March Madness in the Garden

Bartlett pear tree in bloom

It's March madness in the garden as the spring temperatures continue - and it's technically still winter!  We've had two weeks of highs in the 70s and 80s and evening temperatures in the 50s.  This is mid to late April weather, perhaps May weather, and the trees, shrubs and flowers are responding by blooming.  I saw multicolored butterflies and moths fluttering about the garden today and I can only hope that whatever plants are currently blooming provide enough sustenance for them all.  I can't remember such a warm spring, not here and not in New York where I used to live.  Oh sure, you'd get the occasional warm day - I remember sweating through my suit jacket at a conference at the Helmsley Hotel in Manhattan on a particularly hot 90 degree April day, with the hotel management apologizing profusely for not having the air conditioners working yet nor having fans to circulate the air - but weeks of this type of weather? Unheard of!

Not that I'm complaining. It just seems as if spring has arrived, and fast, and I'd better play catch up.

On Saturday, I started gardening at 10 a.m. and aside from a brief lunch break, didn't call it quits until 3 p.m. By that time, I'd managed to get my share of splinters, cut my finger pretty good on a pair of garden shears, and scraped my inner wrist so that someone looking at it did a double take this past weekend. I think the poor man thought I'd done something horrible to myself on purpose,  but honestly, it was a thorny vine entangled with a Buddleia we cut down that gave me three long scratches right on the soft part inside my wrist, just where my gardening glove ends.  John saw it happen. Honest!

Pierre, my gardening kitty

Pierre and Shadow came outside to help us garden.  Shadow proved her worth by following the trail of the resident mole who is making my walks in the yard miserable. That darn creature left the vegetable garden, thank goodness, but now he's created a maze of tunnels in the back near the garden shed.  It's ankle-breaking stuff, those tunnels. You're walking along and BAM, next thing you know, your foot has sunk into the earth up to the shin!  Well, Shadow found that mole hole and I think she smelled a fresh scent. Suddenly she was going crazy digging, digging, digging.  She dug out the hole but no mole.  Later on that day, Pierre was also running crazily near the mole tunnels, zig-zagging this way and that. He went to the same spot and stuffed his whole face into the mole hole.  I was hoping he'd catch the creature but alas, it was too fast for him.  Shadow chased it out of the vegetable garden last year and it hasn't come back since then, but it has made itself quite at home in the back corner of the field, and I'm hoping that between the two of them, they have made its life miserable!

Blooming peach tree with vegetable garden behind it.

I settled on asparagus Jersey Giant and the box of 24 arrived from Park Seed last Thursday.  I kept them in a pail of moist soil in the garage until Saturday.  We decided to move all the herbs from the herb bed in the vegetable garden and use that bed for the asparagus.  It was a good idea, but we should have moved the herbs sooner.  First of all, the oregano had not only spread out to about half the bed, but it crawled under the wood frame and has now infiltrated my lawn back in the vegetable garden. I've got mint growing in some areas and oregano in others.  Mowing the lawn releases some interesting smells - you can't tell whether you're in a Bed, Bath and Beyond from the mint or in a pizza parlor from the oregano.


The cat nip stinks but we moved it one of Pierre's favorite spots, near the garden shed. We transplanted two and if it spreads out - so be it.  We can live with it.

The lemon balm and sage made it into the flower garden. The sage is so tall that we've named it 'sage bush' half jokingly.  It really does look like a bush out there.   The lemon balm is now under the wisteria, and I'm hoping it takes hold there and creates a carpet under the wisteria.

Unfortunately, two herbs didn't survive the move.  My rosemary, which I especially wanted to save, broke and we seemed to have lost the roots.  I've got the big stems drying in the garage now, so at least it won't go to waste. And my huge patch of yummy garlic chives, which I love to dice up and add to omelets, also somehow got lost. I suspect I will have chives now growing in my lawn to complement the oregano and mint.  I did manage to pot up a few chives, which I'll keep near the kitchen when the omelet urge strikes.

