What’s Bugging Me

Posted on August 22, 2013 by JonesGardenBlog

Bugs are an issue.

We’ve always had our house sprayed (except for the garden), until this year.  This is the first year we’ve had chickens and I love the fact that they can roam around the yard in the evenings and eat whatever bug they want and be better off for it.

But the crickets are really starting to… well… bug.

And the earwigs, the spiders, and the beetles.  We found this guy on our back porch.

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By the way, that’s a size 13 sandal that he is next to.

The problem with most of these bugs, other than the fact that they are annoying (although great food for the chickens), is that they are all PREY bugs.  And were there is prey, you will find predators.

Obviously we love mantises, lady bugs, and any other bug that pretty much stays in the garden and eats the bad bugs.  LOVE those things.

Here is a really blurry picture of a mantis that has been living in one of our little apple trees.

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However, it’s the predators that can hurt you that really bother me.

Two days ago I noticed a black widow spider, exposed, on a web hanging off my barbecue.  Not a big fan of those.  I killed it but was a little concerned that it was out in the open like that.  That’s a little unusual for those guys.  I thought it would be a good time to clean up my back porch and check for more.  So yesterday I came home and spent about an hour clearing everything off and hosing it all down.  We found a few more.  Five to be exact.  I didn’t like that at all, so I decided last night would be a great time to hunt another no good AZ predator.

The bark scorpion.

I had already seen two in the yard and one in the house this year.  They can be a real problem in some areas.  I’ve seen at least a dozen at our house in the last 8 years, which I thought was pretty bad until I talked to a friend at church.  He’s been stung three times and kills about… are you really ready for this… 400 a year!  Okay, that’s a scorpion problem.

These things blend in with the AZ environment REALLY well, but fortunately, they fluoresce under a black light.  It’s kind of creepy, but it works SO GOOD.

So last night I got out my scorpion hunting gear, which consists of a black light, some yellow tinted glasses (they make the little fluorescing buggers stand out like LIGHT BULBS), a pair of long tweezers in case we want to catch them, and a puddy knife in case we don’t :).

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So we, meaning my two oldest and I, went all over the yard, front and back, into some of the bedrooms, and even into my shop.  But no scorpions.  Which is a good thing because honestly, I expected to find several with all of the crickets we have running around.

I also put together some cricket traps to see if I could catch some of the little pests so that I could feed them to the chickens, but the ones I tried were a total bust.  Zero crickets caught. Several killed while I was placing and checking the traps, but none actually gathered.  Hmmm… I need a better cricket trap.

I spread some DE around the perimeter of the back of the house a couple of days ago, that is where MOST of the crickets are coming in from, so we’ll see if we can get these things under control.

I think with a little diligence I can keep them below our tolerance level.

Posted in black widow spiders, bugs, crickets, scorpions | 5 Comments

Quick Update on the Craziness

Posted on August 21, 2013 by JonesGardenBlog

It’s been crazy, but it’s going well:

– mapping out the new raised beds  –  DONE

– acquiring wood for the new beds and wall units  –  1/2 DONE

– assembling the beds and wall units

– purchasing some compost for the current garden to amend a few key spots  –  DONE

– cleaning out the chicken run and worming the chickens  –  DONE

I’m even considering when I am going to go for the bonus activity.  🙂

Of course, assembling the beds is a time consuming task, especially when each one will be built slightly different.  There is reason behind that.  It’s kind of an experiment in the longevity of the raised beds and what is going to be the most durable construction method.  We’ll see.

Posted in intensive gardening | 4 Comments

Busy, busy, and time to get busy

Posted on August 19, 2013 by JonesGardenBlog

As it says in my “About Me” tab, I’m a Christ follower and father of four boys, so life, especially in the summer time, is busy.  I think I’ve spent more time in the northeast part of the state the last two weeks than I have at home.  Between camping with our family and my wife’s family, and heading up to a retreat with some of the other leaders from our church I haven’t been able to spend a lot of time getting the garden ready for the fall.

So this week is going to be a MAJOR BLITZ of activity.  It’s going to involve:

– mapping out the new raised beds

– acquiring wood for the new beds and wall units

– assembling the beds and wall units

– purchasing some compost for the current garden to amend a few key spots

– cleaning out the chicken run and worming the chickens

****bonus activity**** getting the sandy loam delivered, amended, and put into the beds

It sounds kind of crazy, but all of this needs to happen in the next week and a half.

(insert maniacal laughter here)

Good times.

Posted in Arizona Garden, intensive gardening, square foot gardening, vertical garden | 10 Comments

Weeds – the Mesquite Tree

Posted on August 12, 2013 by JonesGardenBlog

After reading several other garden blogs I can say with confidence that weeds don’t seem to be quite as big a deal in Arizona as they are other places.  Probably because of the difference in rainfall, but still, we do get them.

mesquite

This is one of the ones that I see in the garden all of the time.  In fact, I even pulled one of these from a potted tomato plant this summer.  They grow almost anywhere.  I regularly pull them from the garden, my grass, even my front yard decomposed granite.

It is actually a mesquite tree and is one of the most popular landscaping trees in our area.  Properly pruned, these trees can be great shade trees, growing very tall with a large canopy.  Unfortunately, depending on the type of mesquite, they can also be very susceptible to wind damage (especially if they have NOT been properly pruned).  Any major wind storm is going to leave the streets littered with fallen branches or even whole trees uprooted.

For me, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, considering the wood of the mesquite tree provides an excellent flavor for smoking meats and one decent sized branch can provide enough wood for several batches of tasty pulled pork and even cold smoked cheddar cheese.  Yummy!

The mesquite trees drop pods that are a nuisance to most home owners because they make a terrible mess in crushed granite landscaping.  However, if picked before they fall from the trees (but after they dry out), the pods can be milled to produce a flour that is very high in protein and has a sweet flavor (or so I’ve read, I still need to try this). I’ve also read that the pods can be roasted and ground up, much like coffee beans and make a sweet coffee-type beverage.

The pods should be inspected for holes and should never be harvested from the ground because of the risk of contamination from animals, beetles, or a particular bacteria.

Pods can be harvested all summer long, but particularly toward the end of summer/fall time period.

Unfortunately if they pop up in my garden they won’t be producing pods, just compost.  🙂

Posted in Arizona Garden, mesquite | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Gardening Books

Posted on August 7, 2013 by JonesGardenBlog

I’m just getting into gardening books.  I recently read Perennial Vegetables which I found pretty interesting but the concept of plants that are around all of the time, taking up garden space, but only producing during one season was kind of tough.  I like the idea of not having as much work to do to get a crop, but my use of perennials is still going to be limited.  Fruit trees, artichokes, and maybe some sun chokes are about all I can do with my current limited space.

Which brings me to the book I’m reading now, Mini Farming.  So far the book is pretty good, but the author points out that you need about 700 square feet of intensive gardening space PER PERSON to provide all of your food needs.  We have six people in our house.  That’s 4200 square feet of intensive beds.  Wow!  While I get really excited thinking about that many square foot gardening beds… I just don’t have the space.  That would be 131 raised beds (4 x 8).  Ouch!

On the brighter side, I had been guesstimating that we were supplying about 10% of our food needs between the garden and the chickens.  We are currently at 442 square feet.  I guess that kind of matches up.  My planned expansion will take us to 618 square feet.  That might bring us up to 15%.  I was guessing and hoping for 20%, but I’d take any increase.

Is there a particular gardening book that you have found helpful?

Posted in gardening books, intensive gardening, square foot gardening | Tagged , , | 14 Comments