San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden presents a wild mushroom presentation by Dennis Sheridan on Saturday, February 11 from 1pm to 2pm. Join local photographer and mycologist Dennis Sheridan for a discussion on commonly seen mushrooms in our area, the role of mushrooms as decomposers, and the beneficial mycorrhizal fungi relationships mushrooms have with plants. Bring your questions and mushrooms for identification. This is a child-(and adult) friendly talk and there will be hands-on mushrooms to admire at the end of the talk, followed by a mushroom walk through the Garden.
Dennis Sheridan is a naturalist and outstanding photographer who has been a friend of the Garden for years. He has given programs on insects in conjunction with the Natural History Museum and has traveled throughout the world, pursuing his passions of nature and photography.
Presentation is $5 for members/$10 non-members. For more information contact Kristina Van Wert at (805) 541-1400 ext 305 or volunteers@slobg.org.
San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden is located on 150 acres in El Chorro Regional Park off Highway One between Morro Bay and San Luis Obispo, at 3450 Dairy Creek Rd. When the master plan is complete, the Garden will be the only garden of its kind in the United States exclusively devoted to the ecosystems and plants of the five mediterranean climate regions of the world. Through its programs and facilities, the Garden fosters an appreciation and understanding of the relationship between people and nature and encourages a sense of stewardship for the natural environment.
I lived in Europe for almost eight years. I really like much about the lifestyle there…. and I have family in Eastern Europe and knew many people who’d escaped from there in the 60′s and 70′s. I think it’s fair to say I have a romantic attachment to Europe.
When I came upon this post from a lady in Poland who is starting what she calls an eco-farm in the ‘Green Lungs’ of Poland (a remote rural area full of trees), well…. it seems to me it is worth sharing. It seems it might be a good opportunity for someone with the gumption to leave anywhere and go to Poland for a few months and work on the farm for food and lodging. So I reprint the original post, so if anyone is interested, they may contact her. She also needs a reliable trusty farm manager with the same values as her, someone who can manage the farm properly while she is gone travelling.. managing the crops, and tending the animals.
“Hello Nature Lovers!
I have just started clearing my little forest of about 1 ha in the North Eastern part of Poland where I would like to create a kind of beautiful and useful paradise park with flowers, nuts, berries, mushrooms – all these goods for people wanting to spend here their vacation at my Ranch during spring, summer or in the autumn.
The landscape around is amazing and the nature really pure and abundant in wild animals, especially wild birds. You can easily see here wild animals like boars, roes, foxes, hares, hawks and many many rare wild birds.
If someone would like to join me helping in anyway, from now or later in the spring/summer months, I would be really happy… as I am really looking for people who would like to participate, hopefully also in a long-term way.
Any kind of contribution would be appreciated, as the ideas are many and the place offers lots of possibilities: first of all clearing and making spacey and beautiful Paradise Park full of berries and other goods, then in spring sowing vegetables in a big organic garden, in summer some garden work and renovating the farm house and other farm buildings, organising interesting workshops and trips… and what else we can imagine! Maybe permanent ecovillage??? ))
At the moment I live here in a farm house, where I can host CouchSurfers or volunteers and provide food for them.
I hope to hear from someone soon! Especially from creative and interesting people
Love and life,
Isabelle
You may contact me via FB, CS or directly via Skype: CreativeIndianka, email: RanchoRomantica@vp.pl or mobile phone: 0048607507811
The hill we grow our organic edible cactus on is very steep. This makes it a good spot for the cactus as the south-facing hillside means none of the plants are shaded by the others around them. The soil is good for the plants, and the cold air drifts down the hillside and away from the plants. But while this prime location is good for the plants, the steep hillside makes for extreme challenges in maintenance. We needed a vehicle that could get up the hillside safely transporting stone and soil and cactus.
Kubota RTV 900 with bed up
Kubota RTV 900 with bed up
Kubota RTV 900 with bed up, looking at the engine/transmission
Kubota RTV 900 from behind. Note the huge bar, this is a heavy and solid machine, but this hurts its use in jumps and ‘fun’ stuff.
Kubota RTV 900 with tractor tires… it really digs in and is stable offroad, but slow
Kubota RTV 900 with tractor tires…
Kubota RTV 900
Kubota RTV 900
Kubota RTV 900
Kubota RTV 900
Kubota RTV 900 carrying dirt/rock
I looked at several Utility vehicles and ATV’s to find one that would work for our particular circumstances. Our uses for a vehicle in this spot are extreme and very focused in intent and use….. we need to have a dump bed-box behind so that I can easily dump loads of rocks, soil or waste cactus without having to dismount on the steep hillside…. we had to have four wheel-drive as two wheels would not have the traction needed on the steep scree slopes. We needed to have Roll-Over Protection System (ROPS, AKA Roll-Bar), for more safety we wanted to have engine braking so that the vehicle is slowed by the engine when coming downhill…., and we wanted durability and longevity (I prefer not having to work on equipment a lot).
I went to a number of websites and read comments about the various brands available…. and while many people extol one brand/model over another, most people agree that the expectations and uses of the unit determine the relative performance in various uses. For instance, if you want to go fast the Polaris, Bobcat, and JohnDeere brands have several models that are greatly favored by hunters and off-road enthusiasts. I also really liked the idea of the all-electric Huntve. Most of these vehicles can reach speeds of 40 MPH, most are gasoline engines with excellent throttle-response and four-wheel drive capabilities. some also offer electric lifts on the bed to dump items. But it seems none of them have all of the things I was looking for….. and with our steep narrow paths, it’s doubtful I’d be going over 5 mph very often….
In the end it is the Kubota RTV 900 that we chose. It does not go fast, it’s slow getting up hills, it is based on tractor technology with a unique hydrostatic transmission that gives the engine-braking that increases my safety greatly on this steep ground. And I can haul a thousand pounds of rock, back it into a small spot and dump it without having to leave the seat when on a narrow terrace.
The Kubota RTV900 also has hydraulic Quick-Disconnects (QD’s) that can be easily opened and a hydraulic-powered tool added in, to run on the hydraulic system…… for me I can see the use of a hydraulic-powered two-person hand-held auger (for drillling into the ground for posts), a pole-chainsaw, and a hydraulic jackhammer being some tools I might occasionally rent for a day or three of use.
There are a few things that one should know about this machine, and some of them are listed on the complaints that others have posted about it…. one is that the transmission is designed to slow and even stop the vehicle when throttle is reduced….. some people complain this will nearly “pitch you out the windshield”… personally, I like that feature…. if I get scared about a steep spot I am in, I can take my foot off the throttle and the vehicle stops. Also when going steeply downhill with 500 lbs of waste cactus I can stay in low-range and not have to keep my foot riding forcefully on the brakes… the engine itself will keep the engine speed low… in fact, I have to keep my foot on the throttle to even continue going downhill for very long. Another great feature of this transmission’s braking feature is the fact that if I decide to stop going downhill and come to a stop, I can then shift into reverse and reverse direction without a heart-stopping slide downhill while applying throttle… the machine will stay in place until I give enough throttle to overcome the engine-braking feature and it will then continue back uphill. The sense of control with this machine is excellent.
Another item often mentioned as a problem is the sticky shifting, and lack of shifting while in motion. Like many tractors this one does not allow shifting while in movement…. you might start in low-range to get out from the shed, then stop and shift into high range to drive to the work-site, then again down into low or medium-range to move around the work-site. No shifting on-the-fly here…. if you’re going off-road into terrain that calls for frequent shifting, you’ll find yourself stymied by the constant stops to shift into another range. If you are travelling with friends with more conventional ATVs and UTVs, you’ll find yourself behind the pack most of the time while the fast responsive machines whiz by on the road, and fly past you on jumps. This machine is not one built for sport… it is built for work. Another shifting issue often mentioned is sticky shifting, especially into low-range and into reverse. I’ve found this is not really a real ‘issue’ once you learn two things…. one, have the wheels facing straight ahead.. this relieves pressure from the system and allows things to unbind better… two, if you cannot shift easily, ‘blip’ the throttle once or twice, this will allow the shifter to engage, even when the wheels are turned. Ive found shifting from 4WD to 2WD or the other is a bit challenging if the wheels are not straight, I often find I have to drive foward (or back) for a dozen feet in order to stop and shift into/out of 4WD… for some folks this might be a real problem…. but since I automatically shift into 4WD before I need it, it’s not a real issue for me.
Two items I’ve not seen listed as a detraction are the location of the key-switch on the console and the location of the parking brake by the open doorway. The key-switch location and the small cab for my size (6’4″ 250 lbs) have resulted in my left knee turning off the engine several times when turning in my seat to look behind me as I back into narrow steep spaces….. and at times I am leaving the cab on a steep slope downhill on the left…. I have to take extra care that I do not accidentally smack myself against the parking brake which is located alongside the doorway opening on the left…. I’d hate to accidentally disengage the brake while dismounting. I am sure the engine braking on the shut-off engine would help prevent a runaway vehicle…. but as I grow more comfortable with it, I’ll be testing the safety on slopes in various modes of operation.
Again, any vehicle, is designed to perform certain functions, and some functions cannot be retained in order to more narrowly focus use. I agree that most people might well be better-off with one of the other UTV vehicles….. but for us the Kubota RTV900 fits our uses better than anything else I’ve seen or driven. I’m VERY happy with our machine and have been using it nearly daily hauling much heavy dirt, rocks and waste cactus. It’s been stable with a low center-of-gravity, a tractor-y low-end torque which feels very strong, and the handling is similar when filled with 750 lbs of rocks as when the large and strong bed is empty.
Another factor in our choice was our satisfaction with our old Kubota tractor we got nearly 20 years ago from a contractor friend who wanted a newer stronger model Kubota. So this old machine had a lot of use before we got it, and it still runs fine. So I like the experience I have had with Kubota in the past.
The video above is a Kubota video that shows what I consider to be the best aspect of this vehicle.. the engine braking transmission and the 900 cc diesel engine. Keep in mind the video is a commercial by Kubota… so I find it amusing to watch the overacting of one fellow driving the John Deere Gator.
The video below is from the Polaris company… they are comparing one of their machines to the Kubota RTV900.
Like the Kubota com-video, this one extoles the virtues of their machine in ways that refelct positively on their product. Yet I cannot disagree with anything they say…. the Kubota has no real storage area in the cab (but I’m not likely to be far from anything I need), no tie-downs in the bed (which I’d just bang up with rocks), little cab-room (but longer would reduce my turning radius), lower wheelbase (and perhaps lower COG?), runs on diesel (but I’m happier with the low-end torque of a diesel), smaller fuel tank (but diesel gives you more hours of operation per gallon), and the Kubota is not nearly as good at higher speeds, or extremely boulder-y terrain.
In short, if you are going to go off-roading, away from home, hunting, or wanting to take jumps, mudholes etc, you are better off with the Polaris or John Deere. The Kubota is heavy, massive and strong and built for slow steady work, not sport.
Food-First is a web page on food safety issues (They are officially the Institute for Food and Development Policy), here they discuss the marketing group we are a member of… and way cool is the fact that they used our label to show the scan codes the group is using!
They also discuss the new laws that are set to help find and track foods from ‘point of origin’ to help with food safety.
The marketing group is called Top10 Produce. And they are a fine group that has great ideas to help the small grower and the consumer both.
summertime is the fun time….
but it’s not as good at bringing harvest to you as fall is….
and I think life is the same… your summertime is the fun time, fall brings the harvest…
but your wintertime will ask you if you planted well, and harvested fully enough to last through winter.
These are some clamshell fossils in sedimentary rock….
They are unusually displayed due to the odd direction of erosion which is exposing the bi-valve instead of the clamshell face…
I found this rock in an old streambed in the California desert…
I was on foot and had to carry it about 6 miles… it only weighs about ten pounds…
but walking through shifting sand, mile after mile, it seemed heavier.
Our front yard
Here it is in our front yard…. behind the comfrey…..
Our front yard
This is not an imported mulch, but is the mowed grasses that grow through our mild wet winters… we mow them in the springtime after they have gone to seed…. since we want the ground shaded and lmulched, we leave the grasses on teh ground where they form a home-grown mulch that we did not have to buy, and we aren’t importing any materials that might contain poisons or weeds I’m not familiar with…. these local grasses I can adjust to…. we’ve worked our operation arund having them, and now they give us free mulch, jsut for cutting them after they seed.
Here are some bugs we’ve found around here this summer with no idea what they are….
There are many thousands or millions of bug species.. many of them are very selective and only have a narrow range of plants from which they can eat… some others are predators that will help your garden stay clean and free of pest bug problems. So don’t freak out when you see something you’ve not seen before…. but it is fun and interesting to try to find the species of insect…. here are a few insect identification links I look at on occasion:
We have problems with western pocket gophers…. they eat the roots and stems of our cactus plants…. they can go down a row of cactus taking out a new plant each day…. to trap them I often have to dig up several plants nearby in order to effectively place the traps…. I don’t keep figures because it would make me sad… but I suppose we lose a couple hundred plants a year… and the accumulated production of those plants in the years they would have been productive….. so even though I think these are amazing little creatures, that I have a GREAT deal of respect for….. I cannot abide them roaming around the plants…..
Our onion patch
The gophers also cause us havoc with our home vegetable garden….
The photo above is our onion bed…. the onions will soon be enlarging as the sun reaches its zenith and beyond…. until then we can pull an onion on occasion for use in salads and stews…. that is unless a gopher eats them….
Take a look above… and notice one onion second row from the bottom… far left…. it’s been pulled down into the ground by a gopher!
Note also the plethora of gopher holes and soil distortions caused by gopher soil movement.
An onion pulled into the gopher hole
I say that I like gophers… and it’s true. I admire anything that can get by so well and easily…. these gophers will often come up from below a plant they want, and eat it from below, pulling it into the ground as they eat it… or in the case of some of our large cactus, they will actually burrow up into the heart of the cactus, living in the protection of the plant while they tunnel it to death….
Bottom half of the onion eaten off
Here I’ve pulled the onion from the ground, and we can see that this is probably a days worth of food for a half kilo animal…
Digging into the gopher tunnel
Here I’ve dug into the spot where I’ve seen recent gopher activity. There are two main types of tunnels… one is access tunnels used to find food sources, and the other is the deeper transit tunnels they use to move from place to place safely…. those tunnels will often be used by generations of animals…. the feeding/access tunnels are used to access temporary food sources…. these may not even be connected to the main tunnels…. I suspect this critter is going to come back to this area if I open this access tunnel…. he’ll feel the draft and will want to plug the damage…. but I will have to continue digging until I’ve gotten past the ”plug’ of soil he’s put into the access tunnel to block it off while he sleeps through the day deeper down…. I’ll often dig down trying to find the plug… it is usually a bit softer than the surrounding soil…. if the animal is planning to return, he’ll not pack it too tight.. I found this one easily enough…..
gopher tunnel grand opening!
Once I find the opening and get past the plug, I try to clean it out and open it up using a stick, so I don’t get human scent all over the opening… also I don’t want an angry gopher biting my fingers… they are vicious little animals with HUGE yellow ugly and scary teeth!
At this point you set the trap, and then press it hard against the sheer wall created by the shovel… you then cover the joining of trap and soil with more soil to exclude ALL light except for the tiny hole open at the end to lure the animal to investigate.
The main tunnels will give better success… but they can be so deep that they require a larger hole, destroying more plants… for now… I want to just stop THIS gopher from eating onions. I’m not on a warpath to eliminate all gophers… just the ‘problem animals’ that are causing us verifiable damage.
we had to destroy the onion patch in order to save it
During my digging to find the hole, I had to dig up a couple of neighboring onions…. I used to try to save plants by not removing them… sometimes that meant I did not place the trap as I did not want to destroy plants… but the gophers would eat them later anyway…. so I’ve learnt to just destroy anything I need to to kill them when I get one I can trap. Mostly though, I am sure the snakes, cats, bobcatrs, foxes, owls and hawks kill hundreds of times more than I kill…. I only bother with the ones that are in something I don’t want them to eat…. like food and cash crops. They can eat the landscape plantings and such…. that doesn’t cost us money or food….
trap set and baited
I use these new-fangled box traps…
If the animal has been predating on crops… I like to place something he’s easten by the trap opening…. this will hopefully be an irresistable lure… make sure you cover all light from enetering except for the tiny opening at the end, by the onion. The idea is the gopher will want to plug the opening, and will go the the light to plug it from there….. if there is any light near the entrance to the trap (where I have it covered) they will plug the tunnel from that point…. that will just plug the trap, not trap the gopher.
