It's Lives!

I have proof that my garden has some life in it!

This is one of the sun chokes, it has beaten my peas on coming out of the ground.  I'm still waiting on them coming up.  I have had a few peas whose dirt got uncovered showing me they will coming out of the ground any day now.

I swear it wasn't there yesterday, so it had to come out overnight.  I am so excited, I can't wait to see that sun choke bed covered in green life, and now it's a wait to see what comes up next!

Happy growing!

Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...

Trees... PLANTED!

So we spent a hard afternoon planting the trees today here they are:

My peach a Redhaven:

Next is the Double Delicious (Stark Bro's own):

It has the thickest truck of the four trees.  Next is the Cortland I ordered as the final one's pollinator:

Sorry for it being blurry I couldn't get the camera still.  Now the final tree the one Silver wanted is a MacIntosh:

The Mac is the only one without any "baby" branches.  Though it has tons of unswollen buds on it so we'll see where it grows from.   It took us all after noon because we had dug a trench back when we had the track hoe a few years back and that was for the fruit trees.  Our soil is mostly clay here so it took forever to fill in around the trees after planting.

I mixed in the last bit of the composted sawdust some rabbit manure and one of the pot fulls of dirt that I had peppers growing in a year ago.  It made for some nice loose soil of the type we do have around here so they should have a nice start.

We're going to be covering the pathway between the apples with sawdust tickly to keep "weeds" down and prevent the blackberry bramble from taking over my trees.   I love the black berries but... I don't want them to take over the trees.

Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...

Special Delivery

I got a package today!

My pretty babies have arrived, and of course they'll have to wait a day to get put in their home due to the dreary weather we're having right now.

So I have made sure to unwrap their roots from the plastic bag so they can breathe over night.  Thankfully it won't go down to freezing tonight.  Three apple trees and a peach tree.  The peach came from Stark Bro's nursery in this state and the apples came from Illinois.

We have some soil prep to do tomorrow morning and some brush clearing to do, we got most of the brush today, but the thick spot will be done tomorrow.  I can't wait to get them in the ground and watch them as they grow this year.

I got an email yesterday saying they had been shipped with arrival today!  I have been pacing like an impatient parent, all day.  They look very healthy, and are bare root.  So getting them in the ground is very important unfortunately I can't till tomorrow.

I am planning on getting pics with them in the ground.  I also know my peas will be up in a day or so based on what I saw in my garden.  My chicks got put in with the big birds and seem to be doing well with the others.

Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed BE...

Step 2 Gardening in Spring

SO another nice day here in the southern Ozarks, and I finished doing my spring prep on one and a half of my beds (the short ones).  I also did some planting in them too.

This bed was done with the hay from the goat pen like the pea bed was and also the composted saw dust.   Fun thing about that composted saw dust though is we've been mixing in chicken manure and wood ash into it for a few weeks and it's made it a bit more "airy".  The foreground half of that bed is planted with onions (yellow) and the back half is lettuce (red romaine).

The bed is the furthest "back" one we have, and the plan is when the lettuce is done I will be putting my zucchini in there.  I planted the onions close together so they could give us some small green onions.

This is the other portion of the bed:

This is my spinach that I [planted.  I had forgotten I had gotten spinach seeds!  I was a nice suprise when I found them getting my lettuce seeds out.  I am hoping they grow well.  Everything from the stick to the right is spinach.

Also one more thing:

This is going to be my herb garden as where I stood to take this pic is where our outdoor kitchen will be built.  I am planning on having Silver "box" the buckets so that they look better.  This way the herbs don't escape or take over my whole herb garden (love mints don't you?).

That's it for now.. we're getting ready to have a cook out in this nice weather!

Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...

Peas... DONE!

Well due to the coming rains last night and today we got a move on planting the peas.

We decided to go with the tepee styled trellis built with saplings.  As we couldn't get the saplings to go into the ground the way I wanted them.  I had wanted two more fence like trellises down the bed line to make it easier for my tomatoes to be planted there after.  However this will do, as long as I'm creative I think with the placement of the tomatoes.

