Compost Tweak

No farm work Today.  Heard back from Lilli and the future child labor session - more on this in a week or so.

Wait.... is that....?
Yes it is!

Wrong Tool for the Job

Cleared so I can prep the beds and get some compost out there

I have leaves all over the place, from the Liquid Amber, Crape Myrtle and Chinese Flame.  They've been accumulating for months and I don't have enough greens to just simply compost them at this time.  Of course I couldn't throw them away either, that would be too easy and leaves are valuable in a garden... when you need them.

The solution was to mulch/shred them up and bag for later use.  My shredder needs a replacement blade so I asked my Dad if I could borrow his Toro yard vacuum/blower which also shreds leaves as it sucks them up.  My Dad loves this thing, it's quite literally one of his most prized yard tools.  He loves it so much that he bought me one a few years ago (thanks Dad) but I was never happy with the tool and donated it to my family's vacation home (where he can use it).  Anyway, I thought I'd try it again because this seemed like the perfect job for it - it failed, again.  It's just not strong enough, I'd have to go over an area 3 or 4 times before it would pick them all up.  It's loud and requires a cord and it's just a pain in the ass.

I did this a total of 2 times

After 10 minutes I gave up and went to plan C (which should have been plan B): Lawn shredding with the mower.  This always works great, it requires a bit more physical work but it's worth it and in a strange way, fun.  You rake up the leaves in trash cans, spread it over the lawn and then run the mower over them.  Easy.  If you are lucky and your grass is still growing in the fall or winter it's also an easy way to pre-mix compost ingredients.

After an hour I had the worst of the leaves up, spread, shredded and bagged.  Leaves are still falling so I will need to do it again in a couple weeks, but to a much lesser extent.

With the leaves cleared I can torch the grass and weeds

2 Down...

Only had time to put in about an hour Today, busy with the real job.  I chose to prep a couple of the back East/West beds.  Not too much was needed as I'm not going to dig the soil but rather leave the existing soil structure as much in place as possible.  I raked up the sides that had eroded a bit and then topped off each row with about 1-2" of my homemade compost.  Roughly raked it out flat and done - ready for planting.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to take 1-2 hours and get the leaves mulched and bagged for future composting.

Lost & Found

Miss me?

I found a pair of sunglasses in my raise beds below some pepper plants.  They are BCBG which makes them Women's glasses I think, but I don't recognize them.  This post will be sent to the women/girls/chicks that I can recall being in the farm in the past 8 months or so.

Grub Disposal and Processing Unit

"unit" doesn't really make sense,... I mean, I guess it could work if you think of it as a resource of a larger operation, like "We have three separate units for processing waste" - that is so ambiguous that it could really describe anything "waste processing" related.  I will pretend I'm a large enterprise and will stick with "unit" because it makes a better title.

BTW, before I forget: Yes, grubs are benneficial to the composting process and I don't pick them out from a still decomposing pile, it's only when I do my final screening that I hand pluck them out (their work is done)


I know, what am I talking about, right?  Yesterday I covered my grub problem and discussed not only my typical disposal methods, but more importantly the problem I have with Chui eating their guts.
Then it hit me: Neighbor Pam has 10 chickens and I remember reading that chickens go fuckin' nuts over grubs - it's perfect!  I can feed the chickens (whose eggs I do occasionally enjoy), dispose of grubs without exposing Chui to by product, I just toss them over the wall (super easy) and my favorite - it's a terrible way to DIE!
Here's a video of me tossing a few handfulls (yes, I touch them) over the wall, as I zoom in you can see a couple get shredded by the savage fowl:

Nice new pile, thermometer is in place and I plan to log
the temps over the next couple weeks so I can
plot the progress

I processed more compost, cleared out one pile and rebuilt it with fresh stuff pulled from the garden (peppers, weeds, arugula, etc.)  Washed down a bit and already feeling better about how things are looking in the compost area.  The fields (ha!) are looking better and better too.

Compared to the pictures from less than a week ago it's really shaping up.

Makin' room

Compost area is impacted, overwhelmed

Cleaning up the yard is generating a lot of waste, organic, compostable waste and I can't stand to throw it out.  Problem is just like the rest of the yard my compost operations have stalled out, I was stuck with 4 separate piles/bins in various stages of completion, all needing attention.  Working compost is a back buster so I only put in 2-3 hours on it.

This would be considered a small-medium size grub

As I've mentioned before, neglected compost can become infested with beetle grubs; disgusting, squishy, fat, blak-goo filled giant grubs.  I hate them, I hate seeing them, I hate reaching in to compost and spearing one with my finger and feeling it's guts coat my finger and worst of all - I hate when they grow into beetles and eat my trees and crops.

Collection and extermination is punishment for not staying on top of my compost duties.  Killing is typically accomplished by throwing (one at a time) against the wall where they explode on impact - I've also talked about this before.  However I've learned that Chui likes to eat their guts and then later, usually.... around 3-4am likes to vomit it back up in the house somewhere.  No more wall smashing (well maybe one more time, I want to try capturing it on high speed camera)

Here's a video of about an hours worth of collected grubs.  Sick.

Chui for scale

 Processed 5-6 loads of finished compost from one bin - 9 months ago this was grass, egg cartons, dog hair, melons, etc.  It never gets old, I mean look at all that homemade compost!

What Does 5 Months of Neglect Look Like?

Interviewer: What would you say is the single worst trait you possess; if there was one habit or behavior that you would most like to change, what would it be?

Steve K.: Jesus, you don't waste any time, do you?

Interviewer: I suspect you were familiar with my style before you agreed to this interview.  That, or you don't believe in due diligence... [Steve appears uncomfortable, drinks heavily from his 2nd martini]

Steve K,: Fair enough, fair enough.  I'm not perfect, damn close, but not perfect and to answer your.... intrusive and tragically cliché question: My biggest flaw is my inability to balance life.

Interviewer: Are you saying you can't handle "life"?

Steve K.: WTF?!  No, what?  I'm saying I have a tendency to jump, 100% from one platform to another.  To be overflowing with drive and passion for X, only to be distracted and pursue Y and then Z.

Interview: Sounds like you have commitment issues, or... perhaps a fear of.... HALTING your perpetual pattern of seeking -seeking what, remains a mystery... a compulsion of sorts... 

[Steve stormed off at this point, visibly drunk and aggravated]

OK, back to the real world.  That was a little creative outburst from my overactive imagination.  That and I just finished a straight up, ice cold and delicious martini.

Weeds - everywhere!

This is an important post for me.  Near the end of July my tomato crop had been virtually wiped out and it really demoralized me and turned me off to gardening.  Normally I would have bounced back in a few days, maybe a week but this time work got REAL crazy at just about the same time.  As eluded to in the above fictitious interview, I'm TERRIBLE at managing multiple things at one time.  So the farm slowly took a back seat, then a third and before I knew it I had become fully involved in work and the exciting new developments.

People know me, they weren't surprised to see this pattern emerge, yet again.  It still bugged me each time someone chuckled while asking "How's the crop, farmer Steve?"  I had a desire to get things shaped up, but it just wasn't happening.

I haven't stood at that table and planted for over 5 months

Earlier this week I had a very good friend in town, along with his wife, new baby as well as their good friend and his wife.  They were in town for business, but we still made a point to spend a day together.  My friend' a chef and he was aware of the garden but hadn't yet seen it.  I knew this would be an issue so I preemptively stated in an email that I would NOT show the garden/farm to  him because it was in such terrible shape.  I wanted to wait until I had a chance to clean it up and be proud of it.

Overgrown with weeds, dead bean plants, arugula gone
nuts and remnants of tomato trellises

Just as I knew he would - he disregarded my wishes and marched right out to the garden.  It sucked, I hated being in a situation where I was making excuses and talking about what it "used to look like" or what it "would look like again" after I cleaned it up.  We moved on, but it stuck and was a wake up a call.

More of the same, weeds and dead crops

Jump to Today and I decided to begin the process of taking control of the garden again.  A hobby that I worked incredibly hard at, spent hundreds of hours reading about and thought "this may be what I want to do next in life (if I had the $)"  It started with a modest list, just to get the process started and get my body (especially my back) warmed up for the action.

If you've followed this blog at all you've seen how nice I typically keep things, how well groomed the beds are, how the weeds are pulled regularly, etc.

So Today I put in about 3-4 hours of rough cleanup.  It's so bad that I opted for a multi-pass approach, here is the first pass:

1. Cut off seed and flower heads of weeds to prevent further propagation
2. remove diseases crops (tomatoes!) - can't compost them, too risky to spread the disease
3. Pull weeds and other crops for composting
4. Rough rake the rows and beds to collect the weeds and expose the ground so I can weed further
5. Roll up the drip lines off to the side to facilitate bed maintence

I plan to hit it again Monday and take a second pass.  Here are photos of how it looked when I was done Today.

 

Almost perfect

I like this

red noodle blossom

Homey, Red Noodle

Red noodle showed up while I was away, finally!  Not only do they produce beautiful flowers, but the beans are really cool looking.  So far I have a couple that are ~18" long and about 1/4" diameter and the widest.  The flavor is nothing amazing, beanny... vegetabally...  They are green on the inside and apparently green when you cook them.

I noticed ants all over the plants and blossoms but I can't see that they are doing anything wrong.  Then again I didn't suspect the pill bugs at first either, and look how that turned out.

The results are in

Didn't start at 5am, I forgot that I was going to drive my Dad to LAX for a flight to China at 1am, I didn't get home until 2 and there was no way I was getting up in 3 hours to measure water in dirt.  However, I did get up at 7:30 (that's about as late as I can sleep) and set out to begin the test.
I grabbed a 1" diameter pipe, marked an 8" line, drove down with a twisting motion into a bed and then......... couldn't get the dirt out.  Complete failure.  I tried to ram it out with a large dowel, I tried tapping to loosen the dirt, I tried everything I could think of but that dirt was staying.  To the Unisaw to rip a 6" gash down a length  of PVC pipe so I could spread the "drill" to release the core within and this is when I checked myself.  Overkill, all of this.... complete overkill.  I light up with a technical challenge, it get's me going and I realized the focus had left the dead plants and shifted to creating a custom tool to take perfect soil samples!
After putting away my tools I got started with plan B which is to use a simple trowel to get to the stuff down 6-7".  Here's the stuff:

1. 8:30 am (EW2) - 6" down and bone dry (this is bad)  Evidence of dried leaves and the soil had that great texture soil gets when worms have done their job.  Still, it was dry.
2. 8:42 am (EW2) - proceeded to manually water for 10 solid minutes, walking back and forth down the row watering as evenly as possible.  I'm thinking "This shit is wet" I mean I really soaked it, I almost felt guilty as if I had done something really wrong, it was that much water.  But I needed data, I needed to know water was getting down there.
3. 9:30 am (EW2) - 6" deep sample taken and STILL dry, only the top 1-1/2" was wet!  I still can't explain this, the water went somewhere.  It wasn't running down the sides of the bed, it (mostly) stayed on the bed and soaked in.  This is still odd, but I can say the dirt was dry.
4. 9:35 am (EW2) - cultivated with the single tine cultivator (great tool) to break up the surface.  This resulted in some soil spreading down and out from the edges which I then quickly dragged back up the bed creating a short lip that would serve to ensure the water stays ON the bed.
5. 9:40 am (EW2) - another 10 minutes of soaking, same thing
6. 11:30 am (EW2) - still visually wet on top despite the warm temperature.  6" deep sample shows that the soil is thoroughly saturated (finally)
7. Went to work, then mountain biking after work so I didn't test anymore.  I'll take a sample tomorrow AM and see what the water has done.

No relevant photos, just Chui

So I left for awhile

The area is irrigated because it's soon to be
another block of corn.  All that water and no
shade makes for a weed invasion!

I took off to the mountains to get away for awhile, catch up on some work and get some hiking in.  My family has a house up there and I've set it up with a workstation, nice monitor and can basically do what I do "down the hill" just as effectively up there.  With the added bonus that I'm not in suburban hell.  I returned this past Saturday evening which means my garden was without a captain for 11 days.
When I left I really didn't care too terribly much what happened to the garden, I was (and am still) pissed about the tomato failure.  I'm not losing sleep over it but it did take a good portion of the wind out of my sails - maybe some time away was just what I needed?

blossom end rot - about 50% of current toms' suffer from it
I'm assuming it's from the heat spell, but it can be caused by
a few different things

Upon returning I encountered pretty much what I expected; still living but not thriving plants, tomatoes that look like shit, arugula that bolted, red orach that continues to be devasted by pests, corn doing pretty good (happy if you give it water!) and my good little beans with their work finished, waiting to die.  So my sprinklers work.  The yard looked terrible with sick or dead plants and weeds everywhere, I knew that cleaning things up would be a good start and I planned on doing just that on Sunday.

stupid arugula, hate you...

Sunday came and the yard was cleaned up, dead and very sick plants pulled.  I watered everything real good and gave my compost operation some much needed attention.  Didn't spend the full day, I didn't have the heart for it and ended up wrapping after about 5 hours of work.

big zucchini ≠ good zucchini
This was chopped and composted

much better

Tonight I was surprised (should I still be??) to find the beds dry!  I watered HEAVILY yesterday morning, I mean I really went for it and soaked the beds but they are dry, dry, dry.  I dug down about 8" and dry.  This actually gives me a little buzz because maybe, just maybe the terrible performance of the crops are due to the chronic under watering?  Maybe the soil composition in the beds is just incapable of storing water?  If you've followed this blog at all you know what a schizo I am about watering ("I over water!" "No, I'm under watering!" "mulch is good" "No, mulch is bad and rots the stems!!") 

bolted arugula gone - I like dirt more than 
sick or bolting plants

Tomorrow I plan to get scientific on it's ass, here's the plan:

1. Water HEAVYILY in the early AM (5ish)
2. Take core sample to determine water penetration depth (2 or 3 sample should suffice)
3. Every hour I will take a core sample to a depth of 8" and track the progression down (if any) as well as the drying

If I can prove that this soil just won't hold water then I can begin to take steps to correct the problem.  See, I just 180'ed in a single blog post!

