The shivering dog.

Good evening friends!

This morning started off chilly again but not so chilly as the day before when I had all the windows to the house open, I had closed them last night. Still though, it was cold enough this morning in the living room to make the dog, our "tough" hunting dog, bred to deal with difficult hunting environments and rugged territory, shiver. For such a "tough" breed, she sure gets cold easy. The poor thing doesn't like to be in temperatures lower then 60. I guess I will have to make her a dog sweater or something for winter time! But at least the dog and I finally have something in common besides our love of socks, watermelon, and balls of yarn.

I'm reading some good books right now. The first, which arrived on Monday is "Heirloom, Notes From An Accidental Tomato Farmer" by Tim Stark. I'm enjoying it thoroughly. And then there is a surprise book "Five Acres And Independence" by M.G. Kains. It wasn't a book I'd ordered or was even expecting in the mail Wednesday, but there it was, thanks to my friends in Michigan who'd sent it to me. These are the same friends who bred Buttons, my Dutch rabbit and whom with I occasionally go hiking with. They needed the room, they wrote, for their expected new baby so were getting rid of books and thought of me when they pulled Five Acres off the shelf. That was very kind and thoughtful and I will be sending them a thank you note. I'm sure I can take the information in the book and use it to my advantage, even in my tiny lot garden and someday on my own piece of land. In any case, it should be a good read for the long winter that is before us.

Looking forward to the weekend.....

Have a good night all.

Nickie

Cold and Rainy

Dear Friends,

It's been cold and rainy all day. I woke up this morning and had to layer in clothes in the house and close windows. I don't think it got above the 50's today. Today's chill reminded me that I really need to get the shed prepared for housing animals during our long cold winter. I need to clean it out and organize it so that they have space and are easy to tend to and I need to set up a light on a timer for them and heat lamps and heated waterers. I also need to buy some hay, maybe two bales should do it? And not only all this but I need to make nest boxes for the hens as they should be laying well in another month or two.

The cold also reminds me its time to stop fooling around in the garden and get it cleaned up. Pick green tomatoes to ripen inside, the remaining peppers and to cook up all the pumpkins for the freezer and either dry the seeds and pumpkin skins for rabbit feed or roast the seeds for ourselves to enjoy. Then I need to pull all the tomato plants, weeds and whatever else needs to be pulled, composted or disposed of, mulch beds that still need new mulch, and give the compost pile one last turn over for the season. Also, annuals I wish to keep need to be cut and brought inside for rooting and growing over, and perennials in pots have to be either sunk in the ground or planted then mulched, and my potted amaryllis bulbs have to be debugged and brought inside.

Of course, all this stuff is pretty miserable if it's cold and wet out...Time to start dressing for the cold I guess. Good buy summer clothes!

Good night my friends,

Nickie :)

A good weekend

Good evening friends!



I hope you and yours are finding yourselves healthy. My weekend has been pretty easy going. Mostly I worked in the garden and with the animals. I watched Internet TV with Mike, we went out to dinner and went to the hardware store to buy bulbs with a gift card Mike had won in a drawing. I also had a coupon for a free bag of bulbs from on-line that I used. I bought 20 tulip bulbs, mixed purple kinds, and purple and pink anemones, some organic cow-free bulb fertilizer and a bulb planter all without paying a dime! I planted them around my apple tree along with the purple flowering perennials I had received from the plant swap last week, and I moved one of my irises there as well.



Mike mowed down my buckwheat with protests that it was too pretty to mow. I told him I didn't want them to reseed though or they might become weeds so he went ahead and did it for me. After, I turned over the soil and the buckwheat stalks into wide rows where I will be planting next year. I have one side of the garden all done now. The other still has tomato plants so I haven't turned the soil yet though they are on their last leg and they will be leaving soon enough.


Saturday a few good reads arrived in the mail. A couple books on prairie plants, grasses, sedges and rushes as I've been interested in the ecology of the area for a while but haven't taken the time yet to learn much. I also bought a reading book just for enjoyment about an heirloom tomato farmer, and another (which hasn't yet arrived) about propagation techniques.

Over all it was not a difficult weekend even though I was called in to surgery late Saturday night and didn't get home until 4 Sunday. I slept in until 10, much longer then I had hoped to on Sunday so I got less done then I had planned but still not a bad day.

Today, Monday, it has been wanting to rain all day. Real gloomy looking but the clouds give a nice look to the yellow leaved trees.

Well, nothing more to report here. Have a good night,

Nickie.

Buckwheat

Good Morning Friends!



