Gal in the Garden Series – Last week of May update.

Posted on May 31, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

We got a few more things done but there has been a lot of rain days and so things have been soaked enough that some things had to be put on hold.. Still things are getting done.

This is part of the next section that we need to be working on, on the far right side you can just see the tail end of Plot 3 from the front kitchen garden.. I have a few plants now across the bottom of that bed and the first front row of the annuals in, I will ideally get the rest of that plot planted out this weekend and will have new photos of it early next week or heck maybe if it really is going to rain as much as they say on sunday.. maybe i will have time to write and post them. There is just shy of a hundred plants in that pile.. which has grown alot and now we have over 200 plants waiting to be planted out.. plus one more order still to come in yet.

this gives you another short view of that area form a different angle.

So the rain garden is going in before the pond, with the overflow moving into the pond itself which them has its own overflow into the marsh area.. Its going to be a amazing when its all done.

The rain garden is going to be dug for 8 inches but will come out at 6, 4 and 2 inches.. and we have had lots of rain, so I know that I can have collection in the deepest area and I am having drainage within my 24 hours which is excellent.

In total currently, we have over 200 plus plants to be put out, plus assorted rocks, plus one ton of river rock ranging from 3/4th inch to 4 inches in size that will be used to make the dry creak beds as well as a ton of pine based mulch.

I have one more delivery of plants ordered and coming by mail with just over another 100 plants to be planted out yet.

Another 10 tons of top soil will be arriving this week.. I truly hope that will finish up.. as that will be a total of 20 tons of top soil, 10 tons of mulch,  a ton of river rock..  Its all being moved by shovel, dump load and manual work.. It will be worth it but its a ton of work.

I yielded this week and called in extra help, some just by friends and one day by paid help..  The paid help day is a focus on getting the rest of the food gardens in in regards to doing the kneeling planting that I can not do myself.

I also called for help on a fencing day or possible fencing weekend depending on how long it takes to fence off that section and re-seed that front pasture area. This will be a wonderful thing to get done and finished up on.

Finally the weather is breaking enough that we can put out our warm season plants this weekend..

Here comes the tomato’s, cherry,  eating and of course sauce tomato’s. Eating peppers, sauce peppers and hot peppers!

Somewhere in there we also need to get all the squash planted and the potato’s in the ground as well..  It will all come together..

Posted in gardens | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Cherry Pie.. A little sweet, A little Sass..

Posted on May 30, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Meet Cherry Pie “the car” lol.. do you name your vehicles? I have never had such a tiny car size wise and the crazy thing is in the car and driving it does not feel small.  My Black Beauty of a SVU was taken off the road per its last big check up.. It would have cost a lot to fix the issue, it would have been temp and so I was home on the farm without wheels and we were a one car household.

I have been there for many years and normally it does not bother me much but for some reason this time it was chaffing me, I had things to do, I had places to be, I had things to mail out, I had things to get for classes and I had speaking and teaching events planned.

Now I will admit that Cherry is not that big, so some things will have be changed up and I will get on a planned out delivery system for some of the bigger things that need to come into the farm.

Still Cherry is going to the trip car, I adore CB, our bigger car but she is SO low to the ground.. and she makes my back hurt like you would not believe.. This slipped disk is really giving me a run for my money in terms of getting things done, having to make different choices on some things and the farm for the next year as it heals up.

I had been given the go ahead from the physio for the trip but only if I am willing to stop every 30 to 45 min and walk-do movements for 5 to 10..  stopping every hour to move might mean that I can function when we stop and get where we are going for the day but lets be fair here.. how do you get where you are going on your driving trip if you need to stop that often..   It means everything will take longer and then some to get anywhere.

Still I can’t wait for our holiday..

Cherry is outstanding on Gas, she has a crazy low km for her age and lots and lots of years left in her that’s for sure.  You have to be careful, she’s got some pep to her lol..

For me though the biggest perk is that I can get in and out of her without being in so much pain and I can drive for a certain length of time without it starting to really hurt. I am doing a test drive over this next while an we will see how I hold up.

I do love her color..

 

 

Posted in Life moves on daily | 2 Comments

Spring Rhubarb

Posted on May 29, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

I love rhubarb and its finally here for 2019.. We had a very slow start to our spring and now we are having a cool wet start to the garden season.  While I know others might not agree with me, I will take a cooler slower wetter spring then I will take summer heat and spring drought.

