Garden Tea

Went to this workshop today facilitated by permaculture enthusiast Jordan Fink http://jordanfink.com/ about soil health and creating compost tea. Some of the soil around my U District home contains a happy abundance of earthworms. Why make compost tea? My roommates wanted to know when I got home. Why bother?

Just like in my gut, good bacteria pits against the bad. Left as is, the powdery mildew on our mint will just persist. But I want to be able to harvest that stuff, so what will happen if I treat it with compost tea medicine? Perhaps together we may:

Compost Tea . Com - Crowd out the disease-causing microbes & provide nutrients. Maybe there will be no affect this season but over time the health of these plants can improve.

I think this compost medicine tea is worth the time and effort, and the 12-hour power aerator. A fun little activity to do with the kids at work, in the very least.

Fine Gardening - Missed the workshop? This article tells you how to make it (and below is the handout that was provided)

Class Digest

Because I subscribe to herbdigest I read herbalist's posts about various ailments and remedies, questions and answers. I probably read a quarter of what gets sent around because the conversations aren't presently relevant to me. I'm also on the WA-AHG list and continue to find out about upcoming learning opportunities. I read about them and think how interesting and worthwhile they'd be, but how financially expensive, and the fact that I can be studying these things on my own... Just can't seem to make the commitment yet.

Not in online learning courses. http://herbcollege.com/main.asp

Not in local clinical courses. http://www.clinicalherbalistprogram.com/
http://www.bastyr.edu/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=63

Not at Dandelion Botanical. http://www.dandelionbotanical.com/

Not good enough for me. Apparently. Except I don't have something to show for these interests of mine. Except this damn blog.

Green Eggs &

Tonight I went to a PM class at Ballard Library called "Keeping Chickens In the City" hosted by Seattle Free School. The facilitator was awesome and laid back. She brought green eggs to give us with St Patricks Day stickers on them.

Although I will not be able to start this project until after I have moved somewhere more permanant. I need to save around $400 and start scavanging materials for the coop. In the meantime I can visit places like Portage Bay Grange or Seattle Farm Co-op looking for answers. Two things that I walk away from this class is the need to be more aware of "neighbor relations". I've never really had good neighbor relations in Seattle, I've always experienced the bare minimum. Also to avoid imposing on neighbor's interpretations of noise ordinances I need to carefully pick where I next live.

Also her 2-page handout has directed me to some books and websites I'm not ready to look at. Except for Feather Site. OMG there are so many pictures of different breeds that can be found here, for example the Araucana:

Oh the different kinds of chickens.

Pruning For Prunes

Went to another workshop at Swansons this morning co-organized by City Fruit, promoting the production and maintenance of urban orchards and fruit trees in Seattle. I went so I could learn tips for caring for this very old plum tree on the property that hasn't been maintained for who knows how long.

Each year in the Spring, fruit trees should be pruned back to no more than a quarter of the total canopy surface. This is to promote fruit production and health, for purposes of increasing air circulation and greater light access. Branches situated at 45 degrees (rather than inward, vertical, horizontal or downward) are optimal for spaciousness. As can be seen in this photo the branching is heavy and mostly positioned horizontal or downward. The canopy is very dense.

Which makes a lot of sense because it's an old tree, and surely has a complex root system. The complex crown exists to balance it out. As can be seen in this photo, though, the tree was trained well in the beginning, there is good structure coming from the trunk. But at some point the maintenance was let go.

My task will be prune back the "4 D's", as Ingela the instructor put it, that is those parts of the branches dead, dying, diseased or deranged. All of the unnecessary complexity getting in the way of light, air and space. Cutting smartly, though, so I don't damage the tree by creating too many wounds. Carefully now. In the middle of March the moon will be in descent (waning) in the Saggitarrius constellation (warmth/fruit) which seems like a good time to battle the plums.

Grapes & Berries in Aries

We entered the Aries constellation today / warmth / fruit. And so appropriately, I went to workshop at Swansons this morning called "Grapes and Berries in Your Garden", and have walked away with some informational handouts and increased excitement for caretaking the berries and grapes currently established, and perhaps adding a few plants this year. Now is the time to plant bare roots. With the enormous rhodendron hedgerow shading out half the garden I will probably add currents, which are able to tolerate some shade. Other berries are said to need at least 6 hours of sun, which some beds in this garden cannot provide. Soon I will need to prune the table grapes.

 At the workshop I learned that in order to maximize sunlight, foliage should be cut back. Also the rows should be planted North/South. Unfortunately for these grapes, they are planted among a rhodedendron hedge East/West. Since I have to go in to prune, and can barely find the canes anyway, I'll be cutting back some of the rhodedendron.

For berries, we have one flowering current, one gooseberry, two blueberries (do not self-fertilize, so need at least two kinds of plants nearby each other) 

and lot's of ever-bearing strawberries (one main crop in June and smaller crop end of summer)!!! I found out contrary to my previous understanding, that strawberries, too, prefer lot's of sun, and like roses and other berries, should be watered from below - don't water from above and avoid fungal problems.

 I love this photo because it makes the strawberries seem like they have super intense root systems. What you are seeing here is a need for me to trim back some runners. I really need to clean up these strawberry beds because more space is better for productivity. One farm I worked on let the strawberries go and it because so dense in there, nothing much came out. The farmer decided to take out the entire bed altogether, but better maintenance would have ensured more crop. I'm one to talk. I should not have all that foliage as seen above. Strawberries are supposed to be "mowed down" after harvest to an inch to overwinter. I did this to some extent last fall. Since I'll be removing the border beds to plant alliums and nitrogen-fixers I'll finish the job soon. Months later. Today I will clean up the strawberries, tomorrow I will prune the grapes. Full Moon is on it's way.

Bud Union

Went to seminar at Swanson's Nursery this AM regarding rose care. I have left with some excellent handouts and inspiration for loving the roses around this property better. Terri Hyat has convinced me that if I give them enough love I can watch them produce a couple hundred flowers over the upcoming season. I do not even know what varieties these are, nor does Dita, but I now have a better understanding for classification. There are shrub roses in the back, which are bushy, lower growing, which are apparently easy to care for. Honestly I haven't attended to them once since I've moved in. There are Grandiflora (a cross between Hybrid Teas and Floribundas) right outside my window, which I have harvested from and guided into dormancy. They grew to be over 5 feet this year, and produced large, full single and cluster flowers well into October. There is a climber rose plant, that leapt over the stone steps down the side of the house, and culminated in lot's of rose hips. I harvested them too late, though, so didn't get much from that.

Right outside my window...

There is some lush foliage...

Some of it's diseased and needs to be trimmed, but the buds are pushing their way forth. The roses are waking up and I'm getting excited to prune them soon. I believe the correct time to do this will be March 1st, when the moon is in ascent and in the constellation of Gemini (flower). Why not? It also happens to be my father's bday that day, so I'll let him know I pruned the roses.

Terri said if I do everything right I will have more beauty than last year, so I guess that means I have something to look foward to.