Posted on 07/24/2009 3:37:21 AM PDT by nw_arizona_granny
Weekly Roundup - Living On Nothing Edition Category: Roundups | Comments(15)
Did you hear about the guy that lives on nothing? No seriously, he lives on zero dollars a day. Meet Daniel Suelo, who lives in a cave outside Moab, Utah. Suelo has no mortgage, no car payment, no debt of any kind. He also has no home, no car, no television, and absolutely no “creature comforts.” But he does have a lot of creatures, as in the mice and bugs that scurry about the cave floor he’s called home for the last three years.
To us, Suelo probably sounds a little extreme. Actually, he probably sounds very extreme. After all, I suspect most of you reading this are doing so under the protection of some sort of man-made shelter, and with some amount of money on your person, and probably a few needs for money, too. And who doesn’t need money unless they have completely unplugged from the grid? Still, it’s an amusing story about a guy who rejects all forms of consumerism as we know it.
The Frugal Roundup
How to Brew Your Own Beer and Maybe Save Some Money. A fantastic introduction to home brewing, something I’ve never done myself, but always been interested in trying. (@Generation X Finance)
Contentment: A Great Financial Principle. If I had to name one required emotion for living a frugal lifestyle it would be contentment. Once you are content with your belongings and your lot in life you can ignore forces attempting to separate you from your money. (@Personal Finance by the Book)
Use Energy Star Appliances to Save On Utility Costs. I enjoyed this post because it included actual numbers, and actual total savings, from someone who upgraded to new, energy star appliances. (@The Digerati Life)
Over-Saving for Retirement? Is it possible to “over-save” for retirement? Yes, I think so. At some point I like the idea of putting some money aside in taxable investments outside of retirement funds, to be accessed prior to traditional retirement age. (@The Simple Dollar)
40 Things to Teach My Kids Before They Leave Home. A great list of both practical and philosophical lessons to teach your kids before they reach the age where they know everything. I think that now happens around 13 years-old. (@My Supercharged Life)
Index Fund Investing Overview. If you are looking for a place to invest with high diversification and relatively low fees (for broader index funds with low turnover), index funds are a great place to start. (@Money Smart Life)
5 Reasons To Line Dry Your Laundry. My wife and I may soon be installing a clothesline in our backyard. In many neighborhoods they are frowned upon - one of the reasons I don’t like living in a neighborhood. I digress. One of our neighbors recently put up a clothesline, and we might just follow his lead. (@Simple Mom)
A Few Others I Enjoyed
* 4 Quick Tips for Getting Out of a Rut * Young and Cash Rich * Embracing Simple Style * First Trading Experience With OptionsHouse * The Exponential Power of Delayed Consumption * How Much Emergency Fund is Enough? * 50 Questions that Will Free Your Mind * Save Money On Car Insurance
http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2009pres/09/20090902a.html
News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Contact: ASG: (202) 514-2007
TDD: (202) 514-1888
Justice Department Announces Largest Health Care Fraud Settlement in its History
Pfizer To Pay $2.3 Billion For Fraudulent Marketing
WASHINGTON – American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. and its subsidiary Pharmacia & Upjohn Company Inc. (hereinafter together “Pfizer”) have agreed to pay $2.3 billion, the largest health care fraud settlement in the history of the Department of Justice, to resolve criminal and civil liability arising from the illegal promotion of certain pharmaceutical products, the Justice Department announced today.
Pharmacia & Upjohn Company has agreed to plead guilty to a felony violation of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act for misbranding Bextra with the intent to defraud or mislead. Bextra is an anti-inflammatory drug that Pfizer pulled from the market in 2005. Under the provisions of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, a company must specify the intended uses of a product in its new drug application to FDA. Once approved, the drug may not be marketed or promoted for so-called “off-label” uses – i.e., any use not specified in an application and approved by FDA. Pfizer promoted the sale of Bextra for several uses and dosages that the FDA specifically declined to approve due to safety concerns. The company will pay a criminal fine of $1.195 billion, the largest criminal fine ever imposed in the United States for any matter. Pharmacia & Upjohn will also forfeit $105 million, for a total criminal resolution of $1.3 billion.
In addition, Pfizer has agreed to pay $1 billion to resolve allegations under the civil False Claims Act that the company illegally promoted four drugs – Bextra; Geodon, an anti-psychotic drug; Zyvox, an antibiotic; and Lyrica, an anti-epileptic drug – and caused false claims to be submitted to government health care programs for uses that were not medically accepted indications and therefore not covered by those programs. The civil settlement also resolves allegations that Pfizer paid kickbacks to health care providers to induce them to prescribe these, as well as other, drugs. The federal share of the civil settlement is $668,514,830 and the state Medicaid share of the civil settlement is $331,485,170. This is the largest civil fraud settlement in history against a pharmaceutical company.
As part of the settlement, Pfizer also has agreed to enter into an expansive corporate integrity agreement with the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services. That agreement provides for procedures and reviews to be put in place to avoid and promptly detect conduct similar to that which gave rise to this matter.
Whistleblower lawsuits filed under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act that are pending in the District of Massachusetts, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the Eastern District of Kentucky triggered this investigation. As a part of today’s resolution, six whistleblowers will receive payments totaling more than $102 million from the federal share of the civil recovery.
The U.S. Attorney’s offices for the District of Massachusetts, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and the Eastern District of Kentucky, and the Civil Division of the Department of Justice handled these cases. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts led the criminal investigation of Bextra. The investigation was conducted by the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the FBI, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), the Office of Criminal Investigations for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Veterans’ Administration’s (VA) Office of Criminal Investigations, the Office of the Inspector General for the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Office of the Inspector General for the United States Postal Service (USPS), the National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units and the offices of various state Attorneys General.
“Today’s landmark settlement is an example of the Department of Justice’s ongoing and intensive efforts to protect the American public and recover funds for the federal treasury and the public from those who seek to earn a profit through fraud. It shows one of the many ways in which federal government, in partnership with its state and local allies, can help the American people at a time when budgets are tight and health care costs are increasing,” said Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli. “This settlement is a testament to the type of broad, coordinated effort among federal agencies and with our state and local partners that is at the core of the Department of Justice’s approach to law enforcement.”
“This historic settlement will return nearly $1 billion to Medicare, Medicaid, and other government insurance programs, securing their future for the Americans who depend on these programs,” said Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Department of Health and Human Services. “The Department of Health and Human Services will continue to seek opportunities to work with its government partners to prosecute fraud wherever we can find it. But we will also look for new ways to prevent fraud before it happens. Health care is too important to let a single dollar go to waste.”
“Illegal conduct and fraud by pharmaceutical companies puts the public health at risk, corrupts medical decisions by health care providers, and costs the government billions of dollars,” said Tony West, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division. “This civil settlement and plea agreement by Pfizer represent yet another example of what penalties will be faced when a pharmaceutical company puts profits ahead of patient welfare.”
“The size and seriousness of this resolution, including the huge criminal fine of $1.3 billion, reflect the seriousness and scope of Pfizer’s crimes,” said Mike Loucks, acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. “Pfizer violated the law over an extensive time period. Furthermore, at the very same time Pfizer was in our office negotiating and resolving the allegations of criminal conduct by its then newly acquired subsidiary, Warner-Lambert, Pfizer was itself in its other operations violating those very same laws. Today’s enormous fine demonstrates that such blatant and continued disregard of the law will not be tolerated.”
“Although these types of investigations are often long and complicated and require many resources to achieve positive results, the FBI will not be deterred from continuing to ensure that pharmaceutical companies conduct business in a lawful manner,” said Kevin Perkins, FBI Assistant Director, Criminal Investigative Division.
“This resolution protects the FDA in its vital mission of ensuring that drugs are safe and effective. When manufacturers undermine the FDA’s rules, they interfere with a doctor’s judgment and can put patient health at risk,” commented Michael L. Levy, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. “The public trusts companies to market their drugs for uses that FDA has approved, and trusts that doctors are using independent judgment. Federal health dollars should only be spent on treatment decisions untainted by misinformation from manufacturers concerned with the bottom line.”
