Odds & Ends Again

Odds & Ends Again

Yesterday (Nov 27) I pruned the fig trees. I posted a picture of the green trees today (Nov 28). Here are the trees after being pruned. Not much left, huh?



I am also including pictures of the raised bed. Finished…mulched…no plants yet:

My granddaughters helped me plant the fall garden. Here they are:

I also put some of my neighbors leaves into the compost bins. The bags on the roadside were still too wet yesterday. I did pick up a few bags today.

David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com/ , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/.

Pruning the Fig Trees

Pruning the Fig Trees

The sun is out again today (Nov. 27). I am eating Brunswick stew from yesterday and thinking about my fig trees. Blum’s Almanac says that the 26th,27th and 28th of November are in the signs of Cancer. This is supposedly the time to prune for growth. All the leaves have fallen off of the fig trees so today (the 27th) should be a good time to prune them. I took a picture of the trees about a month ago when they were fully leaved and bearing figs.

All of next years figs will be on new growth. The trees produce so much growth that it is necessary to bend the branches down to pick the figs. This works fine with tender 1st year growth. The old wood won’t bend so easily. I will cut all of the vertical branches in the centers of the trees. Everything else will be trimmed off at the level of my eyes. I will post an after picture tomorrow along with a picture of the raised bed. I was having a problem downloading from my camera; but I got it fixed.




David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com/ , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/.

Brunswick Stew

Brunswick Stew

It is too rainy to play outside today; so I am staying inside and making a Brunswick stew. I actually started the stew 2 days ago. The first step was to soak some dried speckled lime beans. I use the small ones. I also started assembling the ingredients. It is good to use all of the vegetables you have available. The required ones are corn, tomatoes, okra and lima beans. You also need 3 different kinds of meat. At least one kind of meat needs to be cured. Game meats are especially good; but I did not have any this time.

Sunday, I started cooking the beans and added the vegetables in my big crock pot. The meats were all started in a smaller crock pot and allowed to cook for several hours. I make this in the office. Before going home I cut off both crock pots and just let them sit. This morning I pulled all of the meat off of the bones and added it to the big crock pot. I had too much stuff for the crock pot so I had to put some in the little crock pot.

After everything comes to a rolling boil corn meal is added to thicken the mixture. Ideally no one can recognize anything in the stew except the corn. I usually season the stew with whatever I have. The meat was cooked with whole sticks of rosemary. I pull them out when I remove the bones. This time I had oregano, garlic salt, chili powder, crushed red pepper, black pepper, salt and chicken bouillon. It also has a secret ingredient that is not necessary to having a good Brunswick stew. I just want mine to be better than yours.


David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/.

One Gone Gum Tree

One Gone Gum Tree

I spent my “garden time” yesterday (Nov. 22) cutting down a big gum tree that is inside my garden. I started the garden in the corner of the yard years ago and it grew around the tree as the years went on. The tree had two trunks. Last year I cut the smaller trunk, which was balanced to fall the way I wanted. This year I decided to do the big one. If it fell naturally (the way it is balanced), it would crush my neighbor’s garden shed. If it fell half way between the way it wanted and the way I wanted, it would be on top of my house. Neither option seemed very good.

I decided to get a little extra insurance by tying the tree to another tree before I cut it. I put my ladder against the tree and tied a very heavy duty rope around the trunk as high as I could. I then tied it to the other tree. Next I took a notch in the direction I wanted the tree to fall. I made a very deep slanting cut to drop the tree. On the last cut, I left a “hinge” of wood to keep the tree from kicking back. Unfortunately the tree just stood straight up and didn’t fall either way. I pushed it to no avail. I was afraid to cut anymore.

The rope was my salvation. It was tied high enough to get good leverage on the trunk. I pulled the rope and the tree fell. A limb on a mulberry tree caught the gum tree. This morning I used a pruning hook to take the limb off and let the gum tree fall. I cut the trunk of the gum tree up for firewood. Splitting gum logs is very difficult; but I have a special technique that works well on hard to split wood. Next year, when I split those logs, I will share that with you.

I also mulched the raised bed with about 6 inches of unmulched leaves from the side of the road. I hope they will help the ph drop as they rot. I picked up some more leaves today. I may have enough compost after all.


David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/.

Tomato Fence

Tomato Fence

Yesterday (Nov. 20) I took home some leaves from the side of the road. They looked like they had not been mulched when I picked them up. When I opened the bags, I realized they had been; so I layered them into the compost bins. Now I have 1 1/2 bins of compost. I picked up more leaves today. Yesterday I also tested the soil in the raised beds, took down the tomato fence and picked some arugula. I measured out the pathway beside the raised bed too and hauled the rest of the legustrum wood to the firewood pile.

