Thinking of the garden

 

The seed catalogs have been arriving a few at a time each day in the mail. They are all so entertaining to look over and make notes in with my red marker and sticky notes! WHAT!–what you didn’t do this New Year’s Eve? I looked over seed catalogs and dreamed of the smell of warm hay growing and dandelion seeds blowing in the wind….Sadly most I will not order from as they are not companies I choose to do business with, they are owned by Monsanto. But they are good for planting guidelines and other tid bits of information. And the glorious photos of vegetables! 

A fellow blogger and next town over friend, Maggie, of Maggie Mae Farm, has recently written a wonderful post on seeds, I don’t feel the need to repeat her thoughts as they are much the same as my own when it comes to gardening. 

So why the picture of my favorite old chair in a pile of fresh snow? Well the future garden space right on our front lawn of course…didn’t you guess that? Now I know you must be thinking I have smelled too much yeast after the past few posts. But honestly I haven’t….really I haven’t. This fenced in area is around 50’x50 feet and for the past few summers been the “pen” to keep Daisy out of trouble in-these-here-woods, and out of the animal pens. Lately she has been really good and able to understand the dangers of wandering off. Not to say she doesn’t need to be watched–BECAUSE SHE DOES, every 3.5 minutes to be exact. But she is better. This was also the chicken area last summer until we got to chicken coop & run ready. Daisy had a blast playing with them. My secret dream is for all children to spend a summer loving, caring for and playing with farm animals.

 I have plans on making this entire area a kitchen garden, a portager (Pot-ah-zhay). A fancy French word I know and Kitchen Garden does suite me better…Can’t you see it? Nice raised beds all in neet rows with a planting bed around the edges? I know at the moment it’s a sad little fence, but I have some lovely boards to top off, frame it in, and strengthen the top of the fence. I plan to add an arbor at the entrance and a “proper gate”. Just now the gate is a cut in the fence we roll back out-of-the-way and shut tight again with a bit of bailing twine… So fashionable and high-tech aren’t we….Best of all it will be close to the kitchen and it’s already fenced in to keep that pesky woody-woodchuck  and his friends out of the garden. I don’t think it will stop the deer, however.

 I am working out a planting schedule to interplant and try to do better at succession plantings. Also I hope that with a garden area so close I will be better at weeding it and putting in a crop to overwinter and actually waking through the deep snow to harvest some of those winter veggies. Yup, there are some beets and carrots in the garden right now but I haven’t the gumption to shovel my way to them.

 Also something I am really committed to this year as it was on my goal list last year is to get the Blueberry & Cranberry bushes planted. I also have been looking at pear and apple trees this year. The apple trees here on the farm are so old and rather wild. They do produce a good quantity of wild type apples and they do make nice sauce, so the will stay.  

Mini-Booster the Black Java Rooster

And lastly I thought I would share with you a picture of Mini-Booster. The Black Java rooster we gave away just before the dog attack that killed all of our chickens this fall. He has matured nicely and still loves to run up to Daisy and squat down for her to pick him up. Who would think that a rooster would remember her after several months. This is the poor rooster that endured countless trips around the yard in her arms, in the baby stroller and even plopped more than once in her red wagon for a ride. Mini Booster even would go swimming with her in her wading pool. A true friend.

 Mini Booster earned this name because he was from the second hatch we had, Stewie was always bigger than him, Daisy doesn’t say rooster, but booster…So he is mini and a booster.

 Hope you are enjoying all of your seed catalogs! I sure am. 🙂

Indian Summer

The past few days has been glorious around here. Temps are up into the 60’s and it’s sunny. Just perfect for working outside, with no bugs, wind, or it being to hot. It’s so nice for a change and good for the spirits.

The leaves have fallen and the trees are all but a few bare and sleeping for the season. Most everything is brown and grey, not the prettiest time to me. But it part of the process and change in the seasons. Soon it will all be covered with white snow. Snow to sparkle in the sun.

