Some things don't always go my way

This week has been a week of setbacks I had a couple of huge failures, finally picked all my carrots, and finished up one of my projects.

THE FAILS FIRST

The top band on my whiskey barrel pond broke and it now only holds about half of it's water ARGH!!

The pond is on life support I'm going to see if I can get it through summer.

Here's the band aid I put on it a ratchet strap but it's still leaking like the Exxon Valdez. The bright side to this mishap is I've begun research on a new permaculture pond I'll be putting in the backyard in a few months when I have saved up some dough. Moral of the story whiskey barrels make bad ponds but they're still hands down one of the best planters you can use, they're repurposed, they have great insulation for our summer heat, and you can plant a ton of stuff in them.

Fail # 2 was much harder to accept, this weekend the new buds on the apple tree I grafted shriveled up and died then the scion that was grafted onto the rootstock shriveled up and turned brown, today I looked at it closer when I wiggled the scion it came out of the rootstock, the graft never took. I had a full blown hissy fit ARGH!!!!

I'm not giving up on grafting I'm still going to learn how to do it but, this sucks. I've killed thousands of plants in my lifetime it's part of what you sign up for when you choose this lifestyle but this one has bothered me the most!

We finally picked the last of the carrots I'd be more excited about this huge harvest except I'm tired of carrots. Carrots for every meal everyday for a month is killing me I think my blood has turned orange. We gave most of this away (in permaculture you're supposed to share your excess). If you've never had french carrot salad you should try it. Next year less carrots more brocoli.

Finally a little more about permaculture, part of permaculture is energy consevation so to save a little energy this year I installed a new back door and jam plus an energy efficient dog door. You could see through parts of the old door and the dog door flap had a big hole in it, it was so big one of the chickens figured out how to get in the house. I replaced everything and sealed the new door with foam. Eliminating air leakage from your house is one of the easiest things you can do to bring your summer cooling bills down. I would also recommend shade screens, ceiling fans, and planting deciduous trees on the west side of your house as easy ways to help save energy.. SRP offers free shade trees here. I'm gonna say the halo around the picture is a sign of brighter things to come and not a bad picture taken of a door in the sun.

booyah.

P.D.C. Graduate

I graduated from my PDC this weekend, I finally ate an artichoke, planted my horseradish plants, thinned up the grape vines, my peach crop is bumming me out, I got some cool new plants, and here come my tomatoes.

I graduated from my PDC this weekend, here I am standing in front of my design with my certificate. The course has changed my life I'd like to thank all of the other students (who I now consider close friends) the teachers, and Don Titmus (the coolest british guy I ever met). If you want to change your life and the planet for the better contact Don at  4 directions permaculture.

Here's my design it's Booyah Farm when I'm done with it stay tuned.

I finally ate an artichoke and they were ok, to be honest they're alot of work and taste alright, I'll try them again someday. On the bright side they produce beautiful flowers, make alot of biomass for composting, and are impossible to kill once established.

It's the time of year to thin your grapes, you need to thin your grape bunches by one third if you want big grapes. Just cut the bottom off the bunches and run your fingers through them to thin them.

Here's the above cluster thinned down.

Finally staple a paper bag around the cluster of grapes to protect it from birds. In a month or so open the bags and you have a giant bunch of grapes. If you leave the bag on to long you'll have raisins. Don't forget to compost the bag when you're done with it.

Here's the red flame all bagged up.

Here's what happens when you don't thin your fruit properly. All my peaches this year got to about the size of a golf ball. They still taste good, I just didn't get the size I wanted because I left to many on the tree. Oh well maybe next year!

I bought some new plants this week 2 venus fly traps, and a pitcher plant. They're supposed to grow here even with our high heat and low humidity. There are a couple of rules, only use distilled water the minerals in our hard water will kill them, place pots in a tray full of distilled water to help with the high heat and low humidity, place in full sun (we'll see), don't fertilize or plant in regular potting soil the plants natural environment is in a bog which has no nutrients in it. The plants get all the nutrients they need from the bugs they eat. If repotting, plant in a mixture of equal parts perlite and peat moss and no miracle grow stuff . I'm skeptical but we'll see carnivorous plants sure are cool.

This one already caught a fly.

I planted my horseradish plants this weekend, I placed them in spots that get morning sun and afternoon shade we'll see if they make it through summer.

A note on horseradishes invasiveness, some of the roots grew through the bottom of there pot's and now little horseradish plants are popping up in my whiskey barrel garden where the pots were sitting in.

Finally tomatoes, I've been cruising around here for the last week picking a ripe tomato here and there and eating them, today I went out and picked my first shirt half full of them. Little round ones are super sweet 100 taste awesome, oblong ones are Juliet I think they're more for sauces, medium sized one is glacier taste awesome. Here's to growing so many tomatoes I get sick of them BOOYAH!!!