It's Onion Planting Time

It's time to get those onion sets or transplants in the ground.  Above you can see my yellow and purple onion sets, ready to be covered over with an inch of soil.  

When planting onion sets you will come across mildewed bulbs (above left).  These should be discarded.  Choose bulbs that are clean and solid feeling (above right).  A small (~1/4") sprout coming from a bulb is acceptable, but bulbs with long sprouts already on them (above middle) aren't a good choice.


If you follow the label instructions on the sets, onions are pretty maintenance free.  However, if you desire more information here's a great resource for onion growers:  http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/publications/onions/oniongro.html

Bed Preparation

The new home place already has two raised beds and for expediencies sake I will plant in them this year.  Unfortunately, they are in the Bermuda grass lawn and are already infested with the stuff.  Once a bed is infested with Bermuda grass, it's almost impossible to eradicate without the use of harsh chemical herbicides (which I refuse to use).  The plan is to build new beds in a Bermuda grass free area of the property and transition to those as possible.

The beds had lain fallow for the previous year and were overrun with weeds.  The upper bed was filled with a forest of 3-4' tall weeds.  I pulled out all large weeds by hand and then cleaned up the surface with a hula hoe.  The hula hoe is a simple blade that travels just under the soil surface and cuts off the weeds at the root.  Because it doesn't dig deeply into the surface, it can be used during the growing season right up to the edge of crops.

The lower bed was especially overrun with Bermuda grass.  I burned it off to dethatch it, then cleaned up the surface with the hula hoe.  After a few days, I went back and used the hula hoe to remove anything that remained green.

Dig In! Food and Farming Festival

This year's festival is being held in Fayetteville on March 2nd and 3rd. It will include gardening classes, films, and a seed swap. Be there or be square.

http://diginfestival.com/

Excerpted from the website:

"Friday, March 2, 2012
5:30-6:30 p.m. Opening Reception & Supporter Appreciation
Reception details & site TBA. Ticketed Event
Ticket Booth Open

7p.m.
Festival Welcome & Film: Truck Farm (50 min)

8p.m.
Film: Food Fight (72 min)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Saturday, March 3, 2012
9 a.m.
Coffee & Treats: Free Info-Fair Opens
Tastings and Treats may be sampled as they are added throughout the day.

9:30 a.m. Festival Welcome & Panel Discussion:
Hunger in the Land of Plenty: Cultivating a Sustainable Food System
(Sponsored by Feed Fayetteville) The panel discussion is free, and all are welcome.
The family-friendly film What’s on Your Plate (76 min) will show concurrently as an alternative activity. (Film repeats at 2:30 p.m.)


11:00 a.m. Concurrent Events:
Class: Growing Nutrient Dense Produce with Calvin Bey
Class: Good Bugs/Bad Bugs with Amber Tripodi & Sam Kim
Class: Growing & Using Herbs Karyn Zaremba (time is tentative)
Film: King Corn (91 min)
Film: Urban Roots (93 min) (repeats in p.m.)
Kid’s Area: Drawing Tables
Info Fair Continues

1:00 pm Concurrent Events:
Class: Beginner Gardening & Composting with Jane Maginot & Dana Smith
Class: Backyard Chickens with Mariah & Ira White
Class: Cooking in Season with Chef Tuesday Eastlack
Film: Local Farm Tours on Film (50 min total)
Film: Seed Swap Ozarks (72 minutes)
Kid’s Area: Drawing Tables
Info Fair Continues

2:00-5pm FCGC Free Seed Swap!

2:30 p.m. Concurrent Events:
Class: Beginner Backyard Beekeeping (teacher TBD)
Class: No-Till Farming: how to create a perfectly natural and nutrient-rich soil to grow your plants with Patrice Gros
Class: Cooking in Season with Chef David Lewis
Film: What’s on Your Plate (great for families- 76 min)
Film: Food Fight (72 min) (shows on Friday p.m. also)
Kid’s Area: Drawing Tables
Info Fair Continues

4 p.m. Concurrent Events:
Class: Seed Saving with Herb Culver
Class: Creating an Edible Landscape with Leigh Wilkerson
Class: Basic Food Preservation Ideas (time is tentative) with Lucy Kagan
Film: Economics of Happiness
Film: Queen of the Sun (82 min) (repeats in p.m.)
Info Fair Continues

5:30 p.m. Concurrent Events:
Film: Food Fight (72 min) (also plays Friday evening)
Films-Double Feature: Truck Farm (50 min) & Greenhorns (50 min)
Info Fair Continues

7:30 p.m. Concurrent Events:
Film: Queen of the Sun (82 min)(also plays at 4 p.m.)
Films: Urban Roots (93 min) (also plays at 11 a.m.)
Info Fair draws to a close…

9 p.m. Festival Concludes

Dig In! is Friday, March 2 & Saturday March 3, 2012. Please note this schedule is a tentative DRAFT! Times & some events could change. Stay tuned to www.diginfestival.com for updates. Location: Global Campus Center on NE corner of Fayetteville Square (unless otherwise noted)
Individual event tickets available at the door. Suggested donation for each class/film you attend is $5 (more if you can/less if you can’t). We are operating on donations and all funds go into the festival. Weekend Supporter Passes start at $30 via website and at the door. Please consider being a supporter! We want everyone to be able to attend— and also hope for enough financial support to pay for the festival and do this again next year. Seed Swap, Panel Discussion & Info-Fair are free!"

