Festival Loot

Happily there were soil block makers for sale at the Heritage Festival.  I've always thought they looked pretty cool when I seen them on the Internet, but wasn't quite sure if they'd work well. The Gardeners Workshop had a booth and was demonstrating them.  You could even try your hand at making a set of soil blocks.  I was sold and bought the small size to try at home first.  If it works as I think it will....I won't need to purchase the large block maker. 
The soil block maker is a device that makes little soil cubes for starting seeds from a specially mixed soil that holds together.  The benefit is there is no plastic pots to mess with and the roots do not become pot bound...they simply grow out of the block.  The only caution you must take is when watering. You must water the blocks from the bottom gently as not to wash the soil blocks apart.

Here is a link to The Gardener's Workshop if you might like to purchase one....I'm going to explore the site some more later...it looks like it might have a lot of interesting information.

I bought a small bag of already mixed soil so I could start sowing seeds as soon as I arrived home from the festival.  September is a huge planting month here.  Yesterday I planted 5 carrot varieties, 6 onion varieties. and 5 squash varieties.  I know it seems a little late to start squash....but I'm trying something a little different.  Our occasional light frost or freeze doesnt' really happen until late December or January.  I'm betting I can get a crop before then, and if I protect the plants they may keep producing right until spring.  These seeds I directly sowed in the garden.  In my soil cubes I sowed 4 types of lettuce, 6 types of cabbage, 2 types of kale, cauliflower, Romanesque, broccoli, cilantro, leeks, celery...um...I think that's it....anyway I think all around the soil block maker is going to make sowing certain seeds and spacing them much easier....and less wasteful of the seeds.

Here is a picture of the soil block maker and the left over soil!

Soil blocks.

Two days after and seeds are already sprouting.

I also bought a couple of books I've wanted for while.  It's amazing how often I look at things on the Internet and never buy them...but if I get them in my hands....well...I can tell right away if it is worth the money or not.  These two were....others...not so much.

The Solar Food Dryer by Eben Fodor.  It contains complete plans for making a sturdy long lasting solar dryer as well as solar info, tips and recipes.  Byron loves it.  He already has plans to make a dryer.

This is a book I've thought about for a while.  I compared it to a more extensive book on growing grains and figured this good overview is my style for starting.  I've purchased rice seeds and am determined to grow them.  I'll let you know how that goes even if I fail....failure is something I'm no longer afraid of ....we're good friends....he  boosts me up to help me succeed the next time...KEEP TRYING AND TRY AGAIN!

An added picture of a Monarch chrysalis we found on an okra pod in the garden....My friend Mary is going to be thrilled when I send her this pic!  Look at the gold on it...

Gardening Books

I love books. Especially Gardening books. Many garden day dreams have began with a bright glossy garden book. Every now and then I get book lust. A book I crave, and I must, must, have. When finally I get my eager little paws on it, I turn each glorious glossy page with starry eyes and imagining my yard transformed into a magical fairy land dripping with vegetables and flowers. Then the projects for Byron start piling up.....I want a raised bed garden, with arbors and paths and vines and naturism's spilling onto the path under the Monet inspired tunnel...and...and...and..... Byron? Byron? Are you listening to me?!
This was the first garden book I ever got book lust for. It's a Martha Stewart book before she was made over by professionals. I like to think it was the real her. So fifteen years ago Byron bought me this book, and I lugged it around forever along with my journal and a tin of colored pencils sketching out my dream garden that certainly I would soon have on my husbands below poverty salary. Fortunately, we didn't know we were poverty stricken! Isn't that just beautiful- bowers of roses and bountiful vegetables. Drool....Drool
Then practicality kicks in. Asparagus doesn't grow here...neither does peonies...and tea roses just wilt and die...Arggghhh why does everything I plant die? That's when my hero Dan Gill stepped in and saved me. He's the state agricultural whatever horticulturalist and local expert on anything Louisiana that grows. He was tapped to write this book. It tells you what does and doesn't grow in Louisiana and when to plant that which does. When visiting other states I have seen local versions of this book. It must be a state series. It's an indispensable book and every serious garden should have one regarding their own local climate and geology.
Then the just plain fun reading books. I love Steve Bender and Felder Rushing. Two local serious garden people from our southeast area, talking about those quirky plants and garden traditions in our area. I especially loved the "yard art section". Oh how I crave me a crowned tire planter!

