Organic Fertilizer Update

After much debate of whether or not to use manure, we decided to use it in our compost pile :) I wasn't crazy about using it in the first place, but was convinced by the plants and Bingwa that it was time to feed the veggies with a different meal...  I'm still soooo amazed on how quickly the compost has decomposed and how much darker & healthier it looks :)  

~Note: Never add Manure directly into your soil!  It will burn your plants :(

Our buddy Talia was also cool enough to barter some 

Mycorrhizae for some baby veggie plants :) We've been adding it to our veggie transplants and they are super happy.  Heard its a bit expensive, so if you're on a budget go with making your own compost and adding manure.

And since we were up to experimenting and mad about feeding the hungry veggies & fruit trees...  I decided to purchase some worm tea from my buddy Lora Hall at the Highland Park Farmer's Market.

~Note: Always do one part tea to 10 parts of water and of course give it a good stir! (just in case you were wondering)

~Personal Journal Note: Worm Tea was added to the Orchard on 7/1/09.  They are looking soooo healthy and the peach leaf curl is somewhat controlled.  Believe Peach Leaf Curl had to do with humid nights.  Last few days have finally heated up!  Yee-Pee Summer Days are Finally here :)

Vegan Raw Sushi Recipe :) Super Simple!!

Yep! You guessed right, we also strive to eat 50% Raw Vegan Organic Whole Foods :)  Its simply the best tasting and filling meals we've had :) Plus it keeps us super healthy and vibrant :)  (Tx JeffyPoo for asking for some recipes! I'll be sure to post several in your honor!)

What you'll need for one roll :)

1/2 Avocado

Lemon Juice (few drops)

Swiss Chard (2 small leafs with stems)

Celery (1 stem, thinly sliced)

Cherry Tomatoes (5 li'l ones)

Basil 

Garlic Chives

Onion 

Wakame

Liquid Amino Acids (Soy Sauce Substitution)

Slice thin layers of Avacado...

Chop up Basil...

Liquid Aminos can be purchased at most Health Food Stores.  It taste very similar to soy sauce because its made out of soy beans as well!  We use it on most of our dishes...

Raw Nori isn't as easy to find and can be super expensive...  If you're a 110% Raw Vegan and need the Raw stuff you can find it at erewhon or rawvolution.

Call in advanced one store may have it on sale :)

Wakame can be purchased at Whole Foods.

Lay your nori paper on a flat surface, (make sure to place your veggies closer to one edge of the nori paper!!) add the swiss chard, sliced cherry tomatoes, celery, avocado, chopped basil, slice of onion, sprinkle wakame, add a few drops of lemon juice and liquid amino acids.

Once you have all your ingredients aligned beautifully :)  Its finally time to roll :)  Don't be afraid of the nori & the veggies, pretend that you're about to roll a burrito :)  Okay okay it may take you a few tries, but imagine the future sushi creations you'll be making YUM!!  :)  oh and I almost forgot...  to seal the roll, dab your finger with some lemon juice and run it along the edge.  Hold the roll in place for a few seconds...

And Wala!  You got yourself a very simple Vegan Raw Sushi Roll :)

One of best parts of growing your own food is that we can make these all the time in just a few minutes!  It sure beats cooking an entire meal :)

Namaste!

Compost Time!

Hola and Happy Sunny Wednesday Everyone :)

I love to maintain our compost pile :) Knowing that we're not dumping food scraps or brown wastes into the land fields is def. helping Mother Earth, not to mention our EDIBLE GARDEN :) Its great for Veggies, Trees, and most Plants! So here's the process:

Step 1.
Save all of your fresh green food scraps in a bowl or simply use a bin with a lid. Eggshells and coffee grounds are okay :)
Do not add: diseased plants, cooked fruits/veggies, meats, fats or grease!



Step 2.
Begin with an empty hole.












Step 3.
Throw in your green scraps :)












Step 4.
Cover your scraps with the same amount of browns. Browns are considered: Dead Leaves, wood chips, dried grass, straw, saw dust, or prunings. Be careful not to add those dead weeds in your bin!

