Boy Bunny!
My boy-bunny is tickled pink. I put a sister bunny back into his pen, well within her cage. He loves girls! And can’t keep his nose out of her cage. I am happy becuase having a female bunny nearby keeps his life interesting, and he needs the activity. Bunnies are somewhat boring pets, mostly eating and sleeping and running from you when you try to grab them. They get into most their deviltry during the night while you’re asleep.
hurt nose!
Anyway, my boy-bunny is happy he’s got some company. He loves sniffing her cage and scenting it with the side of his mouth. He does it so much his nose rubs pink and looks kind of raw. If he keeps doing this I am going to have to put him back in his cage! Since I am a dude and my boy bunny is a guy, I kind of play favorites between he and the girls. I let him run around a lot, but if he keeps being dumb and hurts himself, I will have to say, “Boy Bunny! No!” and put him in lockdown until he cools off! Yikes.
Pumpkin Flowers
Two days ago I began to notice these precious, large, orange flowers on my pumkin plants. Their petals were paper thin, and they shriveled away a day or so after blooming. They were so ephermeal, they seemed truly precious, and I had to get capture their passing beauty before they entirely disappeared, hence the pix. One thing buds to mind, these pumpkin flowers sure don’t give much opportunity for cross-pollination! I am guessing since pumpkins grown in batches of vines, normally this would be ok. But these plants are only a month old and have yet to become vine-like.
Since we all know a person can find anything on the internet, I looked up the flowers and found this article on pollination. Evidently there is a problem, and gardeners are advised to pick male flowers and pollenate female buds with the stamins. Male vs. female flowers are recognized by whether a bulb is present immediately under the flower. Females have bulbs, which if pollinated, become squash pumpkins. When I find a male flower, I will let readers know how long they last once picked in terms of the stamin.http://gardeningwithwilson.com/2008/04/22/pollinating-pumpkin-flowers/
Update: There are usually far more male than female. I looked at my pumpkin plants this morning and almost all of the flowers, whether budded or still growing, were male. I from all counted, out of perhaps 20 only 2 were female. At there base you will find small bulbs that look like miniature watermelons (green and striped). I tore a male flower, removed the pedals, and rubbed the stamin in the pistil. Just to ensure pollination I left the stamen in the pistil. I will let readers know if this translates to a sugar pumpkin!
More Spinach
It’s still coming with no end in site. This batch is four days worth of spinach salads. I couldn’t keep up so boiled it down in a pot. My corn is sprouting. Corn is very easy to transplant and sturdy. I just planted kale and sunflower seeds. Next: potatoes. Some plants I harvested a bit early just to clear room for the new seedlings. I had to replenish the soil of nitrogen so added by energizer-bunny compost into the earth, mixing old soil with new fertilizer. We’ll see how this works. Once I get my beds built up, I will then add an irrigation hose to make watering easier.
What a Difference Rain makes
good morning garden
We had four days of rain in the Bay Area this week. There is nothing like rain for a garden! Rain contains natural nutrients that plants do not get from house water. After each rain I notice my plants growing by leaps and bounds within 24 hrs! It’s such a powerful spurr to growth. A lot of my spinach has yet to bolt and is still growing, almost two feet high! The Broccoli leaves are getting as big as sycamore tree foliage! And the pumpkin plants are catching up with my tomato. All this compared to two weeks worth of daily watering from the hose. Such a difference!
I am doing so good on this side of the lawn, I think I will franchise on the other. Yesterday I planted some corn seedlings (12), and have another 15 to find locations for. I am starting to run out of space and have to plan things better. I have seedlings budding while my spinach is still growing, so there is a bit of an unevenness to all this. What I am picking up is a ‘feel’ for spacing between plants, how big they get, and how slow or fast they grow. As I learn this, I can plan better in the future. Right now, no sweet. If anything I have too much inventory and have a backlog. Earlier, I feared the opposite. What I am lacking now is cultivation space, and I have a fly problem– not from the bunnies but from the cat who is scatting on the roof. Powerwash and litterbox time. Bad kitty! (though she has kept the mice/rats away from hay and the property).
Another thing I am learning is one must constantly figure out how to yoke nature and make tending of plants easier/time-efficient. The farm/garden is really a man-regulated ecosystem given to us by God. Oh yeah, “thank you Lord for the rain”!
