May. 26, 2009
~A Good Day~

What beautiful weather we've had this weekend. I thought I'd post some pics. I love journaling with pictures!
My dh was off all weekend, but he's working a double today, unfortunately. He got a lot of cattle fence built. He & Jonah (11) have got this down to an art. I felt like an old fashioned farm wife bringing their lunches to the field.

I got a lot of work done in my gardens. And now that it's enveloped in snow fence, the chickens can't undo my work.

I did some weeding, put more wood chips in the garden paths & planted swiss chard, spinach & lettuce.

For the first time, I am mulching the beds. I love the look of the soil showing, but I very quickly lose the weed battle. I read a gardening book this winter called "Gardening Without Work." It was great-loved it. She highly recommended mulching w/ 8 to 10 inches of straw. I still have more straw to put in & will keep adding it throughout the summer as the plants get bigger.

The green plants that are in the paths along the edges of beds are stray strawberry plants that I couldn't bear to pull out. After the berry harvest, I'll move them somewhere else-I'm moving all the strawberries-they are very invasive & need their own place w/ room to roam.
This bed was a disaster. I never got it mulched until 2 weeks ago & it was loaded w/ weeds, old garlic plants & pricker canes. You'd never know it now! I layered paper feed sacks over all the green stuff (cut the prickers down to the ground, though), put about a foot of old manure filled hay (from horses), then put a layer of clean straw on top of that. Yesterday, I took off the clean straw, raked out the top & planted swiss chard & spinach. I can't believe how fast this worked. I got this idea from a book called Lasagna Gardening.
I have 12 of these beds, but could really use more. I might throw together some make-shift growing places in other sunny places.

Alyssa is getting easier & harder at the same time to do gardening work with. On the one hand, she doesn't fuss as much & doesn't mind the grass. But, on the other hand, she keeps trying to crawl to animals in the pasture. Here she is heading for a pasture with a bull & steers in it.
I quickly scooped her up and as soon as I saw another child somewhere, I called them over to play with her.

In my flower gardens, I planted spanish lavender, lemon verbena & bee balm. These were already started at a nursery. My kids went bananas when they saw the verbena. In fact, they got so excited, people were looking at us. It turns out that lemon verbena is Miss Beetle's perfume-you know, the teacher on Little House on the Prairie. LOL So, we had to buy some-it does smell wonderful.
I also split some patches of tiger lilys and put them in other places. Here's some grape hyacyths. I love these!

Here's some of the chickens meandering around. I love watching them-it gives me such a peaceful & calming feeling. That's our pony, Tootsie Toes in the background.

Here's a patch of wildness by the pond along the driveway. I think a good title for this picture could be "waiting for wind."

Yesterday was our last day w/ Abbie, our guide dog puppy. We brought her back in the afternoon. It was easier for me & Susanna than the last puppy we brought back, but harder for Hannah. Here's Abbie & Alyssa:

When we got back, we distracted the kids by surprising them with going to a friend's house to swim in their pond. I forgot the camera again, but it was a great time. Pat & I are now excited to get back to work on our pond. We've gotten side-tracked by so many other projects that we never finished the pond. We need to fix the berm, add fish to eat the green stuff, plant grass, level an area that we want to put sand in, build a dock & make an area where we can hang out w/ a built in fire pit. The fun thing around here is all the projects that we never run out of and never stop dreaming about.
After that, we went home, had a quick dinner & got ready for a neighboring family to come over for a bonfire & s'mores. That was a lot of fun.
They left around 10:00. It was a full and very good day.

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May. 26, 2009 - Untitled Comment

Posted by Haflingerhorses

Such wonderful pictures! I enjoyed your picture journal.
I think I might have that lasagna gardening book, I'll have to look and see if I do. Your blue hyacinths are beautiful and I love flowers by the pond. So pretty.

Sounds like you had a very full and wonderful day - taking lunch to your husband and feeling like an old fashioned farmwife (and seeing a project accomplished) time to work on your garden, enjoying your baby, and finishing the night with a get-together by a bonfire. Wonderful!
I know what you mean by always another project to do - my husband and I are always dreaming, too.
Antoinette

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May. 26, 2009 - Your little farm

Posted by basketflat

I love all your pictures. It gives the feel of your homey home there. Love the crawling picture of the baby. (I'm still calling mine that.) I'm so impressed that you raise guide dog puppies. They wouldn't want to put me in charge of that.

On the mulching...my husband always rototills between the rows - but isn't mulching good for more than just weeds? It keeps the heat in the ground at night? Maybe I will convince DH to buy some extra straw to put around the plants so that he can still rototill, but it will possibly keep down the close weeds and keep the ground warmer. It's funny how different people have different experiences with the same plant. Our strawberries have definitely not been invasive - rather the crab grass has been so persistent on our strawberries. Maybe this year we will stay on top of it...but I can just tell you I do not like crab grass.

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May. 27, 2009 - Mulch

Posted by basketflat

Hi! Thanks for giving me the scoop on your horses and cows.

For the mulch - do you know, if you aren't using it on your entire garden, but just, you know around plants - around the tomatoes, the squash, on the strawberry row - that sort of thing - if there is that problem with it sprouting weeds? I mean because it wouldn't be able to be so deep right? Is it still recommended?

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