will survive. Tonight is supposed to get down to 39F so I have brought them in for the night. Here is what they look like now.
cucumber
tomato
On the good side I know that the strong will survive and I want good, strong plants. Time will tell just how much damage I have done. In nature I suppose this is part of the natural selection process so with any luck this will actually pay off.
My tray of cold weather seedlings is living outside full time now and most have been able to withstand the freezes we had last week with no harm.
The spinach (bloomsdale long standing) although quite cold hearty germinated poorly. I think it might have enjoyed warmer soil for germination and in the future I will start it on a heating mat if the temps are low. I had trouble getting the broccoli going as well, but I already knew it prefered warmer conditions than the cabbage, collards, and other winter veggies. The calabrese variety of broccoli seems to withstand cold better than the di cicco, but some of both have survived being frozen. This Sunday I hope to get their bed ready and put them in the ground. I plan on starting more broccoli and some cauliflower in a bed a few weeks from now but first I have to build the beds. Earlier in the week I cleared the trees from the area where these beds will be. I will do as much as I can this Sunday. It is quite a process to go from raw woods to vegetable beds and takes time, especially working alone. As always, I have planned a week of work for just one day. Wish me luck and feel free to stop in and lend a hand if you are in the area.
Growing ginger February 3, 2013
Ginger is supposed to be pretty easy. I decided to give it a try and wanted to share. This is going to be another one of those posts that will require some updates as things progress but here it is. I am basing what I am doing on what I have read and will be growing my ginger in a pot since it will not take frost or freezing at all. I might try some in the ground once the cold snaps have passed. It might just make it if I get it established over the summer and mulch it deeply for winter. I will let you know but for now back to growing in a pot.
First thing you need to do is go to the grocery store and find a nice plump chunk of ginger root. I am lucky to have found organic ginger, but there is no reason not to use whatever ginger you can find in the store. This is by far the easiest way to get a start on the type of ginger used for cooking and also medicine. There are many types of ginger that are more ornamental and lovely to grow if you like. I am more interested in growing food so the kind from the grocery store is the kind I want.
Pick out a nice plump section with buds on it where new growth will emerge.
a close up of what the buds look like
I have read a few different thing about what the next step should be. Based on all of the reading I decided to let mine soak in water for a day. If yours isn’t organic you may want to wash it, soak it and wash it again before planting. This is because it may have a growth retardant on it which needs to be washed off. If you do not get it off you might not get it to grow at all or it might be slow. I do not really trust my organic ginger not to have anything on it plus it seemed like a good idea to soak it so it wouldn’t be so dried out on the surface. Mine had a few buds so I broke it up a little to make separate plants. I am starting them in one pot and from what I have read they like, or at least don’t mind, being crowded.
Lay them horizontally with the buds facing up. They do not need deep soil so you can use a shallow container or only fill the pot part way. I am using a mix of my native soil ammended with peat and a little bonemeal. My native soil is very dark and rich looking but sandy. Ginger likes well drained soil that is evenly moist with plenty of organic matter so the extra peat will help with that and my native soil is sandy enough to drain well. If your native soil is heavy, clay soil you may want to add large amounts of compost and some sand to the mix. Be careful adding sand to clay heavy soil because you could end up making some primative concrete instead of goot potting soil. Clay needs enough organic matter added to be loose and airy, then you can add some sand to it. If you have really heavy soil you might be better off not using your native soil at all. You will really just have to judge this for yourselves though.
Cover the ginger with a small amount of soil. It likes to be near the surface and planting too deep can cause problems so I left mine peaking out a bit.
Water well from the top so any air pockets have soil washed into them. After that just keep soil evenly moist. In warm weather set the pot out in dappled shade. Add mulch to the top if the soil is drying out too quickly. Keep inside durning cold weather. They are a forest floor plant and like some shade so you shouldn’t need a grow light. I don’t have any other tips on this since it is my first try. I’ll keep you posted on the progress.
Revival 