The soil in the raised bed is from 6.5 to 7 ph. That will probably be ok for the asparagus; but strawberries need 5.5 to 6 ph. If anyone is actually reading this and if you know how to lower ph, please tell me.

I like to be creative in the garden. A lot of my experiments turn out to be really stupid. My tomato fence is in the rare category of the things that work very well. I have tried all kinds of ways to stake tomatoes. Problems range from falling or blowing over to damaging the tomatoes to just being inconvenient. I have used the tomato fence for two years now and I think it is superior to anything else I’ve tried.

I took down an old rail fence that was about 8 to 10 feet inside the property line. It was a 3 rail fence; but I put it in the garden as a 2 rail fence. I had a lot of extra 8’ rails left. I tied them to the cross rails vertically with coat hanger wire. I bought plastic fence fabric from Home Depot and attached it to the rails as high as I could reach with bent nails. I tied the tomatoes to the fence with strips from old polyester rags.

The whole fence, which is over 30’ long comes back down and goes into storage in less than an hour.

David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/.

Compost

Compost

As I have mentioned before, I am concerned that I will not have enough compost for next spring’s planting. Today (Nov. 20), I decided to take some drastic steps. I put the top down in my car and picked up a few bags of leaves on the side of the road. I don’t really like to do this because one never knows what people put on their yard. Leaves are not the best compost anyway. The tree sucks all of the nutrients out before letting the leaf fall. Also most trees practice chemical warfare. They have poisons in their leaves that keep other plants from growing in the trees’ “space”.

I have not “harvested” the leaves in my yard or on my roof yet. I normally use them for mulch. They keep the moisture in the ground and make life easier for earthworms and other creatures that aerate the soil. In the spring I till them in to give the soil more organic matter and keep it fluffy.

The leaves I picked up beside the road will not be nearly enough and they look like they were just raked or blown up without being mulched first. This will make them hard for the compost pile to digest. I always mulch the leaves from my yard before I get them up. I may have to save the roadside leaves and the roof leaves for mulching and use my yard leaves for compost.

Garden Planning Pt. 1

Garden Planning

My favorite part of gardening is planning next years garden. Not everything was perfect in this year’s garden; but next year’s garden (in my mind) is super fantastic. Everything is green, productive and weed free. The rows are straight, the paths are clean. WOW.

The tasks that I have lined up for soon are. Take down the old stakes and trellises from this years garden. Mulch the raised bed and plant some donated strawberry plants. Make a new garden map. I have some large sheets of graph paper for this. Layout the rows & beds for next year and test the soil. Plan the planting strategy to take advantage of the ph level in the different rows and the sunshine available.

Speaking of available sunshine…I have some trees and bushes that need to come down. I also have to prune the fig trees and get the green house ready to start the bedding plants. I will also make a schedule for starting the bedding plants and buy the seeds. Compost is a problem. Unless I find some more compostable material, I will not have enough compost for the garden.

David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/.

Home Again

Home Again

I have not made any garden notes; because I have not been in my garden. I was in Las Vegas for a week at the REALTOR’s convention. I did get back in the garden Saturday morning (yesterday)

I picked a lot of figs. It rained last week so the ground was damp. It did not freeze hard until Saturday morning. The leaves are coming off of the fig trees and some of the figs showed signs of freezing. The figs were not as sweet as the ones we got before the trip.

I also turned ½ of the compost pile. I turned ½ of the other half this morning. Last week I cut an old legustrum tree that was shading the garden. The name legustrum is never used by itself. It is always that “old legustrum”. I cut it down and cut it up some; but I could not put it on the street because of the trip. Today I put it on the street. There are 3 more legustrums and a gum tree to cut. Also I have two mulberry trees that has grown so tall we can’t pick the mulberries. I am going to cut one of the off at about chest height to see if it will sprout. If it does I will cut the other one next year. There is also a poplar and a mimosa tree that need to go; but they could fall on the house. I may have to get a professional to do them. Maybe I can get a load of mulch at the same time.
David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/.

Odds and Ends

Odds and Ends

Yesterday, Nov 7, 2007, brought the first freeze of the fall season. The temperature only dropped to 31 Fahrenheit. I don’t think it hurt my garden. I did not find any damaged figs, tomatoes or eggplants. I pulled all of them off anyway and took them inside. I only picked the figs that had swollen. The others will never ripen off of the tree. Green tomatoes can be ripened in the window, chopped and stir-fried, or made into fried green tomatoes. The eggplants are small; but they should be ripe enough.

I finished up the raised bed it is ready for strawberries and asparagus. Originally I had planed to run 2 rows the length of the bed with one for each type of plant. Last night I decided to check in “Grow It” one more time. Asparagus need a ph of 6.5. Strawberries need 5.5 to 6. I guess I will have to devote half of the bed (lengthwise) to each one.

