Sacred Garden Sanctuary - Sacred Garden Sanctuary News

Sacred Garden Sanctuary Newsletter: February 2014

Edwin — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 15:57:40 +0000

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In this Issue

Happy Valentine's Day!

January and early February have been much warmer than average, with overnight lows still occasionally reaching below freezing, but daytime highs in the 60's and 70's. In January, the Bisbee Farmer's Market gave us an all-time record for gross sales, and sales have continued to be above previous levels for this time of year.

Building Update

Rocco rewired electricity to the campers, swapping out the old 12V source for 110V, and we now have lights in all campers and the toilet house.

Chris fixed Edwin's gate and built up the stone higher around it for more stability. With help from John he also built a large wood-fired oven which he plans to bake lots of bread in.

Plans have been made to integrate the two pairs of campers and add another shower and outdoor kitchens, and completing the pond walls and shade structure.

Chris, with help from John, has built a wood-fired oven out of an old dryer, plus rock and mortar. He's still putting the final touches on it. Home-made bread is in our future!
.

Members and Guests

Gordon is our latest guest, and is likely to become a member when the 90-day probation period is over. He brought his dog scout, who needs some training but is adjusting to life on the Sanctuary. Gordon brings with him skills in landscaping and gardening, and is creative with arts and crafts. Gordon came with his friend Cathy, and is currently away, taking Cathy back to California.

Chris received a cat, named Monty (short for Monster), from our friends Shane and Beth. He's turning out not to be a monster after all.

The Garden

The Farmer's Market

We had all-time record sales on the 18th of January, and good sales since. The salad mix has not sold as well as expected on some market days. We are improving quality control of the salad mixes. We are selling salad mix, which is just lettuce, and spring mix, which is our salad mix with some mustard, tatsoi, and kale mixed in. We plan to add other greens to the spring mix as well.

Crop Production

We are continuing succession plantings of lettuce, kale, spinach. Fava beans and snow peas are still blooming but have not yet produced pods. Soon it will be time to start planting crops for spring and summer. In fact, we have already planted onions and other crops.

The cows have finally stopped challenging our fence, thanks to the ranchers fixing their well. The cows now have their own adequate source of water.

We are continuing to dig new beds in the upper garden, as seen on the right, and then we will dig more beds in the lower garden until we have at least 50 beds. Currently we have 39 beds. We have the drip system in place in the upper garden and will extend it as we add more beds on a second terrace.

Perennials

Gordon trimmed the fruit trees, and did a fine job. We plan to plant more apricots and other bearing perennials in March.

Self-Sufficiency Projects

We have developed plans for solar hot water and a solar dehydrator. We will be constructing those in March and April.

We have an interest-free loan for solar pump repair and now need to get the repair kit ordered so we can get back on solar. Once back on solar water pumping, we plan to get a washing machine and use the generator to run it, which will no longer be required for the well pump.

Other News

Other Happenings

The drip system parts for the upper garden have been purchased and are being installed.
We now have 5 planted beds in the upper garden and are digging more.
The Douglas Mercado is undergoing a rebirth. All current board members (including Edwin) have resigned and the Mercado will move to Friday evenings when it re-opens this spring. We do not plan to sell at the Mercado this year, but will monitor it and may open a booth there next year.

On the agenda for this month:

Continue selling produce at the Bisbee market
Continue succession plantings as needed and plant spring/summer crops
Continue digging new beds
Finish installing drip system for upper garden beds
Build outdoor kitchen(s)
Plumb Edwin's bathtub.
Work on pond walls and shade structure.
Continue to look into aquaponics, talapia culture, and design the system
Repair road as needed

Please Spread the Word

If you know of anyone who has a pioneer spirit and is interested in community, permaculture and ecology, organic gardening, living simply, and personal growth, please pass the word by directing them to http://sacredgardensanctuary.org and encourage them to subscribe to this newsletter.

Wishing you peace and love -

Edwin Basye, Steward

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Sacred Garden Sanctuary News

Sacred Garden Sanctuary Newsletter: January 2014

Edwin — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 22:25:52 +0000

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In this Issue

Happy New Year!

After a very mild fall, winter has been generally mild, with overnight lows occasionally reaching below freezing. While cold weather can be problematic for pipes which may freeze and break, and cold extremities when working outside, it does solve a lot of pest problems. The grasshoppers are finally gone! Even though we use insect netting and Agribon, some hoppers always manage to get in to the beds and cause damage. Some of our crops had to be replanted several times.

