You spell "neighbors" with a "u", Professor? This is Amurrica.

Proper composting should always be used on animal manure, not just to kill the seeds but also other organisms. It makes a better treatment for the ground. If you don 't compost properly it's just idleness for which you will be repaid tenfold with further problems. Compost is easier to handle too.

I thought that the growing of is legal, but the drying of is still illegal. Or is there more than one kind of papaver somniferum? Pretty, in any case.

OK should have wiki'd first. There are low morphine varieties. That flower is really pretty, maybe I should send my mom some seeds.

She's lovely but lazy. I put my chicken manure in the compost and it it's not used for 6 months. I suspect all winter she shovels the horse manure over her plots and lets them fall apart. I can't believe she'd use it "hot". But the seed thing is pretty amazing.

Simply put: you cannot score the green heads for the ooze.

Petals fall off, heads dry, and then look at eBay for the "poppy heads." They are dried. $1 a pop in some cases, if I remember correctly, and listed under "arts & crafts."

Our other poppies are prettier yet, especially the pom-pom variety. These flowers are as almost diverse as dahlias.

EDIT: if your mom is in the States, I can send her a bunch of seeds of the mystery (but all beautiful) variety. Just PM me if you want.

Our cherries are getting sweeter and plumper every day. They should be perfect by the weekend.

How do I turn blooming poppies into something.....interesting?

this is great - no birds or squirrels feasting on berries?

It's possible that the squirrels are snacking, but there are enough to go around. And at least one squirrel seems more interested in the strawberries.

I don't remember squirrels being a pest in the gardens when I was a kid. Groundhogs, yes. Squirrels, no. I wonder if it's because we had a mighty hunter cat who kept them in line.

Quite simply, allow the pods to dry out, and then use them in tea. It is a very mild form of narcotic, but still something you should be very careful with. There was an article in Harper's a while back about this. I am quite certain it is still technically illegal to dry the pods though, regardless of what is showing up on ebay.

Here's wiki on the subject: poppy tea

I should add, the poppies have to be of the sort you get bread-seed from, ie papaver somniferum.

I hate this admin no-editing business.

Okay, I was wrong, according to wikipedia you can dry the plants. The Harper's article was from 1997, so either the law changed in the meantime or one of the articles is incorrect. Err on the side of incaution, I say. *angel_emoticon*

I really shouldn't joke about this, it is potentially extremely dangerous. Plus god knows I can't spare the brain cells, never mind all the other health risks involved.

I realize that I'm replying to a post from over 2 years ago, but I can't seem to find the answers I'm looking for no matter what search I do.

We have been collecting our kitchen scraps and making a compost heap in a far corner of our garden for about a year (on and off), but it doesn't seem to be doing much. So we thought we'd actually invest in a container and then add all the goodies I've read about here ( grass clippings, horse manure, etc.) - but in researching the actual composters I have become mighty confused.

Here are links to the two that seem most promising:
http://www.goestores.com/catalog.aspx?stor...95&detail=1
http://www.goestores.com/catalog.aspx?stor...17&detail=1

Does anyone have any advice?

We have had a SoilSaver for years (for awhile our city gave them to homeowners and all you had to do was go to pick them up) and they are okay. We use it mainly for kitchen scraps and the odd bit of yard waste. There are lots of other options depending on your requirements and budget.

We have a big backyard and at the back of it against the fence we have a couple of these for garden and yard waste:

http://www.leevalley.com/garden/page.aspx?...,33140&ap=1

You can also get one of these rolling composters:

http://www.leevalley.com/garden/page.aspx?...,33140&ap=1

Or, if you have a limitless budget, you could go this route:

http://compost-twin.com/
and a few reviews of same: http://davesgarden.com/products/gwd/c/4748/

Today! The first flowers on a black runner bean from Puebla. Most runners have a scarlet flower.



This experiment with the pot and bamboo tee pee is working!

These look cool. YOu still have to run the cotton twine up yourself. How hard would these be to make?

oops. Link.

You'll have pleanty of time in-between burning all your albums at 296kb

Last of our tree peonies

Lovely. Thanks for sharing!

Gaw-jus, Limelate.

Afternoon at Blue Hill Stone Barns included collecting eggs from their chickens, and sampling honeysuckle.

That's a great picture, thanks for sharing it.

EDIT: This was originally in the "Hey Asshole" thread. I am not (publicly) referring to other MF'ers as assholes with this post.


Hey, Asshole. When you publish libelous falsehoods that do nothing but display your ignorance of science and food on your own scant weblog, don't expect those of us who know and love the farmer (and the farm) you're LIBELING to sit still and keep quiet. Nope.

Case in point: Arin Kramer, who writes a clueless blog post called Fish heads are where I draw the line:



WTF?

* WTF does "Now I should've suspected something when I saw the name of her farm" have to do with anything? Or should I post that in The Surrealism of Everyday Life thread?

