New Year's Plans, Goals & Dreams

Tim was able to dig and plant the Kyohou Grape vine in the front garden this weekend! (pics to come) Yaaaaay!!! This has been a long awaited event and I'm so glad he did so this weekend as the weather has been EXTREMELY HOT this past week, and I'm afraid if this keeps up, the trees will break dormancy. Now we can breath a short sigh of relief as this grape can grow to it's potential this year and hopefully produce a decent crop. (And maybe we can make grape juice or.....even wine!  Wine-making...sheesh...another project in itself!)

I've been pondering about what I want to accomplish this year in 2012.
In keeping with the self-reliance train of thought, I've always wanted to learn more about solar panels.
So, this year, I'd like to do just that: Learn how solar panels work and even make some.
They may be crude, but if it works, I can make them for a LOT less than if I were to purchase them from a vendor.
It'll also make for an excellent Science Project for my son's on-going homeschooling.
Plus, it's just RAD(ha! who uses that word anymore, right?) to know you have the "power", yes...cheesy pun intended.
So, hopefully by the end of the year, we'll figure out how to convert Photons into Electrons with charge!

Another goal I'd like to pursue, is to learn the ropes on selling some excess fruits from our garden at our local Farmer's Market.  I've never been business oriented, but we have plenty of fruit and if it helps our income, that would be AWESOME!

We're also planning on raising rabbits. You may be wondering, what for? As pets?
Well...we're trying to figure that one too. We are all city-slickers. We've never been raised on a farm (including my mom). So raising animals for meat does make us somewhat queasy.  So, we're going to raise them initially, then decide if we have the "guts" (oh no, another pun) to do the dirty work.
Meanwhile, they do make excellent manures that can be used almost immediately in the gardens, since they are not as "hot" as poultry or cow manures. If we feed them to the worms, it would make the richest soil EVER as well.

If push comes to shove on food becoming scarce, we have a backup plan for a protein source.

Garden Updates April 25, New Vine Trellis and New Bed!

This is one of the few figs that over-wintered.

The other new figs look like this still.

Edible Chrysanthemums are cute as well as yummy. There's my son in the background pulling carrots

Guess what!? Tim dug a new bed just in time for the tomatoes! We double dig the beds and amend with LOTS of compost so it's not simply fitting in the wood framework.

Blackberries with a lot of flower buds. Yes, there's a huge hole on the right side. Tim was digging out last year's compost that he buried

Looking at the Loquat tree from under it's canopy

Here's the new Vine Trellis. Nothing fancy. We just needed something quick for our Chayote, Ground Nut vines, Passion Fruit vine and Chinese yam vines.

The Myoga is doing well

The neglected half of the garden where it's mostly ornamentals.

A view from under the Loquat tree

Swiss Chard planted, now that the lettuce is almost done.

Lupini beans are barely hanging on as they are masticated each night by the slugs!

This isn't the peach tree in the front yard. This one is a volunteer peach that came up in a 15 gallon pot that is practically ignored on the North-East side of the house. It seems hardier than the one we planted in the front. Mom says keep it and wait to see which tree will bear a better tasting fruit. 

Zuke blossom!

Onto the next bed~! Weekend Warrior Tim started diggin' up more dirt!

Sneak Peak at a new Project

"Now, what are they up to???" Lori, the kitty is checking out the new "thing" that came home to the backyard today. It's our new project,...along a huge line of other projects...hehe! Can you believe we got this sink for FREE? Yes, Freecycle is AWESOME! A Quizno's nearby was going out of business and they were getting rid of everything!  This thing is listed starting at $590 if you buy it new. Getting this home was quite an adventure for T too! We have a Honda CR-V, it's not a very big SUV, and T told me he almost lost it (like fall out of the car) on the way home because, he had to drive with the back hatch open! We want to install this in the back,(someplace obscure) to wash the veggies and fruits, and use the grey-water for the garden's fruit trees and lawn. 

Harvest for the day, New Zealand Spinach(2.5 lbs), Loquats(4.5 lbs), Strawberries (6 oz) and "Seri"(Japanese Parsley) Botanical Name/ Family : Oenanthe stolonifera/Apiaceae(Umbelliferae). This has a very distinct aroma, some people will think it smells medicial. I plan on using it for "ohitashi", simple blanching, then put shaved bonito flakes and soy sauce as a side dish.

Exciting Update!

We've talked about it for a while, but we are finally doing it! YES! We are breaking up a 20 x 20 feet area of concrete to make more veggie beds! We hired our gardener and he gladly broke up the "urbanite" and hauled it away. My husband insisted he can do all that, but seriously, at what cost/time? He works full-time, so it would only be done during the weekend, plus he's a tie-wearing mouse-pusher. Not really the physical type to be bustin' up concrete. I told him he has lots of wood working projects backed up anyhow.

There was stil a lot of gravel and sand under the concrete, so we had to have all that hauled away too... cost more for that

finally we see some real dirt! This soil hasn't seen the sun since the house was built in 1954! Before the concrete, there was asphalt on this area. We know this, because our family bought this house back in 1986, and it was a asphalt driveway until we had it repaved in the mid 90's.

We plan on letting the soil sit a while with some compost on top, let the wormies do their thing, then plant some native wild flowers, so their roots can penetrate the tough soil. Then, after that we plan on planting corn. The Corn plants' roots host microbes that break up toxic chemicals from asphalt. So does Sunflowers and crabgrass, but our son is severely allergic to Sunflower seeds, and letting crabgrass go rampant just doesn't sound pleasant to an urban homestead that's seeking to look "pretty" but productive. We'll have to find some local folks that are looking to get rid of their topsoil and bring some here. the soil level here is about 4" less that the rest of the garden.

The rains caused a mini lake. I foresee some drainage issues... But I'm excited! We added some grass clippings from the neighborhood lawns to get the composting going and hopefully some natural softening of the soil by our friendly earthworms. (note the small tree in a 15 gal pot. This is the dwarf, grafted, 3 variety asian pear tree that went to a new home. We simply didn't have enough room for this one, even though we brought it with us from the other house. It went to a good home, and we got to trade it for credit on organic supplements!) See our doggy Happy too, the new space is pretty big in contrast to him!

If you want to see this area BEFORE it was broken up, you can check it out here and also here: