Organic Gardening Info from Peaceful Valley

One of our customers is experimenting with covercrops in their landscaping and I thought you would all enjoy their pictures and story. The following is posted below with permission from Chris from his blog, The Urban Dirt Farmer.

Hi, I’m Buckwheat.

According to several sources, Buckwheat is a very good ground cover/soil builder.

After learning that the buckwheat these sources spoke of was not the character from the Little Rascals, but rather some sort of plant that grows in the ground, things made a little more sense.

Buckwheat is a fast growing, drought tolerant, heat resistant cover crop. Additionally, it builds soil and forces out weeds. We planted in early July and it was over 100 degrees for several days in a row.

Here’s what we did:

1. Tilled up the entire front yard with a tiller. It took all day, but beat the alternative of walking on it for a few days with those spiky shoes your dad had to aerate the lawn when you were a kid.

2. Took the seed mixture (Buckwheat/Cowpeas) we purchased from Peaceful Valley Farm and Garden Supply, followed the instructions and then spread them with a seed/fertilizer spreader.

3. Used a rake to even out the dirt and at least partially cover the seeds.

4. Watered 3 times a day for the first two weeks.

After one day, you could see the seeds sprouting and putting down roots. After a week, the plants were all about an inch or two inches high.

Little House on the Prarie

Uh. So our front yard has some buckwheat in it. This is after about 4 weeks of growth. The highest plants are about 3′ tall. The stuff that gets more shade isn’t as robust. Here’s another picture from further back.

So the stuff is really blowing up. There are a few bald spots which we re-seeded yesterday to help fill in.

It also just so happens that our next door neighbor is a bee keeper. I’m not making this up. She said that her bees are now off the sugar water (literally) and using our front yard. This is great news because bees are important to human life and stuff. Here’s a photo of me in the front yard.

The plants have these teeny tiny white flowers that the bees actually prefer to larger blooms for some reason.

I’m Ready for My Closeup Mr. DeMille

Say cheese Buckwheat!

Oh, own it, Buckwheat. Give me some emotion! Make love to the camera!

The Sand Lot

We have another part of our property that was just beat to hell when the house was being built. The ground got so compacted that it looked like it’d never grow anything again. It was another one of those things I didn’t take a picture of, but the following photo reenactment sums up what it looked like:

We had a similar mission to our front yard: build soil and prevent erosion. Because this side yard area is covered with trees and due to the abundant shade, buckwheat was not an option. My wife, who likes to read, figured out that the perfect ground cover would be Strawberry, or Palestine, Clover. It is heat tolerant, builds soil well, grows moderately fast, and can even be mowed if one so desires. The seeds were again purchased from Peaceful Valley. These things look like poppy seeds, but sadly can’t be made into street-grade heroine. We again tilled up the ground (hard in spots where there was just bare limestone, but I did my best to ruin the blades on my tiller) and then planted. Here’s what it looks like after three weeks:

Now bear with me for a sec. Please understand that this used to look like a scene from the 70’s D Movie Cannibal Holocaust. Allegedly the clover is supposed to grow quite thickly once it’s established. Here’s a closeup of the little guys:

They are a little slower growing than I’d like, but they are getting the job done. They stand up to being walked on and stuff (like when I have to move the sprinkler and whatnot). This will hopefully be our default ground cover once we decide what to do with our overall landscaping plan.

Now is the time to create lasting enjoyment all fall and winter long by planting flower bulbs. We’ve created a new page here that tells you all about how to prepare your soil and plant bulbs! Bulbs make great gifts btw

There it is.  The first tilled row of the GGP.  At the crack of 8 am (huck it up, farmers…that’s early for us city-folk!) I was out there, tilling up my back yard.  The actual tilling itself took about 3 hours.  We had to go over each row multiple times, stopping to dig up rocks and sundry other oddities.  Among the strange things found that had to be removed: 3 cigarette lighters, a 2′ x 4′, a Happy Meal toy, broken glass, an old irrigation pipe that went nowhere, and concrete support posts for what apparently used to be a deck.  The final stage was going over everything one final time, my son in my lap (he LOVES tractors!) to make sure the yard was as level as possible. (more…)

Saturday, I finally got to go out and get my hands a little bit dirty (well, not really…I was wearing gloves…but you know what I mean).  In preparation for the Great Garden Project, I need to get the yard ready for tilling.  The back yard looks pretty good, and all I really need to do to it is move a few rocks.  The front yard, however, is another story.

I grabbed my brand new rake , and got to work.  Now, this isn’t trying to be a sales pitch, but…this is one great rake.  It has the spring of any other rake, but the tines stay firm enough to pull any size pile.  It’s like working with a shovel, but with teeth and flexibility.  I HIGHLY recommend this rake!

In any event, I quickly  discovered just how important a good yard cleanup before any landscaping is.  I had actually considered just tilling in any yard waste back into the soil, but am I glad I didn’t.  I found a LOT of things that don’t belong in the soil.  I particularly loved finding SEVEN lighters, and the lid to the previous septic tank.

So, this weekend, the fun part happens.   Like most men, I appreciate big honkin’ vehicles that do more than just drive.  Vehicles that do things. OK, I admit it…I’m a little boy.  But I appreciate a big tractor, and I will be haivng a great time Saturday morning, when the tractor comes down and I get to thoroughly demolish my front and back yards.  I can’t wait!

Olive & Citrus trees just arrived in stock here at Peaceful Valley and they are waiting to grace your landscape with their lovely foliage.

I had the opportunity to talk to Steve McCulley of Apollo Olive Oil, which produces world class, highly sought after oil. Their delicious selections have won many awards. What followed was an informal interview about how to grow olive oils, and what you might use them for.

Q. What do people need to know about growing olive trees, (ie. climate, establishment, etc.)?

A. The first thing to know is that they do well in a Mediterranean climate… they like hot dry summers and a wet winter & fall which we have here (Nevada County).

They establish best on drip irrigation, and if you are able to experiment with mist-ers instead of drip irrigation they seem to like that. Our neighbors have used mist-ers and it seems to work well for them. You can dry farm, but olive trees do best on drip during the summer.

The reason for this is that olive tree roots do not tend to go very deep, they stay just below the surface. Because of this it is better to prep the soil in a wide radius around the tree. You’ll want to rip the soil pretty thoroughly to give the roots a chance to spread. While not very particular, olive trees like rocky soil in general.

Q. Is it different if you are growing olive trees for ornamental reasons (vs. oil or olive production)?

A. It’s different for ornamental growing. You can’t really do anything wrong… in fact they tend to do well. I have eighteen 100-year-old olive trees on our property. Their not for olive production, but they have very nice foliage. The black olives can be nice for ornamental growing, but even without they are nice to look at.

Ornamental olive trees are very low up-keep. They are very drought tolerant, there are very few diseases, and do well on drip.

Q. How easy would it be for our customers to make their own olive oil?

A. Well, each tree that is fruiting can produce 50-100 lbs. of olives at maturity, which takes about 4 years. Pressing olives is very difficult, so most people would take them to a miller, who will generally have a one ton minimum. So, for most people it’s not easy.

It is easy, however, to cure your own olives. There are all kinds of methods and recipes available. We teach workshops on curing olives and it is really a great way to enjoy really fresh, really interesting flavors of olives. Mission is a good pick for curing.

Visit Apollo Olive Oil’s Site Here.