Got Drought?

Every year, I begin a garden with visions of bushels of tomatoes, beans, corn, and squash making their way into my kitchen mid-summer.  Enough to can or freeze, and enough to share with friends.  Though this ideal never materializes exactly as I'd like, there's always excess of one crop where another crop fails. 

However, it's been almost three weeks (maybe more?) since we've had a long, soaking rain.  Our area has had some rain, but it seems to skip over our part of the county, sort of like the parting of the Red Sea...only not so much fun.  Weather follows patterns, and in the past we've avoided tornadic activity that would have otherwise sent us into the crawl space.  So that's the silver lining in this non-existent cloud. 

We love foraging for blackberries, but as hardy as they are, they've also been affected by the drought.

When you pair lack of rain with 100+ degree temps, leaky water barrels, and a 25+-year-old well (it's not one of those modern jobs that hit the fiery core of the earth), you begin to pick and choose what you save, and what you let go.

This pear tree is starting to drop its leaves.  Saving our fruit trees, most of which we planted in the spring of 2011, is a priority.

The strawberries look like they want to curl up and die.

The cucumbers produced, but everything was kind of white and bloated at one end.  I made pickles anyway.

Ah, corn.  Corn is my white whale.  And weeds.  Seriously, if there's going to be a drought, couldn't some of these weeds die??

So does this drought mean I give up gardening?  Of course not, but here are my thoughts on how I can be better prepared for another drought:

1. More diligence in storing water (i.e., check for leaks the first time it rains in the spring)
2. Create a less labor-intensive watering system.
3. Forge relationships with other gardeners so we can trade our excess.
4. Find reliable, local sources for food through farm stores and farmer's markets.  Buying by the bushel and setting aside some time to can or freeze produce will still save time and money this winter.

And in the meantime, I'll hope for a more forgiving summer next year.

How does your garden grow?

I'm coming out of summer hibernation and linking up with Rural Thursdays again!  Click here to visit the hosts, Two Bears Farm and A Rural Journal, as well as other fantastic blogs.

Are Your Fruit Trees Surrounded?

Last spring we planted twenty-something fruit trees from Stark Brothers, and placed the trees up at the front of the property, which was an otherwise useless space.  I admit that I wasn't the best caretaker of said fruit trees last spring and summer, as various bugs took up residence in the leaves.  This spring, however, I have determined to be more preventive, especially because I've heard that our mild winter neglected to kill off many pests, and that we're in for a rather buggy summer.  In other words, we're doomed.  Well, at least our plants are.

Since I'm also determined not to spray chemicals on my trees, this spring I'm trying Surround, an organic, clay-based spray that is supposed to protect the leaves and fruit from many destructive insects.  But it's apparently harmless enough to humans that you can eat it...not that I would.  Anyway, we first heard about Surround from Edible Landscaping, but it looks like it can be ordered from several places online if you do a Google search.

Young pear tree sprayed with Surround.

The first round should be sprayed on the leaves after the flowers fall off in the spring, and then after heavy rains (it takes a pretty heavy rain or two to wash the Surround completely off).  Generally, it needs to be re-applied every 7-14 days early in the season, and every 14 to 21 days later in the season when there's not as much new growth.

A downside of Surround is that, as you can see, it turns your trees white.  Does anyone know of other options if aesthetics are a concern?

Baby pears sprayed with Surround.

I will keep you posted on how well Surround protects our trees, but the only issue I've really had so far is with application.  After ruining four junky spray bottles, I broke down and bought a gallon sprayer from a big box store.  However, I'm not thrilled with it because it was cheap.  I'm also not thrilled with my thrifty self at the moment, because I never seem to learn that you get what you pay for.  I did a quick search on Amazon, and there seem to be some good sprayers out there in the $20-$30 range.  Any recommendations???

Here's some other unrelated, unsolicited advice regarding fruit-bearing trees:

1. Plant them instead of ornamentals.
2. Since they can take several years to bear fruit, the earlier you plant them, the better.  If you move to a new place, plant them before you unpack your toothbrush.  Seriously.
3. The first year, if your trees bear fruit, pluck all but maybe two or three off of each tree.  I know, it's painful.  But the trees need to focus their energies on forming strong roots, and if the fruit is allowed to ripen, much of that energy will be concentrated on the fruit and not the roots.  Strong roots = better fruit in the years to come.