Step 5.
Water your bin thoroughly and keep it moist (not wet.) Your done for the day :)




Step 6.
Turning your compost pile :) In my experience, if I turn the compost once a day, we could get compost in a month :) The pix to the right shows two bins, we would love to have three, however, once again no room :( Our compost bins are located on our steep driveway, making it easy for me (with the help of gravity) to turn the more decomposed compost to the lower end of the box :) This system also allows me to continue to add a weekly pile of fresh greens & browns as the compost moves to the lower end :)








Step 7.
Once you notice your food scraps and browns have decomposed to a stage where you don't really recognize whats in the pile... You may want to move the more decomposed stuff into another box, as we do. Don't forget to keep turning your piles, this will help to decompose everything faster :) Oh and water!






Step 8.
Improvise Improvise Improvise :)
Smarty pants Bingwa came up with this easy solution on sifting out the big undecomposed chunks out of our compost. We use the carry trays that are given to us when we leave the nurseries with way too many plants :)







Step 9.
Wala! You got yourself some beautiful rich organic compost in about a month or less! Its super light and SOO ALIVE!! Now its ready to use :) We use compost to amend our soils, lay a nice thick layer in our raised beds, add it to our pots, and even make compost tea!! (Conne I promise next lesson is how to make your own compost Tea!! Pls say hello to your beautiful daughter :)





Pls keep in mind our bins are both in a very shady area. We understand we're suppose to have the bins in the sun, however, we simply don't have the room in the garden (our garden isn't very big at all). So we Improvise and we still get fantastic compost! :)

Tx for reading :)

Namaste
Milli :)

50% out of the garden!

Striving everyday to eat 50% or more out of the garden! Pix was part of yesterdays lunch ;) yum yum ;)

Hillside Cooperative Produce, Update!

Yay! This is what we got for our exchange...

Grapefruit
Lemons :)
Mint Clover Rose Tea :)
Red Tomatoes
Yellow Tomatoes
Calamondin
Chili Pepper
Fig
Cucumber
Zucchini
Bay Leaves :)
Celery
Rosemary
Mint
Spearmint
Sage
Chives
Garlic Chives
Cilantro
Lemon Verbena
Thyme
Red Onion
Lettuce
Arugula Flowers

non-edible:
Sage
Indian Sage
Lavendar
Rue

Picking up our bag was like picking up a goodie bag! Just like when we were kids :) You really didn't know what you were going to get, but knew you were always in for a fun surprise!!!

Thanks again Hynden :) We can't wait to do this again. We'll be sure to always plant extras for the Hillside Cooperative Produce Community!

Hillside Cooperative Produce!!

Annie & Mark turned us onto the Hillside Produce Cooperative that does a FREE monthly exchange of fruits, vegetables, herbs & flowers we grow in our gardens!! Thx guys!

Hillside Produce Cooperative was founded by Hynden and coincidentally she only lives about 4 blocks away! Nice, eh? If you think about it, this week the Hillside Produce Cooperative will save us money, a car trip to the farmer's market and will also allow us to play longer outside :)

We appreciate your manifested idea Hynden! We can't wait to drop off our goods this morning!!

What surplus do we have to exchange today?
Everything was harvested this morning! Can't get any fresher than that!

Celery
Lettuce
Basil
Mint
Tyme
Spearmint
Sage
Garlic Chives
Chives

Paintings for Sale :)

Many of you who have visited have inquired about our paintings :) Thanks for all of your sincere compliments :) We have soooo much fun painting, especially when our buddy Milan comes ova!! Now that Gurl can PAINT!! (Hey Milan! Let's really get up to Children's Hospital to teach the kids how to paint!!)

As much as our garden changes, we too love to change the vibe of our home! We also strive not to attach ourselves with materials that also bring happiness to others :) Nothing like arriving to a living happy work of art :)

With that being said, we will be putting several of our personal favorite pieces up for sale!

I'll keep you posted...
Happy Milli

When time stands still in your garden :)

These are the moments when you're simply just being in the garden... 

Watering Plan

We're curently discussing a watering plan. Bingwa drew the attached plan, making it easier for us to plan for the upcoming summer heat!

Uploaded by www.cellspin.net

Hurry!! You can still Sow, Plant or Transplant these veggies b4 June ends!!

Hola and Happy Summer!!

We've been really good in planting several seeds the last couple of weeks :) We begin our seeds in peat moss, however, I want to convert to Coir :) Coir is a natural fiber derived from the husk of the coconut. Mother Earth is always on our minds so Coir would be the way to go! With its high moisture retention, strong porosity and aeration, balanced pH, and high quality renewable alternative to mined peat moss, How can we go Wrong?? But in the meantime we'll finish the bag of peat moss we purchased and later look into getting some Coir :)
This is what we could still sow or transplant by the end of June here in Los Angeles:

Lima & Snap Beans
Beets
Carrots
Celery
Chard
Corn
CucumbersEggplants
Lettuce (oakleaf, & other heat-tolerant, bolt resistant types.)
Melons
Okra
Peppers
Sweet Potatoes
Pumpkins
Radishes New Zealand Spinach
Summer & Winter Squash
Tomato

Seeds started June 16, 2009.

