The Havahart Trap scores again!

I'm really sorry I didn't think to take a picture to show you. Finally caught the little bugger. i loaded the trap first with cheese and taped it to the trap trigger. Twice the cheese disappeared and the trap didn't spring. It's a big trap and I worried that a squirrel was too light in weight for this trap to work.

So I tried again, this time hanging the cheese in the back of the cage and setting the trigger to the edge so that the slightest pressure would spring the door shut. And bingo, the next day, there he or she was so I took him/her for a ride about five miles away and let it go! It's so satisfying to get rid of a garden pest safely and without harm. The squirrel can live it's life out somewhere else, and my garden won't be bothered by disappearing vegetables and plants.

At Havahart 1085 32-by-10-by-12-Inch Easy Set/Release One-Door Cage Trap for Raccoons, Stray Cats and Woodchucks

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How to save your seed and keep it safe How about a spice rack?

If you're growing heirloom vegetables and want to save the seed, this article from the University of Illinois is a great help. Not all seed should be saved and doing it properly insures next year's seeds viability. So it pays to do it right.

"Not every plant's seeds are worth keeping. Hybrid plants are developed by crossing specific parent plants. Hybrids are wonderful plants but the seed is often sterile or does not reproduce true to the parent plant. Therefore, never save the seed from hybrids. Another major problem is some plants' flowers are open pollinated by insects, wind or people. These plants include squash, cucumbers, melon, parsley, cabbage, chard, broccoli, mustard greens, celery, spinach, cauliflower, kale, radish, beets, onion, and basil. These plants cross with others within their family. The only way to maintain the original variety is to isolate by large distances. Isolation is often impossible or impractical in a home garden.

Some seeds may transmit certain diseases. A disease that infected a crop at the end of the growing season may do little damage to that crop. However, if the seed is saved and planted the following year, the disease may severely injure or even kill the young plants.

What can you save? Standard or heirloom varieties that are not cross-pollinated by nearby plants are good candidates. Many gardeners successfully keep beans, tomatoes, lettuce, and peppers. Plants you know are heirloom varieties are easy to save. Ask the person or organization you obtained the seed from how they did it. Some people like to experiment, but make sure you don't bet the whole garden on saved seed.

When saving seed, always harvest from the best. Choose disease-free plants with qualities you desire. Look for the most flavorful vegetables or beautiful flowers. Consider size, harvest time and other characteristics.

Always harvest mature seed. For example, cucumber seeds at the eating stage are not ripe and will not germinate if saved. You must allow the fruit and seed to fully mature. Because seed set reduces the vigor of the plant and discourages further fruit production, wait until near the end of the season to save fruit for seed.

Seeds are mature or ripe when flowers are faded and dry or have puffy tops. Plants with pods, like beans, are ready when the pods are brown and dry. When seeds are ripe they usually turn from white to cream colored or light brown to dark brown. Collect the seed or fruits when most of the seed is ripe. Do not wait for everything to mature because you may lose most of the seed to birds or animals.

Beans, peas, onions, carrots, corn, most flowers and herb seeds are prepared by a dry method. Allow the seed to mature and dry as long as possible on the plant. Complete the drying process by spreading on a screen in a single layer in a well-ventilated dry location. As the seed dries the chaff or pods can be removed or blown gently away. An alternative method for extremely small or lightweight seed is putting the dry seed heads into paper bags that will catch the seed as it falls out.

Seed contained in fleshy fruits should be cleaned using the wet method. Tomatoes, melons, squash, cucumber and roses are prepared this way. Scoop the seed masses out of the fruit or lightly crush fruits. Put the seed mass and a small amount of warm water in a bucket or jar. Let the mix ferment for two to four days. Stir daily. The fermentation process kills viruses and separates the good seed from the bad seed and fruit pulp. After two to four days, the good viable seeds will sink to the bottom of the container while the pulp and bad seed float. Pour off the pulp, water, bad seed and mold. Spread the good seed on a screen or paper towel to dry.

