Lazy Gardener's Little Town Farm

[Lazy Gardener]

Went out this evening to put everyone to bed. Sitting about 20' from my back deck was Mr. Bugs Bunny. He sat there w/o a care in the world, and did not move until I walked up to within 10' of him and did a lunge step towards him, and clapped my hands. I'm not too proud to serve up some rabbit stew. Will most likely need to buy the veggies, since every critter that flies, walks, or creeps over/under the ground is determined to destroy my garden.

Yesterday, in our travels, we found what appears to be wild Elderberry. 3 different plants, all within reach of my clippers, on un-inhabited stretches of rural road, and no poison ivy to hamper my collection efforts. So, I clipped a few branches, brought them home to compare with my existing Elderberry plant, and am initially satisfied that they ARE elderberry. Will need to rule out the possibility of swamp or poison hemlock. They have been trimmed down to 2 nodes/cutting and are sitting in water now. If they do take root, I will most likely need to winter them over in the garage, as they will be too tender to plant out... or perhaps I could pot half of them up, and bury pots in the garden, with hdw. cloth to protect from rodents, and heavy layer of mulch. Best not to count my Elders until they hatch.

My existing, named cultivar of Elderberry has put out yet one more offset. That newest one is now about 6" tall! Oh the excitement!!!

My Aloe also has 2 pups. I've been waiting 2 years for that plant to reproduce. I may pot those, and ditch the old plant, as it's pretty leggy.

 

[CrealCritter]

Went out this evening to put everyone to bed. Sitting about 20' from my back deck was Mr. Bugs Bunny. He sat there w/o a care in the world, and did not move until I walked up to within 10' of him and did a lunge step towards him, and clapped my hands. I'm not too proud to serve up some rabbit stew. Will most likely need to buy the veggies, since every critter that flies, walks, or creeps over/under the ground is determined to destroy my garden.

Yesterday, in our travels, we found what appears to be wild Elderberry. 3 different plants, all within reach of my clippers, on un-inhabited stretches of rural road, and no poison ivy to hamper my collection efforts. So, I clipped a few branches, brought them home to compare with my existing Elderberry plant, and am initially satisfied that they ARE elderberry. Will need to rule out the possibility of swamp or poison hemlock. They have been trimmed down to 2 nodes/cutting and are sitting in water now. If they do take root, I will most likely need to winter them over in the garage, as they will be too tender to plant out... or perhaps I could pot half of them up, and bury pots in the garden, with hdw. cloth to protect from rodents, and heavy layer of mulch. Best not to count my Elders until they hatch.

My existing, named cultivar of Elderberry has put out yet one more offset. That newest one is now about 6" tall! Oh the excitement!!!

My Aloe also has 2 pups. I've been waiting 2 years for that plant to reproduce. I may pot those, and ditch the old plant, as it's pretty leggy.

Funny you should mention Aloe. I transplanted my wife's Aloe several months ago and she said I made it have babies 😂

I transplanted the "Momma and her babies" just a little while ago. I guess she has some aloe babies to give to friends and family now.

Jesus is Lord and Christ 🙏❤️🇺🇸

 

[CrealCritter]

I'm pretty sure childern were here, what you think?

Jesus is Lord and Christ 🙏❤️🇺🇸

 

[CrealCritter]

I was planning on picking pears today standing in the back of farm truck on a ladder. I should be able to get to the top with a picking basket. But Almighty God says, Not a good idea, since it's lightning and thunder storming ☺️

My wife and grand daughters picked these last week, from the ground. 1st ripe cantaloupe, it's a big one

Jesus is Lord and Christ 🙏❤️🇺🇸

 

[CrealCritter]

Out of respect and admiration, I wanted to let you all know. I'm taking a break for a while. How long? I really don't know...