Removing the herbs also removed a good portion of the soil from the beds, too.  On Sunday, I made a quick run to Lower's after church to buy some soil.  We turned the compost on Saturday too and I squealed with delight - worms!  Big, fat, red worms, the best kind to find in a compost pile.  I know, I know, you may think worms are gross. But they're not.  I've never spotted them in my compost pile until this year and a good group of worms in there means they are doing their job and helping compost down all those kitchen scraps.  We dug down into the pile, turned it, and found lovely dark, crumbly compost - the kind that looks like chocolate cake.  Into the asparagus bed it went along with fresh soil and a bit of peat moss!

The other vegetables that arrived included a sampler package of 60 onions - three different types, 20 sets of each.  I can see red onions, white ones and a smaller one.  We planted those on Sunday, along with 48 bulbs of garlic.  I also planted seeds for Romaine and fancy micro greens on Sunday, and spinach for salads.  I added radishes and my beloved broccoli rabe to the garden this weekend, too.  My mouth is watering thinking about sauteed broccoli rabe with olive oil and garlic and white beans.  I can live off of that and frequently do enjoy it for lunch throughout the spring.

Last but not least, we cleaned up the strawberry beds.  We moved some strawberry 'daughters' and added compost. 

The peach trees are almost finished blooming, and now the pears are in full bloom in the orchard.  This picture shows me standing next to a peach tree. Can you see me in my pink top? That shows you just about the size of the trees. I am tall, nearly 6 feet tall, so that gives you some perspective. The daffodils are blooming throughout the orchard too and it is just so beautiful.  I know it to be true, because both our mail carrier and the UPS guy said so.

The orchard - I'm the spec in pink next to the blooming peach tree.

March madness...spring gardening...and we are a few days from the official start of spring.  The windows are open, the bird houses are hung. Let the gardening begin!

Advanced Vegetable Gardening Workshop in Prince Edward County

The Cooperative Extension office is offering a free advanced vegetable gardening workshop at the Prince Edward County Extension Office.  It's located right near the water tower in Farmville, across the street from Lowe's.  It's a free event and a great way for you to pick up additional information to grow a terrific vegetable garden! 

The event is March 8, 2012, from 6:30 p.m to 8:00 p.m., and I'm going to share the flyer below. 

November Garden Surprises

Back on Long Island, the November garden was a dreary mass of matted oak and maple leaves and the occasional surprise burst of orange from a marigold that had somehow escaped the frosts. It's different here in south central Virginia. Although we'd had some cold nights and one good, rip roaring frost (27 degrees F), the days zoom back in the 60's and '70s. The rolling hills and sheltered spots also seem to produce amazing micro climates. I've got cool weather annuals like my snapdragons just fine and dandy back by the garden shed, but a few were nipped in the flower garden next to the driveway. Ditto for the petunias; they're still blooming next to the garage, but just green out in the flower garden.

And the vegetable garden never ceases to offer surprises. The garlic is doing well, sending up robust shoots that are making my mouth water with thoughts of Italian recipes to make next year, but so is the Chard. Not unexpected, but it's rapidly overtaking the bed again. The spinach struggled along, strangely so, since I expected it to be more vigorous, but the biggest surprise has been the calendula. It's an herb whose flowers are used for skin balms. I looked out the kitchen window this morning and saw some orange peeking out from behind the catnip. And there were new calendula blossoms on a plant I thought was dead. The picture today is my little bed of calendula. I harvested the blossoms, and have them in a Mason jar next to my lavender; both will come in handy this winter.

I'm loathe to dig up anything right now. Plants that look dead revive under a few days of warmth and rain, and plants that "should", according to the garden books, be dug up and discarded are still going strong, so I'm just leaving everything alone and enjoying the long slide into winter.

The Great Spinach Grow Off

Do you remember the Pillsbury Bake Off contests? People enter and bake their prized recipes, and the finalists go to some sort of convention and contest and bake on site. I've seen television shows that depict what goes on behind the scenes. I've always wanted to enter. I'm not skilled enough to win, although my sisters and I have talked about entering my Grandma's recipe for Alsace-Lorraine Bread Pudding that is our family tradition and secret weapon.




