Category: Gardening

Happenings Around the Homestead

What a slow week around here, at least on ‘homestead’ things.  I can’t think of a single thing I have done other than dehydrate some herbs and make yogurt.

I had hoped to work on the roof of the chicken coop this weekend, but I didn’t get around to it with the rain on the early part of the weekend and a need to just take it easy in the later part of the weekend.

This week I hope to dry some more mint, re-pot some mint, work on the chicken coop roof, and pick garlic.  Yes, I actually have some garlic that is ready to be harvested.  It is a little earlier than normal, but it is time.

Now off to finish my cup of coffee and think about all the things I wish I had accomplished this week.  🙂

Happenings Around the Homestead

WEEEEELLL – it helps if you hit the post button.  😀  This week you will get a double update.

It’s been a bit of a slow week around the homestead, at least outside.  Inside I have been drying some herbs, both oregano and mint.  It might be better to air dry these both outside, but I prefer to use the dehydrator on low (around 95 degrees) because it is consistent.  When things are dried outside I have to keep a closer eye on them to ensure pests aren’t getting into the items I am drying, and I have to watch for the rain.  I don’t have either of those worries inside.

The oregano I am drying is a nice, strong, True Greek Oregano, whereas the mint is Chocolate Mint (my favorite), Orange Mint, and Spearmint.  There is something special, I think, about herbs that have been dried at home.  I don’t know whether it is simply knowing where they come from, or if there is a quality difference (I am sure of that, btw), but I sure do like it.

The plants I started last week are all doing well though.  I am so hopeful that the sweet potatoes take off and grow well.  My biggest concern is the deer.  Once they find these plants, they will certainly eat the leaves off of them.  They always do.  I probably need to get a covering for them as soon as I can to try and keep that risk down a little.  I may put the tomato cages over them temporarily until I can get something more appropriate.

I am a little surprised that the brassicas I planted early in the spring haven’t all bolted yet.  They are in a part of the yard that gets afternoon shade, so it may be that this is enough to keep them from bolting, but it is also enough to keep them from growing like I want to see them grow.  Even so, I don’t mind the plants taking their time as long as they don’t bolt.  🙂

Since I originally wrote this, last week, I have successfully finished drying the mint and the oregano.  Today I plan to put Feverfew on the dehydrator.

Perhaps the item of most interest this week is that some of the winter sown plants have just been happily living in their milk jugs since winter.  My oldest son has been wanting to plant some things, so I showed him where to move them yesterday.  That means I now have Skullcap, German Chamomile, and two types of Echinacea in my raised flower bed.  Woot!  Here, let me share a picture or two:

German Chamomile

One of the new flowers/herbs in my garden, German Chamomile.

Chocolate Mint

My Favorite Fresh Mint: Chocolate Mint

The Chicken Chronicles

There is not a whole lot of new things happening with the chickens.  The biggest news right now is the babies (Welsummers) and the older ladies (Rhode Island Reds, primarily).  The Reds sure do pick on the Welsummers, so much so that they Welsummers stay in the coop away from the other hens.  This week we have taken the step of putting the babies back in the baby coop and a separate run when we can.  It doesn’t work so well when it rains, which it has been doing this week, but it is nice to get them outside.

One thing that is encouraging is to see the Welsummers testing one another.  No, I don’t relish the fact that they are establishing a pecking order amongst themselves, but I do like knowing that they are getting tougher and stronger, which means they will be able to hold their own with the older ladies soon enough.

The biggest problem with the Welsummers is they are roosting on top of the nesting boxes, and in fact they stay there much of the time, which means their droppings are falling into the nesting boxes.  We have to make changes because of this.  It isn’t hurting anything, but it is making the eggs more dirty.

One of the nice things about the hens right now is how they are fertilizing the garden for us when they are out running.  I like one way I have heard it said: chickens are a compost factory that just happen to lay eggs.   Surely they are not providing all the compost we need, but they are helping.

Happenings Around the Homestead

As I have said in a previous post, I am not planting my garden in full this year.  I decided to only plant those things which were already ordered (sweet potatoes and herbs) and some things I had already planted before deciding this (corn, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and garlic).  So even though I am not doing a lot this year compared to previous years, I am still planting quite a bit.  This weekend I needed to plant some sweet potato slips that arrived a couple of weeks ago, as well as Goldenseal plants.

I must have ordered more sweet potatoes than I remember ordering.  I planted 45 slips, 15 each of Beauregard, O’Henry, and Purple Passion.  Those are orange, white, and purple sweet potatoes, respectively.  Oh, you didn’t know there were different colored sweet potatoes?  Yep, and while they taste similar, they do not taste exactly the same.  I find the purple sweet potatoes to be more dry and a little less sweet, while the white sweet potatoes are more mild, and actually make a pretty good white potato substitute.  Here is a picture of one of the slips I planted:

O'Henry Sweet Potato Slip

O’Henry Sweet Potato Slip

The garlic is coming along nicely, and it won’t be too long until it is ready to harvest.  It is not all that is doing well though – the mint is growing like wildfire this year.  Check out these pictures:

Chocolate Mint

Chocolate Mint – one of my favorites!

