The Rest of the Garden

For the record, here's the rest of my garden in April. I've already shown you my tomatoes, lettuce, and strawberries, so there isn't much left to see. Most of the action has been planting seeds that have yet to sprout. 

I've started to harvest the garlic.

I had a bunch of pantry potatoes start sprouting, so
I planted them in my potato tubs. First ones are up.

Also planted a new-to-me potato variety - Zolushka.

These are said to be one of the rare varieties that will
grow from seed. Seemed like something worth trying.

I don't have many asparagus plants, so each shoot is a treat!

We usually eat them raw or like this, in scrambled eggs.

The favas are blooming beautifully. These are "Sweet
Lorane," a variety said to have edible inner pods.

Multiplier onions and another winter survivor - celery. I sprouted
and planted about 8 celery ends last fall, but only one made it.

As I plant and transplant, I do some weeding. Some are left to decompose in the bed, others are left because they are tasty!

Lambs quarter (in the measuring cup) is one of my favorite wild greens.

Here, sauteed with collards and onions from the garden, plus
grated carrot. Unfortunately, no garden carrots this spring.

Dandelions are another favorite. Usually for salads, but also for...

... creamed dandelion soup. 

Another spring chore is the annual tidying up of my herb beds. Once a year I get the bermuda and other grasses removed. The beds are re-mulched, and then it's time to get pictures!

Echinacea and lambs ear. Spearmint in the background.
I planted jing okra in this bed too, because it's so pretty.

Violets, chicory, yarrow, butterfly weed, and
blueberry bushes. Keyhole garden, upper left.

Bee balm and oregano. Can you spot the olla lid?

Thyme, spearmint, and a (hopefully) heat tolerant
rhubarb. Another olla is hidden in the thyme leaves.

Yarrow and blueberry bush flowering.

Here's my peppermint, in it's own container and doing well.

Still waiting to see how my tomatoes survived their late frost. Some look pretty good and a few look like goners. I filled in the gaps in the row with more seeds of the same tomato varieties, and filled in the rest of the bed with marigold, sweet basil, and Swiss chard seed.

So, that's it for April. I can't tell you how many times I refer back to these posts - always a good reference. Do you keep a garden journal? What's your best method of keeping track of your garden from year to year?

The Rest of the Garden © April 2021

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Spring Clean-Up

Once things start greening up in spring, it seems like our place goes from bare to out-of-control in a matter of days. With planting and haying going on, it's hard to keep up with it, so some areas only get a once a year clean-up. Such is the case for the herb and flower beds in the front yard. Here's how it looked before we got started.

The "bush" is a tangle of wild rose, nandina, ligustrum, and honeysuckle.
The herb & flower beds are sprouting various grasses & saplings trees. 

Here's how it looked after.

This year, Dan dug out the whole mess, including the roots.
Remaining in that bed is yarrow, butterfly weed, and chicory.

Just a different kind of messy! Usually, I only try to make it look neat, but this year we have plans. The rough circle of bricks you see is going to become a keyhole garden. In the bed in front of the porch, we're going to transplant a couple of our volunteer blueberry bushes. They're attractive, will provide shade and privacy for the porch, and more blueberries! On the trellis (where I've tried and failed to grow hops for the past three years), I'm going to try a cherry-type tomato called "Matt's Wild Cherry Tomato." It's a native of Mexico and reported to be vigorous,  disease-resistant, and self-sowing. It's indeterminate, so the trellis is a good place to try it.

I've also been working on my other herb beds. The problem with them is mostly wire-grass takeover.

I have two currently rather undefined herb beds growing echinacea,
lamb's ear, spearmint, and thyme (front). Oregano, sage, lavender, &
bee balm in the back bed. Dan has plans for new borders for them.

It's always rewarding to get these beds neat and tidy. Unfortunately, by the end of summer they will look wild and unkempt again!

Dan's keyhole garden is underway, so I'll have more about that soon.

Spring Clean-Up © April 2020 by Leigh

at http://www.5acresandadream.com

June Garden Blooms

Do you remember my showing you what I thought was a volunteer cucumber in one of my rice patches?

Volunteer in the Loto rice bed.

Well, it's bloomed and turns out it's not a cucumber!

Not a cucumber

Looks like a cushaw squash. I assumed cucumber because that's where I had them planted last year. The cushaw seed would have come from the compost pile. I should have known from the leaves!

This is a cucumber!

Also blooming:

Multiplier Onions

4 o'clocks

Chicory

Oregano

Rudbeckia (aka Black-eyed Susan)

Echinacea (or purple coneflower)

Tomato

What's blooming in your garden?

June Garden Blooms © June 2019 by

Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

The Homestead at the End of June

Inspired by Donna over at The Poor Farm, here's what's happening around our place.

