Mini earth oven

We have been wanting to build an earth oven for a while, and we decided to try and make a "mini" oven this weekend to test out our building soil and our technique. It was a lot of fun, and we were so impressed by how easy it was, that we are going to start the foundation for a bigger one soon. The book we are using is Build Your Own Earth Oven by Kiko Denzer.

We arranged some large pavers on a wood base and built our sand dome on top of that:

Mixing the clay/sand mixture to the right consistency - the kids' favorite part:

Adding the clay/sand mixture over the sand dome.

Somewhere in the middle of this, it started pouring down rain - woo hoo! We kept the oven dry with an umbrella.

Cutting the door and scooping out the sand mold:


Then we lit a fire to help dry out the inside.

We hope to be able to fire it up later this weekend and cook a few mini pizzas. This oven is not insulated, so we don't expect it to hold heat for very long, but we'll see! More to come!

It looks like a garden again because...

...beds are filling up with plants:...the tomato plants are getting flowers:
...peppers are growing:....kids are getting muddy :-)

The weed you can eat

Wild Purslane is usually seen as a weed. When A first started exploring our backyard, he discovered some and dubbed it "the alien plant". It does look a little weird - big fat leaves, red stem, and teeny tiny yellow flowers. I never thought too much about it - I always pulled it up and disposed of it. It grew like crazy and came back all over the place.

A couple years later, A wanted to know what the alien plant was really called. So, we researched, and, after a trip to the local nursery, discovered that it was purslane. And we found out that you can eat it. A promptly tried a leaf, then immediately spit it out. I asked him what he was expecting, and he said "not that". It does have a somewhat bitter taste, but we rarely eat it by itself. We cook it with eggs, soups, and sometimes we put it in our stir fry.

Turns out that purslane has really high amounts of omega-3's. So it's also good for you.

And not all purslane is wild. Some purslane is sold at nurseries as a ground cover. Here's a picture of one currently growing in my garden:
Purslane is extremely drought tolerant, so it has been flourishing in my yard. The one above gets chomped on regularly. It seems to have juicier leaves compared to our wild ones:
Although, with more water, the leaves on the wild plants will get pretty juicy, too. But I rarely water the purslane. Unless I'm planning on eating it. Below is an example of purslane that does not get watered (and it also gets walked on):
When it gets damaged, the leaves turn a sort of purple color. And the red stems really stick out. I think it does look a little like an alien plant.

What's currently growing?

Or better yet, what is trying to grow. The weather people are expecting lower temps next week - only a high of 95 degrees - woo hoo! I'm tired of these long 100 degree weeks. I want my garden back!

Alright, off my soapbox.

Here are the seeds I started about a month ago. I've been keeping them in trays which I keep filled with about an inch of water, so they stay moist. They also only get morning sun, and they are pretty much shaded after 1pm.

TomatoesSome peppers - these are cayenne:The yellow cucumbers are doing surprisingly well:And here is our cotton plant. I'm hoping to overwinter these guys. Not sure it can be done, but we'll see.And here is proof of our flood! We are using this to try and solarize the soil and kill the virus that sent our tomato plants to an early death. And for some reason, the kids get a really big kick out of playing on outdoor carpet.

hmmmm....

I couldn't think of a title. I have ignored this blog for over a month! Lots of unpredictable events have unfolded these past weeks (the biggest one being a minor flood in our hallway and bathroom, resulting in carpet being pulled out and tile installed - all done by me and my DH).

I'm planning to bring this blog back to life. Well, as least wake it up from it's sleep, anyways. I have started seedlings (I don't care that it's too hot!), and have been taking cuttings and have started amending soil beds for the fall garden.

Seeds started:
Red Zebra toms
Illini star toms
Cayenne peppers
Unknown chili piquin peppers (super hot!)
Cotton (planted really late, I know, but the kids and I did a lesson on cotton, so it seemed appropriate that we plant cotton seeds).

I'll have pictures soon!

Summer heatwave update

"It's so hot. Ya wanna be lazy. So hot. It will almost drive you crazy."

Anyone remember Teddy Ruxpin? Thanks to my sister (who listened to him almost every night) , I have that song memorized, and it's been popping into my head lately.

Well, we did get some good rain one day this week. It didn't last long, but it did fill up our rain barrels that my husband had just finished a couple days before. Yea! Now I want more barrels. With the 100+ degree days we've been having, I'm going to use up all the water fairly quickly.

We have a few plants that are still growing/producing, but most everything seems to have stalled. Our asparagus beans are still producing. I even put some new seeds in the ground last week and they have sprouted and seem to be taking off.Our gourds are also taking off. While our pumpkin leaves are wilting in this heat, the gourd plants are doing really well.A is posing with his bottle gourd. He wants to make his own berimbau which is an instrument used in capoeira. He's really excited that it's growing fairly quickly.Our gourds are currently being attacked by cucumber beetles. Normally, they enjoy our cucumber plants, but since it's too hot for those, they have moved onto our gourd flowers. So, we've been spraying garlic spray and squishing the ones we can see - here is A in action:It's a shame, because they can be such pretty bugs.

Short break & first figs!

Sorry for the long absence. I had a run-in with the lawn mower and a piece of bale wire. Needless to say, I didn't win, and I am now nursing a lower leg injury.

So, I haven't been in the garden for almost a week. I've been having the kids water. This was the week I was going to start sheet mulching most of the raised beds (since it's too hot to grow anything right now).

Until then, I will be posting older pics of past going-ons in the garden. Enjoy!

First figs!