Dormant Sprays for the Homestead Orchard

Posted on 2008-Nov-16 at 10:08

Planning 2009 Garden and Orchard Addition.

Posted on 2008-Nov-10 at 09:53

Sunday & Monday

Posted on 2008-Nov-10 at 09:26

Busy Day Again

Posted on 2008-Aug-31 at 06:39

We got the hay and straw into the barn. What a task with around 1200 pounds. Two huge bales were delivered and we had to break them into thirds so we could use a hand truck.

We also picked around fifty pounds of apples and will make apple sauce and apple sliced tomorrow to store in the pantry.

The Garden

Posted on 2008-Jul-19 at 02:50

The Garden is coming along; I have already harvested lots of beans of which I froze most of them to be used later but keeping the weeds out has really become quite a challenge. I think I am doing better than previous years. When my new breakfast nook is done it will give me more encouragement to keep it looking tidy since it overlooks the garden.. Today I got my first melon which was a Hale's Jumbo Cantaloupe. It smells delicious. It will not be long before I get my first tomatoes. I cannot wait since with the tomato problems we have been mostly doing without tomatoes.

 
I tried a couple of Mexican style recipes that were really simple and relative inexpensive to eat. They are in my Lakenveder Food Blog. One was a taco salad and it was really liked even by the most picky eaters in the family. It took a while to prepare and a bit of juggling of oven proof bowls but was well worth it.

Poona Keera Cucumbers

Posted on 2008-Jun-28 at 06:48

Mulberry

Posted on 2008-Jun-28 at 05:16

Most likely you have heard this nursery rhyme or even sung it a few times one of these rhymes. However, really the mulberry is more actuality a small tree. This year I decide I was going to try making something with the large mulberry on our property so this morning I picked a bunch of them to make some jelly. So they are setting up and will try later. I place most in small jelly jars but put a little aside in the refrigerator to try later.

I used a basic recipe and used sure-jell fruit pectin cooked jelly for the directions. It has not set yet and we shall see. It might become syrup for pancakes. Sometimes jelly can take weeks to jell.

Farmers' Market. Gardens and Seeds

Posted on 2008-Jun-1 at 10:07

The Lawrence Farmers' Market had a wonderful showcase of local meat available in the Lawrence, Kansas area. This is Kansas oldest established and most likely the best Farmers' Market in the state. Chef Hilary Brown did some demonstration of cooking locally produced lean meat. She has a fast food burger place in Lawrence called the Local Burger.


At the Local Burger you can try some burgers and hot dogs made from Buffalo (bison) to pork. This place is a little more expensive than your local fast food places since a burger will set you back $5.50 but you will know where the meat came from.

Victory garden has a page on food miles. Food miles is the distance food travels from its source to your market. Food miles is another calculation of the amount of energy needed to get the food to the market. Buying local and growing your own produce will reduce food miles. Even growing a potted container of tomatoes will reduce the food miles. I have not tried ContainerSeeds.com but they sell only seeds of plants that grow well in containers.


I just discovered a seed company called Harvest Moon that offers an interesting selection of seeds. I have bookmarked the website and will order some seeds later.

If you are looking for any of the Slow Food movement seed source Seed Savers Exchange has a list they offer. I did not grow the Bull Nose Bell Pepper but plan to next year.

Lettuce and other stuff

Posted on 2008-May-24 at 03:47

Garden Methods, Turkeys, and Garden

Posted on 2008-Apr-27 at 06:31

This week I found two websites of interest. One is called Spin Farming (www.spinfarming.com). It is really a marketing website that some urban market farmers set up. The gardening techniques are not of real interest for me since they use 2” wide borders rather than the 18”. I have found I that this smaller row work as prescribed in the Mittleider method works extremely well. What caught my interest were the articles explaining the marketing techniques. The Mittleider web site does go into a little detail on what produce to grow but they seem to be more focus on salad type greens and root crops. I found the radish to be of interest because I would have never of though to use them for the small market farm as a high dollar item. I have decided the possibility of using rutabagas for niche crop after buying some at the grocery store but I have yet to find that out. If I have success with mine for market I will let everyone know.

Asian Pear

Crab Apple

The other website I cam across was a container garden method. It is used to grow vegetables especially plants like tomatoes in very arid conditions were water is scare. The planters are made in a way to proven t evaporation. They must work rather well since they seem to have become very popular with the weed growers. You can buy them pre-made at places such as The Garden Patch^TM Grow Box^TM  but I think they are a bit pricy. There are a number of websites that offer advice to making them yourself .

I have not make one yet but interested in doing so and trying to grow papaya and bananas. These are both fruit I miss eating fresh.

I am trying to use more organic techniques for my vegetables and from the information I have read the floating row cover is a good prevention method. I sure they will work until it get hot. I have tried changing the growing time for my melon and squash for the squash bug but I have never had much good results it seems those things seem be willing to wait for them any time of the year and the chemical I must use is very strong. Many of the growers do not bother growing these crops due to this problem. .

