Thee Electric Garden

Fruit is the next thing!

girlgroupgirl — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 03:56:40 +0000

I am making fruit orders for fall planting. It seems fall is making it’s way here. The other day I awoke to the Japanese Maple having some orange on it’s leaves. That is a sure sign. The days are still warm, but evenings are wonderfully cool – we’ve had plenty of rain and more coming, it’s the perfect time to plant!
So 4 years after literally buying the farm, the Urban Farm, we are ready to plant it!! The land is cleared, drainage (which has been a terrible problem here, causing soil compaction and putrification) has been corrected very nicely in most areas. There were areas I did not want to drain particularly well, and Simon, our wonderful contractor, made sure it was so.
So now I am in the process of ordering fruits and nuts after having much guidance and coaching for several years from Robert, the Atlanta Fruitman – fruit experimenter extraordinaire! His Blog has all the Southeastern fruit growing links you’ll ever need, btw.
We are so lucky to have easy access now to so many wonderful fruits. I was able to order some through The Oakhurst Community Garden fruit fundraising drive where I scored a nice Jujube Tree, a plum and a pear Johnsons Nursery in Elijay, Georgia. Johnson’s has beautiful, quality fruit and such a nice, caring staff – they are a great company with whom to do business! Another nice company is Bottoms and I’ve got Blueberries, a pear, persimmon, another plum, asian pears, a pear and if I get the trellising in I need there are blackberries and raspberries too!
Trees Atlanta sale is coming up in October. Trees Atlanta is a non-profit that oversees the urban forest in our city – increasing and replacing it’s canopy, often with wonderful native trees (and their cultivars). They are selling oaks, hazelnuts and Shagbark Hickory. I’m sort of hemming and hawing about the oaks. I really need a white oak (for the best eating) however they are slower growing and sprout more easily (meaning more work weeding).
Edible landscaping has a pollinating filbert (hazelnut) also on sale, so the time seems right. The plans are to get some items from Raintree Gardens with a few friends to reduce shipping costs. We all want Nanking Cherries, plus I would like some lovely colorful leaf cultivars of Elderberries (I saved the wild ones growing on the property after the tornado and am replanting them too). There are also so many lovely things at Just Fruits and Exotics!
You can see I feel the push, the rush to get things in and growing.

Fall and winter gardens start NOW!

girlgroupgirl — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 03:55:50 +0000

In the Atlanta area, the time to start seeding fall and winter gardens is the middle to end of August – as soon as you begin to see a decline in your summer garden, and as the nights get shorter and cooler.
I start my plants from seeds, some of which get sown into pots, some of which will, as the summer plants are removed from my garden, get sown directly into the raised beds.
How do I know which ones to do what with?
Never transplant root vegetables! It just doesn’t work very well. Root veg need to be sown at the perfect time. Not too hot, not too cold soil – very well draining. In the Georgia climate, I find they can club if timing and moisture are not ideal.
Then I think about vegetables I like enmasse. We eat a LOT of salad, so I plant some for heads and then lots for small cutting lettuce mixes.
Weeds – I do like to grow some weeds for greens in cold weather – they get planted enmasse too, most often because I find they don’t really like nice garden soil that much, and so they don’t germinate as well in the raised bed areas.
Alliums are another wonderful choice for fall – I grow many kinds of edible alliums, all started by seeds in the fall. So easy to overwinter and so tasty in the spring! This year I plan on planting HUNDREDS of onions so that I can chop and freeze them for annual use.
Then lastly there is the whole grouping of perennial vegetables. Most like to be sown in cooler weather, now is a great time to start! There are exciting perennial vegetables such as burdock, rhubarb (a challenge in the South), clumping alliums, asparagus (and more) all to plant now!

Music

girlgroupgirl — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:43:01 +0000

The Black Hollies

So far, I’ve been writing about the garden side of Thee Electric Garden, which surrounds our home Ward 81. However Thee Electric part is music, most specifically (and usually, but not exclusively) acid drenched psychedelia and soul.
Last night we went to see the Black Hollies from New Jersey play here in Georgia. They were outstanding! They played NON-STOP, loud and were highly electrified in energy and sound, like the Blue Things third phase – crossed with the 13th Floor Elevators!
The Black Hollies reminded me that my addiction to electricity will probably never be something I can overcome. Electrified rock and record players are something that helps me find the joy in life.
Oh, and 42.5 lbs and counting!

