Persimmon Season

Persimmon fruit in my hand, persimmon tree in the background

We’ve got a persimmon tree which we don’t get a lot of fruit from. It’s not that our tree doesn’t yield, but between the squirrels, birds and passersby, I think I only had 2 or 3 persimmons from the tree last year.

Persimmons are orange-colored fruit, about the consistency of an apple, and very sweet and yummy. I thought that they were mosty from asia, but wikipedia tells me that there are various varieties from all over, including the Americas. The two varieties that I know of are very different. Our tree and my favorite kind of persimmon is the “Fuyu,” which seems to be the most accessible, easy to eat variety. Fuyus can be eaten like an apple. They’re firm and as they ripen they get softer, until they’re a little bit gooey. I love to cut them up and add to hot or cold cereal. There’s also Hachiya, which are said to be astringent. You can’t eat Hachiyas until they get really gooey. They tend to be good for baking into persimmon bread or cookies.

At least 15 years ago, eco-villagers planted a persimmon tree at the lot at the northeast corner of Bimini Place and White House Place. When the school district decided to tear down the house at that lot, about 2 years ago, we moved the tree to its current location along the alley at the south end of the Bimini Terrace. It’s now very visible to folks walking on the front sidewalk or down the alley. I think that plenty of the Korean halmonis recognize it as gam namu.

When squirrels nibble or birds peck at the fruit it looks like this (sorry blurry photo but you get the idea):

Learning to share our persimmons with other creatures

The fruit is mostly ripe right now, which seems slightly early – If I recall correctly, they generally ripen in November and December. Maybe it’s global warming or the hot dry summer or just natural variation.

Today I noticed that there were a lot of ants on the tree. At first I assumed that they were going to some of the fruit that looks like the photo above… but on closer inspection I saw that they were especially busy on one branch, which had a great deal of some sort of black lump creatures (which I think are called scale?) on it. Here’s a shot of that branch, which I immediately cut off:

Some kind of scale?

I scoured the tree and could only find a few more of these black lump creatures, mostly right next to ripe fruit. If anyone knows what these are called, and has any recommendations for keeping them under control (using non-toxic tools,) please post in the comments.

I know that ants were probably using tools long before humans were. Ants use aphids to get nutrition from other plants. Aphids are said to be very slow moving messy eaters, so ants help them get around, then eat their leftovers. Ants also harvest and spread molds and various other things that we human gardeners perceive as diseases when ants do their own harvesting of our cultivars. The ants have been really going to town this past summer… I will have to make sure they don’t do too much damage to the persimmon tree.

 

A Couple of Inspiring Gardening/Farming Videos

I recommend a couple of videos that I think are really inspiring for gardeners and farmers to grow our food in harmony with nature. They’re both from a site called Ted.com which features lots of really informative talks about science, technology, creativity, brains, art…

Eduardo Sousa and his Geese

The first talk is by a chef named Dan Barber. It’s all about a Spanish farmer named Eduardo Sousa. Sousa produces foie gras (French for “fat liver”)  a substance that I was unfamiliar with until I heard this talk. Foie gras a delicacy made from goose liver. Sousa farms in such a natural way that wild geese come to stay and live with his domesticated geese. The talk is about permaculture, slow food, history, and the joy of great food as the “expression of nature.” Barber’s excellent talk includes a quote I really liked – from Jonas Salk: ”If all the insects disappear, life on earth as we know it would disappear within fifty years. If human beings disappeared, life on earth as we know it would flourish.”  

The second talk is  by Michael Pollan, who should be familiar with readers of this blog from this earlier post. His talk is sort of a  whirlwind tour of many of the themes his book The Botany of Desire. He suggests that we could see much of humanity as a vast conspiracy of “corn’s scheme for world domination.” The talk concludes with a great profile of Joel Salatin’s permaculture farm in Virginia which is “well beyond organic agriculture.” 

Don’t spend tooooo much time on Ted.com, but check out these two talks, and let them inspire you to get out and garden!

 

Welcome and Unwelcome Garden Visitors

 

Can you spot the lizard?

Above is a cell phone shot of a lizard I just spotted in the garden a couple minutes ago. It’s not a great photo of the critter but I was worried that if I got any closer she/he would dart off.

I’ve heard that lizards are good for gardens. They eat insects, and don’t really damage any of the plants. They like things a little messy, though. If one keeps one’s garden too neat, the lizards will go elsewhere.

Yesterday, I found the corner of the southern bulb-out raised garden bed looking like this:

before

In a few seconds I fixed it back to how it had been. Then it looked like this:

after

The visitor in this case, appears to have been one of those cars… One of the creatures that I don’t really like visiting my garden. I will try to avoid what has been called my obligatory shot at car culture and will just say that it’s easy to rebuilt these urbanite beds when  they come apart.

