• Animals,  Birding,  Building and Landscaping,  Chickens,  Compost,  Fungus and Mushrooms,  Gardening adventures,  Health,  Heirloom Plants,  Houses,  Hugelkultur,  Microbes and Fungi,  Natives,  Other Insects,  Perennial vegetables,  Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures,  Ponds,  Predators,  Rain Catching,  Reptiles and Amphibians,  Seeds,  Soil,  Water,  Water Saving

    Podcasts with Diane Kennedy

    Two podcasts with me talking about permaculture, Finch Frolic Garden, and how you can save money and the world through gardening! 🙂 Please let me know what you think:

    This is a podcast with Sheri Menelli of earthfriendlyhomeowner.com, where I talk pretty much without a pause for breath for about the first ten minutes.  Recorded in May, 2015.

    http://www.earthfriendlyhomeowner.com/ep7-interview-with-diane-kennedy-of-finch-frolic-gardens-and-vegetariat-com/

    This is a podcast with Greg Peterson of Urban Farm Podcasts, released Jan. 7, 2016, and you can listen to it several ways:

    Urban Farm U:  

  • Animals,  Bees,  Birding,  Compost,  Gardening adventures,  Health,  Microbes and Fungi,  Natives,  Other Insects,  Pets,  Ponds,  Predators,  Quail,  Rain Catching,  Reptiles and Amphibians,  Soil,  Water,  Water Saving,  Worms

    Why Buy Rain Barrels if you Own a Pool? Pool Conversion Discount!

    Why buy rain barrels if you own a pool?  You can collect about 20,000 gallons of rainwater in an average pool, and use it on your landscaping and for swimming if you don’t chlorinate it.  If you have a pool or pond and put chemicals into it, or have a saltwater pool or one that is treated with UV light, you really need to read about how toxic those systems really are and how to change your pool into a swimmable, clean pond on PuraVidaAquatic.com.  On that site is a host of great information about how bad mosquito fish are, how to make a truly healthy pond, why having a pond in a drought is a great idea and so very important, and so much more.  If you live in Southern California and have a pool, you’ll be interested in this Fall Special:

    20 Percent Off Ad

  • Animals,  Bees,  Birding,  Building and Landscaping,  Gardening adventures,  Health,  Microbes and Fungi,  Natives,  Other Insects,  Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures,  Pets,  Ponds,  Predators,  Quail,  Rain Catching,  Recycling and Repurposing,  Reptiles and Amphibians,  Water,  Water Saving,  Worms

    Turn Your Pool Into a Pond, and Help Restore Wetlands!

    An egret on the hunt.  Water birds now rely on flooded agricultural fields, which are saturated with herbicides and pesticides.
    An egret on the hunt. Water birds now rely on flooded agricultural fields, which are saturated with herbicides and pesticides.

    It is estimated that 97% of California’s wetlands are gone.  Gone.  About two-thirds of that remaining 3% is dysfunctional and polluted. In Los Angeles, only 1% of wetlands remain.  We have constructed our properties to drain precious rainwater and even irrigation water into culverts and out to the ocean, rather than collect it in our soil where it belongs.  All the riparian animals, from specialized aquatic microbes and fungi up to large mammals, have gradually all but disappeared.  What we have instead of wetlands are millions of  chlorinated swimming pools, lined ponds and bird baths.  Although we may believe that these help animals, the treated water is weakening and killing them with chemicals when they are desperate enough to drink from them, and offer no shelter or food source.

    A young green heron visits a chemical-free pond.
    A young green heron.

    Dr. Bob Lloyd of Pura Vida Aquatics, a Southern California-based business, has spent the last 20 years maintaining ponds chemical-free.  “Algicide will kill aquatic microbes, and hurt hummingbirds and all the other creatures that drink it,” he says.  To help offset some of the loss of wetlands Dr. Lloyd converts swimming pools into swimming ponds that are cleaned with plants and fish rather than with chemicals.

    You may see photos of some methods of pool conversions on the Internet that look fantastic, but really are expensive and drastic, and hard to maintain.  They require the draining (and waste) of the 22,000 gallons (more or less) of pool water, the altering of the pool itself by building a cement planting bed along the inside and the filling of that bed with a large amount of gravel.  Plants are set in the gravel and after refilling a pump sends water through this system to clean it. The gravel would need to be cleaned over time, which would mean draining water again and hauling out a ton of slimy gravel, and buying new.

    Bluegill and koi buddies.
    Bluegill and koi buddies.