onions removed in order to set the trap
Here’s a couple of the onions I pulled when I set the trap… if I didn’t take them out to set the trap, the gopher will likely eat them soon anyway…. this way I get them.
we have moles also.. but they don’t eat crops, and their little tunnels don’t bother the plants… so I don’t worrry about them….
an onion half pulled down
Unfortunately the gopher plugged that trap (happens to me perhaps 1/3 of the time)…. and the next day he ate this onion… so I dug it out and placed the trap there…. then he plugged that one, and ate another onion.. and another….. each time I rest the trap in another onion hole….. day after day.. then after about five days… I finally got one of the most wily gophers I’ve had troubles with… if it was indeed the ‘problem gopher’..
half an onion
Yeah, gophers…. he ate a few onions of this size.. and a couple smaller ones…..
One of the days that I was trying to get him… I heard him chewing on an onion in the morning…. he was underground.. but I grabbed a shovel and plunged it into the ground around the onion… but still missed him… they can back through a tunnel as quickly as they can go forwards…. a most amazing and specialized animal.
After posting this, a new product was brought to my attention… and I think I will give it a try.
Tobacco is an interesting plant. It has a long history of use in the Americas, where many tribes had varieties adapted to their area and passed down for millenia. Tobacco only takes a few years of pollinating in a new area before it has substantially changed its characteristics. This means that any people taking seeds to a new area, will have what is essentially a new variety better suited to the local area in just a few decades, even less.
tiny tobacco seeds
Tobacco seeds are tiny. Here are some on my finger.
Sow them into decent but very fine soil in a pot.. water it well, and after it has drained, press the soil down to make it very flat… make sure it has settled well, and the excess water drained… so let it sit for an hour or even overnight….
dip your finger into the seed pack and get some seeds on your finger like this… and gentle rub finger and thumb together to drop some fifty seeds into a pot. You can’t space these things.. they’re too small. You don’t want to cover them… just gently press the soil down to make sure they have good soil contact, cover the pot with a clear plastic or glass lid, or a plastic wrap to keep humidity up.
Spray it with a misting hand-sprayer every couple of days. Open the plastic cover to let them breath for a short time a few times daily. You want to keep the soil surface moist, and the humidity inside a bit high by covering it.. but you don’t want it to stay so muggy without relief that molds start to grow. This again brings up the importance of using a good commercial soil and seed starting mix.
tiny tobacco seeds
It can take a week or two to germinate. Keep them a bit moist, let them air-dry daily….
The photo below shows some tobacco seedlings eight days after the seeds were planted….
tobacco seeds sprouting
This is the surface of a three by three by three inch pot. the plants will spend a couple of weeks in here before being separated into individual pots to grow another few weeks outdoors in carefully controlled conditions before being transplanted into the garden. For the first six weeks they need to be coddled….. they are not hard to keep up… but they do have to be given a certain amount of moisture, humidity,soft sunlight… at this stage, growing them for weeks in a tiny pot that takes only nine square inches makes it easy to give them attention. In a few weeks, they wil be planted into quart size planting pots…. that will take more space… so they’ll go outside at that time to rest under the oak trees on a table.. up off the ground.. in a light shade that will give them light and allow them to grow, but keep them from roasting in the sun while in pots.
close-up of tobacco seeds sprouting
Here is an extreme close-up of sprouting tobacco seeds.
Notice the white cushiony things… they are perlite used to make a soil mix more open, aerated and well draining.
The surface of the soil is wet with moisture… we’d just sprayed this soil.. but you can see how the film of water is adhered to the soil by capillary action.
Examine the tiny seeds with sprouts exposed… they are sitting on the soil, not in it.. they need light to germinate… so keep them under a light source. A heating mat will help them germinate better due to higher soil temps.The photos above were taken eight days after sowing the seeds.
We got the seeds from seedman.com and found them to be very prompt, selling what they advertise, and with high germination rates. They also have a large selection of medicinal herb seeds..
Lettuce is one of the best home crops for the family garden. Lettuce can be hard to get fresh at times, and the price may be high, but lettuce can be grown in many conditions. Even unprotected it can take cold down to the low thirties. It can grow well in cool temperatures, even in snow conditions if in cold frames.