Seeds must be stored dry. Place in glass jar or envelopes. Make sure you label all the containers or packages with the seed type or variety, and date. Put in the freezer for two days to kill pests. Then store in a cool dry location like a refrigerator. Seed that molds was not sufficiently dry before storage.

Seed viability decreases over time. Parsley, onion, and sweet corn must be used the next year. Most seed should be used within three years.

Seed saving is essential for maintaining unusual or heritage vegetables and flowers. It is a great way to propagate many native plants too. There are numerous seed saver exchanges, clubs, and listings in magazines like Organic Gardening. Although you shouldn't base your entire garden on saved seed you may want to give seed saving a try."

Small zip lock bags are good seed storers, but this spice rack looks like it would work just as well and be more managable.
At Prodyne A-845 Acrylic 20 Bottle Spice Rack

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Gopher and mole problems in the garden

For the first time there are mounds of dirt inside the garden fence indicating the presence of moles or gophers. I've put the have a heart trap with a piece of cheese to try to catch the little pest, but both times I"ve set the trap, the cheese has disappeared and the trap empty. I think whoever it is maybe too small and light to trigger the door.

So in desparation, I have bought MoleMax which is supposed to repel gophers, moles, armadillos, skunks, rabbits, and ground squirrels. Now I'm really not worried about armadillos and have never envisioned them as garden pests, but I"m hoping this stuff works. You can get sonic battery operated noise or vibration makers and actual traps that snap and kill the invader as well as poison.

I"m going to try the least deadly remedy first. This is made from castor beans and is supposedly safe to use around pets and children. We'll see.

At BONIDE PRODUCTS INC #691 5LB Molemax

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Wild Blackberries are the best and worst of companions

Ever since a fire swept through the forest land around my place, wild blackberries have taken hold in the wet places. There is, like most incidents, an up side and a down side. The up side is, of course, that I can pick a gallon in an hour right near my house. They are one of the most delicious fruits when they are fully ripe so that they fall off into your hand. The taste of one of these sun drenched, warm, and flavorful berries is truely heavenly and would make anyone wish for more. They are much more flavorful than the thornless berries you buy for your garden borders or fence rows and are much beloved by quail, bear, and deer.

Then of course there is the down side. In the right conditions they are invasive and really really hard to control. It doesn't take much to get them started. A small vine noticed one fall became a six foot tall by six foot wide bush with long canes spreading out in every direction ready to make more of itself over winter when the rains start. This particular vine is making berries already and I am enjoying them in the morning with cereal. However, it must go! It is too close to the garden and in an area where I had planned to have a small bench near the artisan well to sit and watch birds and small animals and just to contemplate the loveliness of nature.

Here is my plan of destruction without the use of herbicide. I will pick all the ripe berries and then cut the canes back with a weedeater or pruners. After the debris has been raked up and thrown in the compost or into a place where it will not begin to spread, I take a shovel and dig down into the root area to take the plants beneath the soil. Then I intend to put an old piece of tin roofing over the root area to keep light out and to keep the canes from breaking through to daylight. The area will have to be watched for canes attempting to grow out from underneath the tin and clipped off. A seasonal cycle should do it and then I can plant some grass and wildflowers to attrack birds and butterflys.

If you prefer your blackberries to be thornless, the Black Satin Berries are hardy and prolific bearers.

At Black Satin Blackberry One Gallon Triple Staked

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Straw mulch solves a lot of August gardening problems

If you happen to be tired of pulling weeds and it's really hot to be out in the garden, then straw mulch is a good solution. You can buy it in bales from the feed store and put it around plants in the cool of the evening. It breaks off in thick 3" to 5" pieces and can be used that thick which should garuantee no weeds popping up underneath it. Or if you are budget conscious, then you can go to your local store, ask for cardboard boxes and bring them home to break open and lay down between plants to begin with. The cardboard will break down over winter as will the straw that you lay on top of it and provide organic material to compost right in the garden. Putting the straw on top of the mulch makes the rows look much neater also, although cardboard alone would do the job of keeping sun from providing warmth and food for growing weeds.

