I love it when something is more successful than I hoped. Voila a bowl of fingerling potatoes.
Sometime in March I discovered the last few potatoes in a bag were a bit beyond eating. I hate that. I hate when food goes to waste.
My friend Douglas Welch at A Gardener’s Notebook stuck a few old potatoes in the ground in his garden and the plants were growing well. So I decided there was nothing to lose. (See our adventure to a local Garden Show).
My six old potatoes were cut into pieces with visible eyes (the beginnings of new plant growth) and stuck in two rows in my raised beds.
I’ve watered them occasionally and added additional soil around them as they grew. Really, it was minimal care. About a week ago some of the plants started dying back. So this morning I went potato digging and what did I find? Fingerling potatoes!
I only dug up about half of the plants and I already have more than twice the amount of potatoes I put in the ground. Potatoes are amazing. And perhaps this is a lesson for me: Potatoes seem to grow well in the soil and amount of light in my vegetable garden. Perhaps this is a crop I should plant more often.
This is what sustainability is all about. Reducing waste, growing food in a minimal footprint. Tonight we will have fresh potatoes for dinner. It is a good start to the day.
Sustainability has become the catch word for everything from business markets to politics. But the important use of the term refers to humans living on resources that are replaceable in a manner that can be sustained into the future. Sustainability relates to economics, housing, business practices, education, development, food, clothing, every aspect of our lives. However, it doesn't mean manipulating the marketplace so that there always is a desire for a specific product. It means living in a way that provides a vital, healthy world for humans to live in seven generations from now.
Since January I've been trying to take on one niche of my daily life and to make it more environmentally friendly and sustainable.June seems the perfect time to re-evaluate and dig deeper. Too many individuals, institutions and companies have taken on the banner of sustainability, but they have only scraped the surface of green actions and behavior.
So, where have we done well:
I've expanded Veggie Tuesdays and Thursdays to Wednesday as well. The middle of the week I focus on eating lower on the food chain. I've found that the transition has been fairly easy and there are more meals throughout the week that are veggie oriented.
Gardening with the intent to raise more of our own food is rewarding. A bowl of cereal with a handful of blueberries fresh from the bush is not only more tasty, it is also more satisfying.
With only a few plants–zucchini, summer squash, tomatoes–we aren't producing all of our food needs, but we are producing some. We are living closer to our own small bit of land.
The biodiversity in the yard continues to grow, entertain and delight us. No, the desert cottontails are not munching on my vegetables. They seem to prefer the "weeds."
I've found soap products based on olive oil and glycerin to replace those using palm oil. We haven't bought any food products with palm oil for 3 months and we don't miss them.
I've been counting bird species for eBird both in my backyard and at our local Serrania Park. In fact, I discovered a blue-gray gnatcatcher pair nesting in an oak tree in the park and on Sunday morning we saw their two chicks fledge from the nest. It was very rewarding. Inali and I have documented nesting Bullock's and hooded orioles, black phoebes, Cassin's kingbirds, western bluebirds, bushtits, oak titmice, scrub-jays and Bewick's wrens all nesting in our local park.
Do you know what wild creatures live in your neighborhood? We've found that learning about our wild neighbors has put us more in touch with the rhythm of life.
We are using fewer resources, it is costing us less, and we don't feel that we are missing out on anything. I can't wait to dig deeper.
This morning I received the perfect gift for my efforts to create a refuge for wildlife in my backyard - fledglings.
Yesterday afternoon I took a quick photo of the Bewick’s wren chicks in their “chicken pot” nest. You have to look closely to see one of the chicks. One light streak in the dark opening is the yellow on the lower edge of a beak and the other is a white eyebrow just over the tiny eye. The other two chicks are further back in the pot.
Mom was working very hard yesterday. No sooner did she return to the nest with a grub or worm and feed one of the chicks, then she would start off to look for more and one of the chicks would call her back for KP duty.
Bewick’s wrens are cavity nesters. I have a perfectly nice bird house in the yard that this pair used a few years ago. They built a nest in the house this year, but decided the pot was a better location. Anyway, because the chicks are down in a confined space, the parents take the little packets of fecal matter out of the nest to keep it clean.
Yesterday, the three chicks had mom hopping. Their chirps were insistent, “Feed me, feed me.” “Mom, there’s poop.” The father wren has been helping with the feeding and housekeeping, but yesterday, when things were at their most hectic. I caught a glimpse of him sitting high on the telephone wire, nearly asleep. The chicks were calling, but he seemed to be letting his mate handle the offspring.
This morning the nest was empty.
And here is where the gift comes in: The parent wrens were leading their three fledglings through the holly cherry and the fern. Dad was leading the little ones in a hunt for crane’s fly grubs in the leaf litter and grass. The young birds were trying their wings for the first time, flying a couple feet off the ground and perching on a seedling oak.
I have worked to create a Garden with Intent, food for myself and a hillside with native plants that feed and house native insects. These insects are in turn food for the Allen’s hummingbirds when they nest, the western fence lizards and slender salamanders, and now for the family of Bewick’s wrens. The habitat is rich in resources and safe from introduced predators. There is no cat to fear, no pesticides to weaken tiny youngsters.
