Let Us ...

grow lettuce in October!


SO exciting - growing Romaine lettuce in October... kale is in too and we might get some ... broccoli is in but seems unlikely to have enough time to flourish ...



Rabbits are loving us having enough time to collect daily fresh for them and the chickens are thriving in the cooler fall days - at least for another 10 days! The new HUGE shed is up. Amazing how exciting that is too!

We've been collecting down at the farm - which means some lovely walks for us and the dogs too.

It's nearly here .....

another week of work and play in Prince Edward County


just a little excited

• if the weather is great hopefully we can get some more compost worked into the garden beds - I'll be tempted to plant early stuff (onions especially) but should probably refrain ... we'll see how wet and gross it is 
• if the weather is mild I look forward to long walks at the acres and I bet Big T wants to wood
• if the weather is vile I can easily see curling up by the fire and watching the days slip by, knitting, reading and just being companionable

any of the above suits me just fine!

that planning time of year

walked the garden a few times this weekend trying to make sure the paper will work in the real garden ... started with no snow at all - as illustrated when I checked the garlic Friday (looking well protected still so cross your fingers!)

Potato patches will be corn this year; corn has garlic in it already, flipping tomatoes over the garlic and pea spot from last year ... moving the peas and beans into the peppers and tomato spots ... potatoes can go into two rough beds that haven't been super successful  lately (we'll compost them well). Onions will go somewhere ... and hopefully I'll find room to try carrots again too - no idea why carrots won't grow for me

Now we have snow. No idea how long it will last but glad to see it for a little bit at least! Squash will stay in the squash bed - with plenty of compost I think they'll be OK another year there - and it's just so nice to have them OUT of the main garden. We plan to train them up a frame this year too and see how that works.

Worried about the garlic crop ...

planted 170 cloves of garlic this fall but in the no winter winter we are having they are struggling ... they are being heaved out of the ground regularly and keep starting to grow - then a fast freeze hits before I can tuck them all back to bed and they lie on frozen soil exposed

the most snow we've seen this winter - can you the lion in the grass?

what a shame we are trying deep mulching but I can't see having 170 survivors .. maybe half the crop will be ok now if winter sets in properly ever?

much more typical of this winter ...

nobody said farming was easy

everything is still growing ...

veggies, puppy, chicks .. I would have thought things would have slowed down but no everything is still chugging ahead ..tomato plants will not be spectacular this year - they are already fruiting instead of still growing but the peas have been awesome, beans look like they'll be fine, and squash are threatening to take over the planet! Potatoes, onions  and garlic are looking ok too.
Pretty fine start to my two months of farm life. Dogs and rabbits are THRILLED and the three laying hens are just a pleasure to live with.

Egg count - at least 30 - I think I'm losing count!!

weed, weed, read, weed ...

planted tomatoes, peppers, various squash, an eggplant a couple of weeks ago and corn, pea, pumpkin lettuce seeds

everything is coming up well with weeds at the head of the pack ...

so I weed

... and I weed

... ... and then I weed

some more ... feel a little guilty as lots of the weeds are black eyed susans, and daisies ... it was easier when I didn't recognize what the weeds were


squash bed seems to be working well ... fingers crossed we don't get long hot dry days on days I can't get here to water ...

and now we build an ark ...

9 times out of 10 ... heck 99 times out of 100 I love living in a 134 year old house but when it pours cold miserable rain and the front porch leak starts up I HATE it. We have tried to find the leak; gotten experts to track down the leak yet nothing we do works. The rain starts and  we cross our fingers and hope it ends soon. Not today. One leak starts; then another; then another. Very frustrating.

Seeds sit waiting for the weather to catch up to ambition.

The new garden for melons looks neat - we scavenged some neat rocks to mark the boundary - now I need to decide what's going in there ... pumpkins? zucchini? cucumber? melons?  some combination? I just don't know what to try first.

Sally dog is miserable today. She is curled up in a ball by the fire. She wouldn't even get up to come to town. Most unlike her so I hope she is just disgusted by the rain not fighting something.

and another season starts ...

you can hardly see the schoolhouse!

yup 60 onions in (240 to go)
two short rows of carrots and radishes ..
garlic all poked back to bed (some of it always comes to the surface through the freeze up and melting)

new bed (was a flower bed that got entirely overgrown) turned over ready for tilling to be the melon/cuke or zucchini bed

more wood split

a good day's work

and that doesn't include the long pleasure walk we took either!

melting snow ...



Dog reversal .. Kizmet wants in; Sally wants out!



and growing garden ... it's still not nice enough out for little old man Kizmet to want to be out though! We are off for a week and looking forward to it. Sally has already fallen through the pond once.

I was busy poking garlic back into the ground and watching carrots come to life .. We

collecting fermented apples on the ground and tossed them into the compost.

I'm hoping it's a drying week that stays above freezing so I can get the onions in ... (300 of them - spanish, yellow and red). Yum!

85 cloves of garlic

85 cloves of garlic actually take way less time to plant in a nice friable fluffy bed then you'd think!

I picked only the biggest best large cloves this year so am excited to see next year's results all ready - this is garlic that has been grown here since before 2006. The first year it was tiny - each year the bulbs have gotten successively bigger and healthier with bigger cloves too. Next year I'm trying my first brought in garlic - I'm planting a head of Korean garlic from a local organic gardener.

The asparagus is looking pretty amazing ... I'll try to grab a picture tomorrow if the sun comes out.
Bunny hutches are tucked up for winter.

