Mother Nature

If you look closely you will see this strange situation happening.  This sunflower is growing out of a crack in a dead tree by our garden.  It’s amazing how mother nature works!!

We fill a few of our bird feeders with sunflower seeds so a bird must have had a nest in this tree at some point.  But how it started and found it’s way out of a crack into the sunlight is amazing to me.

Wildflowers waking up

I love the wildflower garden in the early morning when all of the flowers are getting a bit of sun, opening up and coming alive!

Rainy Day Gardens

We have had so much rain this season.  It’s not even fun to be outside as the bugs are overwhelming in the early morning and from dusk until late evening.

The gardens cheer me up with their happy little flowers.  This wildflower garden is a bit wild as I can’t get in there to thin it out even when raining as the mosquitoes attack!  I love the pink, orange, purple and yellow all blending together.

Along the garage the red and white impatiens compliment the red and white of our old farmhouse.

The entry way to the house is dotted with color.  However, there is one dark black thing that doesn’t belong.  She insists on cutting through this garden and hits a plant here and there!

In the mini rose garden I truly believe Mary is praying for some dry weather.

And while so many flowers are starting to bloom or in full bloom, others are losing their luster and filling their little sleeves with seeds to fly away in the wind when they are done and start little plants for next spring.

 

Busy time of year

Between school, sports, farm work, gardening, and work, the days are shorter and shorter it seems. I’ve neglected my blog these past few days for sure!

Here is an update on what’s been happening in our world.

The plants we started in the greenhouse in March are all nicely tucked into the ground! Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussel Sprouts, Cabbage, Zucchini, Summer and Butternut Squash, Celery, lettuce, Sweet Corn, Gem Corn, Pumpkins, Gourds, Cucumbers, Peppers, Carrots, Potatoes, and sweet Onions to name a few.

The chickens are busy at work and we are keeping our customers stocked on their farm fresh eggs.

An elderly gentlemen who has come to get manure for his gardens from us for the past few years brought some apples as a gift for the man of the house helping him load his buckets and get them in his garden.  He is too weak now but finds the strength to garden!  These apples are a true gift especially to the boy of the house who informed me a few weeks ago we only had 2 containers of our homemade applesauce left.  I told him it was not apple season yet and I would pick up a jar at the store if we needed it.  His response was priceless “you can BUY that??”.

A game of “Goat Army” was played.  Hard to get those goats to fall in line!

This is the last time the “tween queen” will cut the grass as a “tween”.  She will celebrate her 13th birthday on Monday.

A beautiful walk around the Buffalo, NY waterfront while the boy was at his hockey practice.  It was great to sneak out for a 45 minute walk!  I’ll post more about that at another time with a few more pictures to share!

And tonight we ended the long work day with a great bonfire!

Back to work tomorrow making crockpot applesauce, seeding some pastures, a memorial service for a friend’s father, and a soccer game for the boy!

How do your gardens grow….

I had quite a few plants getting to big for the greenhouse and ready to plant.  I started with the gem corn and pumpkins in the ground in the first picture as well as a row of marigolds right along the fence line. **If you don’t know what Gem Corn is, you can read about how I received mine here:  Gem Corn.

The containers are holding peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, and the yellow bin has our carrots.  I like using a longer, tall bin as I mix sand in with the soil which produces longer carrots.  This is how they looked last year:

I then put in the peppers, cabbage and brussel sprouts and the sweet corn in the distance.  In between the corn plants are green beans as they are a good companion plant to grow with the corn.

And in the second garden bed the lettuce is well underway along with kale, radish seeds and the second planting of romaine seeds.  The grape vines are starting to grow in the background.

Staggering your plantings will keep your plates plentiful with fresh veggies all season long and also into the winter months if you store them correctly.  You will not have all your lettuce ready to harvest at once as well as beans, peas, tomatoes, celery, etc.  It’s a little more work but worth it!!

Let the busy season begin 🙂

Gem Corn

I have been following a wonderful blog since I first started my own blog.  Jane’s blog:  My Food and Flowers  is full of beautiful pictures of every type of flower and plant that you can imagine.  Not only does she share her talent and love of landscaping, but she shares her advice and information on how to grow most of the plants she features. I can’t begin to tell you how much I have learned from her blog.

