I've been asked countless times how do you know how deep to plant seeds.   A simple and very effective way to figure out how deep to plant or how much dirt to cover seeds is to gauge the SIZE of the seeds.

A simple rule we follow is: "The size of the seed is how deep you cover with soil."   Quite elementary, my dear, and very simple to remember if you are without instructions on the back of your seed packet.

There are a number of different types of seeds that require different conditions to grow. Some seeds may need light to grow, some may need darkness, and. believe it or not,  some may even need to be charred by fire. There are so many variations in the ideal conditions to stimulate seed germination you need to ask yourself:  How does seed size impact the process of germination? Do certain size seeds need special conditions?

Very small seeds usually are planted at a very shallow depth.  They will receive 10% to 20% of the light incident on the soil surface.  The reason for the shallow planting is that these seeds have very few reserves for producing shoots. If they were planted any deeper, the shoots would not manage to go the full distance. Plants that germinate like this are termed “positively photoblastic."

As an aside, the above article states that many weeds are also "positively photoblastic." Their seeds can enter a state of dormancy after being worked into the soil or, unfortunately, when inadvertently put into the compost heap.  Many farmers will insist on working the soil at night to reduce the possibility of weeds occurring as there is no light to trigger the seed germination.  If the soil or compost heap is turned over once and exposed to the light, the seeds will awaken and you will now have weeds to contend with but a layer of mulch will deprive the weeds of the needed light.  We have used mulching here extensively for over 25 years.  In fact, that is how we started all this by smothering our back lawn (er weeds) and  front lawn with a layers of newspapers and mulch.   Now, we are about a 1 1/2 feet higher than our neighbor!  Yeah, I know I said something of the sort in our award winning little film - check out the clip where it shows me on top of the compost pile!

With it feeling more like Spring than Winter, I've been busy planting hundreds of soil blocks full of peas, greens and more!  And of course, watering MORE than I should for this time of year - that's bad!   Normally the hose & I  takes a hiatus during winter, but not this year.

I'm really worried, with winter not shaping up, there's no rain.  It's sooo dry, it's scary - really scary!   We are praying that we get some desperately rain and snow - and soon!

:: Resources ::

Heirloom & Organic Seeds - featuring our fave varieties that we sow

Soil Block Maker - the most used garden tool, I make thousands every year!

Making Soil Blocks - a highly efficient way to start your seedlings

Check out our GARDEN supplies too!

Hosing off. Playing in the water, feels mighty fine

Time to dry off

Twist n shout!

Almost dry

Sitting pretty

While Jordanne is hard at work making upgrades  (looking good btw!) on our blog, here's a little pictorial interlude for your enjoyment of one of the many hummingbirds to visit the garden each morning.

This time around, I was prepared and had a camera ready for the action!  While watering the garden, they enjoy a fresh drink and morning bath from the hose.

From what I can tell, this one looks to be a young female Rufous Hummingbird.

My sisters tease me because I seem to attract our resident hummingbirds while I'm outside.  They often remark that the little hummers probably have a crush on me - whatever.  What's with my sisters anyway?

Growing on up... 10 feet and growing!

Tomatoes are the king of the garden come summer.   In just a few weeks they can tower over their counterparts, creating a jungle right in the middle of the city!   When you are out there in the summer garden, you feel quite small, almost like you've been transported to a whole 'nother world.

Trellis systems, either with wood, string, or wire, are necessary to keep these giants from toppling over.

For my tomatoes, I am using wire/metal cages but had to add another layer after they topped 10 feet!  Lucky I had these wooden a-frame ones on hand that we built a few years back.   Now if the tomatoes grow beyond that, um, guess I am going to have to top them!

What trellising methods do you favor?

Now, if these giants would produce a bumper harvest, then I will be one happy guy - not to mention my sister, too!   She's been anxiously waiting the onslaught of summer crops so she can start putting up.