Saturday Gardening and Jelly making

Posted on 2008-Apr-19 at 10:36

It was way to muddy to do any work in the vegetable garden today. I did take some pictures of the garden is in the foreground and the orchard in the background. The fruit trees are now all blooming. It looks so much like spring. Actually the whole day today was very spring like. You just could not ask for any better weather.  I gathered some dandelions today to make some jelly. It is actually very nice tasting, It tastes like a mild honey.

Garden and other projects

Posted on 2008-Apr-18 at 09:04

My garden is actually coming along very well this year.  I still do not have all the beds completed by have made a lot of progress. I was rather excited on Wednesday to discover that my lettuce has germinated and is growing. I noticed the chard, turnips and other cool season is starting to grow. I have many of the melons and other plants I started inside in the cold frame since the weather has gotten much warmer in recent weeks.

 
I plant to keep planting some more vegetables and flowers inside.

Review of this week

Posted on 2008-Apr-6 at 08:53

I actually feel like I got quite a bit done this week. I received my order of chicks and got them all squared away.  It was a surprise to receive a call from the post office that they were in, the company did not email as I had asked and I was not totally prepared for them. It was 6 am and I was in the shower when I was told we just got a call about the birds. The twins were quickly hustled out of bet and it was a good thing they were rather cheerful about it. They came back just as I was leaving and was given the word they all arrived alive. Later that day when I looked at them I was so thrilled. These were the healthiest chicks I have ever received. Thanks Welp Hatchery for the great chicks.

http://www.welphatchery.com/

This weekend we had wonderful weather and I was out in the garden for most of the time. I completed 5 of the vegetable gardens beds and planted all of the cool season vegetables planted. I also got the orchard fertilized and some more daylilies planted. I enjoy daylilies (Hemerocallis) so add new ones each year. The weather man has forecasted a storm coming in so this year I did a good job of getting ahead of the weather.

Some more vegetables were planted inside under the lights. All the melons (Bidwell Casaba, Jubilee watermelon, Charontais, Hales Best Jumbo Watermelon, moon and stars, Kansas and Iroquois) and some squash (Lokota) were planted Saturday. Most of the others are growing except the peppers. Peppers are always so painfully slow to germinate and grow.

For a short time I stopped to enjoy the boom of tulips.

The barred rocks are doing very well and as you can see getting rather big.

The sub floor is almost done in the laundry/mud room. The dryer was moved inside there and is now working so much better. The clothes are actually getting dry sooner than hours later. Yahoo!!

Seed Starting

Posted on 2008-Mar-31 at 07:57

Saturday

Posted on 2008-Mar-29 at 07:01

First Garden row

Posted on 2008-Mar-27 at 07:50

It has finally seemed warm enough to begin the planting for his years produce. I got the potatoes in yesterday. It was easier that I thought it would be to mix up the pre-plant and fertilizer according to the directions. So I planted and watered then gently and hope for the best. I hope I am able to keep up with the weeding this year. The weather dropped again today and I hope it does not end up snowing again. It is almost the end of March and still seems like winter is still here.

I did get the first flowers of the year. The crocus booms looked wonderful when having to deal with such dreary weather. The tulip plants around 7 inches tall and the daylilies are not that far behind. They are all looking good so far this year.

I have not receive my order of chicks but look forward to getting them to replenish all that was lost last year. I ordered some more Welsummers, Lakenvelders, and Dominiques. I did purchase 7 new barded rocks that are doing very well in the barn.

I have been search for plans for a small goat cart that I can pull with my one wether but have not had luck so far. I am going to look into trying to modify a little wagon maybe later in the summer.

I hope to be able to get out later this week to plant some peas but I will wait and see what the weather looks like this weekend.

Wow Has IT Been That Long

Posted on 2008-Mar-14 at 06:15

Gee! I knew it had been a while since the last time I did a blog here. .Boy, have I been really out to lunch. I have still been maintaining my two other blog.  I am so happy. Spring is almost here and I have already gotten my garden prepared. I am moving it all to one spot near the house to make it easier to maintain. Maybe I will even keep it from getting a jungle of weeds. Last year I had disappointment in both by garden and orchard due to a late freeze. That is Mother Nature for you.

 So what has happen since last June other than the garden move?  Well I did move my herb garden. Next to the regular garden and near the deck we are going to build and near were the new breakfast nook will be when it is finished. We have it up and it needs so far the wiring, plumbing and all the other finishing stuff. Hopefully, that will be nice to grab some herbs for cooking and grilling.

 
I have rotor tilled most of the garden and was hoping to plant the potatoes this weekend. It started raining today and got cooler again so I may have to hold off.  I did get the potatoes cut and ready? I am again this year going to use the Mittleider Method Blog again. Last year I trying some of the method, mainly the watering technique, and was rather impressed with the results and plan to use the fertilizer method.

Spring Produce

Posted on 2007-Jun-16 at 10:09

Weekend Trip to Kansas City

Posted on 2007-Jun-10 at 04:05

The Chateau AvalonTahitan Tree hOuse

BBQ

Posted on 2007-May-28 at 08:11