Having said that, my own big patch of rhubarb are coming on slower to produce their bigger stalks but are already starting to flower. The flowers will be coming off and being used for creating a new recipe in their use.

There is a long season yet for rhubarb and its harvest but I do know that I will be having a smaller harvest then the past couple years because we are digging up plants and splitting and moving a few of them into the new front kitchen garden.  One of my smaller (but still much bigger then anythign you would get in the garden store) has been moved the spot in front of the strawberry raised bed. Its at the end of the single row plot 2.  I have plans to move three more up into the front yard..

This means I will be done four plants in the main harvest plot, because I will not harvest off the split plant that is replanted this year or depending even next year.   Given this, I expect I will most likely only harvesting 100 to 150 pounds of rhubarb this year, I will weight it out and keep track of it.

The local rhubarb price in stores is 8 dollars a pound, the local farmers market ranges from in the five to six dollar per pound, the local farmers are selling it at 4 dollars a pound at their farm gates and there is a local bakery that is buying it at 2 dollars a pound in bakery credits (I thought that both clever and very low all in one)

For someone with a couple plants from grandma that always have a ton left over and no idea what to do with it, I think they would love to take in a couple pounds and get the bakery credit..

However given the regular price of rhubarb, 2 dollars a pound is just being cheap as its even half of the really good priced farm gate rhubarb. Still creative and certainly trying to do a work around paying that much higher dollars per pound rate if she is ordering it in from “her suppliers”

Little 8 inch strawberry and rhubarb pies are running 10 dollars.. wow!

How is your rhubarb doing this year? you buying or selling, what is the local prices in your neck of the woods?

 

 

Posted in Gal in the Garden Series, Garden harvest | Tagged | 7 Comments

Finally Mason Bee Coon Hatching..

Posted on May 27, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Everything has been so late this year, I have been holding my mason bee coons in the fridge waiting.. WAITING!

Two weeks ago, this lovely native bee was the first one that I saw..  after my ill timed for hatching three Mason that came way to early right before freezing temps and a snow storm.

What a little pretty it is

.. but while the paper wasps where out and about.. the bees were having a slower start.. still the tree’s had tons of pollen for those brave enough to be out and about..

Then a started seeing the Queen Bumbles, in the past two weeks, I have counted 7 native bees and four different kinds of bumbles! Still it was only on Thursday that finally the plums went into full bloom.

On Saturday Morning, I watch a native Mason bee female use one of the early set up Mason bee houses by the bean teepee..  This was the nod I needed.

I got the biggest Mason bee house installed and the first batch of the early spring where taken from the fridge an as you can see.. lots are hatched out and in this photo you can see the sweet little black face of a female that is in the process of hatching out 🙂

The temps are just getting high enough overnight that I should be able to hatch out the later spring mason bees as well..  They will take their time and doing their thing as the timing is right.

I am so excited to see them coming and going very soon.. Fingers cross for lots of lovely photos for you 🙂  On one plant alone yesterday, I counted five bumbles and three different kinds of native bees..  I have watched them crawling all over the honeyberries 🙂

This is a good thing for the plants that are harvestable, and this makes me sigh on the new plants that are in full bloom that I will need to pick off the fruit for this year so that the plants put that energy into the roots.. not the fruits 🙂

I am so pleased that many of the new changes that I did last year to increase my populations here on the farm are showing amazing returns this spring..  This bodes very well indeed for all the yard rebuild which is being designed to include many aspects to feed the native pollinators though all seasons.

 

Posted in Native Bee's, native bees | 4 Comments

Farmgal’s Photography – May 23rd 2019

Posted on May 24, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

sorry folks I tried to upload these yesterday but the net was wonky and refused to work with me.. its a new day.. nope they will not load.. so be it.. its a flash back photo day! Lets go back.. back to may 2011..

Posted in Life moves on daily | 6 Comments

Chick, Turkey Pullet and Ducking Updates.

Posted on May 23, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Chick update 3 weeks in.

Meat Chicks..  HUGE!, feathering out.. going though a crazy amount of food and water and I am starting to see the difference in regards to the choice to sit down more.. I also have had my first chick this week that is having a leg issue.  Its not broken but its clear limping.

