The Rainbow Chard is almost there.  We can definitely start eating off of a few of them.

Also, the new spinach plants are already starting to show new growth, which really impressed me.

I hope all of yall are doing well in your gardens, too.

Intro: Here at the Bradcast we’re trying to be and help you to be Simple and sustainable, in your garden, your home, and in your life.

Today is: _Monday, Dec. the _6th___, 2010.  I sure hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  I was with my family Thurs. through Sun. morning and it was really enjoyable.  We ate a lot and got a lot done at Dad’s house.  We put the last section of metal roof on the add on he’s building on to his current house.  It is to be a weight room and extension of my mom’s current closet.  Its pretty awesome.

Last week we went over the first 9 rules of the book.  I also wanted to let everyone know that I got an e-mail back from Michael Pollan’s assistant giving me permission to do the podcast over his book.  The more I thought about it though, the more I didn’t want this to somehow become a download for people who didn’t want to buy his book.  So by talking about the first nine I think that would be a good intro for someone to know what the book is about and now hopefully they’ll want to go and buy it.

What did the farm bring:  We got a lot of lettuce, a lot of broccoli, eggs, butter, and a chix.

Property Update: Garden is doing great.  We had some high 20s the Friday night after Thanksgiving.  It was kind of weird, half the garden had frozen damage and half of it had none, all the same plants as well.  We had another hard freeze on Tues. night so I decided to cover everyone just in case.

-planted blackberries and raspberries

-am slowly picking all starter weeds from garden

-built first purple martin house, but will have to work on design b/c its, too heavy, strong but heavy

-put up cross

-ran out of rain water

-fed the garden two waters in a row

planted 50 more onions, spinach , more lettuce, some mustard green, and a celery plant

-went ahead and covered everything for potential 29 deg. night

-finished work bench @ compost pile w/ bench for munch

Interesting Article:

http://www.benefits-of-honey.com/honey-facts.html and read the following: Honey is a miracle food; it never goes bad. It was reported that archaeologists found 2000 year old jars of honey in Egyptian tombs and they still tasted delicious! Many people find it rather surprising that bacteria cannot grow in honey because all things being equal, bacteria loves sugar. The unique chemical composition of low water content and relatively high acidic level in honey creates a low pH (3.2-4.5) environment that makes it very unfavourable for bacteria or other micro-organism to grow. Thus, “Best Before Dates” on honey buckets indicating honey shelf life do not seem to be very important after all.

Seems he was right.

Topic:Pruning

What:  Pruning your plants, bushes, vines, and trees, can be for multiple reasons:

There are tons out there, but the important ones I’ll mention.

            -remove damage: normal droppage, bugs, diseases, lightning

-prevent damage: limbs over power lines and houses and streets, etc., wind splitting a tree

-increase bud site: during vegetative stages of a plant the more you trim off the top growth sites (the apical meristem), the more you promote the side buds, which there are many many more of.

–root pruning: usually I would never recommend this, but with house plants when your re-potting a plant from a smaller to a bigger pot, sometimes immense “root-bound” roots need to trimmed back to stop the spiral growing method the root has started

-shaping: making animal sculpture; making them grow taller rather than wider

–improving health of trees: removing sucker branches and properly shaping them for maximum efficiency in harvest and maximum over all production

;with indoor plants as the plant grows the old yellowing leaves need to be trimmed off

-preparing graft site: cutting into the right tissues is very important here: a good example of this is grafting wine branches to a particular type of root.  This is done to help avoid a particular blight from being able to wipe out grapes.

**Fires in plains and forests are often a good way to trim out the dead under branches that the over canopy has overtaken.  Branches dying is a way of life-like a snake or insect shedding its own skin as it gets bigger.  A big upper branch today is a smaller shaded out branch tomorrow.**

When:  I use to think the best time was as we went into winter, I was close but really badly far off. They are trying to go into dormancy at that time and as Mike McGrath says, pruning is an act of growth stimulation.  He says the best time to prune is when the plant is in dormancy.  If it is a plant that puts its flowers on at then end of fall, wait for those flowers to bloom in spring(if you desire the show) then prune as soon as they’re done.    To do that can make a plant put out new vulnerable growth right before winter that will get damaged in freezing temp.s.  Something else I found interesting on his website was him advising against pruning tom. Plants I’ve always agreed with that one.  He goes into the more solar power, the more produce out put. (http://www.gardensalive.com/article.asp?ai=840)

This isn’t a good communication set put to tell yall where to prune.  Go to your favorite search engine and you’ll find all you want.  The difference in pruning style from plant to plant is immense.