Orange Mint

Orange Mint

I mentioned the Goldenseal.  Check out the roots of this plant!  They are so golden in color:

Goldenseal Roots

Goldenseal Roots

Here is picture of the leaves.

Goldenseal

Goldenseal

I am anxious to see how this grows.  It is native to this area, so it should grow well.

Happenings Around the Homestead

Work and a special photography project I have been working on have kept me busy enough lately that there hasn’t been too much activity from me around the homestead outside of the chickens (more on that tomorrow), but some things of note have happened.

  1. Cicadas!  Wow, these things came out in force this past week!  I don’t ever recall seeing so many that they were on car tires, grass blades, small plants, and anything else they could latch onto.  Wow, this is a bumper crop this year.  😀
  2. Sweet Potatoes – despite not putting much of a garden out this year, I am putting out sweet potato slips.  They arrive this past week, and I neglected to get them out over the weekend.  I’ll try to do that Tuesday of this week.  This year I have purple, white, and orange.  Hopefully some will grow this time.
  3. Volunteers – Again, despite not putting out a garden this year, the leftover seeds in the compost had a different idea.  We have at least three volunteer tomatoes growing that we will let continue to grow.
  4. Grass – We have a buch of grass peeking its head through our new woodchip covering on our garden.  Time to move the chicken pen to let them take care of it.

Finally, I ran across a good article about Ten Things We Can Learn From Old Homesteads.  I really liked this list.  Is there anything you would add?

Happenings Around the Homestead

How I love this time of year!  The weather has just been amazing!  The plants are coming out everywhere – I love it!

One of the biggest pieces of news around the homestead this week is the number of apples on the apple trees!  I cannot believe this!  We have had these trees since we moved in here, and while they have made one or two apples a year, it has been truly pathetic.  This year, as you may remember, I pruned them heavily.  I can’t say that made all the difference, but I have to believe it made the bulk of the difference.  There seems to be hundreds of tiny apples now growing on the trees.  Check it out:

Growing Apples

Growing Apples

The other big news of the year is my almost-firm decision that I am not going to put out a full garden this year.  I have decided that there is wisdom in letting your soil rest periodically, and with us having just converted to a new type of gardening, this is a fine year to let it rest.  I have already ordered some plants, and I have already planted some things, so anything that grows from that will be permitted to grow, but we aren’t going to do anything else.  Basically, this means we will have garlic, some greens, some popcorn, and sweet potatoes.  The rest will be left to rest.  (I sure hope we can find someone with plenty of fresh tomatoes this year!)

One of the nice things happening in the garden right now is the portable chicken coop is allowing our chickens to fertilize the garden like mad.  😀  We are moving it around the garden regularly, and they are not only eating any grass that remains there, but they are stirring it up, fertilizing it, and helping to prepare it for next year.

 

Happenings Around the Homestead

While there wasn’t a homestead or a post about the chickens here last week, that doesn’t mean things weren’t happening.  As you can imagine, with the temperatures warming up, things are buzzing here.

Speaking of buzzing, that is the first thing of interest today.  It seems the native bees, the Blue Orchard Mason Bees, did not decide to make the bee house I put up home.  There is no sign of them nesting there at all.  This doesn’t mean they aren’t around, they just aren’t there.  Even so, there is plenty of bee activity.  I think, looking back, I messed up by getting them delivered too late.  That’s okay though – you live and learn.  I still have one more shipment of native bees coming, and they are set to arrive around May 15th.  These are Leafcutter Bees.  I’ll post more about them as we get closer.

One thing that has happened in the last couple of weeks is the arrival of my Goldenseal plants.  Goldenseal is an herb that is native to the US and widely known for its medicinal properties.  One of the really cool things about it is that it grows natively in hardwood (preferably oak) forests in the shade.  That makes it a perfect plant for one of the flower gardens here.  Let me show a picture of it:

Young Goldenseal Plant

Young Goldenseal Plant

I have already planted three of the six of these I ordered, and the other three are ready to be planted now.  I might be able to set them out today.

Regarding the rest of the garden, I am debating letting most of it rest this year.  There is more to come on that later.

The Chicken Chronicles

Our ladies sure are enjoying this warmer weather!  I cannot wait until we get to a point this summer that we can begin primarily feeding them out of the garden.  I am smiling as I write this thinking of how much they love tomatoes.  Those hens go nuts over tomatoes thrown into their run, but I am not sure whether it is the tomatoes they enjoy or the red color.

Speaking of hens, look at the size of their young sisters, the Welsummers:

Welsummers Growing

Aren’t the Welsummers getting big!?

They are growing by leaps and bounds, and by next week they should be ready to be introduced to the rest of the birds.  Whew!  I still need to read up on that.  I will do this as soon as possible though, as I don’t really think keeping them in a garage without fresh air and sunlight is the best thing for a chicken. Even so, they must be protected from the elements a bit while young.

The hens are really laying well now, averaging about 5 eggs per hen each week.  That means we are getting about 7 eggs per day.  When the Welsummer start laying, we will have an incredible abundance of eggs, probably near 70 or so a week.