I also find they bunch harder together then my own chicks tend to do so.. However I am asking finding they are interested in greens when its added to their area to give them something to nibble on.. I am going to introduce a dust bath area..  They are doing well.. but they are different.

Brown Egg Layer Hatchery Female Chicks -3 Weeks in

All growing well, feathering out nicely and they are good size chicks, happy, active friendly, all over their pen and into everything.. very smart girls..  I am just pleased over all with them.. the group of them is very steady.. no runt, all so even in their growth and habits.

Mixed Flock Chicks- 5 Weeks

No longer needing extra heat and while they are more feathered out, they are smaller, taller but leaner then the Brown Egg Layers.. Mix of colors and types.. its so clear looking between the two that they are mixed vs a breed 🙂

Turkey Pullets – 3 weeks

Growing well, getting taller and feathers starting to come in nicely.. they are healthy and bright.. they are chirpy as turkeys tend to be.. when they are a bit bigger, I hope to safely introduce them to Whistle the Turkey hen and combine them together. I am pleased with their health, growth and temperment

Ducklings-1 week

11 healthy black and white ducklings. Hatched here on the farm and more coming, I am aiming for 60 ducklings ideally.. These are a lovely group of ducklings and they are being raised by a hen.. Growing well, all even in size at this time.. I should start to see a difference in the next couple weeks with the males growing faster and bigger compared to females.

I have three more hens sitting on nests and ideally they will hatch out approx. another 30 ducklings this spring.

Overall, I am very happy with how the chicken, turkey and duck plan is coming along..

Posted in Chickens | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Gal in the Garden Series – Kitchen Garden Update

Posted on May 21, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

The long weekend has come and gone and we had amazing weather,  our first hot/muggy day, black flies have arrived and a crazy amount of rain overnight.. to this we were able to get a lot of work done..

My hubby moved a couple tons of sub-soil and then another ton or more of top soil and then mulch lol.. I am cut down bad plants, directed and did garden things waist high.. so grateful for higher longer tools that allow me to still stay busy in the gardens.

The front section of the kitchen garden is backfilled, created and top soil leveled and the bones of the gardens for plot 1 and plot 3 are done and plot 2 if fully planted and the small circle garden is made and planted! Here is a full series of photos to show you different stages 🙂

Plot 1 being built.. below, plot on first row of the coming agains and the fruiting bushes, there are honeyberries and blueberries bushes. and the first of the walkways in. and the front area is seeded into flowering lawn mix.

Plot 2 is a single 3 foot plot, where as plot one is a 6 foot by 22 foot bed.

Ok so second level of annuals for kitchen plot one is in, plus the start of the end plantings on both end of plot one.. Single plot two is now built and fully planted..  there is lovage, rhubarb, two clove current bushes, assorted herbs and edible flowers as well as chives and garlic chives and it connects to the raised brick strawberry bed at the end.

Next we put in the circle small round garden with the walk around it, it might not look like much now but when its fully filled in and in bloom its going to be very pretty indeed. The photo below shows it in regards to the new built and extended rock garden at the corner of the deck.

Then came the biggest challange to date.. Plot 3.. you see it had so many trees and stumps pulled out of it, the drop off was crazy.. at its highest point, we had to do the sub-soil refill between 12 to 16 inches just to bring it level to the down slope of the yard, without even looking at blocking at the back of the plot or top soil fill..

This plot is 22 feet long by 7 feet wide.. It looks so easy in the photo.. but hubby put in hours on sunday and then as I was helping at a local 4h club most of Monday, he worked on this all day to have this ready for planting with me when I got home late Monday afternoon.

So then we got the back/tallest planting in.. there are honeyberries, blueberries, red currents, assorted shrubs (they are in for the next year or two and then will be transplanted out into the next layer behind this one but they needed in the ground NOW and this works for this year) and then assorted herbs on both ends.

So there is still lots of planting to do in that bed. I have started some seeds early and will transplant out, but a lot of the rows will be seed planted out directly in the next week 🙂 and then the rest infilled once the heat loving plants can finally go out!

And there she is! I will get better photos but its what I got last night.. the front half of the new kitchen garden is built.. some planting left to be done yes, and some minor touch ups here and there but overall, the main bones are all in.. and that puts us around the 60% mark for the new kitchen garden..

