Garden update

Posted on June 24, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Unlike Mary, Mary, I am not feeling at all contrary. I am feeling quite excited. Our garden is growing!

Matt and our rototiller Fairfield were hard at work again this past weekend, and they got the whole garden tilled (or at least the half that we’re using this year) for the second time. I weeded where Fairfield couldn’t reach and went over everything with the cultivator to pick out the last of the roots.

We still need some more chainlink for the fence, we still need a gate, and we still need to pull out the weeds along the rest of the edge (and of course there’s the whole other half of the ring to clear), but it’s already looking like a garden.

And we’re going to have a harvest.

The tomatoes are big enough that Matt had to put the cages around them. Blossoms are forming and even a couple of very small tomatoes.

Squashes are our main crop. First is the zucchini.

Then there’s the butternut, acorn and pie pumpkins.

In the middle of the garden is the beginning of the first of two rows of raspberries. I got them from my parent’s garden last weekend, and they all seem to have rooted.

What’s not doing so well are the bush beans. I don’t know what’s happening, but they don’t seem to be very happy.

Also not so happy are the peppers. I think maybe they’re not getting enough sun because they’re up close to the fence, and they were a bit shadowed by weeds.

However, one in particular has been grievously abused by two weekends in a row. First Fairfield uprooted him, and then I got a little too close with the cultivator and pulled him out again. Hopefully he recovers.

The crop that seems to be thriving the most are the rutabagas. I think every single teeny tiny seed sprouted. I still have no idea what one does with rutabagas. I’m going to need to figure it out, though. Look at how many there are!

Since taking these photos, we’ve also planted potatoes and lettuce. So much goodness!

There are no silver bells or cockle shells, but I’m not sure I’d want them. I’m more into edibles this year. Vegetable garden 2015 is happening!

Any advice on the beans or the peppers? How about some ideas for the rutabagas? Anything else we should consider planting this year?

Stop and smell the flowers

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I had a different post in mind for today. But the project for that post is not done. So instead you get a reminder from Ralph to stop and smell the peonies.

Apparently, I’ve been doing a bit too much of that, hence no project for you today.

I hope that you have a great weekend. Make like Ralph, and take some time to relax!

Irises

Posted on June 3, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

This is going to be our third summer on the farm. Our flower gardens are finally looking like gardens, not just random plants stuck in a big expanse of dirt.

Gardening takes work and it takes patience, but oh it pays off. It totally pays off.

The ferns that I transplanted last year have all sprouted, we’re going to have a ton of peonies, and our irises are amazing.

When I was growing up, my parents had some beautiful irises in their gardens: blue, peach and dark purple. When I was setting up the gardens here at the farm my parents were taking out the last of their irises–the purple ones–and they gave me a bunch of plants. The stalks have taken root and they’re blooming prolifically. I love the frilly showy blossoms.

Out on the turnaround, one particular plant has given us two-tone blossoms. Light purple on a couple of stalks and dark purple on the rest.

I especially like the purple veins of the buds.

You might recall that the farm came with a whole bunch of plants still in their nursery pots. Last year, I finally stuck them in the ground. This spring, I’ve discovered that some of them were miniature irises.

They must be happy to be out of their pots because they’re blooming like crazy.

I’ve been feeling like the gardens are finally established this year. Plants are filling out and blooming. I’m focused more on maintenance rather than actually building the gardens. It’s nice to see the fruits–or the blooms–of my labour.

How is your garden growing? Do you have any irises at your house? What colour are they? Who else is an iris fan? What’s blooming at your place?

It never rains but it pours

Posted on June 1, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

For the past few years, it seems we’ve gone from winter to summer. Just skipped over spring completely. This year, we’ve seesawed back into winter a couple of times (brrr). But we’ve definitely missed spring–and its spring showers.

The grass seed that I sprinkled has sprouted–thanks to diligent daily waterings.

Our fields are going green and our soybeans are growing, but my hose doesn’t help them, and I wasn’t sure how long they’d hang on without rain.

Saturday morning, we watched clouds building to the north of us, wondering if rain was finally going to fall. (If you look closely, you might be able to see the bright green watering can halfway down the driveway, next to a newly planted tree).

A few hours later, we had our answer. Yes, it was finally raining, but it was pouring. More water than the dry, dry ground could possibly absorb.

It doesn’t seem like we just have rain anymore. It’s either a deluge or nothing. Maybe the gentle rain is hanging out wherever spring has gone.

