What's Happening on Augsburger Farm? May 2012....Just a few pics from the Herb Garden

Bumble Bee working in the fully blooming Chive patch

Bumble Bee detail

Another Chives pic

Walking Onions detail, with Chives in the background

Sweet Pea among the Walking Onions

This last one is not in the herb garden, but in the yard nearby...

Peonies and Columbines

Garden Update

I just thought I would do a little picture garden update.
I really need to get on the ball and do more with the stuff that's out in the garden.

I dub this The Year of the Cucumber, as I have made at least 5 batches of freezer pickles, plenty of Cucumbers and Onions, and have been slicing them and pawning them off to my children as the Snack of the Day . Speaking of which, I need to go out and pick again today and make some more pickles, since cucumbers are getting a bit old these days!

There are also Royal Burgundy Green Beans and Beets(and Beet Greens) calling my name out there. If I cut the Basil back (which I let flower to attract insect--yeah, that's it, lol), I can make more to put in the freezer...and maybe some pesto if I go get some gluten-free pasta one of these days...and a good recipe.

I tried making Gluten-free Zucchini Brownies using my own recipe(and my own not-quite-huge-zucchini)....just came out of the oven, so the jury is still out on that one...but they smell delicious!

Here's my Red Kale...eaten by worms. :-/ If I had the chickens now, they would be feasting on these....I will try planting a new row of this soon...and will pull most of the leaves off of these plants in the effort to give them a second chance at making food for us.  I've heard a lot online about Kale Chips and want to try that at least once this year.

A butterfly on the volunteer Borage among the Red Kale.

This Kale is the plant that overwintered last year....I don't know much about Kale--is it too big to harvest? The worms seem to have left this plant pretty much alone and gone for the younger Kale.

A close-up of the big okra plants. I'm not sure, though, that we will be getting much Okra this year.  The weather is already cooling down substantially and we planted a month later than last year!

The Okra in front of our Sweet Corn (which is hubby's domain) is doing the best--last year there was squash in this area.

One of my little Buttercup Squash, the vines of which have sprawled across the grass. I am scratching my head a bit, as this was supposed to be a bush plant!

There is more out there....like Elderberries for one....and hubby's "other garden" that I haven't looked into yet...

The Main Garden is Planted (Finally)

With the wet spring, the broken tiller, and the unplanned trip to Colorado, our gardening plans have been delayed over a month. We usually aim to have everything in the week of Mother's Day.

Thankfully, the season here is long, and it's not too late!

We spent much of last Saturday prepping the garden and getting the rows/hills made.

Sunday, after Ivy's birthday party



we finished most of the planting in the main garden.

Rows left to right are:
1)Royal Burgundy Bush Beans and Beets, Cucumbers in the hills and Peppers/Basil and a volunteer Tomato(cherry?) and sunflowers
2) Royal Burgundy Bush beans/Bull's Blood Beets and Jacob's Cattle Bush Beans and Beets
3) Peppers/Basil and Forellenschluss Lettuce, Spinach and more lettuce
4) Hills of yellow squash and zucchini, Hills of Butternut Squash,
5-8) Randy's Corn
Box: Cosmos/Borage, far side of box is Dill, near side is Kale
9)Chard-the beautiful multi-colored variety
10) Okra and on the end is hills of Buttercup Squash

Here's the Okra pods saved from last year that I broke open and got the seeds out of to plant this year.


Rescued volunteer marigolds are scattered throughout the garden, and I do want to poke some nasturtium seeds around, and maybe some giant Sunflowers on the back side.


On Monday, I had the kids come out and help me water.

The groundhogs/deer/bunnies have already nipped off some of my peppers and basil. :(

But that "experimental plot" I just HAD to plant a few weeks ago is doing fine (though a bit weedy)! 

Hubby also managed to put a volunteer tomato and a volunteer butternut squash in experimental hanging "pots":


That's all for now!

