Tea time- Camellia sinensis

Though I know the infeasibility of having a tea plantation in your backyard, you can still pretend to have a mini green tea paradise with a couple, few, maybe even a half dozen or so Camellia sinensis plants in your yard if you live in the Midsouth, or ZONES 7+.

As many people are aware, green tea has many known health benefits and I'm going to avoid sounding like a Lipton or Snapple commercial and just blather on instead on the awesomeness of being able to grow Camellia sinensis.

The reason for my bringing up the topic is because camellias are pretty ubiquitous to the South and now that the weather has been cooling off, I've kept my eye on the shiny evergreen leaves and buds of my neighbors' Camellia trees, some of which have branches that are so large and heavy they touch the ground and look like giant living green castles more than trees.

Anyways, the neighbor's camellia buds have begun to open and so I went to check out my 2 little tea plants in pots and whaddyaknow? Lovely ain't it?

I wonder if the rain and humidity reminds the plants of mountain air in India or China or something, because there are a bunch of buds ready to bust open, which is exciting, because the fragrance is, and I never use this word, DIVINE. It's truly heady, a combination of jasmine and orange blossoms and that otherness that makes it a green tea blossom I suppose.

Unfortunately the rain makes the flowers brown and the scent more faded, but once things dry up (hopefully soon!) I'll be greeted at my door with this scent every time I step out and hopefully NOT be swarmed by mosquitoes (cross fingers this does not attract them).

I have kept my plants outside all year round, only bringing them into the garage when the weather looks like it'll be severe (frost/hail), and they've been very hardy to everything it appears as long as they receive adequate water. I've had no bug issues really of any kind other than spiders liking to spend some time there rolling up a leaf or two for a leafy tunnel home.

The location I've kept my plants at is somewhat protected, a wall at the west with some light tree and bush cover in front facing south so that it gets direct, filtered light, enough to prevent sun scald.

Tea plants are typically pruned into a bush form (at waist high for easy picking) so that they have many many little branches to form many many little leaves on, with the most prized 2 leaves and a tip thing for the finest teas.

While I am very far away from that point of having a well fleshed out tea plant, I see promise in my plants.


Ok, I have a confession: I haven't given my tea plants their necessary pruning yet because it always seems like there's something potentially pretty on it that I don't want to cut off... and while I've amassed a good amount of literature on the proper methods to take care of/propagate/prune my plants early on when I got them... I sort of haven't reviewed them in a long while and I need to figure out when is the best time to actually start chopping (I mean, pruning).

So, that's why I'm writing about it so I can get my butt in gear AND inform other people to not be dumb and wait as long as I do :)

After reviewing the literature again, it seems that:
"When the tea plants reach a height of about one to two feet above ground, it is cut back and pruned to within a few inches off the ground. Trimming back encourages new shoots to form and increases yield. Regular 2 to 3 year pruning cycles encourages a fresh supply of new shoots and further increases yield."
--from, http://www.imperialteagarden.com/CamelliaSinensis.html

I'm not too late! My plants are about 2 to 2 1/4 feet high, so they're not too big, though I still HATE the idea of cutting off all that growth... a stick/stump in a pot feels rather painful, but if it has to be done... of course if it ends up dying, I'm going to be a very unhappy person.

Unfortunately, there is no info as to WHEN to prune...

But thank you Gardens Ablaze for that:
"Cutting out dead and weak stems can be done anytime, but severe pruning, or shearing all the leaves to shape the plant, should only be done from mid-February through early May - basically after flowering and before new growth begins."
---from, http://www.gardensablaze.com/Shrubs/ShrubsCamellia.htm

Cool, so now that all of that is in order I will be prepared to see my tea plants in new splendid glory for next year and as I like to do with basil and such, use the pruning cutting to make tea plant clone babies!

