Sewing pattern weights

I made these pattern weights after watching this YouTube tutorial. It's very simple - wrap strips of fabric around heavy metal washers, and sew the end of the strip down to hold it in place. A fun, practical project to do while watching a movie.

New shady plants and replanting succulents

To celebrate the spring equinox, I took my pup to the beach with a friend, and then we went to East Bay Nursery to pick up some shade-loving plants. (Of course, I couldn't resist picking up a few new succulents as well.) For the past few months I've been frowning at the patch of dirt between the stairs at the front of the house and the garage. The spot could really use some greenery to spruce it up, but we use it as a walkway, and it doesn't get any direct sunlight. So I needed a shade-loving ground cover, and I figured I'd add a fern as well. I found just the thing at EBN! (Click to see the picture come up in a larger size.)

The four diamond-shaped patches are low-growing Corsican mint, which I hope will spread out quickly. The little circles in back are a moss that grows in a pretty mound shape. And there's the potted fern. (And also in the back, the new little succulents.) In the middle are ceramic tiles I picked up at Urban Ore. You can see there's still another dirt patch to the left. I'll probably end up doing something similar on that side, but I'll have to save up for more tiles and plants.

After that, it was time to finally, finally replant my succulents. I'd been meaning to do that for months. In fact, I've been neglecting them in favor of carefully tending my edible garden in the back yard, and the succulents are out of sight, out of mind up on the upper deck. They suffered frost damage back in December:

...and then I got a frost cover for them but forgot to remove it for weeks and they burned:

...and recently leaf miners have done a number on them:

I don't even know what happened to this one - it was going strong for two years, and suddenly it lost all of its "petals" and turned black on the inside:

But! Some are stronger than ever:

And others are blooming:

I got all of the smaller succulents planted into one communal bin, and the bigger ones will be transplanted tomorrow or over the weekend. I worked until it was too dark to continue, so pictures of that will come later. But I can leave you with this sunset:

Happy spring equinox!

Update on the rest of the edible garden

I'm sure you're all eager for updated pictures of the rest of the edible garden! No? Well, I'm eager to catalog it! It's in the low 70s today, but next week we'll hopefully get more bursts of rain and cooler weather. A number of my vegetables (spinach, scallions, carrots, radishes) do better in cooler weather. I'll keep planting and harvesting as long as I can, and note down when each variety gives up the ghost. I only started this edible garden last fall/winter, so I'm still learning most of the ropes as I go along. Click on any photo to see a bigger version.

Potato plants are shooting up since last week!

Radishes on the right (planted earlier) will soon be ready to pull.

A forest of scallions, my favorite vegetable.

Spinach, my second favorite. I've already plucked a few baby leaves for sandwiches.

I haven't been eating the dill lately so it's getting huge. Parsley (behind/to the left) is doing well.

Strawberries had powdery mildew, but it looks like fungicide took care of that.

Four new pea plants to replace the ones I killed. I love peas!

Cucumber finally sprouting. The seeds weren't germinating well.

Okay, these aren't edible, but they're planted in the same area. Lupine in front, Columbine in the middle, and Foxglove in the back.

Young raspberry canes. Mmmm.

First clementine tasting

My dwarf clementine mandarin tree had a tiny fruit when I bought it back in January. I couldn't tell if it'd grown at all since then. It was still completely green.

But since there were now lots of tiny flower buds on the tree and some of them had started blossoming...

My friends told me that it was time to pluck the tiny fruit.

It was orange inside, with a couple of seeds, and a small amount of sour juice.

My housemate and I split the pieces, and we agreed that it tasted "better than expected." I'm looking forward to seeing how the tree does next winter.

City Chickens 101 lecture

On Saturday morning, my favorite urban farming store Pollinate hosted a "City Chickens 101" lecture by Allison Lindquist of the East Bay SPCA. (Who, by the way, also owns ALPACAS!)

Allison owns 60(!) chickens, of many different breeds. She has Malaysian Seramas (the smallest breed of chicken, which she said is no taller than the coffee cup on that table), Ameraucanas (which lay green and blue eggs), Cuckoo Marans (which lay chocolate brown eggs), and many others I can't remember!

I've been reading up on raising chickens, but I still learned a lot from this lecture. Here are some of my notes:

- If you are buying chicks, make sure that they are vaccinated for Marek's disease. It is not common in our area so smaller farmers may not vaccinate for it, but the symptoms are severe enough to warrent it.
- Make your coop and run bigger than you think you'll need, because you will always end up getting more chickens.
- Introduce new chickens in groups of three or more. Do it at night when everyone is sleepy, and there'll be less fighting.
- Allison gets horse shavings (pine shavings) for her coop. Sprinkle in diatomaceous earth and shovel it around regularly, and it will stay dry and clean and odor-free longer than other types of bedding. Change it out completely when you start to smell ammonia. Do not use hay/straw - it retains moisture and gets gross. Do not use cedar shavings, as the oils are dangerous to animals.
- Offer crushed oyster shells (separate from their regular feed) so the hens can get increased calcium when they feel they need it.
- The city of Oakland has no limit on the number of hens you can keep, but roosters are illegal. (Of course there were multiple roosters within five blocks of my previous residence.) They must be kept more than twenty feet from buildings.
- Some feather plucking between birds is normal, but watch out for any blood. The chickens will continually peck at any visible bloodspots and increase the wound.
- You can get a cheap coop by waiting for the "end of winter" sales at OSH/Home Depot/Costco and buying a wooden shed. Just add windows (with screens) and a chicken-sized door.

Then she passed out cartons of eggs for attendees who are chicken-less. Yay! Here's mine:

Conveniently (and enticingly), Pollinate has chicks for sale right now. They are sooo cute! (Click to see bigger picture.)

Although when it's finally time for me to get chickens, I might get pullets (hens just maturing) instead of chicks, since then I can skip getting special equipment for them and all that hassle.