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The chickens are also making inroads into the side garden (and here's Bess in the path). I had intended for this to be an all-culinary garden, with artichokes, sage, apples, rosemary, edible flowers, other herbs, but inevitably, that definition got stretched, first to include other salvias that are related to culinary sage but not necessarily something you'd use to flavor your stuffing, and then to include anything that I felt like planting.

The best news about this garden is that the chickens have practically eliminated the snail population. Clematis, dahlias, and lilies have all sprung from the ground this spring after years of getting mowed down by snails. 

Here's the back yard looking yummy, as it does this time of year. This is the north side of the house, which means that even though it's an open, unshaded space, the house tends to cast a long shadow most of the year. The back, around the chicken coop, is really the only place that gets full sun all day.

I'm moving plants around a lot to accommodate the chickens these days. I want low-growing plants so that I can look out the back window and see the chickens and the coop. There's no point growing food because the chickens would just eat it. So flowers it is, and creeping, crawling flowers work best because they're not bothered by the girls' scratching and digging. Hardy geraniums are doing well, as are yarrow and lady's mantle. Rose campion, calendula, cerinthe, borage, and love-in-a-mist are prolific self-sowers, so at least some of their seeds survive the scratching and pecking.

What else? A few low-growing salvia, some centranthus, maybe a few heurchera. Half is perpetually in damp shade (near the house), and half in full sun and whatever water I think to give it, which may not be much. It's kind of a jumble, but the chickens and I like it. 

Thanks to the Sacramento Bee for this story on the digital gardening world. I'd like to second their nomination of Annie's Annuals as the best nursery website--it's useful as a reference source and as a place to find plants.

News - Dan Vierria: Online gardening is almost as good as the real thing - sacbee.com

A study published in the journal Thorax found that women who ate the most tomatoes, carrots and leafy green vegetables had lower asthma rates. It is important to note that this study showed association, and not cause and effect. Women who eat a lot of veggies may have other healthy habits that lower their asthma rates. However, since no other fruits or vegetables were significantly associated

Hey solarDwellers:

So, the other day I was complaining in a post because California Public Utilities Commission is going to get less generous with the amount of rebate money people who install solar pv will get next year. The example I used: a nice-sized, 2.5kW single-home system net price could go up from $15,800 this year to $17,000 next year because of a lower state rebate, unless of course your nice, neighborhood installer decides to keep the price toward the lower end to keep demand high, with the effect of lowering his/her own profit margin.

And if these possible state-level changes weren't dizzying enough for installers and consumers, PG&E (the other shoe, the California electricity corporation), decided to change its electricity rate structure beginning May 1 of this year(2006).

The biggest change was in their "Time of Use" rate, which is the type of rate which most solar owners have chosen historically and found most beneficial economically for the solar power they sell "back" to PG&E during "peak hours." Anyone can choose a "time of use" rate, which just means the utility will charge you more for power you use between 12-6pm(peak hours), and charge you less for all other hours and weekends(off-peak). Doesn't sound good if you use much power during those peak hours. But if you have some nice solar panels on your roof, and you don't use much power during those peak hours, you get to EXPORT that power to PG&E at the HIGHER peak-hour rates, while you pay PG&E LESS for off-peak power at night.

This was a great deal for solar, because on the old "time-of-use" schedule, called "E-7" in PG&E language, in the Summer PG&E would pay or credit the solar owner for their solar electricity at $.29/kWh between noon and 6pm, and only charge that owner around $.09/kWH to use the utility's electricity outside those peak hours. This large differential for the solar owner between the price to sell and buy, in effect, made it possible to buy a PV system that produced only 65% of their electricity usage but REDUCED the electric bill by 95%. In other words, a PV system producing 65% of your electricity needs could produce 95% of economic savings.

Now, the problem: solar owners can't get the old "E-7" rate with such a wide differential between peak and off-peak prices. Now you have to go with the "E-6" rate schedule. Instead of earning $.29/kWH peak and paying $.09/kWh off-peak in Summer, the new rates are $.21/kWh peak and $.095/kWh off-peak. They're paying you less for your solar during the day and charging you more at night for power!!! What a deal!!

So, what's it all mean!? Basically, the magic of a PV system producing only 65% of your electricity but reducing your bill by 95% is not so magic any more, because the utility is buying your solar for less between those prime noon-6pm hours when solar panels produce at their best. The reality now is that you need a bigger, more expensive PV system than you would have needed under the old rate to get that same 95% economic savings benefit.

All in all, future solarDwellers, it's been a pretty disappointing double whammy from the state(potential reduced rebates) and the corporation(reduced price for your solar exports) at the same time. Don't get me wrong! This is just a bump in the road in the rebirth of solar in California and nationwide.

Buying solar for your abode still is guaranteed to pay you back on your investment and guaranteed to reduce your carbon footprint A LOT!!!! You'll be glad to know if you put a 2.5kW system on your house, it's roughly the carbon equivalent of not driving your car 10 months out of each and every year that your solar panels are on your roof. So, stick with your current car and buy solar instead of a new car, or try not driving for the 10 months out of every year . . . .You gotta do what works for you.

--the solarDweller
Categories: solar, solar+power, solar+energy, green+power, alternative, renewable, sustainable, economicsofsolar, psychologymarketing,

The American Solar Energy Society (ASES) has a awesome website that anyone who’s interested in solar power should check out.

Here’ the site http://www.ases.org

Be sure to read the giude to getting started with a solar energy system in your home, if that’s something you’ve been thinking about.

There’s also links to tour dates, and much more.

Aspitive Helpful For Fatigue & Weariness

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Hey solarDwellers:

Just got done with one full day on the roof in Livermore, CA on a Habitat for Humanity multiple "green building" duplex project. The solar part's being coordinated by a local non-profit that installs solar for only low-income households: Grid Alternatives. In this case all the equipment was donated, so these homeowners will have close to a $0 electric bill from day one with no loan payment they would normally have to pay off the solar panels. I'll update after day two tomorrow and hopefully get some pictures up soon! It is so cool to see solar pv panels going up on a group of houses together ringing the same curved street.

Later . . .
--the solarDweller
Categories: solar, solar+power, renewable, alternative, solarsightings, whatsnews

I updated the post (below), put a link on the sidebar, and I think it's done. Feel free to keep commenting, however.