Awesome chicken house for sale!

The new home place already has a chicken house on it, so I need to sell the one I built two years ago.  It's a two level chicken house with four nest boxes and ramp. A 4'x8' upper level contains four nest boxes and windows to allow ventilation. A ramp leads to the lower section that is 4'x12' and allows the birds to scratch around while still protected from predators. The end opens up to allow full access for cleaning. A covered, enclosed storage area for feed and whatnot is above the upper section. I will deliver within a reasonable distance of Fayetteville and the first $400 gets it. 

Here's a blog post with more information about the chicken house:

http://www.backyardfreshfoods.com/2010/07/chicken-houses.html

Long time, no post

Sorry for the lack of posting.  We have been in a period of transition, but the first phase is nearing the end game. We have sold our house at which our gardening adventures have taken place for the last 8 1/2 years.  We are closing in on a deal for a new homestead on 5 acres in the country.  Once we are settled in this spring, I look forward to chronicling the process of turning it into a productive garden.  Fruit trees, bushes, vines, raised beds, chickens, turkeys, an attached greenhouse, and more are in store so stay tuned...

Gutter Gardening

An interesting idea for those with limited space or bad soil.  Would also be a great idea for people with bad backs.

http://juneauempire.com/stories/072508/nei_309624417.shtml

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Second Dispatch from the Insect War Front

The Good:

Flowering mint covered in pollinators 

Herbs that are allowed to flower are generally very attractive to beneficial insects.  Earlier in the year, my flowering basil was inundated with beneficials.  Now it's the mint that is bringing them in.

Syrphid fly on flowering mint

Large syrphid fly (wasp mimic) on flowering mint

The mint is loaded with butterflies and syrphid flies (bee and wasp mimics) that serve as pollinators.  Some syrphid flies also have predatory larvae.

The Bad:

Black blister beetle eating tomato leaves

About a week ago, I found about 20 of these black blister beetles on the lower leaves of my tomato plants.  Blister beetles eat leaves and can defoliate a plant if their population is left unchecked.  They are called blister beetles because, when disturbed, they release a chemical blister agent that can cause chemical burns.  Because of this, I am not hand picking them off the plants.  This is the first time I've ever had a problem with this pest.  I've stalked them each morning and given them a quick shot of the organic insecticide NeemII.  That seems to be taking care of the problem just fine.

Cut worm beneath tomato plants

While volunteering at the heritage gardens at Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park, I hoed up this cutworm beneath the tomato plants.  Cutworms encircle plant stalks and can cut them off at the base or eat the outer layer which will cause wilting and death.  If you have a cutworm problem, wrap a small skirt of aluminum foil around the base of your plants and that will exclude them.  I don't have many cutworm issues, because I let my chickens dig through my soil at the end of the season and eat anything they find.  If you don't have chickens, removing any organic material such as mulch and turning the soil over will help.

Squash bug eggs on the underside of a butternut squash leaf

Two mating squash bugs on a butternut squash vine

Closeup of a squash bug on a butternut squash leaf

Squash bugs can be a real problem.  They reproduce rapidly and in large numbers can suck a vine dry.  In the picture directly above, you can see the piercing mouth part with a drop of plant juice on it.  Despite the pictures, squash bugs haven't caused a huge problem for me this year.  I haven't seen any nymphs (small, gray versions of the adults) and the most adults I've seen at one time is two.  I regularly check the undersides of the leaves for eggs.  When I find them, I scrape them off with my thumbnail.  I spray any adults I see with NeemII.

Tomato fruitworm on a Roma tomato plant

Tomato fruitworm

I found this tomato fruitworm on one of my plants this morning.  I picked it off and smashed it.  I haven't found any of the characteristic fruit damage or any other caterpillars.  If I start to find more, I will use a treatment of Bacillus thuringiensis (BT).  BT is an organic treatment of bacteria that only affects butterfly and moth caterpillars.

Japanese beetle on an okra leaf

I find 4 or 5 Japanese beetles eating my okra leaves each morning.  A quick spritz of NeemII and they are gone.

The Good and Ugly:

Wheel bug on an okra leaf

I have two of these rather large (1.5") insects living in my okra.  They are called wheel bugs and are easily identified by the spiky wheel on their backs.  These are GOOD insects to have around.  They are related to the squash bug, but instead of sucking juices from your plants, they use the large piercing mouth part to suck the juices out of other insects.  They are voracious predators of crop damaging insects, but if disturbed, they can deliver a painful bite.  So if you find them in your garden, leave them alone and be thankful they are there.

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