Now we need something to help direct and fine tune all this indiscriminate planting. That's where John Seymour comes in. There should be some direction and use for all this labor. "The Self Sufficient Life", is a wonderful inspirational book that I turn to often for a good dose of "common sense".
Buying seeds every year can get expensive and isn't exactly self sufficient...so what do you do? Learn to save your own! Begin by buying heirloom seeds, and then use Suzanne Ashworth's expert book to teach you how to save your own quality seed.
My day dreaming girl must be satisfied as well. I just love Maryjane Butters. Beds in cornfields, old trucks and Mercedes, and campfire cornbread...not practical, but oh so dreamy.
Things will go wrong, and when they do you need to know how to deal with the problem or bug invasion without turning to poison. That's when a know it all book on organic gardening comes in handy.
When every bright and glitzy plant in the garden center that has ever seduced you to buy it promptly dies upon planting, you buy this type of book. A book written by a local about the tried and true plants that grow in your area. Internet is nice....but there's nothing like curling up on a comfy sofa with a cup of coffee and leisurely thumbing through a fantastic garden book. I do have a new book coming in the mail........

Seed Saving and the Potager

Byron built two more beds for my dream potager. It is slowly taking shape. We are doing it in increments as Byron has the time and cash dictates. This is the first third of of the garden. It will have a six foot wide center axis, and two more sections going back as large as the first section with six foot paths dividing them. All other paths will be three feet wide. There will be a round herb garden where the black post is sticking up. Hopefully this week we will get the stone materials to build the herb bed. When all the beds are completed, we are going to put crushed limestone for the paths. In the future we would like to fence the entire area in so we can allow our chickens to patrol for pests at times. My dream is that this garden will supply all of our fresh vegetables and herbs. From left to right you can see a fig tree, a guava, and an olive tree. The guava and the olive are experimental. On the right side of the garden is the mini citrus orchard, on the left is going to be our permaculture experiment. We already have pecan, pear, persimmon, cypress, oak and mulberry trees planted. There also is a large purple muscadine (wild grape) vine growing on the fence that borders the permaculture garden. I am going to quit mowing the perimeter to allow wildlife to encroach. We have squirrels in our trees again. Our neighbor on the other side had shot them all to preserve his precious citrus. Now he is growing landscape palms. I guess squirrels don't bother them.
This book "Seed to Seed" by Suzanne Ashworth goes into detail on saving seed. How far to grow certain crops from one another to keep them from cross pollinating, exactly when and how to gather seed etc.. Knowing how to preserve and use seed is essential in a sustainable lifestyle, and having books is an invaluable resourse to the sustainable lifestyle. My goal is to buy heirloom variety seeds. I bought these from Baker's Creek Heirloom Seeds. This ensures that the seed will produce offspring like the parent. Many of the modern seed varieties are crossed to get the good qualities of several varieties. When the seed is saved and planted, it may bear inferior fruit showing the lessor qualities of any of the parents used in producing the hybrid. Today in my new bed I planted a Southern heirloom "White Cushaw". It's an old squash very similar to pumpkin. I also planted a French heirloom called "Musquee De Provence". It is a beautiful light orange pumpkin that is short but broad with large deep ribs. It reminds me very much of the old drawings of the pumpkins used for Cinderella's carriage. In the top corner is a container of broccoli seeds I was picking to save. Here is the broccoli gone to seed.
This is Arugula gone to seed.
Here is a green onion allowed to go to seed. I will save all these seeds and use them in next year's garden.

John Seymour

John Seymour 1914-2004

Here is an excerpt from the book "The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It" By John Seymour.


