Rats Destroying the Vegetable Garden

My cool weather Vegetables were doing really good. Until a few days ago. I noticed that specifically my Broccoli came under attack all of a sudden. Towards the end of last season I noticed that my green leafy veggies were being ripped from the ground, leaf, stem and root; as if someone just helped themselves to my garden. I couldn't believe it! So it was no surprise that a few days ago I saw the same thing happen and needless to say I was pissed!! Because Broccoli is one of my favorite veggies to grow and eat fresh. That night I went on a hunt for rat traps to see if my suspicions were correct. I find the best bait for rats is using some sort of gooey power or cereal bar that can be molded around the copper step trigger. I used something from kashi. As night fell I set the traps. I was excited to kill something... cursing at the bloody rats hoping that I would seek redemption. After the Traps were set I walked back into the house still pissed about the fact my broccoli bed was decimated. I laid down still cussin under my breath and suddenly the ambient sound coming from the TV was shrilled with a sharp "SMACK!!" and Instantly..... A devilish grin forced it's way through my face followed by a sigh of relief as One "SMACK!!" after another continued through the night. Because I'm a big pussy there was no way I was going outside to check on those traps. I would have definitely lost all my cool points had I seen a rat squirming around in the trap (this coming from a guy who jumps out of high performance aircraft for a living)

All in all I end up killing 8 rats in 2 days. A quick way to find out if you still have rats is if there is food still on the traps. All the rats that were killed in the traps had no food left in the traps. Tonight weather pending if they will hold up or not due to the cold. We will see how many more we can Kill. But at the end of the day. I'm not happy until the last rat is gone. It may take some time but I'm determined. Life of an Urban Farmer.. Just when you thought things would get easier.. They don't and suddenly your dealing with rats!!

First seeds started for 2012

Well.... 2012 is here and like many years past we are making good use of our sun room. I love the fact that on most days this winter it stays bewteen 75 and 80 degrees.. at night it definetly cools off a bit... Hovering around the mid to upper 60s.. but all in all I'm fortunate enough to have one and we kicked off the new  growing season yesterday by planting the following:
New Zealand spinach
Brocolli Rapini
Swiss chard
Collard Greens
Red cherry tomato super sweet 100
Tomato big rainbow
Hawaiian Pineapple
Homestead tomato
Amish paste
Riesen traube
Costoluto genovese
Golden jubilee
Japanese white eggplant
Purple Artichoke
Eggplant little fingers
Japanese Eggplant (my first variety from a 4 year plant)
Italian cabbage
Bok choy
Bull heart French cabbage
Komatsuna
Fennel
Italian onions
Sugar Ann snow peas
Oregon sugar pool peas
The boys are excited they will try to make a little money this spring selling plants.. will post pictures soon:)

Order Home Grown Organic Kona Coffee

I am so late on this post... nevertheless, I really want to plug Killino Farms in Hawaii. I use to work with Todd and he is just a great guy to say the least. Free Spirited and an adventurist who has a lot of passion in what he believes in.. Unbeknown to me.. Todd and his wife decided that they would pick up and head to Hawaii; purchase a Kona Coffee plantation-bed and breakfast and live the good life "Aloha" !! I find this simply amazing and thier coffee that they grow on the farm is Soooooo Soooo Delicious!! The first thing we noticed from stirring up a hot brew of Killinos Coffee was that it was soooooo smooth and there was no after taste. If coffee ever needed comforted it will drink Killinos Kona. Im plugging Todds Kona Farm because everything I believe in about sustainability he has done. It takes great Risk to create your own blazing trail and to his Adventure I tip my hot cup of brew to him. Todd and his wife take orders through their website for customized roasts of fresh Kona. If ever you were thinking about the Perfect Gift for a Coffee Lover I urge you to give the Killinos a try.

How to grow the most in limited space

Most Urban Homesteaders Start out growing in the city with a sense of frustration, wishing they had more land and one day hoping for the time when they can purchase some land in the country. But as the journey begins to manifest itself, Urban Homesteaders quickly realize that the aspirations for moving to the country can't match the joy reaped from challenges produced in the city.

It's difficult to grow vegetables in the city, because the lack of space is the number one nemesis. Living and growing in an urban environment has forced me to challenge the very way I think about producing a harvest. The cool thing about this approach is that it is all unorthodox. You don't have to follow a strict set of guidelines. Growing under these conditions will push creative juices to flow, some result in total failure and others will result in bountiful crops. This year I took one of my raised beds and decided that I was going to do hay bale gardening in them. The picture portrays two hay bales inside of  3' x 6' raised bed. In this particular raised bed I am growing Bush beans, Garlic, Melons and yellow squash. The 1st hay bale has some miniature heirloom melons growing in them. The second hay bale has the yellow squash. Spaced evenly around the perimeter of the bed are garlic bulbs that are growing strong. Evenly distributed in between each garlic bulb  are highly prolific bush beans that don't require a trellis.

My motto is to grow veggies where weeds would grow instead. My opinion is unless you are trying to grow an award winning Swiss chard or some other fabulous plant, crop your veggies as tight as possible and reap the benefits. The tricks to growing the most in limited space is constantly being developed. If your reading this and your on the fence about not having enough room to grow. I challenge you to get a planting pot and see just how creative you can be.

The Growing Season has Begun

We planted seeds on the 28th, 30th and 31st of Jan and a few days ago my Tomato seeds started sprouting. I bought these guys in from the sun room because even though the ground hog didn't see his shadow it's been really cold these past several days. While reading the Indoor Gardeners' post on seed I saw that he mentioned that he had an addiction. I concur. I have a Seed Addiction. It seems like everytime I go somewhere, whether it's Lowe's, walmart or the neighborhood garden store if I see seeds I have to buy something. It amazes me that when you put a seed in soil add moisture and top it off with a little patience, you get these seeds that are lifeless suddenly sprout forward into the world. It's amazing. I can just sit there and stare at the seeds. I know it may seem boring and pointless, but for me it's just so much fun watching seeds grow. My wife thinks I'm nuts, because the most tiniest things amuse me and catch y attention.. So here we are, the growing season has begun and we are off to a good start.

Backyard remodel on the Cheap

Our Backyard mini farm in the city has needed a face lift for a longtime. Due to work, vacation, and watching the cooking channel we really didn't have time to address the issue. Butttttt as the law of averages will have it anytime im home for any extended period of time, the wife is gonna have a list of honey do items for me to engage myself in. Lord KNOWSS that I shouldn't be just sitting around the house without doing anything. My wife is a communist!! But anyway, we have been researching products to lay down in the back to offer proper drainage and to keep the dust down from the dogs running in and out. Our first choice was rubber mulch or rubber bark as some call it. You may have seen this stuff inside play grounds or at military bases where servicemen do their workouts. My area total is 2100 sqf which includes the house, garden, hawk house and cottage. So I wouldn't need coverage for 2100 sqf but I wanted to see what the cost would be to fill that area with 1 inch of material. The rubber bark came out to $200-$400 to fill the area butttttttttttt it was going to cost me $1200-$1600 to haul it from South Carolina. (Thats alot of Pizzas) So that was out of the question. We wanted the Rubber Bark because it was recycled tires that they have found use for and many people are using them for ground cover and landscape as a part of a "Greener Environment." Our second option was River Rock, fortunately enough for us we live approx 10 minutes away from a landscaping rock company called Durty Wurks that was able to fullfill our needs for a great price of $490.00 that included tax and delivery. From the time of purchase they were there the next morning with two truck Loads of the river rock. When I saw all that rock I just did a deep sigh. But hey the only way to get er done is to get er done and so I did. Wheel barrel after wheel barrel, a few beer later and 10 pounds lighter; I got er done. And just in time for our first down pour. It was a success; prior to laying the rock we would walk out into a huge messy swamp, after the rock we walked outside and there was no standing water. It was amazing!! Great invest!! I added some landscaping timber to put a little more texture to the back yard and created little outside rooms or areas and now our back yard took on a whole new look. The cherry on top was adding the bird feeder. All in all for my area to include bird feeder and landscaping timber cost me $572.00 and a few pounds:)

Second official growing season in Full Swing

In zone 8 the weather is warm throughout most of the day and there has been no let down from the rain; although Bob has had his fair share of producing rays without being hindered by any cloud cover. The robins have figured out that there is a healthy cache of delicious worms just below the surface of our raised gardens, which causes my wife to panic when they are scurrying around the Strawberry patch. Speaking of strawberries; it is our official second season with the patch and I didn't know what to think when we planted a few plugs last year. This year they seem to have taken off and although we are having plenty of flowers that are producing strawberries, they are not sweet for some reason. Maybe they have to sit for a while but I'm afraid that if they do all the berry eating birds will gobble them up once they learn they are there. If its not bugs, dogs, and hail destroying your garden you can count on those birds eating what you enjoy. But it's a trade off. I love looking at the birds make our garden their home.

The beans have have germinated and in typical bean fashion they have pushed through the earth like line backers ready to grow. The most enjoyable part of gardening this second season is watching my plants from last year that I pulled up and place in containers respond to the season once again. Most notably my Japanese eggplant; it's almost like we have become friends. To me a plant that sets flowers is like my buddies who stop over with a case of beer and meat for the grill. They plan on staying for awhile. Watching these plants grow from one year to the next and preserving plants from one season to the next that have been pulled from the earth and cultivated in containers adds a whole new dimension of possibilities for the Urban farmer. It addresses the issue of space and time consumed with a busy schedule. Not that planting a garden is really busy work to me. I enjoy it. But either way spring has greeted us and our little urban garden is responding wonderfully. The wife is doing things her way for the first half of the year and I suspect everything will be neat and orderly. During our second half of the growing season I will commence to start my Jungle. There is just something about the jungle that I like. Things growing everywhere, dense foliage that can not be seen through appeals to me, but scares the hell out of my wife. I look forward to it:)

Make an easy trellis

Next year is literally around the corner; so we are prepping for things that we definately want to do differently and one of them is the use of a trellis. We love sugar snap peas, but I have noticed that the sugar snaps are very lethargic when trying to climb. For last years harvest I was constantly out there training the vines to climb and attach to something. It was a pain in the butt, but nevertheless, I didn't give up. I noticed that part of the problem was that the sugar snaps need to start climbing early. They always seem to protrude that one feeler that seems to guide the rest of the plant and if that guy doesn't get a hold of something it all of a sudden goes rogue. But anyway I came up with something that may work by using some left over material from the cottage. It consists of 2 stakes or poles and plastic fencing material. I cut the fencing material to the length of the stakes or a little longer and then thread the stakes in and out of the fencing material on either side until the fence is running the length of the stake and repeat the other side. I then took some twists and secured the fence to the stakes to prevent severe slippage and walla. I think this will work in theory for my small garden and best of all it is the width of the raised bed and very easy to make. I can also just pull them out role them up and store them when not in use. But this may just be my solution for weak climbers. We'll see.............

Top 3 Essential Garden Tools

Over the past year I have spoken to many people who want to start gardening and begin to live a sustainable life. Im not sure how sustainable I am on the sustainable meter but I know I am headed in the right direction. But back to the top three tools that I feel are the most essential for my urban garden and they are as follows:

1:Wheel Barrel

2:Garden Hoe

3:Spade Shovel

I can honestly say that 99% of the work I do in my garden includes one if not all of these items. They have proved to be absolutely essential in transforming my garden plot into a productive edible garden. I guess the list may vary depending on what your needs are; because some people may have no use for a wheel barrel. I never thought I needed a wheel barrel until I wanted to fill my raised beds with compost from my pile. After carrying several shovel fulls of compost and losing half because of tripping to dragging filled garbage cans with compost, breaking the handles and straining my back from picking them up, I figured I would be a smart caveman instead of a strong one and invest in a wheel barrel. Over the next several weeks we are going to nurture our garden for this upcoming season, we hope we will be as successful as the first.

Reflections of our summer harvest

This was our first summer that we actually grew something. There were a period of highs and lows but all in all the experience was great. Ironically most of the growing season was left to my wife to develop and maintain and being a cherry, she did amazingly well. Our plan to use raised beds proved to be very easy to maintain and resulted in amazing produce from virtually everything grown in them. Some of the highlights for this summer are my almost 6' green pepper plants. I have never seen green pepper plants so tall and they are so productive. The Cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, and melons produced so many fruits that my wife huffed and puffed when she went to harvest them everyday. We learned so much about gardening this year and sharing our experiences. The wealth of information that we receive from all the home growers who we follow on the blogosphere has been hands down the best source of information that we have received. Thank God for Georgias Second Growing Season, we already have seeds sprouting out of the Seed tray ready to be planted in the beds.

Whats Growing in Zone 8 now?

We recieved our first ever Female Zuccini plant and flower

Our Edamame are looking real good and are starting to get fat. My wife is eye balling these guys.

The watermelon in the haybale are doing excellent I can't believe how big they have grown.

And need I say more this is the king of the house "HUGO" and he is the BOSS

Our sunflowers are growing tall and strong, they are going to make a beautiful attraction to the garden and hopefully attract some good pollinators.

Keeping bats at the Urban Homestead

I may have just officially been declared crazy with this post, but im the type of guy that likes to look at all kinds of options. I live in a place where the keepers of the Forest aka "mosquito's" frequently get drunk off of my families and pets blood every day. As soon as I walk outside the vampires follow my trail and instantly are all over me. I have tried everything. We are obsessive about not leaving any standing water around. But the vampires keep on coming. We finally found out why we have so many mosquito's. My neighbors have a small pond that they breed in and because of that it is out of our hands. Or is it?


This is where my little hairy Friends come in. I was doing some reading on the benefits of bats and came up with the brilliant idea that, If I kept bats at my property I could put a dent in the Mosquito population. Maybe my thinking is like throwing gallons of gasoline on the campfire to get it going. I don't know. But there is one thing for sure, one bat can eat up to 1000 mosquito's a night. That's 1000 mosquito's per bat every night. So it's either harmful pesticides or hairy little bats. I'm leaning towards the bats. I really can't talk my wife into this one. I will just have to tell her that 80s' style hairdos are out. No big hair.

On keeping the little guys, the only thing that is needed is a bat box to hang on a near by tree for the nocturnal guys to live in. The information that I read also stated that it may take up to 3 years for bats to occupy the new residents, but once they do they will be back year after year. Bat boxes are sold on ebay in all shapes and sizes and I think this fall I will purchase one and give it go. What about rabies? It's the hype of movies and media hysteria about bats that give them the bad wrap. According to the Bat conservation website they state, 'That Bats can get the rabies virus, but the incidence of bats and rabies is very low, usually only about one half of one percent of bats tested, test positive for the virus. If you take into consideration that people have a much higher chance of getting attacked by a dog, falling down a flight of stairs, or being struck by lightning and dying than dying of a bat bite you can see that rabies is rare."

My Gals

Ezelle and Esther, stuck to the hip like batman and robin, Michael Jordan and Scotty Pippen or more like Aretha Franklin and her Microphone. These two gals have so much attitude that I just say they have "tude" They remind me of my two sisters; Quick to tell you whats on their minds, able to hold several conversations at one time, Always keepin a watchful eye on the latest gossip and a whole lot of fun to be around.

Raising chickens in an Urban environment has it's challenges, but those challenges are not so overbearing if things are kept within parameters that are functional. I never thought I would ever have chickens at this stage in my life. But like with everything else, I do go against the grain and instead of waiting until my knees are blown out, I decided to go for it and attempt to do it right the first time. I never had a platform for what right looks like in an urban environment. But to the contrary, I do have a platform for what wrong looks like. There is an area of town that I drive by occasionally, and the people sit out side of there homes on wet couches, with Budweiser cans replacing the grass, and roosters running in makeshift pens positioned on the front lawn. It's disgusting and it gives guys like me who are living under the radar a bad name.

I personally have high standards for my gals. I know chickens are chickens and they are going to poop and do whatever it is chickens do. But as the guy with the big brain, I will figure out a way to direct their patterns in such a way that works with all of us and for the most part it has. Ezelle and Esther are the beginning and surprisingly my wife was so impressed with the new coop that she would love to add one more as an addition. I love my gals, but we don't have any more room for another loud mouth.

Growing Urban tomatoes

Well they have finally arrived. My wife and I were doing some house keeping around the garden and I noticed that there was a small tomato hanging around. My tomato plants have taken off and are climbing straight up the stakes and trellis that we have surrounding them. Our main goal was to tie all of our branches to the stakes to that they wont fall over. There are so many little flowers and we have taken the advice of giving a gentle shake to activate pollination and pinching off some of the suckers. I really hope these guys do well. Taking a closer look, my wife and I realize that tomatoes are a major part of our diet. It will be great when we have our first.

Making a Chicken Coop

Alot of thought went into making this chicken coop for Esther and Ezelle. It was difficult to come up with a solid plan, because all of the materials we had were pulled apart from other projects, so my buddy and I just shot from the hip on this one.

One thing was for sure and that was the need to incorporate the basic needs for my wife and I which was easy access, ventilation, easy to clean, a place to roost, a place to lay eggs, an easy way to collect eggs and a way to throw green material on the bottom of the coop and collect it for compost. I know it sounds like alot but with this plan our coop suddenly materialized in a few hours and it was literally a one day project. Hopefully our girls will appreciate the work we have done for them. They now have a place to roost and lay eggs off the ground and my wife can easily go in and collect eggs from the side with out going into the coop. My favorite design feature of the coop is being able to pull my wheel barrel up with heaps of material from the compost and scatter it along the floor. When I put the girls in thier new home they made quick work of the working green material. They were literally on cloud nine doing their synchronized scratching dance. I can watch these guys scratch all day like I can watch a fire. It's mesmerizing watching them work and it's amazing that these girls have some personality. More pics of the girls latter on this week.

My life is so different from that of my friends.

Currently I'm traveling around the northeast (PA,NJ and NY) to see family and friends. The day I arrived my buddies took me out to New York City for the evening, to chill out at a lounge called the Taj. It was kinda of weird for me to be there around all these people who were hootten and hollerin. I just had to step back and watch the crowd around me as everyone danced and threw their drinks in the air. I asked myself, "Is this is what life is all about?" Girls getting dressed up to look erotic to attract the Guys getting liqueured up to pull some game. I have been so far removed from this scene for at least 7 years. Honestly, all I know and have enveloped myself in is trying to survive these last several years. I can't blame the club goers for having a good time, because it's all they know. It's how they have fun. But I also can't help to think that while these guys are having fun somewhere in a distant land one of my buddies is holding onto a thread of his/her life, wishing, hoping and wondering that one day they too can go to a club at least one more time.

Over the years, The way I live my life has been transformed into something else; I have a saying I came up with; which says, "I am the product of circumstances and the result of consequences." This is a quote I came up with one day when I couldn't shed a tear or feel a sense of sadness over the death of a fellow soldier. I just felt anger and every time one of my buddies would get blown up shot and killed, a piece of me would be taken away and replaced with more anger. When that happens you as a person start to look at life differently. Because most of us think that life has so much meaning, but where I come from life is cheap. I often tell my soldiers that I don't care if they hate me or think I am an asshole, I'm not their for them to love me and think that I am the coolest person. I am their to make sure that each and everyone of them will get to come home and spend Christmas or thanksgiving with their families and friends. Because somewhere in this world there is a wife, husband, mother, father, girlfriend, boyfriend or child who is inspired by this person and they mean everything to them.

So I can't help but, to take a step back and look at all the people who can't wait for happy hour, the crew of girls standing in line that extends around the block for hours to get into a club because some star is in there, the guy who is puking his brains out because he drank to much and the masses of people who live their lives on one soap box at a time. Even though I don't do these things for fun, I wouldn't want to see New York City any other way. The people in our biggest cities don't have to worry about being blown up in the night club on a regular basis, they can literally go and let their hair down, relax, get drunk and silly and have fun. I just have to smile and politely, walk away and have a sense of deep satisfaction that the quiet professionals like myself are doing a great job keeping America true to it's form. My cousin asked me, " So how was it hanging out in New York?" I looked at her and with a sarcastic grin said, "Spence, I have a wife, two chickens and garden." She burst out laughing.

Flooding at the Homestead

It has been raining for the last 3 days. The streets have been flooded, huge trees have fell across the road throughout the town and tornado warnings are in affect. Last year I was told there was no rain and this year it seems like it will never end I so wish I had my rain barrel collection system in place around our home.

My garden is in jeopardy of flooding. The backyard is taking a real beating from the rain. It's like a swamp back there. I let the dog out to use the bathroom and she was like "Uh-Uh", "the hell with that" she ran back in. Eventually, I got her to slosh around in the rain until she eventually did her business and came screaming back in and relieved to jump back into her king sized doggy bed.

With all this rain coming down I am so happy I started raised beds. They provide great drainage. If you can see in the last photo, the raised bed all the way to the far right has not been prepped, I just threw wild flower seeds in there and said, "Grow". In contrast to the other 7 raised beds that were prepped properly they are draining very well. I guess with all the layered organic material that I have placed under the vegetable beds the worms have done a great job turning the soil so the beds are able to drain all the way down. I hope the beds don't reach there tipping point. Only time will tell.

Spring Planting

Raised Beds

Wild Flowers to attract bees, butterflies and Humming birds
Corn
Carrots
Sugar Snap Peas
Swiss Chard
Oriental Spinach
Spinach
Pak Choy
Cabbage
Collard Greens
Kale
Radish
Edamame Soy Beans
String beans Runners
Okra
Sakata Melons
Tiger Melons (Heirloom)
Asian Cucumber
Mesculin Lettuce
Strawberries
Sunflowers (Mammoth)
Tomatoes (Grape)
Tomatoes (Big Boys)
Zucchini
Japanese Eggplants
Leeks


Planter Boxes and Buckets(Patio)

Thai Chilli Pepper
Golden Hot Chilli Peppers
Sweet Bell Peppers
Potatoes
Garlic
onions
Dwarf Cherry tree
Dwarf Peach tree
Basil
Oriental Basil
Cilantro
Sage
Mint
Shiso
Oregano
Parsley
Thyme
Corriander
Dill
Rosemary

Positioned around the Garden

Muscadine Grape
Scupernog Grape
White Grape
Blackberry thornless
Blackberry thorned

Suburban Gardening

The Revolution