 

Sneaky Yellow Tomatoes and Front Yard Gardening

I enjoy gardening in the front yard. It’s great for getting to know one’s neighbors - I’ve told some stories about these encounters in previous posts including this one.

One fairly frequent unfortunate downside is that folks will anonymously harvest… and will sometimes just pull up entire plants… especially stuff within arms reach of the public right of way. Sometimes when this happens I feel violated, disappointed, irritated, angry… but then I often try to think that someone out there who needs it is probably eating a little healthier.

Ripe Green Zebra Tomato

At one point I grew big red tomatoes in my front yard… and they would often disappear just when they got nice and big and red… so now I grow yellow tomatoes! The one pictured in the photo is an heirloom variety called “Green Zebra.” They’re a tiny bit more tart than your average tomato, but they generally wait for me to harvest them.  The skin goes from green to a light yellow to a warmer, nearly orange yellow when ripe.

(Updated August 4th – oops – according to Wikipedia Green Zebra isn’t an heirloom… It was bred in 1983 – from heirlooms. There are a few actual green heirlooms: Aunt Ruby’s German Green… which I am also growing this year… but they’re not ripe yet and the zebras are.)

 

my first raised bed garden

over the past few years, i’ve been doing some container gardening in marginal spaces at the eco-village that don’t get very much sun, with limited success. the mizuna and chinese cabbage thrived, but the tomatoes, onions, conventional cabbage and a couple of other sad plant friends did not. after one failed season, i have successfully grown a batch of small onions in a window box off the north stairwell of the 117 building.

i have not wanted to grow in prime garden areas mainly because i’m a novice and didn’t want to waste valuable land when the community’s green thumbs could be growing bounties to feed the world, or at least feed eco-villagers. but now after growing not only edible, but delicious greens and onions, i was ready for more.  so i bought a book, square foot gardening.

this book appeals to my fondness of small things and of things posteriorily retentive. mel bartholomew, the author and quite a character, developed and advocates for a method of planting that uses less space and soil to grow your garden. his “square-foot-gardening” (or sfg) method requires only a 6-inch deep bed and grid system to easily plan, space and maintain your crops.

coincidentally while i was dreaming of my imaginary leafy green grid, federico, the finder that he is, came across a beautiful wooden box that was going to be thrown away at work.  we found a little sunny and underutilized corner of the front garden and set up shop.

raised bed a la square-foot-gardening

sticking strictly to the book, here’s what our sfg raised bed looks like. i’ve transplanted tomatos, basil, and onion, and seeded okra, chinese cabbage, carrots, marigolds and salvia. the carrots and salvia have not yet sprouted after a week  (any thoughts?). i’m not sure it’s a good idea to post this before i know how things will turn out, but i’m very excited about it, and maybe one of you will have some advice or words of encouragement.

to be continued…

 

Artichokes! Artichokes!

Chokes in front of the Bimini Terrace

Mmmmmm… Lots and lots of artichokes in the harvest right now. Artichokes are a relatively trouble-free perennial. Each year they fruit around April-May, then die back above ground in June. In September, they grow plenty of “pups”, maybe three to eight little plants growing from various points on the existing roots. At that point, you can split the roots and plant them as a half-dozen plants. I usually try to do this every other year with mine. The second year growth is very good… but then it seems like the plants get crowded, so splitting them spreads them out. For the most part, they don’t get many insect pests… an excellent plant… and a yummy lunch today!

The same artichokes from a different angle

 

Pole Beans Climbing

beans a-climbin'

A quick post to show off the pole beans climbing up the wires up to the telephone pole. The pole itself was painted as a sort of totem pole during an event where we painted a City Repair type mural in our street.

The beans are getting so high that they’re difficult to harvest, unless I bring out the ladder.

I need to make sure they don’t grow onto the actual live electrical wires.

 

Pomegranate in Bloom

Pomegranate Flower

As I mentioned in my last post, the spring gardens are getting down to business… Nature (or at least the somewhat-controlled version that we cultivate) doing her job, having lots of sex. Here’s a shot of the pomegranate out back in bloom.

Pomegranate is a desert plant, thrives on neglect and very little water. The most difficult thing about the plant (it’s nearly more bush than tree) is that it wants a pretty severe pruning seeming all the time, as it shoots up lots of sprouts.

 

Signs of Spring – Some Late March Photos

Here are some garden photos I took last week of some of the promising new developments to come along in March. Spring things are happening in the garden! Arranged in alphabetical order… apologies for my blurry cell phone pictures.