The best way to get them started is indoors.. this will allow you to get them off to a good start. It will help keep the seeds warmer to sprout quickly… a set of lights can be kept on them until they have been up for a couple of days, at that time I take them outdoors daily, to sit in the sunshine or breezy conditions. The idea here is to give them some sunshine so they will grow quickly… but when it’s dark or cold outside, have them under lights indoors so they will grow quickly and be strong.
Start with quality seeds, and don’t store them more than a couple of years…. once germination gets spotty as they age, it becomes sad to see just a few weak plants…. a healthy seedling needs to set out a root quickly and be able to help the leaves spread, taking in nutrients and converting them to energy. A healthy strong root is a good beginning to a healthy strong plant that will grow quickly rewarding you greatly for your time in growing them.
Use a good high-quality potting or seedling mix. I use our own home made compost made from cactus. I’ve not found anything that grows seedlings like it will… but it has weed seeds in it…. the scientists would say to sterilize it to kill pathogens and weeds.. yet I think that would also kill the good critters in the soil that make our soil so healthy….. so I start with the knowing that I WILL have weeds… so I encourage you.. most folks are better off paying a bit for a bag of seedling mix…
I like to start with a single small pot. This allows me to use the least amount of space under the lights… for the first week or so, they will take hardly any space.. . fill the pot to near the rim and press it down, add water, letting the entire soil-mix get a good amount of water. When it is fairly well saturated, let it drain for a time, then press the mix down with your fingers.. firming it to remove all air pockets. Then I take the seeds and sprinkle 25 or 50 of them over the surface of the soil. I use a mix from Johnny’s Selected seeds that is a mix of four varieties of leaf lettuces. I then sprinkle a tiny bit of the soil mix over the top of the seeds.. you barely want any soil….. 1/4 inch or so… and it must like all the rest be nicely screened. Then cover the pot with plastic wrap or a saucer and set it in a warm spot for a few days. The photo below was taken eight days after the lettuce seeds were placed into the small square pot. Once they start getting their first true leaves, it is time to ‘prick’ them out and put them into individual containers. You can see there are green and red lettuces in the mix.. and two nettle seedlings among the lettuces, those came from the compost.
These seeds started sprouting and exposed themselves above the seed mix four days after being seeded. These first few photos are the seedlings 8 days after sowing… they now have their first true leaves…. but they are too close together to grow for long in this small pot. They cannot ever grow to maturity, and are prone to disease at this close of a spacing.. so we now need to transplant them into planting packs that will have individual planting cells.. this will make perfect spacing in the garden easy. The tray to the left has the new cells that the plants will be placed into. It is filled with the same compost we used in the planting block… our own screened compost.
8 days since-seeding lettuces, ready for transplant into new cells
To get the seedlings out, you invert the pot into your hand sliding the cube of soil out, and then you gently split it into two pieces.. lay one half aside and work on the one for now… never let the sunlight hit the roots if you can help it. Also, minimize root exposure to the open air.. the more air and sun they get, the more they can become injured. Never hold the stem of the plant nor the leaf stems. Hold the plants by a leaf.. this is a good handle, and your fingers will be able to more easily grip it without damaging it. While holding a leaf you can pry the soil from the roots.. and gently remove a plant from the cube of soil.
lettuce seedlings being separated for transplant
The photo below show a lettuce seedling being dropped into a hole drilled into a transplant cell using a pen. Let the root go in.. you will have to shake the plants sometimes…. maybe even push soil down pushing the roots down gently as you lower it. This photos shows how hard the healthy seed has worked to make a huge root… don’t hurt it. Firm the soil around the seedlings after you press them in.. and then water from below, just to make sure it’s all moist.
setting lettuce seedlings into individual growing cells
The photos below shows our light set-up. we’ve used the same tubes and fixtures for almost 20 years. They cost about $10 a set when we got them….. we had to replace a light bulb for the first time this year. We only use them for a few months in the winter/spring, and occasionally for a few weeks in the early fall (lettuce doesn’t like high heat for germination,so it works easier in the summer to germinate it indoors so it’s cooler.) From the time they germinated they were taken outdoors to sit int he sun every day… so they’ve been getting about 6 hours of good sunshine.. so this 18 hours of relatively weak light is adequate to make very good conditions.
lettuce seedlings under lights at night, outdoors in the daytime
))