I held my own version of the bake-off. It was called the Great Spinach Grow-Off. Here's what I did:

• I bought two packets of spinach seeds. One was called "Teton Hybrid" and it cost me around $2.99. The other packet was a generic "Spinach" variety without even a name that I bought at Lowes for 99 cents.
  
• There were the same number of seeds in each packet - 100 - so I knew if I planted them all, I'd have an equal number in the garden.
• We finished the raised vegetable garden bed on March 23, 2009. I divided one half of the raised bed into two equal sections and sowed the spinach seeds.
  
• They appeared to germinate equally as well.
• The Teton hybrids had dark green foliage and curly-edged leaves that were very pretty. The other spinach grew the traditional green leaves.
• Yield from both beds was about the same. In total, we ate six meals with spinach as a side dish. I froze 3 gallon bags full of spinach too. And I must have cut baby leaves for salads and smoothies at least twice from each bed.
• Yesterday, June 30, 2009, all of the spinach plants had gone to seed and were dying, so I pulled them all up and composted them.

Results of my Great Spinach Grow-Off and my recommendation:

SAVE YOUR MONEY!

The 99 cent package of seeds from Lowes was almost indistinguishable from the fancy, expensive named package. The spinach tasted about the same, grew at the same rate, and went to seed at the same rate.

For our vegetable gardening fans out there, go for the cheap spinach seeds. They grew well in our Virginia garden, and we enjoyed the harvest for many months. And thanks to the frozen bags of spinach in my freezer, I'm hoping to enjoy the harvest for many months to come.



An Update on the Baby Birds
There are FOUR not three! I saw a fourth fuzzy head popping up from behind the three siblings yesterday and called John over to confirm the sighting. The fourth one is smaller than his nest mates and less aggressive. I can't believe there are four birds crowded into one nest. Every day we watch for babies in case one pops out. The biggest one is very vigorous and he rises on his tippy toes and flaps his baby wings and they crowd around the edge of the nest. Their eyes are still shut, but their beaks are ALWAYS open!

RIP My Cauliflower

RIP cauliflower.

I beheld you for a few shining moments.

Three months of work yielded one head of cauliflower, a bumper crop of little green worms, and after the torrential rains last week - a stinking, rotting mess that used to be my cauliflower and broccoli. I pulled them all up on Saturday and composted the lot of them. (All the other veggies are thriving. The newest threat arrived thought - hordes of hungry Japanese beetles - but I'll worry about them later.)

The smell from the rotting cauliflower....ugh.

Such are the perils of gardening. We pray for rain; our prayers are answered, sometimes with abundance.

I've never lost an entire bed of vegetables, though, to too much rain. Last year we had drought. This year, too much rain. We heard from a neighbor that some of his corn washed away too, and some rotted.

I tell you, since moving to the country, I have gained such a profound respect for farmers. I've always respected them; but going from a 10 x 10 backyard garden to living among working farmers who till hundreds of acres has given me new respect for all the smarts a farmer has to have.

He must know science: agriculture, meteorology, botany, genetics, chemistry and probably a dozen other things.

He must know mathematics: calculating square foot, yield, ratios and proportion of fertilizer and feed.

He must have a strong back, a clear mind, and an amazing amount of hope and courage to last as a farmer.

Let's all hug a farmer today and give thanks for their hard work.

RIP, cauliflower. Your job is done. First I got a lesson in patience. Now I get a lesson in respect, all from a head of stinking cauliflower.

The Sneaky Cauliflower

Cauliflower is a sneaky vegetable. Now don't get me wrong. It's a delicious vegetable...at least I think so.

This is the first time I have ever grown cauliflower. I bought plants at Lowe's instead of starting it from seed. It was one of the first vegetables I planted in the new raised garden beds.

It's a sneaky vegetable.

First, it grew leaves...HUGE leaves...enormous leaves. I'd carefully left the requisite amount of space between the plants as directed on the labels. Note to self: leave double that next year.

We watched in awe as the rain beaded on the waxy leaves. John looked it up in a book and found that scientists believe that some plants gained an evolutionary advantage by developing this ability. As we watched, the cauliflower leaves gently guided beads of water down into the thirsty heart of the plant.

