The Self-Sufficient Gardener

Episode 151 Shiitake Mushroom Cultivation

By Jason, on February 22nd, 2012

Shiitakes (Lentinula Edodes) originated in East Asia (Japan, China and Korea). Shii = an evergreen tree related to Oak, beech and other Fagaceae family trees. Take=mushroom. The samurai had specific spots they ordered cultivated. Traditional cultivation involved simply adding logs next to where they grew naturally.

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My shiitake logs are doing well currently (these are not my logs above!), I’ve got them hid on TVA property in the shade. Hopefully I’ll be harvesting this Spring.

Here’s a teaser trailer to the shiitake innoculation video I mentioned. The full length video will be on the members site by this weekend.

See Nick’s article here for specific steps and any I may have left out.

The process is pretty basic:

1. ID trees (oak, hickory, maple, sweet gum, poplar) – NO CONIFERS. ID in the summer.

2. Cut trees between late fall and early spring.

3. Innoculate within 2 weeks to one month.

4. Three methods of innoculation – sawdust, plug or thimble. Sawdust and plug require wax, thimble does not. Reference my past picture album with the process for plugs.

5. Place logs somewhere damp and shaded.

6. Wait 6-18 months to harvest.

ITS THAT EASY!

Field and Forest (where I buy all of my spawn) Tell them I sent you and hopefully they will consider giving Garden Club Members a discount!

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Episode 150 Soil Basics

By Jason, on February 21st, 2012

Did several shows on soil before but I consider those medium level shows. I talked about a lot of science and stuff that was interesting (to me at least) but maybe not as actionable as I liked.

Knowing your soil

Topsoil and subsoil.

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Topsoil is the layer where most things grow. This is the layer that provides the most nutrients, water and growth opportunity.

Subsoil is the rocky substrate that topsoil sits on. Holds seeped nutrients but is generally less fertile than topsoil.

Soil Types

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Three main types: Clay, sand and silt. Particle wise clay is very small. Sand is very large. Silt is in between.

Clay holds water really well. Sand does not. Silt is in between.

Clay is more acid than the other types. Acid soils taste sour. Alkaline soils taste sweet. Alkalinity is almost always worse than acidity (within reason). Most plants like some acid. If the plant has fruit with acidity, where is it going to get the acid?

Identify your soil characteristics

Dig in different places. Soil is not the same even 100 feet apart.

Use the jar test. OM then Clay on top then silt then sand.

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Look for indicator plants.

Fixing and Maintaining your soil.

See the benefit in your soil. Don’t fall for the grass is greener syndrome. People with sand want clay and people with clay want sand. Everyone wants loam but no one wants to work for it.

I’m of the opinion that roots should always be in the soil and mulch should always be on top. The roots keep the soil from moving downward and the mulch keeps it from moving upward. When you plant something and its cycle completes don’t pull it up by the roots. Chop it and leave it unless there’s a reason not to.

Legumes are some of the most beneficial things that can be planted. Again, chop and drop, don’t pull up by the roots.

Rotate crops. Every crop takes something different. If you keep taking the same thing you will deplete it.

Encourage fungi. When they aren’t there introduce them. When they are there don’t freak out. Forest soil is a good thing to add.

Worms are so important. Earthworms and redworms. Do things to draw them in. Mulch helps. Sheet mulching is good. They need stuff to eat though.

I am also of the opinion that without a companion animal to help your garden you are going to make your life more difficult.

Know each plant and what it needs. Make the best use of your space in the garden by planting things the appropriate way.

Don’t use pesticides or herbicides or fertilizers. I know that should be pretty basic by now with my show but really everything that’s good in the soil. Even too much organic fertilizer can be a bad thing. If you do the things to maintain the soil that I suggest you won’t even need to bother with these things. Your plants will grow faster than everything else. They will resist predation and they will grow without additional nutrients.

Add compost but don’t till it in. Never break the soil unless you are planting root crops. Even then, only break it as much as you need to.

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It Takes a Village…to Grow a Garden

By Jason, on February 20th, 2012

When I started this site and podcast in 2009 (the first one was at the now defunct www.theselfsufficientway.com), I knew that self-sufficiency was to be the primary goal. Though I had been gardening for 30 years I had just lost a job and the garden and other forms of food production took on a whole new meaning for me.

The message seemed to resonate with people. Most of us live a dependent life to some degree. It would be nice to shake off at least a few chains.

