Rough outline of Garden

Devra wanted to know what my plans for the kitchen garden are. So I drew up a rough sketch for her. Kevin, you will recognize the basic design from the garden I had on the canal bank in Los Banos. Only the paths won't be grass.... just mulch over plastic. I am claiming the roll of black plastic in the basement.

This is obviously not to scale. Ummm.... Way Not to Scale. There will be arches on all four sides, like the one we have right now near the house. The Egyptian onions and the garlic are already in, and bedded down for the winter. If anyone touches them, I will have their hide. Probably the potatoes will go in next to the garlic.... and of course all the climbing stuff like the peas and runner beans will go along the arches. And everything else will go in somewhere....

Your hoop house(s) will be to the East of the garden.

And, no, I didn't use the Google SketchUp, even though I know that's everyone's favorite package right now. Just call me a late adopter.

The Questing Beast

I am on a quest for perennial wheat. Looking through my old seed catalogs the other day, I found an offering in my 2005 Bountiful Gardens for perennial wheat seeds. Whoa! Totally cool. Wouldn't it be neat to have a "wheat patch."

Unfortunately, they no longer offer it. I contacted them, and the wonderful woman at Bountiful Gardens said that the seedsman they got their seed from had to go find a job in town (well, I'm paraphrasing...) and the perennial variety was lost. She felt bad about it. I contacted her seedsman (Peters Seed and Research), and he said that he hoped to have another strain available in a few years.

So now I am looking around for perennial wheat seeds. So far, all my leads have been dead ends. Terribly frustrating.

It turns out that Soviet Russia experimented with perennial wheat for years from the late 40s through to the early 60s, and University of California-Davis experimented with perennial wheat during roughly the same time frame.... but neither group could ever make perennial wheat yield as much as annual wheat.... So They Gave It Up! Aaaaaarrrghhghgh!!!!!!!!! I hate the Green Revolution. (I am told to expect roughly half the yield with perennial wheat, compared with annual wheat.)

Never so much as a thought, that perennial wheat might have its own niche to fill, as a productive soil perserver on hillsides... or as a useful small-scale diversified farm plant.... or that it would need fewer pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers....

So anyway.

Perennial wheat is in my head now, and it won't let me go. The Seed Savers Exchange has so far been unable to provide me with a solid lead, although they have pointed me to the University of Washington, which is the current large-scale researcher. I haven't contacted them yet... that's my next step.

Darn questing beast. It exists, I know it. Somewhere out there, there are seeds available. I haven't found them yet. But I AM going to have that wheat patch. I think it would be wonderful to have a standing patch of wheat to supply my wheat grinder.

Onions, Garlic, Artichokes

I ordered the Egyptian onions from Ronniger's today: 15 sets. Enough to start a nice little patch.

Also, Ordered a variety of hard-neck garlic called Purple Glazer, which is supposed to be attractive (a pretty purple-streaked wrapper) and taste nice. Not too hot, so maybe the kids will eat it. Just half a pound, to give it a try.

Ronniger's also offers a few varieties of Jerusalem artichokes, which I have never seen before. Usually, companies just offer, "Jerusalem Artichokes." Anyway, I bought a pound of Red Fuseau to try, which they say is sweeter than the ordinary sort. Also, it's very pretty in the picture, and they say the tubers can grow up to six inches long, sort of like red, shiny carrots. If we like it, we should be able to save enough tubers to plant out a bigger patch next year. Oh, yeah. Side bonus: They say the plants grow up to ten feet tall, and full of blooms!

If you are interested in thinking about produce for farmer's markets, the Red Fuseau is intriguing. (And might as well find a pretty garlic, too.)

I didn't order the fingerlings. Ronniger's says they need to ship garlic and potatoes separately. So I'll order the fingerlings later in the year. They don't go in the ground 'til early spring anyway.

Egyptian Onions

I found a source for Egyptian Onions online: Ronnigers Seed Potatoes. We had their paper catalog about 15 years ago, and they sold Egyptian Onions back then, too. But we've spent a lot of time moving around since then.

My mom had Egyptian onions in her garden when I was a kid, and they were fabulous. Mostly they were beautiful. But also they were perennial, so we didn't have to Do anything with them each year, and they were good scallions in the early spring. So I have always wanted my own.

Do you want to order any seed potatoes from Ronniger's when I send in my order for E.O.'s this week? Purple ones? Gold ones? Blue ones?

Off the Beaten Path

Well, here we go.....

We've owned this particular 25 acres for six years now, and we've been "meaning to do something with it" for that long. And now that the kids are getting older, and AIG is bankrupt, and no one has ever really recovered from Katrina, and eggs are nearly two dollars a dozen, and milk is over three dollars a gallon, and you and I ain't getting any raises....... or, for that matter, getting any younger.....

It appears to be time.

Over the years, we have talked about lots of things we want to do with the place, but the plans never get put down anywhere easy to get at. Hopefully, this little blog will fix that.

So, these are the basic topics we have agreed to use as labels:

Food

Water

Power

Heat

Transportation

Shelter

Income

Gardening

Buildings

Animals

Sanitation

Recreation

Education

Health

Wildcrafting

Community

Are there any others you can think of right now that we may want to use?