    Dr. Lloyd’s system is far less expensive, not invasive to the pool structure at all and is easily removable if years down the road the system is no longer desired.  His system is unique and is the product of his PhD in microbiology and his decades of experience working with natural ponds.  The plants that are installed are outside of the pool and  can have a look that goes with the surrounding vegetation.  Even aquatic edibles can be experimented with, such as watercress, water chestnuts and more.

    Installing plants inside a pool can be done without changing the pool structure if the pool isn’t going to be used for swimming, or only for gentle laps.  The reason is that the splashing water and waves from vigorous swimming is very hard on plants.  Many plants die from having too much water on their leaves, and from being battered against the sides of the pool.  Using Dr. Lloyd’s method of external decorative plants the pool has the ambiance of a pond and the usability of a regular swimming pool.  And you can still swim with koi and other fish!  How cool is that?

    IMG_0606Converting your pool or pond takes a little patience as the biology develops; do you remember the adage that you can’t rush Mother Nature? The evolution of a pool conversion lasts several months. Watching the evolution of a chemical pool to a swimming pond is exciting.  With the absence of chlorine, there is a natural algae bloom which turns the inside of the pool a bright, beautiful green.  The algae help clear the water of harmful chemicals. As the water is routed through plants, some of the aquatic creatures that balance a pond are added from a local source.  As the water clears, fish are added.  The fish eat the algae so there are no fuzzy green threads growing up from the bottom or floating on the surface.   Fish can be added within weeks of the start of the project. “Its like managing a 20,000 gallon fishtank,” Dr. Lloyd grins.

    Immediately the changes to the environment are apparent.  Dragonflies, butterflies, hummingbirds and many more creatures desperate for truly clean (chemical-free) water are attracted to the water and the plants.

    A hummingbird coming in for a drink in a chemical-free pond.
    A hummingbird coming in for a drink in one of Dr. Lloyd’s newly chemical-free ponds.

    “I have clients who tell me how excited they are to see so many birds, insects and lizards in their yards that they’d never seen before,” Dr. Lloyd relates about his converted ponds.  “Finding (native) Pacific chorus frogs around the ponds has been very fun.” Some of his clients have become active bird watchers as the wildlife come to ponds that he manages.

    Best of all, you can swim with the fish and have no red eyes, green hair or other bad reactions to the harsh chemicals.  The plants phytoremediate the water as it is pumped through the planting beds.  Children can dangle their feet in the pond without fear of absorbing algicide and other harsh chemicals through their skin.

    Pacific Chorus frogs are native and disappearing.  They live in your garden during the year and eat insects.
    Pacific Chorus frogs are native and disappearing. They live in your garden during the year and eat insects.

    Because we are in a drought, people believe that drying out their pond or pool is necessary. No! Pools evaporate far less water than irrigated lawns and landscapes.  What does evaporate helps hold humidity around your plants, something which our drying climate is eliminating.  Humidity keeps pollen viable and helps trees and plants survive the lack of rainfall.  If you convert your pool and/or pond to a chemical-free one, then it is now supplying habitat to creatures further taxed by dried-up water supplies.  What’s more, your pool which isn’t attractive and is rarely used,  which must be doctored with chemicals weekly, can be converted into something that benefits wildlife year-round, is interesting to watch all the time, and needs absolutely no chemicals.

    Pools are also excellent catchment basins for rain.  Instead of buying a large water tank, divert your roof water to your pool and allow the plants to clean it.  Then you can use that water at any time during the year for watering plants – with chlorine- and chloramine-free water.  In permaculture, everything should have at least three purposes.  By converting your pool you can have a free rain-catchment system, a water cleaning system, a safe recreation area, a pleasing view, and some habitat, all while saving money and reducing your carbon footprint and reducing your water bill.  How can you not do it?

    A converted pool does require weekly maintenance, but not the usual kind with chemicals and cleaners.  I remember having to clean the family’s pool when I was growing up and testing the pH, even though we didn’t swim very often.  It wasn’t fun. The maintenance on a chemical-free pond consists of checking on the pump, the caring for the plants and  fish, and insuring that the clarity of the water and the product is satisfying to the customer.   The ecosystem evolves and must be watched.  It also costs a fraction of what a pool cleaner charges.

    If you have a pond or pool that is on a chemical system, consider a conversion.  You’ll spend far less money, have far more entertainment, decorative and educational value, have safe water for your family and wildlife to enjoy, will be helping the environment by not supporting harmful chemicals and by helping off-set the millions of acres of wetlands that are gone.

    Dr. Lloyd estimates that he’ll need to convert 1.6 billion swimming pools to offset all the wetlands that have been drained and paved over in California alone.  How can it be done?

    “One pool at a time,” he smiles.