Building Update

Prtvi took on the task of plastering the inside of the dome, and finished most of the first layer before she left for warmer climes.

Rocco wired up a plug for the pond pumps so we no longer need to run an extension cord.

Chris has put a door on the shower house and is working on rock-and-mortar around the pond as well as a shade structure for it.

Members and Guests

Prtvi was here for most of the fall, and helped out in the garden as well as the plastering mentioned above. Thank you Prtvi!

We also had Christy stay for a few weeks, and he really helped out getting the garden back into shape. Thanks Christy!

Chris W, who was here several years ago, has returned and brought along his friends Rocco and John Chris & Rocco plan to stay and make their home here.


Chris	Rocco	John

Rocco also bought his dog D-O-G, who is a lab/retriever mix and loves to fetch sticks. She has also made herself useful by chasing cows off and killing gophers.

We may soon get a visit from a couple bringing their own RV, who are traveling and visiting various communities.

The Garden

The Farmer's Market

The Bisbee Farmer's Market resumes on January 18.

Crop Production

We will have lots of greens to bring to the Bisbee market on the 18th. The lettuce has been producing well, and we have been planting more. We have also planted much more kale and should be able to harvest from some of the new beds. . The stir-fry greens have been getting much larger during the winter break. Fava beans and snow peas are blooming and should produce pods soon. Our potted tomato plants are doing well in our cold frame under the camper, and Rocco plans to clone them for faster tomato production this spring.

The cows got into the garden and wiped out our experimental winter wheat. We have since reinforced our fencing.

Perennials

We trimmed our Chinaberry trees to make them grow more upright. We plan to trim the fruit trees in the next week.

Self-Sufficiency Projects

This year we still plan to build at least one solar oven, a solar veggie/fruit drier, and solar hot water heater.

Rocco has tested and disassembled the solar pump and has determined it is repairable. We will order a repair kit and get back to solar pumping as soon as we can.

Other News

Other Happenings

The drip systems for the lower garden beds are all installed. Thank you Rocco and John!

On the agenda for this month:

Continue selling produce at the Bisbee market
Continue succession plantings as needed
Continue digging new beds
Install drip system for upper garden beds
A hoop house, if funds permit
Work on pond walls and shade structure
Look into aquaponics, talapia culture
Repair road as needed
Issue next newsletter early in February

Please Spread the Word

If you know of anyone who has a pioneer spirit and is interested in community, permaculture and ecology, organic gardening, living simply, and personal growth, please pass the word by directing them to http://sacredgardensanctuary.org and encourage them to subscribe to this newsletter.

Wishing you peace and love -

Edwin Basye, Steward

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Sacred Garden Sanctuary News

Sacred Garden Sanctuary Newsletter for July, 2013

Edwin — Fri, 19 Jul 2013 17:19:47 +0000

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In this Issue

Welcome to Monsoon Season! There has been record rainfall in July so far, and one storm was the most violent I have experienced since coming to Arizona in 2003. It seems that climate change is favoring us with more rain. The big storm caused a big flood, washing out part of the road that had been stable for many years, and obliterating most of the gabions amd check dams in the main gully, and the earthen dam near the well. It may take years to rebuild them all. We will use different methods and structures that will be more robust and resistant to washing out, and will start at the top boundary of the land so the flood can't build up as much momentum as it flows down. There has been rain most days so far in July, and water is still flowing half-way down the gully and going into the ground. This will help recharge the water table, which I was beginning to be concerned about, given the reduced pumping rate from the well we were seeing in June.

Building Update

The garden storage building has been carpeted and the back temporarily sealed to keep rats out. We will be further sealing up and insulating the holes we were going to use for egg drops when it was a chicken coop.

Members and Guests

Dan & Niki have left the Sanctuary for personal reasons, leaving on amicable terms. Thank you Dan & Niki for all you did for the Sanctuary!

That currently leaves only me (Edwin), but there's good news: Michael Moore (not the film director) from California will be joining me on the 31st, so we will have a real "community" once again soon. It will be great to have Michael helping out with the harvesting and vending at the Farmer's Market in Bisbee. More about Moore in the next newsletter.

The Garden

The Farmer's Markets

I (Edwin) harvested on my own this past week, and did not harvest quite as much as usual. Still I did about 80% of normal sales. This week I brought more to the market to try to reach previous levels of sales, and succeeded. There was a little less competition this week also, since some vendors don't come every week.