The other advantage this method has for the August garden is that it reduces the need for water. I always try to soak the garden well before putting down the cardboard and straw mulch. Then light soakings directly on the plants keep them going with much less water. Soaker hose along the row works well now, or drippers to keep the plants moist is good. A light spraying in the evenings directly on the leaves keeps the plants free of dust and provides some nutrients from the water.

In case there's no cardboard boxes available, here's some biodegradable paper to use.

At Easy Gardener 702 WeedBlock Biodegradable Paper Mulch - 3-Foot x 50-Foot

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Things going to seed in your garden?

August is a great month. You can enjoy the fruits of the garden that you've worked so hard to produce. It's a month when you kind of coast a little. But it's good to remember to harvest more than the ripe tomatoes and corn. My corn just started coming in and, man, is it delicious!

Lots of plants are now making seed and it is a fairly easy task to harvest the seed also. I just cut the seeds off my Russian Kale. It is so easy to do. I just clipped the tips of the seeded stalks and put them in a paper bag. Since the stalk and seed pods are bulky, I break them up inside the bag with my hand and throw the husks away. Then the seeds can be stored in a plastic bag and labeled. The labeling is really necessary because although you think you might remember, the seeds of all the cabbage family look exactly alike. So be careful you know which is which.

The cilantro is also going to seed. The seed of cilantro is the spice coriander. So the seed can be used to replinish your spice rack as well as stored for more cilantro. Try planting the seed now and to get in a last crop of cilantro. It is a quick growing plant and can provide tasty additions to salads and salsas up until the first frost.

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Hot weather gardening tips

We found this rather interesting set of tips from Scott Richter on hot weather gardening. We have to agree with all of them, but we really always hate the extra mulching when it's hot.

Garden Maintenance Tips

1) Keep plants mulched. You probably already know of the many benefits of mulch. Keep the mulch replenished in the heat. Look for free sources of organic mulches in your area such as neighborhood leaves or grass clippings. Apply a thin layer of fresh clippings and let dry for a few days before adding more.

2) Keep Weeding. Here's a fast, easy way to recapture weed infested areas of your garden. Wet the soil thoroughly. Tall weeds may need to be mowed before wetting. Place a 4 sheet thick layer of newspaper over the weeds covering the entire row up around your garden plants. Wet the newspaper to hold it in place and cover with leaves or hay.

I have even come back a few weeks later and planted transplants or larger seeds like okra through holes in the newspaper. Sprinkle a handful of soil or compost over the seeds and then water. You'll be amazed how well they grow.

3) Keep Yourself Watered. Drink plenty of water when working outdoors. The hot humid weather can be dangerous if you work outdoors during midday. Use sunscreen with at least a SPF 15 rating and avoid extended time out in the sun during the heat of the day.

4) Add Manure. Vegetable gardens not in production can benefit from an addition of manure and other organic matter this month. This material will decompose rapidly and be ready for fall planting in late summer. Southern peas such as blackeye, purplehull, cream and crowders make a great, edible summer cover crop for building the soil and providing food. The pea vines can be mowed and rototilled under while still green for extra soil building benefits or allowed to produce peas and then tilled under.

Let the hot sun work for you by tilling unused areas of the garden and expose the soil to the heat. This will kill nematodes and young weeds. After a couple of weeks repeat tilling to bring more weed seeds and nematodes to the surface.

5) Water Deeply. Irrigate the soil deeply and infrequently rather than giving plants a light sprinkling each day. Apply enough water to wet a sandy soil 1 foot deep and a clay soil 6 to 8 inches deep. This requires about 1 inch of rain or sprinkler irrigation.

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There's a mystery scavanger in the garden!

