FAQs ON THE QAF!

How do you turn your soil? With a garden fork? You didn’t mention that in your book.
I turn my soil with a shovel, most of the time. I do use a garden fork when I’m mixing compost, especially when the compost has some straw in it, or it just isn’t quite finished, so I need to break up the clumps a bit. After I turn my beds, I try not to disturb them for as long as I can manage. I do a lot of stump farming – cutting the old plants down at ground level rather than pulling them and planting alongside the old plants stumps – especially with legumes which you want to keep those nitrogen rich roots in the soil. I also figure that there is an entire community underground, from microbes to fungi, to insects that are doing work for me just below the surface and I don’t want to disturb them.

I wanted to ask you where you buy livestock panels from. I would like to try that as a barrier to keep the chickens out of the planted areas.
I’ve purchased panels from farming supply companies around the area, and also from places like Lowes. The prices for these panels vary hugely from store to store – so shop around. I also figure in the delivery fee into the price, (they are 12 feet long – so too much for my little car to handle) and that often makes a difference in choosing where to get the things.

What would you plant on a 1.32% of an acre farm? I already have a small patch of herbs and tomatoes and my husband is allergic to beans and peas. What’s left that would fit in my tiny yard?
If it were me I would plant fruit trees in a mini orchard along one side, then plant the food you love to eat. For me, for summer crops, that is tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes, then eggplant, cucumbers, cantelope and watermelons, summer and winter squash (try Kubota!) peppers, and, of course, lots and lots of flowers.

If you had never composted before (but had all the knowledge you have from having composted! — Oh! if life were only that easy!) and you lived, as I do, in a suburban neighborhood, which composter would you purchase?
I love my Smith and Hawken black plastic multi-level lidded composter because it is easy for me to take one level off the top, place it to the side, then fork the compost on top of the remaining levels to the side, removing levels, rebuilding the composter to the side as I go. When I get to the bottom, I put the old (finished) compost into a separate pile. The composter has lasted me for a dozen years so far, with no sign of failure. I think they are kind of expensive…though I got mine through a composting program in San Diego. (and lots of people give up on composting so you might try Craig’s list as well)

 

How do you get rid of squash bugs? (my nemesis)
So far, I don’t have much of a problem – but one of the things I do is when I see the stippled leaves I cut them off before they get too bad. Though the adult squash bugs are not likely to be eradicated that way, I think it helps the over-all health of the plant, and does get rid of the eggs. (you can search the underside of the leaves for the bronze-colored, football-shaped eggs and rip the piece of the leaf off that they’re “glued” to as well…don’t remove orange spindle-shaped eggs- those are ladybird eggs) If you put boards down in your garden, the squash bugs like to hide underneath so you can lift the boards in the mornings and wreak havoc on the population (and likely snails and slugs as well). Some cucurbits are resistant to squash bugs, so you might want to watch for that when shopping for plants. Good luck!

What is your worst pest?
Plant pest – bindweed. Makes me gnash my teeth just thinking of it. Insect pest…apple borers!

Do you keep your chickens etc out of the garden area?

How do you process your olives for oil?

How do you process your olives for oil?
I haven’t used my olives for oil, I like to eat them too much. I have thought about it – and have a cider press that I thought I might squash a few olives in. If I manage to try that this winter, I’ll blog about it!

How can you tell a melon is perfect for picking? I always end up with them too green or too ripe.
I sympathize! I have wasted many a melon by not picking them in the window of perfection. The thing is different kinds of melons show that they are ripe in different ways. Melons that have a netted texture on their skins, like cantelopes, are the easiest to tell when ripe, for they give themselves to you…that is, they slip off their stems with just a little tugging. Other ways they show ripeness are the yellowing of the (formerly greenish) skin under the netted texture, and a sweet smell.
Smooth textured melons such as honeydew do not slip off their stems. You can tell when they are ripe by the way their skin, which feels slightly hairy when unripe, loses that hairy feeling and instead feels waxy and hard. If you shake them, you can hear the seeds rattle, and they, too, smell sweet when ripe.
Watermelons lose the contrast between their stripes when ripe – and that spot underneath, where they sit on the ground, it turns from pale green to white, and finally to cream colored when ripe. A ripe watermelon sounds hollow when thumped.

Do you ever leave volunteer veggies in other beds?
I used to – I love a volunteer. But now I am more likely to pull it as I can’t be certain what the plant is going to be. I plant a fair number of hybrids and so have found (as in cherry tomatoes, for instance) the volunteer plants will not produce the lovely fruit nor the numbers of the plants that I planted purposely. I let potatoes volunteer, however. When I get tired of them being there, I dig them up and almost always get a few baby gems to add to a meal.

