Coronavirus Farm

I'm not entirely sure, but I think we're in the third week of "stay-at-home" life. Adam has been sick, not with Covid-19 it turns out, but with Mono. In addition, both mowers and our weed-eater were experiencing springtime refusal to operate, and new parts were ordered. Today, at last, we mowed. 

The beds in the house lot: herbs and some flowers

In the herb garden by the house, I put some itty-bitty basil plants out today.

This is the only annual I plant in my herb beds. The old herb bed looks a mess, but it's chock full of lemon balm, tarragon, cilantro, oregano, thyme, and a bit of mint that I rip up regularly.

The two teepee affairs are for sweet peas.

This horrible mass of weeds is actually many daffodils, whose greenery I must give a chance to yellow so they will bloom next year. My eucalyptus tree died there. Soon a huge tub of cherry tomatoes will sit there.

Weedy pasture:

The buttercups are blooming in the pasture.

In the veggie garden, the peas are lovely!

 We have a resident black snake living behind/inside the metal liner around this bed. He introduced himself to me yesterday.

The strawberries are hiding under a cover.

I picked four yesterday.

We're eating as much asparagus as we can. I'll freeze the leftover.

asparagus bed

I'm digging out the bed for okra, which I should sow soon.

The soil temp needs to be warm for okra. It grew so well here last year I'm doing more this year.

My year-old elderberry gave me five little elderberry starts this spring that I've put each in her own tire bed.

We'll see if they decide to live.

Tiny little thing.
What else? I'm awful with flower beds, but a little clump of Sweet William and something-else-I-should-remember, are blooming. See the encroaching grass, vetch, and onions? I'm more interested in my herbs.

And I put 3 lemongrass plants in the ground. There's a Sedum a friend gave me a cutting of.

I put it in the bed and it lived! You never know.

You'd think, being stuck at home, that we'd be vigorously addressing our 4 acres and being productive. Adam is too sick and tired to do much. And honestly, I'm giving myself a pass on the usual guilt-trip of productivity and accomplishment. The world seems fractured, living is scary, the immediate future is woefully uncertain, and I find it hard to focus on much. This is not despair I speak of, just stress. In God's hands, our lives are safe and we will be well. But if the grass grows high and the asparagus goes to seed, I will not worry over it. Don't you either. Much love from the farm!

Beginning Again

We're paring down our garden this year, but I'm happy to report that things are starting well. We've had abundant rain and continue with cool temperatures in March. That means the peas are looking good!

 I have a long bed of peas on this trellis, with plants on both sides of it.

The asparagus was up before we had a frost, so it got zapped and is now coming out again.

I planted spinach and lettuce because Adam said he wanted both. They went into the end of the bed with the peas.

We also have strawberries in a bed from last year that are spreading and blooming now.

 The tools are ready.

 At present I have 7 hens, no rooster. Yesterday they laid 7 eggs!

I try to identify which hen lays which egg. I'm not certain, but here goes:
top row, L-R: Clementine, Henny Penny, the next two are Sheena and Brownie, not sure which is which;
bottom row, L-R: Sylvie, Pepper, Ruby

Pepper and Ruby are pullets and have only been laying a couple of months. Sylvie is a silkie and her eggs are smaller.

My lemongrass starts are in pots and doing well. 

I have 3 more in water.
I'm propagating elderberry trees too! Can't wait to put them into dirt!

Last but not least, I've put my tomato seed (Matt's Wild Cherry) into cells, and some basil seeds from last year's plants into cells too.

They're on the front porch which is rather like a greenhouse. Do you see how many gourds I have sitting there, waiting to have something done with them? Sigh.

I'll put a bed of okra in later, but that will probably be it, for our garden this year. Thanks for stopping by!

Windy March Farm

So much wind! It makes a normal day a cold day, especially in the garden, which lies on the north side of our property, abutted by a huge farm field. The winds across that field cut like a knife. But in the greenhouse:

 Those are basil seedlings. We also have oregano, but it's much smaller.
We're picking asparagus for the first time this year! First two spears:

 Onion seeds. I have onion sets doing beautifully in the garden, so I don't know what I'll do with these, or if they'll thrive.

 The four volunteer tomato plants from last fall that I've over-wintered are still going strong in the greenhouse. They're a bit peaky, but will bounce back as soon as I get them into the soil in May.

 'Tis the time of year for dandelions. The kind lady at the post office looked at me rather funny when I asked if I could pick the dandelion flowers in front of the P.O.

 I dry them and then infuse them into safflower oil.