“This settlement demonstrates the ongoing efforts to pursue violations of the False Claims Act and recover taxpayer dollars for the Medicare and Medicaid programs,” noted Jim Zerhusen, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
“This historic settlement emphasizes the government’s commitment to corporate and individual accountability and to transparency throughout the pharmaceutical industry,” said Daniel R. Levinson, Inspector General of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. “The corporate integrity agreement requires senior Pfizer executives and board members to complete annual compliance certifications and opens Pfizer to more public scrutiny by requiring it to make detailed disclosures on its Web site. We expect this agreement to increase integrity in the marketing of pharmaceuticals.”
“The off-label promotion of pharmaceutical drugs by Pfizer significantly impacted the integrity of TRICARE, the Department of Defense’s healthcare system,” said Sharon Woods, Director, Defense Criminal Investigative Service. “This illegal activity increases patients’ costs, threatens their safety and negatively affects the delivery of healthcare services to the over nine million military members, retirees and their families who rely on this system. Today’s charges and settlement demonstrate the ongoing commitment of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and its law enforcement partners to investigate and prosecute those that abuse the government’s healthcare programs at the expense of the taxpayers and patients.”
“Federal employees deserve health care providers and suppliers, including drug manufacturers, that meet the highest standards of ethical and professional behavior,” said Patrick E. McFarland, Inspector General of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. “Today’s settlement reminds the pharmaceutical industry that it must observe those standards and reflects the commitment of federal law enforcement organizations to pursue improper and illegal conduct that places health care consumers at risk.”
“Health care fraud has a significant financial impact on the Postal Service. This case alone impacted more than 10,000 postal employees on workers’ compensation who were treated with these drugs,” said Joseph Finn, Special Agent in Charge for the Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General. “Last year the Postal Service paid more than $1 billion in workers’ compensation benefits to postal employees injured on the job.”
###
Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at http://www.hhs.gov/news.
Last revised: September 02, 2009
Teen Allegedly Trying To Start Fire Linked To 15 Arsons
A 17-year-old girl has been arrested by San Diego police for allegedly trying to
set fire to shrubs in Mira Mesa, and she has now been linked to 15 arson cases,
according to a sergeant.
MORE DETAILS:
http://www.10News.com/tu/5JuNIKrMf.html
Sustainable Agriculture News Briefs - September 2, 2009
Weekly sustainable agriculture news and resources gleaned from the Internet by NCAT staff for the ATTRA - National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service Web site. The Weekly Harvest Newsletter is also available online.
Share The Harvest: Please forward this newsletter to friends and colleagues who might be interested in the latest sustainable agriculture news, funding opportunities, and events.
News & Resources
* Community Gardening Publication Available
* New Website Available for Beginning Farmers
* Site Answers Questions About Selling Local Foods
* Video Highlights White House Garden
* Minnesota Department of Ag Releases Organic Publications
* Tool Evaluates Biomass Profitability
Funding Opportunities
* New England Grassroots Environmental Fund Grant
* Tennessee Organic Cost Share Program
* California School Garden Grant Program
Coming Events
* Tri-State Local Food Conference
* Focus on Community Supported Agriculture Educational Tour
* Sandhills Summer Cover Crops Demonstration
News & Resources
Community Gardening Publication Available
http://www.extension.org/pages/Cooperative_Extension,_Public_Health_Partner_on_Community_Gardener_Primer
A new guide to community gardening - developed by three North Carolina Cooperative Extension specialists, a nutritionist with the state’s Division of Public Health and two graduate students from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - will provide communities with tools to increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables, strengthen neighborhood groups and increase physical activity through gardening. The gardening primer, “Growing Communities through Gardens” (http://nccommunitygarden.ncsu.edu/primer.html), was published by Eat Smart, Move More North Carolina and the North Carolina Community Garden Partners, a coalition of agencies seeking to promote community gardening. The primer provides information on how to find or develop a garden and how to prepare, preserve and store produce.
New Website Available for Beginning Farmers
http://www.beginfarmingohio.org/
For the first time Ohio’s new and beginning farmers have an entire website dedicated to their unique information needs and designed to make it easier for them to find the services and resources they seek. The website represents the collaborative efforts of the Cuyahoga Valley Countryside Conservancy; Ohio Department of Agriculture, Sustainable Agriculture; Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA); the Organic Food and Farming Education & Research Program of the OSU Ohio Agriculture Research and Development Center; and the Ohio State University Extension. These entities, working together as Begin Farming Ohio, aim to build Ohio’s capacity to provide, expand, enhance, and sustain services to beginning farmers. The website will also provide listings of events of special interest to Ohio’s beginning farmers, and facilitate searches for educational and funding resources to assist beginning farmers with challenges related to production, marketing, and business management.
Site Answers Questions About Selling Local Foods
http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/resources/foodregs.html
A new resource from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture aims to help answer questions about selling food. With the help of food safety experts and Iowa food regulatory officials, the Leopold Center has compiled a new summary of “Frequently Asked Questions on Food Regulations for Small Market Food Producers” (http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/resources/foodregs.html). “Many questions have arisen about regulations for selling food in local and regional market venues. This document addresses the most frequently asked questions on which we’ve received feedback from various Iowa partners,” said Leopold Center Associate Director Rich Pirog, who prepared the FAQ with the help of Drake Agricultural Law Center interns Ross Baxter and Kate Lyon.
Video Highlights White House Garden
http://www.whitehouse.gov/video/Inside-the-White-House-The-Garden/
The White House has released a video highlighting its new garden. The video features interviews with The First Lady and The White House Chef and documents the preparation, planting, harvesting, and use of the garden.
Minnesota Department of Ag Releases Organic Publications
http://www.minnesotaagconnection.com/story-state.php?Id=773&yr=2009
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) has published two new resources for organic farmers and others interested in organic agriculture. The 52-page Organic Farm Performance in Minnesota report (http://www.mda.state.mn.us/news/publications/food/organicgrowing/2008orgfarmperf.pdf) offers detailed information about the cost of production and the profitability of organic farming in Minnesota. A second publication is the 2009 Directory of Minnesota Organic Farms (http://www.mda.state.mn.us/news/publications/food/organicgrowing/organicdirectory.pdf). More than 250 of the estimated 650 certified organic farms in Minnesota are included in the directory.
Tool Evaluates Biomass Profitability
http://www.extension.org/pages/BiomassCompare_%E2%80%93_A_Spreadsheet_to_Evaluate_Biomass_Profitability
BiomassCompare (http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/abeng/biofuels.htm) is an online Excel spreadsheet that compares the profitability of raising a new biomass crop with existing crops already on a producer’s farm or ranch. The program is flexible enough to handle harvesting of biomass residues, such as straw and stovers, from existing crops, as well as establishing a new, dedicated crop of annuals and perennials strictly raised for biomass harvesting, such as switchgrass. The program calculates what prices the user would have to receive for traditional crops produced on their farm to be competitive. If the biomass crop is more profitable than traditional cropping opportunities, the user might want to obtain more information about the biomass opportunity.
More Breaking News (http://attra.ncat.org/news/)
Funding Opportunities
New England Grassroots Environmental Fund Grant
http://grassrootsfund.org/grants/small_grants/
NEGEF’s small grants program provides grants to groups working on community level issues in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. The Fund interprets the word ‘environment’ broadly and will provide funding for a wide range of activities. Whole systems-thinking is critical to initiatives focused on making our environment better, healthier and more sustainable.
Proposals are due September 15, 2009.
Tennessee Organic Cost Share Program
http://www.picktnproducts.org/food/OrganicCertCostShareProgram.html
The Organic Certification Cost Share Program in Tennessee seeks to defray the cost of organic certification for all producers & handlers of organic agricultural products in Tennessee. The 2008 Farm Bill provides new funding to the Tennessee Department of Agriculture to reimburse each eligible producer or handler for up to 75% of organic certification costs, not to exceed $750.
Proposals are due September 29, 2009.
California School Garden Grant Program
http://www.wga.com/default.php?id=138
This grant will work to support existing school gardens where students are heavily involved. Awards may be monetary or may be in the form of supplies or expertise.
Proposals are due November 15, 2009.
More Funding Opportunities (http://attra.ncat.org/funding/)
Coming Events
Tri-State Local Food Conference
http://www.travelfairfieldiowa.com/food-conference/
September 4, 2009
Fairfield, Iowa
Whether you are in local food production, consumption or food system development, you’ll find sessions of interest to you. We’ll hear from innovative local food producers making a livelihood growing local food in Iowa, Illinois and Missouri. We’ll also hear from those on the leading edge of research, policy development and local food system development.
