Guinea Pigs - nature's living composter

I love my girls - Ginger and Epona (nicknamed Pony). They're not just adorable and wonderful fuzzy cuddle buddies - they're also very skilled at constantly eating and subsequently pooping.

Ginger and parseley.

Mostly they eat pellets and timothy hay, but they also get fresh treats every day, too. Usually they get an orange slice or a strawberry, but sometimes they also earn their living as living garbage disposals. ;) They love the leafy tops off the celery, carrots (and carrot greens), cilantro stems, strawberries and their green tops, lettuce, cores from apples and pears (with the seeds picked out), etc.

Pony and carrot greens.

Of course, they don't (and shouldn't) eat everything. But generally they're great for getting rid of a lot of the green garbage around here. And then....drumroll, please....they poop it out into nice little pellets. Everyone who's had a mouse visit their house knows what those dropping look like; well, guinea pig are rodents also, but BIG rodents, and their droppings are correspondingly large.

When I built the big wood planter I didn't want to buy that much soil, so I filled it halfway with dirty bedding from their cage. (I haven't found another use for their other bedding changes.) I'm hoping the paper bedding will compost, and their waste will work as fertilizer as the plant roots grow down into that layer.

Part of their cage has a raised platform, and instead of paper bedding it has a towel. Every now and then I take the towel and dump the little piles of poopies into a bucket with green waste from the garden and kitchen. I wish there was a way to separate the bedding from the poopies so I could recover them, too.

Damn they're so freaking cute!

Flowers + salads

 

The snow peas finally bloomed - and surprise....they're pink!

 

I think this'll be one of the last strawberry blooms.

 

Unfortunately, the mesclun bloomed, too. Maybe the guinea pigs will eat it anyway? I don't know if I'll be able to choke it down if it's bitter. Maybe I'll just cut them off and throw 'em in a vase.

This is what's left of one of the tubs of lettuce after yesterday's salad (and a bit to top a couple burgers.)

 

Some of the nasturtiums have dead patches in their leaves....I think it's leafhoppers :( Before I spray anything I'm going to try to find one to make sure I'm right. I don't want to have to spray pesticides over everything, so I think I'll try to attract some predatory insects first. If that doesn't work I'll try an organic pesticide.

Mmmm Salaaaad.

I harvested about half of one of the tubs of lettuce for my lunch. Pictured here with fake chick'n strips, and served with a sweet onion dressing.

Why hallow there poppet!

The first of the garden peas!!! And such a handsome, sculptural vine+flower! This tub got off to a slow start, but now it has some of the tallest plants!

Turns out that height isn't the best indicator of vigor - these are the shortest peas (snap) but they already have a dozen blooms.

The snow peas don't have any flowers yet, and I thought they were off to the best start - best germination, rapid growth, etc.

I can't wait until these babies are ripe. Mmmmm. This bunch is the farthest along, some plants are still flowering, and a few are just leaves this year, I should get a really good crop out of them next year though!

The last batch of seeds were planted the week of May 17. On top are the garden beans. Bottom: left - bunching onions; center - carrots; right - squash.

I planted 2 kinds of chives. Regular on the left, and garlic on the right. I wonder if there's a reason why the garlic chives came up faster...I thought I planted them the exact same.

More onions and carrots....

Borage is on the left. Cilantro on the right. Cilantro took almost a week longer to emerge than the borage.

Bye, Bye May!

I left town for a conference last week, returning today. Luckily I have a wonderful hubby who diligently watered the plants (including freshly planted seeds) and everything is doing wonderfully!


Strawberries have been blooming wonderfully, and there are even some teeny green ones already forming. In the closer box are leeks and carrots. Same in the farther one, except there are squashes and zucchinis on the edge, they'll (hopefully) grow over the side of the container.

The peas got really tall, and I had to thin out about half of the middle container (snow peas). They aren't showing any signs of slowing down, and they're supposed to be dwarf varieties that only get 2' tall. No flowers yet.


Everything looks and feels so lush. It's been a handful to keep all the flowers deadheaded. But I've had plenty of blooms to cut and bring inside. The pansies and violas do OK, maybe lasting a couple of days. The petunias though, have lasted more than a week! I was so surprised, I really didn't think they'd do well!


There isn't much room to just stand around, but who wants to do that anyway? :)

I put a bunch more pictures on Flickr.

growing...

I'm backdating this post to when the photos were taken. I've added 6 new window boxes - 2 20" and 4 30"

I've added a lot of herbs, pepper plants, and eggplants. Most of my Burpee stuff arrived fine. One of the peppers was completely stripped of it's foliage and the basil was almost a goner. I think I saved him though.

The peas aren't really cooperating with my plan for them to climb up the twine on the railing, so I got them some stakes.

Finally seeing some progress

I finally figured out how to do the planters on the railing! I bought 4 30" window box planters, drilled holes in the side and tied them together with nylon rope. They hang over the railing like saddlebags. It's so simple, I can't believe how long it took me to come up with this solution. I planted one with strawberries, the other 3 have annuals. Nasturtiums are on the edge of the outside ones, so they can trail down in front. A few of my favorite annuals are interspersed with edible violas and pansies.

