Thoughts on farming January 21, 2010

It’s cold, it’s rainy. I do love winter. But I am thinking about warmer days to come and what to plant this year. Last year was a lot of fun, planting seeds with the kids and clearing out new garden areas. It was sorta experimental, in that we weren’t sure what would grow and how much of each thing to grow. Then there was the sun issue- we weren’t sure if we had enough sunlight for the plants to mature. But it all seemed to work because we had peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes and beans. This year, we are planning to focus on certain vegetables that we use a lot in cooking or already eat on a regular basis. We will use a mixture of heirloom seeds and plant starts (like the little potted plants you get a a nursery). We will add some planter boxes to the front yard and hopefully put in some seeds on the side yard. I also plan to add some pots to the back deck that can be moved around with the sun. My other priority is to plant another peach tree in the backyard next to our current peach tree so they can pollinate each other for a greater gain. Oh, on a side note, our apple tree in the front yard is already establishing limbs. It is so cute!

As far as animals go, our plan for raising chickens has been put on hold. I struggle with this one, because it is an ethical issue. Chickens are not allowed unless you own 2 acres or more. Um, we have a third acre. So do I break the stupid law and let my kids watch me? Or do I teach them the importance of following rules? We can’t do anything anyway, since we have not built a chicken coop or really thought too much more about it since we found out the ordinances. However, we could have rabbits here. They would be pets for us, since I am not too keen on gamey rabbit meat. But rabbits are very useful when it comes to feeding the soil with their compost. So having a couple of pet rabbits is a strong possibility for this coming year. And gosh, they are really cute too. Another possibility is beekeeping. Not only do you get honey, but bees pollinate the gardens for a greater yield. I need to do a ton more research on the subject before I make any moves. But I sure like the idea of it.

So right now, we are focusing on making a list of the seeds we need to order for spring sowing.  I will post a list when we finalize it. We have also been composting like crazy all winter so that we don’t have to purchase any bags of soil. Later when the weather gets better, we will contruct more plant boxes for the front yard. My hopes are that we are successful this year and can put up some of our produce to eat during the fall and winter. Baby steps. How did the pioneers do it all? It seems overwhelming. But it is a lot of fun for us! And for those who are wondering as they read this- Yes, we know that we are weirdos. No one else around this area does what we do (that I know of anyway). As Dave Ramsey says, “Live like no other so that you can live like no other.” I totally agree.

Labor Day happenings September 7, 2009

I’m sure there are plenty of families basking in the Florida sun right now, but we are on a staycation at the Miller Homestead. #1 is playing with all the neighbors on bikes, #2 is sick with fever putting together a puzzle, and #3 is very busy following me around and making little messes. It has been an eventful weekend already.

Friday night, we had some neighbors over for dinner. Their daughter is #2′s newest love interest, and also happens to be in his kindergarten class this year. #1 went to a neighbor’s swim party that same night and didn’t return until 9PM.  (I guess this is the start of waiting up for our kid to get home…)

Saturday, husband worked under the crawl space of our house, reinforcing the beams in the foyer. Soon he will be able to lay the floors in there. The dining room floors are done and look fantastic. So check! Two rooms done and two more to go (the foyer and front office).

Looking into the dining room from the kitchen doorway

 

Looking into the dining room from the foyer

Last Sunday we joined the church we have been attending all summer. This was a very big decision for us! I, personally, have not been a formal “member” of a church since we lived in Lousiana. Yesterday, I sang a solo in front of the whole early service congregation and during the invitation, #1 walked up front and asked to be baptized. When the pastor talked to him after the service, he commented on how well #1 knew his stuff. So he will be baptized next Sunday morning. We are so excited! Then when we got home from church we noticed that #2 was burning up with fever.

Today, #2 woke up with a little bit of fever, but not as much as yesterday. He’s seems to be fine now, and husband bought him a new puzzle to work on.  On another note, this is the third day we have not had air conditioner downstairs. However, it really hasn’t been a big deal because the weather has been crispy cool. Windows have been open since Thursday morning. But the air conditioner guy came over this morning, armed with twisties and duct tape, ready to fix the problem. Turns out, the motor in the fan is caput, so he will bring another one by tomorrow and install it. Whew! Thank goodness this didn’t happen in the middle of July. We are expecting this ac to die soon, considering it is about 22 yrs old.

We’ve also spent most of this morning working on the yard. Husband just pruned the peach tree. I’m really hoping this thing will actually produce something other than yellow golfballs. They don’t make for good eating… And I transplanted the blueberry bushes to the front yard so they would get the sun they are desperately crying for. All the fruit trees and bushes got some plant food spikes for added nutrition. This is the time of year where I start getting excited about the upcoming weather, and all the things I want to plant in the spring. I will start making sketches and lists. We never had a chance to take out the trees this summer. It will have to wait for the when the money comes. But it is the next project on the que after finishing the the floors. After the trees are taken down, we will begin saving for a complete gutter and siding overhaul. Yay! Now doesn’t that sound fun?!

Pruning the peach tree in the backyard

 

Husband with his new pruning weapon. And I should mention how ridiculusly predatory the mosquitoes are in our backyard!

 

New location for the two blueberry bushes- now next to the fig and apple tree

There’s a monsoon over here March 28, 2009

Well, maybe I’m exaggerating. But just a little bit. It has rained for three days straight and I am crawling the walls. The plant starts I ordered came in on Friday and I wanted to plant them right away. So, yes, I dug holes out in the pouring rain. Sidenote here: Okay, so, I just wanted to set everyone straight that when they show people in horror movies digging graves for the person they just put through a woodchipper alive- it ain’t as easy as it looks to dig a hole to bury evidence. First of all, there is an inch of red mud clinging to the bottom of your shoes and inevitably, your wet hair will get in your mouth and nose, tickling you beyond torture. You are covered in mess and trying to keep your balance with a shovel in one hand and a hoe in the other. Well, let’s just say that there were no modeling agencies knocking on my door this weekend…

But I did manage to put in a plum tree, 4 thornless blackberry bushes and 50 strawberry starts, and one human brain. (sorry, I couldn’t help myself…) The raspberry bushes will have to wait until tomorrow because I’m tired and the place I want to put them is still overgrown with kudzu ivy.

I also had a man from a tree service come yesterday to give me an estimate on tree removal for the front and side yard. Not bad. I thought it would be astronomical, but he was very reasonable. So tree trimming is on this season’s short list of to-do’s. Hopefully, we will get some more sunlight in the front yard. Next item on the gardening agenda is to construct a compost bin of sorts. Currently, we just have a giant decomposing pile in the back corner of the yard, but we’d like to make it more official and move it closer to the fence gate. I had mentioned getting chickens in an earlier post, but I think that I may wait a year. I am totally in love with baby chicks, but the thought of building a nice coop with all our projects going on makes me feel a little sick. I won’t stress myself out for now.

Missing in Action March 11, 2009

Hardcore, backbreakin’, sweatin’ and swearin’ up a storm kind of action. I have spent the last few days preparing the gardens for seeds and starts. We picked locations based on sunlight, and then we will fix the soil accordingly. All my seed starts were thriving, so I decided to move my tomato seedlings into yogurt cups. Bad move, they hated it. Most of them commited suicide. I think maybe one is still alive. I won’t move anymore, but will just wait until I can put them directly in the ground.

One of the raised beds in the front yard. If you look closely, you can see the snap peas coming up, and some little cabbage seedlings.

 

This is the side garden that I have been working on. We are planting fruit here. So far, I have put in two blueberry bushes, but I have already ordered the rest.

 

This is a view standing next to the sideyard gate and looking towards the street. I still have to clear out some more ivy, but my blisters say no.

 

Ooo! I love this little spot next to the fence on the ground. I can't decide whether to plant clematis or grapes. Either one will climb up the fence and have plenty of sunlight- and probably bees.

 

This is a garden bed right in front of the house. It's pretty shady, so I am planning to have some dirt dumped there and put in some shade lovers.

 

Look what spring brought! This is our backyard peach tree. And no, that is not a deerstand in the background. It's the kids' playhouse.

 

Close-up of the peach blossoms.

 

A little garden gnome that found a Starbucks vanilla frappuchino and helped herself. Betcha don't know how sticky a vanilla frappuchino can be...

 

So what’s spring looking like where you live??

TKO March 6, 2009

I did not step into a boxing ring today, but I do feel like I’ve been knocked out. I spent the afternoon working on the side yard, clearing out the ivy. I bent over a million times to pull roots and runners and then raked piles to put in the compost mountain in the back yard. I have a big blister on my hand, which has already burst. Gross, huh? It was rewarding though. I managed to clear a whole section all the way to my neighbor’s yard. I am also trying to preserve the blackberry stalks that are there in the brush. The kids like the berries but the thorns are terrible. Sorry that I didn’t have a chance to snap a photo, but I will later, when I get the plants in the ground. You know- one of those before and after pictures. So in my mind I have already planned the perfect sideyard fruit garden. It will soon all become a reality, as I ordered some plants today from Burgess Seed and Plant Co.

Here was my purchase list:

1 dwarf plum tree (to add to our little orchard)

4 thornless blackberry bushes

3 thornless raspberry bushes

50 Ozark strawberry start plants

I can’t wait to get everything planted. I already put in my two blueberry bushes from the local nursery and I am thinking of putting in two more later. I will also put in a 4′x4′ raised planter and throw some cantaloupe, honeydew and watermelon seeds in there. If this is successful, it will definitely be my favorite garden because I love fruit!

The Old Guy at the Plant Nursery February 16, 2009

I like going to our local nursery because it’s about 4 minutes from my house AND the old guy who works there is good as gold. He owns the place with his wife and they live across the street from the nursery. Sometimes when I drive past in the mornings, I see him in his little tractor crossing the 4 lanes smiling his big smile. Anyway, I was testing out the Jeep that just came back from getting new belts and shocks and I decided to drop by just to see what they had in the greenhouse and guess what? Cute little old man gave me a tour of the whole nursery. He told me all about his life in the Navy and all the places he had lived, etc. He showed me all the plants he had started from scratch and pointed across the street to his yard where the “mommy” or “daddy” plant resided.  I couldn’t help but start thinking about how our culture has it all wrong. When did we trade in personal service and care for speed and convenience? Who would rather run in and by poor quality from a bunch of teenagers in orange aprons than scoop up a few cups of wisdom from someone who wants you to succeed? I could have talked to this guy for hours. (He could’ve too). In the end, I walked out with two beautiful and discounted blueberry bushes and a bag full of free seeds. He told me to come by in a few months and update him on everything. He was excited that a young person took interest in starting an edible garden. He said he used to carry all kinds of edibles, but over the past few years scaled back so that he could sell landscaping plants to contractors and such. However, he has pointed me to the other nursery that they do business with- the same one we bought our apple tree from up in the mountains. I hope to go back soon and talk with him again and maybe get him to come to my house for some pointers and a tour of the “homestead.”

Smiles everybody! Have a great week!

Raised beds February 14, 2009

And no, Mom, I don’t mean that bed up in your guest room….I mean the kind you build to put composted soil and seeds in. Well, we had three of them last year in the backyard, but it was too shady and our plants did not mature. This year, we decided to move them to the front yard where there is full sun for most of the day. It drizzled last night so everything was kinda icky when we started shoveling it in the wheelbarrel. Even #3 tried to “help” us with her little spade.

The other project that I am working on is our sideyard. It is a vast wasteland of ivy, and apparently has been this way since the dawn of time. The roots are an intricate weaving system that probably connects to Beijing China on the other side. Well, at least that is what it felt like yesterday when I was wrestling the vines with my metal hoe. That area is reserved for some blueberry and blackberry bushes along with another apple tree. We will probably put in some strawberries too, once it is completely cleared out. Right now, we have seeds getting started inside. I will do another post on that later, as I got pretty creative with the “pots” they are growing in.

A beautiful modern day pioneer woman.

 

Digging out the lawn beneath. Oh, horrors! The American Dream being ripped up by a shovel!

 

This is right before I let husband take over. There were some pretty nasty roots growing under there.

 

This is our sideyard so far. That brown dirt part took me HOURS to clear out and I still have to get more roots out.

 

Our fence is on the right and the neighbor's on the left. That is the last bit of ivy that has to come out. There are also blackberry bushes living in there that I will salvage, but their yield is crummy. Maybe because they are being choked out by this parasidic green stuff??

I’ll keep everyone posted, as it is getting close to planting season here. We are very excited and have tons of ideas! Please feel free to offer your ideas as well, especially if you know what you are doing and you have experience….

Our Garden and Orchard November 7, 2008

One of our goals this past year was to plant an edible garden. After reading some info and asking around, we ended up building some make-shift raised beds with composted soil. We started seedlings in the spring and then planted them in the beds. They grew quickly at first but stalled out for lots of reasons. First of all, we were and still are in the middle of a terrible drought. And secondly, our back yard is tree after tree. Sunlight is at a premium back there. When buying the house, we considered it a luxury to have all the trees. Imagine the low cooling costs and all the shade! Since we can’t afford to cut all the trees down, nor do we want to, we are going to move the garden into the front yard this year. Yesterday, Charlotte and I planted a bunch of broccoli plants next to the mailbox. Later in the afternoon, Cullen helped me cut out a new garden bed on the side of the front yard. I am hoping to have all the beds laid out and ready for early spring planting.

We also started a little orchard! A few weeks ago, I drove with the kids up to Elijay, a little mountain town in north Georgia, and picked out an apple tree for the front yard. Currently, we have a peach tree in the back yard that produces but never ripens, so we will have to do some troubleshooting this year to figure out how to get it going. The apple tree will begin producing in 2 to 3 years. A few days after the apple tree went in, we went to a local nursery and bought three fig trees. We intended to just get one, but the old guy three in two more just to get rid of them. So we planted them near the apple tree in the front yard. They will need to be pruned like crazy or they will take over the yard for sure. So there you have it. We will start our seedlings in late winter so that we can get our spring garden in by the last frost. I’m so excited! Nothing beats fresh vegetables and fruit.

Mailbox broccoli garden

New side garden bed -View from porch

Charlotte goofing around while I was taking pictures of the garden bed