:: Resources ::

Tomato Trellising System

String Trellising of Tomatoes

Staking and Training Tomatoes

Trellising Systems

Anais, here.  Aren't those tomatoes just gorgeous?   Yeah, yeah, Justin is right.  I am a bit impatient!   Though we are harvesting and eating fresh tomatoes, I can't wait until I can get enough to start canning.    Anyhow, sorry about the lack of postings but it  appears our website(s) were (again) under a denial of service attack.  It's hard to post any updates when these attacks happen! One day I will get through the backlog of urban homesteading blog posts.

May Harvest Tally

528 lbs produce
Eggs 124 (Duck) 76 (Chicken)

2011 Year to Date Tally

1,466 lbs produce
Eggs: 610 (Duck) 266 (Chicken)

Farming in the City

Typical morning at the farm

After chores, Friday is typically our biggest day for order.   Start picking & packing (from about 6 am – 11 am) for the Front Porch Farm Stand customers and our restaurant clients

Today, for instance,:

15 +lbs mixed salad
15+lbs of other greens (kale, chard, arugula, mustard and more)
Couple dozen boxes of nasturtiums
Few bunches of herbs (cilantro, mints, lemon verbena, etc)
Few dozen chicken and duck eggs
Honey, bread ( delivered from local artisan bread maker), preserves, herb butter and more

Living Off 1/10 Acre

Reducing food miles, growing food security right in our own backyard!

$75,000 in savings growing 99% of our produce  for family of four

~400 flora varieties in a growing season

$20,000 + in gross sales

Our living expenses are very low as we live quite simply - making do, wearing out and using up what we have.   Our out-of- pocket expenses include utilities,  federal/state tax,  CA FTB sales tax, business licenses fees,  annual property taxes, and insurance.

Here's a helpful "Money Tree" showing the aspects of our outreach & lifestyle

I’m no scientist (ha) but here’s some unscientific tangible proof that if there are “no bees, there’s no food”  It is estimated that the work of bees provides $16 billion dollars of value annually in the U.S. alone. Pretty scary fact don’t you think that these little guys play such a big role in our food chain.

Exhibit ONE

Last year’s (2010) loquat harvest WITH bees

Exhibit TWO

This years (2011) a miserly ONE HALF basket WITHOUT bees

Good news is that the bees are back on the urban homestead, but they just missed the loquat blooms by a few months.

Bees are back!

Just goes to show you how important bees are for the pollination of crops in urban environments.

Have you noticed an increase in your harvest when you started keeping bees?

:: Resources ::

Loquat Fruit Facts

A World Without Bees

Vanishing Bees

Po-ta-Toes! Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew?" -

Time to harvest our Po-ta-Toes!

Here in So Cal, where we have a "to be desired" growing season,  I started the potatoes back in December.   Sometimes I have a few little "seed potatoes" leftover; but, each year, I get a couple of pounds of  organic potatoes from the local health food store and sprout them.

I like to plant the potatoes in 15 gallon tubs with an olla (clay pot irrigation).  Seems to be successful.

Digging up the tubs filled with potatoes

Cutting down the potato greens to get to the tubers

Olla and purple potatoes

Pulling out a clump of fingerling taters

Colorful spuds

Potato au gratin

You can tell by the photo line up, it  pretty much sums up what our weather's been like.  Hot, for a couple of days, then cold.

This season, I grew purple, fingerlings, yukon gold and red ones  which all turned into a pretty decent harvest of nearly 100 lbs.

If you never had a homegrown potato before, you are missing a real treat.  We've been enjoying  potato salad with pickled squash and carrots from the pantry.

Back in the old days, seems folks would eat potatoes raw like apples.  Watching the Lark Rise to Candleford series, there's a scene  with Mr Timmins munching on a raw potato.  Hmmm,  I thought, eating raw potatoes are bad for you; well, that's what they tell you.

Not quite sure I'll try raw potatoes anytime soon.  When we roasted potatoes, I'm often reminded of Wilder family in Farmer Boy.

Working the hives

New queen

My sisters and I have been watching a BBC TV series called Lark Rise to Candleford.  One of the characters is “Queenie” the village beekeeper and honey mead maker.   I find skeps a rather fascinating part of beekeeping history. Bees and beekeeping have certainly  changed over the years.

