mpc blog

Presidents Day

2012-02-19T23:19:00.027-08:00

Lots of growth is taking place in the raised beds at CACG. We have seedlings of Turnips, Mustard and Sesame pushing through the soil surface. The Lettuce we transplanted out from the greenhouse two weeks ago has taken very well. In this photo Brenna is helping her Dad, Jim, to transplant out the Broccoli that she and her Mom Karen planted in greenhouse trays

We are needing to water once a week in this dry winter.

Other earlier transplants of kale and Swiss Chard are just about making it ... but would really love some rain!

We purchased some Yakina Savoy plants from Berkeley Hort. in January. New to us this tasty, leafy green is also known as Chinese Cabbage and appears to be very versatile The plants are not marked at this very moment but will be soon. You are invited to try one of their very tender young leaves raw, it's a very tasty surprise. I do notice that about half of the 8 or so plants have attempted to bolt already. This could be as a result of the dry weather. We will see how they fit into our permaculture garden.
We have a variety of starts in the greenhouse. Please step in and take a look. If some of the plants appear to be dry please water them ... and hopefully there will be water in the two watering cans to do this!

We have just about given up on trying to stake the two rows of Snap Peas. The soil is so hard and it is necessary to make a hole with a metal stake for each stick. Giving the vines a chance to climb might increase the flowering potential and therefore the yield of peas. We should still get a lot of peas with the vines on the ground. We are finding more edible peas each week as the days become longer and warmer.

Colin by the Fava Beans

Right next to the Snap Peas and closer to the street we have two rows of Fava beans. Possibly because of the dry weather they are becoming increasingly infested with aphids commonly called Black Fly or Aphis fabae. Usually autumn planted Favas do not have this problem as much as the late winter planted crop. This year is a little different. The Black Fly are sucking the sap and therefore reducing the vitality and yield. We do have a strong Lady Bug presence so rather than use soap spray or vigorous washing of the leaves we are going to try the age old method of pinching out the top two inches of the flowering head. This is where the aphids particularly like to situate themselves. As long as there are some flowers we will still have beans.

We have planted Potato Tower # two with unspecified, but organic, Red Potato seed plus a few unknown whites. This could also read: Two refrigerators were cleaned out at a time when our order of certified seed potatoes from Peaceful Valley had not yet arrived ...

We also planted a bare root Flame seedless grape vine on the right side of the white entrance arch.
A Black Monukka grape was planted on the left side last week.

Tyler, Angelina and Renee at the planting of a grape vine

We are harvesting Carrots, Lettuce, Mustard greens, Swiss Chard and a lot of Kale. There are still a few Sunchokes still in the ground. They will be starting to sprout soon so this is about the last chance to harvest tasty tubers.

Teresa harvesting Curly Kale leaves. The yellow flowers are Calendulas

MPC Update

Exceptionally little rain at MPC this winter. In January we recorded 3 inches, an average would be about 4.25 inches. So far this month we have recorded only 0.5 inches.
We have 300 gals stored in one rainwater tank, and have already begun using it to water plants. Another couple of tanks are about to be connected to a downspout. More on that soon.

About 12 of us enjoyed the Movie Night on Feb. 17th. There was a lively and informative discussion after the main screening plus 3 short video extras. Thank you to all who attended. The next Movie Night will be on March 23rd, more details soon.

Our 7 hens are laying between 2 and 4 eggs per day, and we are very grateful. Thank you Girls :>

Teresa Bottling Honey

We harvested 12 lbs of honey from the Juniper Bees after the bees left the hive earlier this month.

This is a 6 gal. food grade PVC bucket with a "Honey Gate"

As the bees become more active it is advisable to check on the hives. This is to make sure that they have enough space to develop a larger brood area as the season progresses. Often switching the two lower boxes at this time gives them the feeling of more spacious accommodation and lessens the urge to swarm.
Here David is checking hives at the Silver Springs Ranch in the Alhambra Valley.

In the community

This might be of interest.

Wednesday, February 22, 7-9pm: Learn about edible wild plants of the San Francisco Bay Area. Kevin Feinstein,

co-author of the new book,

The Bay Area Forager, will speak about local foraging and share stories of writing the

book. Kevin is a Bay Area writer, teacher, and researcher of plants, food, sustainability, and natural health. He is

the founder of the Foraging Society (foragingsociety.org) and maintains a website on foraging-related topics,

(feralkevin.com). The talk will be followed by Q&A and book signing. Kevin will bring roasted bay nut samples for

attendees. The event is free, at the Ecology Center Store, 2530 San Pablo Av, Berkeley. Info: (510) 548-3402,

store@ecologycenter.org.