I like it! I can’t wait to see if grow and mature over the season and the next years.. Thanks for coming on the tour 🙂

Posted in Gal in the Garden Series, Garden | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Farmgal’s Photography May 16 2019

Posted on May 16, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Its a good thing I got some photos earlier in the week as I would not have photos for you over the past few days and I will own up that the lovely sunset photo was taken by hubby.

I have been doing so well in my recovery of my slipped disk in my back combined with my pulled tendon that went with.. at least I was until Monday when I forgot to lock a gate and the horse’s and half the sheep flock got out and had a wonderful time tromping though gardens, knocking things down and  sticking their noses and hoof’s in places they should not be! In getting them back in, I got knocked at just the perfect height sideways twisting just the wrong way by my 200 pound ram.. and all my healing went poof and I have been having a very poorly week since.

However as they say.. on with the show!

I am really loving how the lambs look this year in the cross over with king.. they are knick together really well.. however.. this little one was not to be in this pasture.. they are in lock down while the pastures start growing.. and while I re-seed again.. (please do drought this year!) right now its the other way.. its to wet.. sigh.. weather thought are a heartless bleep

My first moth spotted on May 13th on the farm.. I think it was a pretty one.. no clue what type (anyone want to take a guess?) I am open to learning. its a cute one and I hate moths.. They totally wig me.. its a long story.. one of those kid things.. as a adult I can control my desire to run screaming flapping my hands when they flutter in my face but barely!

I have not been on chore duty for the past couple days, leaving both morning and evening to hubby and extra feeding given as I am not doing my regular lunch checks and top ups.. its just the way it must be with me down as much as I am at the moment..   He smiled at me and said.. there is something on the camera for you.. you missed it last night…

He was very right.. what a pretty sunset 🙂 and look at the leaves coming out on those tree’s.. spring is so slow but it is coming! slowly every so slowly the world is turning green and coming back to life.

flower

This week but not on my farm, the lovely bright yellow was popping.. at my place I have just a few of these pretty’s just starting to show up.. but I can’t wait till they are out in full force.. so many yummy dishes will be calling my name.

 

Posted in photography | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments

Freezer Paper and Reuseable Freezer Tubs

Posted on May 14, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

When it comes to meat the answer truly is easy.. use old fashioned brown waxed butcher paper..

The question? Avoiding single use plastic..

This includes the awesome and outstanding shrink rap bags as well as the ones that remove the air and seal..

Totally will own up the fact that both of these work great.. but they are so wasteful and they produce throw away plastic for every single item preserved with them.

If they get to the point that they can figure out a way to use these that are not just one time use plastic and instead replace with something that can do the job and be composted and I will come back around to them.

Till that happens, I am heading over to re-useable plastic freezer tubs and I will also try some freezer grade Silone bags as well.  These are my trial ones.. I have a issue with how small most of these are.. but I will find a way to use the small ones as well as the bigger ones.

There are issue with it of course, its still plastic, it is will take forever to degrade but it has a good history of lasting a long time.. but you can not stack jars in the freezer in the same way and the cost of running freezers is not cheap! Balance in all things.

It means that I will need to do my best to stay on top of my canning and drying at a faster clip for the coming season.. that sounds easy but its not..  The very reason I use the garden freezer is to give me that flex in regards to saving up enough in the freezer until everything has ripened if it happens over a couple weeks or till I have time to do so.

While I do love some things that are dried for certain things, its not the same as frozen fresh and then enjoyed in different ways..

The biggest change will be in saving tomato’s, I will have to process them in smaller batches or find larger freezer tote that I can cut and just add the fresh on top till its full and then go for it..

Are you trying to reduce your single use plastic and if so what is you plan for replacing Freezer bags? I am certainly open to idea’s but please don’t tell me to use milk bags etc, as I do not buy “store” things to recycle them in this way.

 

Posted in At the kitchen table, Food Storage, frugal | Tagged , , | 17 Comments

Fruit Tree’s Nut Bushes and Pond Edging

Posted on May 13, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Good Morning Folks..

I hope you had a great weekend! We had good weather for the whole weekend, I mean it was spring, moving between to cool, cold with wind and then hot with sun..  Having said that.. we were above 6 and no rain/hail/snow and the winds never gusted more then 40 ish at the worst.

So as far as I am concerned.. the weather was GREAT!

