You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Garden’ category.
I’m personally a big fan of traditional blue/purple iris, but this one is just stunning. It’s been fun to see what all the colors in the yard are. Evidently, Walla Walla had a famous Iris breeder for a lot of years, and many yards here locally bear the results.
Yup, right now everyone seems to be living in peace and harmony. We’ll see how long it lasts. No one has gotten stuck in a fence this week.
We managed to trim the feet of Elmo, the one goat who we will keep (as a gift) from my friend whom the other goats are on loan from. Elmo (recently renamed Molly) was a rescue and her feet were way overgrown. Trimming feet is definitely a two-person job, and we’ll have to do it every week for a month or so, removing a little bit more each time, until they are back to normal. She took it pretty well.
The young sheep are growing fast! Soon it will be time to ween them. Read the rest of this entry »
I’m a scrounge. We joke that in my family it doesn’t really kick in until you reach 30. After that you can’t walk by a pile of junk in someone’s yard or barn or falling down house and not want to go poke through it looking for useful stuff. So, I subscribe to a “freecycle” yahoo group for my area. Rarely is there anything that interests me. But when I saw an ad for “free California and New Zealand rabbits plus cages” I jumped on it. Read the rest of this entry »
Big container, 'cause it was 75 feet, after all.
You know those “1001 Garden Tips” books? The ones that tell you to start your seedlings in eggshells or hang your onions for storage in old nylons? Well, I love those books. I check them out from the library and pour through them for new ideas.
And once upon a time, so many years ago now that I can’t remember which book or where I was living, I ran across a tip for planting carrots. Read the rest of this entry »
Phenology: Forsythia in my yard. Started to bloom March 11, 2012.
No, not the moon signs. The forsythia blossoming signs!
You know how every year, you buy a copy of the Old Farmers Almanac, and read all of the goofy articles and the gardening tips, and then get to the actual planting charts in the back, and if you can figure them out, they don’t seem to quite line up with what you know about when to plant for your area? That is, if you can figure out the charts at all? Well, that would be me. Read the rest of this entry »
Bloomed just in time for my birthday. Zone 6 baby. Just sayin’.
Getting LOTS more eggs now. I have 15 laying hens, and with the exception of the Buttercup, who has likely got a stash somewhere that I haven’t found, and the crazy Red Star who roosts in and lays under the blue spruce (despite my repeated objections), all are laying IN THE NEST BOXES.
It’s funny. No matter where you live, spring can not come fast enough. In southwest Colorado, the daffodils bloomed around April 15th, and our final frost of the year often came near Father’s Day in June. Here in southeast Washington, the daffodils will likely unfurl their petals near March 15th, and every day, I go out and check on them, dancing like a two-year old who needs a trip to the bathroom, and chanting “hurry up”.
The chicken wire keeps the hens from "scratching" out the bulbs.
And then finally, last Sunday, we had a stunningly beautiful sunny day and temperatures in the high 50’s, and I found my first crocus bloom. I then walked under one of the huge silver maples out near the barn and was stopped in my tracks by the sound. The tiny pollen spewing blooms had burst forth, and the bees had found this critical source of early spring food. The tree was so full of bees that you could hear the buzz, just standing underneath it.
You really CAN have too much summer squash. Because when you have it, EVERYONE has it. I go easy on this one, and try to harvest young and grow unusual varieties.
Now that I have one year of market gardening under my belt, I am determined to do a better job of record keeping this year. Last year, I used one of those free wall calendars that came in the mail and wrote down whatever I was doing in the garden (planting, first harvest, last harvest, gopher issues etc.) in the little squares (this is not a bad method, but makes future planning a pain because you need to flip through the months to figure out when you planted, sprayed or harvested a particular crop). In some cases (green beans, peas, potatoes, cucumbers, an estimate on carrots) I kept track of the number of pounds I was able to harvest.
But a lot went unrecorded. How much lettuce did I actually plant? How many pounds did I harvest as small greens and how much as full heads? You get the idea. What I did have a good grasp of was what I wish I had planted more of (carrots, green onions) and what I planted too much of (kale, lettuce). This year, I’ve discovered a lot more resources for use when planning. (See a list of resources at the end of this post). Read the rest of this entry »
Yup, I grew everything here except for the garlic.
I was home for a visit to northern California back in the 1990’s, during the height of summer, and my step-mom was making ratatoullie, a French vegetable stew. Not one to eat many vegetables at the time, I reluctantly tried some, and it was a revelation. It was SO good. Nothing like vine ripened tomatoes and fresh basil to make all vegetables taste fantastic. I was sold, and have been making ratatouille in September, during the height of the warm weather vegetable glut, ever since. Read the rest of this entry »
Alternative title: Garden Porn. Grin. Yummy recipe for kohlrabi at the end.
I LOVE this time of year. The time when all the hard work finally starts to pay off. Every day, you find a new long-awaited treasure in the garden…or the chicken coop. It’s kind of like having Easter in August. Here are a few of the recent finds. Read the rest of this entry »
There is an interesting rhythm to life on a farm. Most of my life, I’ve been at an office job every weekday by 8:00 am. I tried to cram in all of my “hobbies” during my non-working hours. Now, there is no 8-5 job, and the hobbies are now my life. And because I love what I am doing, I flit from garden to scrap woodpile to kitchen toiletry invention like a hummingbird sampling a field of flowers. It’s wonderful to be my own boss. It’s wonderful to set my own priorities. It’s not so wonderful to not have a day off! Read the rest of this entry »
MilesAwayFarm
Miles Away Farm Blog 