Backyard Farming the Natural Way

Archive for the ‘All posts – Chronologically’ Category

After having tasted pomegranate for the first time and reading all the wonderful health claims, I decided to buy a plant and give it a try. I have heard that many varieties are not particularly fruitful in the humid south, but I bought this “Russian” variety which the nursery swore was a good producer here in Florida.
Anyhow, I bought this little one gallon ‘whip’ for about $7, fertilized it well, and within a few weeks had much growth and these flowers pictured here. It has been a couple of weeks later since I took this pic now, and though the flowers look like they are going to set fruit, they have all fallen off.  Pomegranate are supposed to be self fertile (though a companion plant is supposed to help with pollination).

These are lovely flowers produced by this bush, and it is probably dropping fruit because the plant is not mature enough yet. Can’t wait till next year, and I will probably get a ‘wonderful’ or other variety to help with pollination. Let me know if any of you guys are having success with growing pomegranates (and getting fruit)  in the humid, hot southeast.

For anyone who has eaten pomegranate, the fruit is kind of messy and heard and a bit of trouble to get to ‘goodies’, but I find the taste grows on me (and they are great in salads).

As a result of moving, it’s been quite a while since I have posted an update concerning my composting worms.  Fortunately, I was able to take the wooden worm bin that I constructed with me, and so far I have gotten many loads of worm castings  from this setup. You can find the original plan sequence here DIY Stackable Worm Composter.  Referring to the photo, I am  reaching down just below the surface and you can see the substrate is absolutely full of worms. Read the rest of this entry »

To all of those who have been faithfully following my blog;  I apologize that I haven’t created any new posts or added any information to my current ones in quite a while. I unfortunately had to sell my home where I was doing my gardening ventures and am now renting. Hopefully, I will get settled again sometime soon,  and will be able to get hands (and shovel) back into the dirt!

Meanwhile, I will at least try to keep the categories in my blog updated with interesting information as I come across it. Arghh, I miss my fruit trees and garden! I was able to take a couple of my worm bins and some smaller plants with me however. Now, they just need a new home.

This is the second fruiting from the logs I harvested in February. As I pointed out in a previous article, it is better to cut logs in the winter (or at the end thereof) before the leaves start budding. This is because the carbohydrates are at a maximum in the trunk (before the sugars move up to produce leaves etc). Read the rest of this entry »

I have two persimmon trees in my yard but neither is native American species (Diospyros virginiana), They are both oriental varieties with one being astringent and the other the non astringent.  Referring to the picture, the one I am indicating is the non astringent type of “Fuyu.” Read the rest of this entry »

It has been a long time since I posted but that is a long story in itself! Anyhow, a very recent study on hibiscus tea should be of interest to those looking for natural means to control their high blood pressure (hypertension).   A control study showed that those who drank 3 cups of the tea daily, cut their systolic pressure by an average of 7 points. Read the rest of this entry »