Garden Getting Away

The garden is getting away from me.  I've been able to hold my own against the weeds and the bugs better than ever this year since I've been home more, but even still, I nearly lost the whole potato crop (just twelve plants), to these voracious leaf devouring bugs.  I spent some time kneeling in the dirt picking these cute little orange and black larvae from the nearly defoliated plants, and dropping them into a bowl of soapy water.  

They didn't even try to hide or run away!  The next day I checked and found a few stragglers, but after that they haven't returned.  I looked them up, and these are the larvae of the infamous Colorado potato beetle, called Leptinotarsa decemlineata.  Whoever named these guys decemlineata must have had their crop decimated too!   The plants started making new leaves right away.  Whew, close call!   

The little cabbage plants in the greenhouse were being munched on by the green caterpillars of little white butterflies called cabbage white (Pieris rapae).  Sigh.  Despite the heat, I searched each leaf and squished the poor caterpillars. Then I fashioned some hoops from cut branches, and draped some garden cloth over the hoops and anchored it with bricks.  I meant to do this chore much earlier, before the butterflies arrived, but apparently I needed eminent cabbage death to encourage me.  After a few days I could tell which plants still had caterpillars because the new leaves in the center of the plant were chewed.  I've been patrolling, and I think the cloth is working!  

That green tangle of plants in the greenhouse next to the covered row of cabbages is the overgrown spring greens.  In the center of that mess is a row of onions.  

The lettuce plants were still pretty, but turned bitter once they bolted.  I usually just let them go and clean up the beds in the fall or winter once it's not so hot under the plastic dome.  Not this year!  I chopped, yanked, and pulled until I removed every plant, and then collected the onions.  

I spread the small onion bulbs on some mesh chairs so they can dry, and draped some burlap over them to block the direct sun.  I like to cut the leaves, peel the outer layer from the onion bulb, and grill them.  Bite sized and tasty! Once they all dry I'll cut off the leaves and store some for planting next spring.  

Now the greenhouse is so tidy!  I prepped the bed in the center by hoeing out all the plant stubble, and mixing in buckets of compost.  It made for a nice seed bed, so I planted two rows of rutabagas, and a row of two types of kale.  I've always thought that it would be possible for the greenhouse garden to produce lots more food if only I would cycle in new crops and keep things growing in every season. 

The greenhouse dome helps protect the cabbage row cover from the wind and heavy rain, which is good so it doesn't disintegrate, but it gets so hot in there that I'm struggling to keep the newly planted seeds moist even with twice daily watering.  I'm afraid I will forget one time and the little seedlings will be toast.  

After taking this photo I got motivated to pull weeds from the squash plants and their purple onion neighbors.  The squash vines look amazing!  I'm hopeful the the vine borer bugs won't show up until after I get some zucchini and spaghetti squash.  

All of the mustard greens and some of the mixed lettuce plants in the summer garden are bolting too.  If I get ambitious, I'll remove all these plants too, and start a new crop of something.  Maybe.  It's getting hot out there! 

Boots and Wildflowers

Brandon researched hiking boots, ordered boots, tried on boots, returned boots, and then when he finally found the perfect boot at the outfitters, I asked the salesman to bring me a pair too.  We have matching feet!  We were excited to try out our new footwear at the Red River Gorge on Friday, and ended up hiking over nine miles - no blisters!  

This pretty yellow flower, that looks like six leaves circle the stem, is called tickseed (Coreopsis major).  

I think this bicolored flower is called goat's-rue (Tephrosia virginiana).  It was growing in small dense clusters near big swaths of bracken and wild blueberries (or cranberries, farkleberries, or deerberries (Vaccinium sp.), I can't tell them apart).  

We've hiked this trail before, so we knew to save our lunch break for the top of the ridge, when we could enjoy the views from our perch on the exposed rock.  

See those exposed rocks on the other side of the valley?  There's a natural arch in the stone there, and we were headed that way to get an up-close look.  

We hiked across this narrow spine with stone puddles filled from the recent rain.  I imagine bats flying along the ridge could swoop in for a quick drink.  

We made it all the way over the ridge, through the valley, and back up the other side!  I took this photo from the natural arch that we could see during our lunch break.  See those rocks?  That's where we were sitting and where we saw the puddles!  How cool that we can travel so far through that forest on a narrow foot path.   

We stopped under the arch carved in the sandstone by the wind and erosion, and planned our trek back to the car.  

Growing in crevices on the shady side of the cliff was this pretty red flower with jagged petals and soft round leaves.  My book says this is round-leaved catchfly (Silene rotundifolia).  