I plan to bring more produce to the Douglas Mercado this Sunday, the 21st.

Crop Production

The bean crop is doing gangbusters this week, and the summer squash and cucumbers are also abundant. There was large harvest of lettuce and kale as well, today. The okra and tomatoes are just starting to produce but won't be money makers of significance until at least next week. The melons are starting to set fruit, and the winter squash is doing better with the rains.

Mixed lettuce and kale continue to be the staple crops, and the monsoon rains plus added compost last time the beds were dug. have made the lettuce especially lush (see below).

I planted a new bed of red potatoes. It's time to replant more spinach, stir-fry mix, and lettuce. I am working on widening an existing bed and will be digging up an old lettuce bed to replant. The tomatoes which produce medium-sized fruit were planted late and will not be producing for at least a few more weeks.

Perennials

The chinaberries have continued to shoot up, thanks to all the rain. Some have grown a foot in the last month, and even the smaller ones are starting to take off.

I solved the fruit tree drip system problem, it was a clogged filter. The existing system is adequate after all, without splitting it into two circuits.

I also extended the chinaberry tree circuit in the upper level, distributing water to newly planted trees.

Self-Sufficiency Projects

With Dan and Niki leaving I've been playing catchup, so the solar oven did not get worked on. I bought a few 5-gallon buckets with lids to store food in, and they are in the storage building now. There is rice, whole wheat, beans, and lentils.

Other News

Other Happenings

Sightings of deer and other wildlife nearby. The dogs seem to keep the deer from getting too close.
The hills are greening up thanks to all the rain.
I've partially installed the first drip tape system for the garden beds. Each system will do about 6-9 beds, depending on the length of the beds.

On the agenda for July/August:

Continue selling produce at the Bisbee market
Finish replanting empty beds and continue succession plantings of the summer crops as needed
Weeding, especially the bermuda grass which loves to grow wildly during monsoon season
Continue to obtain more compostable materials
Spread another application of biological control for grasshoppers
Receive Michael into the community and make sure his needs are met.
Start work on finishing the interior of Edwin's dome and/or water heater if time permits
Finish at least the first drip tape system and order parts for a 2nd.
Repair road as needed

Okra

Please Spread the Word

If you know of anyone who has a pioneer spirit and is interested in community, permaculture and ecology, organic gardening, living simply, and personal growth, please pass the word by directing them to http://sacredgardensanctuary.org and encourage them to subscribe to this newsletter.

Wishing you peace and love -

Edwin Basye, Steward

Newsletter:

Sacred Garden Sanctuary News

Sacred Garden Sanctuary Newsletter for June, 2013

Edwin — Sat, 22 Jun 2013 04:10:17 +0000

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In this Issue

Building Update

Edwin will be working to repair the earthen dam using old tires filled with dirt and anchored. This project got delayed last month with much replanting of beds and digging new beds for corn. At the right is one of our many canna lilies planted around 3 sides of our pond.

Members and Guests

We currently no visits scheduled. There remain 3 of us permanent members. We are still helping to sell Kaline's veggie van. It's in nice shape, if any one is looking for a van which runs on veggie oil, please contact us.

The Garden

The Farmer's Markets

We are realizing the need for more diversity in our offerings at The Bisbee Farmer's Market. We would like to have at least 5 best-sellers at the market to boost our income. With better planning we can produce crops that will be sold out and not compete so much with other vendors.

Mixed lettuce and kale are our staple crops, and currently we have summer crops of beans and squash and later, tomatoes and other summer crops. On the left you can see one of our three beds of green beans.

The Douglas Mercado continues to struggle. The peak heat of summer and smoke from fires in Mexico haven't helped the turnout.

Crop Production

We are continuing to plant and harvest mixed lettuce, kale, a few radishes, and our summer crops of corn (at left) tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, summer squash, watermelons, and okra are coming up and growing. We are attempting to grow spinach in one bed with 50% shade cloth. So far so good, the plants look healthy. We planted cantaloupes and winter (butternut) squash. They are not thriving well in the dry heat, but we hope they will take off when the monsoon rains come (soon). Some of our watermelon plants got eaten (probably by mice). Our strawberries have been producing and we have sold a limited quantity at the Bisbee market. We would like to increase production of strawberries significantly for next year.

Perennials

Our oldest pomegranate bush is bearing fruit this year, and will be ripe in September or October. Some of our younger bushes may have a few fruits as well. Our mature apricot trees did have a small crop this year, and we sold out what we had at $5/lb. They were very tasty. Our younger trees still have a few unripe fruits.

You can see in the picture below how the chinaberries have grown. Compare to our April newsletter and you will see the amazing growth. The 3-year-old trees are already 7 to 9 feet tall, and the reeds planted on the left are also just starting to take off. The bamboo-like reeds will provide a nice wind-break even in winter when they are dormant, as well as reed stalks for various purposes: shade, staking plants, etc. Later, when we have sufficient reeds to do more planting we will create more windbreaks and possibly plant them in our main gully to slow down the water flow during monsoons.

Edwin needs to work on the drip system for the fruit trees, as the water pressure is so low after installing more drippers, that the circuit needs to be split in two.

Self-Sufficiency Projects

The solar oven did not get completed for the solar oven cookoff on the 1st, but we still plan to build it. By late summer we would also like to build a solar drier to preserver some summer crops over winter.

Edwin's cow-manure composting project has yielded some decent compost, which has been added to 8 beds. It's working well, except for the fact that seemingly millions of seed sprouts have come up and require more weeding time. The weeds are mostly pigweed.

Other News

Other Happenings

We have increased the number of beds to 25.
We obtained the grasshopper biological control and have spread the first two applications
We are now using the shade cloth on the most heat-sensitive crops such as spinach.
Smoke from fires 30 miles south of the border have reached us but it's not nearly as bad at the Sanctuary as in the town of Douglas.

On the agenda for June/July:

Continue selling produce at the Bisbee market
Finish replanting empty beds and continue succession plantings of our summer crops as needed.
Continue to obtain more compost and compostable materials
Spread a 3rd application of biological control for grasshoppers
Build the solar oven
Fix up the storage building (ex-chicken coop) and move things in.
Start work on finishing the interior of Edwin's dome and/or water heater if time permits
Purchase a drip-tape system for 6 beds if funds permit
Repair last year's damage to swales and earthen dam as time permits

Living in the desert involves many interactions with wildlife. The lizards follow Edwin around as he is watering the beds, and sometimes enjoy a little spray of water, and grab insects as they flee from the water. This guy on the left has gotten very fat on the bugs in our garden.

Please Spread the Word

If you know of anyone who has a pioneer spirit and is interested in community, permaculture and ecology, organic gardening, living simply, and personal growth, please pass the word by directing them to http://sacredsanctuary.org and encourage them to subscribe to this newsletter.

Wishing you peace and love -

Edwin Basye, Steward

Newsletter:

Sacred Garden Sanctuary News

Sacred Garden Sanctuary Newsletter for May, 2013

Edwin — Thu, 16 May 2013 01:41:14 +0000

In this Issue

Building Update

No building activity this month. We have been very busy with spring planting!

Members and Guests

We currently have some possible visits for later in the spring or early summer.

The Garden

The Farmer's Markets

The Bisbee Farmer's Market is still doing OK for us, but there are even more vendors and more competition and we are still looking for more restaurants and retailers to sell to. Our stir-fry crop came back in, so we are selling that along with kale, mixed lettuce, and spinach. Our first radish crop sold well and we are now waiting for the next crop to mature.

Crop Production

We are continuing to plant and harvest mixed lettuce, spinach, kale, snow peas, radishes, and stir-fry mix, and our summer crops of tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, summer squash, watermelons, and okra are coming up and growing. Our snow peas were seriously attacked by leaf-cutter bees untll we covered them. They are now recovering and our 2nd bed of peas is starting to produce as well. We have just planted a bed of corn in the new bed in the upper garden, and will try intercropping with tepary beans for a "two sisters' approach.Still to plant are cantaloupes and more winter (butternut) squash.

Perennials

Our first blooms from a pomegranate we grew from seed have opened, after putting a dressing of cow manure compost around it. We will eventually be doing this for all the pomegranates, as time and material allows.

Our mature apricot trees will have a small crop this year. The fruit is nearly full sized, and we hope they ripen sufficiently before all eaten by hungry birds.

We have planted out the rest of the chinaberry trees which were grown last year in pots. We will be planting more from seed. The 3-year-old trees are growing rapidly and will probably be 8-10 ft. tall by the end of summer.

It looks like one of our olive trees didn't make it, thanks to gophers. The other is hanging in there. The bush cherries look happy.

We obtained some bamboo from David in Bisbee and have planted it. At least four clumps are sending up new shoots.

