Earth Day

There is so much happening at MPC and CACG that it's hard to keep up with the blog!


I'm hoping that the photos tell the story well because I don't type very quickly. There is so much good will and love that is pouring into our endeavour to build sustainable community that I feel I must stop and update you on the most recent events.

This is our link on Facebook. Thank you Kiel

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Martinez-Permaculture-Center-M-P-C/157345350996177

CACG (Center Avenue Community Garden)
At CACG this past three weeks we have been planting and harvesting, weeding, cleaning up the storage area and working on the labeling of plants and naming the raised beds.

Planting

On Saturday April 21st we marked Earth Day by planting our in-ground Corn Beans and Squash area.

Preparing the rows with home made compost

Ysidro and Jennifer planting the Three Sisters

The corn we planted in this area is Hopi Blue. We will be staggering the plantings and so another planting session will take place in a couple of weeks. We are planting this whole bed in Hopi Blue. With corn being an open pollinated crop, and given that we want to save some seed,  if other corn varieties are planted close by there will be mixing of the gene pool and we will get a crossbred cob.
We will plant other varieties on the area currently occupied by the Snap Peas. Corn is wind pollinated.  With the prevailing wind coming from the south west we hope that there will be no contamination of our Hopi Blue crop. This heirloom variety produces fewer cobs per stalk but the protein content is up to one third higher than commercial corn and there are many other nutritional advantages. We are estimating a harvest in about 3 1/2 months. Looking forward to those blue corn tortillas!
The seeds were donated to the garden by Rhiannon, a staunch supporter of CACG, who sourced them from the Sustainable seed company

Corn Beans and Squash are often referred to as The Three Sisters

I'm going to leave it to other web sources to explain the companion planting concept here but the general idea is that the corn needs lots of nitrogen and provides a support for the beans to grow on. The beans fix nitrogen in root nodules which feeds all three crops. The squash utilizes horizontal space and acts as a mulch to keep the soil cool and smother weed competition.

We have been planting Tomatoes on the area by the split rail fence close to Center Ave. that was previously growing Fava Beans. There should be lots of nitrogen in the soil after the bean crop, plus all the manure applied to that area while sheet mulching in 2010.

Brenna, Jim and Colin planting Heirloom Tomato seeds to start in the greenhouse

Misty planting herb seeds in the Herb Spiral

We have also gathered some seeds from the Richmond Grows Seed Lending Library. They have a very interesting website and they are local.

Also thanks to Kiel for the many seeds he has donated to CACG from his extensive seed collection.


Harvesting

We are harvesting Kale, Lettuce, Swiss Chard, Carrots and White Turnips.

White Turnips ... the tops are tasty also

Brenna exhibiting one of our larger Solar Yellow Carrots

All The Solar yellow carrots were sown last fall from seed we harvested from the previous crop at CACG












The earlier planted Potato Towers needed more soil to continue their vertical assent.

Mike and Kiel packing straw around the wire cages to retain the new soil

This is the Second Potato Tower that we planted on February 18th. If anyone asks me which variety we have planted there I say it is the Ron's Refrigerator. That is because Ron cleaned out his refrigerator and gave us the sprouted, or about to sprout potatoes, the names of which he could not remember. This is a great example of the advantages of buying organic potatoes that have not been sprayed with sprout suppressant and the many advantages of recycling.

Potato Tower # 2

A tribute to Donna who comes to weed and harvest most Saturday mornings. She arrives early and many participants never meet her. Thank you for all your weeding and deadheading Donna

Donna Harvesting

Naming the Raised Beds

The plan is to label each raised bed with a name that will allow us to repeat a positive and virtuous trait as we speak of this planting area. Now we could just number each bed. Or we could use words such as "Hope"  "Joy"  "Harmony" or "Peace"  Felicia has already begun painting signs and we would like others to help!  Please let us know if you are interested.

MPC

Thanks to the April rains we have almost 1000 gallons of rainwater in storage.

The bees have curbed their swarming habit for the time being.
Here is an interesting body of information about the continued use of chemicals in agriculture containing Clothianidin and CCD.

All the growie things in the garden are doing well and there are plenty of greens to harvest.

The big news is in ....

Chicken Cottage

Little Bit, our rescued Japanese Bantam, is sitting on 7 fertile eggs.

She exhibited signs of broodiness  around April 7th. We waited a few days to make sure she was serious about sitting on eggs. By April 10th we were certain of her dedication to the process. With out a rooster in our flock all our girls lay infertile eggs.  On the evening of April 12th we received 8 fertile eggs from our friend Ceci and the incubation period began.