This is used to make "Dandelion Lotion Bars" in the summer, which are insect- repellent. But this is the first step, which must be done when the dandelions are fresh and plentiful, well before the mosquitoes come in herds.

What else on the farm?

*Kale, collards, and spinach are all up in the beds.

*Strawberry plants are healthy. 4 in a large garden bed, and the original small strawberry "nursery" bed is coming back well from winter.

*Onion sets look tall and healthy.

*6 hens and 1 rooster still. Lady Grey, my broodiest silkie, is broody again and is due with chicks on April 11. Because I struggle to incorporate new birds into my flock, this is by far the easiest way to guarantee new birds will be smoothly received.

*Adam has started mowing and weed-eating. His gas can was chewed through this winter.

*He's covered the crawl space openings with lattice, repaired the garden fence, dug out the front ditch, and trimmed bushes and fruit trees as the weather allowed.

* I dug up yet more daffodil bulbs that were in bad locations where Adam wanted to mow. It does no good to have them mowed down; they never bloom. I've been rescuing daffy bulbs every spring since we moved here! This time I'm giving them away to friends.

That's all for now! Spring has begun, but it's really not warm enough yet to do that serious seed-starting and yard work we long to do.

March 1st Farm

This is a couple of days late, but I'd better record what's happening on the farm and in the garden in early spring:

Onion sets are up nicely.
Peas are up a bit.
Strawberry plants (5) that we overwintered on the front porch are now in their bed.
9 asparagus spears are up.
Onion seeds are up in the greenhouse.
Basil seeds are started in the greenhouse too.
My herb beds overwintered - just about everything but basil. Dill, cilantro, parsley that seeded in the fall all survived. Tiny basil seed leaves in the garden that I reseeded by hand in the winter are starting to pop up.
I've scattered collard and kale seeds in their beds. Spinach and lettuces will go in this week.
I'm doing new oregano starts from seed because my oregano seems to be dying off.

Adam relined my newer herb bed in metal.

 Asparagus

 Strawberry bed:

 The old strawberry bed:

 Strawberry plants that were covered in straw all winter:

 Adam relined this whole bed in metal roofing. So much work! Peas are under the trellis and collards/kale are at the far end.

Snow and freezing temps in the low 20s are forecast for this week, but we hope all these will withstand that assault. 

Inklings of Spring

Look what appeared this morning!

I have a handful in the yard. Hopefully I'll remember to cut them and take them to church on Sunday. Fresh flowers in the sanctuary are so welcoming in February.
Our outdoors look like this right now:

See how green that field is across the road? And today's high temperature is supposed to be 80. 80!  I can hardly believe it.
I've started some herbs in trays on the front porch/greenhouse: dill, parsley, basil, thyme, stevia, and sage.

My plants that overwintered on the porch have survived. On the left are some mint plants, plagued by bugs. I'll wash them off today. On the right is a mass of tomato plants, bless them.

Left: forsythia. Right: Japanese magnolia

Everything is eager to burst forth!
That includes Adam. He burst forth into the garden yesterday and started digging. He moved the tomato trellis from this bed and turned it over/cleared it out. Then I planted spinach, kale, and lettuce into it. This morning we also have our first asparagus spear up. So exciting!

The window above is the kitchen window. It used to be longer, a standard window. A massive bush obscured the view, so Adam chopped it way back, as you see.
Below is our fig tree, which has been reduced in height over the past 3 years. Now we'll be able to reach all the fruit! The blooming daffodils appeared beneath it this morning.

I decided to let my young flock of chickens out to free range in the yard yesterday. I'd never allowed them to do that before. I supervised them. I'm worried they will flutter into the dog yard or wander into the road.

They were happy to hunt and peck. You'd think they'd want the greenery, but I'm convinced they spend all their time pecking for bugs, little carnivores.

In the photo above, you see the 3 chicks born a month ago. The one on the left is a little cross-beak. Her beak doesn't close properly, and she has difficulty eating and drinking. I don't want to hand-raise a chicken in the house, but I'm trying to help her out. She's smaller and always hungry. I give her some of our mashed sweet potatoes each morning, which she can eat more easily.

And I got a special waterer for her. Hopefully that will help. She may never lay, but she may survive and have a happy chicken life.
Well, the pasture will soon be covered with blooming clover and buttercups. I found the first one:

Some of you are still facing ice and snow and all that entails. I hope this gives you come cheer! 

When our daffodils are gone and our mosquitoes have arrived, you can then share your daffodils with me, and reciprocate the cheerfulness :) If you want to read about our kitchen remodeling, click over to my other blog. There's a link above on the right, on the picture with the sailboats on the river.
That's it from the farm!