This little flower was growing on the edge of the trail.  I believe it's a species of houstonia, probably Houstonia purpurea, called Venus' pride, since the leaves are broad.  My boots are ready to hike again!

One Chick, and Backdoor Flowers

I have fond memories of visiting with Brandon's mother while we created the perfect chicken haven from bits and pieces we scavenged from the old farm house and out buildings.  My brother gave us the small trailer that the mobile chicken coop is built on, and although it has moved from place to place, it mostly lives in the shade by the tree line.  The mobile coop sometimes gets criticized for it's scrappy appearance, but it safely housed my first flock, guinea keets, several batches of meat birds, and even a turkey!  

It's the perfect place to put a broody hen on her nest of eggs.  

This is the little hen that spent so much time with Rufus the donkey.  She was determined to sit on a clutch of eggs, so I waited until after dark, moved her and seven eggs to the dog crate, and placed it in the mobile coop on the thick bed of old hay and dried droppings from the last time the flock used the coop.  

She was patient for three weeks, and now she has a chick!  Just one, but she seems content to scratch in the bedding and cluck at her tiny chick.  I haven't been able to get very close to the chick yet, but when I told Brandon I thought it seemed like a rooster, he asked "Why, does it act cocky?" Ha!  Here's a link to a short youtube of this hen and her little one searching for tasty bits in the hay - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPFQIujQIhQ 

We've been enjoying the aroma of the milkweed blossoms near the back door.  

The floral aroma is very strong right now, and the insects are loving the nectar.  

We forgive the elderberry shrub for crowding the door because it has such gigantic flower clusters! 

The flowers are very tiny, and have a delicate aroma compared to the powerful milkweed scent.  

The petals are beginning to drop - it won't be long until there are elderberries!

Hiking at Last

We were excited to join friends for a long hike near a small lake in the Danial Boone National Forest on Saturday.   It's been nearly five years (!) since our last big hiking adventure in Peru, so Brandon and I expected sore muscles after our leisurely nine mile trek.  We weren't disappointed either!  Oh, my aching feet!  But, it's time for us to get our hiking muscles and gear back in the groove, so we hope to hit the trails regularly from now until January, when we may meet our next big hiking challenge -   Sheltowee Trace, here we come.      

It's so nice to be in the forest.  It smells good, like dirt and plants in the sun.  There weren't too many other hikers either, and we passed some groups on horseback.  The trees were tall and shaded the trail, which was lined with wildflowers.  

This white flower was most prominent.  My book says it's called American ipecac, or Indian physic (Gillenia stipulata).  It's in the rose family, and the powdered root was used by Native Americans as a laxative.  

I saw butterflies drinking from the flowers.  

We stopped for a snack and shared a rock seat with this little fence lizard (Sceloporus undulatus).  We also alarmed a long shiny black snake, probably a racer (Coluber constrictor), and it slithered across the trail so fast we almost missed it.  I got some trail mementos - tick bites, which itch now.  I have numerous chigger bites from either the hike or some field work for my job, but either way, I am reminded of my time outdoors every time I scratch!  

Ernest and the Bales

Ernest, our recently adopted mini donkey, has very shaggy bangs that shade his eyes.  Unlike Rufus, who is grey with a buff colored nose and belly, Ernest is chocolate brown with long white belly fur and white felt around his eyes and nose.  When he's upside down rolling in the dust, his white belly fur really stands out.  When he asks for pets and scratches, he hangs his head low, like Eeyore, and doesn't understand why I want to raise his chin and kiss his nose.  Ernest usually has a big lump of half chewed hay in his jaw, which feels strange when I pet his face, and can't be good for his teeth.  Why does he do that? 

My horse owning friend is doubtful that Ernest will ever slim down, but Brandon and I think he may have already lost some of his extra padding.  Or maybe we've gotten used to his lumps and don't notice them as much now.  He's nice to pet on his chest and neck because his hair is so lush and his flesh is squishy.  Yesterday, he let me rub herbal fly repellent on his legs without making a fuss, which was not the case with Rufus, who gets suspicious any time I approach his back legs.  

I have four big round hay bales left over from last year, and we just finished putting away the first cutting of square bales from the whole farm.  Whew!  The big field in front of the house produced about sixty-three bales, and the long field on the side of the driveway made another twenty-two.  That's one hundred and twenty bales for the whole farm!  If we can get that many again, later this summer, I should have plenty to last the year. 

You mean we have to do all that work again?!