We have been using the portable run to put the hens over grassy areas in the garden, allowing them to earn their keep.  🙂  The problem is that they are enjoying the worms more than the grass!  I had to smile when I went to check the area where the portable run is after putting them back in the permanent run for the night.  It was as if they overturned everything on the ground EXCEPT the grass.  Hmm.  Perhaps they need to be reminded that getting rid of garden grass is one of their jobs.

 

Happenings Around the Homestead

Spring is here!  Trees are blossoming, flowers are popping up everywhere, and the beautiful Cherry Blossoms have already passed their peak.  I love this time of year!  However, it also means it is time for the work to begin.  In fact, many people have already put out some of their summer vegetables, something I am hoping to get to this weekend (writing this on Saturday).  If my schedule works out as planned, I hope to have popcorn and some other vegetables planted this weekend.  UPDATE: I did get the popcorn planted, but that was it.  I hope I can find the time next weekend to do some more.

Perhaps the most exciting news here at the homestead this week has only indirect ties to gardening though.  I am now a beekeeper!  Don’t be expecting honey anytime soon though, as I don’t have honeybees.  This week my first shipment of native bees, Blue Orchard Mason Bees, arrived!  Did you realize that honey bees aren’t even native to the United States?   Nope, they were imported to the United States from Europe in the early days of this country.  Blue Orchard Mason Bees, however, are native to the US, along with many other bees of which you may have never heard.  I’ll be sharing more about this in coming posts, I am sure.  🙂

This doesn’t mean I don’t have an interest in honey bees.  I do.  However, my primary reason for bees is better pollination, and the native bees are better pollinators than the honey bees.  Of course, honey bees have the added benefit of honey.  For some reason, this reminds me of the chickens.  Let me explain.  I often say, jokingly, that I whisper to the birds, “It’s either eggs or meat, your choice.”  However, I think the better way to think of chickens is as fertilizer factories that control pests and produce eggs as a side benefit.  With the bees, they are primarily pollinators, and if they produce honey, that is a great side benefit.

So, how about a few pictures?

First off, this is the kit:

Mason Bee Kit

Mason Bee Kit

Here are the bees right out of the box.  They are still groggy, but yet they have all emerged from their cocoons.

Groggy Mason Bees

Groggy Mason Bees

 

Here are some nice macro shot of the bees.

Male Blue Orchard Mason Bee

Male Blue Orchard Mason Bee

Blue Orchard Mason Bee

Blue Orchard Mason Bee peering out at me.

Male Blue Orchard Mason Bee

Male Blue Orchard Mason Bee preparing to fly.

Male Blue Orchard Mason Bee

Male Blue Orchard Mason Bee

Blue Orchard Mason Bee

Blue Orchard Mason Bee and a good view of the tubes

Female Blue Orchard Mason Bee

Female Blue Orchard Mason Bee

Female Blue Orchard Mason Bee

Female Blue Orchard Mason Bee

Finally, here is a shot of their new home, which I placed on the eastern side of a tree in our yard.  I might move this to a different location next year, but this seemed like a good starting spot.

Mason Bee House

Mason Bee House

Rest assured, this is not the last you will hear about Mason Bees.  😀  More to come, perhaps even later this week.

 

Happenings Around the Homestead

What a difference a week can make!  Last week we were basking in wonderful temperatures, and this week we have had freeze warnings!  I read one person on Facebook who said, “If I knew spring was only going to last three days, I would have made sure to enjoy it more.”  😀

I am running into the same issue I ran into last year about this time.  My workload at the office has increased to a point where I can barely get anything done at home, and when I am at home, I am quite frankly ready to rest.  I am determined that this will not slow down planting when that time comes this year though.

Oh, speaking of plants, let me share what I saw yesterday!

Chocolate Mint

Ms. T, the tenacious Chocolate Mint

I rarely “name” my plants.  In fact, I think it sounds kind of crazy, but this one earned a name.  I call her Ms. T., which stands for Ms. Tenacious.  I have been growing this mint for a number of years now, and when I first bought the plant it barely survived.  In fact, the other mints that were purchased at the same time died.  Why?  They were potted and didn’t get watered during a very hot, dry spell.  She has also survived two winters of very cold temperatures, and a summer of very hot, very dry weather.  No matter what is thrown at it, this mint just keeps going.  I was happy to see her popping her head up good and strong this spring – a sure sign warmer days are to come soon.

This weekend my oldest son and I spent some time staking out the garden so we would know exactly where to plant things this spring.  I didn’t finish it though, as I became a bit overwhelmed with it all.  I’m not sure why that is.  I may try to finish it this upcoming weekend.  Thankfully I have some time.

One other thing I spend some time on this weekend was roasting coffee.  This has been one of the better coffees I have had in a while – it is a Brazilian coffee, which is typically one of my favorites.

Roasting Coffee

Roasting Coffee

I sure do enjoy the fresh-roasted coffee.  Until you have had it, you can’t imagine how good it is.

Oh, one last thing before I go – be sure to watch this upcoming Wednesday for a post with a great comic one of my son’s created.

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