We had those in our house in Hong Kong. They came in on our dog. It was not happy times.
I had no idea ticks prefer high humidity! That explains why we don’t have any here. I am delighted to hear we will probably continue to lack them in the future.
We do have black widows in our yard, which is a little concerning. Still, I’ve heard that they tend to leave humans alone unless humans bother them, so I figure they can live in our yard, as long as they don’t come into our house. If they come into our house, they’re dead.
I’ve heard from someone a few hours south of me, where there are both widows and recluses (happily, we don’t have recluses here) that if you have widows, you won’t get recluses, because the two fight with each other. She said recluses are aggressive, whereas widows are amiable. Similar to wasps versus bees. So she actively encourages the widow population, in order to make sure the recluses stay far away. That was an interesting perspective, and one I wouldn’t have expected.
By the way, poisonous spiders are the only kinds I mind in my house. All the normal house spiders are welcome houseguests. I want them to eat the bugs that sneak in.
Cultiviariable offers a genetically diverse skirret blend, as well as a less diverse one that has more resistance against a particular disease: Skirret Seeds - Cultivariable
I have not grown it, but your comment sparked that recollection.
I considered trying skirret and finally decided not to when I saw its preference for soggy soils, so yes, that’s probably a great fit for your climate!
(Laugh.) Perhaps I should let you know about anything I consider that looks like a terrible fit for my climate. Have you tried oca?
I love cultivariable! I did not realize they had skirret! I put my name on their waitlist for both seeds. Sounds great. Thank you so much for this info!
Interesting balance between those spiders that your neighbor discovered!. I usually don’t mind spiders but well, black widow and recluse are a different story! I’ve never seen any where I live but I know people around who have seen black widows. I’ve enough with the mosquitoes and ticks on my property, can’t have another of those to be worrying about and yes ticks are awful. I have dealt with Lyme disease and other tick born diseases so many times that I think I’ll never get rid of them completely at this point. Kind of learn to live with it.
haha! That’s funny and probably so true!
For ocra, I ordered some this fall so I will try them in the spring for the first time. They look exciting to me. I’ll let you know how they do, I agree with you that I think they might do great where I live. I love root crops and I love beautiful colors so ocras sound promising!
have you tried chia? I’ve heard they were some desert varieties.
Awesome! Oca looks so cool. I’ve really wanted to grow it for that reason alone, but finding out it wants lots of water all the time and hates high temperatures made me go, “Maaaaaaaaaaybe I should just consider that a lost cause.”
I’m thinking I’ll use sweet potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes as my main root crops. If I can get my hands on yacon, I’d love to try that, too. It’s supposed to be another drought tolerant sunflower species, very similar to Jerusalem artichoke. I’ve sort of poked at cassava, but I don’t know. It’s a tropical plant and probably wouldn’t be wild about my winter. Maybe.
I haven’t tried chia yet, but it’s on my list of something to give a try! I’m definitely planning to plant sorghum this year.
Schisandra looked interesting to me, but it needs lots of water. It’s hardy to zone 4. Have you looked at that?
Yacon is one of my favorite crop! I love the versatility of it. It’s amazing raw and cooked, dried and can also be used as a syrup instead of sugar. It does great here with literally no care. Just planting and harvesting. I lift the crown (not sure if that’s the real word for it. I mean not the tubers you eat, the part from which the plant regrow)for the winter and pack it in sand in my unheated basement. Then I divide it in the spring and plant it in pot before transplanting in my garden. Works very well so far.
I think sweet potato will do fabulous for you as they love the heat and I never water them here but that might be different in your climate. Sweet potatoes can do really well some years and not so well other years depending on heat and how hungry the groundhogs get in my place… I’m thinking of trying to grow them for real seeds instead of tubers.(like TPS for potato) That’s a future project I’m planning but haven’t gotten my act together yet !
Jérusalem artichoke is a great crop too here. Very easy and abundant. I only have a few because I was afraid they’d spread in the conservation area. But I’m thinking of maybe doing more in a raised bed to contain them.will see.I think they’ll do great for you too as they’re doing well anywhere I hear ??
I’ve planted Schisandra this fall for the first time, I’ll see how it does here but sounds fun!
Looks like we’ll be trying similar crop this year! That’s so fun.
Woo hoo! I’m happy to hear that yacon works so well for you! Especially if it’s so easy to use in so many ways that taste good. I’ve had yacon syrup, and it tastes delicious. So I suspect I’ll enjoy the fresh tubers a lot, too.
Do you expect to have any spare divisions of yours when you divide them in spring? If so, I would love to trade you for some / reimburse you for postage for sending me some / whatever.
Yeah, I’ve been watching Mark Reed’s sweet potato true seed breeding project with great interest, and I hope I can do something similar. Sweet potatoes are delicious! The flowers are also really pretty, so sweet potato breeding comes with the added side benefit of growing plants that make as many flowers as possible. Woo hoo!
Earlier this winter I planted my saved potato onions from the fall into a new area adjacent to my existing household garden beds, in front of the house.
Today, I could see that it looked waterlogged and I dug this small hole. It looks almost as if the grass roots are floating on the water table. Gah! It was always wet, but I don’t think I’ve seen it this bad! I’ve already planted watercress in another wet area near the house where I have my mint and horsetail bed.
We had floods last year that resulted in more surface water into this part of the land and I think I’m going to improve drainage before I do much more in this area I fear for the potato onions
Have you considered digging a big hole that can turn into a lake when it’s flooding your fields? I think that’s what Stefan Sobkowiak does – he has a spot in his permaculture orchard for a natural lake, anyway. I recently saw a video with Mark Shepard where he was showing that as something he’s done to keep water from forming really wet and really dry spots on his land, and I thought that was clever. Maybe having some designated “lakes” near your crops where the water can stay when there’s too much is a good idea for a wet place.
Even though drainage was better before our recent flooding events, I would not want to put the parts that have been washing out back to the way they were before this.
Overall I am seeking more graceful and natural ways to handle runoff, and I think I need to learn a little bit about establishing healthy shallow ponds or wetland areas where this water can settle. There is lots of elevation to work with to keep water moving here, but I am dealing with some areas that are built on top of former mining “fill” in this location and some other areas I’m setting up plots. The grade has been flattened in ways that are not helpful.
Yeah, I can see flatness being very problematic when you often get too much moisture.
Hmm, making “ponds” for the rainwater to flow into and not drown your plants may also allow you to plant some excessively water-loving plants you couldn’t otherwise, too. Like lotuses, which I’ve heard are edible. It may make for a nice habitat for amphibians, too, which may be helpful to keep down pest insect species. (They might eat pollinators too, but if you made habitats for wild bees that were far away from those ponds, that might keep most of them away from hungry amphibians.)
and yes ticks are awful. I have dealt with Lyme disease and other tick born diseases so many times that I think I’ll never get rid of them completely at this point. Kind of learn to live with it.
I fear for the potato onions