    You can find out about pool and pond conversions by contacting Dr. Bob Lloyd at Pura Vida Aquatics, 310- 429- 8477   http://www.PuraVidaAquatic.com.  He has accounts from San Diego through Los Angeles, and can consult elsewhere.

  • Animals,  Bees,  Birding,  Gardening adventures,  Other Insects,  Ponds,  Predators,  Quail,  Reptiles and Amphibians

    The Uninvited Guest: Living With Wildlife

    3-20-11 042

    The Uninvited Guest: Living With Wildlife

    Finch Frolic Garden’s Program in the Garden Series

    Sunday, May 24 2-4 pm

     Miranda Kennedy (B.S. Fisheries and Wildlife Science) brings a naturalist’s enthusiasm and a scientist’s perspective to the topic of wildlife vs. domesticated land.

    IMG_6893In this fun informal talk, Miranda will give insight into the ecology of many of our wonderful Southern California native wildlife species, focusing on the issues of the human-wildlife interface such as land management, garden damage, disease, domestic animals, pollinators, and the conservation concern. The talk and discussion will explore methods for peaceful and mutually beneficial cohabitation of this precious resource necessary to human and wildlife alike: habitat.

    Each attendee will receive a native pollinator-attracting plant! We will, of course, offer homemade vegetarian refreshments.

     Cost is $25 per person.  Finch Frolic Garden is located at 390 Vista del Indio, Fallbrook. Please RSVP to dianeckennedy@prodigy.net . More information can be found at www.vegetariat.com.

     You’ll love what you learn!IMG_7224

     

  • Animals,  Bees,  Birding,  Compost,  Fungus and Mushrooms,  Gardening adventures,  Health,  Heirloom Plants,  Houses,  Hugelkultur,  Microbes and Fungi,  Natives,  Other Insects,  Perennial vegetables,  Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures,  Ponds,  Predators,  Quail,  Rain Catching,  Recycling and Repurposing,  Reptiles and Amphibians,  Soil,  Vegetables,  Water,  Water Saving,  Worms

    My Plea Against Gravel

    gravel wastelandHere in Southern California, as in many other areas, we are finally legally recognizing the drought. There are rebates in place for those who take out their lawns, and here in Fallbrook there is a 36% water reduction goal.  Many people just don’t know what to do with all that lawn.  A very unfortunate continuing trend is to dump half a ton of colored gravel on it.  Please!  NO!  First of all, once down gravel is nearly impossible to get out again.  Gravel, like all rocks, is thermal mass.  Instead of having a large rock heating up and radiating out heat, with gravel there are tens of thousands of surfaces radiating out heat and reflecting light and heat back up.  It is the worst kind of hardscape.  All that reflected heat and light heats up your home, making you use your air conditioner more frequently which is a waste of energy, and also dries out the air around your home.  Desertification reflects light and heat to a point where moist air moving over a region dries up.  There is less rain, or no rain.  Most trees and plants trap humidity under their leaves.  Gravel reflects light and heat back up under those leaves and dries them out, sickening your  plants and trees.  Pollen travels farther on humid air; it can dry out quickly.  If you are relying on pollination for good fruit set between trees that are spaced far apart, then having some humidity will increase your chances of success.

    An area of Wildomar, surrounded by hillsides of chaparral that hasn't been destroyed. These homes have mostly gravel yards and denuded, compacted backyards. Very little rain penetrates, and all the weeds that nature sends it to help repair this gash in the earth are promptly poisoned. This is death to us and our planet.
    An area of Wildomar, surrounded by hillsides of chaparral that hasn’t been destroyed. These homes have mostly gravel yards and denuded, compacted backyards. Very little rain penetrates, and all the weeds that nature sends it to help repair this gash in the earth are promptly poisoned. This is death to us and our planet.

    By laying gravel you are turning soil into rock-hard dirt, because microbial life cannot live closely under it.  That robs any plants you have stuck into the gravel of the food they need from the soil, which is opened up through microbial activity.  You are adding to the heat value of the hardscape around your house causing you to cook in the summer and use more air conditioning.  You have reduced habitat to zero.  You have added to global warming by reflecting more heat and light into the sky.  Although gravel is permeable, usually the ground below it bakes so hard that rain doesn’t percolate.  I’ve read sites that want to you increase the albedo effect by laying gravel.  In the short term albedo helps cool the atmosphere, but as a result of too much reflected light dries everything out.  Think of the dark coolness and dampness of forests… that are now bare ground.

    What do you do with your lawn instead?  There are many choices that are so much better for the earth and your quality of life.  First step, cut swales on contour on any slopes for best rain harvesting.  Flat lawn? Easier still.  Turn your lawn into a beautifully landscaped lush native garden.  I’m not talking about a cactus here and there, but a creation with the awesome native plants we have in Southern California.  Some of them such as Fremontia can die with supplemental summer water!

