Food garden meander during solar eclipse

[@Gshev1288]

Beautiful garden, feels so peaceful.

[@daggius]

beautiful ceanothus and natives 😍

[@beautybygreg2601]

Great homestead! I’m in North OC and wish I had the space you have. I cram whatever I can into my small backyard. Was interesting to see birds and bees disappear for a bit during the eclipse.

[@bakerbrewz]

Any reason to go outside in the yard is a good reason! Looks like things are coming along. Thanks for sharing. Interesting that you noticed no bees during the solar eclipse, there is so much lore and past history events with animals and the solar eclipse. Once I recently heard about that was interesting was that Albert Einstein brought some equipment to measure the temperature of the sun during a past solar eclipse, but he set up near a chicken coop and the chickens all came back in to roost during the eclipse. So he got lots of temperature readings on the chickens but no info on the temperature of the sun! Haha Happy Solar Eclipse Day!

[@gregalderdotcom]

Cool story. Most of my chickens had gone into their pen where they roost, and maybe it's because of the eclipse. I'm guessing the bat had been disoriented by the eclipse too.

[@brainjar14]

Fun walk around! Hope kitty is up on rabies vax. :)

[@Sam-mc2dk]

Hey Greg, I have 3 Sharwil's and only one is blooming. I have a Lamb that was damaged by an animal probably a crow and it looks similar to yours. You win some and lose some for sure. On a positive note, I had a good harvest of GEM this year. I have two younger trees that gave me about 14 fruit and they are delicious. I owe some of that success to you. An interesting thing is out of those trees, one of the GEM is blooming and the other GEM is not blooming. Thanks for your helpful videos.

[@gregalderdotcom]

Thinking of your GEMs: all trees are individuals. Even trees on clonal rootstocks grafted with budwood from the same mother tree, they never end up all acting the same. There's some magic in that. And I like that we're growing magic plants and not just building inert wigdets. There are surprises at every turn.

[@maggieziehl9290]

Avocado trees produce when you knock on the trunk with a mallet a few times in a row. It thinks you are going to remove the tree then it produces wheelbarrows loads full of fruit.

[@gregalderdotcom]

Ha! So funny because I was at a grove yesterday where a guy got his first crop from a tree that he'd threatened with the axe last year. This darn Sharwil of mine is tougher than that though, apparently. I girdled it last year and it's still not making flowers!

[@kalani79]

Does your cat help keep pests down? How does it do with the coyotes around? I’m considering one to help with the rats in my suburban garden. Trapping isn’t cutting it.

[@gregalderdotcom]

Yes, this cat and her brother cat are both excellent hunters and have eliminated problems with rats, mice, and rabbits. As you can see, I don't have to protect my vegetables at all. They help some with gophers, but I still have to trap many also. They protect my blueberries from birds somewhat as well. Coyotes are around, but the cats have hideouts, including cat doors into two garages and a box up in an oak tree. But they're 24/7 outdoor cats. They come from a feral mother and I think what keeps them safest is that they're smart.