Its a beautiful morning outside today. In fact, its the perfect kind of morning for lounging around outside watching chickens, kittens, rabbits and birds with your caffinated beverage of choice. It's sunny and 70 with a breeze. But I told myself I would finish the left half of the vegetable garden today and get the buckwheat planted. I could tell when I was digging this morning and turning the soil over, where I had amended last year as apposed to the new area this year. HUGE difference. Still clay but dark brown, moister, filled with organic matter to make it lighter in texture and easier to turn. I'm still stunned at how well the corn did in the not amended side with little rain or water and no fertilizer either this year. I will have to remember the variety-- kandy Korn i think. It isn't too picky! I don't know, it could be the soil too, after all, my broccoli gets huge without fertilizers in the unamended clay too and I KNOW those are heavy feeders.
Anyway, I got that part finished and got out my big bag of buckwheat seed (there are a few peas and mung and alfalfa seeds mixed in there thinks to our old dog getting into the seeds and spilling them onto the floor) The directions on the bag said to broadcast the seeds and lightly rake in, but not how much per foot to broadcast so I took handfuls and threw them all around. I probably planted way too many but its short term anyway as if we get an early frost they will be goners and I intend to cut them down before they go to seed as green mulch before frost anyway.

A few things to note, The strawberries grew bonkers this year but the fruits are sour---I think they did not get enough sunlight so I will move them next spring. I think I'd prefer them in a strait row anyway so I can control the runners more carefully. I need to move a few flowering plants to the shadier garden on the north side of the house-- the bleeding heart that is in with the strawberries now, *don't ask*, and the hardy geraniums that are in the south flower bed. they do OK where they are but the get sun burnt and ugly in the heat.

Yesterday I collected a whole bunch of daylily seeds from the stella d' oro's I planted along the street last year. I think I'll offer up those for barter or pay this winter with some other things. Daylilies are surprisingly easy to grow from seed. My not yet year old plants I started in the winter last year are doing great. They are knee high and loving their new garden spot.

Today's Harvest was:

• 1 really big red tomato (I think it was called Supersteak)
• 39 cherry tomatoes

Enjoy your day!

Nickie

Looking for ways...

Hello again friends (for the second time today!)

I am squeaky clean free of the garden dust that had covered me from toe to head now and it feels just too good. As I was showering I was trying to think of other ways I could maybe make some $$ or even barter for new things I don't have or need for things that I do.

It occurred to me that maybe some folks would like to buy or barter for my seeds and plants through the mail? I would much rather do things in person one on one (without all the postage!) but I guess I shouldn't rule it out either.

So I was wondering if anyone would be willing if I collected them to trade or buy if I offered some seeds? I don't have much right now but I could go gather some. Right now in the garden i have Yellow Scabiosa (see scanned image at top), various sunflowers--light yellow multi branching (my favorites!)and yellow with red multi branching. I also have grandpa otts morning glories going to seed and I can collect "white wonder" tomato seeds also (I was going to do that anyway for my own self but will ferment more if there is interest.) I am sure I can collect more kinds then just those.

So let me know if you like this idea and I will run out to collect seeds.

Well, That reall is all for today!

Take care,

Nickie

Kittens and Plants

Good Afternoon Friends,


Today's Harvest:

• 1 cucumber
• 3 past tomatoes (not counting the ones the chickens helped themselves to)
• 22 pumpkins

I am late for my normal morning post today because I have been busy working furiously outside! I am having a small plant sale which isn't going good and a kitten give-a-way. I advertised, put a notice on Craigslist, and put signs up but nobody comes down this dead end road ever who doesn't live here. All morning I only had one customer, who bought a peppermint plant but she really didn't come for the plants, she came to pick out a kitten. She chose out the black and white tuxedo kitten and promptly named him Oscar. I knew that kitten would be easy to home, he has such a nice personality and is as cute as a button. There are 3 kittens left now, all little girls, all tabbies.

In the garden, I cut down all the corn stalks and piled them up near the compost. Then I harvested all the pumpkins and the 3 mystery squash mutts too. I added the vines to the pile just to get them out of my way. I'll likely not fit them into the compost, they have too much powdery mildew on them. Then I began to dig up the garden area, it was dry and dusty and a little difficult to turn the earth and dig out the corn roots but I want to get it done this weekend so that I can plant a cover crop and try to start improving the soil on that side. It looks bare and empty now, with only the sunflowers still on the end. meanwhile, the chickens were dust bathing and having a blast today. That's the first time I've actually seen them dust bathe. They were both competing for the same spot even though they have the entire garden full of dust!

I think I'll move my sale table under cover of my porch now as I have indoor chores to do now--like cleaning my sewing room that I finally have back from the kittens! Boy were they getting into everything and making a mess. If anyone stops by, I'll leave an honesty jar outside for them if they don't want to knock on the door.

Have a great rest of the day!

Nickie

Poison Day

Dear Friends,

This morning I am glad I had been out bright and early, for If I hadn't been, who knows what atrocities may have happened?

I stood outside to guard my garden and livestock with spade and shovel in hand, dirty kneed from garden work, standing defensively with a look of determination and a bit of terror on my face. I planted my feet firmly in the way. "No herbicide here needed!" I exclaimed to the balding, pale, thin man in the golf-cart like vehicle with the big tank full of poison that had been going up and down the streets spraying the asphalt cracks. "Look, no need, there's no weeds in the cracks here!" He backed down...moved on and continued spraying recklessly in front of my neighbors, whether there were weeds in the cracks or not. He was very wise not to mess with the fed up crazy woman with the strange hat and garden tools. I didn't back down until I could hear his noisy little contraption going down another block to spread his poisons around.

