Watershed Awareness

I'm attending a course at the moment that is run by the Santa Clara Valley Urban Runoff Pollution Prevention Program, or the acronym of SCVURPPP, which when pronounced sounds like someone trying to stifle a sneeze.

Personally, the purpose of this endeavor is to earn a place as the first gardening coach on the Green Gardener list featured on their Watershed Watch website.

The Watershed Watch website aims to educate the public about urban runoff pollution prevention in general and SCVURPPP in particular, and to train gardening professionals how to do their jobs with the least impact to our creeks and ultimately the bay.

It is a good refresher of the Master Gardener Initial Training from nearly two years ago. The course begins, as all good gardening courses should, with a look at soils and explains how the soil texture dictates how we should water. Basically, clay soils hold on to water more than sandy soils do. In the Santa Clara Valley we have predominantly clay soils and so we should water less frequently but for a longer time. For lawns that cannot absorb all the water delivered in a prolonged time, multiple start times are recommended to prevent surface run-off.

It showed us how to measure sprinkler output and based on this we can more accurately determine how  long to water each week based on charts found in this document. This means that less water is wasted to begin with and that water applied to our lawns and gardens is used by plants and simply not left as surface run-off - therefore, reducing pollutants washed into our natural waterways.

An important part of being a Green Gardener is to stop using toxic chemicals in our landscapes beginning with the gas used to power equipment like blowers and mowers. Very often gasoline is spilled while filling these machines. This too is washed into our rivers and eventually to the sea. The EPA estimates that each year 17 million gallons of gasoline are spilled. I assume in the USA though I couldn't find the source EPA data just references to it here http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/8554.html and here http://www.peoplepoweredmachines.com/faq-environment.htm.  

That's more gallons of gas than the amount of oil spilled by the Exon Valdez, every year!

Last week we covered pest management, the take-home message being use chemicals ONLY as a LAST RESORT.

I pride myself on gardening organically. However, in our class there is a lady who is so hard-core Eco-friendly that she makes the rest of us look like oil slugging, smog vomiting, chemical spewing, baby-polar-bear hunters.

A discussion arose between us about the use of Sluggo.  Sluggo is organic and I use it freely in my yard. I've finally  managed to get my mollusc problem under control and most of my seedlings survive at least long enough to be eaten by something else now. So it would be fair to say, I am a fan of Sluggo.

But this lady pointed out that it is a chemical and I'm putting it on my garden. I felt churlish and petty to  point out that water is also a chemical we use on our yard. But I, not understanding how a fellow gardener could not hate slugs and snails as much as I do, must have been in shock, because no witty comeback was forthcoming.

Bewildered, I simply asked, "So what do you do about your snails?"

"Nothing," she told me. "I don't have any."

"How can you not have any snails?" If truth be told, I didn't believe her. Nor did I judge her for that - who hasn't spun a wee white lie to win a tiny wee argument once in a while?

"I just plant stuff that attracts birds to my yard and they eat the slugs," She said, very pleased with herself. (Well, if I had no slimy critter problems, I'd be equally as smug.)

But I have birds. They eat what the snails don't. I even have lizards, sometimes snakes and regular visits from raccoons (the buggers pooped on top of my compost bin last week). In fact, I even had a visit from a duckling once, and they love slugs and snails.

"But what about your seedlings?" I asked, sure that I'd get some kind of agreement."All my newly germinated stuff gets eaten by the slugs and snails."

"What are you planting?" she asked.

"Everything. Lettuce. They eat all my brassicas, peas, beans, beets, chard."

"So just plant something else."

"I can't," I said, feeling completely defeated. "I need to eat. I eat from my garden."

I knew that buried in there I had a really good point but tongue-tied and flustered I missed my moment. I felt tainted because I used a chemical in my garden, albeit an organic one, one that actually added iron to the soil and only harmed the target species, but this amazing Eco-warrior had accomplished the same effect without Sluggo. By comparison, I was a failure.

But was I? Two days later, (sitting in the bathtub ironically, wallowing in water) I thought of a great comeback. Oh ye of witty repartee!

Basically my counter argument was this. While I'm using Sluggo to grow my veggies I don't invoke a huge carbon footprint for that lettuce or broccoli. It doesn't get packaged and carted across the country. No storage in an air-conditioned store room for my sugar snap peas. No mist and thunder sound effect in the grocery isle for my zucchini. Nor do I have to get in my car and drive to get them. In fairness, I do go to the store for other stuff so I could pick up veggies, but the extra weight in the car would use up more gas - right?

Of course, all this sounded great echoing around the bathroom tiles with no-one but myself to hear it!

But it just made me think that as gardeners, and people, just struggling to make it on this planet, we all have to make compromises and concessions that steer us off the path to perfection.  However, with good education we can make more informed and ultimately better choices, not to mention great debates with ourselves in the bathroom.

