July 13th, 2011 by Marc Opperman

It’s been a bunch of weeks since I last posted. Life has tossed me some loops, and it’s been a rough ride. My main concern as far as this space is concerned was that I thought I would no longer have this house and would be returning to the land of rental hell. I had stopped doing anything in the yard besides collecting tomatoes and mowing. It was part of my process of letting go. Somewhere in the midst of feeling like I was needing to let go, I realized my garden is my biggest, most significant place of sanctuary in my life. It’s also one of the bigger ways in which I express my creativity.

Leaving the house appears like it will no longer be the case. I won’t go into those details much, but me keeping the house involves a lot of outside help, for which I’m very grateful. Getting a decent full-time job after my 3 months of unemployment also helps.

This means I feel much better re-engageing with my ‘blog and the greater gardener community on the whole. While I missed the opportunity to apply for Travis County Master Gardener training (just too much uncertainty at the time to go through with it), I still hope to build my friendships with that community, too, as well as the other wonderful people I’ve met through the Austin Garden Bloggers page on Facebook.

I have some topics for posts in mind, so I hope you’ll join me as I re-energize this space!

May 12th, 2011 by Marc Opperman

This week I got the chance to attend a private tour of the properties that comprise the 2011 Travis County Master Gardener’s Association Inside Austin Gardens tour. Given that I’m unemployed, the weekday-date of this preview tour wasn’t as daunting to me. All in the name of professional development, networking and inspiration, right?

Jenna and I went on this tour in 2009, and I still borrow ideas from the gardens from that year (Cheryl Goveia’s garden of art and whimsy being the stand-out property for me). So, I wasn’t going to attend this year’s tour on the actual date (Saturday, May 14), but the private tour afforded me a chance to experience the tour without toting the tot (who, recently, has made this type of hopscotch travel difficult.)

The theme of the tour is water-wise gardening: increasing rainwater infiltration, rainwater catchment, xeric plantings, etc. I can say some wonderful things about all of the properties with relation to that and other aspects of gardening. Each had significant strengths, and a wealth of stealable-ideas. I loved Rebecca’s tenacity at transforming her yard one small bed at a time to the point she no longer has grass. I appreciated the sheer lushness of Sue’s garden, and the tip about “cemetery rock”. And Sheryl’s garden was an oasis of low-water ideas, even with its lush vegetable production areas. Oh, and did I mention her enviable water collection systems? Yeah.

But I definitely wanted to focus this entry on Link Davidson‘s creations. (Oh, and if you missed this energetic self-described ox of a designer, catch him on CTG from this past week. (And if you watch his interview, stay a little longer in the program for a few photos of mine CTG used.)

Technically, the property on the tour is Wendy’s, and was created with her interests and aesthetics in mind. It sits next door to Link’s property, and he has fused the two landscapes into one by continuing certain elements between the two. A dry creek bed reminiscent of Wendy’s love of the Barton Creek Greenbelt, for example. This feature rolls gently downhill from Link’s property before heading south through Wendy’s. Naturally it ties the two together visually, but serves as a channel for run-off and rainwater infiltration for the surrounding plantings.

Another feature, a cut concrete path, conjures up Wendy’s desire that as much material be reclaimed and reused as possible. To that end, Link cut the formerly-straight sidewalk into rectangles and squares using a concrete saw, and then moved the pieces into a curvy stepping-stone arrangement with generous space between for granite gravel. Additional pieces he tipped on their sides and used for varying vertical interest.

Steel compressor tanks and rusted, bent metal edging have been used to add other sculptural elements to the space. Many of these things were scavenged on Austin’s bulky trash day, and turned into pure art. As Link said, if he can’t get it out of the trash, it had better be on clearance at Target or Home Depot.

And while it’s probably not kosher of me to say too much about HIS yard, which we also toured, I’ll post a few photos of his space on my Flickr account to give you an idea of the depth of this man’s creativity. Needless to say, I was blown away at the artistry and resourcefulness at creating highly-inspiring spaces on a budget. I’m sure in some weak-kneed moment I heard myself tell him we were kindred spirits.