Dream House
While driving from Concord to Castro Valley, I spotted this charming farm house near route 580. It so happened the house is owned by the San Ramon park district, and they were holding a farmer’s market. The Boone Family farm is a 16-acre lot with a mini-farm, dating back to the 1860’s. You can pick up free compost (not as good as my bunny soil), visit their chicken and lamb farm, and tour the historic buildings on site. If I were to own property outside the bay area, I’d certainly shop for a run-down version of the Boone farm and fix it up. Victorian only! Oak creek has been restored with pedestrian bridges and gardens. Very beautiful.
http://www.ci.san-ramon.ca.us/Parks/programs/historic/boone.htm
What passed through my mind as I visited was the tragic loss of historical memory and sites such as the Boone Farm. The East Bay (only a generation ago) was primarily agricultural. We developed so fast due to Silicon VAlley, we have missed the forrest for the trees, and generally recognize the need for open land, agriculture, and historic buildings after they are lost to strip malls and chains. Development should keep history and community in mind, and I think small-scale development tends to be more sensitive and have less negative impact than mass. I am for strict limits on development and urban growth. As a ‘traditionalist’, I have a backwards view of development, rather desiring stasis than change as well as a healthy suspicion of the “big” or “impersonal”.
The Farmer’s market was also quaint. I caught San Ramon’s first market of the season, and while I was there I was handed a bullentin of other local markets and eco/sustainable gardening activities. Something that caught my eye were the vermiculture and backyard chicken classes scheduled for July. I bought an avacado which I intend to plant.
Dark, rich, muddy, icky dirt
ahh... lovely compost dirt!
Yesterday was very rewarding. Now that my greens are hitting harvest time I am worried about soil depletion. This crop includes spinach, two kinds of onions, pumpkins, and tomatos. My next will be melons, beats, spinach, flowers, some squash, and corn. I expect in two or three weeks most of my garden will be harvested, and I will be ready to add new soil, introducing nitrogen rich fertilizer. This is very experimental and will see how it turns out. I should be using a pH meter to know where I am at.
Anyhow, I have been preparing good-fertilizing soil since February. I built a compost bin with two compartments. One side I kept empty so I have room to “turn over the compost” after a couple months. The bottom of the compost pile is where all the chemistry happens, and the hotter the bottom, the better. Stuff on top will only slowly ‘rot’. Turning your pile periodically upside down in necessary to speed up decomposition.
I was keeping bunny food– hay– on my empty side. In order to turn the compost, yesterday I built a new bin just for bunny chow. I don’t keep my bunnies in cages all week long (too cruel), so let them free roam in gated pens. You have to watch bunnies. They get into trouble. As I was leveling out the space where I planned to build the hay bin, some earth crumbled and caved in when my mattock struck! It turned out my rascally rabbits had dug a 
secret underground rabbit den that I knew nothing about. Thank goodness it was alongside the house. I worry they may escape if they do the same near the fence. I have to always keep an eye on these trouble- making bunnies!!!
turning my compost over
Anyway, I built the hay bin, transfered my bunny hay over to it, and then turned my compost pile. I was very pleased! My compost was very rich and even black underneath. Plus, I had a lot of it! The compost was three-and-one half months of lawn clippings (from three homes) with bunny droppings (bunnies have to earn their keep!) and some old leaves and hay. I found the wet areas of the pile appeared better degraded than dry. I guess moisture also speeds up decomposition. I had a lot of ready-to-use fertilizer compost, most of it was already like pure dirt. Almost as good as worm droppings! Incidently, I am supplementing regular compost with a worm farm. Will share that soon too!
God Bless!
What’s Missing?
I only picked a bunch of spinach and have a lot still growing. As I made this salad the other night, I had to ask, “what’s missing”? Mushrooms would have been good, but not sure how to properly grow table mushrooms. I’d probably end up eating todstools. But wouldn’t feta cheese be delicious?!?
I’m missing a goat! This blog explores an angle of micro-farming/gardening for the poor or suburban person who has limited cultivation space and/or land (less than a quarter-acre). In suburban backyards you may find some room for “pets”. I already have four rabbits with a hen on the way. Even if I had my own 5 acres outside the Bay Area, I’d be hardpressed to feed a cow or any large animal from the produce of the land. I’d want some grazing range.
sooo CUTE! must have a mini-goat!
A person who lacks land ought consider mini-breeds. I’d love a goat. Goat milk is sweet and the cheese is good (though not an easy process). But even a normal goat is a bit big for my intentions. I am now looking into mini-goats. Mini’s are abut 2/3rds the size of norms. Goats in general are very hard to milk and require stockades to lock them down. (you can build a quick and easy one from two shipping crates). Even then they kick, and they must be ‘broken into’ daily milking. Also the teat is relatively short and hard to handle compared to a cow. I imagine dwarf goats are more difficult than their regular-size counterparts though there are some breeds less aggressive than others. I plan to look into the matter, and suggest a similar investigation for anyone else considering a milk animal on a small plot of land. There are dwarf breeders in northern CA. Will keep you posted.
Bunny Trails 