Focus on Community Supported Agriculture Educational Tour
http://www.agriculture.utk.edu/news/releases/2009/0907CSAtour.html
September 8, 2009
Spring Hill, Tennessee
The half-day tour will make stops at Delvin Farms and Rocky Glade Farm. There is no cost to participate and lunch at Hatchers Family Dairy will be provided to all attendees. Farmers and agri-entrepreneurs that are currently considering or already involved in a community supported agriculture venture are eligible to participate.
Sandhills Summer Cover Crops Demonstration
http://www.cefs.ncsu.edu/calendar2009.htm#sh1
September 10, 2009
Jackson Springs, North Carolina
As farmers in the area consider organic production as an option for their farm, the question of nutrient alternatives is an important consideration. Join us as we look at covercropping as a viable alternative.
More Events (http://attra.org/calendar/)
New & Updated Publications
Biodiesel: Do-it-yourself Production Basics
http://attra.ncat.org/calendar/new_pubs.php/2009/08/27/biodiesel_do_it_yourself_production_basi_1
Procesamiento de Aves a Pequeña Escala
http://attra.ncat.org/calendar/new_pubs.php/2009/08/20/procesamiento_de_aves_a_pequena_escala
Finding Land to Farm: Six Ways to Secure Farmland
http://attra.ncat.org/calendar/new_pubs.php/2009/07/30/finding_land_to_farm_six_ways_to_secure
Question of the Week
What are some resources for information on pastured layer hen production?
http://attra.ncat.org/calendar/question.php/2009/08/31/what_are_some_resources_for_information__3
Website of the Week
Vegetable MD Online
http://attra.org/wow/
Ask a Sustainable Agriculture Expert
Submit questions to our professional staff online
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ATTRA Spanish Newsletter
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(Monthly Harvest), ATTRA’s Spanish-language e-newsletter
ATTRA on the Radio
This week’s topic is Energizing Your Farm—Harvesting Wind, Sunlight, and Energy Efficiency. Listen to the show (http://www.modavox.com/voiceamerica/vepisode.aspx?aid=40843)
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Digital versions of recent Weekly Harvest and ATTRAnews newsletters are available online. ATTRAnews is the newsletter of ATTRA - National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service.
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ATTRA - National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service is managed by the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) and is funded under a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Rural Business-Cooperative Service (http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rbs/index.html). Visit the NCAT Web site (http://www.ncat.org/sarc_current.php) for more information on our sustainable agriculture projects.
Copyright 2009 NCAT
>>> How many more invasions of our privacy and other socialist activity will it take before the sheeple arise? <<<
Thanks for posting this.. Fortunately I lived before the internet and looks like the prior-experience will pay off because the tumor is expanding..
LOL.. I guess not.
Full text of “A manual containing directions for sowing, transplanting and raising of the mulberry tree; together with proper instructions for propagating the same by cuttings, layers, &c., &c.; as also, instructions for the culture of silk: to which is added, calculations shewing the produce and probable expense of cultivation of from one to ten acres, as tested by actual results”
http://www.archive.org/stream/manualcontaining00roberich/manualcontaining00roberich_djvu.txt
http://users.fulladsl.be/spb19514/www.thevegetablegarden.be/Perennial_brassicas.html
Perennial Brassicas
Here we go for a few, there are lots, but I’m trying to pick out the best,
nine star perennial broccoli : one of the best perennial kales, makes large cauliflower -like heads during springtime, these can weigh up to 1,5 kgs or even more! They are easily sown or can be grown on by cuttings. Don’t let the plants flower, or they’ll die!
http://www.beardsleyfarm.com/2007/10/new-keyhole-beds.html
[good photos...I like it, for it is not straight rows....granny]
Last week we cleared out the farthest beds where some of the basil and tomatoes were planted.
Upon inspection, we noticed that both of the beds were mostly clay.
So we decided to do a little experimenting.
If the beds were mostly clay and the path in between was clay, then we had a blank canvas with which to try something new on the farm. I had heard about keyhole beds and their advantages. They make better use of the space given by reducing walking area and increasing arable area. Plus, they look nice. We thought that turning the two long rectangles into two big ovals would probably suit our purposes just fine.
Frank measured the beds and the path. He then made a rough sketch of what our new oval keyhole beds would look like.
Frank found that, “with the current beds our arable planting area [was] 154 sq. ft. The “keyhole” beds [would] have a total area of 208.2 sq. ft. The beds [would need to be] slightly ovoid. This seemed the best way to make use of the available space.”
We could increase our bed size and make them more appealing! I love how stuff works out some times!
So we got to work.
We removed the rest of the grass from the path and the rest of the weeds from both of the beds. This is a process we’re becoming more and more familiar with. It takes a lot of time and a lot of patience. But we’re getting better at it and we know that it’ll pay off in the end.Frank marked out the border of both ovals with orange flags and Briahn (our wonderful new “intern” from UTK’s sociology department) lined the ovals with cardboard and woodchips to keep the future bermuda grass from possibly coming back.
I personally REALLY REALLY HOPE that this method of bermuda-grass-prevention works. Even if we have to do it every three years or so.
The beds were really beginning to take shape.
Once we had the outer edges defined, then we could outline the inner path (with flags again) and get to the soil-preparation.
1. We used shovels to break up the clay as much as possible.
2. Mattocks (picks) worked well to disintegrate the clods of clay even further.
3. Straw, compost and a little hay were brought in and put down on top of the churned clay.
The straw and compost will help with drainage in the future and give the clay some much needed organic material.
4. We used shovels and forks to turn all of these ingredients together.
5. Added some delicious looking horse manure from Clover Creek Stables and turned that in as well.
6. Finally we topped off the whole thing with a little more manure to make it look nice.
7. Filled in the center of the keyhole bed with cardboard and woodchips.
8. And finally piled a little more woodchips around the edge of the bed. (It had begun to get pretty high with all the added material. The woodchips will work as a kind of bowl for everything to rest in.
...
...
And voila!
We have one beautiful keyhole bed.
We’ll be working to finish the other one by this Tuesday hopefully.
ben
http://delicious.com/nielscorfield/?page=8
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21 MAY 09
Rainwater Harvesting :: 32mm water diverter and primary flush picture by Andrew_K_Fletcher - Photobucket SAVE
XL pic album on DIY rainwater harvesting system
TAGS
* first-flush
* rainwater-harvesting
* RWH
* pics
* how-to
#
Original:Rainwater harvesting - Appropedia: The sustainability wiki SAVE
PEOPLE
4
TAGS
* rainwater-harvesting
* RWH
* first-flush
* wiki
* Appropedia
* Design
* system
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First Flush System Rainwater Harvesting - Water SAVE
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http://delicious.com/nielscorfield/?page=1
Page one, of 1300 garden and home links that Niel collected and posted here.........several are very interesting.
[Beautiful, stack the logs and plant...see photo]
http://www.vermontmushrooms.com/outdoorcultivationmethods.htm
OUTDOOR MUSHROOM CULTIVATION DIRECTIONS
ABOUT THE USE OF PLUG SPAWN
What is Plug Spawn?
Plug spawn consists of small pegs of wood that are colonized by mushroom mycelium. It is a convenient way to inoculate a log with a mushroom. The basic idea is to drill holes in a log and put the pegs in the holes. The mycelium then grows out from the pegs and into the log.
Log size
Logs used for cultivation are usually 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 cm) in diameter, but smaller or larger sizes can be used. Smaller logs tend to have a shorter life span - they begin to produce mushrooms sooner, and become exhausted sooner. Small logs also dry out more quickly, so they require more frequent attention. For reishi and maitake, larger logs tend to produce larger individual fruiting bodies, although for oyster mushrooms this isn’t usually the case. Of course, larger logs are more difficult to handle and move, something to consider if you plan to submerge logs to induce fruiting, a common practice in shiitake log cultivation.
Log species
It is critical to use the right tree species for a given mushroom species. The oyster mushroom is a generalist, and will do well on just about any species of hardwood (broadleaf tree). Maitake grows best on oaks stumps and Shiitake grows best on oak logs. Maitake and Shiitake can also grow on other non-aromatic deciduous trees such as maple or beech, but we don’t recommend inoculating these species on anything other than oak. American Reishi grows on hemlock. We use Eastern Hemlock, and we expect that our strains would also grow well on Western Hemlock, although we haven’t confirmed this yet.
