Calendula Tincture and Urban Gardens

All of the calendula seeds that Jen planted in June are in full flower. The bright orange blossoms which we use to make Calendula Tincture (Calendula Officinalis) are so pretty that I hate to pick them, but doing so keeps the plant in bloom.

Calendula (Calendula Officinalis) in our garden.

A calendula-on-the-brain google search led me to this interesting New York Times article about a woman who levered up concrete in Brooklyn and transformed ugly space beneath her fire escape into a thriving beautiful garden. – Tree

From the article:

She started planting without knowing a thing about gardening. She just wanted to create a space, literally, among the crack needles and excrement left each evening beneath her fire escape.

So she began with easy, fast-growing annuals that wouldn’t tempt light-fingered passers-by the way a rose or a lily might. She followed no how-to guide, no step-by-step manual. This kind of gardening springs more from an attitude, and shows what city people can do just by taking on an ugly, scary space and seeing the beauty beneath. It’s the first lesson of gardening: Let go of preconceived notions and simply interact with the space.

Read the rest of the article here.

Our Food Forest In Progress

Here are before and after shots of our backyard and casita.

Backyard and Casita - July 2009

Backyard and Casita - April 2008

Blackened String Beans

This year I planted a bunch of pole and bush beans throughout our gardens. So far we’ve harvested about 5 pounds of beautiful crisp green beans. A few nights ago we made blackened string beans with a mustard remoulade dipping sauce using Ric Orlando’s recipe. Ric owns New World Home Cooking, a restaurant that we visited often when we lived in New York’s Hudson Valley. If you like hot and spicy, you’ll love these. They go great with crab cakes. -Tree

Blackened String Beans with Mustard Remoulade dipping sauce

Crab cakes made with scallions from our gardens.

We’ve been eating well at Sunstone

Another great meal from the pig Jen and I raised and butchered: Barbecued ribs marinated in ginger, honey, garlic and fish sauce; sauteed amaranth greens from our garden, and home-brewed beer. Talk about eating local.

We got the recipe for the ribs from the July issue of  Bon Appetit magazine. -Tree

We cooked the ribs 8 minutes on each side with the grill cover open, and then 8 minutes each side with it closed.

Barbecued ribs, amaranth greens and home-brewed beer.

Today’s Garden Harvest

So far this year we’ve been blessed with an abundant garden. The apple and pear trees are loaded with fruit, the squash vines are gargantuan, the tomato plants bursting with delicious heirloom tomatoes. Here is a photo of some of today’s harvest which includes green beans, amaranth greens and chimayo chile (not pictured). – Jen

Jalapenos, Stupice tomatoes, Santa Fe Grande chiles, and New Mexico Green chiles

Garlic Harvest

Here are some photos are our first garlic harvest of the season. This is a softneck garlic variety called Inchelium Red. We purchased beautiful seed stock from Jesse Daves of Amyo Farms here in New Mexico and were rewarded with gorgeous large bulbs. Note the garlic leaves are quite brown. For braiding, it would have been better to harvest the garlic several weeks ago when there are at least four green leaves left, but life gets in the way, and the garlic is still delicious. It just won’t braid as nicely.

Next week we will start harvesting the hardneck garlic varieties from seed stock we brought from New York. We didn’t manage to save very much seed stock from last year since most of the garlic was covered with a dumptruck load of compost at the community farm where we were growing. We will keep all of our hardneck varieties for replanting this year. If you have room to plant garlic in your garden, buy your seed stock now at your local farmers’ market. Store it in a cool, dry place until late September or October (depending on your climate). Plant the individual cloves and enjoy your harvest the following June or July. Hardneck varieties are generally harvested later than the softneck. If you’re not sure which type you have, the hardneck will grow a scape with a bulbil at the top. The softneck won’t have the scape. – Jen

Jen hangs the garlic to cure under our front porch.

Free Workshop – Creating an Urban Food Forest

Creating an Urban Food Forest: March 22 , 12 - 4pm

Interested in urban homesteading? Permaculture garden design? Growing your own food?

Join Jen on Sunday, March 22 for a free hands-on workshop on creating a food forest at the Garden’s Edge plot at La Placita Gardens. Learn Permaculture garden design techniques while we create an abundant garden that you can replicate at home. This workshop will cover an overview of Permaculture, garden preparation and plant selection for creating a food forest and much more!

By learning from successful patterns found in nature, we can co-create healthy communities grounded in a sustainable land ethic. Don’t forget your hat, garden gloves if you have them and water.