Self-Sufficiency Projects

The solar oven has been on the back burner but Edwin's goal is still to complete it for the Bisbee Solar Cookoff on June 1.

The solar hot water system for Edwin's bathtub has also been delayed.

We will be continuing to gradually stockpile extra food, mainly grains and beans, and winter squash for emergency food supply. Next year we will start growing potatoes and possibly wheat and oats.

Edwin has started collecting cow manure for composting to save money on soil amendment purchases. So far we have used the composted manure in three beds and as a top-dressing on a few more and around trees and bushes. The manure is treated with EM-1, a effective micro-organisms to speed up decomposition.

Other News

Other Happenings

We have increased the number of beds to 24.
We obtained the grasshopper biological control and have spread the first application
We obtained the shade cloth to protect greens agains summer heat and sun for 4 beds, which will be used on the most heat-sensitive crops such as spinach.

On the agenda for May/June:

Continue selling produce at the Bisbee market
Harvest the garlic
Continue succession plantings of our greens crops as needed
Plant more summer crops: squash, cantaloupe, herbs, corn, and more
Double dig more new beds in the upper garden
Collect more compost and compostable materials
Spread a second application of biological control for grasshoppers
Build the solar oven
Start work on finishing the interior of Edwin's dome and/or water heater if time permits
Purchase a drip-tape system for 6 beds if funds permit
Repair last year's damage to swales and earthen dam as time permits

Please Spread the Word

If you know of anyone who has a pioneer spirit and is interested in community, permaculture and ecology, organic gardening, living simply, and personal growth, please pass the word by directing them to http://sacredsanctuary.org and encourage them to subscribe to this newsletter.

Wishing you peace and love -

Edwin Basye, Steward

Newsletter:

Sacred Garden Sanctuary News

Sacred Garden Sanctuary Newsletter for April, 2013

Edwin — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 02:37:06 +0000

Welcome to Spring!

As many have asked for more frequent issues, we will resume publishing newsletters monthly instead of quarterly.

In this Issue

Building Update

Chicken Coop

We have decided to give away our chickens and use the chicken coop for badly-needed storage. With the high cost of feed, we felt the effort for minimal profit from selling eggs wasn't worth it. Therefore, we won't need to build a chicken yard adjacent to the coop, and won't have to build a separate storage building.

Edwin's Dome

Edwin has cleaned out the dome and the dome is now ready for plastering and plumbing.

Members and Guests

We currently have some possible visits for later in the spring or early summer.

The Garden

The Farmer's Markets

The Bisbee farmer's market is doing well for us, our weekly totals are averaging well above last year's. We continue to sell unsold produce to local retailers at a small discount, when we can. There are more vendors and more competition and are looking for more restaurants and retailers to sell to. Also, we finally purchased a canopy for our farmer's market booth; we've used it for two weeks and it is working out well.

Crop Production

We are continuing to plant and harvest mixed lettuce, spinach, kale, and stir-fry mix which has sold very well for us. We will be cutting back on Romaine because of slow sales. We now removed all the Agribon and are starting to plant summer crops. Our snow peas are starting to produce and we've also had a few radishes.

We have planted summer squash, watermelon, bush beans, and okra, and will be planting many other summer crops in the coming weeks.

We are also leveling a section of the upper garden in preparation of digging some new beds for root vegetables. Our target is to get at least one new bed dug and planted this month.

Self-Sufficiency Projects

Our earlier plantings of chinaberry trees are leafing out and will start producing shade and leaf litter and helping to build soil. We expect them to grow 2 to 3 feet more this year.

We finally found a piece of tempered glass just the right size and shape for a solar oven. We will be building the oven in the next few weeks.

Edwin will be setting up a solar hot water system for his bathtub in the coming month, using a recycled hot water tank to be set in a box similar to a giant solar oven.

We will be continuing to gradually stockpile extra food, mainly grains and beans, for emergency food supply. We will also be planting pumpkins and/or winter squash.

Other News

Other Happenings

Februrary and early March remained cool, and we have some apricots setting on. Our olive trees and bush cherries overwintered well and are waking up along with all the fruit trees. The pomegranates are just starting to leaf out.
We have decided to abandon the highway cleanup adoption as our numbers are few and we have many pressing projects here on the Sanctuary land.
We have planted out some of the chinaberry trees which were grown last year in pots. Some of them died from the cold and some got eaten by rodents.
We have increased the number of beds to 23.