But still...no cauliflower.

Just leaves.

Now REALLY big leaves.


Patience?

Um....no.

Total impatience. "C'mon cauliflower, I want to make dinner...grow!"

John spotted the cauliflower head first. "Come here and look - it's the size of a baseball!" Sure enough, there was a beautiful head forming on one of the plants.

Yesterday after all the rain I went into the vegetable garden to pick strawberries and I stopped by to check on the cauliflower. That sneak. The head is now the size of a volleyball. And now two others have little cauliflower heads the size of baseballs....

Sneaky thing. I almost pulled you up. Stealth vegetables growing in the night and hiding from me. Keep growing!

Tips to Grow Cauliflower

• Cool season vegetable that according to the Illinois Cooperative Extension website is "more difficult to grow than other members of the cabbage family" (now you tell me!)
• Best to start from transplants
• Start in spring or fall
• 71 days to maturity (just about right, although mine took a tiny bit longer)
• More sensitive to cold than other cabbage family members (Kathleen said they like it around 72 degrees; I would agree with her. The cold snap we got in May probably slowed it down, making it longer than 71 days to maturity)
• Space 18-21 inches apart (mine are about 12 inches apart)
• Self blanch by tying the leaves over the head so the edible part doesn't develop an off flavor (I didn't do this, but may today...they look okay so far...those huge leaves served a purpose and just by having so many leaves it appears it did self blanch)

The picture today is one that I took. It's my cauliflower leaves right after a rainstorm. I may frame this picture for my office. I have two garden photos I took hanging over my desk, a snap dragon and the mini hollyhock that looks like a weed.

The Radishes are Here

It's official. Today I harvested our first-ever-crop! Ta-da! 100% organic, with some insect bites out of the leaves to prove it.

I planted the radish seeds on March 23. At the left are the red globe radishes called "Cherry Bomb." On the right, the elongated white and red radishes are a variety called "French Breakfast" radishes.

Here ya go. Please pass the salt. Dig in!

Inspiring Stories

This is a wonderful article from the New York Times Home and Garden section. The stories remind me of my grandparents and parents. So stop your whining already about how tough you've got it!

Great Depression stories

And a big welcome to my neighbors and new friends who've found us through this blog, Twitter, Facebook, etc....Frog Bottom Farms in Pamplin City (population 199! what a city as they said to me in their email), Lec and family in Catalonia, Spain, at the Catalan Gardens (good luck on your olive crop), the Herzlers at Meadowlands farm also in Pamplin, and Patty and Ron over at Shady Acres Farms in Prospect. Welcome and enjoy the spring madness! Good luck with your spring planting and here's to a productive growing season.

First Gardening Day of Spring

Today is the first gardening day of spring! We plan to work in the orchard today. We have tiny fruit trees we planted last year. They are just starting to leaf out. We need to spray them, and we are going to spread the wonderful rich compost around each one, and re-mulch them. I also found pansies on sale at Lowe's for just $1 and $3 for a flat of 24 - I'm not kidding, I got 48 pansies for $3! They were on the discount rack since they looked wilted, but they are fine and perked right up. I'm going to add them around the front of the house. We also have forsythia, azaleas and rhododendrons to add to the front of the house. And don't forget the vegetables! I've got cool weather annuals that will begin to harden off today, and seeds to go in this week - lettuce, spinach, swiss chard. I think I'm behind on this, but I still can't get the New York/Long Island gardening calendar out of my head. This week in the newspaper they had an article on harvesting potatoes. I thought John was going to leap up from the living room chair. "You can grow POTATOES?" he demanded, waving the paper at me. I shrugged. I had no idea! Now he's already talking about growing potatoes over next winter. Where I'm not sure, but I have a feeling more of the yard is going to get dug up. I can't wait :)

Our latest scheme is to add grape vines...and I have my eye on raspberry bushes, but since my husband loathes raspberries, in every way shape and form, I'm going to have to sneak them in somehow....

And strawberries. Back to Lowe's this week to pick up some strawberry plants.

