Escargot in Beer Brine

The time has come to plant. A few weeks ago, I was "itchin'" to get started, the first seedlings were in the stores (way too early, just there too tease me), and I WANTED TO PLANT. Alas, I knew it would keep getting cold, so I waited.

Now I have seedlings, will plant. For some reason, I am stuck in a plant rut. Today will be the day...until then, let me share some preps:

The Poopers...or shall I say, soil preppers? These two are great, but really do nothing but forage & poop, and lay an egg a day :). It is fun to watch them scratch, but I am going to have to find a way to keep them out of my beds. Unfortunately, they get so into digging and taking dirt baths, my seedlings get sacrificed.....training?

And this is where the little poopers live :). We built this out of repurposed or left over wood, and made our own plan. The roof is corrugated UV plastic, that was new, and probably the most expensive thing on this coop! Everything is secured, both for the dog's sake, and to keep the night critters that roam our Suburbia at night, out.

I took this pic during a rain shower from my porch :)...I love the soft spring rain. I posted this here to show you my tomato boxes, in which I planted cover crop (burdock & sweet peas) to condition the soil over the winter.

..and then it all came down! Cut down and laid to rest in the box. I covered this with soil, and just planted tomatoes (pics soon). Last year, the lasagne garden was AWESOME for my tomatoes, we will see what this year brings, when I actually get around to putting in the water system :).....

Thornless boysenberries :)...all along my fence. I cut these down, and was afraid I trimmed too much. Now the bushes are lush with leaves and new growth, and LOTs of blooms. The bees are lovin it, and I can't wait to harvest those berries.

Attempt at growing potatoes. Never worked for me before, but I am trying again. Will report back. German butter & purple potato.

I also planted strawberries on top of a hay bale, and that was a fail. The hay had some weird mushroom in it, and after the rains stopped, it grew the most alien looking mushroom :)....and inky something...lacy, black, and ugly. Stained everything. Seems they are not poisonous, so I am hoping that true Sacramento heat will dry it out. Strawberries are looking pretty good. I took pictures of the bale, and the alien mushrooms, but they mysteriously vanished from the camera....??.....

Last, but not least, the chaos herbs. I just pulled all the borage, let the bees have their hay day, then it went. It was almost 5ft tall! Have a batch of mystery plants where I dumped a downed seed pallet...looks like chamomille, a tomato :), borage, dill, and what I though may be lovage. But it stung me, and so now I am thinking a NETTLE! Will watch it further.

The best snail trap ever: BEER. Put some cheap beer in a low dish, bury it some, and enjoy the snail trapping. (BTW, cheap beer works good as a hair setting lotion too :)....). Sorry, can't love snails. Thought the chickens would get them, but they can't keep up. Watch the dog though, mine seems to enjoy escargot in beer brine. Ew....

More updates to come...the pressure is on!
Happy planting!!

I'm in love ~ Rotted food & chicken poop.

A few years ago, I went to county composting class and picked up a free composting bin. Fabulous little thing. I put it up in my back yard, and started throwing in our food scraps. Then, one day in the summer I opened up the lid to feed the compost, and EWWWWWWWW. It was moving and "broodling". Yes, it was making sounds :(.

I slapped that lid closed, and did not open it again until 3 days later. I am just too City Girl to deal with teaming maggots :(. What I did find out in that time (I was on a destroyer mission) is that my maggots were "good", and that people actually BUY them to eat the compost. Ew. I also read that chicken farmers love them. I sent a call out via FB and said they were free to whomever came and got them out themselves.

Then I covered them with newspaper & straw, and it all eventually stopped moving.

So, I am supposed to TURN the compost??? :)...Yes, girls, the compost needs to be taken care of. Fed, watered, turned.

Yesterday, on a warm & balmy 60 degree California winter day, my son and I decided it was time to turn over the compost, as our bin was filled to the max.

Ah....look what I found!

Beautiful, rich, dark compost, filled with happy worms. Enough compost to fill up 5 of my boxes in preparation for spring planting. Not only is this compost 'clean', it is FREE. Yes, FREE. As my husband will attest, we spends lots of mula in the spring on dirt & compost to refill those boxes.

Thanks to my fabulous girls, our compost is now getting even better with their contribution of chicken poo. And look, they are now enjoying the smorgesbord of critters that come up to dive around in it :). It's a wonderful cycle.

I keep a large coffee can on my kitchen counter and throw everything in there. No need for an expensive "kitchen composter". Break up the eggshells! I found eggshells that were whole on the bottom, so eggshells down break down easily. With that said, I put my eggshells in a mason jar on the counter, filled with water. Every other day, I water the flowers with it, then put them in compost. Break 'em first, nothing like putting your hands in stinky eggshell water.....

Did I mention it was free? I am now a compost ninja. I may even measure its' temperature....

And now...a little video for your enjoyment :).