Episode 7 ~ Pruning

Episode 6: Food Rules Part 2

Today is: Monday, November the 21^st, 2010.  Three days from Thanksgiving.  Lets all be sure to take time to think about what all we are thankful for.

We talked last week about the intro to the book “Food Rules,” by Michael Pollan.  We mostly hit on the idea of getting food locally and the benefits there of.

What did the Farm Bring: more of the same……cucmbers, butter, eggs, and a chix.  Next week we’re getting a pastured turkey from a local spot and I’m quite excited about cooking that big boy up.

Property Update:          Finished laying the posts for the compost pile and work bench.

–         planted over three hundred onions

–         Five varieties:

• 1015s
• Reds
• white Bermudas
• then white and yellows that are said to be the same as Vidalia, but since they’re not grown there they can’t be called that.

started to water in a feed that is mostly composed of: fish emulsion, sea weed extract, some molasses stuff, and a couple of other things

 The garden is growing very quickly, especially the chard and red lettuce, turns out all the lettuce we planted was red

Episode 6 ~ Food Rules – Part 2

property update:

1.)Got the west side of the garden planted: leeks, bunching onions, red lettuce, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, rutibega, rainbow chard., spinach, garlic, buckwheat, and coneflower

2.)Sprouted some Kale seeds indoors, also put into pots a couple of chard plants and a couple of brussels sprouts in the house.

What did the Farm Bring:

-raw cheese, raw butter, broccoli, lots of lettuce, cucumbers, doz. eggs, and a broiler chicken

Topic: Michael Pollan’s Book; “Food Rules”

Why: I strongly belive through experience and observation that a diet based on sustainable gardening and the support there of is the beginning to long lasting health.

The Best way to know where your food comes from is by buying local. 
Benefits:

A.) Freshness – by getting it local it can be picked ripe rather than being picked green, transported, and then gassed when they get close to the grocer.  The less they have to travel the less rot and molding will happen in transit which means less waste, which can mean lower prices.  Also, eating local demands that you eat what is in season.  It is good to eat what is in season because it has paticular nutritition the body needs at that time of year.

B.) The closer the source of your food, the less energy that has to be put into it to get it to you.  That means the closer it is to you, the more energy that can bee put into the production rather than the transport, which should offer you more quality.  We have sacrificed that quality by buying our food from hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles away.

C.) By supporting your local economy, you help build the strength and sustainability of your local community.  You cannot help others if you can’t  help yourself, and to ensure a prosperous local economy and community, you should help your neighbors before you help people hundreds of miles away.

How to Eat Local:

1.) Grow your own food and trade with neighbors as much as your possibly can.

2.) Support CSAs.  Community Supported Agriculture

3.)  Attend Farmer’s Markets and Farm Stands

4.)  Try to buy “Local” products at the grocery store as much as possible.

 Episode 5 ~ Food Rules – Part 1

Got to see mom’s garden which was doing great.  She still is getting tons of tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, eggplant, and some zucchini.  Wow, what a blessing.

 November 4^th, 2010

 What did the farm bring: lettuce, green onions, eggs, chicken,

 Update of the property:

-finished cleaning up yard from fence project and pulling up old cement (thanks dad)

-finished west side of the garden,

–prepped. beds for planting……whats going in this weekend:

                                    ~runner onions, leeks, garlic, broccoli, kale, lettuce mix, carrots

-found an avocado tree growing off to the side of the compost pile

 Interesting Article:

The Legend of the Three Sisters

The term “Three Sisters” emerged from the Iroquois creation myth. It was said that the earth began when “Sky Woman” who lived in the upper world peered through a hole in the sky and fell through to an endless sea. The animals saw her coming, so they took the soil from the bottom of the sea and spread it onto the back of a giant turtle to provide a safe place for her to land. This “Turtle Island” is now what we call North America.