Let the gardening begin - it's officially spring!

Organic Eggs and Vegetable Garden Planning

My neighbors here in Virginia who read my blog are going to think I'm nuts for posting this picture, but I was so excited when Patty, my friend who owns and runs Shady Acres Farm here in Prospect, gave me two dozen free range eggs! Talk about fresh and organic. This photo shows the beautiful colors of the eggs. She said she got an Aracuna rooster who crossed with some of her regular hens. The results are these beautiful eggs, all shades of green, pink and peach. They are like works of art. The colors are just amazing. The second set of eggs are strangely shaped, small and pointy. She thinks one of her hens crossed with guinea hens that guard the farm and flock. Whatever the unusual love affair produced, it definitely produce delicious eggs. Her hens roam about the farm, free range, and enjoy their days as chickens were meant to do. The guinea hens afford great protection and guard the flock. If predators arrive on the scene, the guineas cluck and chuckle and shoo everyone back into the safety of the coop. Even her goats alert to the sounds from the guineas, and any cry of distress alerts all the farm critters that a hawk, vulture, fox or other predator is nearby.

We finished the last of the raised vegetable garden beds yesterday, screwing together the frame and laying down the landscape fabric. I hauled wheel barrow after wheel barrow of cow manure from the major pile the Hertzlers contributed, and then John and I both hauled more compost into the beds. I think I ran wheel barrows back and forth for two hours. Talk about tired last night. I dropped off to sleep around 9 amd slept like a rock until Shadow and Pierre work me up around 6 for breakfast. It was so beautiful yesterday, I worked outside in just my t shirt and jeans. My workboots got all muddy and my heavy work gloves too. The sunshine was warm, the air smelled soft and of good earth, and a breeze stirred the pines.

Someone asked me how to plan a vegetable garden. One of the tricks I learned along the way, this one from my old neighbor in Floral Park, Mr. Hoffman, was companion planting. Mr. Hoffman was a retired high school chemistry teacher, but more importantly, he was of the Rottkamp family, one of the respected old farming families that used to farm Long Island, and he was like my adopted grandfather. I used to hop over the hedge separating our properties and as a little girl, I tagged along at his heels as he worked his backyard farm. When he'd purchased the land in the 1940's, he'd bought his house lot and extra for a mini farm. It was an oddity in Floral Park but I loved it. He grew long rows of sweet corn, spinach, rhubarb, and many other vegetables. He taught my how to blanch celery with big boards and why leeks are hard to grow. When he'd plan his garden, he showed me that planting marigolds keeps away many bugs, and basil and tomatoes together not only taste great, but also work as natural insect repellants. This is organic gardening at its finest, using plants to ward off plants that trouble other plants. Marigolds saved the day for us here in Virginia last summer when my tomato plants were attacked by those hideous green tomato hornworms. Ugly, nasty things, but as soon as the marigolds went around the tomatoes they all skeedaddled back to wherever they come from.

Enjoy your day today! This is the last warm day for a bit, and tomorrow we are expecting more winter slush and rain, so I'll be heading out to deadhead and clean up the perennial garden.

Missing My Garden

This is the time of year when I start to really, really miss my garden. I miss being outside in the sunshine. I miss hearing the sweet trill of birdsong. I miss all the little nuances of color and scent. I'm reading my seed catalogs more frequently these days than my Bible, which probably isn't a good thing.

Sure, there's outside work to do now. But do you ever notice how in the wintertime, any kind of garden chore is a struggle? We tried to fill the next vegetable bed with compost and soil, but the bags of soil and peat moss are frozen so they weigh twice as much. We gave up and figure it can wait until spring; we've got six of the ten raised beds filled and ready.

Walks with Shadow and our afternoon hike are barely fulfilling my longing. Spring seems so far away.

Just a few more weeks until I can turn on the indoor lights for seed starting. A few more weeks of planning, rest and reading. I want to go with the flow of the seasons and use this season as God intended; for planning, and rest. He gave the garden winter so it could rest and prepare for the next season. I'm not good with waiting. But His timing is perfect, so onwards to the next right thing to do today....but I still miss my sunshine.