It's a beautiful bay and Sluggo or no Sluggo, I want to help keep it that way.

Byddi Lee

Busted and subsequent catch-up

I've been very excited about my Mum's foray into the cyber world. She's come a long way since that day when I asked her to use the mouse to point at an icon on the screen. She literally picked up the mouse and held it up to the screen opposite the icon. Several years and one very patient computer class teacher (who ought to be canonized) later, and my Mum now has the internet in her own home, which she accesses using a laptop that sporadically cooperates with her.

At least, I was excited about her connecting to the internet, until she got on the phone and asked me had I stopped writing my blog. When I told her no, she informed me that it had been a while since I wrote "in it."

I felt like I hadn't done my homework, or worse, failed some sort of exam.  So Mum, this one's for you!

I have been kind of busy lately, and I've been posting more to my business page, Eco Gardening Coach, on facebook.

I've been getting great satisfaction from seeing my clients newly seeded plants grow. And nearly as much enjoyment out of seeing the likes for my page creep up too. Please feel free to nip over and like the Eco Gardening Coach page.

When I'm not coaching or writing, I get a chance to tend to my own garden. As always, at this time of year in California, Autumn can feel nearly like Spring. The plants are certainly confused.

I've got my spring bulbs starting to come up,

 

 and sweetpea germinating.

Meanwhile, the slugs are revving up for the start of the rainy season and ready to munch those tender seedlings. I found these slugs eggs under a bale of straw I'd been experimenting with growing tomatoes in. Let's just say the slugs grew better than the tomatoes.

I caught a huge big one about 3 inches long and several inch long "adolescents". Then I found the eggs. They are about half a centimeter long.

The artichoke is still flowering anytime we miss harvesting one.

The Birds of Paradise have begun to blossom having had a brief rest over the hottest part of the summer.

The pomegranate tree is promising big things this year, but none of the fruit trees have yet had any significant color change in their leaves.

The true signs of Autumn coming are the winter squashes. These are three volunteers.

The pumpkins are looking good too.

At the weekends I've been doing some cool things too. We went hiking to Halfmoon Bay and were lucky enough to photograph a juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk eating a newly caught mouse. Imagine telling him to use the mouse to point at anything!

Technically, this is actually a vole, sometimes called a meadow mouse.

This slide show shows him eating the entire thing - it only took a few minutes.


Hawk eating vole - Online Slideshow Creator

When he was finished he wiped his beak clean ready for the next time!

Hawk wiping mouth - Online Slideshow Creator

Last weekend my husband and I took to the trees ourselves. Mt Hermon Redwood Canopy Tours is an excellent way to spend a couple of hours and get a totally new perspective on the Redwoods. The guides are great and soon had this height-fearing gal comfortable whizzing through the tree tops.

That's the problem with California. There's just so much to do, it's hard to get it all done. Another great reason to take out your lawn and replace it with drought tolerant natives. Life's too short for mowing lawn!


Byddi Lee

Season change over

I find it hard to evict those tenants in my yard who are still working hard and producing yummy food.
Kale works year round here.

The tomatoes are still throwing out tonnes of fruit though the bushes are looking a little bedraggled. The okra are being left to go to seed since these pods got away on me. Okra needs to be harvested when much smaller.

 

Zucchini is still spewing forth, albeit at a slightly slower rate.

 

My nephews thought these were bananas  when they visited - I wish! Still not a bad assumption. You can see where they were going with it.

The peppers are coloring up nicely.

And speaking of color - one day's harvest brought in this rainbow of color and taste.

The harvest is top heavy with tomatoes, but the romas are great to freeze and paste later. I eat the cherry tomatoes as if they are candy, constantly nibbling on them, and the classic and beef tomatoes are usually eaten in wedges with a sprinkle of salt or in my lunchtime sandwich. My antioxidant levels must be off the scale!

One of the best things about growing your own food is that you can get varieties that you cannot buy in the stores. Such as red skinned (and higher antioxidant content) carrots.

Carrots grow all year round here. I planted these carrots in June after I harvested the garlic. They are now a good size to harvest.

In some plots I am able to seed the winter vegetables where there are some summer ones still on the go. Here I have some beans still growing up bamboo and string teepees producing enough for dinner every night. There is a late developer egg plant in the middle which may  or may not still produce something and a tomato plant and a melon hanging forlornly over the edge of the raised bed (to the left of the picture).

The bed is planted with sugar snap peas and cauliflower. The peas are at the right hand edge where they will be easy to harvest on a regular basis. I'll support them with trellising which I can add later as they sprout.

When planting peas, soaking them in water overnight helps them to germinate.

