Something to do during dreary winters, or year round

I use mykos in my mix that I make and used it on my blueberry plants. Surprisingly not that expensive. I can’t get inexpensive Promix here so I mix my own. And of course the Monster is indispensable too!!! :joy::joy:.

2 Likes

wish could grow those with any degree of success.
sadly, if i want my blueberries sweet-- my soil must be sour.

just so difficult to do here. Even the water we drink, heck a glass of it is as good as tums if you have heartburn, haha

1 Like

I had used an amazon test kit and thought my pH was 7.2ish. So after my soil test came back 5.6 I bought blueberries!!! Then I find out my tap water is 8-8.5!!! Lol. Catching rainwater here is easy when the trees don’t need it…

3 Likes

more concrete block planters :

site prep

molds set off-center to adjust to alternate pattern(which adds stability) of block layout.

to seal the holes of top blocks, pour a bit of cement over a sheet of plastic

the blocks inverted

slather the tops and sides with tan concrete icing to finish the cake, then stuff the void with as much organic matter(weeds/thorny brambles/twiggies/kitchen refuse). Economical since it fills the bottom and skimps on having to buy extra soil-mix bags to be used as topsoil

then top it off with friable soil mix and drench with water to percolate downwards and fill empty packets.

the final products with lemon grass, okra, egyptian spinach, and mexican green onions/chives


9 Likes

most greens would have been bleached, receded, or roasted crisp at this time of year in vegas, but these edible ornamentals don’t just get greener, but also get more rowdy and productive :leafy_green::cucumber:

16 Likes

Wow!!! Love it!!

1 Like

btw, @k8tpayaso, have you tried jew’s mallow/egyptian spinach? Might be something you’d like to try if you like gumbo

2 Likes

Actually you sent me some Egyptian spinach seeds once and I did grow them and then they got out of hand and James mowed them down thinking they were weeds…lol. They were good in salad. Very amazing plant—food to fiber!

I do love gumbo. Okra is one of my favorite things to eat but did not try it with the ES. I have, however, collected sassafras leaves and made my own filé seasoning.

1 Like

wow, am getting really forgetful… Yeah, they do get weedy, growing like corn in the moonlight.

2 Likes

Back in January:
image

Now, 6 months later:

I seeded the grass with some help from my daughter, but I haven’t had to mow this one. One of the tenants is a landscaper, so part of his lease is mowing.

Just past the top left corner of the above pic is the fig that I sent out cuttings from. It has plenty of fruit set already.

It turned out that all 3 tenants (multi-family) said that they wanted to garden. So we skipped seeding a decent sized area and sectioned it off. I put the edging around the outside (the kind that has a horizontal part, which helps avoid some of the trimming), back when I thought that I’d be mowing it myself…

Of course, by July, none of the 3 tenants planted anything. The landscaper finally decided to mow the garden areas (empty sections along the left in the above pic), as they were getting pretty tall weeds.

While I’m posting rental jujube pics, here are a couple from a property I got the year before.

Front yard (a jujube about every 10 feet):

Back yard:
Ivy_Sugar_Cane_07-12-2019

This one seems to grow better than the others. I’m guessing that being South of a white fence helps it get more light. I’ll have to see if it produces faster than the ones in the front yard.

And yes, that is a mulberry peaking over the fence on the right side of the pic. I’ll need to stay on top of pruning that one to keep it from shading the jujubes.

8 Likes

that ‘after’ is a radical conversion of the ‘before’.

Happily ever after, as i see it :wink:
btw, how many juju trees do you have now? you probably lost count!

2 Likes

Looking good!

Good to hear from you Bob!

1 Like

Bob,
Glad to hear from you. I was wondering how things have been for you.

Two of the cuttings you sent have survived and grown well (to me, that’s a success). Thank you.

By the time all your jujubes are in full production, you may need to add being a jujube seller as another job in addition to your current full time job and being a landlord :smile:

2 Likes

I haven’t had a lot of time recently to post- I haven’t really even kept up with what people are saying. I’m always pretty busy when we add another place (3 jujube planted there already, with spots for ~6 more next spring). But I just got a new phone, so I’ve been taking a lot more pics (the old one was so full that I had to look around for something to delete before I could take each pic :slight_smile: ). Since I had all these new pics, I figured that I should post a bit.

I have lost count, but I keep records on what I buy and from where. So, not counting suckers and seedlings, I should be in the 70-74 jujubes range, across all the locations. The property with the fig has 12 and the one with the white fence has 7.

I’ve planted a few suckers from the large So, which I’ve grafted over and a few seedlings. The seedlings seem to grow very slowly. I have several other seedlings in pots as well.

One bad thing about figs doing better in pots is that I’ve kept accumulating them.

This deck will get a lot fuller when I start transplanting the quart and gallon figs up to 2-3 gal pots.

And I’ve already been filling up the driveway…

There are also some muscadine grapes in the driveway pic. They seem to like pots better than in-ground (at least in my climate) as well.

Maybe, but I think I’ll be happy if I have enough jujubes for my family to eat (and we can eat a lot…). It wouldn’t surprise me if the ones at the rentals start getting eaten by tenants or passerbys, once word gets out on them. I don’t think I’d be that bothered, as long as someone is enjoying them (hopefully not the squirrels). If nothing else, growing them in so many conditions should help me learn what works.

11 Likes

I am going to graft figs next spring to consolidate several varieties I have into a few pots.

I don’t know how you or @tonyOmahaz5 could handle those many, many potted figs and other trees. My problem is in the winter. I probably have room for only 15-20 pots in the garage and my small basement. Something gotta gives.

3 Likes

That’s what your living room is for :wink:

Just kidding- mostly. While I do have a jungle in my living room during the winter, most of it goes into garage/basement.

3 Likes

Sad to say, the living room is often occupied by my daughter’ s college stuff :smile:

2 Likes

have to say – many of us here would make good material for that reality tv show “hoarders” :grin:

4 Likes

if you want to make your yard look established and neat(even though recently planted and absolutely messy :smile:) masonry/stonework is the way to go

14 Likes

Beautiful!!!

3 Likes