Poor Baxter did not appreciate the cooling moisture as much as the plants did. Apparently, melting from the heat is preferable to melting from rain.

The torrential downpour did eventually ease. By the end of the weekend, we had a full day and a half of rain.

So I won’t have to do any watering for a little while.

What season is it where you are? What season should it be? Have you had too much, too little or just enough rain? Are seeds sprouting where you are? Does your dog like the rain?

Planted!

Posted on May 27, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

It may not look like much–especially considering that there’s still carpet lying over the weeds–but the first plants are in the garden.

We’re still waiting on our hand-me-down tiller to arrive, but that didn’t stop Matt from coming home with a dozen tomato plants and 4 red pepper plants. So that meant I got out the pitchfork and went to work to dig out the weeds in a corner of the garden by hand.

It was just a small corner, but it was home to two heaping wheelbarrows-full of weeds. The roots didn’t go deep, but they snaked along just under the surface making a thick dense mat. I really hope the rototiller is able to break up the ground. It didn’t take me as long as I thought to pull out the weeds by hand, but doing the whole garden by hand will not be fun.

So you’re still seeing a few weeds and grasses and roots strewn through the dirt. But you’re also seeing tomatoes and peppers.

The garden has begun!

How is your garden growing?

Too close for comfort

Posted on May 25, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Baxter here, y’all. Last Monday was an exciting day. It was Victoria Day, so Matt and Julia and me were all home together. (I dunno who Victoria is. I don’t think she’s from Kentucky.)

The best part of the day was when Julia and I went for our afternoon walk. It was sunny and sniffy. We were walking across the field behind the driveshed. There was lump in the field. I always investigate the bumps, the longest grass, the tallest weeds (and usually pee on them too). I was going to check out the lump, but Julia called me back. I went. (I’m getting very good at not wearing my leash.)

I was almost beside Julia when I saw that she was looking at the lump too. I took another look, and I saw what she saw. The lump had ears, and eyes, and a nose.

I’ll show you what it looked like (sorta). Her head was low to the ground between her paws and her ears pointed straight up. (And her furs were grey and brown just like the dirt. That’s why we couldn’t see her at first.)

It was the doggie that Matt and Julia never let me meet: coyote!

I wasn’t going to miss my chance this time.

I heard Julia land on the dirt as she tried to tackle me, but I was speedy. The coyote was speedy too. She stayed just in front of me all the way across the field, down the hill and into the marsh. I’m not going to tell what happened in the marsh. Julia said she called me, but I didn’t hear her. I was just trying to meet coyote.

Eventually, I realized coyote didn’t want to meet me, and I remembered I’m supposed to stay close to Julia. But I couldn’t find Julia. I left the marsh, but she wasn’t in the field. I went back to the house, and the door opened when I got there. Matt and Julia were both there. Matt was holding my leash and wearing his tall boots and long pants even though it was really hot out, and he’d been wearing shorts before.

I gave them lots of smiles and wiggles, but I couldn’t help dancing too, so they saw that my legs and feets (and other parts too) had some black marsh mud on them. (Okay, there was lots of black mud.) They weren’t as happy as me. Julia grabbed my collar and gave me a couple of hard shakes. Then Matt took my collar and clipped me to my long line.

We could see the field behind the driveshed, and we saw my coyote come back. She climbed over the top of the hill and walked to the tree line. Matt went out to the field, but Julia stayed with me. She went and got the hose and washed off the mud. I usually don’t like the hose, but I was so hot from running that the water felt good. Plus I was still pretty excited.

I stayed outside for awhile to dry off, but I didn’t see the coyote anymore on Victoria Day. We’ve seen her pretty much everyday since then. But I haven’t gotten to introduce myself again.

Addition from Julia: We officially have coyotes. I was very excited a month ago when I first saw the coyote, as I hadn’t seen one on our property before. But now they (yes, we’re up to two coyotes) have become regulars, and it’s a little less exciting–Baxter’s opinion notwithstanding.

I’m a live and let live kind of woman, but I’m not sure the coyotes share my philosophy.

Their confidence and comfort grows quickly. So far they seem to be mostly curious. One followed–just followed, not stalked or hunted–Bax and I on our walk on Friday morning. When he got too close, I shouted at him, and he ran away.

