Wicked Cherries

July was a bit of a rough month here at Wicked Raven Farm!  I nearly decided to quit being any kind of a farmer at all!  The garden at the school was vandalized twice and we lost a good bit of produce, but luckily only a few plants were too damaged to recover, I pulled my collarbone out of joint in June and didn't let it rest so now it aches whenever I do anything at all,and my Wicked Cherries all got gone.  I showed you in earlier blog about training strawberries into flats to expand the row (the little garden vandals rode their bikes through the flats and damaged a lot of them), and how I used fencing rounds to protect the cherry trees (read on - it was rough), but here is a way to grow cherries from seed easily over the winter to expand your orchard!

These are Carmine Jewel Cherry seeds - saved for me by my dad, Doug Carney at Snowfire Gardens.  They have a few of these cherry trees and they put on a TON of cherries each season and they are so good.  Tasty in a pie or right off the bush, and they are cold hardy as well.

I started with a 3" deep flat of good compost mix soil.  I found a corner of one of our garden beds that we had already harvested the produce out of  for the season and I buried that flat in the soil there to the rim.  I had about 25-30 cherry seeds that I planted in there about an inch deep.  I did add a couple of decent sized rocks to keep the wind and the pets from tipping the flat.

The above photo lets you see what the whole bed looks like - moose eaten broccoli and all!  I didnt even grow broccoli this year, we never get to eat any of it anyway!

Once the seeds are planted and buried in the flat, just leave it until spring and see what pops up!  I had 18 plants come up in this flat, and out of those 15 survived to transplant either into pots or into the orchard area.  They are currently about a foot tall in the orchard area.

Above photo is one of the Carmen Jewells that came up this spring in the flat of seeds!  Awesome!

We will have enough to share with family and with the school to add to the orchard there as well!

This tree is a Bali/Evans cherry tree in the yard that bore fruit for the first time this year since I had used the wire wrap and kept the moose out, but as I said earlier, July was a rough month!  I had taken the wire round off of this tree because hubby was having trouble mowing around them, so I was going to make the area a rectangle fence that included both of the Bali/Evans cherries and make it easier to mow around.  Just about the time I got all the tools together that I needed and got the fencing off, a friend came by, she had lost her sister the day before to cancer.  People come first at Wicked Raven Farm, so we made some comfort food and some tea and we watched a funny movie with her to help her keep her mind off her sadness.  I didnt get wire around the tree that night.

The next morning the hubby asked me if I had seen the cow and two calves that came through the yard?  He said they really tore up that birch out by the garden! I asked if he had seen them at the cherry tree?  He hadn't thought to look so off we went to see if it had been hit.

Boy had it been hit!  I was so mad I could hardly see straight, they had stripped off all of the top layers of leaves.  The above photo shows what was left of the cherry.  They did leave me two of the cherries though so I quickly put some wire around it until I could get the project underway again. I thought - Okay - I have two cherries left so we will at least get to try some Wicked Cherries this year.  The tree will grow back and it will all be ok.  The rain began and it poured down - the project went on hold again, but at least it had wire around it again.

The next morning I had calmed down a bit, and as I get up a little earlier than the rest of the folks in the house - especially on a Sunday, I was sitting, drinking my coffee and reading my newspaper when I heard the distinctive cry of the Sand Hill Cranes.  They frequent our yard, and although they dont eat as many slugs as I would like they do eat some of the yukky things.  But this day as I watched them  in relax mode, I saw one of them sneak up to the cherry tree, put his head through the fencing and.... yep - you guessed it - ate the last two cherries on the tree!  I gave up farming for that whole Sunday!  I Googled what Sand Hill Cranes eat? Because I could not believe that he had eaten my cherries and Google says they eat "everything"!!  Of Course!

I am not a quitter though so on Monday after work I was feeling a little better not bitter so I went out to inspect the tree, and lo and behold - a reason to keep going - a lone cherry still hangs on the tree, tucked way back near the trunk.  There is hope for the Wicked Cherries after all!

I had lunch with my mom and my niece on Tuesday of this week and as I was telling them about my rough go at farming, I though I was keeping the language under control but later my sister called me and left me a message full of laughter and said Ellie (the niece) told them about my troubles and at the end of the story added "Now, imagine that story only with a lot of "F" bombs in it"!

Keep calm and Farm on!

All Tied Up!

A few weeks (ok - maybe months) ago, I showed you one way to use those newspaper bags that you might get on your paper.  Where I live I still have a delivery person that brings my paper to a box and the weather is so up and down from rain, snow, sleet, sun and wind, sometimes all in one day!  So the paper company puts the paper in little plastic tubes.

I showed you before (see that blog here) that those tubes can be used to mark plants and keep birds out of beds by tying them on fencing or plant supports and letting them flutter a little - its scary for some of the animals and birds.  Some of them of course don't care.

I always struggle with the recycling part of the bagged newspaper - the paper part is easy to recycle but I often worry that those little bags dont actually make it to a recycle place and actually get recycled into something else.  I have always envisioned them making it to the ocean and wreaking all sorts of havoc with the animals and fish there.  So I found another use for them - and I had run out of Velcro!

First thing to do is cut the bag cross wise to make rings of plastic.  See photo below.

Once you have the rings you can use them as is or break them into strands of plastic and use them to tie up your tomatoes, cukes and anything else that needs a soft touch and a firm hold.