Note: Surround has not, in any way, endorsed or sponsored this post. Its purpose is to educate others about my experiences as well as glean from the experiences of others who may have used this product.

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A Plea to Arugula Lovers

This spring I planted arugula (or roquette, rocket) in the garden because my nephew and Mother Earth News told me it would take care of the nematodes that were eating the roots of my watermelon plants.  I wondered why, and then I ate one of the leaves.  Let's just say the nematodes aren't the only ones turned off by arugula.

I have two rows of the stuff, planted where I'm going to put the watermelon.  Any ideas on how to make it more palatable...especially fresh?  I tried it in a modified version of this recipe by Pioneer Woman, but I used strawberry jam instead if fig spread and didn't use any meat.  Though it worked really well, and is less offensive when cooked, I need more ideas...

...because I have a lot of it...

...and it sure does look pretty, doesn't it?

I'm linking up to Rural Thursdays.  Even if I can't get the margins in this post to work anymore. 

Confessions of a Tomato Killer

It happens every year.  I buy tomato seeds and tell them (and myself) that they will grow into luscious, leafy, thriving plants that will provide us with copious amounts of tomatoes.  And every year, I end up with something like this:

I pity the fool (me) who tries to transplant these sorry seedlings.

So I have to buy something like this at the farmer's market:

This is how the pros (not me) do it.

I've tried everything.  Jiffy pots.  Compost.  Lights.  The hoophouse-turned-greenhouse.  Singing.  Okay, maybe I need to nix the last one.  That could be what's killing them.

Does anyone have any age-old secrets for starting tomatoes from seeds, and being successful?  I mean, seriously, this can't be rocket science! 

I would be remiss not to mention that I did have some success, but it was more along the lines of finding those peach trees growing in the garden.  Here's what happens when you compost rotten tomatoes:

Budding Brandywine

And Mystery Variety.

Might as well transplant them, right?

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If You Give a Mom a Peach...

...she'll want an entire bushel.

If she gets an entire bushel, she'll want to can the peaches.

If she cans the peaches, she'll want to compost the scraps (including the pits; you see where this is going don't you??).

If she composts the scraps, she'll spread the compost in the garden.

If she spreads the compost in the garden, she might end up with this:

and this:

and this:

If she ends up with baby peach trees, she may want to pot them.

And if she pots them, she'll eventually want to plant them.

If she plants them, in a few years she'll have a peach orchard.

And if she has a peach orchard, chances are she just might want another peach.

{The End}

I'm linking up to the Homestead Barn Hop!  Lots of these posts look really good!

Out to Pasture

To say we've had a mild winter in the southeast is an understatement.  It's been virtually non-existent.  And because of this, I feel like I've been in spring denial...willfully ignoring the seeds sitting on the counter and the million other things I need to do to prepare for the season.

Until last week, when the promise of spiking temperatures slapped me out of my wintery slumber.  The chickens were still in the hoop house, and we had to get them out on pasture because that hoop house works.  We'd had to open the door when it got into the 50s during the day, unless we wanted fried chicken for dinner!

So on Sunday I planted some spring veggies: snap peas, lettuce, Swiss chard, cilantro, and arugula - which my nephew swears will take care of the evil nematodes that ate my watermelon roots last year.  Then Byron and I moved the chickens from the hoop house out onto pasture.  Since we keep them in an area enclosed with electric netting and move them to fresh grass every couple days, we clipped their wings so they wouldn't escape from their area.

Happy to be on pasture again.

The cows had already been out on pasture for a couple days.

And yesterday I hooked up and levelled the rain barrel system.  The "receiving" barrel gets heavy and tends to tip back when it's full, so hopefully this treated board will do the trick.  I'll have to check for leaks after the first rain.

We also learn from our mistakes.  For instance, we should have buried the boards around the perimeter of the hoop house into the ground a bit, because a couple weeks ago the chickens managed to dig underneath in several spots and escape.  We jimmy-rigged the gaps, but need to amend it, especially if this is going to be our brooder in a couple months.

Are you ready for spring?

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January Calm...

