Sage Gardens

A post from a few months back showed these palm trees across the valley from the main house on an eerie October morning. Here they are again againsts a purple sky in an early winter sunset.

Taken December 28, 2005.

The palm trees look pretty spooky at sunrise on this foggy October morning.

Think they know Halloween is coming?

This summer a western pocket gopher started burrowing around one of my favorite apricot trees. Generally speaking, I have a “you leave me alone and I’ll leave you alone” policy regarding such varmits, so I didn’t do much about it. But after a week and a half or so this rodent had turned the ground around the tree’s roots into a moonscape.

Turns out he was also chewing the heck out of the apricot tree’s roots. Within a few weeks the thing had dropped nearly all its leaves (it drops its leaves in late October/early November, not mid-August), so I moved in and trapped the nasty little rodent with a black hole trap. (The thing was the size of a small badger - really!)

Unfortunately, it looks like it’s too late for the tree. It hasn’t recovered and most of the branches are now dead and drying.

I’ll have to chop it down and replace it. Terri’s been pushing me to plant avocado trees anyway…

Today is the first day of Autumn here in the Northern hemisphere. For me, it’s both a happy and sad time. Happy because I like Autumn’s cooler weather and the changes in sunlight and leaves. But sad because it also marks the ending of the spirng and summer growing season.

Everything in the vegetable garden is now looking weedy and shaggy. The herbs and native plants are spent. The lawn is worn out. And everything just looks tired in general.

Ah well…

Now’s a good time to take a look back on the year in general. Here is a slideshow tour of the gardens from March to September of 2005. Enjoy.

I posted a small photo tour of the gardens here at the homestead several years ago. It’s been one of the more popular pages for people interested in how we grow the herbs and botanticals for our homestead soaps, bath oils and teas. On a recent review, however, I realized that those photos were getting rather dated, and that some fresher pictures might be in order. It’s kind of fun to look at the changes between 2001 (when the original garden tour was posted) and 2005.

The Upper Garden

The biggest change between the 2001 photo and this one is the absence of the big gray wormwood that you can see in the upper left background of the old photo. After heavy rain in 2002 it got some sort of root rot and keeled over dead. (It was too big for the area anyway. )

I replaced it with a variety of sages and lavenders and a lemon verbena. I also built a small pond (not shown) and lined the walk with gravel to keep down the mud and weeds.

Lower Garden South

After several years the oregano in the old photo ended up pretty much taking over everything. I like Oregano, but not that much. Plus, this garden borders the road that greets our visitors and I didn’t really want them greeted by a giant green mound that might eat their car at any moment.

I ended up digging out the oregano and replacing it with several flowering herbs - santolina, cleveland sage, french and spanish lavenders, and even a chocolate mint scented geranium. It’s a much nicer combination of plants that’s well-suited for our dry climate and offers a showy display of flowers in the spring and plenty of herbs to harvest for soaps and bath teas in the summer and fall.

Lower Garden North

A couple of years ago I removed 5 older navel orange trees and expanded the lower garden to include a combination of vegetables and herbs. The honey rose sage is now at the south end of the garden near that big spiky, blue agave you see in the background. The Spanish lavender has since died out (not to worry - there’s plenty more in the lavender beds). In this photo you’re looking at the path down the center of the garden. That’s culinary sage (saliva officianalis) edging the path on the right, and a very happy mound of chocolate-scented geranium on the left. Beyond this, from left to right you’ll see corn, squash and tomatoes growing in the sun.

Duck Patrol Pest Control

Yup, we’ve still got ducks. It’s the best way I’ve found to keep smails, slugs, and other bugs in check (and unlike chickens, ducks won’t eat your plants. Stomp on them with the big duck feet, yes; eat them, no.) All of these in the pic are descendants of the ducks in the older photo. In fact, the two ducks on the left and the white one on the right are the duckings of the big black one in the middle (who we have named “black duck”). This photo was taken in September of `05. Here they are 3 months ago.

Lavender Garden

The lavender garden has changed a bit. Back in the old photo spanish and french lavender grew together, but it was mostly french lavender that you saw blooming. As time has gone on, however, the spanish lavender has taken over - probably because it likes the dry, hot location better than the french does. The spanish lavender is every bit as fragrant as the french, but you’ll notice that the blossom is considerably more blue.

Chickens

We still keep a rather colorful flock of hens running around the lower orchards and the goat pen. They’re great for keeping bugs and rodents in check, plus they provide fresh egss daily. These ladies are looking at me to see if I have any food. Sorry girls. It’s just a camera.

Fruit Smoothies

This section is unchanged. Still have citrus (tangerines on the left, grapefruit on the right, and mandarine oranges behind it) and bananas growing. The fence around the bananas came down last year and the chickens like to get in there and eat the new banana shoots, so there’s not as many as in the past, but they’re still going strong. Looking at this photo I can see that I need to trim the tangerine back too. By the time all that fruit is ripe in the winter tha limb will be hanging in the path.

A New Deck

As the business expanded I was forced to replace the mint garden with a new storage building for the dried herbs and soap-making equipment. (The mint moved down to the expanded lower garden) After I built it I decided that I didn’t like the view from the north gate down to a big storage building. So I re-built the back deck to include a seating area with a barbeque and bar. Now that the plants have grown in, it’s such a nice place to sit and entertain that you hardly notice the storage building.

The North Gate

The North Gate is unchanged. Kiwis still grow over the top, framing a view of the Hydrangia at the end of the path. To the left you’ll see the the Rose Gate (which now leads to the storage building). You can also see the new deck peeking out on the upper left. Looking at this photo (taken September 9th of 2005), it’s pretty obvious that everything needs a good trim. As soon as the leaves fall from the kiwi, they’ll get it.

Through the North Gate

From the other side of the North Gate you can now see how big the kiwi is. You’ll also notice that the deck has replaced the mint and geranium beds that used to be there. Before I rebuilt the deck it used to have a cover attached to the house. It was nothing but a problem (rain runoff, termites, etc.), so I tore it off and left it open. Now there’s a big leafy cherimoya (upper right) and a market umbrella to provide shade. Better yet, this deck is west facing, so in the winter, when the cherimoya has lost its leaves, we get a lot more sun and warmth back there.

Main Patio

Rounding the corner from the North Gate you enter the main patio area just beyond the upper garden. In the front you see my delightfully over-sized (cook enought to feed 10 people) char-griller barbeque (wood and charcoal only - no gas for me!). Off to the left you can see one of the chairs at the patio dining area poking into the picture. Beyond directly in the middle is the pond I mentioned with the first photo. To the right of that is the path in the first photo leading you through the upper garden to the steps to the lower garden.

I originally posted this recipe on our website back in 1997. Since that time it’s been accessed more than 750,000 times, which tells me that it’s a fairly popular page. I use this recipe around the homestead all the time and it works great — as good as just about any insectide, but without all the nasty side effects — If you haven’t tried it, you might want to.

Get Rid of garden pests naturally with this recipe for environmentally-friendly insecticidal soap

Here’s a quick, easy and non-toxic way to put an end to nasty pests like aphids, white flies, mealy bugs, and other soft-bodied insects that infest your plants year-round. Using a little soap, vegetable oil and water, you can make and organic soap spray that controls pests on all types of indoor and outdoor plants without harsh or toxic chemicals.

To prepare this soap spray you’ll need the following ingredients:

• Pure, white soap
  Use our Original Oatmeal Soap or a store brand like Ivory. Make sure the soap has no dyes or fragrances since they can damage plant foliage. Also DO NOT use detergents such as liquid dish soap. Unlike soap which is organic, detergents are chemical cleaners and are toxic to most plants.
• Light Vegetable Oil
  Canola, corn, and safflower are all good examples of a light vegetable oil. It’s important to make sure that it’s a light vegetable oil, and not a heavy one such as peanut to ensure that the oil evaporates from the plant’s leaves before they’re smothered.
• Water
  Plain old tap water will do just fine.
• Spray Bottle or Garden Sprayer
  To apply the soap spray.

Making the soap spray

Drop the bar of white soap into a container such as a small bowl and add two cups of water. Allow the soap to sit in the water overnight or until enough of the soap has dissolved to make the water white and cloudy.

Once enough soap has dissolved, remove the soap bar from the water and pour the soap solution into your spray bottle or garden sprayer. Add 1/4 cup of vegetable oil, seal the sprayer and shake well.

Application

You can use the soap spray on all types of indoor or outdoor plants, including vegetables. Spray the infested plant well enough to thoroughly wet the leaf, making sure to get both the top and the bottom.
For light infestations a single application should be enough. For heavier infestations (especially on outdoor plants and trees), apply the soap spray every day for three days. Then once a week to control re-infestations.

How does the soap spray work?

Soft-bodied insects such as aphids breath through openings in the sides of their body. Pure white soap contains large molecules of fatty acids and glycerin that will clog those openings and essentially suffocate the pest. The vegetable oil is used as a sticking agent that allows more of the spray to stay on the leaf without dripping off. The soap spray that does drip off decomposes in the soil without affecting the plant. The spray that remains on the leaf evaporates after a day or two.

Super strength spray

For tougher insects such as cucumber beetles, Colorado beetles, various caterpillars, and similar pests, you can make a super-strength version of this spray by adding ground hot chili peppers. The heat of the peppers repels most chewing insects. (Note, however, that this spray can burn the leaves of some tender plants. Make sure to test it on a small area before dousing the entire plant.)