This is what we planted on June 16:

Pole Green Snap
Scarlet Runner Bean
Black Eye Peas
Black Beans
Corn
Watermelon
White Eggplant
Green to Orange Eggplant
Lao Purple Stripe Eggplant
African Eggplant
Squash Summer Scallop Patty Pan Blend
Squash Straightneck Early Yellow
Squash Black Beauty
Tomato Coeur
Tomato Pole Aunt Ruby's German Green

As you can see, seeds germinate quickly as long as they remain moist and in a moistly shady area!

Pix taken today June 24, 2009

Happy Summer Solstice :)

We celebrated our 2 yr wedding anniversary & summer solstice with a gift from the universe! We had our first snow queen nectarine from our tree which was planted in March from a bare-root tree ;)

Uploaded by www.cellspin.net

Organic Veggies and Water Plants For Sale!!

Hola :) Happy Sunny Tuesday!  

(Finally! Gloom BE GONE!!)

Yes, we again have a surplus of organic baby veggies, herbs, and water plants for sale.

These li'l guys need to be transplanted into the earth, bigger pots, or bigger ponds very soon :)  

Here's the list of what we have growing:

Prices $1-$4.50

Tomatoes

Swiss Chard

New Zealand Spinach

Beans

Squash

Cucumber

Mesclun Lettuce

Sage

Arugula

Basil

Parsley

Water Plants:

Hyacinths

Anarchis

Duckweed

Contact us if you'd like to stop by to pick these li'l guys up :)  

Happy Late Spring Gardening :)

Fertilizer

So we are in a time space where something needs to change. We've come to the conclusion that our garden at the peek of summer gets 6 hours at the most and some of the garden gets less. A lot of it gets less. This year we really stuck with the watering plan and it made a huge difference compaired to last year. Don't get me wrong, the garden looks good but it's not packed with vegges so ripe they're bursting from the scenes. I've been seeing more and more lately about fertilizer and I think it's time to research it more. We use compost and we've done the compost tea spuratically but I realize that we don't feed the plants let alone the micro bacteria.
Compost is a ammendment to the soil. Fertilizer feeds the plants and I think it's time for them to eat.

-- Posted from the field

Daily Harvest

One of the post I thought would be useful is one on our harvest(s) everyday because we use something from the garden everyday. Even if we get something to eat while we're out and bring it home, we still use herbs or make a salad. In the mornings we might grab a couple of strawberries or a handful of mulberries and munch. Being able to journal and share might be insperational. Our goal this summer is 50% of what we eat we grow. So on to the daily harvest.



Looks like spinich and peas huh? Kinda, it's New Zealand spinach and the seeds. We had this in a sunny spot and it got stringy so we harvested it all today. To eat you blanch for 3 minutes than eat or cook. Suppose to be just like spinich so we'll eat it tonight and let you know. For more info on New Zealand spinich look for it soon on the right hand. We'll start a list of info for garden stuff.

-- Posted from the field

Organic Pest Control (How to control those Cabbage Moths!!)

Hola and Great Morning to Everyone!!  Today's blog is about Organic Pest Control and the many ways we could apply them to our gardens :)  100% Natural, Biodegradable, Earth Friendly, and Non Toxic.

I'm sure you guessed that our entire garden is 100% organic which means we don't use any pesticides or chemicals to kill pests! We don't even think about using the organic bottled stuff!  Why should we? There are plenty of ways to control your pests naturally and inexpensively.  Keep in mind when using natural repellants that you won't get instant results!  Organic gardening takes a lot of patience and a little bit more baby sitting than normal.  When you begin to get frustrated, think about the benefits you'll be doing for your family in the long run!!   You certainly won't be introducing poisons at the dinner table! 

Some Examples: 

• Placing cardboard around young tomatoes, cabbage, or other transplants to exclude cutworms
  
• Handpicking tomato hornworm or cabbage worms from plants
• Rotating your crops year to year
• Interplanting crops
• Introducing beneficial insects
• Home made Herbal Sprays

A few weeks ago we introduced for the first time a Praying Mantids egg case :)  ohhhh I can't wait to see these guys eat some pests!

