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Tampilkan postingan dengan label wild. Tampilkan semua postingan

Rabu, 06 Juli 2016

Aquaponics Transplanting weeds wild rocket

Sometimes I wonder what normal people might do if the weeds in their front lawn were getting so high that they were lowering local property values, but they were too delicious to cut down.

Our front "lawn" is made up entirely of weeds that we normally diligently mow to a controlled inch or so in height. This year, quite a bit of it is wild rocket.

Mowing the lawn swells amazing.

Weve been enjoying it so much this year, that I decided that I should grow some in a more controlled fashion. Perhaps even in the new aquaponics grow bed. Im not sure if weeds will enjoy the happy plant habitat of a constant flood grow bed. Even if they dont go into the grow bed, Ill at least grow it behind my shed or something. Somewhere out of sight anyway.

The problem is, the front lawns collection is going to seed. I want the seed, but its not quite ready to collect. So they are getting too tall and ratty to pretend they are simply between mows. That coupled with the fact that by a bizarre twist of circumstance, in the last few weeks, we went from a one car household to a three car household, all makes the front of our house seemed a little neglected. The natural habitat of cars you dont use is of course, the front lawn.

The result is I collected a bucket full of weeds.












And transplanted them to my aquaponics system.

Its quite an odd feeling seeing such fully developed weeds in an aquaponics system.

It might have been a first if not for the fact that a few years ago, I lovingly transplanted something that I thought was a lettuce, and even more lovingly watched it grow into a thistle.



I just looked up "thistle" and it turns out they are food as well.



120 Things in 20 years learns something new every day. (at least)






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Selasa, 14 Juni 2016

about pests


I love my grandparents...I really do but I HATE going to their house.  They have a nice one story four bedroom suburban house with two good sized yards full of mature trees (some which produce fruit.)  The inside is completely remodeled to be energy efficient and their grass is absolutely beautiful.  Their front yard has a new stone retainer with beautiful roses in it.  Yes...it is beautiful indeed.

They complain about this place constantly but that is besides the point.  Their yard STINKS!  Believe it or not, the terrible stench isnt from yard fertilizer either.  It is from multiple bug traps.  The one that smells the most is a wasp trap that hangs on some branches.

I stumbled upon a page (not using StumbleUpon for once) and found this interesting page that told me how pests were the best pest control.  Oh how I wish I bookmarked that page.  I have always been a firm believer in not using chemicals because of their unwanted consequences but man...now knowing that they can cause other pests to flourish?  Why didnt I think about that?


Example...fleas suck especially if we have pets.  How many of us thought about using flea predators to control them?  Ants, ground beetles, and spiders are the top enemy for fleas.  Of course...we often spray for spiders and ants.  And a lot of things we dont mind having around eat spiders and ants (birds, mantis...all those cool things.)


As far as my grandparents go...what controls wasps?  First I must say that we do have native hummingbirds but their numbers are few.  I have a good feeling that they arent responsible for most of the food produced in their garden.  I also must say that these traps are set because both grandparents have an allergy to wasp/bee stings.  A few other truths...they dont draw birds to their yard because they eat their plums and spray for those wonderful things called spiders.

Birds and Spiders are huge wasp predators.

I imagine it doesnt help that the city sprays for mosquitoes every year and it is believed that this spray has limited the population of insect eating birds.

Many people (not earth friendly people) will try to eliminate them all.  Remember...some bugs will flourish (like roaches) if this method takes place.

This doesnt mean I like these guys in my house though.  No...my kitchen window and front door always contain some sort of mint.  Ants hate mint for whatever reason (oh but I LOVE that smell.)  Dont like mint?  There are other ways to repel ants.  As for spiders, I have a thing for citrus based cleaners which spiders hate.  For the record, most insects hate citrus. Citronella is hated by...almost everything I hate (mosquitoes, spiders, flies, fleas....)

So just think about that before you go for chemicals.  Are you really getting rid of the problem or are you just causing more?
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Selasa, 07 Juni 2016

Finding wild gooseberries ✉ rare plant shipment ✉ ␘PAWPAWS SASSAFRAS!!!!␘

Pawpaw - fairchild/zimmerman
 What a looker.... lol

Ahh well, theyre alive.

We just received our order of 5 pawpaws, 1 Cornelian cherry and 1 Sassafras tree. All seem to be alive but time will tell. While we are in the agriculture business to sell food, we are also collectors of rare species, efficiency and economics be damned.

Variety is the spice of life so they say, and I tend to agree withem.
The sassafras tree is something Ive always thought about since I started gardening. When you enjoy cooking and growing your own food, you inevitably start wandering down the path of potential, and for some reason its always those plants with such a troubled history I crave to own so badly. Im not sure if its the allure or just our nightmarish history of how we treat plants (/things) plaguing me, putting my bulldog determination into high gear, trying to order/acquire every species possible before its gone or screwed up with genetic modification.

The Pawpaws we managed to get our hands on were as follows.

1. P.A Golden
2. Fairchild-Zimmermin
3. O Taytoo
4. Davis
5. Green river



Pawpaw Canada

Rare plants Ontario

Wild gooseberry

I thought I would take a trip around the property and see what I can find since spring is in the air and its never to early for a curious mind. Ive already come across some fossils of bone turning into quartz, dragon fly fossils, ancient crinoid blooms stuck in carboniferous limestone, a massive boulder with a rainbow-like quartz vein some 5 inches in width and 8 feet in length. There are heirloom apples on the hill and beach plums separating the pastures. Chaga lay on the fallen birch tree in the back, and heritage raspberry bushes fill every nook and cranny. An absolute smorgasbord of taste, history and experience.
Red gooseberry - poormans
 (poormans gooseberry potted last year)
You can see on the lower part of the plant where the old growth has weathered and turned a dark brown/maroon. This area will be filled with thorns.

( unless you have a newer variety that is semi-thorn less e.g "captivator")
 
Red gooseberry Ontario Canada
 ? This is a red gooseberry ( poor mans ) that I potted up last year.?


Wild gooseberry leaves
The leaves have almost a maple leaf like appearance and once you know the plant you will be seeing it everywhere. They have a strong stem and will hold the weight of the berries. Sometimes the plant can look intimidating, covered in thorns from stem to berry, but even then the fruit is still edible.... with proper preparation.


Wild raspberry canes
Old raspberry bushes by a drive shed, we will see what they have to offer after all these years.

Wild gooseberry stalk - old growth
 Wild goosebery bottom/middle stem.
Raspberry cane ( heritage )

Gooseberry plant identification

Wild gooseberry bush hidden. By the time the fruit is ready no-one would know where this bush is. Spring is probably the best time to go hunting for things like this

Gooseberry patch hidden
 Gooseberry patch


Gooseberry wild variety
I shot this with my iPhone as I didnt have my camera at the time, but I just wanted to show how mixed in these gooseberries actually are. This is right in the lawn, If I didnt know any better I would just be running this thing over with the mower or letting the goats nibble at it. 
( its the blurry plant in the middle)



Old 1850s double barn

Spring flowers






Purple spring flowers

 SPRING!

mini Rockhound dig Ontario
Old rock pile Ive been going through, found some outstanding specimens but Ive packed them all for now, more on this with another blog.
Catnip
Your cats favorite pastime, The infamous,...... CATNIP!.

strangely, some people find it smells funny, I kinda like it. Ive yet to make a tea from it, curious, as  Ive heard that certain concentrations, in certain people, will actually give experiences similar to marijuana. I have not had the time to experiment with this but since its just outback it seems a good a time as any.

Here goes......

 BOTTOMS UP!



catmint

gooseberries hidden













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