    A beautiful border and plantings of California natives. Very low water use here, and very high habitat!
    A beautiful border and plantings of California natives. Very low water use here, and very high habitat!

    There is a chocolate daisy that smells like chocolate.  Oh yes.  And how can you not want to plant something called Fairy Duster or Blue-Eyed Grass?  A native landscape planted on soil that has been contoured to best catch and hold water, and amended with buried wet wood (hugelkultur), will give much-needed food, water and breeding grounds to countless birds, butterflies, native insects and honeybees.

    Or put in a pond.  Wait, a pond during a drought?  Yes!  Ninety-nine percent of California wetlands have been paved over, drained or are unusable.  Where are all the animals drinking?  Oh, wait, we are in the epicenter of extinction, mostly due to wetlands loss.  There are very few animals left that need to drink.  Those that are left have to take advantage of chlorinated water in bird baths and swimming pools. The microbially rich and diverse clean, natural water that fed and sustained life is just about gone.  So what can you do?  If you have a swimming pool, you can convert it either entirely to a pond, or into a natural swimming pool that is cleaned by plants.

    A natural pool upgrades your pool to a lovely pond without the use of chemicals.
    A natural pool upgrades your pool to a lovely pond without the use of chemicals.

    Suddenly instead of having this expensive eyesore that you use only a couple of months a year and pour chemicals into year-round, you have a lovely habitat that you want to sit and watch, and even better, swim in safely without turning your hair green or peeling your skin.  You don’t need to clean the pool all the time, and you don’t need to put in chemicals.  If you are in the San Diego or Los Angeles area, call Dr.  Robert Lloyd of PuraVida Aquatics for a consultation and conversion.  If you don’t have a pool, then build one that is cleaned by plants and fish. You don’t need a filtration or oxygenation system because the biology does it all.  Where do you get the water from to top off your pond?

    Native Pacific Chorus Frogs enjoying our clean pond at Finch Frolic Garden.
    Native Pacific Chorus Frogs enjoying our clean pond at Finch Frolic Garden.

    Connect your pond to a lovely, planted stream that is connected to your laundry water or graywater system.  You are buying water every day, so why not compost your water through phytoremediation and have a pond full of great healthy chemical-free water that is wonderful to look at and is an oasis for thirsty animals and insects?

    Or install a food forest.  With good soil building and rain catchment first, and planting in guilds with sheet mulch around trees and on pathways, you will be using a fraction of the water you pour on your lawn and yet harvest lots of food.  Too much food?  Share it with a food pantry!

    Or start a veggie garden without digging any sod.

    Create a lasagna garden right on top of the lawn and start growing immediately.
    Create a lasagna garden right on top of the lawn and start growing immediately.

    Layer cardboard, sticks, grass, food scraps, leaves, more grass, more food scraps, more leaves and top it with about 8 inches of good soil, then plant right in it!  That lovely standing compost heap will slowly turn into good soil while killing the grass beneath and growing crops for you immediately.

    If ridding yourself of a lawn just breaks your heart, then substitute the high-water use grasses for a native grass mix that is comparable.  Look at S&S Seeds for prices or for seed choices.  Water a few times with Actively Aerated Compost Tea using any rainwater you may have caught in those 50-gallon containers and your grass roots will travel so deeply that they will find groundwater.  Check up on the work of soil microbiologist Dr. Elaine Ingham and see how easy AACT is to make and use.

    There are so many alternatives to using gravel that aren’t expensive, that are an investment in your property and in reclaiming habitat while beautifying your home and saving money.  So please, just say, “NO,” to the gravel.  Tell a friend!!

    Which one of these would you rather live in?  Which do you think is better for the earth and for the future generations?

    Finch Frolic Garden, year 3.
    Finch Frolic Garden, year 3.


    gravel wasteland

  • Animals,  Bees,  Compost,  Fungus and Mushrooms,  Gardening adventures,  Health,  Hugelkultur,  Microbes and Fungi,  Natives,  Other Insects,  Perennial vegetables,  Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures,  Ponds,  Rain Catching,  Recycling and Repurposing,  Seeds,  Soil,  Water,  Water Saving

    Fun With Worms and Microbes!

    Enjoy a talk in the shade of Finch Frolic Garden with Doctor of Microbiology Bob Lloyd.
    Enjoy a talk in the shade of Finch Frolic Garden with Doctor of Microbiology Bob Lloyd.

    Finch Frolic Garden’s Monthly Program in the Garden Series
    Sunday, April 26, 2015, 2 – 4 pm.

