Permaculture Tour

At last week's presentation on suburban permaculture, several people indicated an interest in working together to share ideas. I went to John Hirschi's house this past weekend to check out his front yard native landscaping. John's yard is beautiful. It was designed last year by Paul Dowlearn at Wichita Valley Nursery and is doing well. Many of the plants are multiplying. The only problem he is having now is a marauding wild pig which is rooting around in the yard and doing a lot of damage. John has traps out, trying to catch the critter. I hope he gets him soon, it is making a mess of a beautiful landscape.

We also discussed some of his ideas for his backyard.  Because we had such a good time talking about what he had done and his ideas going forward, we discussed putting together a day to visit one another's yard and share ideas with other members of the permaculture group. Even if we haven't done anything, this would be a chance to share ideas and talk over what we're trying to do with others with similar interests.

If you're interested in joining in, email me at green.wichitafalls@gmail.com or "Like" the Living Green in Wichita Falls page on Facebook and join in.

Edible Wild Plants

When I was a young 'un, I remember Euell Gibbons, who was widely considered a whack job by most. However, I also remember a lot of my relatives hunting and gathering wild mushrooms and plants to supplement the all-too-meager food budget. So it's not like no one ate wild plants. They did. They just seemed to think that harvesting wild foods was done because you were poor, not because you wanted to do it. To me, it seemed a psychological barrier to acceptance, not because they didn't accept wild plants as nutritious and tasty. No one wanted to admit eating wild plants because no one wanted to admit they couldn't afford to buy food.

My friend, Paul Dowlearn of Wichita Valley Nursery, gave me a book to read: Edible Wild Plants, by John Kallas, PhD. This is intended to be one of a series of books on edible wild plants. Lots of great pictures. Detailed information on who to recognize, harvest and prepare about a dozen wild plants (this book focused on greens.) Lots of recipes. One I found fascinating was making meringue from mallow seeds or mallowmallows.

Anyway, certainly worth a look. With the price of produce, harvesting free produce could help the wallet and the diet--where known, Dr. Kallas gave nutritional information for these plants. Many kicked (metaphorical) butt over the nutritional powerhouses of spinach and broccoli.

Wild Bird Rescue Garage Sale

Wild Bird Rescue will be holding a garage sale fundraiser, Saturday, September 12 at the National Association of Letter Carriers building at 5310 Southwest Parkway (next to Wichita Valley Nursery.) This is a fundraiser for the organization. Already this year, the organization has taken in over 900 wild birds--the heat and drought have not been kind to our area's wildlife.

If you have items to sell (no clothing please), please price them before dropping them off. For information on days/times to drop off donations, call Wild Bird Rescue at 940-691-0828.

The sale will be from 8 AM - 2 PM on the 12th. In addition to the sale, there will be live music and food. Please donate your unwanted items and come out on the 12th to find low cost items you need. Help yourself and Wild Bird Rescue.

If you cannot attend the event, the organization is in need of cash donations to purchase needed food and supplies. You can mail donations to 4611 Lake Shore Dr, Wichita Falls, TX 76310 or donate at the website.

Looks Like a Drought

We have not had any rain this year. If it wasn't for the two winter storm events in February, I don't believe we have had any precipitation this year. According to a post I saw on Facebook from a local TV station, so far this year we have the worst drought in 44 years. Although I am hoping the weather breaks and we get some of this moisture that has been teasing us for weeks, right now it's just plain dry and dusty, which doesn't bode well for plants or animals.

I was at Wichita Valley Nursery yesterday and saw some olla pots with information on using them as drip irrigation. Olla pots are unglazed terra cotta pots that are buried in the garden and filled with water. The water slowly seeps out of the pot into the surrounding soil, keeping it moist near the roots of the plants. We certainly qualify as arid right now. I didn't ask Paul how much he was selling his pots for, but online they are pretty pricey. If anyone has local sources and prices, please post a comment.

If you happen to be artsy/craftsy (I'm definitely not), then I found a video on making your own olla pots on YouTube. Ignore what seems to be narration that you can barely hear at the beginning--it is a radio in the background. The person doesn't talk at all in the video.

Since we will almost certainly be on watering restrictions soon if we don't get some significant rain soon, now is a good time to look at alternatives for low water use in your yard and garden.

Two Great River Bend Programs Saturday

River Bend Nature Center has two great programs coming up on Saturday.

The Science Saturday program continues with a program on freshwater fish. Science Saturday programs are targeted to the 5 - 12 year old age group, although anyone can attend. The program begins at 1:00 PM and ends at 2:00. Admission is $3 per participant--accompanying adults for children under 12 (required) are free. There is an art program following at 2:30 PM for those who are interested.

If you are interested in native plants, Paul Dowlearn of Wichita Valley Nursery will be doing a program, "Native Plants in the Conservatory," from 10 AM - noon. Admission is $3 per person; members and children under 2 are free.

Living Natural First

I enjoy listening to the Living Natural First radio program and enjoy many of the articles in their free monthly magazine. However, I usually don't listen to the radio program. I just don't get good reception of WBAP at my house. Paul and Nila Dowlearn from Wichita Valley Nursery will be the guests on this Sunday's program.

Today I found out that you can listen to the program on line and if you miss the program, they have the programs archived on the websites. As I write this, I am listening to a program on herbs.

You can also read copies of the magazine there, although I did find many of the links are broken. Hopefully someone will get that fixed.

You do have to sign up as a member of the radio program to access everything, but that is easy.

Check it out.