Our Mission:

Our Mission: To enable individuals and communities to take an active part in the cultivation of systems that provide the highest quality fruits, vegetables, herbs and other yields, in a way that benefits themselves, cares for the land and environment, and provides a surplus to use, share and reinvest into the system.

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

End of Summer Offer, Tree+Planting!

Apple Trees planted for $49+tax!
Pears, peaches and more too!
#3 sized pots or similar sized grow bags, ~4-6'+ tall
-Cortland, Gala, UltraMac (~improved Macintosh) Golden Delicious, GoldRush, JonaFree, Pristine, Antonovka, Empire, Zestar (more?) Apples 
-Bartlett, Starking Delicious and Honeysweet Pears
-FlamePrince, Golden Jubilee and Reliance Peaches
-ask about cherries, blueberries, elderberry and more! 

Make it a micro guild with chives, white clover and an Ozark Beauty strawberry for 
Only $15 more!


Of course we can do a larger planting for a backyard mini-orchard or full scale food forest as well, with many ecological services provided by customized companion plantings! 

Fall is a great time to plant potted trees. Soil temps are still warm enough for root growth yet days are cool enough for less stress.

Offer valid in the Des Moines metro area, from now through September 2018, or while supplies last, get on the schedule today!

Sunday, August 26, 2018

A Good Year for Pollinators!

This year has been a great year for pollinators!

At least from what we've seen in our yard, and on projects, the numbers of Monarch butterflies are WAY up.  We've raised dozens of larvae and even observed visiting adults lay eggs.

Six larvae (do you see them all?) can make short work of smaller plants.  I even relocated two or three to a larger common milkweed growing nearby.

Some neighborhoods maybe have more adults than milkweed to lay eggs on.  I was building a rain garden and within minutes after planting, a new swamp milkweed plant had its first egg laid on it!

This Monarch Momma laid an egg on a Swamp Milkweed minutes after I planted it!

I haven't noticed as many honeybees this year (still some), but the clover in our lawn was stunted by dry conditions.  Very thankful for the rains this last week!

Native bees abound however!


Bumblebees foraging on borage flowers in the strawberry patch

Along with Monarchs, we've raised a good number of black swallowtail too. We leave an area in parsley and dill mostly just for them.



This butterfly was evidently pretty thirsty as it stopped for a salty drink while I built these raised garden beds.




I've seen more hummingbirds than I ever have in the backyard.  I have more columbines, woodland phlox and cardinal flowers now, one of their favorites, which probably has a part to play.

And although not pollinators the goldfinches are numerous and feasting on purple coneflower seedheads, and a Cooper's hawk flew through looking for a meal on the wing this morning; a probable indicator of a ecologically healthy yard.

I hope you are enjoying more and more butterflies, as well as other pollinators, and as always if you need help providing habitat give us a call!  We love to design and install designated habitat, or many other features like rain gardens and more include beneficial plants and habitat for pollinators!

You can also learn more by browsing Abundant Design's blog  Search: Pollinator


And your local Menards might still have these bee houses available on Clearance-



Have a great week!

Saturday, August 18, 2018

Caring for Newly Grafted Trees

Wow!
It has been a busy summer so far.  Lots of great projects going on!

Here is a follow-up video to the Grafting Tool Review and the Grafting Class with Nine Square Feet earlier this year.  It highlights new graft care and what you might have seen with your grafts.


Some of the scion we had was kind of small and maybe dried out a bit, some might have not lined up quite how it needed to be, or maybe yours were physically damaged afterwards like some of mine. 

Hopefully you had a decent success rate, mine was around 50% I'd guess.  Ask any questions in the Comments here or on the Facebook post.

I am really glad some of the rarer varieties I tried have worked out though!