Cultivate Simple: Lost in the Jungle
We will return to our regularly scheduled podcast next Sunday, as much as we wanted to record one this past week, it wasn’t feasible since we were traveling. You’ll hear all about it next Monday as we will be filling you in the details on episode 19.
Sorry for any hiccups that have occurred on the blog over the past 10 days, Mr Chiots and I have been in South America. We traveled down on the 8th, after a flight cancellation we ended up on the red eye to Bogota arriving at 6:30 am on Saturday morning. As you can imagine, it was not pleasant.
My dad picked us up at the airport and we were off down through the mountains onto the prairie below. It’s a beautiful drive, more about it later. We met the rest of our group, 7 others, at a camp for a week of work. Mr Chiots I were on hand for filming and photographing.
From our cabin, we could see some jungle, we enjoyed watching the howler monkeys one morning and lots of wild parrots and toucans. The temperatures were in the 90’s during the day and the 80’s at night. Thankfully, it wasn’t humid.
Today, we’re actually on a flight back to the US, at least hopefully we are. This post was quickly scheduled on Saturday night when we were in the capital city in between events. You’ll be hearing more about our trip in the coming weeks, I’ll even share the links to the videos we made.
Have you traveled anywhere tropical in your life? Where & when did you go?
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Quote of the Day: Rudolph Steiner
“So long as one feeds on foods from unhealthy soil, the spirit will lack the stamina to free itself from the prison of the body.”
Rudolph Steiner from What Is Biodynamics?: A Way to Heal and Revitalize the Earth
Over the past month, I’ve been reading about ways to improve the soil. I want to make sure the soil I’m growing my food in is as healthy as it can be, because that in turn will provide the healthiest vegetables for my plate. I’m trying to come up with the best plant to remineralize this soil with minimal inputs and maximum benefits.
I’ll write more in the future about what I decide to so, most likely it will involve lots of compost, animal manure, green manure, beneficial microbial additions and rock/mineral powders. I’m debating on whether or not I want or need to get a soil test completed or if I just want to add beneficial amendments and let the soil balance itself out over the coming years. I really want to focus on watching the plants as they grow to learn to read them.
What’s your favorite way to grow the soil in your garden?
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Clinging to Life
If you remember, last summer I purchased two lovely Hedgehog Aloes for my front porch. They were the perfect plants, they looked beautiful and thrived in the tough conditions on our front porch.
When we made our last trip to Maine, one of them was throw in the moving truck (the other stayed behind with a neighbor). We put it on the back porch with the intent of bringing it indoors. The weather turned cold and I completely forgot.
OOOOPPPPSSSSS. Thankfully, I realized it in the nick of time. The plant was frozen solid, but not enough to kill it. It’s now residing in our living room barely clinging to life.
I need to cut back the frostbitten foliage and it will look a little better. I’m confident it will pull through. Perhaps by the end of this summer it will once again be a stunning feature in the garden.
Have you ever forgotten to bring in a prize plant?
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Friday Favorite: Seedling Heating Mat
A week or two ago I pulled my seedling heating mat out of storage. When I first got into seed starting, my mom gave me her old one that was 9″ x 19-1/2″ (the size of one seed tray). My warm soil loving seeds were much happier; they germinated quicker and at a much higher percentage rate. After that first season, I knew I needed a larger one.
The next winter, I bit the bullet and ordered a large heating mat, one that will fit 4 trays of seeds.
It’s probably the best money I’ve spend when it comes to starting seeds, worth every single penny. Since all my seeds are started in the cold basement, the soil temperature never goes above 55 degrees or so. As a result, many seeds were slow to germinate, especially my favorite – ONIONS! I could probably rotate seedling trays around our wood burner, the air is so dry I’d have to monitor them more closely. Let’s not even talk about the annoyance of having 10 flats of seeds in the kitchen or the chiots who loves to eating potting soil.
When using a heating mat, you have to be watchful of soil moisture levels as the soil dries out much more quickly. Plastic domes over the flats are a must to help retain moisture. I turn off the heating mat when about 25% of the seeds have germinated because it’s no longer needed.
I haven’t noticed an increase in my electric bill when using a heating mat, it doesn’t draw that much power. The higher germination rate of seeds would more than make up for the cost. If you’re new to seed starting, I’d highly recommend considering a heating mat for your seeds, it will make your seed starting experience so much better!
Do you use heat when starting seeds?
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Footprints of Life
A couple weeks ago we had a bit of a warmup. As a result, the driveway melted a bit and every thing that crossed the driveway left it’s mark.
When I went out to check on the chickens the next morning, the driveway was once again frozen solid and the traffic patterns of the previous day were preserved.
It was wonderful to see all the different prints left behind by: human, vehicle, dog, duck, chicken and cat. There is certainly a lot of life here at Chiot’s Run!
What’s your favorite animal track to spot?