The What, When and Where:
Inside Austin Gardens Tour
Water-Wise Gardening
Saturday, May 14, 2011
9am – 4pm
www.tcmastergardeners.org/what/gardentour.html
$5 per garden, or $10 for all

May 7th, 2011 by Marc Opperman

It may be a little late for such things, so we’ll see. Planted okra and jalapeño transplants this week, as well as bush and vine green bean seeds, sweet corn seed, and summer squash seed. The bush beans are already past seed-leaf stage, while the other stuff seems to be biding its time. In a year with actual rainfall, the lateness might not matter much. But I think the drought may impact my success. We’ll see.

However, to help with all this, I am still letting tap water outgas its chlorine, and I have used parts of a bag of Revitalizer Compost from The Natural Gardener to make two 5-gallon buckets of compost tea. I was inspired to do this because I had potted a passionvine cutting directly in Revitalizer. Every time I went to water the sprout, the water in the saucer below was a rich dark-chocolate color. I could hear my other plants begging for it.

Today I need to strain that into storage jugs so it doesn’t become a haven for the blood squad. Though, a b. thuringiensis dunk would probably help that, and not hurt the compost tea.

A limitation I ran into this year is not having enough open planting space to plant certain crops on time. Basically, I’d love to have the corn where the potatoes are, but the potatoes have yet to vacate the space (but they are seeming close to digging time). The strawberry bed would make a good spot for squash, but they still seem happy…even if my total berry output this year could be measured in the single ounces column.

Notable Arrivals
I’m reading reports of ripe tomatoes all over the Central Texas blogosphere, and my garden is not one to be out-performed in this regard. So far I’ve picked several handfuls of a small cherry tomato (don’t know the variety, but they are about the size of small marbles and VERY sweet.) I’ve also plucked the first two Viva Italias. Basically very much like Romas, these are a paste tomato that should be good for sauces and cooking. Verdict on taste is not in (I had a lot of tasteless tomatoes last year), but they are gorgeous, unblemished and heavy.

Also, we had one blackberry. Jenna reported it to be delicious. She got it since she requested the blackberry brambles back in January. We may get one more ripe berry. This is only notable since one shouldn’t actually get berries on first-year brambles. Berries develop on last-year’s canes.

What Else?
I was supposed to be going to the Wildflower Center’s Gardens on Tour today, but the boy is still sick, and would probably be pretty fussy. Momma and boy are sleeping right now, so plans are up in the air.

beans, compost tea, corn, okra, squash, vegetables

May 7th, 2011 by Marc Opperman

I won a pair of passes to the Wildflower Center’s Gardens on Tour this weekend (courtesy of the Statesman’s Renee Studebaker at Renee’s Roots, so we’ll be loading up the child and hoping he doesn’t want to stay for 14 hours at each place we visit.

All of the gardens appear to be professionally designed and installed, and I sometimes feel these don’t necessarily incorporate the soul of an inspired homeowner/gardener. But they WILL be pretty, and a testament to what you can do with a lot of resources. And hopefully a showcase for native plants, always a plus.

From the official description:

Last year’s drought and hard freezes put plants to the test. These gardens demonstrate how our natives can beautify a space, no matter the rigors of the region. Moreover, wildflower gardens are highly sustainable. They are conservative in water use, don’t need excessive chemicals to make them thrive and are easy to maintain.

April 11th, 2011 by Marc Opperman

Little Mr. is positively addicted to the outdoors. Never fussy out there, and positively flips out when we bring him indoors.

So here he is in his element this evening:

lukas

March 29th, 2011 by Marc Opperman

Well, things seem to be humming along outside. I have strawberries, blackberries, Viva Italia tomatoes and broccoli all setting fruit (though, broccoli isn’t technically a fruit… a head or a crown instead.) The blackberries are unexpected because I was under the impression the fruit would develop on this year’s growth but next year. In other words, on old growth. The canes I planted this year, however must be considered last year’s growth, so maybe that explains it.

Sunday I took the boy outside. He loves it. He’s a brave little explorer, and seemingly pretty tough, too. It’s not uncommon to find him bouldering over the various landscape features, carefully picking his way with huff-puffs of determination, and gingerly brushing the plants aside or avoiding them. So far he has not ripped any up. Most of the time, he dabbles in whatever dirt he can find, or waves sticks around. Sometimes he wanders, but he hasn’t gone too far yet. It helps that the back yard is enclosed.

While he explored, I modified my sprinkler system. I replaced one of the high-volume reciprocating heads with a drip irrigation tap and half-inch tubing. I also ran several eighth-inch tubes and spray heads to cover much of the former area of the higher-pressure head. One immediate and obvious benefit is decreased water consumption, and better-targeted watering. However, the nicest benefit so far is that the “chik-chik-chik” sound of the old head has been replaced by a gentle hiss. Watering just got a lot quieter.