The cauliflower is a more "static" crop in that they are not harvested daily and so I have them in the middle of the bed where it is harder to reach.

Right now everything is protected with Sluggo to beat off the mollusc pests and bird netting to stop my feathered friends from eating the newly germinated seedlings. When the tomatoes and melon get pulled out, I'll plant that section with low growing lettuce as it is on the south side of the bed and won't be shaded nor shade the cauliflower. Lettuce are also fast growing so the crop that is there has a chance to finish.

I don't usually let the beds rest, preferring to use organic methods to fertilize the soil to keep its nutrient level high and mulching with compost.

In the front, the native garden is supporting all kinds of wildlife. Squirrels have excavated the soil from under this fuchsia and made themselves an attractive little home.

In North America squirrels are no big shakes in your garden, I know, but in this case my squirrels are helping me! It seems that they have been stealing/harvesting bulbs from someones else's yard and bringing them back!

I'm not sure what type of bulb it is but I'm going to put them in a pot to grow for next spring. They sure have gathered up a fine collection.

Out back, the baby lizards are scooting about. This little fella is only an inch or so long. The rusty nail head above and to the right of him gives you some idea of scale. Isn't he just adorable?

I can't wait till he's big enough to eat slugs and snails, though judging by the tiny wee snails I found recently, he may be the perfect boyo for the job!


 Byddi Lee

Reasons why we did come here...

Having spent the last two weeks playing with my nephews who were visiting me from the old country, I always question why we came here at all. Why did we leave behind our friends, whom I still miss keenly? Why put myself through the airport snot and trauma of tearful goodbyes with my family? And most of all, how can I justify missing my superhero nephews grow up?

Perhaps absence does make the heart grow fonder. If I were still living at home, is it possible that we'd take each other for granted? Would we perhaps not bother taking the time out to build forts (that look more like homeless encampments)?

 

One thing's for sure - If I lived at home this fort would be a mush of soggy cardboard right now. My nephews still would not have experienced camping - why camp in the rain in Ireland when you can camp in the sunshine in California on the doorstep to Yosemite National Park?

I probably wouldn't have had such a great crop of beetroot for the beetroot-monster in our family.

Hands up - who loves beetroot?

Though you can grow beetroot very successfully back home, the weather discouraged me from doing as much gardening as I do now. Back in Ireland the rain put me off so many of the activities that I love to do here.

And I almost certainly wouldn't have had the chance to share the great excitement we had in picking out first almond crop, successfully saved from scavenging squirrels.

I was bitterly disappointed when my nephews informed me that they didn't like tomatoes (the start of a long list of dislikes for the four-year-old in particular - Please God, let it just be a stage he's going through, and thank God, he still likes beets!)

Regardless of their likes and dislikes, my tomatoes are coming in beautifully. I had a great crop of Dr Whycees, a variety I am trialing for Santa Clara Master Gardeners. They are orange and very sweet and juicy.

Even though I pleaded with my nephews to try this one, they still claimed that they didn't like it. Hardly surprising, since their definition of tasting something is to briefly touch it with the tip of their tongue. But it meant more of my favorite tomatoes for me, so I didn't argue.

I was delighted to see how impressed they were with the flowers. They even begged me to let them plant stuff. Unfortunately I have no room in the garden right now, and even if I had, I'd be hard pressed to come up with something that would thrive in the hot days of mid-August. They were placated by being permitted to pick these unusual dark sunflowers to present to their Mummy.

This sunflower had been just a bud before we left for our four day camping trip to Groveland, California. The boys were thrilled when they came home and saw that it had grown nearly two feet and blossomed.

Despite its proximity to the zinnia, they weren't tempted to try the kale.

Their curiosity was peaked by the huge Sibley, but these winter squashes won't be ready for at least another month, maybe more.

My sister loved the weather here. Maybe that's why we are here. She joked that this was a cloudy day.

 

Why so funny? Well, on a cloudy day the sky is pewter by Irish standards!

Bottom line - it's the climate that keeps me here. Their visit had the backdrop of golden sunny days. While they where here the garden rang with laughter and and quite often the spectacular a cappella soundtrack of the baddies being beaten by the superheros, complete with sword swishes, explosions and whizzing I-dunno-whats.

As I mourn for my old friends, new ones are cementing themselves into my heart, not replacing the old ones, but wiggling in and making that friendship space bigger and better. I still know where my old friends are, and like my family, they'll never be far from my thoughts. I treasure more the times we do have together for the infrequency of them.

So, as I sit in the once again quiet serenity of the garden, watching the lizards poke theirs heads up as if to ask, "Is it safe to come out again?" I know that I can't have it all and I'm happy with what I do have. Two weeks a year (minimum) of madcap mayhem is merely a huge gi-normous bonus!

 Byddi Lee

Groveland on Dwellable