Thoughts on Coming Home

My grandfather passed away on Sunday night, and as soon as I got the call, I packed like a mad woman and we left for the cross-country trip to Colorado the next morning. The house was left a mess, without my usual before-trip cleaning, with yard sale stuff still strewn about, the contents of the walk-in-size closet stacked on one side of the living room, and just general disarray that I normally try to clean up before leaving so I don't have to come home to it.

So, we came home to a messy house a week later. We were glad to be home after the 24 hour straight-thru drive. I am glad to be able to just BE, and be able to think and reminisce and privately mourn for my grandpa. For the loss of a whole generation on that side of the family. For the unwanted change that is destined to happen at Grandma and Grandpa's House. To only have the memory of that place and those people, and not being able to go back to the place like I have done my entire life.

I am not sure why, or how to explain it, but every time we come home from a Colorado road trip, home just does not feel the same. I feel stuck in some sort of "No Man's Land", neither here nor there, in disequilibrium. Slightly disoriented, and not wanting to have contact with the locals and life here for at least a few days.  Like an egg in a hen's nest, not quite ready to hatch, though it's in the nest alongside the other chicks who are already out there chirping and carrying on.

Part of me wants to hold onto that feeling, strange as it is. That feeling of not wanting to have left what is behind , not wanting to settle into home(quite yet), because that would mean letting go of the other place. Settle. Hmm.



Benjamin Button had this to say of coming home:  “It’s a funny thing about comin’ home. Looks the same, smells the same, feels the same. You’ll realize what’s changed is you.”


So maybe I have changed a bit.

In talking to relatives this last week, I caught myself, for the first time ever, calling Ohio "home". I surprised myself when I did that, because I'd always considered Colorado to be home.  I suppose I have settled (in more ways than one, for now) for Ohio...until or unless the perfect opportunity comes about.

Here's a couple Colorado pics in case you're interested:

Black Canyon

 

Who wants to leave this?

Bee Bliss

Just wanted to share a pic I took the other day as I was chopping down some bushes. I kept this bush, and couldn't resist taking a pic of this bee having a jolly old time in the flowers!

A Mini Farm and Garden Tour

Thought I would introduce you to part of the crew on our homestead, as well as some of our garden plots.

I was out in the herb garden two Wednesdays ago checking out the status of my plants. At that point the chives weren't even coming up. I sighed, bummed that it wasn't Spring YET and started tearing out the old growth and what did I find---Radicchio that had overwintered from my lettuce mix last year! Spring really is here!


Here is a pic of my herb garden. Not much is coming up that is visible on the pic yet. The chives are peeking out of the ground and if I could eat potatoes I would be cutting some of those chives already! Maybe on a salad instead...



I also found a few praying mantis egg sacs that I will leave for this year's natural bug-control. I will NOT bring them into the house. Please see Randy's blog for what happened last year!



Here is Mama Kitty looking cute for her pic:



And here is Sweet Pea out in the old shed taking his sunbath(can you see him?). Both kitties are pretty much banished to outside our living area due to my allergies. I've kept them around though, and rest assured they are fed and cared for and earn their keep on the farm catching varmints!




While I am at it, here is our veggie garden plot. It has yet to be tilled, as our soil is way too wet still. That box is a sort of raised bed that Randy built last year for potatoes. I think I am going to try sweet potatoes in it this year.
To the right and behind the plot is our chicken house and chicken yard. We let them out this time of year, but (try to) keep them within the confines of the fence when our garden is producing, or else we sacrifice a lot of plants and produce!


And here are our current chickens. We thought we had 3 hens and a rooster, but yet again we have more roosters than we need. The roosters are Americaunas, the brown and black is a suspected mix of Americauna and ?(We think she is laying brown eggs instead of the green/blue Americauna eggs, but not sure yet. She is supposed to be Americauna), and the black and white speckled one is a Silver Wyandotte. Last time we had a bunch of Americaunas, we had a rooster that developed months sooner than the other rooster. They hatched at the same time. We were sure we had just one rooster....until the other one started growing spurs and eventually crowing. It makes me wonder whether there is some hormone control or something in the species to allow for a dominant male without all the fighting or something. I will have to research that sometime.

So, our second Americauna "hen"...is a Henry. :)