My cutworm problems are in remission, and the green worms that were eating the lettuce are completely gone, too. Perhaps this was the application of Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki last week, the cooler weather, or the worms are just in natural decline having passed whatever their season is. This seems like a nice reprieve, though I know other pests will soon be along to fill the voids.

In non-food news…
I met with a group of Austin garden bloggers for the first time this weekend at the home and gardens of one of the group’s members. It was wonderful to meet all these dedicated gardeners and plant aficionados. Part of the fun was a plant swap. And although I was remiss in taking anything, I brought back several nice natives that I installed around my yard. Among the haul: Mexican buckeye, Hill Country penstemon, Gregg’s mistflower, and a tradescantia gigantea. I’m excited about all these plants, and hope they do well.

March 21st, 2011 by Marc Opperman

The people behind the Austin Funky Chicken Coop Tour sent me a note as a comment to a previous entry. Thought I’d repost, as I’m excited about this tour and hope other people will be, too.

Thank you for writing about the upcoming Austin Funky Chicken Coop Tour. We thought you and your readers might want to hear more about this year’s tour, which we think will be better than ever. We are one of the first and (we think) most fun urban chicken coop tours in the country. As with last year’s tour, we are a nonprofit organization, staffed entirely by volunteers, that organizes a self-guided chicken coop tour every Spring in the city of Austin, Texas. The purpose of this tour is to encourage city residents to raise chickens at home by demonstrating the many ways that chicken (and other poultry) housing can be incorporated into a city residence without violating city ordinances or creating a nuisance. Many of the homes on the tour have featured various alternative energy sources, such as solar panels, along with other environmentally sound practices such as rainwater harvesting and xeriscaping. We think this year’s tour will be especially interesting: a lot of the coops on the tour also unusual features; for example, one of our tour hosts on this year’s tour keeps dairy goats along with chickens and another has a chandelier inside the coop!

We also like to show Austin residents that chickens and their manure are readily incorporated into a household gardening and composting regimen that results in inexpensive, healthy and sustainable food, even in relatively small spaces. Encouraging people of all income levels to produce their own food is, in our opinion, a means of advancing “social and community welfare.” Since this local production of foodstuffs (and nothing is more “local” than one’s own backyard!) replaces food produced on commercial farms and trucked into supermarkets, we also believe that our organization promotes the “advancement of the natural environment.” Another benefit of our tour is to raise awareness of heritage breeds of poultry, many of which have been in danger of disappearing as factory poultry farming has come to dominate most commercial production; local chicken enthusiasts have been responsible for the resurgence in interest in various poultry breeds, some of which are better adapted to Austin’s hot climate and which represent an important part of historic American farming culture.

If you would like to know more about us, please visit our website www.austincooptour.org and visit our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Austin-Funky-Chicken-Coop-Tour/148228950019.

Our organization, Austin Funky Chicken Coop Tour, operates in association with another local organization, The Sustainable Food Center, http://www.sustainablefoodcenter.org .The tour will be a fundraiser for the first time this year, with all proceeds (after expenses) to be donated to the SFC.

We would like to invite both you and your readers to join us on April 23, 2011, and please let us know if you write about us so we can mention you on our Facebook and Webpage.

austin funky chicken coop tour, chickens

March 9th, 2011 by Marc Opperman

I’ve made some remarkable leaps in growing food in the year I’ve been at it. As I enter my second growing season, I am happy with the both the diversity of food crops I’m growing and some of the methods I’m using. I started to mentally draw out a list of all the vegetables and fruits I’m growing, and it was pretty satisfying:

• Tomatoes: 10 Ace, Cherokee, Roma, Italia and a cherry. Transplants both from The Natural Gardener and my parents
• Onions: Yellow Granex, 1015y Texas Super-Sweet (white), Southern Belle (red) from Dixondale Farms
• Carrots: 3 varieties, 2 of whose names escape me. Some of the seed was from Home Depot, and 1 variety (Danvers) was from Botanical Interests
• Radishes: French breakfast and Cherry Belle (seeds from Botanical Interests)
• Blackberries: Brazos, from The Natural Gardener.
• Lettuce: Red Sails, Butterhead, Oak-Leaf. Seed from Botanical Interests
• Cantaloupe: unknown variety, seed saved from volunteer plant from last year
• Potatoes: Red Pontiac, Kennebec, seed potatoes from The Natural Gardener
• Strawberries: Chandler and Sea Spray(?), both from The Natural Gardener
• Broccoli… transplants from my parents
• Snow Peas. Seed from Botanical Interests
• Bush cucumbers from Botanical Interests seed.
• Assorted herbs, including italian oregano, rosemary (3 varieties, including Tuscan Blue), lavender, flat-leaf parsley, chocolate mint.