The Distinctive Maroon Bloom of Amaranth

Amaranth is one of plants that you grow once and it generates enough seeds to keep popping up in various places in your garden each year. This one is about 2-3 feet tall, but it can get taller than I am (6′3″) sometimes. I’ve never harvested the actual tiny grain (anyone out there have simple instructions for this?) but I do use the young leaves in salads. I’ve also heard (from Ysanne Spevack of Organic Foodee, whom I met through Erik Knutzen of Homegrown Evolution) that the flower itself is edible, too – just cut it up and put it in salads.

First Baby Artichoke Begins to Emerge

I grow a lot of artichoke – one of those great perennials that just keeps giving. The first of the chokes are starting to develop… though it will still be another month or so before the early ones will be ripe enough to eat. The one in the photo is in the middle of the my biggest, seemingly nearly monster-sized plant. The fruit pictured though is only maybe 2-inches in diameter.

Bright Blue Borage Flowers

Borage is one of those old-fashioned companion plants that you’re supposed to grow somewhere in your garden (also in this group are rue and yarrow… and some others that I will remember as soon as I hit “publish”.) Like amaranth, borage comes back year after year, a bit more than I really want it to. Mine grows out of interstices in in urbanite bed-wall. It has little blue flowers that face downward. They’re edible, tasting like a mild drop of honey. I put them in salads to add a little color.

Yellow Calendula Flowers Starting to Bloom

Calendula is just starting to bloom. Another simple-to-grow plant that keeps coming back year after year (do you detect a theme here?) It has some medicinal uses, though I just grow it for the bright yellow flowers.

New Jujube Growth

In mid-January, we planted a jujube tree. At the time it was completely dormant, bare and a little spindly-lookin’. I just had to trust that it would happily re-emerge from its slumber. I was a tiny bit worried about it for a month and a half, while I built a fancy-looking, perhaps overly-eleborate and formal rainwater harvesting ring to direct water toward its roots… thinking that it would sad if my high expectations for the tree might be unmet. Now, as you can see from the photo, it’s leafing out nicely.

Peach Blossoms

The peach tree that I was pruning in December is flowering and leafing out. The bees love it. Below it is California poppy and yarrow. A few times I’ve had to trim back broken branches as it gets abused by passers-by.

Yarrow A-blooming

And how could it be an area that Joe stewards unless there was plenty of yarrow? The very earliest of the yarrow flowers are already in bloom, with plenty more about to burst open.

 

More Good Thymes Coming to the Bulbout!

Bobby bringing the flat of Thyme to Eco-Village on the rack on the folding bike

After today’s March for Water, neighbor Bobby Gadda and I dropped by Sunset Nursery today to pick up some plants for the bulbout. We got some plants for the existing planter – including sage, lavender, rosemary, Santa Barbara daisies, and another kind of daisy with a sort of pale purple center with yellow dots. We biked them all home and planted them right away.

We also got some plants for the planned next planter, which will go in the north end of the bulbout. These included a flat of ground-cover thyme to plant in the interstices of the next planter, which we’re planning to start work on next Saturday March 28th (tentatively starting at 9am – all welcome.) The last saturday of each month, L.A.Eco-Villagers hold a work party. Responsibility for organizing the work party rotates among those of us who volunteer.

Thyme growing in the interstices

Here is a shot of the same type of thyme as it grows in the walls of one of the urbanite raised beds in the garden I tend. The thyme grows slowly, but ultimately resembles a sort of splashing and dripping mortar between bricks. This is about one and a half years after I planted it. It definitely is happiest in the south-facing walls where it gets the most sunlight.

Now that I’ve got you excited to try this at home, I have to publish a couple of disclaimers… The best thyme for ground cover is not the best thyme to use as a spice. The thyme (I am pretty sure it’s called elfin thyme) that grows most tightly and covers most, has even tinier leaves that they typical already-very-small-leaf thyme (which I think is called wooly thyme.)  Wooly thyme grows more like a single-stem plant than a groundcover.  Wooly thyme does spread, slowy, too – though it doesn’t achieve the coverage the elfin thyme does.  The thymes I use most frequently is the lemon and lime thymes… though I use these only rarely anyway (mostly mashed up in salad dressing) because it’s cumbersome to deal with such small leaves.  As much as I like to grow elfin thyme for the way it makes the garden walls look… and I justify its presence in my garden as a spice… I’ve never actually used this elfin thyme as a spice. It’s also never seems to quite achieve perfect coverage… some areas proliferate, some decline. There’s a dead area about midway up the left edge of the photo above.

Anyhow, come help us plant more thyme at this Saturday’s work party!