Timing
Ideally, logs should be cut while the tree is dormant - after the leaves fall and before the buds break. This increases the nutrients available for the mushroom, and also helps the bark adhere to the wood. Intact bark is important for preventing contamination and retaining moisture. Many mushroom growers also have success with logs cut during the growing season, this is simply not as optimal as winter-cut logs.
Logs should sit for at least 2 or 3 weeks between cutting and inoculation. Living wood defends itself against fungi, and this time period allows the tree’s “immune system” to break down.
On the other hand, logs shouldn’t sit any longer than about 3 months before inoculating, because other fungi will begin to colonize the wood. The exact amount of time before competitors are able to become established depends on a number of factors, including airborne spore load, contact with the ground, log moisture content and tree species.
Other points
Logs intended for mushroom cultivation should be treated gently. If the log is dinged up and the bark is damaged, the wood will be exposed to contaminants - other fungi that will compete with the one you are trying to grow. If the log is dragged through the dirt, contamination risk will also increase. Logs cut in winter and skidded across the snow come out cleaner and less damaged than those being skidded across dirt.
Stumps vs. Logs
All of our mushrooms will grow well on tree stumps, but maitake and reishi prefer stumps. This is not to say they will only grow on stumps - but they will fruit better on a log that is partially buried - a “simulated stump”. This is probably related to the higher and more constant moisture levels that come with being in contact with soil. But remember that contact with the soil is also a vector for contaminants. So our recommendation for these species is to keep the logs above ground, and properly watered, while they are being colonized by your mushroom, and then to bury the bottom of the log 6 to 18 inches deep (the longer the log the deeper it must be buried to prevent tipping over).
Inoculating
If the weather has been hot and dry, and the logs have been drying out, water them or soak them before inoculating.
Inoculation holes should be 5/16 inches (79 mm) wide and about 1.25 inches (3 cm) deep. Spacing between holes should be about 6 to 8 inches apart along the length of the log, and about 2 inches apart around the circumference of the log. (see diagram) This spacing is because the mycelium grows faster parallel to the wood grain than against the wood grain. It is tempting to space plugs farther apart to make the spawn go farther, and you may have success doing this, but keep in mind that this would extend the time until first fruiting, and would increase the chance that a competing fungus would become established. Insert 1 plug into each hole so that it is flush with the inner bark. Tap them with a rubber hammer to make them go in. Cover each hole and the log ends with melted wax - this creates a moisture-tight seal so the mycelium doesn’t dry out; if you are conducting your inoculations on wet logs you will need to let the log surface dry before applying the hot wax. Cheese wax and beeswax work well for this purpose because they have low melting points and can be purchased in quantity.
Care and Feeding
Your logs need to remain slightly moist, so keep them in the shade and water them if they haven’t been rained on for over a week or two.
To induce fruiting
The two primary factors that affect the timing of fruiting are temperature and moisture; temperature signals the appropriate season for fruiting, and moisture is necessary for the mycelium to produce a substantial fruiting body. If you expose your logs to the weather and help them through droughts, they will eventually fruit when conditions are right, but many species can be forced into fruiting after they have colonized a log by soaking them in a cool water bath overnight.
Prices and Availability for Plug Spawn:
$25 for 300 plugs
$40 for 1000 plugs
We suggest using 50 plugs for a log that is 4 to 6 inches in diameter and 4 feet long and will have shiitake, maitake, reishi and oyster mushroom sawdust and plug spawn available for order Spring ‘05.
Hydroponics Aquaponics Monster Directory
Hydroponics Beer
Today I just added my 300th link in the Directory and this nearly one year later! Hard work but lot of fun! Tonight will be beer time!
Roger Pilon, Editor
[It will take hours to check this site out...granny]
http://www.vermontmushrooms.com/medmushoverview.html
TRADITIONAL MEDICINAL MUSHROOM OVERVIEW
Mushrooms have been a part of life on earth for around 300 million years (Chang and Miles, 2004). Throughout this time they have had to develop methods to defend themselves from bacteria, viruses and other fungi simply to survive.
Mushrooms and other fungi have done more than simply survive, they have thrived. In part their success is due to producing a wide range of natural antibiotics, natural antiviral compounds, and natural anti-fungal compounds; some of which have been traditionally used for thousands of years and some of which scientists are still in the very beginning processes of learning about.
Reishi, Shiitake, Maitake, and Cordyceps are four increasingly used traditional medicinal mushrooms that currently have substantial independent research on a number of their traditional healing properties.
As a farm specializing is producing and selling traditional medicinal mushroom products we chose to provide independent research on our website and clearly separate our financial interests from the reporting of research related to our products and/or the ingredients contained in them.
Reishi Medicinal Mushroom Research
Maitake Medicinal Mushroom Research
Shiitake Medicinal Mushroom Research
Cordyceps Medicinal Mushroom Research
We also wish to acknowledge that modern science is not a complete substitute for the thousands of years of cumulative human experience related to many of the traditional medicinal mushrooms and herbs used in traditional methods of healing. There are many aspects of life, health, and the universe as a whole still not fully understood by science; but we believe science should be used as a tool that can assist in an honest effort to learn more about ourselves and the universe that surrounds us.
Due to FDA law, we are limited in what we can say about the potential health benefits of traditional medicinal mushrooms and we must also point out that our products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. We strongly encourage consultation with a knowledgeable health care practitioner if you have a health condition of concern. No product, or website, can take the place of the advice of a skilled health care practitioner.
On an entirely different side note, many health problems, from allergies to zygomycosis, begin from or are a direct result of the immune system making a mistake (either not responding to something that it should or responding to something that is shouldn’t). There are many factors that affect how well the immune system functions; lifestyle decisions about diet, exercise, sleep habits, and stress management are often a great place to start since each of these lifestyle decisions may affect the overall effectiveness of the immune system. Traditional medicinal mushrooms, other traditional herbs, and complementary health care like acupuncture, chiropractic and massage may also play an important role in taking a holistic approach to your health and we encourage you to consult with a knowledgeable health care practitioner to develop and maintain a holistic approach to health.
http://www.cityfarmer.org/bokashi.html
Looks interesting:
Using EM Bokashi in Composting on Saltspring Island
By Brian Smallshaw
Saltspring Island
250-653-9778
smallshaw@gmail.com
Bokashi maker/provider in Vancouver, BC, Canada
Great Day Bokashi
Making Bokashi Supplier Page
Using Bokashi at Home and at the Office
For product information, contact:
Sinja Masahara
Vancouver BC Canada
Tel and Fax: 604-251-7601
I’ll give you a brief overview of how we use EM bokashi in composting, together with a few photos.
We have been using bokashi to treat our kitchen compost for about six or seven years, beginning soon after we cleared a spot for our garden here on Saltspring after moving from Tokyo. I won’t go into the details of preparing bokashi, except to say that we mix up 100lb batches every summer, or every other summer, and store the dried mixture in a couple of large plastic barrels. We then keep a smaller bucket of bokashi in the kitchen handy for daily use.
compost
Fresh kitchen compost goes into a white, five-gallon plastic bucket, and can include any vegetable matter or leftover cooked food. We avoid putting any meat or dairy products into it, although small amounts of either are no big deal. We also try to avoid putting in large amounts of liquid. After throwing some stuff in the bucket, we give it a liberal dusting with bokashi; probably the equivalent of two or three generous handfuls before putting the lid back on. More compostable material goes in, then more bokash until the bucket is full. In our three-person household we fill a bucket about every five or six days.
When one bucket is filled, we put the lid on and put it outside on our deck and bring in a clean bucket. When the second bucket is filled, we take the first down to the garden and dig it into the soil. It seems that leaving it in the bucket for a few days helps in the decomposition process. To dig it in, I pick an already harvested or fallow bed, dig a hole about a shovel-blade deep, dump in the compost, put a shovelful of dirt on it, mix the two together, and then cover with dirt. The raccoons often come and dig some of it up, but most of it stays in the ground.
bokashi
We do all of our composting with two plastic buckets reserved for the purpose. To make opening and closing the buckets less of a chore, several years ago we picked up a couple of Gamma Seal lids, an after-market lid that fits on a standard restaurant five-gallon white bucket. Instead of being a snap-fit cap like a standard bucket lid, the Gamma lid spins on like a giant jar lid. This might seem like a small thing, but because it can be taken off and put back on with one hand, it means that you can open the bucket with one hand and fire the compost in with the other, making the process much faster and easier. The Gamma Seal lids are available from Lee Valley for about $10 or $12 each.