Red raspberries

Amaranth

Black-eyed Susans

Blueberries

Corn

Marigolds

Apples

Goats (this is Daisy)

Daylilies

Cats (Sam and Riley guarding the ongoing hay harvest)

Echinacea

Green Beans

Lavender

Tomato blossoms (green tomatoes too)

Winter wheat

More on that last one here.

The Homestead at the End of June © June 2017

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Master Plan 2016

If you've read my blog for awhile or my first book, then you know that one of our cornerstones of homesteading is our Master Plan

When we first bought our place we walked the land, dreamed out loud, and discussed what we wanted to do. To keep our proposed big picture in mind, Dan wanted to map out how it would look some day. That's what our Master Plan is, a map of where we hope we're heading; of our goals fulfilled. It serves as a reminder of what we've decided and makes it easier to discuss how new ideas fit into the big picture.

We've updated it almost every year. Now that new goat quarters are finally going to become a reality, we've been reflecting back over what we've learned over the past several years and have been discussing land usage. All of this is reflected in the new Master Plan. (To see previous plans, click here).

Things in black are current, blue designates 

what's planned. Gates are notated with pairs of dots.

The biggest change (besides the goat barn) is more permanent designations for pasture and field crops. I've long hung on to the idea that we could rotate field crops and pasture in a four or five year rotation plan that utilized our critters in soil preparation. The reality of doing that has proved more challenging than I anticipated. This is partly because the odd shape of our land doesn't facilitate an easy moving around of critters. The animals themselves don't like change-ups, especially if it means being driven to different areas. It's so much easier to simply open one gate or another, depending on where we want them. This doesn't mean we can't use them in various areas, but having a more permanent setting is less confusing for them.

The area we've chosen for field crops in the new plan is in a good sunny spot which has fewer weeds than "doe pasture 2" and more sun than "buck pasture 2" where I've grown them in the past. We plan to prepare it next fall for winter wheat. The placement of the new goat barn with a small fenced-in "goat corral" will make it easy to rotate between the girls' two pastures.

Rotating the bucks amongst their smaller pasture areas will require a little more fencing (as in a corridor from the shelter to buck pasture 3. We may even be able to divide their pasture 1 into two for additional rotations. I also plan to make more hedgerow garden areas along fencelines between the various pasture areas.

For permanent quarters, we think the pigs should be toward the back of the property. When they were closer to the house it was impossible to carry feed or hay to the goats without being accosted by pigs. They are pigs, after all! We can still give them access to whatever area we want them rooting in, so they can still have pasture, but a permanent home farther back gives us a little more control. As long as we feed them in the same spot, they'll be happy.

Once the barn is done we can finish the house (only three more windows plus siding to go), including adding on a small greenhouse. That front corner of the house faces south and gets good sun in winter.

The other thing we plan to do is finish fencing the rest of the property. Most of the property is fenced, except for the back "wooded, not fenced" area. There is a lot of good browse back, but the property lines are very dense with shrubs and fallen trees. It will be a big job to clear it to erect a fence.

The most amazing thing with this plan is seeing how far we've come and how "little" is left to finally have the sense of being "established." Trying to get one's homestead set up is a lot of work and there is sometimes a difficult balance amongst time, money, and our goals.

Do you have a Master Plan? I'm looking for folks who do, because I'd like "How To Make a Master Plan" to be part of my The Little Series of Homestead How Tos. If you'd be willing to be interviewed for an upcoming book and see your plan in e-print, please contact me and I'll tell you what I have in mind.

Master Plan 2016 © May 2016
by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Bee Plants: Expanding My Definition of Edible

When we first started discussing plans for our homestead, one of the promises I made to myself was that I would only plant edible, medicinal, and otherwise useful plants. Basically that meant no ornamentals. That has grown to include things like companion plants which might not be directly useful to us, but support other plants which are useful. Now that I have an extra 10,000 mouths to feed (give or take), I need to include plants that will make my honeybees happy. Technically called nectary plants, these provide pollen and nectar for insects, including honeybees. Here's my list so far. It's neither complete nor categorized, but it's a start.

• alfalfa
• almond
• American Holly
• angelica
• anise hyssop
• apple
• apricot
• aronia
• aster
• basil
• basswood
• Bermudagrass
• blackberry
• black haw (Viburnum prunifolium)
• blueberry
• borage
• buckwheat
• bugleweed
• candytuft
• caraway 
• catnip
• cherry
• chickweed
• chicory
• chives
• clover
• corn
• cowpea
• crab apple
• cranberry
• cucumber
• currant
• dandelion
• goldenrod
• gooseberry
• gourds
• grape
• hazelnut
• Honey Locust
• honeysuckle
• Joe-Pye weed
• lavender
• lemon balm
• maple
• marigold
• meadowsweet
• melons
• mulberry
• mustard
• oak
• oregano
• peach
• pear
• peppermint
• persimmon
• plum 
• poison ivy
• poppy
• raspberry
• redbud
• rosemary
• sage
• selfheal
• sorghum
• squash, summer and winter
• strawberry
• sumac
• sunflowers
• thyme
• tulip popular
• vervain
• vetch
• wild carrot
• wild rose
• willow

Happily, I already have a lot of plants on this list and many are included on my list for our forest garden hedgerows.  Quite a few have already bloomed, but knowing I have them feels like a step in the right direction. Eventually I'll categorize this list by month of bloom and aim toward having something blooming for our bees as many months as possible.