Our biggest concern is Ralph. We can keep Baxter on leash, but we can’t lock Ralph up in the barn. She’s a pretty savvy girl, and she sticks very close to the barn, but the fact that a coyote was sitting on the driveway the other night–and that Ralph likes to hang out on the barn ramp in the middle of the night–isn’t a comfort. Plus, when two coyotes were cavorting in the field, her reaction was to roll on her back and ask for scratches (from us, not from the coyotes).

Argh. I wish coyotes were vegetarians.

An evening walk along the pond trail

Posted on May 18, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

The nature of farm living is that it’s tough work. Last night, after a day full of hard labour, my skin was stinging from scrapes, thorn pricks and a pretty decent sunburn.

My muscles and grip strength were gone. At one point, Matt had said, “Pull!” as we were stringing the fence in the garden. And at my response–“I’ve got nothing left!”–he just laughed.

It was after 5 o’clock, and the dog still needed his afternoon walk–a daunting prospect.

But the nature of farm living is that there’s also an incredible setting, right in our backyard, so Baxter and I headed for the pond trail.

Matt cut this trail for us last year. Some of our hard work earlier earlier in the day had been sharpening the mower blades (with help from my parents), attaching the deck to the tractor and mowing the grass.

In addition to doing the lawn, Matt did a pass over the trail, so Bax and I had a lovely space to hike.

We walked alongside the lilac hedge that leads from the house down to the water.

We turned left and followed the trail along the shore towards one of our old apple trees. This tree is a showstopper this year. Absolutely covered in blossoms.

From there, the trail heads into the small pasture behind the barn, following the fence at the edge of the marsh.

It loops around past the manure pile and then up to my favourite tree.

We took a detour by the garden to check out the new fence.

And as I headed to house, Baxter decided he was going to stay out for awhile yet. He laid down beside the garden and gazed back down the trail and across the farm.

The view is fields and forest and trees and marsh, and it’s worth any scrapes, pricks, burns, aches, hard work and exhaustion.

The payoff–this farm–is exactly where I want to be.

Getting ready for the great gardening weekend

Posted on May 15, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

This is it, folks. The Victoria Day long weekend. The first long weekend of “summer.” The kick off to gardening season in Canada.

And I have ambitious plans.

First on the list is mowing our ~~jungle~~ grass. Every spring, we’re late getting our grass cut. The first year, we’d just moved to the farm and didn’t have a tractor. The second year, the tractor wouldn’t start, thanks to a broken fuel pump. Last year, it took us a couple of weeks to get the mower deck attached to the tractor (the level ground that is required to get all of the pins to line up perfectly does not exist at the farm).

This year we’re delayed because we need to sharpen the blades. I’ve done it before, but always with my Dad and always on much smaller mowers. For the first time taking the blades off our deck, we want some help, so we’re waiting until my Dad can come to supervise.

Next on the list is giving my forsythia haircut. (Dad, can you bring your hedge trimmer when you come over, please?)

After that, I need to weed two more flower gardens–the biggest ones, of course.

And then there’s the vegetable garden.

I know this was supposed to be my one and only outdoor project for this year. Obviously I’m multi-tasking with grass and forsythia and flower beds. Just trust that those things are necessary too, okay?

I’m anxious to get started on the vegetable garden, but I’m not going to be able to do as much as I had hoped over the next three days… and not just because of the other things on my list.

The biggest vegetable garden task this weekend is going to be the fence. We have a nice weathered wood fence. It looks great, but it’s not that helpful for protecting the garden from the local wildlife. I need to add some chainlink, and I need to build a gate. ‘Cause if I leave the door wide open, it doesn’t matter how much chainlink I have on the rest of the fence.

I had hoped that that I’d be able to break up the sod too this weekend, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.

The tarps that have been spread over the garden for the past few weeks have not succeeded in killing the weeds. They’ve just turned them a bit pale.

Our farmer tilled our fields last weekend. I ran after the tractor one evening and asked him if it came in a smaller version–small enough to fit inside the ring. He shook his head and said, “I’d have to do that one by hand.”

As the tilling continued, I looked enviously at the tractor every time it drove past the ring.

I had reserved a heavy-duty rototiller from a local equipment rental shop (because neither my Dad nor Matt’s want to sacrifice their rototillers to fulfill my garden ambitions–spoilsports), but it was surprisingly expensive to rent. Matt’s and my cheapskate sides came out, and I canceled the reservation.

I had heard a rumour that one of my cousins had a rototiller he wasn’t using. Turns out he doesn’t need it anymore, and we can have it… in a couple of weeks. So we’re waiting on our new-used (and better yet free) tiller before we tackle the sod.