Saturday, March 10 , noon-4pm : Eco-SF “work

Also, a little closer to home, at Heather Farms Park in Walnut Creek this speaker series sounds interesting.

Finally a big Thank You to so many of you for playing a part in building this more resilient, sustainable Permaculture Community.

David

Early February

2012-02-08T10:37:00.000-08:00

A small group of CACG participants went on a field trip to the California Rare Fruit Growers (CRFG) Scion Exchange in Oakland on January 21st. We took Sun Choke tubers from CACG and came away with various fruit tree scions.

Emily and Jaunita visiting the garden

CACG receives a See Saw

Lilly supervising her adults at play

Many thanks to Rebecca for donatiing a see saw to the garden. It is such a well constructed and robust item and is receiving lots of attention. It is clearly doing its part in building community.

Thank you Rebecca for your generosity.

Thanks also to Ron for donationg the 1/2 wine barrel that is now home to the Spearmint plant closest to Center Ave. This rambunctious mint did really well in its first year. The bees loved it! Like all mints it wants to spread and the barrel will keep it contained.

We are harvesting:
Lettuce, Kale, White Turnips and Carrots. Many of the harvestable carrots are the Solar Yellow variety which were grown from our own seed saved last summer and planted in September.
The flow of Snap Peas has stopped because the sharp frosts of mid January halted the flowering. I do notice a few flowers this week so we will be enjoying the deliciously sweet pods again soon. We have still not staked the peas because the ground has been so hard. Tuesdays Rain is much welcomed by the garden.

Ron and Renee transplanting out Lettuce from the greenhouse

Last week we transplanted Romane Lettuce from the greenhouse. The variety is Rouge d' Hiver.
We also sowed seeds for White Turnip, Mustard Greens and Scarlet Nantes Carrot in the raised beds plus various other seeds in the greenhouse.

Ron, Jennifer and Mike with the completed tower

Building Potato Tower #1

We have planted our first Potato Tower with Yukon Gold seed Potatoes. The wire mesh frame is recycled from a pallet of rock. The straw lining helps to keep the soil contained.

At MPC this week

David cleaned and adjusted the mulch basins on the laundry to landscape greywater system. If there are no problems evident then this is an annual check up.

Our seven hens are providing us with 1-3 eggs per day.

The Chimney Bees, and now the Juniper Bees, have left home.Gone! No dead bees remaining. Plenty of honey and pollen stored but no sign of brood. Part of the honey was harvested and the rest given to another top bar hive that could use a boost in food supply. Meanwhile the hives known as The Kitchen Bees, The Spa Bees and Queen Jaci are all doing very well. The Eucalyptus, Flowering Pear and Almond trees are flowering now. I do notice that many bees are taking a drink in the garden, I've actually set water out for them. Bees need water in February more than ever to dilute the stored honey supplies. The growing population relies on last years reserves and the cold weather make the honey thick.
The fruit trees have been pruned. Grafts added to the established apple trees this year were Elstar and Cox's Orange Pippin. We also found space for one more bare root apple tree, a Ashmead's Kernel, which is an old English russet variety. We also planted stem cuttings of Black Monukka and Pierce table grapes.

Happy Valentine's Day to you all.

The New Year 2012

2012-01-14T23:04:00.000-08:00

CACG has been in existence for 18 months now. We have come a long way from the vacant lot of June 2010 when we began.

Day 1 Our first load of tree chips arrived on June 29th 2010

This is the garden today . . .

Mid January Carrot harvesters. David's Daughter Sam on the right.

Our vision for the future is more of the same in the lower section where we are growing the food in raised beds.

This spring we will add some potato towers and a section close to the green house for growing corn, beans and squash in ground.
We may be able to create the Huglekultur bed with the help of some school children if the project is approved with the school administration and time allows. What is Huglekulture?

We will also be starting the Herb Spiral and Edible Weeds plantings.

We are going to grow Scarlet Runner Beans on the, not quite finished yet, mulberry arch at the the Flame and Center Ave. corner.

At some time in the unspecified future....
- For the upper part of the lot we have in mind a gathering space. A 45 foot circular area surrounded by fruit trees that would be ideal for music, yoga, picnics and meetings.
- A natives area.
- An open air classroom.
- Mushroom growing.
- A solar oven.
- A gazebo made of rustic lumber in the middle of the garden.
- Some demonstration of rainwater harvesting.