Some people though see this as a threat to social engineering. You see they’d force you into community actions and they call people like you and I isolationists or kooks because we’d like to do things our own way. They believe that coming into a community on bended knee with open hands is the proper way to do things. I do not. I believe that if we take some responsibility for our own education we can come into the community with something to offer. Value for value.

By the way, the next time you read an article on someone’s website about just how “community based” they are go take a look at how many links to other pages they display! I have a hard time taking someone seriously when they can’t even practice what they preach. These people want community but as long as they are the leader. Its totally self-serving.

The truth is for me that though this website and podcast are called “The Self-Sufficient Gardener” it’s really “The Self-Sufficient Gardeners”. I want each and every person who reads or listens to what I have to say be as self-sufficient as they want to be. The saying is that a good teacher works himself or herself out of a job. I’m not that good…yet!

The truth about gardening, hunting, fishing, trapping, permaculture and foraging is that quite a bit can actually be learned on one’s own. But the real payoff is the community aspect at the start and the end. If you know how I look at food systems and permaculture you know there is a natural flow. This journey is no different.

On the front side (input) your learning is supercharged when you have mentors and teachers and resources. There are many things that I don’t even pretend you should just run off and attempt on your own. I read a great saying about mushroom hunters the other day: There are old mushroom hunters. There are bold mushroom hunters. There are no old bold mushroom hunters.

In the middle (process) you work not only with your peers but also people who are teaching you as well as people who are just starting out. This is the formative stage. You learn from your mentors in a higher capacity. You have some understanding. You are better able to teach those starting out. You understand where they come from. But most of all your peer interactions are CRUCIAL. I learn from teachers but when I work in a group with others the way ideas play together makes the final idea even stronger.

At the end (output) you should have good working knowledge (but always able to learn more!). But you should pass this on at every opportunity.

So what does this have to do with the first part of this article? Very simply community is important but learn how to interact with a community and learn how to provide value. If you come into a community with some ability to be self-sufficient you should immediately set out to teach others and render their reliance upon you void as soon as possible.

So the next time that someone suggests to you in any form that being self-sufficient or self-reliant is a less noble goal than giving your life unwillingly to others remind them that someone had to learn the knowledge so they could someday pass it on to the group!

Raising Gentle Bees for your Backyard

By Jason, on February 17th, 2012

Today’s entry is a guest post by Dave Hunter from www.crownbees.com

Honey bees are having challenges today with Colony Collapse Disorder, pesticides, global weather changes, nasty mites and a few more
maladies. I’m sure you’ve read much of this bad news in recent years. Although scientists are working feverishly to help this wonderful bee, their numbers continue to decrease.

You need pollination for your fruit trees and garden. In addition to raising your own food, you can easily raise native bees as well.

In this article,you’ll learn about:

The bee kingdom and why many of the bees are gentle
A bit about solitary bee life spans
What bees are available to pollinate
Spring mason bees and what you need to raise them

The bee kingdom has both social and solitary bees.

The bee kingdom has two different types of bees; social (honey bees, bumble bees), and solitary (where every female is a queen and they assume all duties. )

The bee kingdom lives in three types of environments; hives they create (honey bees, paper wasps), holes in the ground (bumble bees, miner bees) and holes in trees & reeds (mason bees, leaf cutters). There are over 4,000 species of bees, hornets, and wasps in north america!

In general, social bees, hornets, and wasps work in a community where each has their own job. Where we get in trouble is with the hive
defenders. “Protect the queen & our babies” is their rallying cry! And stinging occurs…

The solitary bee, on the other hand, has no workers and little to defend. If she guarded her nest, she wouldn’t be able to gather pollen. As a result, it’s EXTREMELY hard to get stung by a solitary bee! When your hand or head gets in the way of her hole, she simply hovers, goes around you, or flies away to find her hole later. Read more about mason bee characteristics.

Working bees don’t live that long

Most all bees only live about 5-6 weeks. Their wings can only flap so many times before they wear out.

Social queen bees constantly produce bees all season long.

Solitary female bees live in specific times of the year. They tend to emerge when their “heat cues” tell them to wake up. For example, the spring mason bees come out when the temperatures are around 55˚ F (13˚C). These bees are designed to pollinate fruit trees and early berries (like the blueberry). They’ve laid their last egg by early June when later berries are in bloom. Leafcutter bees emerge when it’s much warmer in July. Read more about the spring mason bee’s life cycle.
Think through what plants you want to pollinate

Fruit and nuts (spring)
Berries (early summer)
Gardens (mid-summer)

There are hundreds of solitary bee species that may be around you emerging in different growing seasons.

