Tag Archives: garden

Food Storage, Garden

New Video Releases: Gardening Naturally & Permaculture

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As I stated in my last post, one of the goals I set was to clean up my website to create a more user-friendly experience for my visitors. Another was to clean up and upload videos I have been holding onto for far too long, which has been a significant undertaking. That task (the bulk of it) has been completed! I am excited to share that these are videos from the 1990s, a fascinating era that shaped much of my creative journey (This Old House was another one that I watched religiously, but that is still on the air and readily available online). I have done my best to edit, clean up, and enhance the audio to ensure that the quality meets the expectations of my audience. In addition, I have also included subtitles for all of these new videos (and all of my previously uploaded ones) to make them more accessible to a wider audience. With the intention of not overwhelming anyone, I have all of the videos set to release once per week, so no one is inundated with notification

I now have two new playlists on my YouTube channel. The first is all of the Gardening Naturally episodes I could find. What is Gardening Naturally?

Gardening Naturally is an educational television series created in the early 1990s, hosted by renowned horticulturists Barbara Damrosch and Eliot Coleman. The show focuses on sustainable, organic, and four-season gardening techniques, presenting viewers with practical knowledge that is both applicable and inspiring. Although the show officially ran for 3 seasons, I discovered enough videos to stretch it to 4 seasons, allowing you to delve deeper into the wealth of information it offers. Each episode features engaging segments that resonate with both novice and seasoned gardeners, showcasing a range of topics from planting and soil health to pest management and seasonal harvesting. I absolutely fell in love with this show! This show, for the first time, displayed practical tips and methods for organic gardening that were relatable, transforming the way I approached my own garden and instilling in me a sense of connection to the earth and the food I grow.

The second playlist is for Bill Mollison’s renowned Permaculture course, which explores sustainable agricultural practices and ecological design. I had originally uploaded these videos a few years ago but decided to take them down for various reasons, including the desire to improve the overall quality of the content. Now, after dedicating time to enhancing the material, the video quality is notably crisper,. Additionally, the audio has been significantly improved, now sounding 1000 times better than before.

I hope your day is exciting as mine will be (climbing onto the roof to eliminate moss while the weather is warm).

Garden

DIY Capsicum Tincture: A Natural Pest Solution

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I have to share this with everyone!  I was told about this a while ago, forgot, and was just reminded.  So, I made this up last night, sprayed, and my prayers have been answered!  Those cabbage loopers that have wreaked havoc all over every bit of food I have been growing are DEAD!  There was no new damage this morning (after me going out every night with a flash light and take care of the little buggers but always missing some) AND I found a number of them dead!  I am SO HAPPY!  Thank you, Don!

Hi Brenda,

I don’t know if I have told you this before so here goes.  I make up a tincture of capsicum.  It is made by putting a large can of Cayenne Pepper into a pint of Vodka.  Sit in the sun for two weeks, shaking twice a day.
Strain.  Make sure you label it because it is liquid fire.  Now for chewing and sucking insects, I put several cloves of garlic and a coarsely chopped onion in a blender with water.  I puree and then strain out the large pieces.  Add an ounce or more of the tincture of capsicum (from above) and add some liquid soap.  The liquid soap helps the proper ingredients to stay on the leaves when the water dries.  Put into a spray bottle.  Since this is a water based insect repellent, it will have to be sprayed on after each rain or sprinkling.

I have used this on many plants and it can also be used to stop chewing animals.

Give it a try.  To do things simply, you could probably put a large quantity of cayenne into water and let it simmer for a while and use it in place of the tincture. B*B, Don

Garden

Strange Weather and Planting

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As most of you know, we have not had our typical California weather this year.  It is June 7 and today is supposed to be a high of 77 degrees F.  Plus, possible showers tonight.  I’m tired of waiting.  Tired of waiting for the weather to cooperate and tired of waiting for a house of our own so I can STOP growing in these dang pots!

So, I am making a truck garden.  While I’m still growing in containers, the plants will get all the sun they need, and we may be able to get a little more food aside from sugar snap peas and tomatoes this year (though the tomatoes are questionable).  Here’s what I already have planted (and growing):

Sugar Snap Peas and Mixed salad greens, which didn’t really perform like I had hoped.  Next time, I’ll just stick with spinach in its own container.

Carrots (yes, they are there somewhere)

Cherokee Purple tomatoes (only had room for this one, Toni, but THANK YOU FOR THE SEEDS!)

Early Girl Tomato (which isn’t all that early … dang thing just now got it’s second set of leaves)

Zucchini

And I’m going to tempt the weather gods by planting … tuscan melon!  Please let us have a mild/warm autumn!  This isn’t including the pots I’m not moving: brussel sprouts, collard greens, celery, three different mints (peppermint, spearmint, and chocolate mint) plus a couple kitchen herbs (basil and oregano … I need more of these).

Like I said, all these are in containers.  The only problem (aside from weather, which I’m going to complain about constantly) is the lack of sun in my back yard.  This is my back yard:

Notice the HUGE pecan tree?  Well, it just keeps getting bigger (at least one thing is growing well this year) and now my pots get sun until about noon.  That’s it.  So, I complain every time I go out there to take care of them, just about ready to put the pots on the roof of the garage when it hits me.  Our truck!  We non-oped it a couple years ago because 8 miles to the gallon!  I love the truck.  I love the fact that if we need to move a whole bunch of stuff, we have the truck.  BUT, it’s just sitting there, in the driveway, getting more sun than any spot in my back yard!  So I took out the tool box, sprayed the wasp nests all over the place (they really like the side rails), knocked the nests down, and raked out the truck:

I hosed it out and put my containers in the bed … oh, I also drilled an extra drainage hole in the dent in the bed where the water keeps pooling.  Then I found a set of misters that have been sitting in my garage for about 5 years (I keep finding uses for all my junk and I’ll NEVER throw anything away again), took off the misting heads, and voila!  Drip system!

Now, I have a garden that may actually produce this year!  Do you see that?  That’s sun!  As you can see, there’s plenty of room to add more!  BTW, those are water containers cut in half and the blue container is one of those toy containers you can buy just about anywhere.  Since the kids are no longer kids, I recycled!

Oh, see that upside down recycling bin?  That is a REAL multipurpose tool!  As it is right there, it’s my step ladder (which I need because the tailgate is chest level).  Turn it over and it holds the weeds, leaves, and garbage.  It holds my clippings.  I can hold harvested food (sturdy and has handles).  AND whenever it’s time to move, it will hold miscellaneous garage items!  I love these things!

So, anyway, here are the links I found while trying to figure out what I could plant now:

list-of-companion-plantsDownload

What to do in your Northern California garden in June

Monthly Vegetable Gardening Tips – Sacramento Master Gardeners

Now, I’m tired.  I did this, trimmed, weed-eated, and mowed my weeds (I mean lawn) so I’m done!  Time to wash up and eat lunch!