Vegetable Garden Takes Shape

After a weekend hauling ten foot trusses up to the top of the new shed (or barn as we've started to call it) and straining to hold enormous pieces of particle board for John to nail onto the roof I have newfound respect for the men who built this house. Three days of backbreaking labor later, we have a roof on the shed and a window in place. Just in time, too, since today the rains came. We've also been hauling wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of compost into the newly completed raised beds, and I've been researching victory garden seeds as well as new fruit varieties to plant. John's mentioned the chicken house too, so (fingers crossed!) that may be one of the next projects. In the meantime, I collected buckets of seeds this weekend, and when the garden dries out again I'll be back in the perennial garden picking seeds for next year. Enjoy the photos!

Vegetable Garden Progress

Ever wonder what 29 TONS of compost looks like? The first picture shows 29 tons, delivered last week by Tom Hertzler. When I told my sister we had a tractor trailor truckload delivered she just couldn't picture it. And I think she wondered why we need it! Now that you can see the progress on the production garden you'll know why. The soil here is clay - hard, red, nasty clay, with some lumps of undefinable gray rock thrown in and beautiful glistening crystal quartz gems. The quartz is astonishing in its color, clarity and splendor. We have one six sided crystal on the mantle in the library. But the soil...after 20 years of loblolly pine, construction on the house, and probably pasture and tobacco growing before the loblolly, the soil is devoid of life. I had it tested and the test results were the worst I've ever seen! The pH was something like 3, soil fertility less than 1 percent, and so few nutrients. Poor soil!

If you also have lousy soil, build raised beds. Raised beds enable you to fill them with black gold goodness and grow wonderful vegetables. Each of the raised beds in the pictures above are destined for either herbs, root crops, or above ground crops. We are filling them with a mixture of 50% compost, 40% top soil from the garden center, and 10% peat moss. The untreated beds in the front are made with standard pine lumber and will be used to grow root crops and medicinal herbs. The remaining pressure treated lumber beds are destined for green goodies like spinach and Swiss Chard, my two favorite green vegetables; broccoli rabe, which you can't find anywhere in Virginia; beans, including some heirlooms I've been dying to try; watermelon and cantelope; corn; tomatoes; peppers; eggplant; and if I'm brave enough, onion sets, summer and winter squash.

I transplanted one poor potbound oregano into the new herb bed. That's the green shrubby-thing. Next year, I hope the pictures show it overflowing!

Note the 'garden gate' John made. It has the cross piece. Once we get the beds filled with compost, the deer netting goes up on the 8 foot tall posts, the gate is put in place, and hopefully I won't be feeding the critters.

Garden Construction Begins

Today is the day! Almost exactly on year since we moved to the farm, John began construction today of the garden shed/small barn and the vegetable garden. We worked for three hours yesterday measuring and marking the area. You can see in the photos the very tall posts we used to mark the edges of where the deer fence will go. Within that big rectangle, we will have 8 beds about 4' x 12' for vegetables and two huge 10' x 12' beds for corn, melons and the like. One bed will be devoted to my passion, medicinal herbs and herb teas. My goal next year is to grow and preserve nearly all our own vegetables. When we add the chicken house, it will be next to the shed, with a fenced area - now the spot where you can see very tall grass - for the chickens to free range safely, away from predators such as the buzzards and hawks that live on the farm.

Photos show the shed kit in pieces; John and his dad Jack starting construction of the vegetable beds; and the area marked out for the shed (small posts, by the edge of the woods) and the garden (big posts that look kind of like goal posts).

Celebrating Autumn

There's nothing quite so beautiful as field of sunflowers. When John and I drove across country in 2000, we saw miles and miles of sunflowers in the fields of South Dakota. I've never seen anything so beautiful, and the pictures we took that day are framed and downstairs, forever reminding us of how lovely it is to drive for hours and see nothing but glowing fields of happy yellow sunflowers.

This year the sunflowers here did well, and we saved the seed heads. I spent an hour or two happily smashing out the seeds on Sunday, filling the birdfeeder and saving the rest in an old plastic ice cream tub. Unfortuantely though I got some sort of splinter in my finger and boy does it hurt! It's all red and bumpy too. Ick!