Sky woman had become pregnant before she fell. When she landed, she gave birth to a daughter. When the daughter grew into a young woman, she also became pregnant (by the West wind). She died while giving birth to twin boys. Sky Woman buried her daughter in the “new earth.” From her grave grew three sacred plants—corn, beans, and squash. These plants provided food for her sons, and later, for all of humanity. These special gifts ensured the survival of the Iroquois people. (2)

This ancient style of companion planting has played a key role in the survival of all people in North America. Grown together these crops are able to thrive and provide high-yield, high-quality crops with a minimal environmental impact. Corn, beans, and squash have a unique symbiotic relationship in a Native American garden. Corn offers a structure for the beans to climb. The beans, in turn, help to replenish the soil with nutrients. And the large leaves of squash and pumpkin vines provide living mulch that conserves water and provides weed control.

Topic: Companion Planting;

Companion planting can be described as the establishment of two or more plant species in close proximity so that some cultural benefit (pest control, higher yield, etc.) is derived.

I got a ton of great info. from the “National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service” web site.

Reasons for Companion Planting:

Trap Cropping

Sometimes, a neighboring crop may be selected because it is more attractive to pests and serves to distract them from the main crop. An excellent example of this is the use of collards to draw the diamond back moth away from cabbage (2).

Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation

Legumes—such as peas, beans, and clover—have the ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen for their own use and for the benefit of neighboring plants via symbiotic relationship with Rhizobium bacteria. Forage legumes, for example, are commonly seeded with grasses to reduce the need for nitrogen fertilizer. Likewise, beans are sometimes interplanted with corn. On request ATTRA can provide additional information on Rhizobium inoculation.

Biochemical Pest Suppression

Some plants exude chemicals from roots or aerial parts that suppress or repel pests and protect neighboring plants. The African marigold, for example, releases thiopene—a nematode repellent—making it a good companion for a number of garden crops. The manufacture and release of certain biochemicals is also a factor in plant antagonism. Allelochemicals such as juglone—found in black walnut—suppress the growth of a wide range of other plants, which often creates a problem in home horticulture. A positive use of plant allelopathy is the use of mow-killed grain rye as a mulch. The allelochemicals that leach from rye residue prevent weed germination but do not harm transplanted tomatoes, broccoli, or many other vegetables.

Physical Spatial Interactions

For example, tall-growing, sun-loving plants may share space with lower-growing, shade-tolerant species, resulting in higher total yields from the land. Spatial interaction can also yield pest control benefits. The diverse canopy resulting when corn is companion-planted with squash or pumpkins is believed to disorient the adult squash vine borer and protect the vining crop from this damaging pest. In turn, the presence of the prickly vines is said to discourage raccoons from ravaging the sweet corn.

Nurse Cropping

Tall or dense-canopied plants may protect more vulnerable species through shading or by providing a windbreak. Nurse crops such as oats have long been used to help establish alfalfa and other forages by supplanting the more competitive weeds that would otherwise grow in their place. In many instances, nurse cropping is simply another form of physical-spatial interaction.

Beneficial Habitats

Beneficial habitats—sometimes called refugia—are another type of companion plant interaction that has drawn considerable attention in recent years. The benefit is derived when companion plants provide a desirable environment for beneficial insects and other arthropods—especially those predatory and parasitic species which help to keep pest populations in check. Predators include ladybird beetles, lacewings, hover flies, mantids, robber flies, and non-insects such as spiders and predatory mites. Parasites include a wide range of fly and wasp species including tachinid flies, and Trichogramma and ichneumonid wasps. Agroecologists believe that by developing systems to include habitats that draw and sustain beneficial insects, the twin objectives of reducing both pest damage and pesticide use can be attained. For detailed information on establishing beneficial habitats, request the ATTRA publication Farmscaping to Enhance Biological Control.