Saturday morning I left a sleeping in hubby to head to the city as a friend of mine is moving and had a special discount “downsizing”  sale happening including some of her rewards as she sells Tupperware . * she is my main Tupperware gal.. We became friends before she started selling and she totally gets me.. I say.. I like this but not until its on sale and she knows I do not want a party 🙂

Anyway I had expressed a interest in the freezer system (I am trying to find a way to use less freezer bags, I already use the brown waxed freezer paper for all the meats. However its proving harder to find a way around plastic for the fruits and veggies.

Years ago I could use and wash and dry and reuse the good quality freezer bags but the last couple years they are making them with less quality and they often leak or split to the point you need to thaw them in a dish expecting them to leak and they certainly are not going to be used again.

So picked up full set and some extra’s to try out, I will test them hard and report back on it at a later point, I also picked up a few extra because they were amazing sales and I wanted try a few.. but 80% of what I got is all for freezer use

How are you working around plastic and freezer use? I know they are looking at a silicone bag that can be used in the freezer but so far I have only seen the stand up ones and they are costly yet and they would be very hard to stack in a good way in the freezer.

Then I got a real surprise and it awesome but I will get to that in its own post later this week 🙂 Did a bit of plant shopping and then stopped and had a visit with a friend of mine on the way home for a hour because I could and I adore them and don’t get to see them often enough!

After I got home, hubby and I got busy.. we worked for the whole afternoon on the kitchen garden area. First I finished up the new rock garden area. We had worked on moving the rocks and dirt and got the cedar pathway around it first.

Then we got the new spots all planted up with a mix of come again’s and annuals

Moving on to the Kitchen Garden Plot 1 with flowering lawn extender.. So Kitchen Garden Plot 1 is 32 feet long and six feet wide.. flowering lawn extender is 8 feet long and six feet wide.  Both of these plots have been raised and leveled with top soil.. around 30 plus wagon loads approx. to do so.

To the gravel walk way side we have added in Six fruiting bushes (honeyberry and blueberry) a mix of spring/summer/fall flowering plants.. one is edible, one is medical and one is just native bee plant.  I also have some lovely cosmo’s that will get planted on the closest to the walkway for this year in a off-set  planting in order to fill in that space this year as there is lots of room for plant growth and infill in the line.

The back side of the plot is a nice cedar path and this is a double bed, as I can reach three feet max from both pathways.  Into the first two rows went green onions and shallots, the rest of the garden plot will be planted this coming week.

Hubby asked me to leave a extra front plot area in case of backing up or turning of tractors or other things, he did not want the garden to run right to the drive way.. so we kept the garden plot 1 to come down and match the end of the raised strawberry bed.  We did the back fill and I have spread a flowering lawn mix. I have a lot of seed to use this year as I want to remove all the bare soil in the yard.. if I don’t plant it, nature will and I would like to nudge it in the direction I would like it to go 🙂

I am quite hopeful this will work, I made sure to dig out anything I did not want before top covering and leveling the area and then seeding it out.. I will be faithfully watering it and hope to have a crazy blooming pollinator feeding area there..

The end of that garden will go into large flowering plants and at the front of the garden is strawberries and wild violets..

Then on sunday, we switched gears.. as the bare root fruit order had come in and needed to be planted out.. which is just what we did..  A whole new short row in the front top fruit yard and back fill on the long rows and a one whole new row..  While I can fit one more smaller fruiting tree in and of course lots of smaller fruiting bushes.. and backfill on shrubs and so flowers BUT otherwise, this area is now full.. That only took many years, we planted our first fruit tree’s in that are a 15 spring ago.

I could not bend to help hubby but I could do other things and use the gripper to hold the little tree’s or bushes in plant for him.

After a break and some food, we started on the pond.. the first thing we needed to be done was rounding the slope sides.. and then we planted them with bushes and then seeded out but there are more plug coming as well as more natural backfill plants from the my yard and more local ditch ways over the growing season.

Got a few more plants done in the food forest and chores and then new ducklings hatched out and needed to be moved to their grow out pen. (more on them on their own post)

We were not able to get all the plug order planted so 16 plugs were potted up to hold them steady until we are able to get their area’s prepped and ready and then get them planted out. I could tell you that I slept well but in truth I had to wake up and stretch and walk and move a couple times during the night..

Totally worth it!

Posted in Gal in the Garden Series, Garden, gardening, gardens, Life moves on daily | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments