new garden and yard plans

Moses hiding

Nate loves going to the HD, (imagine that), and while we were there we talked about what to plant in this years garden, and also what to replace with what in the front yard. The frost this year has killed back a LOT of plants that are now very brown in the front yard, but I refuse to replant until March. I have a feeling we're going to get another frost before March, so I don't want to risk killing what I've just planted. 

We're going to try carrots and radishes, among a couple other things, in the garden this year. Lettuce has done very well, so we'll do that, naturally, and our onions are still growing in the garden. They are doing quite well, I must say and I'm surprised. I guess I really shouldn't be since they are bulb plants and would do well since they are in the ground. 

Moses will miss his hiding place as we'll be putting the camper shell back on Nate's truck here soon. We need to get more compost first before we put it back on. Much easier to shovel and rake when the top is off. He looked so cute this morning I had to take a picture! 

chilly

Wolfie caught doing something

It's chilly again this morning, but no frost. We did have some big rain 2 days ago, which did cause some major damage in places, but thankfully, we did not. I am waiting for it to be a bit warmer before doing any new major work on the garden. I'm also planning some new landscaping for the front yard. I've got my list of native, drought/cold tolerant plants for Florida handy and ready to pick out some new stuff. 

Simple Living Institute

The other night The Mess and I went to an Intro to Permaculture at Leu Gardens hosted by the Simple Living Institute. It gave me some insight on this way of thinking, and to be honest, it's how I've been thinking about us, as humans, living on this earth. The premise is that humans need to learn to live with nature, not against or opposed to it. This earth has been around for millions of years and will probably out live us, and will outdo us, because we, as humans, can't control nature. Humans are the ones trying to control our living environments, which only makes us frustrated when it doesn't work out the way we want it to. Animals, on the other hand, have learned to live with nature; learning to adapt to climates, weather changes, changes in geography, etc. And can you see how less stressed they are? 

Permaculture comes from a combination of "permanent" and "culture", or "permanent" and "agriculture", first coined by Bill Mollison, an Australian ecologist who believed in living with nature.  Our talk last night was directed towards ones own living environment, like our house. We take a look at our house, its geographic location, how the sun and winds face the house, the plants that are already there, and work with that environment to build a setting that is conducive to our living situation. For example, if there is a lot of rain that comes down off one corner of the house during the summer, which ends up dislocating all the dirt on the ground due to heavy rains, I want to install a rain barrel there. This way I'll gather all the rain water, and save my dirt from being eroded from around the house. 

The Mess was intrigued, as was I, and we have decided to take a look at our front yard to make some changes to the landscaping so that we can add some fruit plants and some lemongrass, in order to make the most use of the sun that shines in the front yard, and to give us some food too. 

The Simple Living Institute is hosting a permaculture design course this spring. It sounds fascinating and this is a certificate course, meaning you'll be a degreed permaculturalist afterwards and can go anywhere in the world to do your permaculture thing. We can't afford it right now, but we'll take whatever info we can get and use it to our benefit. We can all use some help and having food plants in our own yard is a pretty cool thing. 

The hostess, Tia Meer, says that her Econ farm in far out east orlando is a host farm for WWOOF. I told The Mess that I'm interested in visiting and helping. It's not that far from us, we can learn a lot, and maybe she'll let us bring Scotty with us. Cool!

freezing this morning

see? covered fish pond to keep them from freezing. the girls are holding down the blankets. very important job.

rogue and frost

Rogue and our frosted backyard from last month. No frost tonight, but still cold. I think we'll get another 2 freezes before it starts to warm up for the rest of the year. That's ok, we need it to get rid of the fleas, and other such unnecessary bugs. We'll have some outside projects to do this weekend, and with an extra day off, that helps. We may get some more compost to get ready for the upcoming season. We might as well, we'll need it. 

almost there...

the sun is just so elusive...

yay for rain!

summer rain

We are getting some much needed rain here this morning, thank god. We need it. There was a small brush fire nearby recently (a couple miles away) but that is close enough. Winter isn't usually our rainy season. Everything is dry and brown since we have no rain. We didn't get much rain over the summer either, so brush fires are something we'll have to deal with. I am glad that it hasn't gotten so close to us. We do have a green space just east of us, between our neighborhood and the one on the other side of it, which is only some 500 yards away. I keep my eye on it. 

The plants like the rain and now we have more water for our rain barrels. Another winter project is putting up some more gutters to route more rain to the barrels instead of just the ground. We have a list of outside projects to do before April, when it starts to get really hot. I told Nate, this year, I am NOT working outside in July. I'll be glad to help outside up until 10a, and after 6p in the evening, but other than that, it is just too damn hot and uncomfortable to work in the garden. We'll get it done. 

back to "normal"

our weather has improved as of late, and we are back to our "normal" of 60's/70's here for the winter. I have no doubt that we will have at least 2 more cold snaps where it gets down to freezing for more than a couple days again, so we are not doing too much to the garden. We have some lettuce growing and onions too. I don't worry too much about the onions since they are root vegetables, but the others, and the fish, I worry about. So far, so good. The fish I cover, and the other garden boxes we've covered also. Nate set up one of the garden boxes as a 'greenhouse'. I say that in quotes because it's not made of glass or metal frame, just a wood frame and plastic around the sides. We'll see how our makeshift house goes. 

We have so many oranges that aren't good to eat but can be used for something, that I had thought of making marmalade. I need canning equipment though. I need to look into that. I could be something lucrative, or at least interesting, to try. I'm also looking more serious into growing sage. A good herb for many reasons. 

enjoy your weather, whatever it is like.