On the agenda for April/May:

Start work on finishing the interior of Edwin's dome
Continue selling produce at the Bisbee market
Continue succession plantings of our greens crops as needed.
Plant summer crops: cucumbers, beans, tomatoes, squash, watermelon, herbs, okra, and more.
Build the enclosure for the chicken yard.
Double dig the new upper garden beds
Collect more compost and compostable materials
Experiment with EM-1 to create quick compost.
Purchase a drip-tape system for 6 beds.
Obtain biological control for grasshoppers.
Obtain shade cloth to protect greens agains summer heat and sun.
Plant more chinaberry trees

Newsletter:

Sacred Garden Sanctuary News

Sacred Garden Sanctuary Newsletter for Winter, 2012

Edwin — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 02:51:25 +0000

Happy Holidays

Due to time constraints, we will be producing the newsletter quarterly for the foreseeable future. Thanks to you all for your interest in our community.

In this Issue

Building Update

Chicken Coop

We have obtained some of the materials for adding an outdoor enclosure onto the chicken coop. We plan to complete this in late winter or early spring.

Edwin's Dome

Edwin hasn't had time to work on the dome interior and is still in the process of clearing his dome and getting ready to start.

Members and Guests

We have some guests scheduled to arrive in the next several weeks.

The Garden

The Farmer's Markets

The Bisbee farmer's market has just concluded for the year, and will resume in the 2nd weekend of January, 2013. Our crops are growing slow in the cold weather, but we still expect to have some excellent greens ready when the market re-opens. We will also be selling some produce to local retail outlets.

Crop Production

We are continuing to plant mixed lettuce, spinach, kale, Romaine lettuce, and will be experimenting with a stir-fry mix. We now have all beds covered in medium-weight Agribon to keep the crops warmer, moister, and protected from the wind.

While our summer crops have finished, we saved a few eggplants and peppers for growing under glass. The eggplants have already produced a few fruits.

Our chickens are laying more eggs now, and producing about 2 dozen per week. The trick was to set a light on a timer in the chicken coop from 6am to 10pm. Since we only have 6 hens, we plan to increase the flock by another 10 or so in the spring.

Self-Sufficiency Projects

We harvested and stored our tepary beans and small red chili beans for winter.

We plan to expand the garden next year so that we will have enough beds to plant storage crops for next winter.

Other News

Other Happenings

The weather has been interesting lately with warm and cool weather coming in cycles. Overall the weather has been much warmer than normal. However, on the morning of Dec 19, we got a dusting of snow.
We completed a fall highway cleanup. Very little trash had accumulated, and we got it done in record time.
Many of our leftover chinaberry trees are under glass for the winter and we expect they will be strong and well-rooted by spring.
We have increased the number of beds to 20.

On the agenda for the winter:

Start work on finishing the interior of Edwin's dome
Continue selling produce at the Bisbee market when it re-opens
Continue succession plantings of our winter crops as needed.
Build the enclosure for the chicken yard.
Expand the number of garden beds to at least 22

Newsletter:

Sacred Garden Sanctuary News

Sacred Garden Sanctuary Newsletter for August, 2012

Edwin — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 22:54:59 +0000

In this Issue

Building Update

The chicken coop nests are finished and have been placed in the chicken coop.

Edwin is in the process of clearing his dome and getting ready to start finishing the interior. First task will be to punch a hole through the wall for a bathtub drain, then the plastering can begin.

Dan has completed the motorhome foundation/enclosure, except for the front step and a few other finishing touches.

Members and Guests

We had a couple of visitors since the last newsletter and had a good time sharing ideas and plans for the future.

Jose decided to move on and is currently visiting another intentional community in northern New Mexico. We wish him well on his quest, hope he finds "home", and are grateful for all his hard work at the Sanctuary and the Douglas Mercado.

The Garden

The Farmer's Markets

The Bisbee farmer's market demand has continued strong, but our crop production continues to lag. We are continuing to refine our production method for mixed lettuce, spinach, kale, and Romaine lettuce, our four basic cash crops. The grasshoppers got to our kale in spite of row covers. It is difficult to keep out or even chase out the hoppers in the double-row covers, so from now on we will be planting kale under single row covers. The new crop of Romaine is coming along and may be ready in 3 or 4 weeks. Our spinach does not seem to grow well in the heat, even with shade cloth over the insect netting, and is also being attacked by hoppers. Our biggest success has been mixed lettuce. This week we sold 18 bags in Bisbee.