22.75 lbs and counting!

girlgroupgirl — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:10:58 +0000

The Freedom Harvest Challenge challenges all home gardeners to grow 1 million lbs of food this year. The Electric Garden is 22.75 lbs closer to it’s goal of harvesting more 222 lbs, our total last year. Since increasing the garden by more than 5 times it’s original size this year, we should easily be able to accomplish our goal!
The machines are here and clearing out the land, bringing down small and unhealthy trees to make way for fruiting and native trees, gardens and a much larger general vegetable growing area. The rain garden is getting graded and will make a wonderful place for moisture loving herbs and plants to grow in wild abandon. There’s some fill dirt to come, a retaining wall for the fence (so neighbors dog can’t dig under, he gives her such worry about escaping!!), a patio, deck gardens, greenhouse “landing”, dry creek, dry pond and cisterns…pumps…swales…drywells and so much more. YIPEE! It’s the beginning of our dream!

Cool Cool Spring

girlgroupgirl — Mon, 18 May 2009 22:04:15 +0000

It’s a cool, cool spring…only 44 degrees tonight here in Atlanta! Can you believe that? It’s quite unreal and very welcome! The cools spring annuals are very pleased and it’s been a longer season than most for bachelor buttons, antique roses, larkspur and early shastas. The lettuces have been extending but are beginning to bolt with all the rain we’ve been having. This also means that the summer garden is on slow because we’ve had so much rain but little heat – the rain has been playing havoc with pollinators so some fruiting crops are diminished (poor Lostman!) and would be needed for good tomato production anyway. There is one tomato bloom!

Here are a few recent photos of the lush growth of the garden. A few roses are balling that have never balled before, but we’ll forgive ‘em, OK?

Everything’s Coming Up Roses…

girlgroupgirl — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 02:57:09 +0000

I’ve been busy!

People are in the mood to plant gardens because we’ve had rain. Rain also means that my own garden is growing…and needs some work!
The one thing that hasn’t needed any work are the roses!!

My roses are still on chain link for the most part. I’m working on changing this, but changes are expensive and slow. Soon.
Did you know that antique roses are almost impossible to find in Atlanta.

Sure, there is at least one nursery who sells own root antique roses but the choices are limited.
This weekend I spyed a gorgeous specimine of the Cherokee Rose. I took note of the address. I’m going back to ask the home owner for cuttings in the fall! Personally, I do prefer not to purchase roses if at all possible. I have 4 roses in my garden I purchased. The rest are gifts or trades.
The biggest mystery was Ghislaine de feligonde, however recently I was able to identify it. Originally this rose came from a woman in Flowery Branch MS. I also have a small red “barn eater” of a rose – gifted to me as a 7 Sisters, it isn’t. I know the sender of the rose now knows this as she sells it on eBay. It’s deep red, once flowers are a treat -but be prepared to have a sturdy home for it!
This last rose is a rose from my friend Rose! It’s Veilchenblau and is a once bloomer – I have high hopes for this rose…I would like to errect some sort of structure for it to go up and over our driveway. Every year I cut it back several times to control it’s height (it wants to ROAM).
The roses in this garden have to be tough. I don’t really give them as much attention as they may like – or deserve…they get a few feedings of alfalfa tea a year, a few clean ups of diseased rose petals and a good prune at least once or twice, some mulch…there is no way I’m going to spray or drench them with chemicals as we do eat them! Petals on salads, on desserts and of course hips for tea!!
Here’s a list of some of my roses:

Polyantha (I know only some of the classes of my roses by heart): red fairy, fairy, pink poodle, margot koster ““
carefree sunshine, Baby Faraux.
Veilchenblau, Ghislaine de feligonde, Cl. American Beauty, Cl. Westerland, Crepescule, Buff Beauty, La Marque, Leverkussen, Darlow’s Enigma, MOzart CL Cramoisi Superior “
Jean Lajoy, small red climber, obligatory knockout and pink knockout, La Marne, Moseur Tillier, Sephrine Drouhan, Mme Plantier, Blush Noisette,
Easy Livin’, Livin’ Easy, Prairie Harvest, Autumn Sunset, a pink climber I don’t know the name of, “The K-Mart Rose” (unkown rose that originally was sold here at K-Mart in the 70′s and everyone has it. Fragrant, easy, disease free and forgiving), Russell’s Cottage Rose…(and probably a few more)

Chip, Bud, I’m a grafting fool!