Cal's Plant of the Week, a service by the University of Oklahoma Department of Botany & Microbiology suggests that:
"Camellia sinensis are propagated by cutting or seed. Soak seed in warm water for 24 hours before sowing. Hardwood cuttings should be taken from winter to summer, treated with rooting hormone and with bottom heat of 72 degrees recommended. Rooting is slow."
---from, http://www.plantoftheweek.org/week046.shtml

Though I do have a tea fruit developing/developed on one of my plants (it's been there forever it seems), I understand that seed propagation is notoriously difficult so while I might attempt it... I"ll just keep myself in pessimism mode and not feel crappy if it doesn't sprout and whatnot.
Finally, here are some interesting facts about tea to encourage your to grow your own:

(1) Green tea has chemical compounds that fight against the "bad-breath" bacteria (certainly a more refreshing, non-drying alcohol way to kills mouth bacteria compared to commercial mouthwashes!)
(2) A compound in tea seems to be able to reverse methicillin bacteria resistance, therefore giving us a potential way out of this antibiotic resistance mess (other than the obvious, stop abusing of antibiotics in general of course)

Links on how to pick and process your tea leaves into the different varieties (pun intended):
http://coffeetea.about.com/od/preparation/a/growingtea.htm http://www.imperialteagarden.com/CamelliaSinensis.html

Thorough info on Camellia sinesis:
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/duke_energy/Camellia_sinensis.html

Time to plant your vampire repellant

Hell and fiddlesticks, the season of vampire preparedness is upon us!

Earlier this year I pulled up garlic that I had planted 1-2 years ago (potentially 2 years ago as I sort of "lost" some of the garlic when the leaves died down too much and then blew away...)


I allowed the garlic to dry out for about 2 weeks in a dark, well air-circulated location and then with MUCH effort and research figured out how to crudely (and CHIC-ly may I say?) make a garlic braid. (okay, so I skipped a few steps here and there that I couldn't really 'get', but it looks braided)
*It's starting to get cold here, so put on all your clothes...* When the weather gets a little nippy (before the vampires do), it's a good time to start planting garlic.

Since I am a huge cheapskate and am not into the gourmet garlic thing yet I use cloves of garlic from the grocery store. This type of garlic is typically the softneck variety that grows easily when planted by individual cloves and once harvested, stores well.

The other type, the hardneck variety has as the name states, has a hard neck but it does not store as well is what I heard through research.  It does form however these super nifty curled up greens called scapes when they grow. The scapes are known to be a tasty flavoring or can be made into or added to dishes.

I think I may have seen hard neck garlic at Walmart if you wish to grow it... but don't take my word for it and don't ask me why I was at Walmart.

How to grow (super easy):
I simply take apart my garlic cloves, I need only about 4-6 heads per medium size raised bed (and that's a bit heavy on the planting) and make sure that pointy side is up and under about an inch or 2 of soil.
Then I sit back, confident and unfearful in the knowledge that the vegetables and I are safe from blood suckers.

Even the softneck garlic green shoots can be eaten or added to dishes and when the cloves are ready, what I like to do with them is to roast them in their skins, wrapped in foil for about 25 minutes at medium-high heat and then the garlic is awesome, nutty and spreadable. I just pop the cloves out of the skin into my mouth and then make kissy motions to my husband.

Get that garlic out now or when it gets colder, just at least before the vampiric invasion!

No till gardening

Not many people recognize it, but soil DOES have an essential structure microscopically. Gardeners (especially the edible kind) like use food analogies as often as possible (because, well, we like to eat what we grow usually) and the way soil holds itself is called its "crumb." Think of the entire soil you use like a cake, and your have moist cakes, dry cakes (sandy soil) and those fudgey ones (clay soil). While we all have our preferences, typically the moist ones are preferred, or as in this case, most vegetables like a moist, well held together crumb cake that is just crumbly enough to allow drainage, but enough to hold nutrients and allow for root development.

Most complex cake you'll ever encounter hm?

To make this even more fun to comprehend, think of it as a cake HOUSE, or PLANET. Preserving good soil structure is important not only for plants but also for other biological activity such as microbes and earthworms.

Some of  the best, most fertile dirt around, such as forests and woodlands, don't get messed with. Trees grow, leaves fall, animals die, things decompose, scavengers and fungi break things down and only the earthworms are dragging that stuff below.