We are now selling some tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant as well as yellow squash, zuchinni, cantaloupe, watermelon, Long Island cheese pumpkin, and a few cucumbers.

We have planted a bed intensively with garlic for sale at next year's market, and for our own use. If we find space, we will plant another.

Self-Sufficiency Projects

Our tepary beans are doing well, about a foot high now, and are blooming and sending out runners. Soon we wil have beans forming.

We are selling some of the Long Island Cheese pumpkin at the market but are saving the seeds for a bigger planing next year. They are rather heat sensitive, so we will be planting them under trees next time.

We also have planted another bed of potatoes which may be struggling against the grasshopper infestation.

Thanks to some torrential rains, our water table is being replenished. Water has been flowing in our main gulley for four days! After the initial torrents, the flow all goes into the ground.

We will leave you with some pictures of some of our flowing "stream".

Other News

Other Happenings

Three of the five new "hens" are roosters. None of our four actual laying hens have laid eggs yet. We are experimenting with keeping the older ones isolated in the coup.
We had two torrential rains in August and it really helped to keep the plants watered, but also damaged the dirt road.
We planted out quite a few chinaberry trees, most of them are doing well. We will have to replace just a few of them.
Edwin built his composting toilet and it is working out well.

On the agenda for September:

Exchange 3 roosters for hens
Finish building the motorhome steps
Make some more "sandwich" signs for the Douglas Mercado
Start work on finishing the interior of Edwin's dome
Continue selling produce at the Bisbee market and Douglas Mercado
Plant out more chinaberry trees, which we have grown from seed, as needed.
Highway cleanup near the end of September, to meet our requirement of three cleanups per year to retain our "adoption".

Newsletter:

Sacred Garden Sanctuary News

Sacred Garden Sanctuary Newsletter for July, 2012

Edwin — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 00:45:04 +0000

In this Issue

Building Update

Edwin has nearly completed the chicken coop nests for the inside of the chicken coop. The picture to the right is shows the nesting box structure made out of our recycled materials. We still need to install the inside side panels to enclose each of the 8 boxes (the bottom row will not have side panels installed for now). Edwin intends to complete this in the next week.

Dan has nearly completed the motorhome foundation/enclosure, it's looking good, and we will show pictures of the final result next time.

Jose has completed the drip system tubing, as much as we are going to do at this time, and has been working on other gardening projects.

Members and Guests

The two possible visitors we mentioned in the last newsletter have had some delays in their plans and may come later when they are ready. We also continue to get a few inquiries from people, mostly from the http://ic.org website.

The Garden

The Farmer's Markets

The Bisbee farmer's market demand has been somewhat uneven, as has our crop production. Last week the Bisbee market demand was amazing and all the produce vendors pretty much sold out. Some of our crops, even the collard greens, perished in the late June heat, and we have harvested all we could of the Romaine. We have replanted mixed lettuce and spinach and started some heat-resistant Romaine.We will continue to plant lettuce and spinach weekly, and kale as needed.

We have harvested some of our onions, which also sell well at the market, and cabbage, which is mostly for us but we are selling a few. These are also highly prized at the market by select customers.

We are growing tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant as well.

Self-Sufficiency Projects

You may have noticed we have divided the Garden section into two sub-sections. These two focus areas are both important to us as a community - the first, to provide financial sustainability, and the second, to provide crops for ourselves now and to have sufficient diversity of food to survive any collapse of food supply that may happen in the future (always good to be prepared, and it ensures us maximum food percentage from our own gardens.)

We have planted tapary beans of two varieties. The brown/blue-speckled variety we purchased from Native Seed Search a few years ago, and the white teparies from our dear friend Marcia. The first planting has already sprouted up in just a few days. Teparies are amazing, and grow almost without care during monsoon season.

Our experiment with growing flax in unimproved ground failed. Next year we will plant flax in improved soil and earlier in the season before the heat sets in.

We also grew potatoes this year. This is mainly for our consumption, but we did sell a few red potatoes at the markets. They sell well and if we had the space and the water we could grow more.We will evaluate this at the end of the year for next spring. We are going to put in another bed of red potatoes for ourselves to harvest this fall.

We grew a few sprigs of wheat this year in with the potatoes and they produced some nice grain. Winter wheat is easy to grow here. Again it's a matter of space.

