The Funny Farm gets its Stripes

We live in the suburbs remember. About 2 weeks after we moved in, our friend Kim, Robin and I were sitting out back on the screen porch drinking beer and attempting to solve the world's problems like we always do when we look down and saw a well dressed man walk around the corner of the house. We all walked down to greet him. He said he was a neighbor and welcomed us to the neighborhood. Then he proceeded to tell us that everyone in the 'hood kept their yards well manicured and that in the past they all had to get together and clean up our next door neighbors' yard because it was too messy. We politely nodded and said unhuh, thanks for stopping by and the man left. As soon as he was out of earshot Kim cracked up laughing. She said while we were talking to the guy she looked down at my bare feet and saw that my toenails were painted bright purple. ( may arms are covered in tattoos as well). She said it was only with tremendous effort that she was able to restrain herself from telling the guy that despite my appearance I'm not all that crazy and weird. 

Don't bet on it dude.

Today I tilled in the rye cover crop in the front yard, thats right front yard, in anticipation of planting tomatoes, peppers, squash and beans. Will the neighbors freak out? Probably. Do i care? Nope.

When they taste my organically grown vegetables they'll see the beauty in what we are doing. Maybe some of them will be inspired to convert their own chemical drenched, energy gobbling, lawns to a more sustainable, productive use as well. I truly hope so.

Beauty in in the eyes of the beholder, right?

"SHROOMS & MATERS

I went to the community garden today to harvest the last of the tomatos before the first frost comes tonight or tomorrow night. I got about 10 pounds in various stages of ripeness. Some of the green ones we'll fry up and some that are closer to ripe i'll wrap in newspaper and let ripen in the dark.
The excitement of the day though was discovering a big patch of oyster mushrooms. That was totally unexpected. I'd found flushes of them several times this year in the same place growing on the stump of a pawlonia tree that was cut down 3 years ago when we had an old house demolished to make room to expand the garden.
We'll be eating well for the next few days.
That just increased my excitement about going to Washington state next week to learn how to cultivate mushrooms from Paul Stamets and his crew at Fungi Perfecti.

Making Progress at The Funny Farm

I planted some top hat blueberries this afternoon. They are a dwarf variety developed at Oregon State U. They are self-fertile so they will produce fruit on their own without the need to plant a second variety. They will grow about 2' tall and wide. It will take about 3 years for them to start producing a significant crop.
Behind the beautiful tomato plant that may or may not produce ripe fruit before frost (think fried green tomatoes though) is a nice cover crop stand in the flower field. We planted annual rye grass and red clover.
It has rained just enough that we have been able to water everything with rain water except for a couple of days a couple of weeks ago. We purchased 2 275 gal. tanks really inexpensively and are in the process of getting them set up which will increase our rain water harvesting capacity to over 700 gallons. With the complete ban on outdoor watering that is a blessing.
Lets do a rain dance so we can fill those puppies up!