Some rather grand claims are made for the bokashi in Japan. Whole towns have taken to using it to manage household waste, and some pretty impressive gardens are being grown with it. The EM bacteria mixture is also used in many other ways such as treating waste water and minimizing odours in livestock operations; here on Saltspring it’s being using together with liquid fertilizers in Canada’s only organic golf course. Personally, I’m not sure how much better bokashi compost is for your garden than plain-old compost, but I can say that stuff does break down very fast in the soil, and that when I dig in the area a month or two later it is absolutely WRITHING with earthworms. Huge masses of them. I can also quite immodestly brag that the garlic that I grow are absolutely huge, and have taken two blue ribbons at the Fall Fair, on an island where people take garlic growing very, very seriously (see photo!).
garlic
On a more basic level, bokashi certainly makes handling kitchen waste a much more palatable chore; instead of having a bucket of rotting vegetables under your sink, you have a bucket of compost that has a kind of ‘fermenty’ smell; somewhat pungent, but to my nose at least, not particularly objectionable. And if bokashi does nothing more than make kitchen compost easier to handle, I think its all worth it.
EM Bokashi Recipe:
Ingredients
100 lb (20kg X 2 bags) of wheat bran
12 litres of warm water
240 cc of molasses
240 ml of EM
What you’ll need
a tarp, or a large, smooth area protected from the rain
a bucket, or a large spray bottle
a large air-tight container, such as an industrial plastic barrel with the lid
1. Spread wheat bran on a big plastic tarp.
A driveway or any other smooth surface would do fine, but you’ll want to make sure that you can protect it from rain - we think about these things in rainy British Columbia! With a tarp, you can wrap the whole batch up as a big bundle if rain threatens.
2. Mix the warm water, molasses and EM in a big container.
3. Spray the liquid mixture over the bran with a water jug or a large spray bottle.
4. Mix the bran and the liquid further by hand, crumbling the chunks down until the bran is evenly wetted.
5. Put the mixture in the air-tight barrel. Press it down as you stuff it in to remove as much air as possible.
6. Leave it for about a month in a warm place. (normal room temperature, or slightly warmer if possible)
7. When the surface of the mixture becomes covered with a whitish, fuzzy mold-like material and has a nice (at least for some of us!) sour fermented smell, it’s done.
8. The bokashi can be used right away. For longer-term storage, spread the mixture out on your plastic tarp away from direct exposure to sunlight and moisture until it’s completely dry. Break up any lumps; the bokashi should be completely granular. This usually takes a couple of days on the warm summer days of our area; in a hotter, drier climate it would presumably happen quite a bit quicker.
9. The dried bokashi should be good for at least two years.
Happy Composting!
Discussion Forum
City Farmer’s Urban Agriculture Discussion Forum
http://delicious.com/nielscorfield/?page=24
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http://www.emamerica.com//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=41&Itemid=204
How to make Activated EM-1®
Products - Activated EM-1®
EM-1® 12oz Only $14.99.
EM-1® 32oz Only $22.99.
EM-1® 1 Gallon. Only $57.99.
EM-1® Bokashi 2lbs. Only $9.99
Image
EM-1® Microbial Inoculant products can be used directly from the bottle or they are grown one time for economical purposes. This “growing” process is called Activation (or extended). The normal activation process is to take one part EM-1® and make 22 times the amount through a simple fermentation process, similar to making beer or wine. Below are instructions on how to do this simple process that normally takes anywhere from 5-10 days to complete when done properly.
As with beer and wine, the colder the temperature, the longer the fermentation takes to complete. And, the process is done without air. Any local home brewing supplier will have the materials you will need to have a successful Activation. These items include airlocks, carboys, tubing, etc. If you want to keep it really simple, you may use a clean soda bottle with a screw on top. These bottles are very good because they can take a tremendous amount of pressure and can be found virtually anywhere. If you load the slideshow below, you will see that apple juice bottles from the local grocery store were used to ferment the Activated EM-1®.
To prepare 22 parts of Activated EM-1® (AEM-1®) from 1 part of EM-1®.
* A clean airtight plastic bottle or container or large tank with lid.
* 1 part EM-1®. (5% of the total volume)
* 1 part Sugar Cane Molasses. (5% of the total volume)(pictured right)
* 20 parts warm water 100oF
Tools to help the preparation process
* A funnel
* A measuring cup and spoon
* pH paper to check pH
To Make 1 liter or quart:
1. Add water to fill 80% of the plastic bottle
2. Then add 50ml (1.7oz) of molasses and 50ml (1.7oz) of EM-1® in the bottle
3. Shake the bottle to dissolve the molasses. Top off with water.
4. Cap the bottle tightly and keep in a warm place.
Making 5 gallons of Activated EM-1®:
1. Add water to fill 50% of the plastic container
2. Then add 28 oz. of molasses and 28 oz of EM-1® in the bottle*
3. Shake the container to dissolve the molasses and top off the container with warm water.
4. Cap the container tightly and keep in a warm place
*Dissolve the molasses with warm or hot water before adding it to the container. This makes the preparation easier.
Making 55 gallons (208 liters) Activated EM-1®
1. Add 30 gallons 100oF Water
2. Add 2.5 gallons molasses
3. Add EM-1® Microbial Inoculant
4. Fill drum with 100oF Water
5. Seal drum and keep in warm place
Making a tote of (275 gallons) or 1,000 liters of Activated EM-1®
1. Add water to fill half of the tank
2. Then add 12 gallons of molasses and 12 gallons of EM-1® to the tank*
3. Top off the tank with more warm water to prevent excess airspace.
4. Cap the tank tightly and keep in a warm place
When is it ready?
When the pH of the solution drops to 3.7 or below and has rested at this pH for 5-7 days, the Activated EM-1® is ready to use. You will have about 30-45 days to use it at this point.
* Dissolve the molasses with warm or hot water before adding it to the tank.
This makes the preparation easier.
**During the fermentation process pressure builds up in the containers as the microbes digest the sugars. To avoid rupturing the container, “burp” it and reseal. Burping may have to be done one or more times per day. You may also use airlocks or blow off tubes similar to what is done in brewing wine or beer. For an example of what an airlock looks like and costs, click here. Airlocks and other brewing equipment can be found online through many home brewing suppliers or at a local home brew supply.
EM Activation Slideshow
Making Activated EM-1 step-by-step. Even a kid can do it.
Activated EM-1®
NOTE
EM-1® likes warm conditions. A suitable temperature for fermentation (propagation) of EM-1® is from 86F to 104F (30C to 40C). In the winter, and other times when the temperature is low, after making the Activated EM-1®(dissolving the molasses in hot water), place the EM-1® next to a radiator, space heater, or other warm device, or even wrap it in a blanket or an insulator, in order to promote EM-1® fermentation.
STORAGE
Activated EM-1® should be kept in an expandable (plastic) air-tight container to keep it anaerobic.
Store Activated EM-1® at room temperature, 68F to 86F (20C-30C). Refrigeration is not necessary.
In containers that are not completely airtight, a white layer of yeast will form on the surface. Since this may lead to putrefaction, remove the layer as needed and transfer to a container that can be closed tightly. Be sure to leave as little airspace in the bottle as possible.
If Activated EM-1® has a foul smell or the pH rises above 4.0, the solution could be contaminated with undesirable microbes and should be discarded. This material is fine to pour into a long-term compost pile.
http://www.happyearth.com.au/home/category/food-forest
[Beautiful photos]
How can you change a typical suburban house in Wollongong into a sustainable, healthy home and organic food garden?
Join us on an adventure to explore the possiblities ...
Entries in Food Forest (19)
Late Winter in the Garden
Posted on Sunday, August 9, 2009 at 02:25PM by Registered CommenterHappyEarth in Food Forest | Comments3 Comments
This time of year is magical in the garden. Though the nights have been chilly, the days have been full of sunshine and it seems spring is almost on our doorstep, with the flowering of mauve indigoferas alongside the crimson pineapple sage and yellow marigolds creating a spectacular show as you meander down the garden path. Who would have known only two years ago our front garden was all lawn...
Tiny purple and white alyssum flowers are in abundance...
‘Wish fairies’ are poking up their sleepy heads...
Miracle fruits are making our bounty of loquats taste much sweeter...