I was hoeing a row of corn yesterday in the garden when I discovered some red tinted feces filled with strawberry seeds. Definitely a small mammal. I check over the whole fence looking for possible entries and found nothing that looked like it had been breached. The is always very unsettling. It makes the whole garden vulnerable. It wasn't a bird so some animal has found a way inside.

After some speculation and a look in the Sierra Nevada Natural History, I settled on a the idea that is is a ringtail cat. The can climb a little, can squeeze through small apertures and eat fruit as well as other small animals and bugs. Other possibilities are a fox who eats mostly small animals but does eat berries on occassion or a raccoon.

So I have a plan. I 'm going to put the Have A Heart trap out in the garden. I"ll put in s rotten strawberry or two and some fish and a piece of meat and set it in the garden near the corn where it seems to have established it's bathroom. Hopefully I'll get the little critter and take it for a long long ride and let it loose.

At Havahart 1089 Collapsible One-Door 32-by-10-by-12-inch Cage Trap for Raccoons, Stray Cats, and Woodchucks

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A big bowl of strawberries is a feast for the eyes and the palate

I love strawberries fresh from the garden and eat them for breakfasts on buttered toast or for dessert. They really demand a lot of care. This wet spring has started some fungla diseases on my plants that have never been seen before. I have "strawberry scorch" and my neighbor has some "grey rot". Nonetheless I just picked a quick half gallon of berries and will be eating them for the next few days.

These two fungal diseases can't be cured by organic spray. The disease site I use mentions copper or sulpher spray to eliminate the infection. My grandkids are coming and I'm not about to spray something on the plants that is a heavy metal, so I will use my regular method, which is to pick off dry dead leaves which carry the fungus. Some of the plants are so scorched I think I'll just dig them up. Then fertilize! The organic gardeners solution to most pests and diseases is just that simple. Feed the plants well; the strong and slightly more resistant will live and be the better for it. The really best way to fertilze is to dig a little composted manure around each plant and pick the weeds while you are there. It's time consuming but you will be rewarded with lush healthy plants and tons of berries.

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Alfalfa is a great mulch and soil conditioner

I bought two bales of alfalfa to mulch the artichokes and asparagus. Alfalfa has many advantages over straw or leaves. Leaves tend to blow away and are not compacted so that you have to pile them high in order to get the moisture and weed protection that mulch provides.

Alfalfa is usually cut before seeds form and is compacted so it provides a perfect mulch. And a little goes a long way.That is good news because alfalfa is expensive. I paid $10 a bale, but I can cover my whole perennial garden with one bale and use the other to put around sensitive plants to keep the ground around them moist and weed free. The other good quality alfalfa as is that is makes a good soil additive when it is tilled under providing a lot of nitrogen and tilth.

Barley and wheat straw are a lot cheaper but the problem is that when it rains the seeds in it sprout making its own set of weeds which have to be pulled if it's used for mulch. I don't use rice straw which is abundant in California because of the heavy spraying they undergo during the growing season. Any trip down I-5 during the summer and you will see crop dusters flying over the fields, spraying herbicide and insecticide. So for a few dollars more I use the alfalfa and am loving it. You can find it at your local feed store.It's also sometimes advertised along secondary roads where you can buy it direct from the farmer.

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The attack of the striped cucumber beetle

They are at it again. This is about the fourth year in a row that these voracious little beetles have come to feast on the cucumber, squash and melon plants I've planted. I never had them until about five years ago when they suddenly appeared. Usually I would have a few spotted cucumber beetles who were polite and mild mannered and ate only a little and the plants grew big and healthy anyway. The striped beetle kills the small seedlings and awaits the next planting with the same unsated appetite.

It's really a discouraging problem. With most pests or plant diseases, I can just feed the plants and keep them weeded, and they grow through whatever attacked them, but the striped cucumber beetle is an exception. When I went to check on the newly planted lemon cucumber seedlings, the plant and the soil surrounding it, were swarming with the hungry mob. This is the result of their work.