And upper case NO, no one offended me.🤣 So please don't thank that, it's simply not true. The reason is quite the opposite actually. Truth is, I simply can't explain the reason any more clearer than this
👇

Bible Gateway passage: Ecclesiastes 3:1-14 - New Living Translation

A Time for Everything - For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time...

www.biblegateway.com

I pray you all stay strong and continue to build each other up, in truth and love.

Jesus is Lord and Christ 🙏❤️🇺🇸

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Finally got the bird netting up over the chicken run today. glad to have that project done, so mr. hawk can take his nasty behavior elsewhere.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Lovely day. Picked up more stable bedding. Spread a total of 15 bags on the Hugel Kulture mound, as well as about 7 double bags of grass clippings. Cleaned up some old brush that had been hauled out of woods and left to dry in the area in front of the HK. Cleaned all the weeds away from the old coop in anticipation of tearing it down. Hope to start that project next week. Planted sugar snaps, cilantro, dill, garlic, strawberry sets, lettuce and beets. Thanking God for a gentle "bonus" rain. Accuweather says we will have showers at 10 PM. My back is singing the blues.

Hubby pulled a couple more big rocks out of the mowed areas. We'll work on getting those moved next week.

Apples on one tree are ripe. They are a sweet dessert apple.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

I can't believe you didn't let the ducks have those bugs!

I've not let the ducks in the garden b/c I was concerned about them trampling everything, and destroying the lettuce. I'm also wondering how much the shavings from the stable litter will mess up their guts? I know they will go rooting in those shavings, some wet, some dry. I can just imagine the concrete mix that slug goo plus shavings would make in their beaks!

Will have the kids here after today, and may have them help me put the rabbit fencing up around the garden, then, I can stretch some deer netting across some areas and let the ducks in.

I have a whole list of "projects" for them to "do". Tear down old tractor and save hardware, put up rabbit fencing around the CP, take the ducks for supervised walks, make mouse/rat traps. Gather herbs and make some infusions for poison ivy salve and some mullein syrup. Sand down and paint my wood tool handles. G is using some bright crayola blue to paint the metal frame and hardware of Dad's trailer that he is rebuilding (for the 4th time! I'm thinking that color would be hard to miss in the garden. If the kids help me with even one of these projects, I'll be pleased.

 

[CrealCritter]

Gummy molds? How do you make gummies?
That’s a haul on the elderberries! We picked 2 wash pans yesterday, I’m going to put them in the dehydrator this morning. I finally finished destemming them all at 9:00 last night.

HINT: if you freeze the heads whole (elder berries attached) the berries fall right off the heads with the slightest touch. Gently grab the frozen head and tap it against the inside of a bucket and the berries fall right off. Freezing makes destemming super easy.

WARNING: Make sure you cook the elder berries according to recipes because they contain cyanide. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/elderberry#bottom-line

Edit...
Harvest Note: Harvest season is about two weeks for elder berries. The trees start to ripen top down. The clusters are read to pick when the berries are deep purple and mush easily in-between your fingers. Harvest the ripe clusters only. If all berries on the cluster are not completely ripe, wait a few days and check again. When harvesting cut the cluster off leaving the two leaf shoots, as the tree will produce two clusters from those two shoots the following season.

My wife has a recipe we are going to try, that uses elderberry juice, unflavored jello, cinnamon, ginger and honey. We have not tried it yet, so I can't recommend or not yet. My wife and I been eating one elderberry gummy a day for several months now, along with a ACV gummy, D3, C and Zinc. We would also like to try and make ACV gummies eventually also.

I'll let you all know how the gummy recipe turns out or not.

Jesus is Lord and Christ 🙏❤️🇺🇸

 

[Lazy Gardener]

This evening at sunset, there was an owl across the street at Bob's house. He (the owl) was hooting, and being answered by one in the far distance. I told Hubby about it when he got home. A few minutes later, I announced that I was going to go out and shut up the coop, stating that I didn't want Mr. Owl to find his way into the run, b/c he would then march into the coop and eat a chicken. Hubby, in his usual punny form, didn't miss a beat: "He can't. He's barred."