And today I made a home grown herbal spray.  This is the first time we've applied this pesky rid potion to our lovely veggies!  And to my surprise, many worms curled up (which made it easier to grab and throw into our pond) and plenty of grasshoppers also jumped out and away (making it also easier for me to catch!)  oooo I hope this works!  Its all trial and error in everyone's garden!

Below are the instructions:

Herbal Sprays:

Many organic farmers are familiar with using sprays made from aromatic herbs to repel pests from the garden plants. Several recent studies confirm the repellent effect of such sprays. The essential oil of Sage and Thyme and the alcohol extracts such as Hyssop, Rosemary, Sage, Thyme, and White Clover can be used in this manner. They have been shown to reduce the number of eggs laid and the amount of feeding damage to cabbage by caterpillars of Diamond back moths and large white butterflies. Sprays made from Tansy have demonstrated a repellent effect on imported cabbageworm on cabbage, reducing the number of eggs laid on the plants. Teas made from Wormwood or Nasturtiums are reputed to repel aphids from fruit trees, and sprays made from ground or blended Catnip, Chives, Feverfew, Marigolds, or Rue have also been used by gardeners against pests that feed on leaves.

• Protection Offered: Try herbal sprays against any leaf-eating pests and make note of what works for future reference. 
  
• How to Make: In General, herbal sprays are made by mashing or blending 1 to 2 cups of fresh leaves with 2 to 4 cups of water and leaving them to soak overnight. Oor you can make a herbal tea by pouring the same amount of boiling water over 2 to 4 cups fresh or 1 to 2 cups dry leaves and leaving them to steep until cool. Strain the water through a cheesecloth before spraying and dilute further with 2 to 4 cups water. Add a very small amount of nondetergent liquid soap (1/4 teaspoon in 1 to 2 quarts of water) to help spray stick to leaves and spread better. You can also buy commercial essential herbal oils and dilute with water to make a spray. Experiment with proportions, starting with a few drops of oil per cup of water. 
  
• How to Use: Spray plants thoroughly, especially undersides of leaves, and repeat at weekly intervals if neccessary.

 

 

Let there be light?

So today, like the last few days, the weather was overcast through the whole morning and clearing mid afternoon. When the sun broke through the clouds, the garden was already in the shade from the big mulberry trees. The picture up on top was taken at 4:57pm and over 90% of our yard is no longer getting sunlight. We went to the farmers market in Alhambra and on the way there we stopped at the El Sereno community garden.   They open the garden to the public on the weekends.  So we stopped to see the plots and were taken back on the sizes of some of the vegges that are growing. Made me really ponder about what's happening in the garden, and that's how I realized it's a big deal not having more that 5-6 hours of sun.
The good news conclusion is everything looks great.  It will just probably take 4-6 weeks longer to harvest. We'll see how the tomatoes turn out.
Note: most plants require 6-8 hours of direct sunlight.




-- Posted from the field

Peaceful Elements is now OPEN!!

Yes the shop is now open and several fine pieces will be debuted at todays UC Davis Master Gardener's silent auction! Got to get some zzzzzz! Visit my store at: www.peacefulelements.etsy.com

Yay yay yay!!

Loaded from the studio...

