Fight Orchard Pests with Flower Power!

A parasitoid wasp. Most of these wasps are under a quarter-
of-an-inch and none are able to sting humans.

I was talking to a friend a few weeks ago and he told me that he never sprays his apple trees, but he regularly has 25% of his apples worm free. He didn't know why, but I have a pretty good idea what is preventing his apples from being damaged.

My friend lives on his old family farm in Lehi, Ut and it is full of "weeds" that are left unsprayed and usually un-mowed. These feral plants feed all comers including small parasitoidal wasps. These wasps lay eggs on a number of pests, including apple codling moths. When the eggs hatch they start eating the pests.

This is not a perfect system, but it is a sensible way to have better fruit with no added chemicals. And you don't need to live on a farm to make it work! All you need is to plant more flowers.  Not all flowers are created the same and some flowers will do more to attract predators.

Below is a list of some of the more useful plants for attracting parasitiod wasps. They are all readily available in seed or plant form at your local nursery or on line.

Scientific Name	Common Name	Growth Type
Achillea spp.	Yarrow	Perennial
Agastache foeniculum	Anise hyssop	Perennial
Artemisia spp.	Wormwood, sagebrush	Perennial
Aster spp.	Aster	Perennial
Astragalus spp.	Vetch	Perennial
Baptisia spp.	False indigo	Perennial
Bellis perennis	English daisy	Perennial
Borago officinalis	Borage	Annual, reseeding
Caragana spp.	Peashrub	Shrub
Chamaemelum nobile	Roman, English chamomile	Perennial
Chrysogonum virginianum	Green and gold	Perennial
Coreopsis spp.	Tickseed	Perennial
Echinacea purpurea	Purple cone flower	Perennial
Foeniculum vulgare	Fennel	Perennial
Helianthus spp.	Sunflower, Sunchoke	Annual, perennial
Lupinus spp.	Lupine	Annual, perennial
Medicago satvia	Alfalfa	Perennial
Robinia hispida	Rosa acacia	Shrub
Robinia pseudoacacia	Black locust	Tree
Solidago spp.	Goldenrod	Perennial
Trifolium spp.	Sweet clover	Biennial

The best places to plant these plants is as need your orchard area as possible. In the case of the annuals and perennials, planting them under and around the fruit trees is best. If that is not possible, a flower bed near the trees would be the next best thing.

It will take a few years to start attracting wasps, so be patient and take the time to work with nature. Any other flowers, especially perennials, are likely to help, so feel free to add more flowers and flowerbeds to your property. All the good critters will love you for it.

Manana!

Vote Local!

I get stares for wearing election day stickers,
but any little nudge to get people working for
their communities is well worth it.

The most ignored part of gardening is voting in your local election. So often I hear about some poor soul being halled away in chains because her (it always seems to be female) zucchini plants offended the neighbors. But I rarely hear about those who support gardening taking things into their own hands by taking it to the ballet box.

While many of us are tired of the national, and even state, political messes. Local politics, however, can be refreshing. I have never had a city politician who was too busy to make time for me. I have never had one who could hide his flaws well enough that concerned folks couldn't run a successful campane against him.

The real truth of it is we forget how local politics can improve our real, everyday lives. Go ahead, talk to the candidates and tell them what is important to you.

Then, go vote in November!

Drought Loving Flowers

Roses are often thought as being wimpy,
but I find them on many foreclosures. The
white ones with pink blush seem to be
common survivors.

When you live in semi-arid (read that as what most people call a desert) place it makes sense to use plants that don't need a lot of water. I have taken classes and read books on the subject, but the best information I have found on the drought resistant plants is from foreclosed homes.

Foreclosed homes usually don't have sprinkler systems running, so anything surviving there is bound to be tough and adapted to the area. Sometimes a plant will get help from a neighbor overwatering or runoff from the roof. But that's ok, when it is dry you take all the help you can get!

Here are some of the tough plants I have found, tell me what you think:

Apricots are the most drought hardy of the common fruit
trees. This one has gone at least two and a half years
without human irrigation.

Hollyhocks reseed freely and I find scraggly survivors every-
where. This one is flowering better than most seedlings,
likely because of the soil storing extra water from the
downspout. 

Lavender thrives on the dry, even after a
couple of years.

Mainstream Beekeeping

A top bar hive ready to be loaded it to a car and be taken
directly home.

I attended my first beekeeping class a couple of weeks ago. The class was free to attend and sponsored by IFA, a regional farm and garden store. The fact the class was no cost and had a retail sponsor tells me something important: bees are mainstream.