Some of you will remember that Little Bit sat on eggs about this time last year that hatched to become our hens Fluffy Top and Spring.

Being half the size of the other hens she was being regularly pushed off the nest as other egg layers needed the space.

Last year she spent her confinement in a former squirrel cage beside Chicken Cottage. Having seen skunks and 2 raccoons actually on Center Ave. recently I did not feel comfortable that the structure of the cage would stand up to a concerted attach. It's previous owner never intended it to protect chickens from predators. Where to house Little Bit?

Where to find a spot where Little Bit could safely sit on her eggs???

It takes 21 days to incubate the eggs so they should be hatching around May 5 which is a full moon.

I stated at the beginning that she is sitting on 7 eggs. One of the original 8 fertile eggs broke. The stickiness caused 2 other eggs to adhere to her feathers and Teresa had to cut them off her with scissors. We discovered the attachment when lifting her out of the nest to feed. She doesn't get off the nest much but prefers that I  hand offer her food and water. I have taken her out to the chicken run a few times for a dust bath. This is about a 15 minute excursion and it helps her to rid herself of mites and fleas. 

I promise there will be photos when the chicks hatch. Actually we don't get to see much of them for a couple of days because they stay tucked under Mom.

There is the old saying "Never count your chicks before they are hatched" and of course we hope we get a few hens. Luckily if we do get a cockerel or two Ceci, who lives on  her Sherman Island ranch, can take them from us. We would not recommend that anyone try keeping roosters in this suburban area.

Other news from Chicken Cottage

In this past week Fluffy Top has developed a condition known as Wry Neck. We believe it is caused by vitamin deficiencies, especially vitamin E and Selenium. We are treating her with a baby vitamin supplement and we will keep you posted. Send us a line if you have any experience with this poultry ailment.

Sam Chicken  February 17 2009  -  April 15th 2012

Our most vocal  and communicative Rode Island Red. Thank you for your eggs and friendship.

Lets stop here and I'll start another post soon.

Thank you for reading this.

David

Egg Moon

March 24th 2012

The Spring equinox marks the point midway between the shortest day  and the longest day - a time of balance.

On March 10th the black aphids were acknowledged as having thwarted all hope of a salvageable fava bean crop and the two rows were cut to the ground early as a green manuring. Being legumes the beans have been fixing nitrogen and enhancing soil fertility all winter.

Fava Beans cut and left as mulch

Also on March 10th we built the 4th potato tower and planted Colorado Rose potatoes. We added recycled wire mesh to the bottom of this one as there are many signs of gopher activity in this part of the garden.

Caden and Mike adding wire mesh to the base

Caden ready to position potato tower number 4

There are plenty of Snap Peas to harvest. The more we pick them, the more they will flower and produce more pods so please pick away!

These are the Snap Peas

Potatoes

Our Yukon Gold Potatoes planted on February 4th 2012 are showing above ground.We will keep adding soil, almost covering the leaves, to encourage the foliage to grow up and so elongate the stem. The tubers will be spaced out along the stem. I think it will be June before they are ready to harvest.

Kale Chips

We are currently harvesting Swiss Chard, Kale, White Turnips, Carrots and Spring Onions.

Here is a photo from Jim and Karens' Kitchen. They sent us a picture of some baked Curly Kale chips made from Curly Kale at CACG.

Baked at 350 for 10-15 minutes, with some olive oil, salt, and Parmesan cheese. Jim adds that they really need watching as the thin chips burn easily.

Looks really good, thank you.

Edible Weeds!

We are also getting ready to plant our Edible Weeds Bed. Dandelions, Lambs Quarters, Miners Lettuce and Salsify are among the more common edible weeds. We hope to showcase and label a variety of nutritious plants that grow wild locally and could contribute to a meal.

 Composter at work

Ysidro Master Compost Maker at work

Ysidro has been very active in producing the fine sample of finished compost that we now have in the center bin. Jim and family painted the sign that instructs us which bin is currently being used to receive fresh weeds and trimmings from the garden.

Wattle Making

Linda and Missy work on a short panel for screening our tool compound

There is much more going on at the garden and MPC but I'm going to stop this post here and start another one soon.

Many thanks to all that contribute to building this community around CACG. It is a pleasure to meet and work with you all. David.

ps Remember to keep picking those snap peas!