Just another Day on the Farm

The first pea’s of the year going in are Laxton Progress..

This pea carries Thomas Laxton’s name, but was breed by his sons William and Edward Laxton Brother’s and named in honor of Thomas’ contribution to horticulture and plant breeding. Thomas Laxton died in 1893 and the pea first appeared in 1898. 

Any pea that was introduced over 100 years ago and is still widely grown should tell you volumes.  Reliable, consistent, and sweet are just some of the words used to describe this pea.

Planted out 100 g worth of these pea’s. they are the fastest producers of the one that are being planted this year..

my regular soil, raked and turned over lightly

These are also the shortest of the pea’s that we will be planting, which they could still be grown up something, they are very close to being a “bush pea” and only require very short help on the growing.. This is our fresh eating pea for the garden season. We will also be caging off a few of our best plants and saving seed for both a fall planting and for next year’s seed.

a inch to inch an half of compost, plus a light scattering of clean burned wood ash, all mixed in, an then leveled after

The second pea that is being planted out is a tall long growing pea, it is being grown as a crop, its highly recommended for freezing.

double row planted with a walk in in the middle..

The third pea that we are going is for both some fresh eating but mainly again for freezing, and that is sugar pea’s.. these lovely’s are going to grow huge, with the average plant reaching six feet in height and are very heavy feeders and producers, they require daily picking.. and a heavy structures, thankfully, you can then reuse them for beans afterwards

Had some compost left over so it went around the rhubarb plants, so they are finished off and ready to start producing for the season..

Well, I promised that I would take a photo a month of the garden area’s.. so here they are one month later, and while the snow is gone, I am not sure they look any more like a garden 🙂

Lets break that big boy down just a touch, only took photos of the front two area’s that we cleared off by raking, and will be working in some compost, admendments and starting on the first april planting..

At the very front is a herbal/flower area that comes back year after year.. over  by the brown shed is three rows of garlic beds, behind the shed in two rows are 14 rhubarb plants.

One row over is horseradish, walking onions, Wild Violets, mints and some strawberries.. One more row over and its all beebalms and strawberries.. The rest is all annual area, and will first be moved into pea’s, and then cropped out and planted out again.. anywhere that is not planted out will be seeded out with barley or oats as a green crop..

And in this patch of nothing, there is in fact , area’s for annual planting but there is also a section that grow’s self-seeded ground cherries, a good size area that grows self0seeded Borage, then two rows of comfry, then two double rows of Strawberry plants, and by the fence in a area is sunchokes..

Now this looks even worse LOL, but this is the in fact my oldest permaculture bed and its sunk down a good solid three plus feet, leaving me with a wooden base and about a foot of well rotten soil.. so we are rebuilding it up this spring.. this is 14 wheelbarrols of dry biomass from the front part of the main garden, and it will be stomped down and then we will add straw/poo bedding, then a light layer of straw and then dirt hill mounds for planting afterwards.

This mass is my two year old hay bed, we had a lot of shifting over the winter and not all in a good way, they are still sitting on their wood base, three shifted nice and three really didn’t.. we have plans to figure out how to work these.. but this is what we are starting with this spring.. what a mess..

And this again looks like nothing, I know but it in fact has a ton of things going on.. the main line was my huge squash bed from last year, which produced hundreds of pounds of squash’s both summer and winter, and to the right is a combo of tree’s, plants, herbs, and even vines, along with a good amount of wild’s to harvest.

The winter really composted this down and it will need a rebuild and plant out..  There are of course many other area’s that will grow food of all kinds but it does not look any more productive then the above ones..

Very Cool, Jason’s latest Short Story in the collection called Altered America is currently ranked #4 in “Alternative History” in Amazon’s Kindle Store! (not quite as cool as his last book which made number one on his birthday last year in its sale section in Amazon.ca) but given the much larger market in Amazon.com.. pretty darn rockin!

If you have a kindle and want to read J’s work, The Shining Path #11 ( its very cheap, the book itself is on sale at my last checking on both Amazon.com and Amazon.ca for just under 3 dollars!

Also if you have bought this in hard copy or digtal, please consider leaving a review on one or both Amazon’s, it goes a long way, even if its just a short one, and if you want to be super kind.. maybe making a point to say my darling man’s name “Jason Sharp” in the review would be awesome

The first things going in over the next few days are pea’s.. lots and lots of pea’s, and some spinach, and a small row of radishes 🙂

Most of my garden is sopping wet, and its well below freezing during the evenings and depending on the day, all day long as well.

