So, today I finished purchasing the last of my recently acquired Opuntia cacti. I will post pics when I have them all planted. But I have managed to obtain mostly spineless varieties and even got to harvest a couple of pads from my next door neighbor's unwanted plant behind her fence. Pretty cool, right?
If you don't know the prickly pear cactus is an amazing plant! You can harvest the pads and make edible Nopales (kinda like a cross between okra and a green bean) that you can eat in eggs, with meat, or as a side dish! There are lots of medical advantages being researched too. Like, for instance the ability to help level your blood sugar. These pads have been sliced open and applied to wounds and burns (sunburns especially) and even to breasts to ease discomfort due to breast feeding. The mucilaginous quality of this plant can be a little disconcerting, but it has great applications!
The Prickly Pear has long been known as a fruity treat in the Southwest as well as along the Mediterranean where it has naturalized. Prickly Pear originated in the South and Central Americas and has migrated over seas to Europe, Asia, and Africa! The fruit is high in antioxidants and you can find Prickly Pear jelly, juice, syrup, and wine online and in some ethnic super markets. The fruits come in colors ranging from yellow to green, red, orange, magenta and deep purple. For centuries this plant has played a major role in Indian cooking and cuisine. The fruits were used fresh and dried and the seeds were often parched and ground up for use as a flour.
This family of cactus is marvelous! Not only is it good as fodder (assuming your livestock can handle the glochids and avoid spines; some ranchers burn them off to assist their livestock in consumption), but they are great sources of water in dry times. One study noted that sheep could live for somewhere from 5 - 8 months without water when a significant source of Opuntia was present!
Now, don't get me wrong, in some areas, this guy has definitely become invasive, but the benefits of this plant to the agricultural world is really amazing if more folks were educated about it's advantages and uses! In the older days, here in the southwest, ranchers and homesteaders would often use these spiny plants as living fences. They're pretty formidable against man and beast (some of the varieties can have spines in excess of 3 inches!!!) What a great way to keep out coyotes and other predators as well as providing a readily available source of fodder and human food in hard times.
Well, that's all for now. I'll post pics of my planted pads once I receive them all and get them all potted up!
Happy Planting!
-The Heiress
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Sunday, July 3, 2011
A Happy Helper in the Garden
Hey there!
Today I found a really adorable little helper: A baby Praying Mantis! These guys are excellent predators for many garden pests! I've never seen one so tiny! I spied him sitting on a leaf of one of my many mint plants. He's adorable and very wary of my closeness, so I had to zoom in to get a shot of him. Check it out:
The discovery of this little guy has served to confirm a belief I hold in gardening: A healthy garden will resolve it's own problems if you provide good soil and proper planting mix. Thrips have been taking over my mint bed for a month or so now. I am tempted to use an organic soap to kill them off. I have a few spider mites too in the Lime Mint. I hesitate to do this because I have mason bees and other smaller bees visiting the mint flowers and I don't want to do anything to take away their food source or, worse, possibly harm them even with an organic soap or spray.
In an extreme situation, I would possibly cut the mints down almost to the ground and spray the soil and small stems I left to save the bed (since mints are perennial and not an annual crop). I was waiting until this fall to see if the problem will resolve itself on its own. It may be resolving now. I have spied lady bugs and the praying mantis and the new leaves sprouting on the mints aren't being sucked dry by the thrips, either. The only reason I would use any kind of spray in the garden would be if the thrips were to spread to other beds in the garden and I was afraid they would pose a serious risk to the crop. As it is, things are getting better each day and I hope I won't have to resort to sprays and still keep my mints!
On to other topics: I have a new garden video out too that I'll link later. The bush beans are holding strong and the pink okra are blooming like crazy lately. I'm very grateful for any real production in the garden this year with 21 days of 100+ degree weather. All my crops have been under a LOT of stress and I'm glad for anything that is hanging in there.
I've been hunting for new methods of fertilizing the garden organically. Rabbit droppings are said to be great and don't need to cure. You can put it straight on without fear of burning your plants! Awesome, huh? Sadly, I don't have access to rabbit droppings currently and it's hard to keep the compost up in this weather. To be honest, I've been having to MAKE myself go water the garden because the heat warns me off so well. If it wasn't for my husband watering in the morning when I am being hesitant, the garden would probably be dead.
That's all for now. Here's the video link:
Garden Video #7
Praying Baby Mantis
Happy Gardening and God Bless!
-The Heiress
Today I found a really adorable little helper: A baby Praying Mantis! These guys are excellent predators for many garden pests! I've never seen one so tiny! I spied him sitting on a leaf of one of my many mint plants. He's adorable and very wary of my closeness, so I had to zoom in to get a shot of him. Check it out:
The discovery of this little guy has served to confirm a belief I hold in gardening: A healthy garden will resolve it's own problems if you provide good soil and proper planting mix. Thrips have been taking over my mint bed for a month or so now. I am tempted to use an organic soap to kill them off. I have a few spider mites too in the Lime Mint. I hesitate to do this because I have mason bees and other smaller bees visiting the mint flowers and I don't want to do anything to take away their food source or, worse, possibly harm them even with an organic soap or spray.
In an extreme situation, I would possibly cut the mints down almost to the ground and spray the soil and small stems I left to save the bed (since mints are perennial and not an annual crop). I was waiting until this fall to see if the problem will resolve itself on its own. It may be resolving now. I have spied lady bugs and the praying mantis and the new leaves sprouting on the mints aren't being sucked dry by the thrips, either. The only reason I would use any kind of spray in the garden would be if the thrips were to spread to other beds in the garden and I was afraid they would pose a serious risk to the crop. As it is, things are getting better each day and I hope I won't have to resort to sprays and still keep my mints!
On to other topics: I have a new garden video out too that I'll link later. The bush beans are holding strong and the pink okra are blooming like crazy lately. I'm very grateful for any real production in the garden this year with 21 days of 100+ degree weather. All my crops have been under a LOT of stress and I'm glad for anything that is hanging in there.
I've been hunting for new methods of fertilizing the garden organically. Rabbit droppings are said to be great and don't need to cure. You can put it straight on without fear of burning your plants! Awesome, huh? Sadly, I don't have access to rabbit droppings currently and it's hard to keep the compost up in this weather. To be honest, I've been having to MAKE myself go water the garden because the heat warns me off so well. If it wasn't for my husband watering in the morning when I am being hesitant, the garden would probably be dead.
That's all for now. Here's the video link:
Garden Video #7
Praying Baby Mantis
Happy Gardening and God Bless!
-The Heiress
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