1 Oct
Chicks in the willow bush
Just over a month old now, these little mongrel chicks are growing like weeds, on track to be a decent size, especially considering they are not a large breed, by the time December slaughter rolls around. And how gorgeous are these tiny buggers!? No teenage pterodactyl phase for them as for most chickens; they seem to have grown from adorable, fuzzy babes into beautiful, colorful, amazing chickens-in-miniature, completely bypassing the gawky, awkward stage. I am so enamoured by this group’s looks and personalities that I’ll be keeping several, including one of the cockerels, for breeding.
25 Sep
Chicks, man…
I’ve been reminded tonight that I’ve been terrible about updating lately– there’s been a lot going on and yadda, yadda. There’s really no excuse. So, for today, here’s a photo of some of the homestead’s newest additions. These little guys will be dinner in December, and the gals will stick around to lay us some blue and green eggs.
30 Aug
Photo- Thai Caladium ‘Lord Spell’
This is my second summer growing these Thai caladiums. Last year they were puny, but this summer they have really taken off! The foliage is still not as large as you’ll find on traditional caladiums, but with textures and colors like these, who cares?!
18 Aug
Guest Post at Every Kitchen Table!
Please be sure to check out my guest post on Every Kitchen Table, Rob Smart’s wonderful blog promoting healthy, sustainable food.
18 Aug
Summer!
It seems like summer finally decided to arrive! And it’s a welcome relief for the garden after a second straight growing season of unusually cool temperatures. August is shaping up to be a ‘normal’ month with temperatures climbing into the 90’s during the day. The tomatoes are finally thriving, the eggplant is finally flowering, the chard and fennel are beautiful and the pepinos are loaded down with their little ‘melons.’ Phew! I thought I was losing my garden mojo for while there!
And since the tomatoes have decided that summer is finally here, it is time once again for my favoritest favorite meal- gazpacho! Tomatoes, cucumber, onion, maybe a carrot or sweet pepper, little bit of hot pepper, whatever’s ripe in the garden with a pinch of salt and a hefy helping of vinegar in the blender et voila! Dinner is served and I never even needed to touch the stove!
28 Jul
Midsummer madness
We’re in the thick of it now, the middle of summer, and I know the blog has been suffering from a bit of neglect because of it. At this time in the season, not only am I working hard to keep the weeds and the bugs at bay, but I’m beginning all over again– starting seeds for the next round, fall veggies. In the past three weeks, I’ve begun the last round of summer squash, beans and cucumbers, succession sowed the never-ending procession of Swiss Chard, and started the cole and leaf crops that love our Mid-Atlantic autumns so much more than the springs: Brussels sprouts, broccoli, kale, collards, endive, leeks, lettuce, fennel and more. For the first year ever, I have run out of room in the main garden, started three new 100 square foot beds, run out of room in them, too, and am now plotting out even more space to set out the fall crops in. Needless to say, all this has been keeping me just a little busy.
But, even though I’m right in the thick of things at the moment and squeezing some planting and hoeing into every spare daylight hour, this is also the time of year that my mind wanders, always and without fail, to plans for next year. I saw a quote go by on Twitter the other day, something about “My garden is never as good as next year’s will be” or some similar sentiment and that describes me to a “T”. Already, I’m poring over the seed catalogs, planning where I’ll put this and that, deciding what new varieties I simply must try, mentally harvesting tons of colorful, shiny peppers, tomatoes, greens, eggplants and cucumbers from spotless, insect-free plants. I’ve made my list of veggies I never want to bother with again (Poona Kheera cucumber, for one; Coosa squash for another) and racked up a much, much, much longer list of wants: Honey Drip sorghum, black peanuts, Jamaican burr gherkins, an heirloom pink corn from the southwest, bright red celery and purple tomatillos, all big, perfect, bug and blight-free. Oh, this year’s garden could never be as fantastic as next year’s!
But, to come back to reality for a moment, there is more weeding to be done and blister beetles that need to be hunted down and squashed. There is early blight on the leaves of some tomato plants (but no sign of late blight yet, thank goodness!) and the early cucumber plants had to be ripped out because of a raging case of anthracnose. There are squash bugs hiding out there somewhere that I need to be on vigilant alert for and the flea beetles, well, I’ve just given up on them. Let them eat what they want. This year’s garden is work!
13 Jul
Hello, Sunshine!
I know I should be sitting down to write a real blog post, and I promise I’ll get to it. But, in the meantime, the sunflowers are blooming and I just had to share.