    Want to learn how to save water, and get the most out of the water you already buy?
    How to improve your soil and how to grow food without chemicals…and why?
    How to raise compost worms successfully?
    DON’T MISS THIS CLASS!
    Discover the world of the unseen! Sit in the shade at beautiful Finch Frolic Garden and enjoy a talk and demonstration with microbiologist and owner of PuraVida Aquatics Dr. Bob Lloyd (http://www.puravidaaquatic.com/). He’ll introduce you to the importance of soil microbes, water organisms, compost worms, and so much more! Using slides, videos, specimens and a microscope Dr. Lloyd will teach you a new way to look at healthy soil and water, and how to have both without chemicals. Each attendee will receive a sample either of compost worms or aquatic beneficials. We will, of course, offer homemade vegetarian refreshments. Cost is $25 per person, mailed ahead of time. Finch Frolic Garden is located at 390 Vista del Indio, Fallbrook. Please RSVP to dianeckennedy@prodigy.net . More information can be found at www.vegetariat.com. You’ll love what you learn!

    How to grow compost worms successfully!
    How to grow compost worms successfully!
  • Building and Landscaping,  Compost,  Fungus and Mushrooms,  Gardening adventures,  Hugelkultur,  Microbes and Fungi,  Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures,  Ponds,  Rain Catching,  Soil,  Water Saving

    Taming the Rain

    Rain compacts bare soil, and in this case making clay soil slick.  No percolation is happening here!
    Rain compacts bare soil, and in this case making clay soil slick. No percolation is happening here!

    World-wide we have a fresh water shortage, and the seas are rising.  Erosion is cutting into our fields and washing our precious topsoil into waterways, causing them to silt up and die.  In some areas of the US, unprecedented flooding from rain is occurring, while out West drought is drying up wells.  The reasons for these happenings have to do with our farming techniques to begin with.  How to fix the problems all  boils down to some very simple methods that everyone can do – that everyone needs to do.  It all comes down to making level-bottomed swales, and rain-catchment basins, to make the water penetrate the soil rather than roll over it.  Rain compacts soil more than a tractor does – when it falls on bare ground.  We have been trained to rake up leaves and burn them or send them to the dump.  Leaves, dead vines and other organic matter cushions the rain and keeps the soil from being compacted.  That organic matter also feeds the soil microorganisms that make soil hold manage rainwater.  With the lack of organic matter, and the use of herbicides to kill off all vegetation, and the proliferation of huge swaths of lawn that is treated routinely with chemicals and therefore make the ground hard, rain rolls across the landscape taking topsoil with it.

    Raised mounds on the downside of swales keep rainwater by plant roots.
    Raised mounds on the downside of swales keep rainwater by plant roots.

    Many neighborhoods have large culverts through their properties – mine included – where runoff from properties above is purposely channeled through and away from homes.  All that precious water is wasted.  The same happens in areas where rain is abundant.  Rainwater is directed away from properties and into storm drains that fill and overflow, or it puddles in low spots because it has nowhere to go.

    A rainwater and silt basin at the end of a series of rain catchment basins, has turned into a permanent pond.
    A rainwater and silt basin at the end of a series of rain catchment basins, has turned into a permanent pond.

    By creating regular level-bottomed swales perpendicular to the flow of water, beginning as high up the landscape as possible, rain will be caught before its momentum running downhill becomes destructive.  The water in the swales percolate into the landscape, reestablishing water tables and re-energizing wells and streambeds. Swales should be level at the bottom, dug on contour if large, and have a dedicated overflow into another swale, rain catchment basin or dam.  Small property?  Dig a small fishscale-shaped swale with a trowel above each of your small trees and plants, perpendicular to the flow of water.  Filling these small swales with coarse mulch such as woodchips will keep them moist and weed-free.

    With 97% of California wetlands gone, animals have no place to drink.  Help them!
    With 97% of California wetlands gone, animals have no place to drink. Help them!

    If your property is the recipient of water from uphill, then talk to all your neighbors above you and convince them to dig swales as well (neighborhood swale-digging party??).  The amount of water raging down the hill will become insignificant, and everyone’s trees and plants will flourish due to the water being caught in the soil.  The plume of water slowly moving through the landscape encourages tree and plant roots to grow deeper.  The roots break through hardpan, produce sugars and proteins and carbohydrates to attract microbes, and create good soil for you.

    A hugelkultur bed is made from layering wood with dirt and organic materials.  It will absorb rainwater and release it slowly as the ground around it dries, while improving the soil.
    A hugelkultur bed is made from layering wood with dirt and organic materials. It will absorb rainwater and release it slowly as the ground around it dries, while improving the soil.