Interestingly, one site (www.beesource.com) lists poisonous honey plants. In other words, plants known to damage colonies which collect nectar from it. The ones that caught my attention are common ornamentals in these parts: rhododendron, mountain laurel, and azalea. Rhododendron is a killer for goats too, so not a plant I want around, but we do have azaleas in the yard. All of these are naturalized plants in these parts. However, I also read bees will naturally avoid these plants unless they are starving, so hopefully it will never be a problem.

• Honey Which Is Poisonous
• Mountain Laurel Honey
• Toxicity of Rhododendrons to People and Animals

One more link. I recently found this one, "Plants that Bees Love". Rusty Burlew at Honey Bee Suite has compiled the most extensive lists I've seen, and as handy downloadable PDFs. His is overall a great bee website with excellent information and how-to articles. Highly recommended

Next - Second Hive Check

Bee Plants: Expanding My Definition of Edible ©
May 2015 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

The Garden at Change of Season

I've been admiring some beautiful gardens around the internet. And I truly mean admire, because the ones I've seen are well tended. Me? Well, the honest truth is that my garden is a mess.

My beds are overgrown with morning glories, Bermuda,
and other grasses,so that the beds all seem to run together.

It's been a challenging year for gardening with seemingly nonstop rain, no sun, and mud topping the list. Then there's been poor germination (too much rain?) and scant harvest (too little sun?) I've also lost this year's battle in my ongoing war with wire grass aka Bermuda grass. I started early with heavy mulch, like about 8 inches in the asparagus bed, for example, but the wiregrass spread right out over the top of and took over.

Jerusalem artichokes blooming. Morning glories
and mature summer squash brighten the foreground.

Then there's the ants. If I was in the chocolate covered ant business, we'd be millionaires. They are always a problem but worse this year. These are the small biting kind and their bites hurt and leave welts. I'd say every time I was out in the garden I got at least half a dozen bites. It took a lot of the fun out of it for me.

Wild muscadines. We haven't had these since our first year here. I didn't get
many because the goats eat the vines. The rest grew too high up the trees.

The summer harvest was not abundant which has meant I've done very little canning this year. But, we had enough enough for daily eating for the two of us. I won't complain about that.

All my corn has done well, thanks to plenty of nitrogen this year. I previously mentioned that this has been an abundant year for compost, of which the corn benefited greatly.

Japanese Hull-less popcorn. Probably not a year's worth,
but I'm thankful for what I have!

I've had excellent pollination with almost all kernels developed, also, very few problems with disease and insects.

Earth Tones Dent Corn, seed from R.H.Shumway.
How could I resist anything with a name like that?

Husking helpers. I save the leaves & stalks to feed the goats.

Still to harvest are my sweet potatoes, field corn, cowpeas, and orange cushaw winter squash.

Orange cushaw winter squash

I decided to try these this year instead of pumpkins. I've used them in the past as a pumpkin substitute and no one was the wiser for my "pumpkin pie." They certainly have done better than my past pumpkin attempts. I will harvest at least two huge ones before first frost.

Of my front yard herb garden, I have very few new herbs. I planted 15 types of seeds, but very few germinated. The sweet basil I planted with the tomatoes, catnip near the house, and marshmallow in the front yard.

Marshmallow blooming

I've been planting the fall garden bed by bed: kale, beets, carrots, onion seed, lettuce, radish, and broccoli so far. Unfortunately, the deer have been grazing the tops off of the beets and nibbling on the sweet potato vines.

Various types of purchased cabbage plants

Even though I have the seed, I bought cabbage and cabbage-collard plants. Time got away from me!

Watering with collected rainwater.

We had a dry spell during the first half of September, so I watered the new transplants with rainwater from our rainwater tanks. The sprinkler above is primitive by modern standards; it has no moving parts (but never breaks!) Between the tanks and gravity, I get just enough pressure to water the width of the bed.

With first frost expected this month, it's time to finish fall/winter planting. Throughout the dormant season we'll rake and haul the zillions of leaves on the ground, and pile them in the beds as a blanket of mulch. Like tucking the garden into bed for it's winter rest. All the while I'll promise myself I'll stay on top of it next year, knowing that next year will likely be the same and that a year from now, I'll be shaking my head at what an overgrown mess the garden is. Ah well.

The Garden at Change of Season © October 2013 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/