There's no loud obnoxious bladed tiller or any animal of any sort doing that in the forests, FORCING STUFF into the ground. If things are going well, Nature is progressing along happily and healthily, the earthworms are doing the tilling for you, and in such a GENTLE manner.

Besides, tillers are expensive and more work than most people need in the size of gardens they have.

If you were an earthworm and there was an earthquake above you, you'd be scurrying away as fast as possible too. Might not even want to come back.

When tilling is involved, all the settled and comfortable organisms are exposed to an alien, inhabitable environment (even though its only some inches higher) and are subject to unfavorable conditions, stressed and can potentially die, unable to regenerate your soil or preserve its nutrient contents.


In addition, messing with your soil too heavily can increase soil compaction, bring up years old weed seeds above ground initializing them to sprout (little do many people know, many seeds need light to germinate).

(If you are concerned too about your CO2 levels, it's good to note that tilling increases CO2 release when soil is broken up (and I suppose through use of a tiller...).  Instead, to aerate and "fluff" up your soil don't do more than use a garden fork to poke holes in the soil all around to allow air and water in.)

Fertilizer or compost in DOES NOT have to be dug into the ground. Regular watering will help nutrients seep into the soil or earthworms themselves will bring the nutrients and organic matter into the ground as well as produce their own "fertilizer" for you.  *cough* think of them as tiny pink legless bovines.  No tilling also increases earthworm population, an indicator of great soil and it is suggested to take "core" samples of your soil (you can use a shovel if you like) to get an idea of how many earthworms you have in your soil.  More, the better usually.  If your soil becomes less rich in organic material, the earthworms will simply move elsewhere, so... keep them happy and fed!
 
Not tilling also more water efficient, keeping the soil less exposed and reducing the need to weed as well as reduced erosion.  This method's ability to retain water is due in part to its emphasis on the need to mulch (think tree leaves in the forest again).  Mulching is easier, and less expensive than than most people realize.  You don't need to go out and buy expensive stuff.  Newspaper, dried out grass (or grass that has been cut and set out for at least a month because it will actually draw fertilizing nitrogen OUT from the soil rather than put it into the soil when fresh), straw (with assurances the grass seed is dead), hay, wood shavings, forest "duff" (I'm lucky, I have pine trees behind my property that provides such duff), and green mulches/cover crops are excellent mulches.

Cover crops can compromise no till somewhat as the vegetation being used as a cover crop must be turned prior to it going to seed, but it is still less damaging to the soil than deep tilling.


Proponents of the no-till method include the Rodale Institute,the great Masanobu Fukuoka and many other organic and ecological groups.

The Rodale Institute is a highly regarded organic gardening, farming, ecological group that is involved in publishing many great garden books I enjoy.

Lesser known is Masanobu Fukuoka, an originator of the "No Work" gardening method.  While I am intrigued by his many methods towards natural gardening, I don't think I have enough land to grow the cereal grains he relies on to keep in his garden cycle and feel more drawn to biointensive/synergistic/permaculture gardening.  I highly suggest that if you are interested to read about it on the site listed below.

LINKS OF INTEREST:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/208/
ftp://ftp-fc.sc.egov.usda.gov/IA/news/No-TillGardenwithphoto.pdf
http://www.eartheasy.com/blog/2009/01/no-till-gardening/
http://www.no-dig-vegetablegarden.com/no-till-gardening.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masanobu_Fukuoka
http://fukuokafarmingol.info/
http://fukuokafarmingol.info/foverfound.html
http://fukuokafarmingol.info/fover.html#ov2
http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/no-till_revolution

In the air, that's when it hits me.

I have been ignoring the changing colors, the dropping pine needles and leaves scattering, and then piling themselves up around the base of trees.

While walking the dog however I was caught by a scent. I sniffed, and then sniffed again.

*sigh* The scent of things turning, leaves decomposing, the mustiness of things winding down. This made me finally realize that it really becoming autumn and that it wasn't just August in a different dress.