From Wikipedia, Arin, which you might have checked before you posted that the sky is falling:



Of course, if you don't have the first clue what salmonella is, or where you might upload it into your biobox (your body), then the consequence seems to be some pretty ghastly and stupid "creative" writing.

And you stole her photograph without permission, and didn't even credit her.

Hmmmm, maybe I can post this shameful lapse of research and netiquette on MY weblog. I love being a muckraker about those who are undermining honest people doing good work. Cynthia's providing an antidote to agribiz, which has the problems with salmonella. You trash my friend, you sully her reputation and credibility (do you have any idea how highly regarded she is? Did you check out any of the media links on her site?), and you start an unbelievably ignorant rumor that will needlessly scare anyone stupid enough to think you know what you're talking about. What an accomplishment, and with only 117 words! Breathtaking!

Salmonella doesn't come from fish heads buried two feet down in the soil.

Stupid blogs are where I draw the line.

Edited to add: since she doesn't have a way to contact her or comment on her site, I put this here. I'm still pissed. (Sorry, Dr. J: my ire is warranted. If you saw Cynthia's seven-foot-tall tomatoes, you wouldn't necessarily laugh.)

Aw, come on. Planting fish heads and aspirin with your tomatoes is pretty funny.

Yes, funny, Mr. Scientist. (And I hope that you know I like you, and have no reason not to.)

Aspirin cures common plant headaches

That's the Taunton Press, and I know they're to be pooh-poohed, being an unreliable source of information (NOT), but the fact is: there are SO many old-fashioned ways to boost plant health (and domestic cleanliness) that don't rely on Monsanto or corporate wiles (selling you shit you don't need).

Most of us who went to elementary school in the United States learned that the native tribes planted fish heads (or fish waste) with their crops.

Cynthia's proof is in the tomatoes.

This is not a perfect photo, because it was taken in October 2007, during a visit with Thomas Keller's farmers, Peter and Gwen Jacobsen (whom Cynthia and I visited before, so we all got together when they came to town) when most tomatoes are at the end of their season. But these tomatoes tower over humans. The one on the right is at the end of its season, and none of them look "wilty." I would estimate their height at at least seven, some eight, feet tall.



If Cynthia gives advice, you take it. She among the most generous of helpful people I've ever met.

I wonder if the use of aspirin in the soil would affect an organic growers status?

All that tomato info has been floating around for years. If you're keen on tomatoes, there's a great mailing list I used to be involved with called Tomatomania but I have to warn you they call tomatoes 'maters and that's kind of yucky. Otherwise it's pretty fun. And there is no absolute agreement.

There are as many theories as there tomato varieties. I think 90% of modern gardeners would say you need to prepare the soil, long before you plant. Digging a hole and adding a fish head would be more effective if the fish were decomposed and nourishing the soil before you began. And you start to notice that in nature, things work downward. Leaves, insects, rain all enter the soil from the top down. Roots grow down. saturation works down and a little out. I think the lasagna gardening theory makes a lot of sense and if you can plan ahead you don't even need to till the soil. You put hot fertilizer like chicken poo down in a heavy dose, followed by leaves and then I think old cardboard boxes weighted down with bricks. The whole thing decomposes downward and the cardboard helps protect against leaching. In the spring, the soil is perfect. I've done it and it's pretty amazing but it's planning.

Does a fish head decompose entirely in one growing season? Wouldn't it be better to bury between tomato plants so the tap roots which come out early don't hit an eye socket or something?

Everyone has their own way of doing things. There's no harm in questioning things. The absolutes in nature are still beyond our grasp. If I had some extra fish heads, I'd make soup first.

That makes sense. So for a relatively lazy gardener like myself, what minimal effort things can I do to prepare the soil ahead of time?

You could try it now. Can you do a cover crop for the summer?
In the fall, load the plot with compost, Bumper Crop or something good for the soil.
Rake all your fall leaves and pile on the plot.
Cover with some large cardboard boxes that have been printed with soy ink or are plain.
Keep them down with bricks.
In the winter, you can repeat the whole thing if it's been raining a lot but don't use hot manure less than six months before you plan to plant.
You can dig the soil with a feather. Almost. Not really. But the soil is amazing and ready for growing.
Modern gardening dictates disturbing the soil as little as possible.

and i wonder if vegetarians could eat the produce, given the fish heads.

This probably ought to be in the gardening thread, but... I load a fresh layer of compost (±3") on all the beds in the fall, then in the spring I rake dried blood and bone meal into the top 1" or so before planting. I have the evidence to show that this all works quite well. I also fertilize every couple of weeks with Neptune's Harvest.

I'm moving the gardening questions from the Hey Asshole thread here. (Maybe an admin with nothing but time on your hands could likewise move the relevant posts here, too? Thanks.)