Marigolds are smiling to the winter sun...
Cauliflower, cabbage and brocolli are bursting with goodness...
And our plum tree is welcoming the coming spring with a show of sweet blossoms...
Loquat Fruit Tree Profile
Posted on Sunday, August 2, 2009 at 06:08PM by Registered CommenterHappyEarth in Food Forest | Comments6 Comments
We’re really enjoying the sweet, tangy fruits from our loquat tree at the moment. Loquats are a great tree to grow in our climate – you see a lot of them around locally, especially in Cringilla. We have been known to do some ‘fruit rescuing’ of any of these unwanted little fruits from loquats trees on public reserves and street fronts around the place!
Loquats are attractive tropical-looking trees, which are quite tough and relatively small in size (4-6 metres), making them ideal for suburban blocks. As they are so hardy, they are a bit weedy locally, so in being a green gardener, it’s important to bag or net the fruit, to stop birds from spreading the seeds. Birds love the fruit, so it helps save more fruit for you too! If you’re keen to find out more about loquats, we’ve put together a little fruit tree profile here.
Have you ever had dried loquats, or made anything with the fruit? We’d love to hear your ideas...
Mulch, Mulch, and more Mulch
Posted on Sunday, July 26, 2009 at 03:41PM by Registered CommenterHappyEarth in Food Forest, Soils | Comments3 Comments
Healthy soils make happy and abundantly productive fruit trees, so we’re always trying to build up our soils in ways that are effective and don’t cost the earth. We contacted a local tree lopper, and he kindly agreed to drop off some mulch to us – for free! To get mulch free or cheap this way from local tree loppers, you do need to be prepared to take whatever they drop off (could be any trees used in the mix), whenever they can drop it off, and accept large quantities. As you can see in the photo, our mulch pile was HUGE, about 15 cubic metres, being a full truck loads worth. It took both of us a full day to spread it around the garden (who needs the gym?!?).
The mulch mix we ended up with this time was mostly pine, and smells gorgeous. As fresh wood chip mulch is too strong to put directly around fruit trees, we use it for our garden paths first. Over a year or two, the mulch breaks down and is then perfect to be dug up and spread thinly around the base of fruit trees to give them a good feed. The mulch we had on our paths had broken down quite a lot, which is why we recently decided to dig up the paths, spread the goodness around the fruit trees, and re-mulch the paths. Ideally late autumn would be the best time to spread broken down mulch around fruit trees, as it can also act like a blanket and help the soil from cooling down so quickly as the days get cooler. In autumn, it’s also a good idea to put a bit of natural fertiliser around the fruit trees before applying the broken mulch – like chook poo. Both late autumn and winter are good times to be doing a big job like this though, as it’s not so hot (not something we wanted to do in the heat of summer!), and there is also less demand for mulch, so you’re more likely to be able to get some from tree loppers for free or cheaply, whereas in summer when demand is high it might be more costly.
My Edibles
Posted on Saturday, July 18, 2009 at 08:16PM by Registered CommenterHappyEarth in Food Forest | Comments7 Comments
You know we’re pretty nuts about backyard fruit trees – so we were pretty excited the other day to see the launch of Daley’s ‘my edibles’ page, where you can upload photos and info about all the fruit trees you’re growing. And needless to say for us that’s quite a few...
It’s really handy because you can find out what other people are growing in your area, and how their trees are going. Or you can search for a particular tree, say a mango, and get tips and info on potential pitfalls from other backyard growers.
As ‘my edibles’ has only just been launched, there’s not many pages up there yet, but in time it’ll hopefully become a great resource. If you live in the Illawarra, we’d especially love you to create a page, so together we can help share and build local knowledge about what does and doesn’t grow well here. You don’t need to have bought from Daley’s nursery to create a page.
We’re trialling everything from acerola to white sapote on our 900 square metre block – and you can see photos and info about all our trees at our ‘my edibles’ page.
Let us know if you create a page, as we’d love to see what fruit trees you’re growing!
Plant Profile – Banna grass
Posted on Sunday, February 8, 2009 at 08:32PM by Registered CommenterHappyEarth in Food Forest | Comments2 Comments
Lots of people who visit our garden are really interested in the tall, lush, screen of plants on the eastern side of our veggie bed. Is it sugar cane? Bamboo? Though it looks similar to these plants, it’s actually a fast growing, clumping grass called banna grass.
We love banna grass because it:
*
Makes a great wind break and visual screen for privacy
*
Is extremely fast growing. If you plant a cane in spring it’ll be 3 metres tall before the beginning of winter
* Doesn’t run and take over an area
* Quickly stabilises the soil, including on slopes
* Acts as a weed barrier – we use it to prevent neighbours kikuyu from coming into our yard
* The dried leaves are perfect as mulch on the veggie beds, or added to the compost as ‘carbon rich’ material
* Is easily propagated. We took a cutting from a clump at our local community garden, and have shared many cuttings with others since ours has become established
We’re currently establishing another row of banna grass on the western side of our food forest, as we get strong westerly winds in the winter. For diversity, other plants we’re using that have similar characteristics to banna grass, include galangal, sugar cane, tiger grass and clumping bamboos.
Planting a Fruit Tree – our first video blog
Posted on Sunday, January 25, 2009 at 08:21PM by Registered CommenterHappyEarth in Food Forest | Comments5 Comments
To ensure bountiful harvests, it’s really worth taking the time to plant fruit trees in a way that gives them the best start to life.
Though summer’s not the best time to plant fruit trees, we couldn’t resist popping in a couple special trees we managed to get a hold of – a cherimoya and a custard apples.
To give you an idea of how we plant out our fruit trees, we’ve sketched out a few pointers to give your fruit tree the best start possible. You can also check out our first video below! We hope you enjoy it!
Pepino
Posted on Monday, January 19, 2009 at 04:10PM by Registered CommenterHappyEarth in Food Forest | Comments2 Comments
We’ve been enjoying juicy, sweet pepino fruits for the last few months now. Our pepino plant took a while to get going (we thought it was a goner at one stage!) but then it came back with a flourish of growth, and has been pumping out the fruit this summer!
Pepino (Solanum muricatum) is a sprawling shrub, and is best grown as a groundcover or over a trellis. It produces fruit the size of a small to medium apple. The fruit taste similar to honeydew melon. As the flavour of pepino is quite subtle, we enjoy it best in fruit salads, or mixed in fruit smoothies. You can eat the skin, but it’s not all that tasty and is commonly removed. Fruit are ready to pick when they start to soften, yellow up develop pretty purple streaks on the skins.
In Wollongong, it’s essential to bag the fruit, as fruit fly and grubs LOVE them. Our chickens were very glad we didn’t get around to bagging all our pepinos though – they very much enjoyed grubby pepinos!
Pepino is generally grown from cuttings, rather than from seed. We picked up a plant from a local nursery, and have easily propagated a couple more from the original. This prolific, easily grown fruiting shrub is a great addition to any backyard orchard or vegetable garden.
Babaco – Big and Beautiful!
Posted on Sunday, November 23, 2008 at 07:56PM by Registered CommenterHappyEarth in Food Forest | Comments7 Comments
Pronounced like tobacco but with a ‘b,’ Babacos are juicy, yellow, torpedo shaped fruits that taste like a combination of pineapple and strawberry. The babaco plant looks very similar to a paw-paw, yet is more suited to the subtropical climate of Wollongong. Babacos have few pests and diseases, don’t suffer from fruit fly and are incredibly high yielding. They’re also great plants to grow in pots.
We grew a babaco in a pot and within a year it was only barely a meter tall, yet we were enjoying juicy fruits 25cm long! Give a babaco nutrient rich soil, ample water, very good drainage and sunlight, and protection from strong winds and you’ll be feasting on these sweet fruit before you know it.
One of our babaco trees came from a nursery in Helensburgh, the other we ordered from Daleys on line nursery. They’ll reach 2 to 3 metres in height when fully grown.
For more info, see our babaco article.
Pioneers Powering On ...
Posted on Sunday, November 16, 2008 at 07:02PM by Registered CommenterHappyEarth in Food Forest | Comments2 Comments
Locally indigenous bleeding hearts, native hibiscus’s and acacias are amongst the additional 70 ‘pioneer’ plants we strategically planted out last week. Planting 70 additional trees in a 900 square metre yard packed with 120 fruiting trees, shrubs and vines and existing pioneer plants sounds quite crazy! But a dense planting of pioneer plants really helps in establishing a food forest in a number of important ways.