Security Through Diversity

A more general mixing of various crops and varieties provides a degree of security to the grower. If pests or adverse conditions reduce or destroy a single crop or cultivar, others remain to produce some level of yield. Furthermore, the simple mixing of cultivars, as demonstrated with broccoli in University of California research, can reduce aphid infestation

Most of the facts in the show notes were found @ :

http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/complant.html

Episode 4: Companion Planting

Episode 3: Starting your sustainable garden: gardens, raised beds, and container planting.

pertinent Article: Polyface Farms (in Michael Pollan’s Book: Omnivore’s Dilemma)

– at beginning of podcast:  The circle of life (GRASS)

– end of podcast: Soil building started by the glacier

Garden:

-pick out perimeter of your garden

-lay down your cardboard (brown cardboard w/ black ink only)

-lay down your compost (2-4 inches thick)

-lay down your mulch (shredded leaves or hard wood)

once grass is dead….your ready to get started

If you have wildlife, set up perimeter fence to the size that will keep them out.  Now get choosing your plants, pick what will grow in your area; climate-like species that will go with your geography.  Use seed packets to determine times to start germinating and spacing.

Transplants and germinated seeds need to have time to acclimated to what sun type they need once it is time to take the outside.

Di-sect your garden into 4′ wide by as long as you want beds and mark them off with string or stakes, with two foot walk ways between each bed.  Don’t walk on the beds again, only the paths.  Now draw your garden on paper, making a map of the whole thing.  Now that it is on paper, draw in all the plants you want to plant.

You’ll be able to pull the mulch to the side and plant into the compost/cardboard/soil mixture you’ll create w/ pitch-forking the garden a little.

Now as you dig appropriate sized holes for the transplants (or read seed packets for depth to plant seeds), water the hole, plant the plant, cover it up with a little bit of compost and top soil and water it again.  Water it each day (maybe twice a day) for at least a week.  Once new growth has started you can back off  watering and use your finger to feel the soil for dryness, you don’t want your  plant to sit in water all the time.  It is very important that your plant dries out somewhat between waterings.  PICK WEEDS AS THEY COME.

Raised Beds:

Choose a good location for your beds considering where the wind and sun are daily and seasonally.  Build them 4′ high by 4′ wide by as long as you want using whatever you material you want besides things like pressure treated wood.  Leave one side open so you can wheel barrel in the dirt your going to grow in, once the soil is in put on the fourth side.  Fill it up to 3.5 ‘ with good garden soil, then 4 inches of compost.  Now follow the same directions as w/ the garden: dig hole, water, plant, cover, water, then cover with shredded leaf mulch, and continue to weed.

Container Gardening:

Pick out your containers that you want to grow in.  Now we have to find some potting soil or make it.  Pleas send me and e-mail with your current soil type and I’ll help you make some.  This soil has to be much lighter that what we use in the garden and raised beds.  Follow same directions as above for planting.

Hope yall are all doing well

Hope you all are having a great week.

Episode 3: Getting Your Sustainable Garden Started

Found @ http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/Organic/#national

Article by Brian Dunning: @ http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4166

Sustainable (Organic) Gardening: gardening with non chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides    ~using naturally occurring compounds such as compost, manures, and mulch to feed the soil and in turn feed the plants; these fertilizers take time to break down and thus give time release feed to the soil and plants   ~most labor is done by hand and animal, not so much by machine

Pros :

a.)                Organic fertilizers improve the quality of the soil year after year, with very little potential to contaminate or pollute water sheds or local water ways

b.)                Organic foods have higher %s of nutrients: the study I looked at showed organic produce to have: vitamin C (27% more), magnesium (29% more), iron (21% more) and phosphorous (14% more) – Journal of Complimentary Medicine [http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/107555301750164244]

c.)                Monetary:  no need to buy synthetic fertilizers , pesticides, fungicides, or insecticides; once established, the compost being used to fertilize the garden is free b/c it all comes from what you already have; also fert.ing with companion planting and using different types of flowers as both insecticides and attractor of predatory bugs to act as guards for your vulnerable plants; other types of bug protection can come from very cheap soaps and from home-made brews made from soaking different combos of herbs

d.)                No worries of synthetic chemicals accumulating in the soil or in your body