In the yard:

A few weeks ago Dick put a bucket load of manure into the raised garden bed and today I will take Daisy with me to rake it out and cover with a nice layer of leaves. I like to add compost and manure at least twice a year, in the fall and in the spring. A few weeks ago I pulled all of the dead plants out and added them to the compost pile. It’s a good idea to just not leave them in the garden, there may be hidden bug, disease, fungus left from when the plants were growing. It’s also a good idea to pull the dead material out from the flower beds as well for the same reason. Then add the compost and layer of leaves. I wish I had warned him that I need to take a bit of the soil out, it’s even with the top of the border and the compost will bring it up over…

Now is also a good time to put a nice thin layer of compost on top of the lawn. For those who worry about a nice looking lawn. To us a lawn is nice but it fends for itself, it grows or it doesn’t. Ours is mostly clover and not grass anyway. There are so many other important things to do around here than to pamper a lawn that doesn’t provide anything for us.  The clover blossoms are a welcome arrival here each year. I will pick and dry them for tea later in the cold and flu season. Didn’t end up with many this year it was so rainy they never really dried enough to pick and not be a soggy moldy mess before they had a chance to dry for storage. I do have quite a bit left from last year, so I think we will be okay.

It’s getting a bit late in the season, but there is still time to plant any spring bulbs. I have a couple of lilies I need to get planted. I usually will buy a few daffodils this time of year and plant them up, but not this year. Our budget is stretched so tight for this winter, flowers would be a frivolous investment I don’t want to make just now. However there is the possibility I could find time and swap some with my sister. She has a few in her yard I don’t. I have a few perennials that could stand thinning and she has room in her beds for them.

 

In the kitchen:

There are 4 large pumpkins on the steps that will need to be made into puree for baking later on. And the seeds will be roasted with a bit of salt for snacking. This will wait for a cooler day when it’s not so nice out and I’m in the house, but before the frost turns them to mush. It’s a good temperature outside just now for them and they would turn fast in the warm house.

I took another inventory of the pantry and made a list of things to stock up on. The veggies I dehydrated for the chickens to eat this winter and a bucket of scratch feed will head over to another farm for them to use up before it goes bad.

Supper last night went well and the men were hungry, I had enough corn chowder left for a meal. This was a good thing. The fridge is full of leftovers from a huge 22 pound turkey I cooked this past weekend with all the fixings to go with it.

 

The Farm Store:

Sewing has come to a halt around here until I can find a new belt for the sewing machine. I first need to figure out how to get the old one off then to the store for a replacement.

I haven’t had any time to make soap the past few weeks but It’s in the plans. There are a few bars of Rose Oatmeal left if anyone is interested.

Also before the week is out I hope to list the Bath Melt Bars and Bath Biscuits I told you about a bit ago.

And to list the cloth lunch bags I recently finished. More about those later.

And lastly, to answer a few email questions…. there are dog collars over at the Country Store. Just now I can’t finish any for the christmas season as the sewing machine is not working….But soon.

I hope you are enjoying the simple things in your life today.

 

Karyn

Planting Garlic

The view at the end of our road yesterday morning

It’s past that time and my bulbs are still sitting here in the kitchen! I like to plant mine as close to the Autumn Equinox as I can…missed that this year….

The beds are ready…About 6 weeks ago I pulled back the mulch from last year, added a good 6″ layer of compost, tossed it all together and added a fresh 8″ layer of hay and watered it all down…

This weekend I will pull the cloves apart and only plant the un-bruised, largest cloves. I carefully peel of the outer paper layer so i don’t bruise or damage the cloves and put them into a container of baking soda and liquid seaweed mixed with a bit of fresh water, then let them sit overnight or long enough to peel off any remaining skins.

Then take with me to the garden a container with rubbing alcohol in it. Drop the cloves in the container, dig my holes 2 inched deep and about 6 inches apart with the rows 6 inches apart. Once that is all done I will run string to mark the rows and recover with the hay mulch, give everything a good watering and call it all good. The cloves will start to grow and develope roots this fall then go dormant over the winter and start growing again in the spring to be harvested in the summer.