...before the storm, which will come in the form of 660 S.F. of heart pine flooring that Byron will install this winter.  Until then, here's what's been going on:

Snow.  Which melted by the time I took this photo.

Rain.

Cozy chickens.

Cozy cows.

School.

And more school.

Fencing.

Painting.

Weeding.  Yes, thanks to a mild winter, I am still weeding the garden.  And then I feed the weeds to the chickens, and cover each row with a layer of compost, made from the horse manure which Byron diligently hauls from a farm 1/2 mile away. We will thank ourselves for this in the spring, right?

And soon to come, re-upholstery.  I promise.

Hoop House!

Last weekend, Byron began building a hoop house that will be the winter home for our chickens and, we're thinking, our cows.  We're following the excellent plans found on this site, but are tweaking things a bit to suit our needs.  If you end up building one and follow these plans, be sure to check out the link at the bottom of the article to the post about the improvements he made to his original design.

I should also mention that this is going to be a multi-purpose structure, which is how we'd like to build most of our outbuildings.  Beside housing animals, we're planning on using it as a brooder and greenhouse in the spring, since the covering will be a semi-transparent poly that will allow sunlight in.  In the summer, we may roll the poly back and plant directly into the ground (after cleaning out the most recent droppings, obviously).

This is supposed to be a one-day/weekend project, but like everything else around here, it's taking us longer thanks to a full-time job and useless daylight saving time.  But here's the progress so far:

The hoop house will be accessed through the garden, at one end.

The PVC is installed over rebar.

We used 20' long 3/4" outdoor (schedule 40) PVC for the structure, which is supported by rebar. We have about 30" of rebar in the ground and about 15" above. Obviously, the rebar will not last forever, but it's a cheaper fix than ordering a multi-thousand dollar catalog greenhouse.

The perimeter is treated 2x12s.  We used deeper 2x's since we'll be housing animals and want to be able to add bedding throughout the season, as needed.

A surprise visitor came to check out the progress.  Our rooster spotted this eagle from several hundred yards away!

You may have noticed the cedar post in the middle of the structure a few photos ago.  Three posts will serve as columns for the 2x6 ridge board we're adding to support the hoops.  .

Installing post #???? on the property!

The posts at either end are about 2.5' from the ends, which will allow access but will mean that the ridge board will cantilever a bit. I'm pretty sure it will be fine; we don't anticipate major snow loads since the heat from the animals inside will (hopefully) cause any accumulation to melt and slide off quickly.

The end of the hoop house closest to the garden will be closed in with plastic panels and a door, and the other end will be open to allow the cows to come in and out as they please.  We'll build up a "wall" of hay bales and chicken wire to separate the chickens and cows, and we're going to reinforce the cows' end of the hoop house with wire so they don't destroy the poly.  Frankly, I'm a little nervous about the cows making their winter home in here, since they did this to their portable shelter:

Bad cows.

But then Byron reinforced it with leftover wire fencing from the garden:

Good cows.

Check back soon for more updates!

First Frost

Last night we had our first frost here in the Southeast.  Before it melted and before I was fully awake, I snapped a few photos:

See the tiny bit of orange at the small chicken house?  That's Byron letting the Barred Rocks (and their man) out this morning.

We novices were concerned as to how the cows would fare during the sudden chill, but they seemed as content as usual today.

Knowing of the cold to come, we hoped to find the guineas alive this morning, since they still refuse to roost under shelter and have taken to nesting in this tree:

Happily, they were alive and well.

 We also had to dig into our stockpile and fire up the woodstove!

Since we don't want to deplete our wood before, um, Thanksgiving, we're glad it's supposed to warm up again this week.

With the cold weather upon us, however, we also have been collecting leaves to spread between the rows in the garden:

Our friend, Don, was kind enough to load up our truck with a few loads of leaves from his place last weekend.

And here they wait for me to spread...though the kids have been enjoying jumping in them!

Final harvest: I pulled up the last few basil plants and am drying them out in the barn.  I plan to save the seeds to start (hopefully successful) new plantings in the spring.

We are also planning on building a hoop house like this one for the chickens, and to serve as a greenhouse in the spring.  We'll also build a pole-structure shelter for the cows within the next month.  Then we'll retire indoors and start attacking the many renovations awaiting us inside!

How are you getting ready for winter?