Someone asked what steps a lazy gardener could take to amend the soil. I thought I would follow up with two items here, the first of which is Cynthia Sandberg's advice that she posts on a board at all of her tomato seedling sales. This is strictly for tomatoes. (If you have questions, ask here and I'll ask her. She loves to help people grow, and if you're smart, you'll subscribe to her weblog, as well—she is so generous with her time.)



Cynthia also had a really helpful post at her GrowBetterVeggies weblog, aptly titled How I Plant a Tomato.

Secondly, I inquired of my farmer friend, Linda Butler, up at Lindencroft Farm, what soil amendments she uses.



We used her suggestion last year, and our tomato output improved drastically. (We grow other stuff, but the tomatoes are the most important thing for us.) In 2006, the little plants looked like they were all on chemo: they were spindly, sparse, and not productive. (Maybe 6 tomatoes per plant, all summer.) Last summer, we had to reach inside the plants, now four-five feet tall, and feel around for tomatoes. One plant in particular, the Coustralee, produced five or six tomatoes every couple of days. Big, buxom tomatoes, too.

Bob also adds mushroom compost and organic chicken poop. He mixes all these things in a big bucket or the wheelbarrow, and double digs the beds, about two feet deep. Linda tells me that the second year will only be better, and things kind of make a soup.

Rancho Gordo's techniques are also good ones: there is a lot out there that you can do to improve soil quality. And one thing we're doing, about 1/3 way into the season, is applying fish emulsion, which feeds everything. The roses really need it right now. So Logan's mama will do that for me, and I will drive off somewhere for the afternoon because that stuff is STANKY.

I hope some of this helps.

I just moved my answers over there, and maybe an Admin would be kind enough to move the other gardening stuff there, too.

Whose dried blood do you use?

Steve, there are innumerable living creatures that are killed when gardening or farming. It is absolutely impossible to live outside animal death in the food chain, so all vegetarians are really doing is not DELIBERATELY killing or consuming an animal. Bugs, birds, rabbits, snakes, gophers, moles, and all other kinds of creatures are killed, inadvertently or otherwise, when someone sets out to engage in agriculture, on any scale.

The presence of a fish head might be a dealbreaker for some vegetarians, but the fish head itself would likely end up in the trash at most fishmongers. I think it's good to repurpose life that way.

Anyway, some vegetarians might disagree, but those who are practical would probably see the wisdom in the truth that I stated above, that it is impossible to live outside animal death in the food chain. I think it honors life to use the fish heads, myself. Others may disagree.

Do you ever do a cover crop?
it can rain so much here in the winter that I fear a lot of the good things are leaching out. I'd grow beans but I think it's overkill. I've done hairy vetch and I always felt my porno name would be Harry Vetch.
Anyway, things like beans or clover you can just turn under right before planting.

But isn't this the classic argument against vegetarianism? All growing life requires dead life to sustain it and we are designed as an animal to have an omnivorous diet, it's been part of our survival pattern.

I think he was joking.

Surely not.

Me too.

I never can tell with you people. Well, SOME of you.

That of the virgins and goats we sacrifice at the full moon.

Bruno Tattaglia's blood and bones make my tomatoes grow nicely.

Years past, I have included chives in my outdoor herb collection, but they invariably become heavily infested with itty-bitty teeny-weeny (about 3/64" long) beetle-like insects. So this year I planted some indoors. And, dang, they were even more infested than my several outdoor attempts. Yesterday I dug up and tossed the entire crop.

What are they? How can I avoid them while keeping organic? Should I just revert to buying chives at the market?

They sound like flea beetles, they decimate my rocket (arugala) every year, but it's only cosmetic, they don't actually poison the crop, it's oine of the problems with organic gardening, you have to get used to less than perfect looking crops.

If they are flea beetles This might help.

Questions from a novice:

I planted a variety of lettuces from seed more than two weeks ago. Ditto carrots. So far, nothing has come up. Is this normal? The radishes I planted from seed are doing great.

Speaking of radishes: how do I know when they're ready to pick?

Moving on...I put in nine strawberry plants which had (very green) fruit on them. The squirrels promptly feasted. For the past week I've been spreading our coffee grounds around the plants. The new (very green) fruit is untouched. Causation or coincidence?

Carrots can take a long time – 2 weeks or more – to germinate. Lettuce should germinate in 3 or 4 days, provided the soil isn't really cold. Did you keep the seeds well moistened? When I plant seeds, I make sure and give them a good shpritzing once or twice a day (depending on how hot/dry it is).

Radishes are ready to pick when they're big enough to eat.

This reminds me of Bob's stepgrandmother, who at age 12, many decades ago, was married to a widower, fire chief for Redondo Beach. She said to Bob, "Back in the days of the Wild West—and that was the wild west—we had a saying. 'Girls are like potatoes. If they're big enough, they're big enough.' And when I was twelve, I was big enough."