Lady Henevere: Year in review
- Thread starter Lady Henevere
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ohiofarmgirl
Sipping Bacon Martinis
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heeeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy................framing fowl said:
;-)
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- #93
Lady Henevere
Lovin' The Homestead
I'm pretty sure the peach thief wasn't a critter, since there are no pits or partly-eaten bits anywhere to be seen. When the squirrels and fruit rats eat the oranges and pomegranates, they usually leave a lot of evidence behind. This time there was nothing at all. They were just gone. Even the peaches with little squirrel bites out of them.
At our house the pomegranate thieves are the most devious -- they chew a hole through the rind in a place we can't see it, and eat out the inside. We get out there with the fruit picker and grab what we think is a lovely red pomegranate and end up with an empty shell in hand. :/
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- #94
Lady Henevere
Lovin' The Homestead
For purposes of keeping track of this gardening journey:
Moved the blueberry plants to the front and the strawberry plants to the back. Added purchased amendments to make the soil in front more acid and to add nitrogen. Adding....um....liquid nitrogen to the sickly-looking squash and tomatoes; the plants look greener already.
Moved the blueberry plants to the front and the strawberry plants to the back. Added purchased amendments to make the soil in front more acid and to add nitrogen. Adding....um....liquid nitrogen to the sickly-looking squash and tomatoes; the plants look greener already.
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- #96
Lady Henevere
Lovin' The Homestead
Project Tinkle and Sprinkle has worked wonders. The tomatoes suddenly look fabulous. Who knew?
The gardeners deny taking the peaches. It's still a mystery.
A possum tried to get into my coop while DD and I were at the midnight Harry Potter release. DH was supposed to be with us but he was home sick and heard the noise, so he chased the possum away. The hens are now on nightly lock-down (security was fairly lax before).
I'm canning up two batches of veggie broth today -- it is SO much better than anything store-bought.
Summertime and the living is....hot. This is the time of year when I wonder whether I will ever keep a beautiful garden. Starting in June, it is hot and dry for months with no rain, and the veggies droop and look sad and I end up watering with chlorinated city water that is expensive and in short supply. I don't want to rely on city water, but my options are limited. I would love to get a big cistern and capture the roof runoff, but it's not currently in the budget. (I calculate that I will need to hold about 18,000 gallons if I want to capture the whole year's worth of runoff. Maybe I'll start with some smaller barrels, but they will get used up pretty quickly, I suspect.)
In looking at the yard, I realize that some places are dry and dead no matter how much water I give them, and others have vegetation. The difference is shade -- the dry, dead places are the places that get full sun all day long. The places that are green get shade for part of the day. If I want a nice, lush garden that doesn't wilt every summer, I need to make good use of the shade.
I bought ten fruit trees a while back. They are still little, but they will hopefully grow into nice shade trees that will allow filtered sunlight through to what's below. I'm thinking of other ways to use shade -- get a drought-loving bush and plant a more sensitive plant on the shady side of it, using trellises within the garden to shade some of the soil, etc. Anything to diminish the the drying impact of the blazing hot sun drying out the soil all day, every day. I need to work these features into my yard as much as I can.
There is so much to work toward in the garden. It's such a learning process, and I discover new things all the time. Even the failures are an opportunity to learn something new, so I can do things differently next time. It is a fabulous labor of love, and I feel blessed that I have the opportunity to do it.
The gardeners deny taking the peaches. It's still a mystery.
A possum tried to get into my coop while DD and I were at the midnight Harry Potter release. DH was supposed to be with us but he was home sick and heard the noise, so he chased the possum away. The hens are now on nightly lock-down (security was fairly lax before).
I'm canning up two batches of veggie broth today -- it is SO much better than anything store-bought.
Summertime and the living is....hot. This is the time of year when I wonder whether I will ever keep a beautiful garden. Starting in June, it is hot and dry for months with no rain, and the veggies droop and look sad and I end up watering with chlorinated city water that is expensive and in short supply. I don't want to rely on city water, but my options are limited. I would love to get a big cistern and capture the roof runoff, but it's not currently in the budget. (I calculate that I will need to hold about 18,000 gallons if I want to capture the whole year's worth of runoff. Maybe I'll start with some smaller barrels, but they will get used up pretty quickly, I suspect.)
In looking at the yard, I realize that some places are dry and dead no matter how much water I give them, and others have vegetation. The difference is shade -- the dry, dead places are the places that get full sun all day long. The places that are green get shade for part of the day. If I want a nice, lush garden that doesn't wilt every summer, I need to make good use of the shade.
I bought ten fruit trees a while back. They are still little, but they will hopefully grow into nice shade trees that will allow filtered sunlight through to what's below. I'm thinking of other ways to use shade -- get a drought-loving bush and plant a more sensitive plant on the shady side of it, using trellises within the garden to shade some of the soil, etc. Anything to diminish the the drying impact of the blazing hot sun drying out the soil all day, every day. I need to work these features into my yard as much as I can.
There is so much to work toward in the garden. It's such a learning process, and I discover new things all the time. Even the failures are an opportunity to learn something new, so I can do things differently next time. It is a fabulous labor of love, and I feel blessed that I have the opportunity to do it.
- Thread starter
- #98
Lady Henevere
Lovin' The Homestead
Yesterday I told myself I need to get off the caffeine cycle I live on. Now I have insomnia. I figure it's my body's way of laughing at my efforts at improved health, since there's no way I'm getting through today without lots of coffee. 
At least it gave me time to finally watch A Farm of the Future, which is a nice little piece about re-thinking small farms and using spaces for food that have previously not been very productive.
Back on the home front, the results of Project Tinkle and Sprinkle are in! Urine was diluted about 6 to 1 and applied twice a week. Improvements happened pretty fast.
Squash and tomato before:
After:
The yellowing on the squash leaves is gone and the tomato foliage is no longer a weird color and the plant is thriving. Success!
At least it gave me time to finally watch A Farm of the Future, which is a nice little piece about re-thinking small farms and using spaces for food that have previously not been very productive.Back on the home front, the results of Project Tinkle and Sprinkle are in! Urine was diluted about 6 to 1 and applied twice a week. Improvements happened pretty fast.
Squash and tomato before:
After:
The yellowing on the squash leaves is gone and the tomato foliage is no longer a weird color and the plant is thriving. Success!