Meanwhile, the hens found my distraction a good time to raid tomatoes while I wasn't paying attention to them. I can't fault them a few tomatoes though, they are pretty good. I shooed them from the vegetable garden and got to work on the pumpkin vines, cutting back vines which were useless with no pumpkins on them. I began cutting them up into bite sized pieces for the compost. Last year I didn't cut them up, I threw them in whole, which was a mistake as they were fibrous, stringy and took forever to break down, even with copious amounts of rabbit poop mixed in. As I was cutting, i noticed on every leaf, an army of red insect eggs. Pretty fascinating if I didn't know they were trouble. I had never seen so many squash bug eggs in my LIFE. Some batches had just hatched, confused and bewildered baby bugs still grouped together didn't know what to do as their world collapsed around them. "Here Chick chick chicks!" Henrieta feather bottom comes running, I hold out the baby bugs on a leaf platter. She tilts her funny red head one way then the other. Pecks at one of the eggs, tries it again and loses interest. Waddling back over to where her companion is working on a ruined tomato. I returned the leaf to the compost pile. I guess it will be the spiders getting fat on them instead. That's OK too, so long as somebody eats them.

Speaking of getting fat, I harvested my last cabbage today. Its a savoy cabbage with very crinkly leaves. Its amazing how big the plant got. It took up a LOT of space. Most of the outside leaves were ruined by caterpillars and grasshoppers, and next year I am going to have to do something about it. Certainly I can find an organic solution to my pest problem? I mean, other then toads...two of which I found living in the leaves of this cabbage likely getting fat off the caterpillars. I appreciate their efforts, but most of the cabbage ended up in the compost so I'm going to have to do something more.

Well, thats it for now!

Have a great day.

Nickie

The State Of The Garden Address

Dear Friends,

I've had a great little harvest from my vegetable garden today! The Great White tomatoes are producing the best this year and I'm finally starting to get a few cucumbers from my late planting. Unfortunately, it looks as if one of my cherry type tomatoes has some kind of blight, as all the leaves are turning yellow and sickly. I may have to pull that one up early and send it to the landfill instead of the compost pile. I've never had blight before in all they years I've grown tomatoes. One thing I loved seeing on my tomato plants this morning was a shriveled blackened tomato horn worm with the remains of predatory wasp eggs on it's back. Nature can be gruesome, but I love it. That being said, I'm going to enjoy today's harvest!

Today's Harvest:

• 3 dozen cherry tomatoes
• 3 drying tomatoes
• 6 Great White tomatoes
• 7 Gypsy peppers
• 13 ears of corn
• 3 pickling cucumbers

But not all is peaches and cream in the garden this year. It seems that some folks have nothing better to do with their time then to harass the non-conformers. Who would of thought that a trailer park housing committee would be so uptight? Apparently they don't know the difference between California Poppies, Larkspur, and Yellow Scabiosa from weeds.

I know who it is who keeps complaining too-- If it isn't one thing it's another. He rides a lawn mower up every street in here, even if he isn't mowing. he's a cranky looking guy that never smiles. he looks rather unhappy with his job or life in general. He works for the trailer park and he HATES anything that isn't lawn. But I didn't want to sit in a sea of useless lawn and when we moved in here, we chose our lot more on the size for gardening then anything. The office told us strait up that they welcome gardening and in fact have a garden contest every year. It turns out, their idea of gardening is to have 1) a few scraggly annuals from walmart in hanging baskets or a couple of pots, or 2) sprigs of fake flowers stuck in pots. I am seriously not kidding about this. The don't appreciate carefully tended garden beds, mulched and weed free filled with unusual flowers and plants I have either collected from cuttings or mail order, and from seeds I've planted.

Last spring, before the ground even had a chance to thaw we got a notice that they didn't like our empty garden beds and to correct the problem by so and so date. I ignored that one. It was BS. How could I 'correct' the problem before it was warm enough to plant anything? And then they complained about our patio being messy. I had left my shovel out that morning leaning against my step railing.....and about the skirting on our trailer even though its fine and completely intact unlike several folks in the neighborhood. One gets the feeling they are being targeted after a while.... And the one thing I would of thought they would complain on they haven't; the chickens and rabbits which I keep meticulously clean so that none complains about barnyard smells.

So I was told to rip out my 'weeds' by the 20th. I got the notice Saturday. This morning I got up bright and early to pull my lovely flowers that have given me so much joy, fed butterflies, bees and the yellow birds. Right now I just can't afford the fine. If i didn't take care of the problem, Mr. lawn mower would be over here mowing it all down then fining us with a hefty price to cover his hard work. I can't afford to protest that one right now.

Such is life here...see why I would love to get out of here?

Someday I can have free rein over my own garden, I can have as much corn, sprawling pumpkins, and yes, even yellow scabiosa and larkspur as i want to my heart's content. i just have to grit my teeth a while and try to have patience.

Have a good day,

Nickie