On a sad note little darling Daisy died last week. She was the oldest of the does and had a happy year with us so I can't be too sad but I will miss her bossy funny ways.
My home computer is blown up which is a drag except it might force me to get a new one sooner rather than later!

House Guests .. wooding.. walking.. planting

We have two house guests short term ... 2 African Pygmy Hedgehogs have moved on to the front porch - they are fascinating creatures - make the neatest noise when they want you to leave them alone .. but they have settled in fairly happily and are eating and drinking fine.

Big T and I worked outside for the morning - got all my little useless wood pile cut - and moved in to the house for this autumnal burning. Big T moved all his fence post wood so there will be a place to park the trailer for the winter that means we can get it out easily for our March driving adventure.

Then we headed up to the highway to our meeting spot for the hedgehogs - and hooked up with a generous donor who wanted the rescue I volunteer for to have a NICE crate too .. visited Chapters too. Got an interesting looking book called The Daily Coyote. Will report more when it's read.

Got back from driving and dragged Mum and Wilkie out for a walk. Good sports both of them! Wilkie had a tick on her - BLECH! Then back to the school house where I planted 20 daffodil and tulip bulbs. Hope the squirrels leave them alone! Twice as many left to be planted - a birthday present from Dad and Jean. Lucky us - we'll have them to enjoy for a LONG time - and should get more every year!

Spaghetti with OUR own sauce. Delish! Totally delish. Makes all the work and worry so worth it.

Big T made a fabulous loaf of his bread too. How lucky can I be?

garden daze .. and woody ways

I was chatting to some coworkers last week and they were amazed at what we grow in our garden.

This year's list is pretty impressive: peas, beans, garlic, onions, spring onions, a honey dew melon, zucchini, sunflowers, cucumber, tomatoes, peppers, raspberries, blackberries, dill, sage, parsley, thyme, lavender, oregano, rosemary, chives, the wild grapes actually did very well this year too

not as happy with but also grew/growing or tried to grow : carrots, potatoes, watermelon, fennel, lettuce, chard, strawberries, corn (we ended up getting enough corn for one feast - 8 small but very tasty ears) and a couple of strange things I'm still not sure of what they are ...

and of course feed for the rabbits too - clover, plantain, dandelions etc

Big T is working hard to get ahead with the wood this year - when I go collecting for hay for the rabbits winter supply he grabs his chain saw and tackles the woods ... I miss helping him but I can hear the saw running and taking breaks as I snip my way around Judy's field (which is where I'm considering creating a bunny hay field)

Tomato Time

Tomatoes
Oh the acid dip for fingers
Making sauce
Aching hands and back
Tasty January
Oh the joy!

oh what a summer

Ms. Chook looking to see what her sisters are eating - a tomato? a grape? a bug? of course she rushed right over to see

Notice if you will Mrs M's tongue. She was chewing a piece of clover as I started to snap the photo, by the time it clicked the clover was gone!

summer winding on ...

and a lovely summer it's been too

Balance in a garden seems so hard to attain .. last year the tomatoes were pretty much a write off but the potatoes were great - this year the pendulum has swung - more tomatoes than I can cope with and I fear for the potatoes. Zuchinni are doing their thing taking over the world. Peppers are doing better than before and I've finally managed to grow some sunflowers for Big T. I think I have a pumpkin and a watermelon but the honey dew melon hasn't produced any fruit. I have two squash type vines that I don't even know what they should be let alone are.
The beans were good- pretty much done now. Basil fine; fennel got overwhelmed between zuchini and sunflowers. Garlic was as great as ever and onions did better than they ever have - I could plant 60 next year though!

Working the dogs (well we think it's playing but it is all training) is amazing. Rabbits need more grooming (and half need homes) but are looking good. Cats and parrots seem content.

The Buckeye chickens are thriving but not laying well. Frustrating as they are NICE chooks. We get 2-3 eggs a week which is enough for french toast and the odd boiled egg in salad but not enough to give anybody. I wish they could stay longer I'd like to know if they'll start laying better as I'm enchanted with their temperments.

Wooding, our never ending fall job, has been happening all summer - Big T took down a big old dead maple which has put us ahead of ourselves I hope. If we could get a full year ahead I'd be delighted!

how does your garden grow?

my weeds are doing just fine thank you very much

so are the zucchini - I let a couple get away and they are the size of my thigh now ..AMAZING

watermelon looks good
having trouble finding the cukes .. planted a LOVELY round variety this year - so sweet and tasty but have only found one so far ;)

beans are nearly done

peppers are looking good - have a nice red one on the plant and some nice small green ones that might be most excellent to stuff

potatoes look awful - think they needed water a critical times .. but we'll see

carrots are STARTING to plump up - heavens they are slow

beets are puny and tiny

corn has some small ears starting ... yum yum yum

and that's how our garden grows

why oh why won't you turn yellow, orange or red ....

why oh why why won't you ripen?
I have a very important guest coming this weekend.
She like tomatoes.

Bad tomatoes. BAD!

and so the garden grows ..

and the chooks start laying eggs ..

and the rabbits escape and are captured

and dogs play




and weeds grow



and the summer winds on

more from the tour

a garden tour

I don't know what this flower is called - but she sure is pretty.

bee balm - far from invasive here

a bank of black eyed susans - one of my favourites

I know you'd never think there were any flowers here from reading this blog but there are - lots of beautiful flowers that have to fend for themselves pretty much! I walked around the gaarden yesterday and snapped a photo of everything in bloom.