The pair of wrens were leading their three chicks on a morning of discovery and I got to watch.
Oh, and Dad had a reason to be resting up yesterday, he was leading the way.
Gardening with Intent means leaving in plants that you might regard as weeds if they provide food for other species. It also means nurturing plants that may not be traditionally beautiful but are important providers of native habitat and food.
How many dandelions have you pulled out in disgust?
Dandelions are native to North America and they are nutritious for animals and people.
Our yard has limited sun; few dandelions can make a go of it. When one sprouted up at the base of the block wall in the front, I was happy. The desert tortoise has just really started to eat after its winter torpor. Dandelion greens are filled with vitamins and they help stimulate the digestive system.
Nikki regards dandelion as a spring tonic.
Native heuchera or coral bells send up stalks of small flowers in spring.
The flowers are stunning on a minute level, but their tiny size makes them less desirable to many people. Hummingbirds, however, favor these tasty native blooms. This month I’ve added to my patch of heuchera and I plan to add more in the fall. I’d like to plant them in the backyard as well, but the tortoises love them too much.
The Catalina cherry and holly cherry are in bloom. They can’t compare to azaleas or camellias for beauty, but little white flowers attract small insect pollinators: flower flies and hover flies. These small insects, as well as gnats, are import items on the menu for western fence lizards and nesting female hummingbirds.
People always ask me why there are so many hummingbirds nesting in my yard. I honestly think the reason is that the hungry mothers need ready access to protein–small flying insects. The holly cherry trees attract native insects and provide the perfect location for building a nest. Two of the three successful hummingbird nests this spring have been in holly cherry shrubs.
In late summer the holly cherry will produce a small acidic fruit eaten by a variety of birds.
Look at the plants in your living space with a new eye. Which plants attract the most native insects? Which plants have the most spider webs? These are the plants that are participating in the local food web. Rethink pulling up all those dandelions. Try letting an area of your space be a “weed” patch. Dandelion and thistle seed are important food for small birds like goldfinches.
The word “paradise” comes from the idea of an enclosed garden. But a true paradise isn’t brightly colored flowers and grass in a sterile environment, living plants and animals interacting with each other, a reflection of the natural world, that is a true paradise.
Gray skies are still promising rain. They haven’t delivered more than an 1/8th of an inch in the last three days, but still the native plants are thriving.
This Earth Day, the Douglas iris, columbine and coral bells along the front walkway are lush green with beautiful flowers.
All of these native species are drought tolerant and loving the cool spring weather we’ve been having.
Except for watering the newly planted columbine, we have been able to keep our sprinklers off completely. Native plants not only attract more animal biodiversity, they also are cost effective because they use less water.
Whether through natural seed dispersal (wild cucumber) or planned removal of non-native species (African daisies), we are actively transforming at least half of our yardscape to native species. The intention is to create habitat for native California species and move toward sustainable water use.
This Earth Day take a look at your living space. Is your garden providing homes and food for wildlife or food for you? Our human footprint on the Earth is immense. If we can make the areas that we live in more connected to local ecosystems, we can give back to our wild neighbors. I’ve been trying to focus on Gardening with Intent this month and it has given me new resolve–more areas will be replanted with natives, food crops can be grown in pots and the invasive Mexican ash saplings must be removed.
There’s been concern among some of my neighbors that we are being invaded by giant mosquitoes.
Actually, the spring rains have encouraged the pupation of large numbers of common crane flies (Tipula planicornis). At first glance, these long-legged flies do look like mosquitoes, but they actually have very little in common.
The crane fly larva feeds on roots and plant matter under leaf litter. It kind of looks like a large (half inch long) thick-skinned maggot. It isn’t an attractive childhood, but it is nothing like the aquatic mosquito. Once the crane fly develops into an adult with wings it has a fairly short lifespan and typically does not eat. You can tell it is a fly and not a mosquito because it only has two wings (one pair). Mosquitoes and all other kinds of flying insects typically have four wings (two pairs).
Some people call crane flies “mosquito hawks” with the assumption that they eat mosquitoes. Unfortunately, that is a myth. Personally, I think they look like fairies when they fly up from the grass.
The past year’s warm dry weather followed by a moderate winter with normal rainfall has enhanced grass growth. Crane fly larva prosper in grass and we seem to be having an unusually large population of adults this spring. The females are considerably thicker in body. One source said that females are unable to fly. There appear to be far more males than females, and I saw a group of males mobbing a single female all trying to mate with her.
Is anything eating these crane flies? So far I haven’t seen any birds or other animals munching on the flying adults. If you look at them closely, they are mostly long brittle legs and glassy wings. There isn’t much to eat. However, I’m sure that as larva they are consumed by a number of our yard birds, Bewick’s wren, California and spotted towhee. Perhaps their availability added to the Bewick's decision to nest in our yard. Bewick's wren nest.
So don’t be alarmed by a large long-legged crane fly headed your direction. It isn’t a mosquito and it isn’t going to hurt you. Part of being a good gardener is getting to know the species in your yard. The common crane fly isn’t going to harm you or your garden. In fact I noticed a young alligator lizard sunning itself about a foot from the breeding crane fly group. Maybe it was waiting for the soon to be laid, crane fly eggs.