Last year, I managed 3 varieties of tomato and wasn’t very happy with them (grocery-store bland taste). I had two types of pepper, poblano and jalapeño, neither of which had any heat. I was moderately successful with bush green beans, though the yield wasn’t as high as I thought it’d be. I had basil and the other herbs. So this year is a huge jump up.

As far as methods go, I have added more raised beds, bringing my total to seven and approximately 105 sq. ft. of growing area. In addition, I am trying the cucumbers in pots, and potatoes in both the ground and a cage. I have paid a LOT more attention to the quality of my soil, and have done the most I’ve ever done to make sure specific crops get the right soil. Especially the potatoes, for which I imported a half-cubic yard of Natural Gardener turkey compost. Other raised beds have gotten a mixture of compost from my own piles, Hill Country Blend soil from Natural Gardener, and a sandy soil from the Houston area brought in by my parents.

I’ve built a trellis for the peas out of a section of iron fence, extended my micro-irrigation in ways I hadn’t anticipated to make it efficient for the plants it serves, and reconfigured whole swathes of the back yard to take advantage of Winter sun. And I’ve even considered another way I can re-arrange some features to take advantage of even more of that precious sunny space, while eliminating even more “grass area”: relocate the fire pit to a truly shady area and expand the growing space to where it currently sits.

And I’ve even been happy that I managed to get a lot of this done at the proper time of the early growing season here. Much of the winter garden was planted in early November (onions, carrots) with some following in January (potatoes, radishes, lettuce). The double freeze was rather harrowing, but I pulled all my seedlings through. Tomatoes are in the ground, though I did start seed for peppers and tomatoes too late for transplanting. However, I am happy with the backup plan – purchased transplants.

And all of this, I realize, is still a big experiment for me, with this blog serving as my logbook into successes and failures. It’ll be interesting to look back on this next year and see whether I judge this year as being unambitious (hopefully!) or successful in all the right ways.

February 17th, 2011 by Marc Opperman

This is going around the garden and food-centric blogosphere. A single family has trademarked a term that has been in use (print media) since the 80s, and is now sending out cease-and-desist letters for any blogger who dares use it to describe their lifestyle of growing their own food and living off their urban land.

The controversy is well-documented here.

Basically, I’m just angling for my own cease-and-desist letter from these idiots. It’s an abuse of trademark law, and perhaps the more people who flaunt it, the less likely they’ll be able to continue this stupidity.

urban-homestead

February 14th, 2011 by Marc Opperman

I’m tempted just to post a few pictures of my son’s adventures in the yard this weekend and let them say it all. But I probably wouldn’t convey what kind of proud daddy I am after watching him scoot around and explore. Saturday we let him crawl around, and he opted to scoot right into a freshly-dug bed and play in the dirt there. He seemed particularly interest in using daddy’s shovel even though it is at least three times his size. We had a moment of cautious anxiety as he teetered over the edge of the dry creek feature, but he caught himself and decided to return back over the stone bridge.

Sunday, I took him out in the front yard just to sit in the sun. He was loving it so much – the scrunchy Fall leaves seemed to be his favorite – that he cried when I picked him up to take him in. So I took him around back and plopped him down again. He happily crawled around, played with some sticks, chewed on some dried salvia twigs, tossed some pebbles around… and cried again when I picked him up. It had gotten chilly, so I persisted and took him in. He was not happy about that. I let him bring a piece of a grass – a wispy frond of little bluestem – which made him a little happier. He continued to carry that around for 45 minutes inside.

He might have been a muddy mess after his first big adventure, but his enthusiasm made me wonder if the outdoors is a thing in your blood, a genetic predisposition. At the very least, I was hoping I was seeing the beginning of much father-son collaboration in the garden. It made me very happy.

dirt, garden, lukas, play, son, yard