I also consolidated my compost piles. This has been a bad year for compost. Normally I cut my grass every week to 10 days. The clippings go in the compost. I haven’t cut the grass since July. Normally at this time of year, I would have 3 full compost bins. They will turn into 1 bin by spring. This year I have 2/3 of a bin. I have got to find some more composting material fast or I will not have enough compost to do the spring planting.

David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com/ , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/.

Blackberries

Blackberries

I did nothing in the Garden yesterday, nor will I today; because I am in Brunswick County, NC teaching a real estate class. One thing I started last week was redoing an old blackberry bed. The blackberry bed is a remnant of a time when the house backed up to woods. I had never done anything with the area because it was behind the fence in the yard and I just did not bother.

When a subdivision was built, one of the people who owned a house behind us planted a lot of really nice azaleas on my property thinking it was his property. I thanked him profusely and asked him if he minded if I moved a couple of them around to the front. He got a survey and put up a fence. That added about 8 feet to my yard. I started taking the fence down to expand my garden. That is when I go to thinking about the blackberries. The raised bed I wrote about Sunday is in that area. There was still about a 30 foot area of blackberries. They don’t produce much because they have been neglected.

I dug up 10 nice blackberry plants and put them in pots. Then I ran the tiller through the area. Next I will really work on getting the soil in shape and replant the blackberry plants. It will probably take a couple of years before they actually produce anything.

David Segrest practices international real estate and writes an international real estate blog. Email is david@segrestrealty.com , Web page http://www.segrestrealty.com ,Blog http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/

Raised Bed Gardening

Raised Bed Gardening

My wife has been telling me I should do raised beds in the garden. I don’t think she knows how much work is involved in getting that set up going. I finally decided to do one raised bed to do Strawberries and Asparagus.

I try to get home early enough to spend an hour in the garden every day. Also I usually spend about 2 or three hours on Saturday and Sunday mornings. I can’t always do that and I travel a lot so the raised bed project for the one bed has taken a little over a month. First I marked off exactly where I wanted the bed to be and measured it very carefully. These beds are really permanent.

I ran my tiller through the site for the bed and buried it as deep as I could. Then I laid down a piece of heavy duty plastic and scooped out the loose dirt. That was done 3 times before I got about 1 foot down. The next chore was to build a frame for the bed. You can see it in the picture. The frame extends the bed 6” above the ground. I used the left over boards from a deck that I am tearing off of the back of my house.

On the bottom of the row I put a layer of half-finished compost about 6” deep. I sprinkled this generously with rock phosphate and brought the tiller through the whole row again, digging everything in as deeply as I could. I have a shortage of compost this year (we’ll talk about that in the next blog) . I had to use some mulch that a tree man gave me about 2 years ago for the next layer. It is black and rich and it has earth worms in it; so it must be good.

A caution about fresh wood mulch. It will suck the nitrogen out of the soil. Not taking any chances, I gave it a dusting of 10-10-10. Ok so I’m not purely organic. I alternated layers of this stuff and the dirt that I had scooped out of the bed until I filled the whole frame. I ran out of time, there is still a little bit of dirt to put into the bed. I’ll do that next week and the bed will be ready for strawberries and asparagus. I may put a layer of mulch on the top to protect the earthworms until time to plant.

I think one raised bed will do me for now.

David Segrest practices international real estate and writes an international real estate blog. Email is david@segrestrealty.com , Web page http://www.segrestrealty.com ,Blog http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/

This Blogs For Me

This Blog’s For Me

I have been writing an International Real Estate Blog for several months now. I am enjoying the writing and sharing the information and I have become much more observant of things in the international real estate world. My hobby is my garden though, and it keeps wanting to come to the paper as I write. I have three reasons for writing this blog and they are all personal.

The first is that every time I try to write my international real estate blog, this garden stuff comes to mind and I need to get rid of it.

The second is that it is really important to a garden to keep a good journal; so that one learns from experience. I try to do this; but it only lasts for a few days. Supper is ready when I come in or I’m too tired. There is always some reason. I believe I will write this blog for you whether you read it or not.

The third reason is that I am still learning to garden. I really hope that when you read my blog and you see that I need help, you will give me some advice. Every gardener has a lot of personal methods. Some are inherited, some are learned, some are invented. I tend to learn a little and invent a little. Some of my inventions turn out pretty good. Other provide a learning experience.

I think November is the ideal time to start the chronicle. The season is almost over and preparations are being made for next year. I have already started building a raised bed at the back of the garden for Strawberries and Asparagus. I’ll tell you about it in the next blog. I may even show you a picture.

David Segrest practices international real estate and writes an international real estate blog. Email is david@segrestrealty.com , Web page http://www.segrestrealty.com ,Blog http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/