    So dig swales and rain catchment basins to passify and hold rainwater.  Leave your leaves to prevent compaction and to feed your soil microbes.  Enjoy having healthier plants, soil and waterways while helping to put the brakes on global warming.

  • Animals,  Bees,  Birding,  Building and Landscaping,  Chickens,  Compost,  Fungus and Mushrooms,  Gardening adventures,  Hugelkultur,  Microbes and Fungi,  Natives,  Natural cleaners,  Other Insects,  Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures,  Pets,  Ponds,  Predators,  Quail,  Rain Catching,  Reptiles and Amphibians,  Water Saving,  Worms

    Saving the Bees

    The ponds at Finch Frolic Garden are cleaned by fish and plants, with no chemicals, algaecide, artificial aeration or filtration.  Well-balanced water allows wildlife to thrive.
    The ponds at Finch Frolic Garden are cleaned by fish and plants, with no chemicals, algaecide, artificial aeration or filtration. Well-balanced water allows wildlife to thrive.

    I should have more accurately called this post, Saving All the Insects, or even Saving the Wildlife, because the answer to saving one is the answer to saving them all. We’ve been inundated for years – my whole lifetime, in fact, – with pleas to save our environment, stop whale slaughter, stop polluting, etc.  I remember winning a poster contest in fifth grade on the subject of curtailing littering.  Since Rachel Carson’s books woke people up to the hazards of DDT and how chemicals have many deadly side effects there has been a grassroots effort to stop the pollution.  Since Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth came out the push for environmentally friendly lights, cars, LEED-certified buildings and many more positive anti-climate-change actions have grown furiously.  Too bad no one listened to him decades before.  A drop in the economy and the radical change in weather patterns have people exploring organics, making their own clothes and foods, changing their shopping habits and thinking about what they are bringing into their homes.  However, this week the World Wildlife Fund released the staggering results of a study that states that between the years 1970 and 2010, 52% of the world’s animal populations are  gone.  Over half.  Gone.  On our watch.  In my lifetime. I am stunned with shame.  So what about the next 40 years?  Over 97% of California wetlands are already gone.  There are only 3% left in Los Angeles.  The Colorado River hasn’t met the ocean for decades, except briefly last year due to major earthworks.  We are pumping all that  water overland, open to the sun for evaporation,  to treatment plants that fill it with chlorine and other chemicals, then sell it to us to spray over lawns and flush down the toilet or let run down the drain while the water heats up.  It is madness.  All  the wildlife that depended upon the Colorado River along that stretch are gone.  All the insects, the frogs, lizards, birds, mammals, etc. that need a clean drink of water no longer have  access  to it.  The only water they can drink is usually chlorinated domestic water in ponds and bird baths.  Too often this water is treated with algaecide, which claims it doesn’t hurt frogs but it does kill what the frogs feed upon.  We are killing our animals with poisoned domestic water.dry_colorado_new[1]

    One of the largest reasons we have extinctions in North America is mismanagement of rainwater in drylands (other than polluting the waters. Poaching, over-fishing, destruction of habitat and climate change are the main reasons).  We have cleared and flattened the ground, and channel rainwater off into the ocean.  Look around at your streets and houses.  Are they harvesting water or channeling it?  Any property that is slanted is channeling water away.  Any property that is level – like the bottom of swales – is harvesting water.  So many properties are inundated with annual rains because there is no water harvesting above them.  When you harvest water, it runs into rain catchment basins and swales instead of roaring down the hillside taking all the topsoil with it.  Water becomes passive and percolates down deeply into the soil.  That deep saturation draws tree roots down into the ground.  The roots break up hardpan, make oxygen and nutrient channels into the dirt and produce exudates  (sugars, carbohydrates and starches) through their roots to attract and feed the billions of microbes that turn your dirt into rain-holding soil.  That underground plume of rainwater then slowly passes through your soil, re-enervating subterranean waterways, refilling your wells and bringing long-dry streambeds back to life.  We must harvest rainwater to save our animals and plants, and consequently ourselves.  We must reestablish sources of clean, unpolluted chemical-free water for animals to eat and from which to drink.

    Healthy pond water is off-color due to tannins, and is filled with tiny creatures.  Some such as daphnia are visible, but just like soil microbes, many aquatic creatures are microscopic.  Fish and frogs feast from this level of the food chain, and these creatures make the water balanced.  They eat mosquito eggs.  They clean up algae.  They are as vitally important as soil microbes.  Oh, and 83% of the frogs are gone.

