Category: Uncategorized
-
Tree Cloning is My New Favorite Thing
I can, in fact, confirm- air layering is MAGIC✨! Only a short couple months ago- on a mission to increase my tree crops- I made my first attempt at air layering. I’m proud to say that the jocote air layers were a spectacular success🙌🏾. I can’t articulate the feeling of opening a tin foil wrapped…
-
Wet & Happy (mostly the plants, but sometimes me too)
You might be a farmer if instead of cursing the (almost) daily rains like many, you welcome working in the rain for the cool temperature it brings & for Nature generously taking one thing off the to-do list: plant watering! For months it felt like the rains would never come, but here we are again…
-
Wild Black Soldier Flies Join the Crew
So far the worms seem unbothered by the heat. They continue to eat through pounds & pounds of food scraps every week & are rapidly multiplying. What I didn’t expect to also be multiplying in my worm sanctuary are the huge (for a fly), wild, black soldier flies😳. Each week when I open the sanctuary…
-
Furry Nemesis
As a kid, I thought my Granddad was cruel for shooting at the cute squirrels with his BB gun to run them away from his garden. I have to say, I understand it now. Not long after I completed my many fruit tree air layers, the squirrels came through & shredded the foil wrapped parcels…
-
Drink Your Greens
It’ll be months still before I have any roselle fruits, but that won’t stop me from reaping all of the benefits of roselle season. The leaves are absolutely delicious when used like spinach. Now I can say that- like spinach- they make a great addition to a smoothie too. I share the process in the…
-
Active Composting Weather Nearing Its End
Sure, I could just mow the grass/“weeds,” but it’s far more useful to add the nitrogen rich material to my compost piles. Instead of using a machine to chop the grass/”weeds” down & leave them to decompose on the ground, I do what I’ve come to call “hand mowing.” It’s basically weeding, but over…
-
A Spirit Visit?
Recently while looking for branches to air layer on the mango tree planted by my great grandfather many decades ago, I stopped in my tracks when I noticed several vines of “jumbee” (pronounced ‘joom-bee’) hanging from the ancient tree. Jumbee/jumbie beads, also known as rosary peas, were introduced to me decades ago by my Caribbean…
-
Air Layering or…Magic
Following behind Granddad in the garden on any given day, you’d be likely to look up & catch a glimmer of the sun reflecting from a tin foil covered tree branch. I asked him once why we were wrapping the trees in tin foil. He said, “We’re making new trees, Sweets!” I couldn’t understand how…
-
Crew Update
I’m happy to report that The Crew (a.k.a. our worms) have settled into their mango-shaded sanctuary very well. They quickly munched through a shocking amount of bedding. Now that I see what they’re capable of, I will nearly double the bedding depth when I reset the bin in the Fall. They love fruit & anything…
-
Proud Tree Hugger
Before I even knew what a “tree hugger” was, I knew I was one. Being around trees- better yet IN trees- makes me happy. Witnessing the effects of global deforestation, including the dramatic destruction of the landscape around the farm, I wondered what- if anything- I could do. I decided that my response to the…