Pioneer plants are the hardy, quick growing, short lived plants that first pop up in a cleared area of land. They stabilise and improve the soil with their fast growing, deep root systems. They soon form a canopy, bringing in the birds, creating shade in the understory, and becoming a buffer against strong winds. In these ways, pioneers create the perfect conditions for slower growing, long lived ‘climax’ trees to move in – which in our case are fruit trees.
At our place we ‘fill all the gaps’ between the fruit trees, with pioneer trees. They’ll play their valuable role, and then are taken out later down the track as the fruit trees mature and become fire wood for our efficient combustion heater. Check out our article on ‘support trees’ for more information regarding pioneer trees and shrubs.
Yellow Cherry Guava
Posted on Monday, October 6, 2008 at 07:21PM by Registered CommenterHappyEarth in Food Forest | Comments2 Comments
Sweet, juicy yellow cherry guavas are a yummy snack food, about 3cm in diameter. The tree is also small, more like a shrub, making them perfect for almost any backyard. They’re hardy, wind resistant, and have low water requirments - almost anyone can grow them! They’re also one of the few common fruit trees you can grow reliably from seed (i.e. you don’t have to get a grafted tree).
Our tree is about 3 years old, and over the last month, we’ve enjoyed the first of it’s many sweet little guavas! We planted our guava in the ground about a year ago, and like all the other plants in our yard, it’s loving the onset of spring. The new growth is just gorgeous, with a pinkish read tinge.
Yellow cherry guavas fruit 2 to 3 times a year, with the mid summer crop being susceptible to fruit fly. We sometimes bag the fruit to keep the wrigglies away. Bring on summer fruits hey!
Backyard Timelapse - One Year On
Posted on Saturday, September 20, 2008 at 07:23PM by Registered CommenterHappyEarth in Food Forest | Comments4 Comments
Happy first birthday garden! What an epic year it’s been turning what was an expanse of lawn and concrete into a flourishing food forest and abundant veggie garden. The soil has been lavished with compost and compost teas, worm castings, green manure crops and remineralisation. Swales and water tanks have gone in and compost piles and worm farms have sprung up, along with a nursery, and chook house for our clucky garden friends.
Already we’ve indulging in the fruits of our labour - guavas, atherton raspberries, blueberries, panama berries, midjim berries and finger limes. The veggie beds have been pumping out pumpkins, cherry tomatoes, spinach, kale, bok choy, daikon radish, kolrabi, celery, zucchini, yacon, pepino and provided endless greens for fresh garden salads. The garden’s survived the winter and 120km/h winds that blew our neighbours roof off.
The diversity of wildlife visiting our garden has increased 10 fold, and we love seeing lizards basking in the sun, silvereyes and firetail finches flittering in the groundcovers, our resident grey fantail swooping around the compost bin catching the little bugs, and white faced herons stalking about, sounding like crazy chooks.
The deciduos figs, plums and permission are now just bursting back into leaf - and the whole garden is about to explode into life as the days get warmeer and longer
Atherton Raspberry
Posted on Sunday, June 22, 2008 at 11:07AM by Registered CommenterHappyEarth in Food Forest | Comments3 Comments
Atherton%20Raspberry%20-%20fruit.JPGLike we were, you might be surprised to hear that Australia has it’s own native raspberries – and they’re just as yummy as European varieties, and much better suited to our warmer coastal climate. There are varieties native to the Illawarra, but the Atherton raspberry, from Queensland has especially nice berries and is really productive, so it’s won a spot in our yard.
They’re best contained to a small area in the garden, as they’re keen suckers and fast growers – they love climbing too, so trellises are a good idea.
We planted a row of them in September and we’re indulging in raspberries now. And they’ll continue to fruit just about all year round!
For more info, see our Atherton raspberry article.
Panama Berry
Posted on Monday, April 28, 2008 at 08:52PM by Registered CommenterHappyEarth in Food Forest | CommentsPost a Comment
Within months of planting, we’re already snacking off our insanely fast growing panama berry tree, enjoying it’s sweet red berries that are the size of a big blueberries and taste like a cross between strawberries and figs, with a hint of caramel. You can literally see these trees grow before your eyes – this one only stood 70cm tall when we planted it out about 6 months ago!
These hardy sun loving trees love frost free subtropical climates like Wollongong, can be used as a wind break, and grow to a maximum of seven metres tall. Being such a fast growing tree, they’re perfect to plant in between slower growing fruit trees, and take out when the other trees come into production. They’re also fantastic in community and school gardens, providing quick, rewarding results and yummy snack food.
Panama%20Berry%20Tree.jpg
This is the first of our once a month fruit tree profile blogs, so keep an eye out for the likes of black sapote, babaco, japotacaba, grumacharma and many other fabulous fruit trees that thrive in Wollongong, but most people have never heard of!
For more info, check out our panama berry article.
The Transformation Unfolds…
Posted on Sunday, March 30, 2008 at 11:15PM by Registered CommenterHappyEarth in Food Forest | Comments7 Comments
From a bare backyard of grass, a pool and concrete, our suburban food forest and mandala veggie bed system has sprung to life over the last eight months as shown in the video below. Over 100 fruit trees, shrubs and vines have been planted, as well as an array of soil improving groundcovers and trees.
The next eight months of change will be even more exciting, with the last of the fruit trees going in, chickens and ducks coming on the scene, and the veggie beds being planted out for a bumper summer harvest. Look out for an update backyard ‘timelapse’ video in another six months time!
Mulch On!
Posted on Tuesday, January 29, 2008 at 10:06PM by Registered CommenterHappyEarth in Food Forest | Comments2 Comments
Mulch%20On.jpg Ah the smell of fresh mulch….mulch works wonders in the garden, and few things add to the visual appeal of a garden like a fresh layer of mulch on the beds and paths. The massive 8 cubic metre pile of mulch that’s been taking up so much room you could hardly even make it to our front door the last few days just might have been a hint about our respect for mulch.
Wood chip mulch is brilliant to define paths and scatter lightly through the orchard to encourage fungi in the soils (fruit trees love fungi!). And once the mulch on the paths has broken down, its fantastic compost around the fruit trees. It’s great if you can get to know someone who works in a local tree lopping company and get locally sourced wood chips for free. Grass clippings are also an easily sourced free mulch for garden beds (dry them out first or they’ll become thick and clumpy). Mulch is great at keeping moisture in the soil, saving valuable water. It also provides habitat for little critters, adds valuable biomass as it breaks down and stops soil compaction…happy mulching!
Fruits of the Forest
Posted on Sunday, December 2, 2007 at 10:25AM by Registered CommenterHappyEarth in Food Forest | CommentsPost a Comment
Davidson%20Plum-fruit%20trees.JPGMiracle fruit that makes sour things taste sweet, chocolate pudding fruit, juicy bright yellow babacos, ugnis that explode like a strawberry sherbet bomb…there’s a whole world of gorgeous fruits out there that you will never find at the supermarket!
Our suburban block is designed to grow over 120 organic fruit trees, shrubs and climbers. Of these 120 plants, 50 will be unique species, including native food plants.
Check out our fruit trees article and the ‘greenprint’ for a mouthwatering summary!
Putting Nature Back Into The Nature Strip
Posted on Saturday, November 10, 2007 at 08:18PM by Registered CommenterHappyEarth in Food Forest | Comments8 Comments
What a fantastic day we had bringing life to our nature strip with the help of our wonderful neighbours! Like most other nature strips around, ours was just a strip of grass between the road and our front fence. But in just one day we transformed it into a beautiful space that welcomes people to our home, provides a great space for people to walk through, and will continue to grow as valuable habitat for local wildlife. And it will never need mowing! All we did was:
* Spread some gypsum to break up the clay
* Sheet mulch the area with newspaper to keep the grass out
* Create a wide wood chip mulch path for passers by and the postwoman
* Plant 50 native plants - mainly locally native grasses, shrubs and a few low growing trees that won’t hinder the powerlines (we got the plants cheap from Wollongong City Councils Greenplan nursery, on a sale day)
Verge-before.jpg Verge-during.jpg Verge-after.jpg
So many people have commented on how great it looks, and have said that they would love to do the same. So we’re looking forward to helping our neighbours through ‘nature strip working bees.’ Thanks again to our neighbours for helping us! Let’s bring life and beauty to all nature strips!