Teresa carrying a typical selection of
trimmings to the compost pile

On January 14th we weeded the beds and removed grass and frosted plant material. Actually there has not been much damage from the nightly frosts over these past few weeks. We water occasionally when the soil gets really dry and that helps reduce stress on the plants when the frost hits.
There are some aphids on the Swiss Chard and the Fava beans. Last year we had an abundance of Ladybugs feasting on them. Not so many this year but I did notice a very small bird that I believe to be a Bush Tit working its way through the row of Fava beans picking off aphids.

Winter evenings are ideal for gathering around the fire to engage in some community building activity. Last night we screened the movie "Greenhorns" at MPC. Ten people attended and we enjoyed a wonderful discussion afterwards. In our minds the movie comes second to the act of getting like minds together to support, educate and enthuse each other.

We could have made it a Seed Saving Party ... another great opportunity to gather and talk. Well we did that this morning. In the luxury of a warm January sun we sat at a table in CACG and winnowed seeds that we harvested last year.

Karen, Brenna and Ron removing kale seed from
dry seed pods. The whole seeding heads were
cut and dried last August and stored in a bag.

We chatted and in a very pleasant, humble and collaborative way began the whole cycle of life again. Some seed trays were placed in the green house. These kale starts will be ready to plant out around the end of February. We also have trays of Lettuce, Broccoli and Swiss Chard starts growing in the green house.

At the end of December we asked a question at the notice board. We asked "What are you grateful for in 2011" These are the answers we received.

Now we have a posting that asks "What are you hopeful for in 2012?"
Perhaps you have something to write there.

As you must surely have noticed, it has been so dry this winter! One of the consequences is that we have had difficulty in staking our snap peas. It is really hard to get the sticks deep enough in the soil to provide sufficient support for the pea vines when fully grown. We tried making holes with a hammer and forming stake. That was just toooo much work for Permaculture minded folks. Some rain would help to soften the soil. Rain is what we were expecting when we gave up trying to stake them over a month ago. This photo tells the story.

On January 21st we are taking a Field Trip from the garden to visit the CRFG Scion Exchange in Oakland. The carpool will leave CACG promptly at 11am.

The next full work day in the garden will be January 28th.

At MPC:
On February 17th we are screening the movie "The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil"
Not a new movie but very relevant to the mission of MPC and CACG. We think you will find it inspiring. Thank you Ron for loaning it to us.

In the past month we have lost 2 bee hives at MPC. This was not such a surprise as they were both weak hives. Before all the publicity about bee ailments and Colony Collapse Disorder it has always been normal for some colonies not to make it through the winter. Both failed hives had supplies of honey. I harvested honey from one hive to crush and strain for human consumption. Thank you bees. The honey from the other hive was donated to another small colony in Pleasant Hill. This hive originated from a very late swarm and, while very active now, has limited supplies and a comparatively low number of bees. Extra honey, their natural food, will help them build their brood numbers in this unusual weather pattern which might produce a late, wet winter. I prefer not to feed sugar water.

Well that's it for now.

Thank you for visiting this blog.

Peace,

David

Winter Solstace

2012-01-01T19:32:00.000-08:00

Karen removing the remains of the super producing Sun Gold Tomato

The frost in mid December finished off the Squash, Tomatoes and Basil. Even the Tomato plants we hoped to over winter in the green house died. Now the good news is that we have plenty of greens, Kale, Collards, Mustard and Turnip tops, and the frost has made a huge difference to the flavor. The cold weather has enhanced the taste dramatically and I invite you to try some of these delicious greens. You might try steaming them or sauteing with garlic and/or onions and your favorite oil. The Lettuce came through the frost quite well, the reddish leaved Lettuce is named "Rouge D' Hiver".
There is also Onion leaves and Swiss Chard to harvest.

NEW POSTS ON THE CORNER

Terry drills a 2" hole in the 6' long Redwood log

We have been working on the entrance at the corner of Center Ave. and Flame Drive. The plan is to create two rustic gate posts with an arch to grow beans on.

Kent drives in a length of steel pipe. 20" into the log with 26" to go in the the concrete pier.

We tried not to use concrete but the consensus was that it was necessary in this case.

Terry's tractor was doing the lifting. All this happened on December 10th 2011

A funny twist to the day was that we dug these holes more than six months ago and covered them with tree rounds. Upon removing the tree rounds we discovered that gophers had used the two empty below ground spaces as repositories for their tunneling activities. Read: the holes were filled in again.

The scene late in the day with the concrete poured and the posts braced

David attaching the recycled split rail redwood fence one week later.