Have you ever tried solar cooking?

When I worked in archeology we used to put frozen burritos on the dashboard in the morning, and then by lunchtime in the Mojave, the thing was bubbling…I suppose that doesn’t really count as cooking – especially with a frozen burrito!

 

 

 

Do you have a list of “deep root” and “shallow root” veggies that you group together for irrigation?
Here’s a link to a chart for both root depth and the above ground height of foliage at plant maturity.
http://www.harvestwizard.com/2009/04/interplanting_vegetables_root.html

As a brand new gardener and compost maker, what is the best way to get the good compost from the bottom of the heap?? Just dig & scoop? I have a tube style thing.

I would pull the tube off the compost, set it along side, then fork over the stuff on the top of your pile to the new tube location. When you get to the bottom layer, there’s your finished compost. I only turn my compost this way once, or maybe twice a year. I like to leave my pile to decompose in peace until I have need of some good dirt, usually in the spring.

Once spinach, lettuce or mustard or broccoli raab has gone to seed – what greens would you recommend using for succession planting? Or, what’s your favorite drought tolerant, heat tolerant edible leafy green to plant in June/July?
My very favorite heat/drought resistant greens are lamb’s tongue, sorrel, and heat tolerant spinach. Lamb’s tongue is mild and re-seeds itself with abandon, as does sorrel. Sorrel has a lemony bright taste and further, makes a wonderful sauce.

My wife and I are tomato lovers. What is the correct usage of epsom salts?
The short answer is – it depends on your soil. If you have enough magnesium and sulfur in your soil you don’t want to be adding epsom salts…
Read this link (look for Termator’s response) for an informative look at the history and science of epsom salts. It should answer all your questions.

What should you have in place before bringing home chicks and ducklings?
Chicks and ducklings will need heat, water, food and a very safe place to live. Chicks and ducklings get chilled easily, but also get overheated – so the heat source (we use a clamp lamp with a heat bulb) needs to afford plenty of space so that the babies can get closer to the light if they are cold, but also cool off by distancing themselves from the heat source. You should buy food formulated for chicks or ducklings. Often there are antibiotics in chick start that will make ducklings sick, so be wary. If you can’t find duckling start, we have used turkey start (antibiotic free) instead. Food should be in special dishes that look something like a space ship, with portholes all around. It helps keep the chicks from stepping, sleeping, and pooing in the food. Water should be available at all times. It is best served in a hanging water dish so that the chicks do not drown. Ducklings do not need water to swim, in fact it is best that they stay landlubbers until they are several weeks old.
Finally – make sure that cats, kids, dogs, hawks, skunks, raccoons, parrots, opossums, etc, cannot get to your new babies. Tiny things are soo fragile.

Did you know you would keep it up, when you first set out to live this way? Do you still weigh your food? Do you still eat zucchini? That was brutal, how much of that you had to eat at the beginning. Oh, here’s a new question: do you offer tours ever? I’d love to see everything that I’ve enjoyed reading about. Thanks!
I hoped I would keep it up, though I have to admit I was not certain I was going to be able to feed myself much less my family off the farm. I do still eat zucchini, I don’t still weigh my food. I was so happy to put the kitchen scale away after the year, every so often I open the cupboard and look at it and just feel so happy I don’t have to use it! I often have people stop by and look at the farm. I always worry that they are disappointed, that they think, “Hey, this is just a yard with a heckofalotta veg planted in it.” But, I guess that’s the point, right?

Does the lawn really go away, once mulched?
Some lawn goes away better than others. I have bermuda grass, and I still get tendrils snaking out from under the mulch…but it is pretty easy to pull, and if I keep an eye out for it and don’t let it burgeon, I keep it down. Other grasses are much easier to kill with mulch, and generally, stays away. A lot of the grass that will come back, comes back because of seed on the top of the mulch carried by cat, or dog, or bird, or wind. Again, much easier to pull when the place is well mulched!
What is the quickest and most effective way to remove the sod so that we can replace it with our chicken compost-rich soil?
I’ve covered my grass with cardboard then kept 18 inches of mulch on the top of it, but you can also rent a sod remover which will slice the stuff off like fudge frosting off a cake. It gives you a bit of a head start.

What would be better for eating slugs, grubs, and other nasties in the soil. A duck or chicken?
Both would love them…a duck wandering around your garden does a lot less damage, however. A chicken loose in the garden digs holes that you won’t believe – scratching up plants to get at all those slugs, grubs, beetles and the like. Some chickens, the kind with feathered feet, are reported to be a lot less likely do scratch and dig, but I’d have to see it to believe it!