In the apiary, queens rule.   The queen bee determines the whole chemistry, demeanor and health of the hive.   Re-queening is necessary for those city beekeepers who capture feral swarms.  Putting in a friendly, docile queen ensures the “quieter” temperament of the colony which means they easier to work with and manage in an urban environment.   I have found that many feral bees,  after a  few seasons,  tend to get more aggressive. More often than not, they will breed mean queens. They usually make ‘hot’ bees that boil over when anyone opens up the hive and these hives tend to swarm more often.   So, I opt to purchase  a naturally mated queens from reliable sources.  In a few weeks, the beehives are calmer, easier to manage, swarm less, and friendlier.  This means I can work the hives in shorts, sandals and gloveless without being stung.

I’m trying a few new different things this year (obviously, last year didn’t work out - though I suspect no fault of ours), and we’ll see how it goes.  It helps tremendously that I’ve grown up around bees my whole life and to me, beekeeping is one of the most rewarding and enjoyable things I can do.  It’s addicting  and the end results are, well, SWEET!

:: Resources ::

How to Re-Queen a Hive

Re-Queening

Yep! The bait hive is full of bees

Tied up the burlap bag for transporting the bees

Looks like it was home to a four legged critter or two

Keeping the bees warm on the walk home

Upon  her return from a goat walk this weekend, my sister informed me that one of my bait hives was FULL of bees.  Sweet!

Before the big "winter" storm that's about to blow in Tuesday, I wanted to get the bait hive home and relocate my other traps to catch any more of the wild bees that are living in Arroyo Seco.

It's best to move bees in the evening.  Just as soon as the sun went down, I was off to bring the bees home.   I was happy to find that the hive was a very decent size so it seems they've been there for awhile.   As soon as I got the bait hive home, I dumped them into a larger hive - not an easy task in the dark.    Any light and the bees start flying!   So did my best under the cover of moonlight.   I sustained a few stings but that's all in the job.

Now, I'm off to batten down the hatches for a big, cold storm that's brewing.

Applying the liquid beeswax

In they go into the box

Bigger is not always better, even when it comes to beekeeping.   Natural (smaller) cells are better, especially for those of us who are choosing chemical and antibiotic free hives.    Modern thinking is that bigger bees would give more honey; but the downside is that bigger bees are susceptible to a pesky mite called varroa.

This year, we are experimenting with downsizing giving them a smaller pattern cell from which to draw comb.   Most commercially available combs measure around 5.5mm; however, bees left to their own devices, tend to make smaller cells averaging 4.9mm in diameter.

By using smaller comb,  we are hoping that smaller cells and bees will help lower the varroa mites levels.

Small cells alone will not save bees from varroa mites, but we sure can help give the bees a fighting chance!

:: Resources ::

Bee Natural: Small Cell

Small Cell Foundation and Varroa Mites

The Way Back to Biological Beekeeping

A swarm takes interests in the bait hive

Score! They are filling up the box fast!

No gloves, veil needed - bees are less interested in me and more interested in moving into their new digs

Giving Bees a Chance.

On Friday sis ran in, waving for me to come outside and see!

"Can’t you see I’m busy here?" I yelled back.  What crazy thing did she spot this time, I wondered?   She was rather insistent. Why can’t girls just blurt out what they want instead of being so darn mysterious? That is one of the great unanswered questions of all time.

Well, this time around, it wasn’t some crazy thing – it was bees!  A swarm of bees was going into one of my “bait hives.”  Nice!

Wonder if the bees knew my birthday was coming up?  Can't beat that for a present now can ya!   Well, except for my sis's amazing chocolate cake!

Now, I am nurturing three feral hive and three mail order hives and, hopefully, will relocate a few to a lot nearby.

Already in the early evenings, when the sun hits the hives, you can get a faint whiff of honey. How sweet it is!

“No bees, no honey; no work, no money” - A "Proverbs" quote