In desperation, I got out an old spray bottle of Neem and really soaked the soil and the plant and sprayed more lightly the seedlings still in pots that I had ready to plant in the garden. I was amazed! The beetles disappeared! I went out today to check again to make sure they hadn't just hid for a while and then would return, but they are still gone. So I have confidence enough to plant the rest of the squash and melons now that I know they can be saved from the striped menace.

At Green Light Neem II - 24 oz Spray #07824

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Wildflower Seeds to make color for that bare spot in the yard or garden

EdenBrothers' has a great selection of wildflower seeds and you can take you pick of full sun or partial shade, perennial or annual, and also choose the proper region for best results. They also have mixes selected for color so there are mixes of red, blue, pink, and lavendar and they guarantee that their seed has no filler, is all completely wildflower seeds. There are low grow and tall flower selections and deer resistant, and dry tolerant varieties.

For example, the Pacific Northwest package which I would be interested in costs $24.99 for a pound which would cover 2000 sq ft. They list every seed included and say whether it is an annual or perennial. I'm still working on the bare places around new construction and I think this is at least a partial answer for me. Eden Brothers also has a complete line of bulbs to choose from.

At Eden Brothers

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A Low-Maintenance System for a Beautiful, Safe Lawn

This is a book for those of us who are tired of seeing the little yellow flag on lawns advising people to stay off because of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. What is the point of a lawn, anyway? As a kid I loved to run barefoot, playing with the dog or my friends. It felt of freedom from school, from shoes and the restrictions of rules. It saddens me to think that with weed and feed chemicals, the lawn is not safe for kids or pets. It's something to look at but not to touch.

If you are of the same mind but still want a lawn that's lovely too look at as well as play and sit in, or godforbid, lie on your back in and look at the clouds on a warm spring day, then this book may have the way to acheive that. The Organic Lawn Care Manuel was written by a guy who used the weed and feed method until the chemicals he used started affecting his health. Then he began going organic. He has instructions on starting a lawn from scratch and on how to improve soil structure. He discusses grass varieties and how to choose a drought and disease resistant grass. There is also a section on what to do about moles, voles and other burrowing creatures. And best of all, he doesn't forget what a lawn is really for--fun games for the family! Croquet, anyone?

The book comes with a good glossary, a list of ground covers, and lots of photographs for illustrating various problems. He has chapters on making the transition from chemical to organic lawn care without loosing what you already have worked for.

At The Organic Lawn Care Manual: A Natural, Low-Maintenance System for a Beautiful, Safe Lawn (Paperback)

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Latex Sterile Gloves protect the hands while weeding!

I weeded my asparagus bed yesterday and was surprised and gladdened to see nice, big stalks poking through the soil. And I discovered that I could weed a bed 10ft by 4ft. and not get my hands dirty! I usually don't care about such things, but my neighbor had been by and he swears by surgical gloves for working on machines. He loves fooling around with cars and tiller and lawnmowers which is the best kind of neighbor to have. He doesn't have to scrub and brush to get the grease off after he is finished. Anyway he left a pair at my house so I could try them for weeding. I was going into town and thought I would see how they worked since I wouldn't have the trouble of scrubbing the dirt from in and around my fingernails.

These gloves come powered which means they are easy to get on. If you buy nonpowered, then you can use corn starch to powder you hands and the gloves will go right on. These gloves have textured fingertips. I like them because you can still feel the weed and the soild while you use them so it's almost like not having any protection at all. It's nothing like the big dishwashing gloves that are supposed to protect your hands. These fit snugly. You can still dig down with your fingers to get around the stem of a weed to pull it out cleanly. I really think I may make this one of my staples for gardening.

If you hate getting your hand dirty gardening, and still like the idea of being able to crumble soil and dig small holes with your hands. this is the solution for you.

At Surgical Latex Sterile Gloves

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