But a few hardy things are popping their heads up, the lily’s are of course but so are the garlic..

The walking onion is trying hard to get up and going..

All the rhubarbs are starting, love to see that amazing pretty color in the spring, the first fresh “fruit” of the year always..

The comfry is up and beating the horseradish this year.. odd but true..

This lovely flock of fowl has been given access in the main garden area and they have done a good job, but today the gate was closed, its time to start our own clean up, amendments and plantings.. and that means.. no more chickens, ducks, or fowl allowed in the garden area..

What are you planting this fine easter weekend?

Well, lets see got a new hen called Henny (she came with the name) and she is a lovely black girl who is going broody and so she needed to be moved from her old farm to mine.. very nice girl, nice big large pale brown eggs..

She came to the farm with a new rooster.. Cuddles Rooster disappeared (fox? or ?) not sure..  he still needs a name..

And I am now on the hunt for a big dual purpose rooster, to add to the flock, the birds have all recovered and we have had no issues since we did the treatment, we are still going to do the second round just for safety sake.

The peacocks have settled in so well, they are such lovely birds, calm, steady, sweet, they figured out the farms routines in a day flat and have been a true pleasure to have here.. I have only seen him spread his tail once so far..

I’m still snotty and tired fast but slowly, ever so slowly getting better..  had my second ride on Bruno (Caleb?) , So great parts, some learning parts and a few.. challenges.. (are you sure, you don’t want to run and play with the other horse’s, are you sure we want to go though that gate, are you sure we want to do this?) its all about leadership 🙂

His ability to cue from verbal, leg or bit is outstanding, he needs a soft touch, and has a very gentle mouth..

My maple syrup while a very short run indeed (I am hoping that with this cold weather, I get just a few more days yet) was far lacking what I had hoped, the color and taste is a delight..

First photo on the farm!

Matched set in size.. Lovely..

Hello Gang,

Well the flood waters from yesterday are still there, now I don’t have permission to post the photo but I had a good laugh last night, the flooding came in pretty fast and one of the farms by me, farm kitty got stuck up a tree, so they had to take a little raft out over the water/ice and then one climbed a tree to get said kitty back down and raft back to dry land.. Gotta love those that go the extra bit to make sure that everyone was looked after.

Snow geese came in last night on our current waterfront property, then the second flock that came in was Canadian geese, that’s the first geese we have seen this year..

Speaking of geese, Pom mated with Honk currently has half her eggs laid in her nest now, and they are both very protective of it, so all signs point to go on them wanting to sit and hatch, still so sad I lost both Hiss and lou but it is what it is..

I’m on day five or six of a nasty head cold, its not a minor one either, its a full blown even with meds, knocking me flat down to bed.. well mostly, I have the energy to get up and putter for a couple hours, nap for an hour or two and repeat..

The yard is melting out finally and everywhere I look is work, but also there are hints of plants, the lily’s are starting, the feverfew is poking up, along with a few other small things, what I really need to a big old patch of nettles to come up and get going..  If I could, I would be drinking fresh nettle tea pot daily.

I have to tell you no one appears to read the sign that says our road is closed.. they just drive around it and come and stop and stare and then turn around.. dozens of them.. and it sets my hounds off every single time.. can’t get mad at them, its their job.. but sheeezzz,

Then there are those in the big trucks that just have to try and go though the sloggy mess of water and ice, so far no one has their motor die out on them going though but I keep waiting for it..

Have a great day

Just touching in, things are crazy busy..  but good.. its all good.. all morning , the hounds are going crazy as everyone drives up and then turns around at either my lane or Farmer T’s

The view from my deck.. that’s is three fields worth of floodout before it currently is lapping into my own yard.. That one goes two fields over till it hits the creek..

The View from the main garden..Same, but even bigger fields and its three fields over till it come up to the river..

Thank goodness for the sump pump! so far the house is dry..

While not home yet, Its just a matter of time, soon, very soon.. This big boy will be coming home to the farm.. Bruno is 16.2 and around 1500 pounds, he is nine, so the same age as Brandy, same age, same height, broke to ride.. He had everything on my list, other then not being a draft or draft cross breed, but he has the right height, the right size, the right sex, the right age, the right training..  and add in that he is so darn pretty to boot!