I planted Alaskan snow peas in the hopes if we get another cold snap (fingers crossed) they'll be ok.  What this is planted in, is last year's popcorn bed (gods that was a failure).   We laid the stalks on the ground and covered it with the hay the goats didn't eat and tramped down onto the ground of their pen.  Then some of the composed "saw dust" we got from the saw mill mixed with both wood ash and chick manure (chick because it literally came from our brooder).  Just enough  of this "dirt" to let me plant the seeds in.  Now I just have to hope the two loose roosters don't decide the peas look good.

Speaking of the chicks, in about three-ish weeks I need to move them into the pen because one of the families my girls attend church with has offered us ducklings.  Now considering the avian flu in this state I don't want anymore other birds but ducks have to be separate anyway so I'll chance that.  I wanted ducks anyway and this'll give me the chance to have them.

Tomorrow after the rain is gone I get to work on the other planting beds I currently have.  The next on my planting list is lettuce and onions.  I plan on putting my zucchini where the lettuce is when the lettuce is done.  I will be starting these however with more of the bad hay, once all the beds are covered we'll be piling near the garden for adding to the beds through the growing season as it will help to retain water in my beds where it is needed and it'll help kill weeds as well.

Hope you're planting start(s) are going well!

Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...

Seedlings!

So I also have some pictures of my tomato and pepper seedlings, now these are a week and a half old (the pics).  Right now my tomato seedlings are trying to take over I think:

They, have been "reaching out" to my light that I have over them; and can almost touch it now.  Silver thinks they'll be over a ft tall when we do finally plant them.  My thought it they'll have a good start so why not?

Now what I'm really happy about is these:

Now I know in this picture they are not much to look at but, the fact I got some pepper seeds to sprout finally made me happy.  They are about a month behind on growth compared to the tomatoes.  However I think they'll pick that up in no time.  It took them a month to sprout, now they are starting to reach for the light too.

It looks like we might be out of winter's grip finally, which is good as I really need to get my peas planted this week.  I have an interesting idea for a trellis for them.  I will have to see if I can get it to work though.  I also have to get my lettuce and my onions planted very soon, so I don't miss out on time for them to grow right.

Speaking of growing.  Strawberry is growing well, she's already proven she can climb the gates to her pen.  I had to come up with a creative way to block those off from her.  Now it's going to be a race to see if we can get a better pen built before she climbs the fence.  We're also still looking for a male for her, I'm hoping to find a nice one that we can keep long term.

That's it for now, got lots of work to do now that the snow's are melting away.  Enjoy your weather!

Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...

Fire Starters

My partner suggested I write  a post about his fire starters as anyone we tell about them seem to not believe us on how simple they are.  All you need to make them is some old candles (thrift stores,yard sales,etc) wood pellets (like for pellet stoves) and cardboard egg cartons.

This is our bucket of wood pellets,  we go through about 1 bag of them every 2 years.  Which we have noticed is pushing it a bit as they start crumbling after a year.

When my chickens aren't producing sometimes in the winter I buy eggs in the larger flats.  This gives me many fire starters once the process is done.  I wind up storing these up in the winter time.

You fill each "cup" in the egg cartons till they are level with the line of the carton.  We had tried pine shavings, but learned they do not burn as long as they do with pellets.  You could also use dryer lint.  Or even hair from your hair brush.

You melt the wax down in a sauce pan on the stove. (we have a dedicated pot for this as we come across cheap and inexpensive cook ware all the time)  Then you slowly pour the wax into the "cup" part coating the pellets.  Sometimes after they dry you have to go back over them again.

This is what they look like when dried.  You then cut each "cup" out and when lit they -can- burn for 5 mins, sometimes less if your pellets are starting to crumble.  These cost us about $0.25 USD per starter to make.  We tend to have a good many by winter start, which have taken us into spring camp fire-y usage.  These really do work, they are simple to make and don't cost much over all.

Another post coming today!

Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...