Packing it up

It has been a while since I've written something. I guess I've spared you from reading aimless blog entries...

The project for this fall is creating a small garden space at Highland Baptist Church. Early this past spring I used Black Eye Susans as a cover crop over my potatoes. Now we are going to work on the garden space and it is time to harvest my wind torn, shade potatoes. (Not exactly a bumper crop but an interesting experiment.) Of course there is hardly anything that prevents Black Eye Susan plants from growing, so after one growing season there were 8" roots on healthy plants. (One was STILL flowering today and I couldn't take it out. It's way too cool to have something blooming at this time of year.)

The way I'm transplanting them is bare root, so I cut them out of the ground, shake the soil off, chop off any excess roots, then place them in the 5 gallon bucket. This allows for a lot of plants to fit into a small space for transport. The compact plants also minimizes the shock while they wait to be put in. Finally, I cover the top with plastic wrap to keep in the moisture until they are planted on Saturday. Here is a picture of the new garden at HBC:

If you have the time, stop by on Saturday morning and we can put these hardy plants in the ground!

Mapping Carbon Emissions

Scientists at Purdue University have mapped the carbon emissions across the United States in a project called Vulcan. The map is a layer in Google Earth that allows one to zoom in and see the US emissions at a state or county level. It is one more way to see where the emissions come from and what we are all doing. One can see the mapping in more detail at http://www.purdue.edu/eas/carbon/vulcan/GEarth/.

Bat House

So I've been wanting a Bat House. Primarily to keep the mosquito population in check. They can apparently eat somewhere between 500 and a Thousand mosquitoes an hour. That's sounds pretty good considering the next plague to hit Louisville (after the recent flood) will probably be swarms of mosquitoes! So on our recent trip across Kentucky we found a fellow selling birdhouses and bat houses.

We picked it up but I soon realized it was not a standard bat house (and had a stupid "bat" design on it), so I had to make some modifications. There are some pretty good instructions and plans on the internet for constructing bat houses but the construction seems to be in more of an art than science (such as, do all bats like the same standard design?). So here are photos showing the work I did to the bat house. First, a slot is typically put in the front of the house for ventilation (the bats enter the house through the open bottom).

Second, a thin piece of wood was inserted in the box to divide the space up. I guess the smaller spaces make it easier to climb in and heat. Third, roofing material was added to help waterproof the top of the house. The builder had used two pieces of lumber and the crack would have leaked water. That just wouldn't do.

So now that it had a solid roof, I thought, why not make it a GREEN roof? So using material around the yard, an old plant tray, a light soil mix (spent coal "clinkers"), and Sedum (Sedum kamchaticum). But the real change was adding a better bat image on the outside. My wife says that's so the bats know it is for them... Let's hope.

Amazing Willows

The Contorted Willows used in the tomato cages have pulled off a tremendous trick. The horrible ice storm took them down on January 20th. I stored and then cut them in March. They were put in the garden as bare stakes in April. But wouldn't you know, they have sprouted and now I have green leaves on my tomato cages! The vegetation was still green (and frozen) during/after the storm, yet did not show signs of life this spring. As soon as the branches had contact with soil though, they started to grow! I don't so much mind right now, but I was not thinking I would have multiple willow trees in my vegetable garden...

Vegetable garden update

This is a quick update on the vegetable garden. The heavy rains have taken a toll on the garden. The potatoes have gotten tall and the rains caused them the fall over, so I am trying two methods to get back on track: cutting them back and staking them up. I'll report back with how the methods work out at the end of the season. The tomato cages have worked out great; the Contorted Willow stakes and Wild Grape vines created a sturdy platform and the plants are growing great. The beans have put on a lot of growth and have taken to the willow branches. The pumpkins, squash, watermelons, and cucumbers are enjoying the warm temperatures and steady rains. The carrots and taller greens have been knocked over though. Hopefully it will all balance out in the end...

Urban ecosystems

There is a really great interview with Os Schmitz the Oastler Professor of Population and Community Ecology in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University. The interview follows his research on the timescale needed to recover a damaged ecosystems. His research suggests that damaged ecosystems can recover in about a lifetime rather than a much longer period of time. He goes on comment in the interview about the role that urban people and places have in the larger scheme. "It’s really important to get [urban people] to think that they're part of an ecosystem -- be it an urban or other ecosystem-- rather than simply be drivers of ecosystems. When we restore parks, or when we think about creating green spaces, we have to be careful and get our values in order and identify collectively what it is that we mean by green space. For example, I can imagine that we could restore shrub lands in cityscapes. We could also have small forests throughout cityscapes."

Waiting for decomposition

Well based on the article I wrote in November on compostable take-home restaurant products, I should have seen some decomposition of the products by now. The ones either lined with PLA (Polylactic acid) thermoplastic or made from PLA thermoplastic are taking a bit longer. The burgasse (paper) products broke down pretty quickly. Once I see more decomposition, I'll repost some photos.