Although I think he was looking forward to putting the hay making equipment away for a few months, Brandon volunteered to cut and bale some of our good neighbors fields.  He didn't get very far when the pto shaft on the cutter broke, so he's back in the shop trying to solve another frustrating mechanical problem.  He doesn't seem to find it helpful when I suggest we go old school, and get a scythe.  But, Brandon, just imagine the abdominal strength that would come from all that twisting and slashing!  We could have hay plus rock hard abs!  

Its easy for me to make jokes, because I had the easy job of driving the jeep through the field while Brandon walked from bale to bale and loaded them on the wagon.  I did help unload them from the wagon to the hoop barn.  They are heavy and scratchy!  But they smell wonderful!

The hay bales from the front of the farm were much dryer and lighter than our first batch, from the zip line field.  This made us nervous about the moisture content of the first batch, and we found a few bales that were starting to mold and feel warm to the touch.  Hay fires are a real thing, so we un-stacked all the heavy moist bales and set them singly on pallets and boards with space between each bale so they can dry out and hopefully not have enough mass for combustion.  

That hay from the zip line field was really thick grass stems and hairy vetch (Vicia villosa) vines, so it didn't dry very fast.  The hay from the front of the farm was full of yellow field clover (Trifolium campestre).  The yellow field clover dried fast, and made light fluffy bales of fine material.  Both the vetch and the clover are nitrogen fixing plants, so I think they mean good things for soil quality.  Hopefully the mean good things for goat nutrition too.  All the animals think it's very tasty!  Ernest has to stay on his diet, so I'm feeding the donkeys the left over hay from last year, which was cut late, and is stalky and has less nutrition.  Not fair!

Guineas and Gardens

After all these years, I still have two guinea fowl - both males.  They seldom roost with the chickens, and prefer to sleep in the rafters of the barn.  They make funny whistles and squeaks when I disturb them on my way to close the chicken coop and do my nightly animal checks.  They keep an eye on things around the farm, and Wendigo knows to be alert when the guineas sound the alarm.  My parents are currently raising fifteen guinea keets.  I can't wait to hear them all sounding the alarm at the same time - they are going to make such a racket!  

I'm enjoying the herb spiral near the back door this year.  I forced myself to do some weed management, and I think the plants are enjoying a little elbow room.  The milkweed is dominating the spiral, and I counted over twenty stems, all from that single transplant a few years ago.  I was complaining to a friend that the milkweed was taking over the herbs and turning my spiral into a butterfly garden and he reminded me that it has "weed" in its name for a reason!  

But look, the oregano is holding it's own amidst the forest of milkweed stems.  There's also a volunteer black locust tree that I keep cutting off and letting send up new shoots.  I transplanted some dill from the greenhouse to the very tip of the spiral, and it's getting ready to bloom.  Monarchs love the milkweed and swallowtails love the dill.  I should probably rename the herb spiral the butterfly spiral after all.  

Look, Mom, the lemon balm I transplanted from your garden is really taking off!  The mint is doing pretty good too.  Wouldn't it be nice if the whole spiral was perennial plants, and they came back thick enough to choke out the weeds?  

I pulled all the weeds from the row of green beans in the summer garden.  You can hardly see the bean plants, but they are there, just to the left of the row of mustard greens.  It's past time to harvest mustard greens.  I guess I know what I'll be cooking for dinner!  

I planted onion bulbs in two different areas in the garden.  I asked Brandon yesterday if he could remember what animal stall we emptied onto the north side of the garden, because the onions in that area are three times the size of the other onions.  We think it was really thick goat bedding,  Whatever it is, the plants love it!  

The spaghetti squash and zucchini are also in this part of the garden, and they are thick and dark green.  I put tomato cages, on their sides, over the planted seeds to keep the chickens from scratching them up, and now the plants have grown so much I can't get all the cages up without pulling up the plants!  Doh!  

I managed to get a sunburn on the back of my legs and the top of my feet yesterday while I messed around making a garden fence out of tomato cages.  I used some pieces of deck railing that we salvaged from a friend, and sort of wove the cages together and made a big circle, that's open in one spot for access to the center of the circle.  In theory, chickens can not get to the inside of the circle.

I dumped bedding from the chicken coop into the cages, to suppress weeds, and planted about thirty feet of green beans just on the inside of the circle.  My hope is that the beans will climb the wall of cages, and we can pick from outside and inside the circle.  I didn't stake the cages down, so I anticipate the whole thing being knocked over by a wind, or a goat.  I can't say that I wasn't warned, huh?