    I spoke with Quentin Alexander from  HiveSavers today; he performs humane bee rescue around the San Diego area and has been trying to re-queen Africanized hives with calmer European queens which will breed nicer behavior back into the bees rather  than having to kill the entire hive.  He has had no luck in the past two  years with European queens, even those bred in California.  With very little wetlands left, and those often sprayed with DEET by Vector Control, or polluted with chemical fertilizers and oils washed out of front yards, streets and driveways, these insects must resort to drinking from swimming pools and bird baths.  Again, these contain highly chlorinated water.  Animals are being forced to drink poison, or not drink at all.

    We MUST stop using chemicals on our properties, and we MUST harvest rainwater.  We MUST stop spraying well water into the air but irrigate with it in dripper form under mulch so that it is cycled back into the ground rather than evaporated.  One inch of rain on one acre in one hour is 27,154 gallons of water!  It is so easy to harvest rainwater – dig level-bottomed swales!  Dig small ones with a trowel.  Fire up the tractor and turn road ways into swales, or cross-cut vertical paths with swales that have dedicated overflows.  Dig rain catchment basins to catch a flow of water.  Catch water as high up on your property as you can.  If you have level soil, fantastic!  You have it so easy!  Make gentle swales, rain gardens, rain catchment areas and sunken gardens to catch and percolate the water.  Bury old wood perpendicular to water flow – its called hugelkultur

    Please watch this six-minute video by Geoff Lawton of the Permaculture Design Institute of Australia.  You need to type in your name and email, but they don’t sell your information nor do they bug you with lots of emails.  Here  is the link.  The title is Finding An Oasis in the American Desert, and it is about the Roosevelt swales dug during the dust bowl in the desert.  If nothing that I say, nor anyone else says can convince you, then please watch this and see the effectiveness of rain harvesting.  We MUST do this, and now before the rains come is the time.  Catch all the water that falls on your property in the soil, and try to catch the water that runs into it.  If there are flood waters channeled through your property, see if you can talk to the people who own land above you about harvesting water up there.  It will reduce the flooding, save topsoil and benefit everyone’s property.  Work towards keeping rainwater in your soil, reducing your domestic water, and making what streambeds are left come back to life.  Keep our old trees from dying by watering deeply through rain catchment.  If you have a pond or swimming pool and treat it with harsh chemicals and algaecides, seek out a natural pond professional.  In the San Diego – Los Angeles region there is Bob Lloyd of PuraVida Aquatics, or Jacob Hatch of Hatch Aquatics.  Jacob builds natural ponds and maintains large natural waterways.  Bob maintains chemical-free backyard and display ponds that are full of wildlife.  He can convert your pool into a clean swimming pond where the water is filtered by plants and thus is lovely year-round, provides abundant habitat and doesn’t need chemical treatments.  No chlorine to burn your skin and eyes.  How great is that? He can also create a constructed wetland that cleans your greywater with plants.

    There are so many simple and inexpensive ways to harvest rainwater rather than allow it to flow into the salty ocean without penetrating the soil.  Please, please, please do them, and if you already have THANK YOU and gently encourage your neighbors to do the same.  We must stop the habitat destruction and start to rebuild what is gone.

  • Animals,  Health,  Hugelkultur,  Microbes and Fungi,  Other Insects,  Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures,  Ponds,  Soil,  Water Saving,  Worms

    Microbiology For The Layman

    IMG_7354A Permaculturalist’s Explanation of How Life Works

    Want to understand the microbial life in compost, in ponds and in our bodies? This lecture by microbiologist Dr. Robert Lloyd will provide you with a basic understanding of how microbes work and what they do. Fascinating and comprehensible for the layman, this talk is essential for those who want to understand more about how life works, in or out of the garden and pond.

    This lecture will take place on Saturday, October 11,

    4 PM – 6 PM, at beautiful Finch Frolic Garden in Fallbrook.  Light homemade refreshments will be served.  The fee for the lecture is $20.  Please RSVP to dianeckennedy@prodigy.net.  The fee can be sent to Finch Frolic Garden, 390 Vista del Indio, Fallbrook, CA  92028 (also the location of the talk).  

    Dr. Robert Lloyd is owner of PuraVida Aquatic.He has maintained chemical-free ponds and aquariums for 20 years.  He also can convert chlorinated swimming pools  to chemical-free, naturally balanced, swimmable  and healthy ecosystems. (www.puravidaaquatic.com)

    Please bring soil, water, or any sample you would like to examine under a microscope!

  • Gardening adventures,  Heirloom Plants,  Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures,  Ponds,  Recycling and Repurposing,  Seeds,  Vegetables

    Vertical Space

    Pipian From Tuxpan squash, from Baker Creek    Heirloom Organic Seeds.
    Pipian From Tuxpan squash, from Baker Creek Heirloom Organic Seeds.