An added benefit of creating a more natural garden...increased animal biodiversity.
A pair of Bewick's wrens patrol the yard and eat unwanted insects. I trust them to help keep balance in the yard and they have honored us with their trust. They have made their nest on our patio.
Right next to the back door there is a chicken-shaped pot. I was planning to grow some herbs in it this spring but the wrens had their own plan.
Apparently the position of the small pot created just the right protection for the pair to build a nest in the tail section of the chicken pot.
If you look closely you can just make out the curve of the female's beak as she sits on the three eggs in the nest.
Soon we will have our own insect patrol squad, a family of Bewick's wrens.
When you garden with the intent of providing habitat, wild creatures will participate in your efforts and further enhance the beauty and sustainability of your garden. Gardening with Intent.
Now that I am getting ahead of the brown snails, another Green Action for my garden is to increase the sustainable nature of my yard by harvesting more of my own food. My growing area is small but I still have hopes for a productive garden.
I have trouble with fox squirrels. (baby squirrel) They are an introduced species in the Los Angeles area and their territory is dramatically increasing. But I have found a way to protect my tomato plants.
I'm growing them in my old chicken house. Not only are the tomatoes protected from squirrels (and other rodents), the mesh keeps out most sphinx moths which are the parents of tomato worms. An added benefit is the soil in the chicken house is rich with natural fertilizers. The chickens have been gone for 5 years but they are still benefiting the vegetables.
I've planted squashes and I'm trying cucumbers for the first time.
I pruned back my herbs during the winter and they all seemed to have appreciated the trimming. The mint, oregano, rosemary and scented geraniums are all flourishing.
Growing my own vegetables means producing food that I know was grown without pesticides. If we all could grow some of our own food on the land that we have already developed, we could reduce the need to destroy natural habitats for agriculture. Maybe we could even let more land that has already been developed be returned to a natural state.
We are still harvesting lemons. Hopefully, we will also have grapes, herbs, tomatoes, squash, cucumber, limes, and edible flowers.
Brown snails are an invasive non-native species in California. Everyone complains about them in their gardens. They poison them, step on them, even salt them. They were imported here as a food species, but they escaped and have been a problem in local gardens ever since.
They are a problem because most people water too much and grow non-native plants that snails have a taste for. When you try to grow an English garden in a Mediterranean climate you are creating a smorgasbord for brown snails.
When we first moved into our house the entire front yard was African daisies. In the spring and summer the slope was a beautiful array of purple and white. But, the African daisies were filled with snails and sow bugs. At night the snails would venture out from the daisies and devour everything else in the yard. The first couple of times I tried to grow vegetables, everything was eaten by snails.
We tried trapping them in beer, poisoning them with bait, even copper-covered stripping around plants we wanted to protect. The bait was probably the worst part because it was bad for other species as well. Of course the poison bait never worked completely and the subsequent generations seemed to tolerate it more and more, until it was useless.
Finally, I got disgusted. The hillside was eroding under the tangled vines. An area of African daisies died back, because of the snails, and I tore them out. In that small area we planted some native plants. We mulched these plants with bark and an amazing thing happened–the snails left that area and the biodiversity began to increase.
We stopped using poisonous bait and an alligator lizard moved in and started eating the snails.
Now our native Douglas iris are beautiful, drought tolerant, homes for a variety of native insects, they hold the soil, and there are no snails.
My Gardening with Intent action this week is to decide which section of African daisy I am removing next and what native species I will use to replant.
My wisteria has never bloomed. Last year my grapes didn't produce any fruit and my lemon crop was sparse.
But with the help of a new book, The American Horticultural Society Pruning & Training, I've learned that not only is there a correct way to prune, there is a correct time or season to prune each plant or plant family.
I have put together a calendar for the plants in my yard. Each month I have a specific prune list.
I held off on pruning my lemon tree and had a record crop. I've baked with them, given them as gifts, and even used lemons for holiday decorations.
Previously, I pruned my grapes in February or early March. This year I pruned in January and paid close attention to the specifics of how to prune. The plants are more robust and they are beginning to flower.
With grapes positioned around our patio, we've increase our area to grow fruit.
Understanding the cycle of dormancy and when flower buds form on different plants can make the difference between a bountiful harvest and wasted resources. Invest in a good manual on when and how to prune your plants. You will be improving your own understanding of the cycles of life and improving your efforts to live sustainably.
PS. Oh, the wisteria. It seems in the past I have been pruning off the plump dormant buds on my wisteria that were the germ of blossoms. A little new knowledge and this spring the WISTERIA BLOOMED!
I've come to realize that my garden, the planted area around my home, is more than just a place for grass and flowers. This month I'm focusing on the natural cycles going on in the different areas of my yard – I'm gardening with specific intent.
So my Green Actions will focus on a couple of themes: - Creating natural habitat
- Producing food
- Sequestering carbon
- Supporting natural cycles
It is easy to lose track of our connection with the natural world. By focusing on the natural cycles going on around me, I hope to find better ways to support these important elements of a sustainable life.