Even without the rototiller, I think we have enough to keep us busy… for all three days of this weekend.

Wish us luck, would you? Hopefully I’ll survive the weekend and be back next week with an update for you.

In the meantime, let’s keep each other motivated. What’s on your weekend to-do list? Are you gardening? Or hoping to garden?

Woman vs. tarp

Posted on April 24, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Baxter here with a garden update for y’all.

At least that’s what Julia says we’re making. It doesn’t look like any garden I’ve seen before.

Two weekends ago, Julia lit the “garden” on fire. I used to love that spot of the field. The long grass was super, super sniffy. But now it’s gone. And I got to say, I didn’t love the fire. First, it was very, very big. I thought it was going to reach out and singe my furs. I’m a short-haired fellow. I don’t have many furs to spare. Second, I got all tangled up in the hose which was not very comfortable. And third, smoke makes me sneeze.

I went into the garden to check it out last Saturday. It’s not as sniffy as it used to be. But it didn’t make me sneeze either. I rolled around a bit ’cause that’s what I used to like to do in the long grass. It felt different, but it was okay.

Julia was not very happy after I rolled, and she decided to cover up all the ash.

She and Matt got out the World’s Biggest Tarp. Matt probably should have stayed with her in the garden ’cause it took her a long time to get that tarp unfolded. I dunno what’s so difficult. She’s got thumbs!

Even though she used the World’s Biggest Tarp, it still wasn’t big enough for the garden. Then she decided to use the big roll of carpet she found beside the garden. It wasn’t frozen anymore–I walked all over it and sniffed to make sure–but she still had a really hard time moving it.

Julia vs. the carpet was more interesting than Julia vs. the tarp, but she didn’t make a video of that one. I was sunbathing, but I opened my eyes every so often to watch.

I got up when she went to get Wiley. I keep an eye on that tractor. It took them a couple of tries, but they finally got the carpet into the front end loader. Then Wiley carried the carpet around the fence and dumped it in the garden. He’s pretty helpful even though he doesn’t have thumbs either.

It still took Julia a long time to lay the carpet all out, but eventually it was spread out in the garden. Even though the carpet was wet and dirty and buggy and had plants growing in it, it was nicer to lay on than the pokey dry weeds.

Julia wasn’t any happier when I laid on the carpet than she was when I rolled in the ash. After my afternoon walk with Matt, he took me from the front door right into the bathtub. That was not my favourite part of the weekend. Honestly, what’s the matter with a few smudges on my furs!

The carpet and the World’s Biggest Tarp and two other little tarps still aren’t enough to cover the whole garden. Plus, some of them blew around in the wind, and we had to spread them out again the other day.

I think we’re going to be working in the “garden” for awhile yet. Hopefully it starts to look like a garden soon.

Not too much off the (tree) top

Posted on April 17, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Once upon a time, more than a year ago, the hydro company came through and marked a bunch of trees for trimming.

It had been a few months since the ice storm, and we had seen how hazardous the trees could be to our wires. Despite my desire to preserve our power, I admit preserving our trees was more important to me. The hydro company was willing to send someone to meet with me, so of course I took them up on that. We did a walkabout talking about what trees to keep and how much to cut.

My biggest concern was the pines along the road at the front of the property.

The suggestion was to “top” them–cutting off their tops. I was not in favour. I was equally opposed to option 2: cutting the branches off one side. I am willing to take the risk, cross my fingers and bank on the trees being far enough from the wires.

Hydro guy seemed willing to listen to me and adjust his plans. But I couldn’t be sure. The proof would be in the actual trimming.

Except the trimming didn’t happen. The orange Hs stayed on the trees, and the trees kept growing all through last year.

Hydro finally came through to do the cutting a few weeks ago.

The good news is the pines–and most of our other trees–stayed. Some lost a fair number of branches, but they still resemble trees.

The bad news is there’s a lot of brush lying around.

When I met with hydro guy, he said brush would be chipped on-site. Some was chipped, but a lot is still there.

The bigger logs we’ll pick up and use for firewood. But we’re going to have to do a bit of unexpected clean-up. Not ideal.

At the back of the property we have a hydro line that runs through the marsh about 20 feet back from the road. Hydro did a lot of cutting back there. We’re not going to bother cleaning up the wood and brush, but I would like to repair the wire fence, which hydro crushed.

So on the not so good side, we have some clean-up to do.

On the good side, we kept most of our trees. We have a bunch of new firewood. And we have less chance of losing power in the future.