Even at the hight of the back-to-the-land movement of the 1970's, I don't think there was so much interest in raising bees. I suppose it will end up being a fad, but I hope not. Bees are terribly interesting and are at so much risk right now that every new hive offers a better chance for their survival.

Langstroth hives in several configurations
sitting in the store.

By having many beehives in a neighborhood, there are a greater number of bees to make up for the dead hives caused by temperature variations, pests, and pesticides. Lots of urban bees in back yards can eventually provide replacement bees for the highly stressed bees used to pollinate commercial crops.

Thanks to Chris Rodesch for coming in to
teach us a great class!

I don't know how many beehives an urban or suburban acre can hold, but if you ever have a question whether your bees can be fed, call me and I will be more than happy to design a bee garden for you!

Seed Quality

Seed racks are out at the big box stores and catalogues are arriving, it must be time to think of spring planting.

Starting seed is like anything else, good materials make for a good experience. But it is hard to tell what seeds are good and what are not. After all, you can't see through most seed packets.

The importance of quality seeds has struck me with almost an urgency after failures for the last five years. My swiss chard was a mixture of varieties, tomatoes the same, two squash varieties failed, and my beloved kohlrabi turned out to be radishes. What is a gardener to do?

First: Keep good records. If you have a record of failures and successes, you will know whether it is the seed or how you are growing it. You will also be able to see patterns for the seed companies you use. One problem is not that important, every company will make mistakes once in a while. But once you have a pattern you know that you need to look for a new suppliers.

Second: Choose seeds from a source that has a good reputation. This means talking to other gardeners and evaluating the sales materials. If a company has not put thought into quality advertising, they will not likely put the thought into quality seed production.

Third: Don't buy cheap. You don't have to pay $20 for good seed, but you have to wonder what you are getting if you pay $1.

Fourth: If you save seed, learn your business and do it right. Saving seed is more complex than just scraping the seeds out of a squash.

Fifth: Understand that you will get better quality and uniformity from hybrids. I prefer open pollinated seeds, but I know I will have different results from some of my neighbors.

For a good start look at Johnny's and Territorial. You should also look at Burpee. I don't use Burpee much now-a-days, but I never had problems.

Have a great time buying seeds!

Green Buying

It just might be time to get a new mower....

Every once-in-a-while I check out the environmental blogs and articles on the web. Invariably I click away in disgust. Most of the chatter seems to be about great environmental products that are so green that you can’t live without them. When I start reading the green resume of the products I am often surprised at what constitutes ‘green’ to the bloggers. 



And then I look at the price. Even if I like the product and have a need for something like it, I don’t get the green product because I can’t afford it.

While more of us are becoming familiar with ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ I think we would be well advised to also remember an older phrase ‘use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without’ as well.

Neither of these phrases covers what to do when you finally need to buy something, but here are some tips to help: 



• Ask: do I really need it?

• Check to see if you already have something that will work for you, but you just hadn’t realized it. 


• Look for hand-me-downs, items from thrift stores, or second hand shops. 


• Don’t buy fad items. Look for colors, and designs that looked good 30 years ago and will still look good in five years.

• Decide what you will do with the product after you are done with it. My running shoes are a good example. I can only use them for running for a year or two. Then they get rotated into my work shoes. When I get done with them at work, there is little left to dispose of.

We all need a certain amount of 'things' in this world, but by thinking and planning ahead we can cut our 'things' down to a manageable level that all of us can live with.

Nitrogen from Plants

Nitrogen fixing plants are a great way to build up nitrogen in the soil without using chemicals. But you can’t expect to just plant them and leave them.

The plant wants to use the nitrogen for its own purposes, namely leaf and seed production. So if you want to get the nitrogen benefit for your soil and other plants you will need to trim them back before seed is set.

Most annuals can be taken down to two or three inches, with some leaves showing. Perennials can usually be cut down to the ground. Many shrubs can be coppiced every few years, while the remaining shrubs and trees can be selectively pruned or even hedged.

Even some trees can be coppiced, but you must choose the tree wisely. And you must commit to caring for the tree as it recovers. Coppicing can cause trees to grow back with structural weaknesses that may create safety problems later on.

Whatever you plant and however you decide to maintain it, you should spend the time to research it before hand. Then, pay careful attention to how it grows for you and record what happens in a journal so you can refer back to it latter.

Good luck and let me know what happens!

Occupy My Own Life

The Occupy Salt Lake City encampment, before they
were cleared out by the city.

I have a great deal of sympathy for the Occupy Movement, but I could never be involved.  The reason is I have things that are more important for me. I have a daughter that will gain an entire life by me being home and teaching her how to live so that she cares about others in a personal way. 


In addition, my wife was being treated for cancer at the height of the Occupy Movement. My greater responsibility was to support her and give her the help she needed to get through alive.


But even without the worries of my family, I couldn't be involved because I have something better to give than days and weeks at a time demanding change from people who don't care. I have a skill that I can teach that can change people's lives.


Each time I work with a new client on a design, I teach them how to make life better for themselves by giving them the choice to be involved in growing their own food. I give them a chance to see how they effect their neighbors by how they care for their lawn. And, how they can change that by taking out the lawn altogether.


I also work with several non-profit agencies giving low cost classes and seminars. I can't say I've truly helped more than a handful of people, but I know I am moving in the right direction. 


Now, I have begun to wonder, what if just a few of those protesters with specialized skills were to join me to teach others. I am sure there must have been a few folks with legal and financial skills that could have stepped out of the protest ranks, for a least a little while, to teach classes on how to improve local financial situations.


I can't give you details on these systems because I don't understand them well. I've read about them, but they seem to be ignored by the larger world of big government and big capitalism. 


Unfortunately, real solutions are rarely found by just protesting. They are found by people who take the next step and actively find new solutions which can be implemented from the bottom up. That is my job. Now that things are less active in the protest arena, I hope a few others will join me. Maybe with a lot of hard work and time we will make some real changes together.

I don't need to plant, that was done last year...

Lettuce gone wild.

While other gardeners are bemoaning the last days of winter, I am already started on this year's planting. Well, actually I started last spring. The lettuce plant you see above is a seedling of lettuce I planted last year. Half-a-dozen plants bolted before I could eat them and I left them in place to give the wind a chance to do its job.


Surprisingly, the new lettuce plants are near where the originals were. Less surprisingly, they are all in divots where the wind is too weak to blow them back out. While I have never been strong on a smooth seed bed, I think it is time to make them even more rough.

Rhubarb and a pea.

A few peas have found a way to sprout in mid-January as well. The one above will be an interesting companion plant to the rhubarb and strawberries that I planted last fall.

I will plant a few more lettuce and pea seeds since I don't quite have enough to cover my expected needs. I will be sure to leave a few of the best plants to give me seed for next year.


Now my biggest problem is what to do with the time that I was going to use for planting. Hmm, maybe it is time to talk to the landlord about digging up more lawn....

The End of Landscaping

The concept of a garden seems to be increasingly lost in America. Instead, we prefer plenty of carpet-mown grass with kidney-bean shaped tree and shrub beds plunked in the middle. We lovingly call this 'landscaping' to try and connect ourselves with the great painters of the past.


Well, at least some people stay true to the idea that a garden should be a unique endevor. And some of those are bold enough to use them for food as well!


These photos are great for stimulating design changes in next year's garden:

These folks are getting serious about food.

This resident shares food with his neighbors, they never 

complain to the city.

This wins my prize for best use of a boulevard
strip!

This garden is near my house. I look
forward to seeing the changes as the
summer progresses.

A bit of the wild look.

Food and beauty. These folks have it together!

Nuts Varieties for Utah

A columnar English oak can be grown in
many suburban gardens with out taking
over the full lot.

One of the most neglected plants in the edible landscape is the nut tree. In my native Utah, walnut trees are a common sight, but often outgrow the space they are planted in.

Below, I've put together a list of trees that can be planted on a typical quarter acre lot. Not all of them are the best choices for all home owners. When choosing a nut tree remember to account for size at maturity, how quickly it produces, how well the nuts will store, and yearly productivity. And don't forget personal taste!

Common Name Scientific name Cultivar Height Width Notes Bur oak Quercus macrocarpa 70-80' 80-90' Big prickly acorns, favorite ammunition for kids. Swamp white oak Quercus bicolor 50-60' 60-70' Great for wetter areas. Will get chlorotic (yellow) leaves in alkali soils. English oak Quercus robur species 40-60' 40-60 Susceptible to mildew and aphids. Fastigiata 50-60 10-15' Will get wider after three or four decades. Susceptible to the same pests as the species. Gamble (scrub) oak Quercus gambelii 15-25' 15-20' Native oak growing in clonal clumps with small acorns that attract bluejays. Given enough time and little maintenance clumps may get to be quit large. Almond Prunus dulcis All-in-One 15-20' 15' Hardy to 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Best in warmer valley areas. Hall 20-30' 20' Best with a pollinator, Joranolo or Texas. Small slightly bitter nut. Starts blooming with apricots and ends with the peaches. Mission 20-30' 20' Small nut with a harder than usual shell. Late bloomer and pollinates best with Hall or Nonpareil. Filbert (hazel) Corylus 15-20' 15' Varieties vary greatly depending on where you buy them. Make sure you have an appropriate pollinator. English walnut Juglans regia 60' 60' Many varieties, make sure you get one listed as 'Carpathian' type for good winter hardiness. Nuts should be small to medium and well sealed for best quality. Butternut Juglans cenerea 50-60' 50-60' The tastiest nut in the Juglans genus but do not stand under the tree when they fall. The nuts are heavy enough to do damage. Apricot Prunus armeniaca Chinese (Mormon) up to 38' Use only sweet pit varieties as a nut, others are toxic. Piñon Pine Pinus edulis 30-65' 25 years to cropping. Will only crop heavily every third year. Single-leaf Piñon Pinus monophylla 30-65' 25 years to cropping. Will only crop heavily every third year.