I won't be quitting my garden come fall and even winter if I can avoid it. Things can still grow then, but yes, things are beginning to slow and I will be hunkering down, focusing on garden learning, writing, crafts and houseplants to sustain me.

For some reason autumn makes me think of a great song from a Cincinnati band I grew up listening to: Over-the-Rhine. They have a song called, "Falling (Death of a Tree)" that is beautiful and fitting for how I feel. Karin Bergquist's voice has an unearthly quality so give it a listen.here.

The lyrics can be found on the last track of their album, Eve, if you so wish to check it out..

Ah, nostalgia.

Malabar Spinach seed saving--- this might get a little messy (Don't forget to comment for the seed GIVEAWAY)

I was interested in documenting my malabar seed saving, as the seed is encased in a small dark purple-black fruit seed coat and wondered how involved it would get. The answer: PRETTY FREAKIN' INVOLVED.

I originally intended to just let the seeds dry out in their fruit, as I read could be done, but the chances of the fruit molding, or going bad and thus turning the seed bad was too great and I wanted to be sure the seeds were in good condition, so I decided to scrub the juicy fruity bits off.

On an earlier day, I picked a small, but plentiful basket full of malabar spinach berries(?):

(berries are tiny and encased in each is a seed)

I then took out the colander and a larger metal bowl to capture anything that might get washed out of the colander because I didn't want to lose a viable seed.

Remembering having heard that the fruit is a well know vegetable dye, and having many plain white rags around that I use for cleaning which my Aunt Louise gifts me every time I see her (Thanks Aunt Louise!), I decided to experiment and place one of the cleaner not stained rags under the colander so that all the fruit juices/dye would splash on and dye the rag, hopefully a rather pleasing purple-y color.

Yep, that's a really purple-pink (magenta I suppose?) color! I ended up getting another rag to dye  partially because my hand was beginning to get a wee bit raw from scraping fruit against the metal colander holes. Kind of like a grater. I swear no bits of my fingers will be in any requested seed packets!

Mmmmm, fruit flesh encrusted rag! But it gives you a good idea as to the color of the dye. I did have to add and swish water around to be able to move the fruit/seeds in the colander well, but the color was still pretty strong I think.

The other reason for the water was this:
The separated fruit fleshy bits float to the top so I can easily extract it from the seeds that sunk to the bottom of the colander. I attempted to use a spoon to scoop up the floating fruit bits, but ended up just tipping the bowl gently to allow the bits to drain away. The entire process was similar to panning for gold I'd say, though I haven't done that since I was 6 years old... and I think I might have been just pretending to pan for gold too after I read about it in a book on the 49ers...

Here I am still in the process of rubbing berries between my fingers and hands in the bowl to separate the seeds from flesh still.
Eventually, after doing this for a good while, and dumping the fruit flesh a couple of times after swishing with water, I am getting some clarity and the good seeds are at the bottom of the bowl. Any seeds that floated to the top were probably unripe or not viable for germination, so I allowed them to follow the fate of the fruit flesh, DOWN THE DRAIN, I mean, INTO THE COMPOSTER!
When I got everything clean enough, I dumped the seeds into the colander for a final swish and mini-scrub to make 'em squeaky clean.

I have an admission to make.... I have never dyed anything before and as I was sort of doing everything last minute and was feeling too lazy to do some real research I gleaned everything I could remember from my "wish I was a frontier girl" days (about 7 years old at that time, Little House on the Prairie and all that rot) and I chucked the malabar fruit colored water and rags into a pot and cranked the stove on high because I vaguely remember dying had something to do with boiling water. I added vinegar for good measure and realized later that maybe I was thinking of Easter eggs :(

Either way, after a while I turned off the pot of dye+rags and let it cool on its own before I let the rags drain of some of the water dye and then hung them on some metal, grated, sunroom furniture to dry.
(Note: Once dry, the color of the rags are just a bit lighter than this color and more PINK than mauve. Which I am not a huge fan of... I am thinking of attempting to try as little water as possible for the next batch of seed saving because dangit, I am NOT a pink fan. Gimme some royal purple baby).


Here are all the seeds I set out to dry on my dining room table on some newspaper... on some nice white table cloth (brill right?) Eh, tablecloths are meant to be used and abused. I would have loved to put them in a really sunny spot, but it was sort of cloudy that day/ rained later.
It appears that one of the seeds decided to sprout, possibly within its fruit coat! I sincerely doubt it was during its bath while I was handling it.
So, that was my seed saving adventure... and there's a whole heck of a lot more seeds to save... so, um, please, take them off my hands?

(UPDATE: I realized that I had forgotten to re-read this post before I sent it and there were a million grammatical and spelling errors, so my apologies... very sleepy when written)

Welcome to the Amphibian Witness Protection and Relocation Program

....you, Mr. Frog/Toad have witnessed an indescribable event (probably having to do with the Mafioso Mayfly Gang) and we here at the AWPRP are whisking you away, for your own good, in the middle of the night from the tough concrete sidewalks from whence you came to a safe location plentiful in flies, beetles and bugs of all sorts for you to feast upon all day and night as well as easy access to luxurious moist soil baths.


This secret location is the home of a mysterious gardener and writer, as well as eccentric, who cares of your health and existence and avoids using dangerous chemicals in your living area, chemicals which have turned your fellow brethren into various Two-Face and Joker look alikes with web feet.

Please forgive us for the slightly uncomfortable Alien Abduction/Beam Me Up Scotty/Hand of God like effect it may feel while you are being transported. Slight wooziness may occur and really, DON'T feel ashamed if you have to "release" during your brief flight to the TOP SECRET Location, your eccentric host forgives you for the mess.

Just feast away on all the bugs my pretties!

Let your plants be an army, or commune (whichever way you want to swing) in the fight against pests and inorganic chemical gardening: Companion Planting

If there is a way to add diversity and keep pests at bay all the while looking lovely and enhancing resistances or tastiness in my garden without chemicals, I am there! That’s why I attempt to companion plant as often as possible even though not all of the suggestions of companion planting are tried and true scientifically. It is one of those age old, “Hmmm, this seems to work well together!” things that has done well for many gardeners of old and thus, keeping with tradition and having seen such positive results in my gardening past, I companion plant.

In brief, here are reasons that companion planting is a favorable, organic method of gardening and is just cool in general:

-Some plants exude certain chemicals that deter or confuse pests from noshing down of your plants, keeping your main crop healthy or less damaged by pests.

- Certain plants planted in proximity to another plant can affect the flavor of the other plant positively (need to be careful of this, because certain strongly scented/flavored plants can alter the flavor of a plant that you want to keep  in its original flavor).

-Plants that fix nitrogen or other minerals can fertilize another plant near it.

-One plant can be “bait” and act as a trap crop to save your prize crop from ruin.

-More plants, especially those of varying height forces pests to choose between plants, rather than them seeing the single massive skyscraper tomato plant available. Diversity is the antithesis of monocropping, meaning that it can be protect a garden from losing an entire crop because there’s so much to choose from! Nature is flexible and varied, so why shouldn't you be?

-Low growing companion plants may act like a groundcover than protects soil of the bed from drying out and may serve other functions such as fertilization or pest preventative.

-Multiple plants create mini-habitats/microclimates which attract, feed and house beneficial insects to take care of the actual baddies. These microclimates can also be helpful in ways such as shading an easily sun scaldable plant, such as bell peppers beneath a tall okra plant. Or borage plants attracting a brachonid wasp which infect hornworms on the tomato plant by the borage.

At the end of this post are some excellent sites with great companion planting lists. In a moment I will simply note a few of companion plants I use together.

How I companion plant:

-Strawberries with pole beans for fertilization and okra for shading, the beans climb up the okra too, like a Three Sisters effect sort of. Runner beans can be substituted for pole beans. Cucumber trellised up with the lot because they’re companions and fit. Borage planted here and there to enhance flavor and vigor of strawberries.