girlgroupgirl — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:51:42 +0000

The Hoochman, Lostman, neighborhood fruit guy

This is Robert. He lives in our neighborhood and is known by a variety of names. Lostman, The Hoochman, that crazy guy down the street with with an orchard for a front yard…
You name it, he’s called it.
Robert is also just about the nicest guy on earth, and is on the board of http://www.nafex.org/ – the North American Fruit Explorers. Click on the photo to the left and it should take you to a photogallery at the local Atlanta newspaper where Robert and his garden was recently featured. I think the most fascinating thing about Robert’s garden is how he approaches it – he’s like an 8th grader with the best science project in the whole school … better yet, the whole county! The excitement he exudes, his humbleness, his love for experimentation shows as soon as you ask him about what is growing.
Last spring a group of people from our neighborhood toured his yard and ate a bit from his delectable trees which really helped me decide what I might like to grow and where they could fit into my “landscape” (read this as bombed out giant mess of weedy growth).
Part of Roberts experiments include grafting. He grafts compatable root stocks with a variety – usually “exotic” or “uncommon” fruits. Yesterday he taught a class on grafting and it was fascinating. What did I learn? That it takes a LOT of research to figure out what you can graft. What else did I learn, that one student had a pear of desire and one had a peach which is disease resistant without sprays in our climate. That was worth the price of admission alone…however it was Roberts excellent detail and demonstration explained simply with lots of examples from his own yard and experiences that make grafting seem possible for even the least scientific of gardeners.
I can’t wait to try it!

Robert will be talking at Grow Your Health Atlanta, Sunday February 22nd 2009in conjunction with Trees Atlanta

Native Plants ain’t what they used to be…

girlgroupgirl — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 03:07:37 +0000

Tonight a friend and neighboring gardener (gush, I am so PROUD of my neighboring gardeners!!) Michelle, who is also in master gardener training, went to a native plant seminar.
It was about putting native plants in your garden – or that is how it was titled. As interesting as the talk was, what struck me most was the sheer number of plants that were considered South Eastern natives that were discussed that do not grow here. They do not do well outside of the North Georgia Mountains. Yes, it is important to learn about all these plants – but no, I can’t grow them in my garden. Why not?
Temperature.
It’s just too darned hot most summers for these plants in our garden.
And personally, I was disappointed that 99% of all plants that were presented were for moist shade. Who has moist shade in Georgia these days?
I don’t even have anymore shade because a mixture of drought and tornado wiped out my trees.
The more I think about it, the more I realize the speaker was relying on his fabulous information from 1964-1967 (he repeated these dates).
It’s sad. Native, endemic plants are not what they used to be. We paved over half of them, and then dried out and fried the rest. I hate Monsanto for what they have done to vegetables, I hate myself for what I have done to native plants.

Tally your Total!

girlgroupgirl — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:14:05 +0000

Last year we began to tally our garden harvest. Why? Because the folks at Path To Freedom did, and they learned a lot about their garden and themselves from calculating their harvests.
This year they have a fantastic new challenge to help other home farmers and freedom fighters by encouraging them to throw in a total and amass a MILLION pound harvest by fruit and vegetable growers around the world!

Last year from July 1st-December 32st the Electric Garden put forth 250lbs of food in 180 square feet of garden. It didn’t seem like much then, but we are STILL eating it!
So far this year our pickings are slim as cold weather (10 again tonight) has ruined most of our crops. Live and learn. The Kale is still delicious and and only sweeter from the cold, it’s hardy here without a problem and we’ve already had about 2lbs from it since January (that’s a LOT of Kale in reality).
Gardeners, unite with the Derves, get out from under your bushel and GROW your way to freedom!

Rock Powder

girlgroupgirl — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 04:24:11 +0000

Today my rock powder came from Fedco. I have been studying remineralization and reading through the coolest book called Secrets of the soil by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird. I can’t wait until I can throw these in the ground. Working in a garden center (I’m over it now, but it was good while it lasted) was an excellent experience, and one of my customers and urban farm friends turned me on to remineralization. He turned me on to biodynamics too because he learned them all at Gaia Gardens from our friend Daniel, another urban farmer.
I also finally got some liquid kelp for my seedlings to promote root growth. One of my most favorite products is Maxicrop with kelp and I can not find it available, so I will play mix master myself.
Maybe later this week I will get motivated to buy a plastic tub to begin vermicomposting. I will need worms. I’m hoping Rasheed of Truly Living Well Farms will have a few extra. Rasheed is one of my local heros.
I would also like to mention the Scharkos because I am thinking of them today. Linda from Scharko Farms sold me some great garlic and a different kind of jerusalem artichokes (ones without such knobby roots). Linda is my kind of people.