    When planning a garden for lots of any size, be especially aware of vertical spaces.  Have an unsightly fence?  A wall that needs protection from the sun?  A hot, bright patio?  All of these areas are perfect for growing vertically.

    A Canada Crookneck climbs over a plum tree.
    A Canada Crookneck climbs over a plum tree.

    For an existing wooden fence, string wires vertically or in a crossed pattern, depending upon what you will be growing.  For a chain link fence… just plant!  You can certainly grow annuals such as beans, squash and peas, but for perimeter fences I’d advise long-term plants that fill other functions as well.  Heirloom climbing roses can cover a fence, create a barrier for trespassers, provide habitat, be ascetically pleasing, and provide edible flowers and vitamin C-rich hips.  Remember that in permaculture everything should serve at least three purposes.

    Passionfruit vines work beautifully on overhead trellises.  Wire is strung the length of the trellis, with shade cloth over the top.  The vines don't need any help to fill up the gaps.
    Passionfruit vines work beautifully on overhead trellises. Wire is strung the length of the trellis, with shade cloth over the top. The vines don’t need any help to fill up the gaps.

    Passionvines are evergreen perennials with rampant growth and provide good crops of heavenly-smelling nutritious fruit, as well as being the host plant to the Gulf Fritillary caterpillar. Even the perennial scarlet or golden runner bean  would provide you with food and flowers for about six years.

    This curly willow trellis we put up in late spring and planted squash along both sides.  The squash love the trellis, and the trellis adds a nice touch to the pathway.
    This curly willow trellis we put up in late spring and planted squash along both sides. The squash love the trellis, and the trellis adds a nice touch to the pathway.

    Do you have a cement porch or patio where the sun reflects heat and brightness into your house  in the summer?  Cover it with a simple trellis, sturdy enough to hold vines.  There are many ornamentals that would work (wisteria, trumpet vine, virgin’s bower, morning glory, etc.), but think about passionfruit, kiwi or grapes.  Outside a west-facing wall is a perfect place for a planted trellis, that will help cool that side of the house during the  summer.  The sides of sheds can be used vertically, either with simple wire that can be removed later or with wooden lath (preferably recycled).

    Strange fruit in this lime tree?
    Strange fruit in this lime tree?
    Yes! Its a zuchino rampicante vine.  This heirloom zucchini can be eaten green, or if allowed to age will harden into a uniquely-shaped winter squash.
    Yes! Its a zuchino rampicante vine. This heirloom zucchini can be eaten green, or if allowed to age will harden into a uniquely-shaped winter squash.

    If you have existing trees, use them as vertical space.  One faction of a plant guild is a vine.  Vines act as groundcover, shading the soil and retaining moisture while producing mulch.  Vines also can grow up trees and help shade their trunks from weather extremes.

    A Canada Crookneck climbs over a plum tree.
    A Canada Crookneck climbs over a plum tree.

    Meanwhile the fruit and vegetables are off the ground and won’t suffer the predation by animals or ground insects that it may normally receive.  Plus, it is fun to see squash up in a tree.

    Um... that is definately a pepper tree.  But what is hanging in it?
    Um… that is definately a pepper tree. But what is hanging in it?
    Strange fruit, indeed!
    Strange fruit, indeed!

    A small fence around your kitchen garden is inexpensive, recyclable, keeps nibbling critters out, and can double the size of your growing space.

    T-posts and hardware cloth around the kitchen garden adds so much more growing space, and keeps critters out.  Delicata squash is enjoying the late summer sun.
    T-posts and hardware cloth around the kitchen garden adds so much more growing space, and keeps critters out. Delicata squash is enjoying the late summer sun.

    One project that I’d like to do this winter (just one?  Ha!) is to nail up old rain guttering on the outside of my little shed and make a small natural pond at the base.  I’d plant the gutters heavily with strawberries, and maybe greens, and then install a pump that circulated water from the pond up to and through the gutters.  The water would then empty back into the pond.  The fish and plants in the pond would be fed and happy, the plants in the gutters would be watered and fertilized, and I’d have unnibbled strawberries that were easy to pick, as well as repurposing the old gutters.

    Please choose only organic, and if possible, heirloom seeds.  It is so important to not poison the wildlife and ourselves with chemicals and plants whose DNAs have been tampered with to withstand more chemicals.  I buy from Baker Creek (the catalog is to die for.), Seeds of Change, organics from Botanical Interests , from organic seed savers and from Peaceful Valley Organics (which have terrific prices on high-quality bare root plants such as strawberries!).

    More squash helping shade the trunks and the soil around a nectarine.
    More squash helping shade the trunks and the soil around a nectarine.

    So when planning your next season’s garden, don’t just think outside of the box, but think of growing up the sides as well!