But the seeds are harvested, and I have only some daisy, redbud tree, and coreopsis seeds left in the garage to process. It's gotten cool, with foggy mornings and strong breezes. I'm actually wearing a sweater today in the office as I type this.

We ordered the new shed on Saturday and the lumber for the raised vegetable beds. John sketched out the plan. He seems reluctant to add the chickens, but I'm convinced that's my 2010 project. I want the chicken house to have a roofed-in run that leads directly to the vegetable garden; that way I can let the birds scratch around and eat bugs there and shut them out when I don't want them there. I have the plans started and am just imaging all the beds of vegetables and fruit to come...and I'm sourcing heirloom seeds, too!

Have a beautiful day everyone!

Building the Farm

I completed my first masonry project! All right - I started it. I actually worked with concrete. This may seem like a no-big-deal kind of thing, but for someone like me, it's a big deal. As a child, my father wouldn't teach me about tools, home improvements, how to fix things. I'm not sure he really knew how to do these things, so he may have doubted his own abilities to teach me how to do them. Still and all, my husband often gets frustrated when he asks me to hand him a tool while he's working on a project and I'm fumbling around on the workbench for something that seems obvious to him.

John's a great teacher. He mixed the cement, and used metaphors to help me understand in my own way how to do the same thing. For example, as he mixed the cement in the wheel barrow, he said, "Add water and stir it until it looks like chocolate cake batter." Got it! I know what the consistency of cake batter should look like. As we connected the edging stones we'd picked up from around the property to frame the front garden, he handed me the trowel (hod? What is the tool with the pointy end you use to spread cement?). "Spread it like frosting." Got it!

The result is about ten feet completed of the edging around our front landscaping. We finished laying the landscape frabric, spread the mulch, and selected the stones for the edging. All the stones are from our property. The sparkling quartz, with pink and white veins running through it, catches the sunlight.

I purchased the remaining edging blocks for the front sidewalk and stumbled on some great plant bargains at Lowe's. I purchased two already planted mixed containers for fifty cents each. Huge, overflowing with petunias, bacopa and what looks like some sort of allysum, the matched set perked up my front steps perfect. I began pricing the lumber for the raised vegetables beds too. The Master Gardener at the Kentucky State University Arboretum recommended the plastic wood, the type used to make permanent decks, but the cost was astonishing. $25 to $30 for each 12 foot section. We hope to make nine raised beds total and fence in the area with board and post fence covered by chicken wire to keep out the critters. If I use that stuff I will be spending hundreds of dollars. Instead, I'll opt for the pressure treated lumber at $4 a board. I know that the pressure treatedl umber is controversial, since some critics content it leaches chemicals into the soil. But I just can't afford the PVC option.

We mapped out the area for the shed and I reiterated my desire to have my chickens in by next spring. A small hen house for three to six hens is sufficient, fences in against predators.

But if I get my vegetable beds in place I'll be a happy woman. I'm really disappointed with the produce selection down here in the country. I don't know if it's the growing season or what, but we found better produce back in New York at the supermarket. Everything is very expensive and not the best quality. Even the Amish farmstand this weekend had a poor selection. I managed to pick up a cantalope that's delicious, some squash and a tomato, but everything else either looked bad or was commercially grown (I checked with the lady running the stand; she pointed out to me what was local and what wasn't.)

So the solution for me is to grow my own vegetables. I hope to document the process for my eHow articles as well as the new gardening book I'm writing.

This morning the flock of 20 turkeys came out of the woods and made the rounds around the house, pecking up all the bugs. They traversed the back field, made their way through the fruit orchard, and ended the show by marching in a line down my driveway and into the perennial garden. I prayed that they would eat every Japanese Beetle they could find in the perennial garden, but after some half-hearted pecks, they departed into the woods. One flew up and perched in the pine tree. I hadn't realized they could fly that well!


Enjoy your day and let me know how you like the blog! The photo was taken by my sister, Mary Fassetta.