| More Gardening at home. |
When I was growing up one of my Grand parents had several very large flower beds
in the back yard full of Canna lily, and so today as an adult the sight of canna lily
brings back fond memories. This past year one of my co-workers mentioned that
he had brought in a load of dirt at his house to fill in around a new barn area, and
that the dirt was loaded with canna lily roots, so lilies were popping up every where.
He wasn't interested in having canna lily growing inside and around his barn so he
asked if I would be interested in coming out and digging them up. At first I wasn't
really interested, even though I like canna lily I am trying to stay focused on only
planting things on the homestead that can be eaten or serve some other purpose
making them useful. Then out of the blue about this same time I saw a video on
youtube about canna lily. The topic of the video was how the canna lily was
considered a survival food. Canna lily are very drought tolerant, easy to grow, and
the tubers of the canna lily are nutritious to eat. With this new revelation I quickly
jumped at the opportunity to go dig up a bunch of canna lily and get them growing
on my homestead. The photos below show how this venture came out.
in the back yard full of Canna lily, and so today as an adult the sight of canna lily
brings back fond memories. This past year one of my co-workers mentioned that
he had brought in a load of dirt at his house to fill in around a new barn area, and
that the dirt was loaded with canna lily roots, so lilies were popping up every where.
He wasn't interested in having canna lily growing inside and around his barn so he
asked if I would be interested in coming out and digging them up. At first I wasn't
really interested, even though I like canna lily I am trying to stay focused on only
planting things on the homestead that can be eaten or serve some other purpose
making them useful. Then out of the blue about this same time I saw a video on
youtube about canna lily. The topic of the video was how the canna lily was
considered a survival food. Canna lily are very drought tolerant, easy to grow, and
the tubers of the canna lily are nutritious to eat. With this new revelation I quickly
jumped at the opportunity to go dig up a bunch of canna lily and get them growing
on my homestead. The photos below show how this venture came out.
| The homestead has two Native Mulberry trees located along the fence line, and the berries are large and sweet! |
| Baby cottontails hiding in the mulch around the apple tree. |
I was watering the fruit trees one day
and out popped these two little cotton
tail rabbits. They were hiding up
under fresh mulch I'd put down earlier
in the week.
and out popped these two little cotton
tail rabbits. They were hiding up
under fresh mulch I'd put down earlier
in the week.
| You may have read one of the other pages on this site that provided information about the Prickly Pear Cactus. If you haven't read it yet, I encourage you too, because this cactus is a great homestead plant for many reasons. Knowing what I do about the Prickly Pear I had to plant some on my place. The photos above are of the little cactus garden I created on my property. Out where I currently work there are patches of Prickly Pear growing wild, so one day I cut off a few pads and brought them home. To propagate prickly pear all you need to do is collect some pads and then bury the cut end in the soil. Within a very short time the pads will take root and establish themselves. Also in my little cactus garden is a patch of Maguey cactus. Many years ago I knew about a very large maguey cactus that existed out in the middle of a large vacant area outside San Antonio Tx., and one day as I was driving by I saw that bulldozers where clearing the area, and would soon be taking down this huge cactus. I mentioned this fact to some people that I worked with, and a couple of them drove out to the sight to see if they could rescue part of the cactus. What they found was that the huge maguey had recently dropped dozens of small little cactus all over the ground from the top of it's massive flowering spire, so they collected several bags of these little cactus pups and brought them back, and they gave me three of them to take home. I took my little maguey cactus pups home and placed them in a large ceramic pot in my backyard, and they soon filled this pot and appeared to be healthy. I kept these maguey cactus in the pot for around 5 years, even moving them to my current homestead. Just recently after building this little cactus garden, I decided to replant the maguey from the pot into the ground. I knew there was no chance I'd be able to lift the cactus up out of the pot, so I took a hammer and busted the pot into four pieces. The maguey roots had completely filled the inside of the pot creating a huge root ball, so I dug a hole in the new cactus garden and dropped the maguey into it. Within a short time the maguey had established itself in the ground, and at this time it has sent several shoots underground and I have little maguey cactus popping up around the garden. Why do I want a maguey cactus? My main purpose is for the fibers located in the leaves of the maguey. On another page of this website I describe some weaving techniques I've used to create cordage and baskets. The leaves of the maguey cactus have some excellent fibers for this purpose. The long needle like spines on the end of the cactus leaves can also be used as such. If that's not enough, the heart of the maguey cactus is used in Mexico to make alcoholic beverages. In a crisis situation alcohol can be used for several different purposes. |