Recently she asked me if I would like to receive some of her Gem Corn to plant here.  I could barely type the word YES because it was such a generous offer that I almost felt not worthy of trying to grow these plants.  If you do not know the history of Gem Corn, you can find it here:  GEM CORN.

As you can see from the article, the offer to share her bit of heirloom seeds is truly a special gift.

The envelope arrived and inside was this beautiful handmade card containing the seeds.  True to form she included a bit of information about these special seeds.

They are colorful just by themselves and grow into the most beautiful ears of corn.

Tonight we planted them and they are settled in the indoor greenhouse to hopefully begin their sprouting process.  If I am lucky, these beautiful seeds will offer a new heirloom seed to my collection, and I can only hope to be able to share them with some of my special gardening friends.

Take the time to stop by Jane’s blog.  You will be hooked just as I am!

Thank you Jane (My Food and Flowers),  we will do our best to carry on the Gem Corn legacy you have started with your seeds!

Last Harvest of 2014

Yesterday was the official closing of our 2014 vegetable garden.  This is the latest that I can ever remember harvesting.  We have had some cold days here and there and a few inches of snow on and off but the cold weather vegetables (brussel sprouts, cabbage, broccoli), have continued to grow and ripen.  We are due for some snow and the sun is not making many appearances so I finally gave in and pulled the last of the “goods”.

I had 6 brussel sprout plants full of baby size brussel sprouts which is exactly how we like them!  The greens have all been washed and are stored to feed the bunnies, goats and chickens over the next few weeks.

The last broccoli bunch is blanched and frozen and the cabbage is stored with the potatoes in the back door of the cellar to keep it cold and fresh.

It seems like just yesterday I was sharing with you how we prepared the garden this spring…Preparing the Gardens

Fall Gardening

Certain items do so well in the fall.  The temps here are around 55 – 65 during the day and 39-45 at  night.

Right now our Celery is thriving.  I have 6 bunches growing and they are all perfect just like the one above.

Brussel Sprouts are another fall item here.  They take a looong time to produce and ours are starting to produce finally now.  I have 12 plants and they all have nice little “babies” forming.  We harvest them on the small side as we prefer them that way when we cook them.  These plants have about another 10 – 12 days before we will harvest.

These little hardy Cherry Tomatoes are still hanging in there.  They are a great snack at night or for lunch!!

And it’s nice to be greeted by the zinnia still in bloom when entering the garden!!

Garden Whimsy

I think a garden/landscaping looks homey and fun with a few whimsical items placed all around.

I should have posted these pictures when my gardens were in full bloom as I am now collecting these to store them away for the winter.

I love these little wooden clogs I picked up at our church rummage sale for $2.00.  They add a festive flare to a door we rarely use.

And apparently the tween likes them also as she seems to have them on her feet quite often throughout the summer.

This little boy and girl were a gift from my mother and her friend.  He welcomes all our visitors near our main door.  His cute sister sits proudly on her snail watching over the front of the house and the birds that visit the feeder near her.

This crazy horse planter features pretty impatients and has a wagging tail that blows in the wind

This knight is a happy guard by the front door to watch who enters his kingdom

Just across the walkway on the other side of the front porch momma hen and her chicks feel safe with the knight so close by

The little strawberry pitcher is usually spilling forth a hanging vine but it has since died and the pitcher will now take it’s place nestled in the garage for the winter along with our sweet lamb and her mums!!

 

 

Potatoes (Container Gardening)

Container gardening is becoming more popular especially for people who do not have large areas for gardens.  This year I planted potatoes in containers as well as lettuce, peppers, and carrots.

We planted red potatoes, fingerlings (smaller size potato) and russet (medium to larger size great for baking).

We harvested the containers last night.  We had about 22 lbs of wonderful potatoes.  That sounds like a good harvest but usually when we plant in the ground we will harvest about 30+ pounds.   Either way, the potatoes look great and are now washed, layered in newspaper in a basket and stored in the cool basement.

Here is our potato project from May 9, 2014 through Sept. 9, 2014