Kiel tying off mulberry limbs

On New Year's Eve we began constructing the arch behind the posts. Thanks to Kiel, Jennifer and Mike, Ron and Donna for their help. Hopefully we will make it look attractive with runner beans growing on the structure next summer.

IN THREE WEEKS ...

We, the Martinez Permaculture Center, have been invited to attend the local Golden Gate Chapter California Rare Fruit Growers (CRFG) Fruit Wood Scion Exchange, their biggest event of the year. They would like the California Rare Fruit Growers community, and the general fruit loving public, to become more acquainted with community food programs and food for justice activities.

More details here

http://www.crfg.org/chapters/golden_gate/scionex.htm

If someone would like to represent us at this event please let me know at davidmudgegardens@yahoo.com

We are also thinking of making this a car pooling Field Trip from CACG. Again if you are interested please let me know.

AT MPC

We lost Sadie our almost 3 year old hen in December. She had stopped laying and appeared under the weather for a couple of weeks. Her laying pattern was erratic with very thin shelled eggs that were most often broken. We feel it was her time. Thank you Sadie. Now we have 7 hens. Laying is naturally diminished in the winter and will step up with the increasing day length. We currently find 2 to 4 eggs per day, always in the nest box. Thank you Girls.
The bees are less active at this time of year. However our strongest hives (those with the greater number of bees) are sending out many foragers in the middle part of the day. The weaker hives need the bodies at home to keep the brood warm. This is a testing time for the weaker colonies. Those with low bee numbers and smaller supplies of honey may not survive the length of winter and the dearth of incoming food supply. We have one such hive that is marginal. We do not use chemical treatments and we try not to feed our bees. One course of action is to combine two colonies. I will take a look inside the hive one of these warmer days and report back.
Not much point in bragging about how much water we have harvested in our rainwater tank during this unusually dry season. But we are still committed to the concept!

Have a bright and joyful celebration of the New Year.

CACG Update Early December

2011-12-07T20:38:00.000-08:00

Wishing you peace and joy in your Hearts at this winding down time of the year. In order to create health and healing by focusing on the positive (And do we truly know what is 'Positive"?) we have posted a sheet on the community notice board at the garden. It reads: 2011 What are you grateful for? It is our hope that passers by will be able to write in something that they are grateful for. Around the end of the month we plan to set up a sheet that invites hopes, wishes and prayers for the New Year. Right now we invite you to tell everyone what you are grateful for. You might also post that comment in the
comment box below.

The Green house suffered a couple of plastic windows being ripped off in the strong winds last week. Happily our Garden Friend Kent was able to reinstall them. In the green house we have 2 Tomato plants in ground. Also starts of Lettuce, Peas and Fava beans. The Lettuce might need to stay in the warmth of the green house as protection from the frosts to come. The Fava beans and Snap Peas are for replacement plants in the rows outside ... or to give away.

We have harvested a few Snap Peas from the early September planting. The bulk of the crop will become available later in the winter and into spring.

White Trunips

We have also just harvested Potatoes, Sunchokes, Lettuce, Carrots, Swiss Chard, Collards, 3 different types of Kale, Turnips and a few late Squash.
There are some Sun Gold Tomatoes, and you might be lucky, but personally I think the flavor of December Tomatoes is often a disappointment (there, another opportunity to live in gratitude without rigid expectations, and we do have a lot of fine fare to be harvested even now so close to the Solstice).

That is one myth that we are dissolving. The idea that there is nothing to be gained from a garden in winter. For the second winter season we have demonstrated there is a lot of healthy fresh food to be harvested in this region.

Along with that is the other myth that there is nothing to be done in the garden through the winter months. Most recently we have been:
Harvesting.
Building and turning the compost.
Weeding and removing old plants such as Squash, Corn, Beans, Sesame and very old kale.
Staking Peas and Beans.
Planting in the green house.
Building the Edible Weeds bed.
Wattle making.

There are still some Sunchokes to be harvested.

So on Saturday don't go to the Mall ...

Come visit us in the
Center Avenue Community Garden

Merry Christmas,

David

Center Avenue Community Garden Update: November 12th 2011

2011-11-13T21:46:00.000-08:00

The new Fruitless Mulberry, or Morus alba (white mulberry) trimmings have begun to arrive. This means that we can start weaving wattle panels with the fresh, supple new crop. Willow would be ideal yet the locally available crop is Mulberry. Take a look at these beautiful images on Yahoo's Wattle Image Page.

We have thinned some of the row plantings of chard and brassica crops planted back in August. The transplants have been used to fill in after removing Sesame, Tomato, and squash plants. The recent rain and cooler daytime temperatures give the young starts a very good chance of success.

We also removed the section of fence boards on the corner of Center Avenue and Flame Drive. This panel was originally positioned to give us a visual to help with the planning of an official looking Garden Gate. It also acted as a marker for the alignment of the rustic fences.

The Grand Entrance has yet to evolve, and it will be a Faux Entrance anyway as for most pedestrians entering or exiting the garden area. Not greatly practical, yet an opportunity to create identity and make a beautiful statement on the corner. The plan is for this portal to anchor one end of a diagonal pathway that connects this corner to the white arch at the parking lot end of the garden.

Next Saturday we plan to position two 6 foot redwood logs as gate posts. Passers by will then be able to look into the Lobby area of the garden. The first thing they will see beyond the gate posts is the newly constructed Herb Spiral.

Sunchoke Harvest 2011:
Jerusalem Artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus), also known as Sunroot, is part of the Sunflower family.
More information and useful links can be found at Wikipedia's Jerusalem Artichoke page.

We lifted a few more Sunchoke tubers on Saturday. Next Saturday November 19th we will be lifting more to share amongst the community and with the Food Bank through the current Cub Scouts Food Drive.

Sunchokes growing in one of our raised beds in September.

First Sunchokes harvested this year. Looks like a good crop!

Typical clump of tubers under one stalk.

What do you do with a Sunchoke?

They can be eaten raw after cleaning. It is not neccessary to remove the skin. They can also be stir fried or steamed as a root vegetable.

They are best eaten fresh and will keep in the soil until about late January.

They can also be stored in buckets of soil in the garden shed or some cool spot.

They only last about a week in the refridgerator before becoming flacid.

As a perennial (comes back every year) vegetable they are low maintaince. You can just leave a couple of tubers in the ground when harvesting and so plant your crop for next year. As the soil warms in late winter the tuber buds begin to break open and the cycle begins again. Because the new leaves do not break through the soil until April I find it useful to mark the places where tubers are lying dormant least I forget their location and plant over them.

Hope you get a chance to visit CACG this week. We would be delighted to see you next Saturday if your schedule allows.

Center Avenue Community Garden Update: October, 15 and 22, 2011

2011-11-06T20:45:00.000-08:00

October 15th, we built an Herb Spiral in what I call the Lobby area of CACG. The various sized tree rounds are circled to form a mound that by next year will be a mound of medicinal and culinary herbs. The filling is horse manure and tree chips with a little soil on top. A layer of cardboard separates weeds below from this new growing medium above. We have not planted any herbs here yet. Probably better to wait for the mixture to settle and a little rain would most certainly help to break it down into beautiful soil.

Playing by the completed Herb Spiral on another day.

There are actually several herbs already growing around the garden’s perimeter. There you will find Rosemary, Lavender, Oregano and Sage. In the raised beds you will see Basil, Comfrey and Spearmint.

We also planted out some Broccoli starts from 6 packs, the usual weeding, and deadheading.

We are currently harvesting: Collards, 3 types of Kale, Spring Onions, Cucumbers, Peppers, Tomatoes, Eggplant, Swiss Chard, Carrots, Squash and Pumpkins. Actually we would have liked to keep the pumpkins as decorations for Halloween, but they disappeared! We would better have put up a Please Leave sign, given that we had so few. No worries. Next year there will be an in-ground planting and many more pumpkins to share with the community.

The re-purposed white arch that was originally a feature at the JFK University Garden in Pleasant Hill was securely anchored at the parking lot end of the garden. It will form the official entrance from the First Baptist Church’s parking lot direction. There will be a diagonal path dissecting the entire CACG area and leading to the almost faux entrance at the intersection of Flame Drive and Center Avenue. This is designed to give ease of accessibility and an open invitation to newcomers exploring the many components of the garden. We want these entrances to say Welcome and Come on in and look around, sit for a while.

Just a Note: the white dimensional lumber appearance of the arch might draw a raised eyebrow from Permaculture purists . . . perhaps not the first choice of a low carbon footprint system. However, it was free and only one day away from a dumpster when rescued. Also we need to constantly be aware of the generosity of the First Baptist Church of Pacheco in loaning us the land. In this we need to graciously transition from the mainstream architecture of the church property to the more earthy features of our garden. The plan is to adorn (or engulf) the arch and the picket fence (requested by the church) with grapes and kiwi fruit.