I tie them gently around the plants the same way you would using twine and whatnot.  The plastic has a second useful life and unlike twine, string, yarn and some of the other things it dries easily and doesnt seem to hold onto the dirt even.

If you need a longer piece of plastic, daisy chain them together the way you would rubber bands and you can make a full on rope out of them!

Because we are having a fantastic summer this year my greenhouse is growing amazingly well - I have to re check the plants about every other day and tie at least some of them up again.  To save me having to run all over the greenhouse back and forth to the bins, or from having to stuff a bunch of ties in my pocket, I used some of the bigger bags (Sunday paper), and filled them with the tie rounds, then tacked them up in strategic locations throughout the greenhouse so I always have at least a few ties on hand no matter where I am!

There is always a way to use even the smallest item and make it useful again, and may you always need more ties for your plants!  Grow on!

A Journey of Growth

The journey of growth starts with a seed - a seed can be for a plant or for an idea or inspiration.  Each and every one of us holds the power to make something grow for the good; be it through green plants, music, crafts or love.

I was recently inspired by this video that someone shared with me to just begin planting.  Plant those seeds, plant those trees, teach others how to do it as well!

 http://www.permaculture.co.uk/videos/planting-trees-india

We have been gardening now at Houston High school for about 3 years and we have developed some really great systems for growing and expanding what we have with very little, using innovative growing techniques.  For example we have taken our strawberry patch to new heights - actually we are in the process of taking it to new heights - by using a transplanting/runner growth technique that I got from my dad at Snowfire Gardens.

Our strawberry Hugelkulture produces a ton of berries, and it also makes plant runners that try to go all over the place!  So we started with a 3" deep flat that we filled with good growing medium.  We set them at the bottom of the hills of the hugelkulture bed and we trained the berry runners into the soil.

The runners take root in the flats and then you just snip them off and you can transplant them safely to the spot you want them!  It works slick as a whistle!

 In the above photo you can see we have two flats and you can see where the strawberry plants are growing well already - in the right side of the photo you can see the empty row that we need to fill with berry plants.  The flats will go right into the end of the row.  Next year when this row is full we can start a new row or have some plants to sell!  Win-Win!

This is a super simple way to plant that seed and begin a journey - even if the destination is just to have a full strawberry row!

The Door is Open, broken and catching water!

A couple of years ago (two I think) our garage doors took a hit during a storm and one of them wasn't able to be repaired.  So it was time to replace both garage doors!

Below is the new door but gives you an idea of the panels that I mention.

 All the metal materials (the rails that the doors ride on) and all of the pressboard from the panels ended up in a pile in the yard - a lot of the metal was twisted and bent.  I was able to dig right in and use the panel pieces right away as benches for plant growing in the greenhouse - an immediate upcycle!

Below is one of the benches that I made with a pressboard panel.  Of course covered in the upcycled tinfoil that the Senior class gave me!

The below photo shows the twisted pile of metal that used to be the guide rails for the doors.  I just had to find something I could use them for!  I can't stand dumpster only items so.....

I got my trusty saw and my tin snips and I went to work making a way to catch more rainwater from my barrel system.  I have a great water catchment system set up from the greenhouse and my little shed that I put rain gutter on and directed it into a series of barrels.  But when it is really hot and dry I go through all the water from the barrels in a hurry.  The barrels fill up and then just overflow onto the ground - but I wanted to be able to also use rain water to fill up the barrel inside the greenhouse with that great mineral filled rain water as well. 

Below is a chunk of the metal that I started with.  I planned to create a diversion system to a secondary water tub beneath each rain barrel to give me and extra 50 gallons or so of water.  I know that I have a hose and sprinkler, but the sprinkler spray only waters to an inch or two below the surface and it uses a lot of electricity running the pump to try to get the water to the plants.  Its a way better system to have gallons of water on standby - relatively free that I can pour a good quantity onto the area directly where I need it.

I know it doesn't look like much but just wait!

I used the same sealant that I used to keep the rain gutter together (recommended by my Lowe's helper).  My rain barrels are upcycled soap barrels from a car wash.  I paid $25.00 each for them from the local car wash and rinsed them really well before I used them.  Call your local car wash or watch for them on Craigslist.

I measured and cut a rectangle wedge out of the lowest side of the rain barrel.  I used my tin snips to flap the barrel end of the metal trough (see below) to give the water a good path.  I put a seam of the sealant on each edge of the cut and wedged the metal trough part into the space.  After it was dry I used sealant around all of the edges that touch the barrel.

This way when the main barrel becomes full it diverts it into the lower barrel/tub.  The one below is just a Rubbermaid plastic tub that gives me an extra 20 gallons of water, but even if all you have is a 5 gallon bucket its a good thing!

I am thinking I will put this on the base of an old yard cart that the sides are missing from so that I can roll it to the plants I need to get it to.  

The barrel below has two incoming gutter pipes - one from each side of the shed - that is the reason I did this barrel first - it fills up faster than any of the others.  I plan to do this with all of the barrels I have around the greenhouse and house.  Makes great use of the damaged metal and makes my life easier as well!

Simple and fairly easy to DIY!  See what you have to use that can upcycle into a great catchment system for your farm!

*** There are some states that restrict the catchment of water - please do check the regulations where you live - or be a water outlaw!