A Dedicated Do-It-Your-Selfer Dilemma

I have often wondered about the food I cook with. Where does it come from, how does it get to me, and how could I do it all myself? The milk for instance, I have seen documentaries on how it is produced commercially, and I have helped in small scale home production, so I get it. The same with flour. In fact, flour is easy to produce with some quality without any complex procedures or equipment.


The honey is a little harder, but with some research and space most people can become competent. The oil on the other hand seems like an incredible chore. I'm sure I could do it, but the task seems almost epic compared to the other foods I've mentioned. Even once I set up the press and other equipment, I would have a hard time getting enough raw plant material to make the effort worth while.


Wheat has the same problem with volume, but at least wheat can be obtained in bulk if I can't grow enough. Try buying a 50 lb. bag of flax or rape seed some time. I'm sure it is there, I am also sure I would have to look for it. 


The point of this is that there are some things that are difficult to produce on a small scale. A dedicated do-it-your-selfer with visions of sustainability has to accept that he can't do everything. Especially if he lives on a city lot, or even worse, an apartment. 


But, he can take the time he saved by retreating from one or more of the difficult tasks and use it to focus on mastery of what he can really make a difference with.


After all, would it be better to produce a couple of pints of oil a year or to produce enough honey for all your sweetening needs for the year, plus some to share with your friends and neighbors?


Think about it, then sit back and decide which tasks are most worth it. Then, who knows, maybe it will be creating artisan flax seed oil. If so, could I trade some early snow peas for a cup or two?

First Spring Planting

Looking out my door in January. Maybe not time to plant yet.

Every late winter I get asked, "What can I plant in the spring?" This is a difficult question since planting is best layered over time. This list covers most of the early plantings that go in as soon as the ground thaws. In my area the thaw comes in mid March.

Asparagus
Beets
Broccoli
Brussels Sprouts

Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Endive

Garlic
Kale
Kohlrabi
Leek
Lettuce

Mustard
Okra
Onions
Parsnip
Peas

Swiss Chard
Turnip 

Permaculture Pruning: Lesson One

Me climbing into the main crotch of a peach tree.

To prune properly, you need to know something about how the plant is structured and how it responds to getting cut. The following is a list and description of some of the important parts of a woody plant for you to know when pruning.


In future posts I will teach how to prune right.


Branch A subordinate shoot coming off of a larger stem.

Branch Bark Ridge This is a pucker of bark that appears on the upper side of the angle where two limbs meet. It is most common on angles where one limb is bigger than the other. Branch bark ridges do not appear on all trees. Lindens, for instance, rarely have them.

Crotch The area where two limbs meet.

Co-dominant Stems Two branches that are about equal in size and vigor.


Collar A swollen ring at the base of a branch where it meets the trunk of a larger branch. This ring contains wood created from the branch itself as well as the larger limb it is attached to. The collar is easily visible on some limbs, but it is usually hard for the beginner to see.

Included Bark When two branches grow close enough together that they are unable to knit together properly. This causes the back to get caught and die between the two branches. Crotches that have included bark are common breaking points when the tree is under stress.


Node The point on a stem where buds and leaves are or were attached.


Scaffold Limb The major branches of a fruit tree.


Spur A short, slow growing stem that is often the area of fruit growth.

Sucker A shoot growing from the base or roots of a plant. Watersprouts are often called suckers.


Trunk The main stem of the tree.


Watersprout A vigorous, fast growing branch. Watersprouts usually grow vertically.

Permaculture vs. Gardening

I think we all know what gardening is, but to many permaculture is a new term. Permaculture is a combination of the two words: permanent and agriculture. It was coined in the 70s by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren for a system of farming they were developing. This system mimics processes and patterns in nature in the attempt to create more food and cut down on work in the long term.