Blueberry Bliss

My blueberries are all going through a growth spurt which is GREAT because they really need to fatten up a bit in order to support any real quantity of berries.  I just released a couple hundred ladybugs the other night to get the aphids (not pictured) in check...

Tomato Watch - Day 11

Just keeps getting worse and worse.  I pulled another 4 plants Today.  Looks like I'll have 5-6 survivors and will lose the remaining 30 or so.  I'm basing that on the fact that 5 or 6 plants are thriving, healthy and almost 6' tall; everything else sucks!

Fortex Have Arrived

Fortex on a bed of provider

My Fortex crop is finally ready for the first harvest, I've been able to pull a pound or so of 12"+ beans.  The flavor is good, different than provider, a little simpler I'd say, but still good.  They aren't as form as provider either.  I brought a bunch into work and they went over well, people tripped out over the long size - I can't wait to bring in the Red Noodle when they are ready!

Size comparison of Fortex and Provider

Tomato Watch - Day 7 (getting old...)

I'm getting tired of this, death travels slowly for tomatoes.  They continue to look beat up, sick, depressed and weak.  I have a couple that are doing terrific yet that only makes the sick look sicker.

I took the ducks back to where I purchased them.  It was sad, and I was bummed to give up on this experiment but it was the only fair thing to do.  They had a good time while they were here and hopefully they find a good new home.

Harvested about 2-1/2 lbs of "provider" beans.  These ones are much sweeter than the spring crop.  Fortex are about 10" long, twisted and wild looking.  Going to look up some bean recipes and put these to use...if I don't eat them all raw first.

Red Orach is bolting as is my arugula - can't take the heat...

Tomato Watch - Day 5

Took a day off Today

Tomato Watch - Day 4

Another hot one Today, hovered around 90 for 4-5 hours.  The soil in the EW2 bed was much more dry than I would have expected considering the thorough soaking I gave it Yesterday.  It could be that the soil in those beds just plain doesn't hold moisture very well, maybe there is too much organic material and not enough "dirt"?  - I watered again...

I've found the limit on how long guardsman bunching onions can be in the ground - the "skin" (they are hollow tubes... what would you call it?!) is starting to decay a little, not rot, but just break down a bit.  They still taste great, just don't look as nice.

Did some regular landscape work Today.  Removed some overgrown bushes, fixed sprinkler issues, trimmed some plants, etc.  While I was programming the irrigation timer I bumped the trip duration on the vegetables from 15 minutes to 30 minutes.

When these reach about 12" or so I will plow the space between the rows to mound onto the stalks while also
creating a furrow for flood watering (easier to fertilize)

This pile is ready for the shredder then the compost pile
it was a HUGE lantana and salvia "hot lips" - both planted
in my front yard.

Planted fortex seeds in the corn mounds (not pictured) and then fertilized all corn with urine fertilizer diluted ~1:8.  It was actually this planting process that made me question the water retention properties of the raised beds.  The soil in the corn mounds is un-amended "dirt" from another part of my yard.  I'm sure its deficient in nutrients and more susceptible to compaction and all the other negatives but it WAS wet when I cultivated it Today.  At least it holds water.

Severely pruned an old geranium that had been beat down by some
worms. Not sure if it will survive, or even be worth keeping after this...

Tomato Watch - Day 3

Nearly 90 Today, feels like summer finally arrived.  Had a mixed day of farm work, misc. house work and relaxing.  Split the chipper apart to sharpen the main blade and replace some missing hardware (kind of troubling that hardware would be missing considering the speed the impeller spins at!).  Ducks were hot but nothing 2-3 minutes of spray from the hose didn't fix.

Tomatoes seemed to like the heat, it's probably in my head they sure look greener to me.  I probed around with my moisture meter and concluded that I may be UNDER-WATERING everything.  I went ahead and gave all the beds a real deep watering this morning, should hold them for the following days but I'll check the soil moisture to verify.

I'm a big fan of the Fortex pole beans so far.  They are vigorous growers, haven't had any pest issues and are pushing beans all over the place.  I will be starting some more on my new corn I've got going, sort of a 2/3 of the 3 sisters.

Tomorrow I'll be removing some bushes in my front yard and running through the chipper for the compost.  I also plan on giving the compost some much needed attention, it seems to have stalled out.  Been collecting pee to fertilize the new corn I've got started.

According to supplier, the pods will reach 7-11"

Tomato - Day 2

Heat started Today with 2-3 more days on their way - maybe that will knock some of these plants out of their funk. I noticed Today that two tomatoes at the East end of EW2 were droopp and looked thirsty. Because I don't yet know how to read the plants or their moisture needs I decided to water only these two very deeply and will observe the effects.

not much noticeable change