The War Against the Ants

First a little background on my beliefs living with the vast amount of Earthlings which are not human. All uninvited creatures in the house get personally escorted out to the best of our ability. This includes spiders, flys, moths (sometimes, even though they are sent from the devil himself.) opossums (yes we did have a baby one in the house, he was a cute guy though), dragonflys, mostly everything with certain exceptions. Mosquitos gotta go, period. I find it interesting the it's only the female that are blood suckers, hmm. The little fruit nat things that come in the warm weather and hang out near and on any fruit or vegges in the kitchen. If they dissapear by themselves when we finally take out the apple rine that was left from yesterday, cool but if they try to make home then it the vinegar with water and a little dish soap the lure them into a irresistable resting place. Then there's ants. We're pretty tolerent of ants espically considerind my upbringing. I grew up battling ants. They would sent millions into the kitchen in the dark for a grain of dry cat food, or a billion would show up in my room if I left a bowl of cereal. My mom would spray Raid and I would ask her why spray that toxic stuff when we breath it in and all it does is drown the ants, so we switched to 409 or Lysol and had to clean up many little bodies. I always felt a little bad but communication wasn't happening. Anyway, many battles with ants later, I've tried to make a certain peace with them. Even if they somehow are crawling on me I try to
Blow them off unless they bite or are near a sensitive area.... Like my ears. Forgot to mention that Mom got some of this Chinese ant chalk which is the best stuff in the world to battle ants. You just draw lines where they are walking or circle what they came for and just leave. 10 minutes later they're gone, like left the building gone. It's the best. We tried to investigate the possible toxisity to us but it seems safe to all but ants and roaches. Anyway all that background to explain that today I had to engage the ants. It wasn't in the house but the garden. There have been more and more mealybugs and all the aphids have ant buddies helping them so we have to do something. I don't know of a natural way to balance the ants. I've never seen any benificial ant eating, garden friendly predator. So I topically deep watered where I see lots of ant activity and they came out in the gazillions! They were carring the larva egg things so I felt twice as bad. After the first battle we'll see if the harvesting of mealybug and aphids by the ants stops. Every creature is just trying to live, wish it didn't have come to this.

-- Posted from the field

Compost pretty in pink ;)

This morning was compost time! I'll be giving instructions later sometime...
It's lovely to get a sweat when turning the compost & making it look pretty too!
Ladies be sure to top off ur compost with some fallen bougainvillea or vibrant fallen flowers alike...

Posting from composting living area...

Fruit garden

Summer is what gardening is all about. Think that has been said before. Swore I've heard that before. When we plan to plant for summer, I always feel like there's not as much veggies to plant compared to spring and fall. Summer is probaly comparable to winter (at least here in southern CA) with the amount of veggies that like that season. Of course you have some of the favorites; tomatoes, cucumber, squash, peppers, herbs, and others that love the heat but most veggies don't like too much hot. What makes summer so great is fruit.
When we first moved here almost 4 years ago (August) we were blessed with some well developed fruit trees. There were a cluster of mulberry trees, one other mulberry tree across the yard and a loquat tree. With some love and water they ended up being good producers. Two plus years ago we planted two grapevines. Earlier this year we planted 11 fruit trees and have 5 more in pots. We also have little banana trees (but I don't really count them cause I don't know of there the fruiting type). These trees don't produce much the first years but by the third, should be supplying us fruit. We have a few pieces this year, enough to excite us about the future. Last year we had grapes grow which was the most fantastic suprise last year. We harvested about 20 pounds of grapes who's were undescribingly delicious. I'm smiling just thinking about them. :). So this year it looks like we might get more. As Milli would say "so exciting!", indeed. So here's to summer and the fruit. Plan what fruit you and your family enjoy and don't worry about the size cause you can keep mostly all fruit trees pruned small and still yeilds fruit. We're hoping for 50 pieces per tree which would be over 500 pieces of fruit. That should hold us over! We'll blog more about the trees and there progress.











-- Posted from the field

Examples on How to be Sustainable...

Example One on how to be sustainable...

• milli y eric get contracted to design and e-market www.thecrystalmatrix.com
  
• Patricia Bankins owns The Crystal Matrix
• eric y milli are happy to barter 50% with The Crystal Matrix :)
• milli uses some of bartering to get crystals and tools
• milli uses crystals to design her personal jewelry
• strangers, friends, and family demand milli's jewelry to be available for sale :)
• milli will donate and debut her jewelry at a silent auction this sat
• sat silent auction will raise funds to teach others how to grow their own food
• End result = milli, eric, patricia, and people who are taught to grow their own food HAPPY PEOPLE :)

sneak preview of milli's peaceful line...

Turquoise Ring wrapped in Copper Wire

Example Two on how to be sustainable...

• milli desires not to purchase but to recycle/reuse/barter
• milli needs bamboo or Arundo for Bingwa's 55+ tomato plants!!
• milli gets another call from Patricia about having more invasive bamboo and arundo
• milli drives truck to Patricia's to clean and pickup bamboo and arundo
  
• Patricia ends up with bamboo and arundo mulch and sticks for her beautiful veggie garden :)
• milli has plenty of sticks for Bingwa's 55+ tomatoes
• End result = milli helps to remove invasive plants (preventing spreading and fires), patricia uses her own bamboo/arundo mulch (saving money and benefits her soil), milli has invaluable sticks for homemade trellises and Bingwa plus Mother Earth = Happy :)

Patricia, thanks for playing outside with me today !