We are growing Long Island Cheese pumpkins for a winter storage crop. As you can see in the photo on the right, they are coming along nicely. These will make delicious pumpkin soups and other dishes (perhaps empenadas?)

Another crop we are growing for ourselves is watermelons. Although most them do not turn out sellable quality, we still enjoy them ourselves, and it provides a delicious summer fruit for us.

We are also growing summer squash, cucumbers, black-eyed peas, corn, cabbage, and cantaloupes. We will be putting in a new crop of cabbage for the fall and for winter storage.

The bush cherries that Shaine gave us looked like dried up sticks when we planted them, but now they are coming along beautifully (see photo on right), and we look foward to an abundant crop of cherries in years to come.

We will leave you with pictures of some of our flowers from our gardens

Other News

Other Happenings

The five laying hens are growing. None of our hens have laid eggs yet.
We planted another small crop of beets
Our small crop of celery is growing nicely, about 7 inches tall now.
The mosquito fish in our pond our proliferating by the hundreds. I guess we won't have any mosquitoes breeding in our pond this year!
We are still taxing to the max our solar well pump, through the heat of summer and happered some by afternoon clouds reducing the wattage output of our panels. We have had some rains, but only one really good downpour.so far.

On the agenda for July/August:

Finish building the nest boxes for the chicken coop
Finish building the motorhome "foundation"
Improve sprinkler systems in the lower garden
Continue selling produce at the Bisbee market and Douglas Mercado
Plant out more chinaberry trees, which we have grown from seed.
Build a new composting toilet for Edwin

Newsletter:

Sacred Garden Sanctuary News

Sacred Garden Sanctuary Newsletter for June, 2012

Edwin — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 02:45:36 +0000

In this Issue

Building Update

We have started the chicken coop nests for the inside of the chicken coop. The picture to the right is of our five new laying hens. They've got a bit of growing up to do, but they are very cute.

Dan has been working on making bricks for their motorhome foundation/enclosure, has quite a stack of them now, and will soon be putting them in place.

Jose has been working hard on burying our drip system distribution lines for our trees and bushes in the lower garden area. It's looking very nice, and the system will be protected from heat and damage. He also did some great improvement on the worst spot in the dirt road from the highway to the Sanctuary. The formerly huge drop-off on a turn is now much more manageable for average-height vehicles, and even trucks and SUV's notice a big difference.

Members and Guests

We have gotten enquiries from a man from South Dakota and another friend-of-a-friend from California. Also a former visitor has contacted us about a visit. We will also be getting day or overnight visits from some local people.

The Garden

The Bisbee farmer's market continues to do fairly well, and the Douglas Mercado continues to struggle for customers. Our garden is feeling the heat of peak summer, and some crops, such as the spinach, are drying up. Some of our mixed lettuce turned bitter, but we have planted two new beds. Kale and collards are doing well, and our zuchinni are coming along and have produced a few sales. The new crop of Romaine lettuce, shown to the right, has born up in the heat pretty well. We have planted some celery in trenches and they are growing, but slowly. The pumpkin plants are starting to take off nicely

We have put in the new irrigation for beds 16, 17, and 18, but they may need some adjustment for better coverage.

We have also been harvesting onions and carrots. The carrots are now all harvested until the next crop, but we will have more onions to sell.

Our Pak Choi has also suffered from the heat, but we were able to harvest enough for some bags of mixed stir-fry vegetables.

Other News

Other Happenings

We purchased the five laying hens from a Bisbee vendor
We installed the insect netting on the walls of the circle garden, and used the remaining for bed #18.
We planted bed #18 with celery, carrots, beets, and radishes
Most of the upper garden is now planted with melons, cucumbers, corn, and peppers, and the drip systems have been repaired.
Jose and Edwin did the highway cleanup. It was much easier than the first time, as there was much less garbage this time.
We had a visiting frog (toad?) in our pond. He stayed one day and then disappeared. He was a little early, as serious monsoon rains are still probably a couple of weeks away. It was pleasant hearing him croak at night. Perhaps we will get more later.
We are taxing to the max our solar well pump, through these hottest, dryest weeks of the year. We look forward to the rains.

On the agenda for June/July:

Finish building the nest boxes for the chicken coop
Continue building the motorhome "foundation"
Repair the drip system in the upper garden
Continue selling produce at the Bisbee market and Douglas Mercado
Plant out more chinaberry trees and pomegranate bushes, which we have grown from seed.

Newsletter:

Sacred Garden Sanctuary News