-Asparagus with tomatoes/peppers/eggplant and basil for flavor enhancement and pest prevention with French or Mexican marigold on the side or surrounding for pest/nematode prevention.

-Tomatoes with bush or pole beans for fertilization and basil and borage for tomato flavor enhancement and pest prevention. Sweet potato vine allowed to ramble to create a green groundcover to keep in soil moisture.

-Nasturtiums (so many types!) along the garden border all the time when possible as a trap crop and for food (until Mid South heat usually kills it) and garlic as a pest deterrent.

-French/Mexican marigold borders for pest/nematode preventative.

-Tiny flower herbs and very fragrant herbs planted all around such as oregano and mint (can be invasive though), to attract and nurse beneficials.


GREAT SITES WITH COMPANION PLANTING TABLES:
http://www.ommas-aarden.net/comp_plant.htm
http://www.thefarm.org/charities/i4at/lib2/complant.htm
http://www.ghorganics.com/page2.html
http://www.companionplanting.net/
http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/complant.html
http://www.ext.nodak.edu/county/cass/horticulture/vegetables/companion.htm
http://www.seedsofchange.com/enewsletter/issue_55/companion_planting.aspx
http://www.no-dig-vegetablegarden.com/companion-planting.html
http://www.organicgardening.com/feature/0,7518,s1-2-10-108,00.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Companion_planting
http://www.humeseeds.com/comp1.htm

Thanks for holding.

Hey, this is my last generic scheduled post, post-emo-i-tude (hopefully, as this one is scheduled too)

Working on turning a:

to this:

Just wanting to say, hold on, there's still more posts coming up with some companion planting and no-till gardening goodness so please, be patient for them sometime this week.

Hope all is well for you and your gardens and that harvests are coming in by the bushel!

May you stay on the side of the light and not the blight!

GIVEAWAY (different one): Let the tasty spread, Malabar Spinach!

Malabar spinach was one of the great successes this year, creating the first Great Wall of Spinach in history (I can only presume... if anyone wants to challenge this, please take me up on this, send me a postcard or pic to dispute me, bring it!).

So the Great Wall of Spinach became the Great FLOWERING Wall of Spinach and I figured, once again like the perilla, I will have PLENTY of seed to go around and I will only need enough for my crop next year (if it doesn't come back on its own by possible heavy mulching like the stevia) and for relatives.


So, why not share once again?Once again, the rules are, just post a comment which I will then reply to your email address for your actual address to send you some free malabar spinach seeds that will fit in a regular sized envelope/not cost me more than a stamp to send to you.

This giveaway will be open for a month after this is posted and is free for the continental USA. I'd be happy to send outside the States, but would really really like to have some sort of S&H help there.

These seeds will be HARVESTED, DRIED, and PACKAGED by me.. so all the laborious work is going on all on my end, woohoo, I mean, wait--- HURRAY, really we all win, I get seeds in general, as do you and I also get the pleasure of knowing I am spreading some edible gardening goodness around!

I won't be able to attest as to the results of germination for the seeds, but hey, you're still getting something free just for a comment and ain't this so American? ;)

PS For those not even interested in growing malabar spinach, the fruit of the seed is well known to be a great dye. Purplish-dark mauve, trust me, my fingers have evidence.

Pitcher plants and a side of flies please

I like to make my garden edible to all, for the birds, bees, me, possums, squirrels (damn things), even carnivorous plants :)

I was very lucky to get these beauties from Diane Meucci of Gardens Oy Vey and keep them in a non-draining shallow bowl to thrive. They originally were in a well draining hypertufa bowl I had made, but it was too well draining and the pitcher plants were having none of it, drying out and being sad.


I keep them by the water barrel next to some horsetail I keep confined in a pot in the drain hole of the rain barrel. My theory is that the mosquitoes and flies like to hang there and it's a good spot to keep the pitcher plants happy and well fed.

Well call me Seymour and eat me alive, aren't they pretty? They really get your heart going when they bloom, which I hope is either this or next year because those flowers are just unearthly and beautiful.