I've been gardening for most of my life and have been a devoted fan of organic gardening the whole time. It just makes so much more sense to work in harmony with Mother Nature than to fight her. Besides which it is better for the planet and better for our bodies. Here you can see what I'm planting and harvesting, with gardening hints and resources thrown in for good measure.
And this is my June 2023 recap. I was given boxes of squash and Digger Dog would steal and eat them
The Hollyhocks were amazing this year
The crazy amazing tomato garden
A little gopher snake. I've only seen a couple this year. I have seen a lot of the king snakes.
First tomato
I had bought Bentley awhile back but didn't have pen space so he'd been living at my friends house. Since Gazelle and Chocolate and their kids had left the farm I had space to go pick him up and bring him home
He started out sharing a pen with three young boys from front to back, Jupiter, Apollo and Tiny Tim who isn't so tiny any more!
The spring pullets are growing up
And some older girls are laying
A nice basket of tomatoes
Around this time I started making sugar or face scrub
A canine of some sort (I do suspect a coyote but it could have been a stray dog) Dug under the back of my big chicken house and killed several young layers. I moved the survivors to a safer spot and temporarily patched the hole.
Farmer Girl was commissioned to make a sign for the Superior Farmers Market. I think it turned out awesome.
The backside.
Saturday afternoon the kids got disbudded. I think I was more traumatized than they were. This is where you press a hot iron onto their horn buds so they won’t grow. They were fine once they got back to mom but we are all now wearing Blue-Kote
Sunday morning I worked on the milk stand.
Moved Caramel back up on the hill. She’s getting a baby belly. We have no idea when she was bred so don’t know when she’s due. I’m guessing probably about the end of May.
I worked on pulling out the bolting arugula from the middle of this bed. The goats and chickens enjoyed it.
I mixed up some potting soil and potted up some overgrown tomato plants. It’s not quite warm enough at night to put them in the ground yet.
The milking stand works although I may have to make the head gate taller for Caramel, her legs are a lot longer than Posies.
What to name the baby goats??? I’m thinking on that one.
#appreciation
Today I’m appreciating spring and the turn of the seasons. Seeds sprouting, flowers blooming, babies popping out everywhere. Life is good.
I’m building a new compost pile and collected a bucket of leaves and soil from under some scrub oaks. I try to add a bucketful to each compost pile to add more bacteria and fungi.
Saving tomato seeds.
Squeeze or scoop the seeds and gel into a jar. Add a small amount of water and just set a lid on it but not tightened down. Put in a warmish place to ferment a few days. When the pulp has disintegrated but before it gets moldy fill the jar with water and stir. Let it settle then pour off the water with any floaters. Seeds that float are no good. Strain through a fine mesh and rinse well. Spread out to dry then store. Do the same for squash and pumpkins. The fermentation kills seed borne diseases.
Pepper seeds aren’t in a gel so just spread them out on a paper towel until dry enough to store.
It was a cool cloudy day so I worked on taking this old shed apart.
Some bolts were stripped and impossible to remove. When all else fails get the sawzall.
But in other places my arms were too short and I only have 2 hands. I think it took 3 of us to put this thing together.
I finally did get 1 piece of tin off the top. By then I was tired and my hands were sore. Time to do chores anyway.
Giotto on afternoon guard. Poor guy up all night barking off owls, coyotes and pigs.
And day is done. Time for food and bed. I have no idea why this picture is upside down. I didn’t take it that way.
I did cut down some of the weed trees on the patio. Then I went to check out a possible new dog, a German Shepard mix about 8-9 months old. He is doing well with the lady’s other dogs, rabbits and chicken and seems calm and friendly. He did jump over a low spot in her fence so I need to beef up a couple of spots on mine before bringing him home. I didn’t think to get a picture.
I did some errands and picked up a load of spoiled hay for the compost pile.
That is a San Marzano tomato growing in a pot.
That tomato plant is totally astounding. It is loaded with fruit. It has grown over the pepper and an empty pot next to it.
That’s the base of the plant. I think that’s just about an 18” pot. I’m wondering how many pounds of fruit it will give and if any will ripen on the plant before frost.
One Heat Master was ripe so I also picked a sprig of basil to go with it. I did regular chores and watched a video. I spread some of that hay in different chicken pens and basically goofed off part of the day.
Whoa! Things have been crazy around here this week! The garden is exploding with produce, flowers are blooming, bees buzzing, pesky rats, mice and squirrels have all shown up (and wiped out several crops!) Chicks and ducklings are hatching and growing like crazy.
Cilantro, aka Chinese Parsley is entirely edible, root, leaves, flowers, seeds and all. The seeds are known as the spice Coriander, but there are varieties that are slower going to seed, that are grown for the leaves. Cilantro is sort of an acquired taste. I find you love it or hate it, but once you develop a taste for it you actually crave it. I often snack on it while working. Cilantro in my climate is a winter weed, growing well while it is cool and damp, then running to seed when it gets hot. I always leave a few plants to bloom even if I don't need the seed. Great bee and butterfly fodder and I often see a lot of ladybugs on the plants. Cilantro will not grow in the summer heat, in fact the seeds won't even germinate when the soil warms up.
Collard greens
This is probably the last week for this patch of collard greens, it is trying hard to go to seed and a lot of leaves were damaged in the heavy winds last week.
part of the small hoophouse
The little hoop house has a motley collection of chard, lettuces and potted seedlings. along with a couple of flowers and a flowering radish.
A giant red mustard and chard
A Giant Red Mustard volunteered in the chard bed and is going to seed. The chard is also trying to bolt. The nice thing about chard is that if you cut them back and give them some fresh compost they will go back to making leaves. These plants are over a year old.
Snapdragon
I grew this snapdragon from a cutting. It is easy to do, after they are done blooming cut the stem back and when the new shoots are big enough cut them off and put in some fine potting soil or seed starting mix. Keep in the shade and keep moist. They will grow new roots quickly.
Scarlet Kale
I don't have enough of the Scarlet Kale to bunch by itself, so you will find a few leaves mixed in with the Red Russian for now.
Dahlia seedling at perfect size for transplanting
This dahlia seedling is at the perfect stage for transplanting. Note how it does have roots through out the space BUT it is not root bound. Set in a bigger pot or the ground it is ready to take off and keep growing. Any plant held in a too small pot too long will get root bound and then it will try and bloom at a small size, even if transplanted later it will never make as good a showing as when moved at the right time. I transplanted about 60 of these into one gallon pots this week. Dinner plate dahlias from Baker Creek Heirlooms.