Permaculture is mostly interested in the design process, but it also contains a loose group of techniques that is easiest described as, 'Best management practices for sustainable food growth'. 


I don't know when permaculture moved to the quarter acre lot, but it is a natural fit with farming's little sister, the garden. Permaculture matches well with today's interest in organic eating and gardening, preserving natural resources, and self sufficiency.


Here is a list of topics and practices that are common to permaculturists:

• Sheet mulching
• Forest gardening
• Garden animals
• Nitrogen fixing plantings 
• Community involvement
• Aquaculture
• Resource management
• Natural design and patterns
• The influence of structures and gardens on each other

You will notice that 'community involvement' is not an idea you readily relate to farming and gardening. The sustainability Mollison and Holmgren were looking for stretches beyond the farm. For many, permaculture now means 'permanent culture'. For them permaculture is searching for a better way to live in the world.


At its base, permaculture is just a collection of good tools to make my garden better. I will always call myself a gardener first, because it is an old word that everyone understands. It is a way of life that that extends back to the beginning of history. But even with that history, it never hurts to reach out and choose a new tool or two. So I guess I am a permaculturist as well.

My Small Christmas

I sit here on Christmas morning waiting for my wife to stir, or my daughter's great patience to finally run out. Behind me stands a bank of book shelves, mostly full of books. Behind that is a Christmas tree.

The tree is a short thing of about four feet including the pot. Around it are huddled presents, mostly from outside our immediate family. It has been tight this holiday season, but we are not destitute. I would have liked to have gotten a little more for my family, but not much. As is, it is about the same as in years when my income was better. 

I can't help comparing what I have to tales I occasionally hear from friends who tell me that they can't deny their children anything. I don't know what life is like for them. I simply can't imagine it. I do know when my wife and daughter come down, and we gather around the tree, we will be happy. We will be together. And we will love each other all the more.

I hope your Christmas is as happy and as peaceful as mine.

Merry Christmas!

Sustainable Work Ethic

Before

After

Despite being committed to sustainability and better home food production, the financial core of my business is mowing lawns. While it is disappointing because it is so far from my goals, I do find it satisfying to to take tough projects and make them look better.

Most of my mow jobs are on foreclosed houses. The lawns are often all dead and I have to hack through hip high weeds on a regular basis. 

The results are an ugly, unevenly short lawn after the first mowing, but after the third mowing I'm bringing it in to where it could compete with the neighbors for quality. If I had living turf with some water on it instead of weeds.

The quality of what I do was brought home as I visited a former job that the property management company reassigned to another contractor. The fences had tall weeds lining them, as did the house and shed. There were lines in the center of the yard where the mower skipped parts. Really, there was just an air of laziness around the place.

Honestly, I don't mind the height and weeds that much. What I do mind is taking a job and not giving it the best you can. I will never make a prize winning lawn out of these tough jobs. But I will always do my best to walk away with my head held up high.

This all has taught me some important lessons about sustainability:

1. It is sustainable to feed your family and provide a place for them to live.
2. Sustainability requires hard work, just like anything else.
3. It doesn't matter how hard you work if you don't understand the job and what you need to do to get it done.
4. It is not sustainable if you cannot make something you can be proud of at the end of the day.

Sounds like a great way to live, doesn't it!

Gardeners and Santa

A friend of mine told the truth about Santa to his kids a couple of days ago. This admission received a wide chorus of 'how could yous' with a few, quiet 'at-a-boys'. The 'how could you' crowd seemed to focus on how this friend was robbing his children of some 'vital experience' for growing up healthy.


My wife and I have never taught our child that Santa is a real guy flying around the world with reindeer and a red suit. She knows the stories, but she knows them in context of reality. And honestly, I think she knows them deeper than many of her friends.


Many of those friends spend horrific amounts of time putting together long lists of what they want Santa to bring them. The larger the family tradition of Santa is, the longer the lists seem and the more time the kids spend making them.


My daughter, on the other hand is much more likely to ask what work she can do to earn money to give a well thought out gift. Yes, she has a wish list. But it never makes it to paper unless she is asked. And while she has fun opening her presents, she is more excited to see the reaction to the ones she is giving.


Somehow I don't think she has missed that 'vital experience'. She has, however, gained several key traits for a gardener. Humility, a realization that one must give, and deep caring about others.


After all, where would our gardens be if we didn't put so much into them? If we didn't realize that we are subject to the greater power of the elements? And that our vegetable and fruit gardening always leads to helping someone else?


And aren't all these traits the same ones that make all civilizations work?


No, I am sure that teaching the truth about Santa will lead to much more magic in the lives of my friend's children.