"Work- I once knew an old lady who lived by herself in the Golfen Valley of England. She was one of the happiest people I have met. She described to me all the work she and her mother used to do when she was a child..."It all sounds like a lot of hard work," I said to here. "Yes, but nobody ever told us then." she said. "Told you what?" "Told us there was anything wrong with work!" Today, "work" has become a dirty word, and most people would do anything to get out of it. To say an invention is labor-saving is the highest praise, but it never seems to occur to anyone that the work might have been enjoyable. I have plowed all day behind a good set of horses and been sad when the day came to an end! This book is about changing the way we live, and I am aware that the subject is fraught with difficulties. The young couple who have mortgaged themselves to buy a house, or are struggling with personal loans and credit card debts, are in no position to be very choosy about what work they do. But why get into such a situation. Why labor to enrich the banks? There is not necessarily anything wrong with doing things that are profitable. It is when "profit" becomes the dominant motive that the cycle of disaster begins.

In my work with self-sufficiency I have met hundreds of people in many countries and four continents who have withdrawn themselves from conventional work in big cities and moved to the country. Almost all of them have found good honest and useful ways of making a living. Some are fairly well off with regard to money; others are poor in that regard, but they are all rich in the things that really matter. They are the people of the future. If they are not in debt, they are happy men and women."

The first step in living an urban or country life of self sufficiency is to remove debt from your life. It isn't easy. Debt in our society has become the norm. Most people cannot even imagine living without it. Debt is a hard habit to break and takes dedication and self-control to end the cycle. I chose to follow the Dave Ramsey plan because it is simple and will work for anyone no matter what their income is. As Dave explains it (in my words): sometimes your shovel is big or small (the shovel is your income), everyone's hole is different sizes (the hole is your amount of debt). As long as you are not making the hole any larger and you are shoveling as much as you can into the hole, you will fill it up and get out of debt. It is possible. His web site and radio show is encouraging because you get to hear the stories of other people who have beat debt. (see my fav links)

Here is the link to John Seymour's school in Ireland.
Smallholding School for Self Sufficiency

How my truck became a Boat

Today was the most interesting day. Byron and I went on a training hike on the Woodlands Trail in Belle Chasse. It is a wonderful under used path. The variety of birds are simply amazing. All of the paths were lined with mulberry trees and overloaded blackberry brambles. Every puddle we came to was populated by tens of little brown shiny frogs. We saw a Brown Louisiana skink as well. Then..."Crruuumbleack!!! (thunder and lightning)....EEEEk (me). It quickly turned into a pulse elevating exercise as my stride length doubled. Byron thinks I'm a chicken. Aaanywaay. We made it back to the truck double time.

So, we decided since we were out to make our way to Massey Outfitters to pick up some Jetboil fuel in order to try out our Jetboil backpacking stove we are going to use on our Grand Canyon trip. Of course, while we were out there I had to pick up a book I have been drooling over. The whole point of this story is to tell you how our truck became a boat. On the way home as we approached the Crescent City Connection we ran into one of the Louisiana rains, whipping wind and a waterfall. Along with everyone else we put our blinkers on and slowed to a crawl. We got off of the bridge at the Terry Parkway exit. OH My Jesus!! I exclaimed and from there on I continued to pray...Jesus..Jesus...Jesus..The water was over a foot in some areas. There were flooded cars scattering the street. Worried people were peering out of their doors at the water lapping their doorstep. Indignant men were wading into the waves angrily waving at the young men in large trucks to slow it down. The wake from fast moving vehicles laps into their homes. We turned onto Carrol Sue hoping to escape the water. It was worse, high water along with flooded cars littering the way. I prayed even more. As we pulled onto Berhman Highway the road raised somewhat. There was a young girl in a small black car turning onto Carrol Sue from Berhman. Byron and I frantically waved her down to tell her "Turn around! You will flood!" Big eyed she turned her small car and drove into a higher parking lot. Berhman was flooded just as bad further down. We had to weave around the small stalled cars we approached. We made it through. Thank you Jesus, and that is how our truck was a boat today!

The Tom Thumb lettuce I grew. These are from heirloom seeds I purchased from
Bakers Creek heirloom seed company. They are so cute-only 3 to 4 inches across.
Here are the beets I pickled from the last of the crop.
This is the book by John Seymour I have been desiring. I bought it today at Barnes and Noble. He is from Ireland and England and is considered the "Father" of the sustainable lifestyle. He was born in 1914. I can't wait to read it. Here is his wikapedia link John Seymour