Lawn into Lunch
Posted on Sunday, November 4, 2007 at 07:39PM by Registered CommenterHappyEarth in Food Forest | Comments7 Comments
Lawns%20into%20Luncht.jpgWould you rather be able to get an amazingly fresh and tasty lunch from right outside your back step than have to drive down to the supermarket? Sounds good to us! We’re on a mission to transform our lawn into lunch.
Now most people would sensibility start small. But we decided to tackle the whole lawn in one day - about 600 square metres of it. So off we went with a turf cutter, cutting the grass and flipping it over in an attempt to kill that ever so vigorous kikuyu. Yes we almost killed ourselves in the process – turf cutters have a mind of their own, and lawn is not exactly the lightest thing to flip over!
But our future fruit trees will love us for replacing the kikuyu (which they really don’t like), with non invasive grasses like cow pea, millet, pintos peanut and clover (which they love). And we were able to keep with the organic nature of our place and not use any chemical weedkillers.
We baked the flipped over lawn for a week, spread a bit of top soil ontop, and sowed some soil improving seeds. The ever invasive kikuyu is trying to make a comeback, but we’re keeping ontop of it by hand weeding. And we’re looking forward to having the most luscious, organic supermarket in our own backyard!
The Greenprint
Posted on Wednesday, October 3, 2007 at 10:09PM by Registered CommenterHappyEarth in Food Forest | CommentsPost a Comment
The Greenprint is the landscape design for Happy Earth. It’s our vision, our dream, and what we’re working towards. It’s come about from all the ideas and experiences many wonderful people have inspired us with on our journey of sustainable living.
As sustainable food production is key to eco living, the heart of the design is – you guessed it – organic vegetable gardens and an abundance of fruit trees. But this design’s a bit different to most. You won’t find any rectangular rows of veggie beds here. What you will find is a vibrant forest of food that works with the house – so for example, water for the garden is harvested from the roof of the house, and the trees in the garden provide the house with cooling shade in summer, and warming sun in winter, as well as fuel for the woodfired combustion heater. Our garden also works with the gifts of nature – so it’s all about placing the right plants in the right places, according to the amount of sun, wind and moisture in that particular spot, and looking after the most wonderful and important workers – the millions of microbes in the soil. Check out our Greenprint article for more info.
http://permaculturesolutions.com.au/thomasstreet/2006/07/dis-chook-tractor-garden-is-almost.html
Di’s Chook-Tractor Garden is Almost complete
Check out this great picture of Di’s absolutely amazing new garden in Boxhill. Di’s been planning her Woodrow-style mandala garden for a while, now has a chook dome, and by the end of next week will have chooks! (We’re donating an araucana to get the egg rolling). Di is planning to host a permablitz on July 30 - stay tuned for details and let us know if you’d like to be on the permablitz mailing list.
[She has an excellent plan, lovely round beds, her chicken dome is a beehive shape, and fits over the beds, so the chickens can clean it up after harvest, dig up any bugs and then be moved to the next bed.....it will work and it is not bad looking or difficult to build.
granny]
[An excellent plan, with photos]
http://www.lensgarden.com.au/straw_bale_garden.htm
*STRAW BALE GARDEN*
Well here we are in a new home with no gardens! A blank pallet to start with, and with lots of things to do to the home ie... Put a pool in, a patio, a carport and the list goes on & on hey... sounds like good fun for an oldies like us hey lol?
We are about Orgnaic Natural Gardening, making use of available resources, We are about recycling, re-using and conserving, you can do as little or as much as you like if you use a system like this to start out with. We do not pretend to grow prize winning or the biggest and best of show, what we do get is good quality food with no added imput from man-made chemicals or fertilisers. All our gardens and exotic food trees are watering almost exclusively with recycled water, we don’t pretend that doing this is the absolute ideal but in our current climate of a very deep drought and not much rain you will at the very least have a head start in keeping plants alive and producing. We do also make our own laundry detergent, and no doubt those with scientific asperations or their own personnal barrow to push, can set up any sort of test and prove that what we do won’t work, our come back is if it ain’t working then how come we get more than what we can eat and give lots away?. We manage watger Big Time, the bottom line is water MUST be used more than once, it’s that simple and we achieve that nearly all the time.
Now let’s get started on our organic straw bale garden:
Well I still need to get some good nutrient rich fresh vege’s growing, while I work out where the 2 X 5,000+ gallon water tanks are going to go (we settled on one tank for now ). Where to put the food trees and whatever habitat trees I can grow, this is not acreage it is a 740 sq/mtr yard, on a corner block so the footpath almost equals the yard space. It’s on the footpath that most of the habitat trees will be grown.
We did manage to get a comfortable home on the right sort of aspect land, keeping in mind that home design has nothing to do with efficiencies like natural comfort, but that’s a whole ‘nutha story hey?
Not bad early up in a brand new garden bed, is it? See more pic’s on page 2
This instruction will take you right through to harvest time.
So the minimum ingredients for my instant organic straw bale garden are as follows:
20 bags of mushroom compost, direct from the farm.
15 bales of spoilt pasture hay could also use straw or lucerne hay or sugar cane mulch as well.
So as can be seen the bails are set up to create the edges, so likely we will need more for mulching. Next I will apply dolomite lime at the required rate (the soil is acid sulphate fill sounds terrible hey?), of course we also need to add heaps of gypsum as there is a lot of clay in the fill, the bales need to pushed together as tightly as possible. The end bales define the width so they position inside the edge row. Lay all bales on their edge so the bale twine and the tie off know are reached from the outside parameter, this so later as the bales begin to rot the twine can be cut away
I’m using these ammendments even though the garden is a raised bed, this is to make the soil’s climate more agreable to worms and other needed bacteria.
A pic of the gypsum, or dolomite/lime(only if acidity is an issue) will be the next stage of creating the straw bale gardens medium.
Something i didn’t say yet the bales are only there to define the staw bale gardens parameter, i could have used other just as quicky methods but with a little more toil so this is the selection.
The inside dimensions of the bed are: 1 meter wide and 5 meters long.
So here it is the ‘dolomite’ & ‘gypsum’ (realy can’t inderstand the negativety about gypsum from US of A forums? ok not all clay’s will respond, but for me i have never in all the different places we’ve lived had that experience, same as the ditty doing the rounds over there about digging a hole into clayey soil and it holding water and the plant getting water logged, again using gypsum and amnedments this is the method i use and the problem described has never happened!!) are spread and will be watered in:
Now the scrappy bits go in old cooked food from the fridge anything whatsoever:
The cardboard & paper(coloured glossy stuff and all, it’s all fair game) goes in next(note that we lifted bales and tucked the cardboard under, you can lay cardboard/papr first then the bales whatever fits), that gets well watered as well to ensure water is trapped in those layers to start docomposition:
Next all the prunnings from the garden ‘mock orange & roses etc.,. unwanted plants’, there is much much more there yet so next time i will hire a shredder:
Ok ok every good gardener needs a helper hey that’s me little bro’, and yes me lovely was the boss come camera holder person.
Right now the gist of it all the mushy compost:
The mushy is broken up and raked out a bit and i emptied some dead potplant pots(not the plastic holders just the contents) i had into there as well, there may be some worms/worm eggs (you can have your composting worms in your garden so no need for a worm farm)in their to get the garden kick started?:
And the raked bed ready to go almost so the nest time i come back will be to show the compost laid and the seedling in:
Ok here we go this pic’ shows the bed has now been mulched (needed to use some sugar cane mulch to finish up with), so this has been watered to help settle it a bit. we used the bale of hay and our grandson to do some compacting of the mushy medium (there will still be lots of settling):
Just for the heck of it after i planted the following:- cabbages, broccoli, snake beans, cauliflower, silverbeet & tomatoes, i took this pic doesn’t show much but here it is:
Ok ok so ya’ can’t see anything well where all the dark patches are there is a seedling.
So the final washup; 16 bales of hay (1 sugarcane mulch), 30 bags of mushy compost + other assorted stuff.
Thanks to the lack of generosity the DONATIONS button has been removed, so as not to cause anybody any embarrassment - THANK YOU. But you are welcome to enjoy it all while it is here.
Page 2 is here:
http://www.lensgarden.com.au/strawbalegardenpage2.htm
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