• What: Creating an Urban Food Forest: Permaculture Techniques for the Home Garden
• Where: La Placita Gardens at the Historic Sanchez Farm, Albuquerque’s South Valley
• When: Sunday, March 22, 12pm-4pm
• Why: As part of the Aldo Leopold Centennial Celebration honoring Leopold’s legacy in New Mexico
• Who: Jen Prosser, Herbalist, urban farmer and owner of Sunstone Herbs
• Cost: Free

RSVP & Contact Info: Please RSVP by contacting Colleen Langan at calangan@bernco.gov or 505- 314 -0398

Garden’s Edge is a 501 (c)3 non-profit corporation that works in New Mexico and Guatemala to revitalize local culture and economy through projects in sustainable agriculture and environmental education.

La Placita Gardens is a community farm project of La Plazita Institute.

Directions: From I-25 South, exit at Cesar Chavez/Bridge Blvd and head west. Left on Isleta Blvd. Left on Lopez Drive. Right on Arenal. Enter the farm through the western gates.

Workshop: Creating an Urban Food Forest

Interested in urban homesteading? Permaculture garden design? Growing your own food?

Join Jen in March for a free hands-on workshop on creating a food forest at the Garden’s Edge plot at La Placita Gardens. Learn Permaculture garden design techniques while we create an abundant garden that you can replicate at home. This workshop will cover an overview of Permaculture, garden preparation and plant selection for creating a food forest and much more!

By learning from successful patterns found in nature, we can co-create healthy communities grounded in a sustainable land ethic. Don’t forget your hat, garden gloves if you have them and water.

• What: Creating an Urban Food Forest: Permaculture Techniques for the Home Garden
• Where: La Placita Gardens at the Historic Sanchez Farm, Albuquerque’s South Valley
• When: Sunday, March 22, 12pm-4pm
• Why: As part of the Aldo Leopold Centennial Celebration honoring Leopold’s legacy in New Mexico
• Who: Jen Prosser, Herbalist, urban farmer and owner of Sunstone Herbs
• Cost: Free

Garden’s Edge is a 501 (c)3 non-profit corporation that works in New Mexico and Guatemala to revitalize local culture and economy through projects in sustainable agriculture and environmental education.

La Placita Gardens is a community farm project of La Plazita Institute.

Directions: From I-25 South, exit at Cesar Chavez/Bridge Blvd and head west. Left on Isleta Blvd. Left on Lopez Drive. Right on Arenal. Enter the farm through the western gates.

RSVP & Contact Info: While reservations aren’t required, please RSVP so that we can be sure to have enough handouts for everyone.

Roadrunner Alert!

I was so excited to see roadrunners in our yard this summer. Our land is completely fenced, and I wasn’t sure if it would keep them out. Nope. They easily hop to the top of the field fencing. They are fun to watch catching bugs, but they won’t let me get close for a photo. I had to take this one from a window. -Jen

Meep meep!

Since this photo was taken, we dug up the grass, covered the lot in horse manure, planted lots of garlic and covered with straw and spent hay. We’ll harvest the garlic in July.

Tree mulching new garlic beds

All planted! Our plan is to replace all of the kentucky blue grass (which is a water hog and inappropriate for our climate) with edible and medicinal gardens.

Garden Sponges and Vertical Mulching

Garden sponges (also known as vertical mulching) are a great way to keep trees and shrubs watered in New Mexico’s dry climate. This is especially helpful with our sandy soil which doesn’t hold water well.

The concept is very simple:

1. Dig a pit 1 – 2 feet away from the tree or shrub you are planting.

2. Fill the pit with biodegradable material that will break down and hold water: straw, junk mail, old phone books, paper waste, old clothing, etc.

3. Cover with straw or other mulch to keep your garden looking pretty.

4. Fill the sponge with water

Here are some photos of a sponge that I created adjacent to a new Pomegranate tree.

I dug the hole about 16” from the tree. The hole is a foot deep, a foot across and 2 feet wide. I have my garden “claw” in the hole to give you an idea of how deeply I dug.

Dig hole for sponge

I used the soil from the hole to create a berm around the sponge and the pomegranate tree. The berm will help keep water near the tree where I want it.

You can dig a hole big enough to fit a straw bale, or a foot square –just enough for junk mail. If you are planting a tree that will grow very large, you may want to create a sponge near the base of the plant –to provide moisture while the tree is growing- and one several feet away that will tend to the plant’s growing roots as it gets bigger. And hey, while you’re at it, plant one on both sides.

It takes a lot of junk mail or old bank statements to fill a hole –trust me. I had saved a pile of old clothes that were too ragged to take to the thrift store or use as rags. These were gone in no time.

My first layer of sponge materials were paper recycling: old journals, scrap paper, grocery store circulars.

First layer of sponge fill

My second layer included clothing (all those old shreddy bandanas I just couldn’t part with).

Second layer of sponge fill

Next came green material (weeds, garden trimmings) and then a topping of spent hay from the goat pen.

Top sponge with hay from goat pen