You may ask yourself why I peel and soak the cloves, baking soda will kill any fungi spores or the eggs of any pests that may be hiding in/on the cloves. The seaweed gives it a boost,  and the alcohol kills any pests or pests eggs the baking soda missed such as mites.

Both baking soda and alcohol are considered safe for organic gardening if you were wondering that.

So there you have it, pretty simple. So why am I so late at getting this done I have no idea….I think it’s because the weather has been so nice after the lousy summer we just had I hate to give up play time with Daisy or the horses.

I plant a variety known as softneck garlic. I’m not a fussy garlic snob so the variety didn’t matter to me. Say that to the wrong garlic person and you are in for a lengthy conversation on garlic….I ordered it from Pinetree Gardens. They are a nice company out of Maine so I know their plants grow well in my area. I love their no fuss basic, thrifty packaging, shipping materials and web site.

Also planned for this weekend is to pull the last of the bush beans in the garden and set the seeds out to dry for baking later this winter. Add a good layer of compost the garden bed and a fresh layer of hay. Then it will be all tucked in for the winter. I had planned on trying a winter garden this year, but I’m just not up to it. Honestly don’t think I will take the time to shovel a path out there through the feet of snow and keep up on row covers/mulch. Maybe next year.

Someone thought just the red was good, wonder if it's like eating M&Ms just one color at a time?

Sometimes even though I have wonderful plans of all the things I know I should be

 doing its best to step back and reevaluate my goals and make a new to-do list. I’m headed back to school for a few short weeks and haven’t exactly figured out everyone’s new schedule or my own so things will continue to run while I’m away from home. Even a few hours of my absence affects the entire running of our home. Should it? probably not but it does.

 

Dick asked me the other day very serious, “Who is going to have my cold drink on the table when I get home at night, cook my supper, feed Daisy and get her to bed?” I chuckled to myself (actual thought in my head: geesh, Dick I can do that in my sleep) reassured him it would all work out. What he forgot about is how are the animals going to be fed and put away for the night, Daisy have her bath, bed time rocking and story reading. Make lunches for the next day, and bring the clothes in off the line before they get wet again. These are just off the top of my head…

The sweetie always thinking about his tummy!

 

Have a wonderful day.

Karyn

A fall Surprise

I’m still quite busy filling out applications. Although there aren’t lots of jobs to apply for these days…

I was walking around the garden yesterday pulling weeds and noticing how many of the flowers are looking ready to sleep for the winter and ran into this….

 

A Glad Surprise

 

Cone flower seed heads nodding in the breeze

 

A Glad….What a Glad I ask myself, I didn’t plant any of these this year, or last year for that matter. It must be left over from the year before because I did plant yellow Glads in that area. Wonder why it didn’t bloom last year? But I sure am happy it decided to bloom even if it is late in the season.

Isn’t it cheery!

Well the chickens and Guinea are in their run even though it’s not finished. We still need to build a door and put up some sort of fencing to cover the top of the run. Then put up the plywood in the inside to cover the insulation and finally hang the pails I am going to use for nesting boxes.

A little each weekend and we will make it before winter sets in.

New fencing & Daisy hiding a chicken in the grain bucket

I have been hearing from many neighbors lately that the Guinea foul and chickens won’t get along and the Guinea will peck the chickens badly. They have been out of their temp. cage and in with the chickens for 3 days now and everyone seems to be getting along just fine, once the pecking orders were established the first few hours.

Some of the flowers like the roses are starting to bloom again despite their sad-looking leaves this time of year. They are enjoying the cool nights and warm sunny days this fall has given us so far.

Austin's Teasing Georgia

 

Cottage Rose and Pink Yarrow growing up through the old plow

 

A couple tomatoes in the small bed by the house

 

One of Daisy's pumpkins growing in the poop pile--This one is huge!

 

And lastly….

 

A promise of what's to come...

 

Have a wonderful day!

 

Karyn