The spring mason bee, (blue orchard and hornfaced bees in North America) is one of the easiest bees to raise. Much is known about how best to raise these gentle bees. Start raising these bees this season and gradually begin to learn about others in your yard.

If you have time and a bit of money, there are multiple honey bee associations near you that would love to help you get started raising honey bees.

Simple requirements to raise spring mason bees

You are introducing bees to your yard. By doing so, there are a few items needed for success. Read through this list… it’s pretty short!

Spring pollen in your yard. Fruit or nut trees, big leaf maples, rhododendrons, dandelions, or pretty much any pollen around. These bees are not choosy! You’re a gardener and should already have pollen in your yard.
Nesting material to lay pollen in for nesting. Mason bees nest in available holes about 1/4-5/16” (7-8mm) wide and about 4-7” deep. Try to provide natural material like paper tubes, reeds, or wood trays. Anything that can be opened later for inspection during harvest. (Not drilled blocks of wood!)
A house to keep the nesting material dry. Small, square, diamond, or raindrop shaped. The choice is yours. Read more where to optimally place the mason bee house.
Mud to separate her eggs. Spring mason bees need clayey mud that is moist. Read more.
A bit of love and care. It’s quite easy to do this when you’re able to get so close to these bees!
Fall harvest. Just like you need to change the oil in your car, you should harvest your cocoons in the fall. This helps you separate the pests from your hibernating bees.
Finally, something to remind you. Crown Bees has Bee-Mail that helps you remember when to do what. We abhor spam as well and only provide you monthly reminders on what your mason bees should be doing, what you should be doing, and what is coming next. A bit of science news is included as well.

You know much about your soil and plants. We encourage you to learn about the native pollinators of your yard. You’ll be surprised how gentle bees can be. You can purchase spring mason bees and other products now until sources are sold out.
Be very cautious about buying the right bees. Western bees should not be bought for east-of-the-Rockies states. When western bees are introduced to eastern states, the two eastern/western subspecies mate producing genetically modified bees. Pathogens are also spread from one species to the other. The honey bees face this same issue with introduced Chinese bees carrying the varroa mite.

Episode 149 Comprehensive Companion Planting

By Jason, on February 16th, 2012

Its hard to define sometimes but its essentially using the inherent characteristics of one plant to benefit other plants. Its building an ecosystem!

Reasons:

Improve taste or effectiveness of a crop.
Draw in beneficial insects.
Fool plant predating insects.

Trap Crop
Shield Crop

Physical advantages
Nutrient advantages

The best companion plants may often times be a few weeds. Not enough weeds to choke out your young plants but enough to draw in naturally the beneficials you want.

Improve Taste

Companion plants grown for this purpose are said to improve the taste of one of the companions. This – of course – is a highly debatable subject.

Plants high in volatile oils seem to improve taste of watery fruits and veggies. Tomatoes improved by basil. Cucumbers said to by dill. The general rule is that plants that go together on the plant go together in the garden.

Plants high in volatile oils improved by plants such as nettles. I can’t really discover why this is the case. Early mediterranean gardeners found that planting Basil (sweet) next to their tomato plants gave them larger, healthier, better tasting tomatoes. Perhaps the tomatoes’ roots absorb some root exudate of the basil, or “breathe” some secretion of this sweet smelling herb.

Study: http://orgprints.org/6614/

Draw in beneficial insects

Any plant that makes tons of flowers is going to help nearby plants. Flowers draw in among other things parasitic wasps and most plant predating insects go through a larval stage that is vulnerable to these wasps.

Parasitic Wasp on Calendula Flower

Yarrow, dill, lettuce (bolted), radishes, turnips, carrots, beets (in second year). All in all sunflowers are king. Buckwheat is good also.

: Honeybee on a Turnip Flower

You need a comprehensive flowering plan. Know what flowers when. Make sure you account not just for bloom times but also colors.

Large plants sunflowers but also corn. Corn has tons of nooks and crannies for lacewings.

Flowers mean bees. Especially orange and yellow flowers, draw them in. Calendula is great in this regard. Don’t just think about insects. Tubular flowers also draw in hummingbirds which can decimate a whitefly infestation.

Trap Crops

Grapes take the cake as the best trap crop made. Aphids will go straight to grapes and they can’t really harm a strong grapevine but they will draw in tons of beneficials just by being there.

