Grocery Store Onions

     You can plant the bases of fresh green onions. Most will regrow their leaves and provide you with additional green onion to eat. This will be the first year I have been able to keep them alive into the hot part of the summer, because the onions can't dry out in the heat. Shade is helpful also.

     You should try it! It's rewarding to see the fast growing changes and growth. And it stores food outside in the ground, uneaten by bugs and rot. The onion's pungency repels other insects.

Opuntia planted into an unstoppable barrier

     Someone gave me some Prickly Pear cactus, and I took some freshly grown tunas to the new property. I dug a trench in the limestone sand near the easement, and popped the tunas into the ground.

     Exhilarated, snapped a picture to show how the moat around my Firtress is progressing. I have also added a few Yucca Filamentosa to the wall of spikes. I plan on intermittently placing some Agave Americana amongst the wall, which will really deter anyone or anything from stepping onto my property.

     At the other boundary I have been placing Yucca filamentosa and Agave Americana. This part seems to be in direct sunlight, so Prickly Pear might not do as well. I will be adding more plants to my moat as much as I can, limited by supply of free plants from my little yard and time to go out to the property.

    One of my other plans is to dig the low spot on the property deeper, perhaps into a pond. On a previous trip I snagged these plants from the low spot, which I think might be cattail. I potted the little grasses into my backyard pond, successfully as of yet. Neither has created a
cattail flower or any kind of distinguishing mark.
      Digging the low spot deeper isn't a plan to create drinking water at the property. I am still working on that problem.

Spring 2019 Beans, Part 3

     As full-on Summer begins, the Spring bean plants start to die down. I let the pods dry on the plant, then feed the dead bean plants to the rabbits after harvest. In September I will replant the new beans for another crop.
     I very much enjoy all of Fabiacia that I have tried. Perhaps soon I will give Chickpeas/Garbanzo another try. This Spring I was growing an unnamed white bean, which made bushes less than 12 inches tall.

Opuntia placed using the STUN method, update

  It has been about two months since I planted all those tunas at the new property. They look great considering no rain and no care, right?
     It won't be too long, maybe another 6 months, and I will place them around the border of the new garden. It will be just one layer of fencing around my fortress of solitude.

Gratuitous Flower Pictures

Fortress of Solitude - Building a Moat

     Other than the Prickly Pear cacti that ai am propagating for my moat, I also have plans to use Yucca filamentosa as an additional barrier. If the yuccas were spaced appropriately it would be enough danger to stop most large animals, in theory. No deer preying on my garden!
    I planted out some of the immature yuccas from my house with enough spacing in between them for a row of prickly pear and then Agave americana on the inside row. Of the three aforementioned species Agave americana is the moat useful to me at the moment, as a leaf from it needs no adulteration in order to feed the rabbits. They like it! So having agave on the inside seems to make sense to me at the moment, even if I am sick from a cold and sleep deprived.
     Here is the beginning of the plant fence near the road.

Sneaky Morning Glory Plants

    You think you canna get away with that?

Beans, Spring of 2019, Part II

May 12th, 2019

May 12th, 2019

May 12th, 2019

Beans, Spring of 2019

     This spring I decided to try something different.  I planted a bunch of mystery beans in my containers, along with some morning glory. The beans were cheap and white, and said they were bush variety, so why not? I guess I am a why not kind of person.
     The germination rate on the beans was pretty decent - more than half sprouted. I can't complain about that.

     The best thing about beans is that they have been hybridized to grow quickly. This is a boon in our short spring growing season. Beans share this trait with peas. Every day you can walk over and visibly see that there has been a change from the previous day. Suddenly there are flower buds and tiny pods. Leaves are good in salads and smoothies, or with the stalk fed to the rabbits. And the flowers are gorgeous!

     There is a lot growing on in these pictures, as I am a big fan of polycultures and diversity. I am learning to appreciate the traditional choice of potting mix - that spaghnum moss is an excellent moisture sponge. It makes me wonder what other traditions people are growing on? I will post more pictures as they flower and fruit, assuming I can keep up with rhe watering!

April 29th, 2019

Veronica spicata, Blue carpet speedwell, update

     Now that the Speedwell plants have gone to seed, they aren't nearly as beautiful as they were when they were flowering in this picture. But now they have dozens of seed pods, which are moist and mucilaginous. Perhaps when they dry out I will seed this spring flowering beauty elsewhere on the lands! It's useful as an expectorant or just as an additive to tea; almost a shame it's not native.