Cons:

a.)                the big one here is simple: TIME INTENSIVE.  Organic gardening takes a lot of time b/c it is mostly all done by human labor.  Picking weeds and weak or diseased plants is all done by hand.  The composting that supplies the necessary fert.s can takes a couple of months to be ready for use.  As far as time goes, conventional gardening will output a quicker yield.

b.)                Initially can have lower yields due to the time release concept of good compost

Conventional Gardening: gardening with chemical based fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides  ~using synthetic chemical compounds that were created in labs and / or factories that when put into solution by moisture (water) dissolve and are readily absorbed directly by the plants roots immediately   ~large machines are used to do most of the labor

Pros:

a.)                Less time and less human labor b/c of the use of large machines and sprayer rigs

b.)                immediate results with bugs and weeds when the plants are sprayed with synthetic options; you can also hit the plants with a big surge of growth using synthetic fert.s

c.)                initially higher yields

Cons:

a.)                Chemical fertilizers have been known to run off of fields when rained on and have been found in rivers, lakes, and even the ocean.  This can cause algal blooms that deplete the oxygen that the aquatic organisms depend on

b.)                plants can grow to depend on these large bursts of fertilization that synthetic fert.s offer and can therefore train them not to send out their roots as normal, thus potentially increasing their need for constant water

c.)                according to the EPA(http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/food/risks.htm), pesticide exposure (especially for the farmer/gardener) can lead to some serious health issues. On the consumer side, children are especially susceptible. (http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/food/pest.htm)

All of this is backed up @ http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/nutrition_articles.asp?id=1295

Please take a look at the 22 yr. farm experiment I spoke about @

http://www.dfwnetmall.com/earth/organic-farm-yield-equals-conventional.htm

Episode 2 ~ Organic vs. Conventional Gardening

“Dog Poop has bright side: Powering Mass. park lamp.” (SFGate.com)

Average American throws away 4.5 lb.s of trash a day, thats 236 million tons of trash a year.  Of that, 59 million tons is compostable.  (EPA~Charity Guide)

That means 25% of what we send to the dump could be turned into some great fertilizers.

5% addition of organic material to a soil quadruples the soil holding capacity of that soil (WSU.edu)

Types of Compost:

Aerobic Composting: yard waste and kitchen scraps mixed at a 4 or higher to 1 (yard to kitchen) ratio and mixed once every 2-4 days or as often as possible (you can add manure as well, but don’t make more than a 1/4 of your over all pile be manure and only herbivorous manure); be sure to keep it moist if in hot and dry climate; needs oxygen using bacteria to break down material; 3-6 weeks of break down, depending on how often you turn it; not very much smell; after the pile stops generating heat, let it sit one more month and it should be ready to go; earth worms are a good indicator of when it is ready

Anaerobic Composting: usually mostly yard waste and sometimes manure, but you can use any type of plant material; no turning necessary; uses a bacteria that does not need oxygen; can smell bad due to gasses given off by anaerobic bacteria; takes as long as 1-1.5 years for pile to break down to good compost.

Vermicomposting: using worms to digest kitchen scraps and then harvesting by worm tea and worm castings from a bin; works slow but the end product is well worth the wait; 6-12 weeks is good timing, but can take longer if you have low population of worms in large bin.

I’ve got compost, humus, and peat moss to mix in to prep. some of the beds.  Hope yall are getting yalls ready.

I know Mags is already seeing a lot of pumpkins and is havesting 2nd harvest squash.  Way to go Mags.

Next weeks podcast is looking like it will be on the differences between organic and conventional gardening.

Looking forward to it.

Episode 1 ~ Compost

As soon as it is up I’ll put the url for it right here so all can listen to it.

I hope everyone is having a great week so far.  The weather down here in Central Texas in beautiful (I still managed to get a sun burn on my back today while working with my shirt off.)