Eggplants seem to work pretty well as a trap crop for flea beetles, also groundcherries. Pick a plant in the same family of the one you want to protect, just make sure that plant is more appealing.

Shield Crop

Things with strong smells or release things predating insects don’t care for.

Garlic – the aroma fools.

Nasturtiums – very peppery and strong.

Cilantro – stinks to me and to bugs.

Mint – easy to grow also.

Lemon basil and lemon balm – citronella

Physical

Provides support. Grew beans up grapes. Beans up corn.

Provides shade.

Also includes co-planting and nurse crops. Co-planting is essentially planting two things so they grow at once (at some point). Like sowing clover and wheat.

Nutrient advantages

Things like alfalfa mine the soil for nutrients. Bring those up. You can chop the plant and use it as mulch or let the fungi work their magic. Dandelions

Bad Companions

There are bad companions too. Alliums next to legumes.

Fennel is said to be the worst companion.

Disease and pest proximity. Same family plants close by is a no-no. Tomatoes and potatoes- same blights.

Corn and tomatoes – rootworm. I noticed that parsley next to carrots is a no-no. The parsley drew in parsley worms (black swallowtail butterfly) and they also ate carrots.

Planning

Need to have a plan for companion planting. You garden layout should basically revolve around companion planting.

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The Article Garden 2/15/12

By Jason, on February 15th, 2012

Free hybrid poplar tree cuttings!

There’s been a lot of hub-bub in the gardening world about the recent zone map changes. Permaculturist (and hero of mine) Dave Jacke recommends this map which has not only not changed but I’ve been using for a while with quite a bit of success. I kept wondering why people kept telling me I was growing out of my zone. I’m not THAT skilled!

For all of the “preppers” in my audience check out Rourke from Modernsurvivalonline.com and his new site: http://bestpreparednessdeals.com/

Forum use Heliotropicmoth posted this blog post on making and using soil cubes.

The best repurposing tip I’ve ever seen. Celery for free (almost).

Rise and Shine Rabbitry with another awesome find regarding plants that are safe and unsafe for rabbits.

Episode 148 Creating and Utilizing Microclimates

By Jason, on February 14th, 2012

Two proverbs/quotes that are applicable:

Everyone talks about the weather but no one does anything about it.
Mark Twain – Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get.

It has been said that gardeners have grass is greener syndrome. Everyone thinks the grass is greener on the other side of the world or even the next zone. But the real truth is that we all face challenges and no one zone can grow every plant.

But what if I told you there was a way to maybe exploit a loophole so to speak, to cheat the climate in your area.

Its called microclimates.

Definitions: Local atmospheric zone that differs from the surrounding climate. You are essentially changing the conditions to match the plant rather than finding plants that match the conditions. This is important when you want to grow something that’s just outside your zone or maybe will survive but won’t fruit. You can actually make it fruit.

It doesn’t always mean upzoning. You could downzone as well. A lot of people in the south have trouble with apple production because apples grow well in cooler more northern climes. So you could go cooler or warmer. It just depends on what the plant wants. Its also about moisture as well

You have to know a little about thermodynamics among other things.

If you want warmth there are some things you can do.

1. Dig a pond. The humidity that it causes acts a bit like a greenhouse effect and the water vapor holds in the heat from the sunlight.

2. Add things that are black (or at least dark) – stones, compost, volcanic rock, black plastic. Use rocks and other objects to store some heat.

3. Maximize solar exposure - Angle planting surfaces toward the south, more sun exposure.

4. Block winds – Use windbreaks such as hedges to block the cooling winds.

5. Plant things in higher areas. Cool air sinks, warm air rises.

6. Use reflective surfaces, greenhouses, house panelling, stone walls, ponds.

7. Keep soil loose – pockets trap warm air.

If you want cool there are some things you can do.

1. Block some solar exposure – plant on North slopes, use other plants and structures to shade.

2. Allow in cooling winds.

3. Create depressions and plant in them. Cool air sinks.

4. Use light colored mulches

If you want more moisture – Use ponds and other water retaining features and plant close to forest edges.

Be thoughtful when creating microclimates. Not everything works for everyone. Don’t spend four hours building something that raises your growing temp by .00001.

Some plants will need to be mobile to a degree. Movement can maximize time spent in favorable climates.

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Episode 151 Shiitake Mushroom Cultivation

Episode 150 Soil Basics

It Takes a Village…to Grow a Garden

Raising Gentle Bees for your Backyard