I'm still waiting on my Burpee order....but in the meantime I got a few herbs at the garden center. It's so tempting to buy everything in sight, but I have so little space. :(

See the milk jugs sitting under the grill? I'm using them to transport water. I think I might need to figure out a way to hook a hose up to my kitchen faucet though. I'm spending a LOT of time hauling water.


Nasturtiums hate to be transplanted, so I got them started in paper egg cartons, then I transplanted the entire thing into the window box. The paper will decompose and the roots can grow through without being disturbed!


Here's a view from inside. Note the bag of potting soil - I'm planning on getting more window boxes for vegetables. :)


The dishpans are finally starting to fill up with lettuce. (You can see how tall the peas are getting in the background.)


PEAS! I have snap, snow and garden peas planted. I'm using the railing for their support, it's supplemented with 100' of twine wrapped around and around. I think I'll have to add some supports to the other side of the dishpans, too.

“How will you FilterForGood this Earth Month?”

Kenneth Moore tagged me in FilterForGood's Earth Month meme.

My Five-For-Good Answers:

1. I will grow my own food. Now that things are warming up my garden is finally getting somewhere. It's more affordable and more nutritious, not to mention sustainable.

2. I will purchase produce from my farmer's market. They're starting up again soon (and I cannot wait for fresh asparagus!) It's so important to buy food locally - not only does it support the local economy, but it cuts down on transportation (fuel costs, CO2 output, time)

3. I will trade my car keys for a bike lock. I got a sweet new bicycle last fall and I plan to use it when I go work out or run errands in town or go to the grocery store. I usually don't have to go much more than 5 miles (which works out to 30 minutes going slow so I don't get sweaty in nice clothes.) It has baskets on the back so I can carry quite a bit of stuff. And it makes me think twice before I purchase anything - "Do I really want to lug this 5 miles through traffic?"

4. I will try to cook more vegetarian meals that my husband can stomach. Since I'm a veggie and he isn't I usually cook whatever for myself and he gets an extra brat/chop/piece of chicken or something to satisfy his lust. There are few veggie dishes that he really feels satisfied after eating, so I'm going to try to find more.

5. I will turn off the HVAC. (heating, ventilating, and air conditioning) Again, maybe it's just the right time of year, but I think I can do a pretty good job of keeping my apartment between 60 and 80 just by opening windows and shutting curtains at the right time. I work from home, otherwise it might not be as doable. And it has to stay btw 60 and 80 so my fuzzy piggies don't get overheated.

What are your five-for-good? Participate!

The rules are simple. If you’re tagged, post five things you plan to do for the environment this Earth Month on your blog. At the end of your list, tag five of your favorite blogs, and include a link back to this post using the hyperlinked text “FilterForGood Blog Meme Contest.” Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs, or on their Twitter accounts (using the hash tag #FFGBlogMeme). Also, be sure to include these rules at the bottom of your post.

An Extra Bonus

At the end of Earth Month, FilterForGood will choose a few lucky bloggers who posted their five things to win some Brita/FFG gift packs to help you go green! Be sure you link back to the original meme post [http://www.filterforgood.com/blog/?p=1407] to enter the contest!

I’m not tagging anyone in particular, but if you come across this and feel like joining in leave me a comment so I can read your post.

Spring has sprung!

And it's lovely!

I built my first planter box. I used 30 pieces of 6x12" pine (that were intended to be broken by martial artists, but the lumberyard cut them with the grain going to wrong way) and held them together by 1x2" I saved from a studio project back in design school.

Materials

Finished box

I put a bit of window screen (left over from making lightsabers for Halloween) in the bottom since there are some fairly large cracks and I don't want to lose all my soil. Then I filled it halfway up with paper bedding for small animals. (I had to change and throw away my guinea pig's bedding anyway, so why not put their waste to my use.) So I won't have to fill the entire thing up with soil. That'll save me some money.

1/2 full box

I also got a 3 more dishpans and filled them with soil - they'll be for my snap, snow and garden peas. I also got a trellis rigged up for them that's made from scraps from that same studio project.

While I was at the garden center getting bags of soil (which were wet and very dirty - not fun to carry) I picked up a few violets, pansies, and hyacinths. I potted a few of the violets in a pot in my bedroom and they seem to like it, at least they've kept blooming. They hyacinths will stay outside until they bloom, then I'll bring them in so I can enjoy the fragrance.

I have lettuce and mesclun in 2 dishpans. I'd take a picture but they're just bitty seedlings now. The peas are pre-sprouting in the fridge. And the stevia is getting started in old egg cartons in a plastic bag. A couple have sprouted, I'll post a picture when there is a bit more of something to look at.

I wonder when Burpee will send me all my plants!?

The Obama's White House Garden

I love this: Michelle Obama wants to promote eating local, healthy produce and even growing some yourself. And especially in the middle of a recession it's important to find ways to save money while eating healthy. It doesn't cost a lot to start a garden. My balcony garden will cost more than if I had a yard to dig into - the price of pots and potting soil really adds up. Still, it's a worthwhile investment and I'm sure I'll get much more out of it than I put in.

I wonder if this effort will spawn the kind of response that Eleanor Roosevelt's victory garden did during WWII.