McGolden Farm

22/03/2022

Spotted in areas of Arden-Arcade and Rancho Cordova and highly destructive.

If you find suspected Japanese beetles in your area, report findings to the local county agricultural commissioner office or call the California Department of Food and Agriculture's Pest Hotline at 800-491-1899.

https://www2.ipm.ucanr.edu/Invasive-and-Exotic-Pests/Japanese-Beetle/

20/03/2022

Happy Spring!

18/02/2022

The seedlings are coming along nicely.
Started about 150 seeds:
pink celery, san marzano tomatoes, blue cream berry tomatoes, green giant tomatoes, green zebra tomatoes, red sunflowers, mammoth sunflowers, hyssop, black eyed susan, grey poppies, snap dragon, Beekman lettuce mix, lacinato kale, rocky top salad mix, sugar daddy peas, siamese dragon stir fry mix, endive, bloody dock, multicolored spinach, and buttercrunch lettuce seed

12/02/2022

The bees loving the rosemary in bloom

17/01/2022

21/12/2021

Pretty cool

After 2 months, the results are in…

We buried 5 x 100% cotton white un**es in 5 different locations to compare soil health.

It is commonly misunderstood just how ALIVE soil is. More than 25% of our planet’s life live in the soil, mostly in the form of microbes 🌏.

Microbes 🪱 play a huge role in plant health. They act as the plant’s ‘stomach’, digesting nutrients and providing key chemicals like nitrogen and phosphorous for plant cells to take in. Microbes can also move water around and prevent diseases.

So yeah, they are a big deal 🙌🙌

**es challenge by showcases the amount of soil life. The more degraded the un**es, the more life your soil contains (meaning a healthier soil).

1. CONTROL- no signs of decay
2. CONVENTIONAL FARMED LAND- 2x 1cm sign of decay, otherwise no decay
3. BAG PURCHASED COMPOST- no signs of decay
4. BAG PURCHASED POTTING MIX- 50% decay. ~50% cotton remaining + elastic
5. HOMEMADE COMPOST- >90% decay.

21/12/2021

The Winter Solstice occurs on Tuesday, December 21, 2021. On this date there will be the least amount of daylight for the Northern Hemisphere. For Sacramento there will be only 9 hours and 28 minutes of daylight.

05/12/2021

50x more monarchs this year 😁

It's not just Pacific Grove where there has been a resurgence of Monarch Butterflies, Dr. James says the total population of western monarchs is estimated to be over 100,000 this year compared to just 2,000 last year.

22/11/2021

Anybody else like the tedious task of separating onion starts? For some reason, I'm really good at it and actually like doing it. Kind of a zen moment I get to have in the garden.
Got 94 Walla Walla onion starts planted today. In about 110 days we should be able to harvest.

20/11/2021

Gardenism.

08/11/2021

31/10/2021

Harvested our first wine cap mushroom (Stropharia rugosoannulata) today in the

25/10/2021

Wow. That was certainly a lot of water in 24 hours

Over the course of just 24 hrs, Sacramento Executive Airport received 81.9% of the total precip. from the entire 2020 - 2021 water year! Here is a look at how some other locations compare. With rain still falling, stay tuned for updates for the storm total precip. amounts from this Atmospheric River.

17/10/2021

Getting some of the natives planted today in the
California Laurel, Gumweed, Spice Bush, Lippia, and White Sage

16/10/2021

Our garlic order got delivered today from Peaceful Valley.
We got the bundle pack that came with; elephant garlic, Ca Early White, Music, Russian Red, and French Shallots.

16/10/2021

The mealworm tower

29/09/2021

Holy cow, the banana tree flowered!
Unfortunately its about 3 weeks late, so not sure if these will have enough time to ripen.
Either way, still really cool to see bananas in the backyard.

29/09/2021

The Jerusalem artichokes are flowering 😁

27/08/2021

Happy Friday Everyone 🧡

*straw flower from our garden

14/08/2021

A tour of our

A food forest is a permaculture technique.
The overall goal is to mimic nature and adapt it to our living. Symbiosis.

We are planting food for us, food for the wildlife, and herbal medicine. With the goal of at least 50% native.

10/08/2021

Berry Patch activities and Tips:

🔺Once blackberries, boysenberries, summer-bearing raspberries and black raspberries have finished fruiting, cut all canes that bore fruit to the ground and tie up five to eight new canes.

🔺For blackberries and boysenberries, shorten new canes to 5 or 6 feet long. This will make January pruning simpler.

🔺If you plan to propagate new plants over the winter, don’t shorten the new canes. See November for propagation tips.

🔺Begin harvesting fall-bearing (everbearing) raspberries.

🔺Check irrigation. Moist but not wet soil is critical when blueberry and cane berry plants set buds that will produce fruit next year.

10/08/2021

09/08/2021

Got 6 pints of tomato sauce canned using our San Marzano Lugano #2 tomatoes.

We will continue to can more tomato sauce as we harvest more. We'll use it to make spaghetti sauce, tomato paste, and anything else that requires tomato sauce.

Preparing for winter like the good ants we are 😁

Who else loves the sound of that *PING* sound? 🙋‍♂️

08/08/2021

Gardenism

07/08/2021

The worm tower is starting to make some really good vermicompost (compost made by worms). The garden is going to love it.

31/07/2021

The has matured so quickly. Over 70% of the plants were started late Fall 2020.

Stage 3 will be propagating hybrid poplar trees this Winter once their leaves drop. Those will then be used, along with a couple white mulberry trees to make a hedge along the perimeter.
Each tree will be wounded in certain spots and taped together against other trees. They will fuse together and become what's known as "hog-tight", meaning even a pig can't run through it.

28/07/2021

The cucamelons are starting to form 😁

Cucamelons look like tiny watermelons and taste like a cucumber. This is our first year trialing them. We got a late start on planting them, but should still get plenty.