Mothers Day Gift

My Mothers day gift from my sweet daughter, Lauren. A metal sign for the farm. Hung in front of the barn.

Simple sweet!

Blessing the Bugs Even in Death

We made a decision to immediately kill the "bad bugs" this year in our garden. We waited till it was too late last season. It was more of a live and let live attitude. However, witnessing whole families of squash bugs take over our pumpkins, squash, zucchini and cucumbers was a sight to behold. Pillbugs or as I have fondly called them in the past, roly-polys, were a huge issue too. Pap and I went round and round passionately debating, discussing the karma entailed in the killings.

What I mean by it was too late is that by the time it became apparent that we were the losers, and would have no more pumpkins or zucchinis, the squash bugs had moved into the garden in overwhelmingly huge numbers! I had seen the eggs last year and seen the bugs, but for the most part ignored them. I suppose I was hoping the lady bugs and praying mantis's would take care of them for me! So being pro-active this year I say Bless you as I send the little fellas into their next life. I am also inspecting the underside of the leaves on all my veggies that are susceptible for their eggs. The squash bugs lay the eggs in a wonderfully uniform pattern most of the time on the underside hidden from view. To remove these I tear off just the part of the leaf they are on. The squash bugs are hand picked off and thrown in a jar of soapy water. So long! Farewell!

Fostering a Love for our Earth

The best things kept simple,
just are. 

Transplanting the Seedlings

This week has been a busy one with Pap and I trying to get our seedlings into the ground. The weather has been pretty nuts with a few frosts all the way into the first week of April. Of course this prevented us from transplanting until the weather warmed up!

Pap did try a new technique in the garden called double dig. There is some controversy surrounding this method, and it is a very intensive physically demanding technique. Basically, it involves removing the top layer of soil to the depth of a spade in a trench format and setting it aside. Then loosening the soil underneath and adding compost, manure and other amendments before adding the soil back to the top layer. Many people say this is just alot of extra work which can be done more simply by tilling or mixing in your soil and amendments to the top layer. The other side of the argument says this technique helps with aeration, drainage, and that more veggies are reaped from this type of bed. So we will see! The area Pap did the double dig is where the corn will go along with squash and beans. Yes, we love to plant using the three Sisters method. This is a companion gardening method where you plant your corn, add a squash or two below the corn ,and then add peas around base of corn. The corn grows, and the peas trellis up and around the corn. 

Here is a picture of the soil bed that Pap did the double dig on. Only a gardener can truly appreciate a picture of only dirt! Right!

We transplanted squash, a few varieties of peppers, eggplant, zucchinis, cucumbers, and planted seeds of marigolds and nasturtiums between some of the beds. These are flowers that help control some of the un-beneficial insects. Apparently, some "bad" insects are repelled by these flowers. Nasturtiums and marigolds also help attract pollinators along with other beneficial insects.

Here are some of our transplants grown from seeds. They were busting at the seams in their little containers, and now stand happy and tall in the ground.

 Happy Gardening!

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Amendments to the Soil in the Garden

Part of the field where we are planting veggies is more clay like than other areas, so we have been amending the soil. Not only have we mixed in good cotton bur compost with better soil, but we have added lava sand and green sand. Both of these products help improve clay soil that gets very hard and compacted. 

This is the first year to spray beneficial nematodes. These are beneficial microbes in the soil that help control grub worms, larvae, fleas and other un-beneficial insects. You can find these online, and we ordered ours through Arbico Organics. Here is my husband Pap spraying them in our garden area.

It has been a cold extremely windy day here in East Texas with forecast of a freeze tonight. So we continue to prepare the beds, sow more seeds in the greenhouse and wait for warmer weather. Come on Spring! We are ready for you!  

 

Waiting for Warmer Temperaures

 It is still cold here in East Texas with temperatures in the 30's. Not the ideal situation for tender young seedlings! So we are patiently waiting for the days to warm up, so we can put them in the ground. In the meantime we have our seedlings all over the house in windows and in the greenhouse. Our kitchen window is a great area for growing seeds. It wraps around a corner so there is alot of sunlight during the day. We have been experimenting with a few other places in the house too. Our bedroom and bathroom windows have been good for growing too. We don't have all the fancy growing lights and heating pads, but have had no problem growing our seeds. Once they are seeded in soil we place them in a baggie or cover with saran wrap to keep the moisture in, and place them in a sunny spot. When they reach an inch or two tall the bags are removed, and they continue to grow. I did transplant our peppers and cucumbers into bigger growing containers this past week-end. They were bursting at the seams and needed more room! Hopefully, they will all be in the ground soon. 

Rocks from Field

The top part of our field sits atop a large conglomerate of big rocks. Last year we did the no-till method of gardening and put mounds of soil on top of grass to plant our vegetables. We did have lots of success, and harvested pumpkins, corn, squash, beans in this same area where Pap has tilled and is now digging up large rocks. Wanting to go bigger in our efforts of farming we made the decision to till this year. As you can see in the pictures, Pap is building rock altars and I must say I love them!

We have many seedlings that are sprouting up in the greenhouse and inside our kitchen windows. They are patiently waiting until the soil warms up to be planted. In the meantime we are preparing the beds, the field and the tilled rows, and uncovering many beautiful rocks. Some of the soil amendments we are using are lava sand, cotton bur compost along with our own homemade compost, horse manure and corn meal. We are also purchasing beneficial nematodes this year with hopes it will control some of the insect problem we had last year. These are beneficial microbes in the soil that help control grub worms, larvae, fleas and other un-beneficial insects. I am sure our dogs will love being less flea bit this year too!

 

Inner peace and carefree effortlessness

Happiness occurs when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in perfect harmony.”  -Ghandi

Praying Mantis in the Garden For Pest Control

Meet my best friend,

Interesting, mysterious, quick footed, comical at times and sure to put a smile on my face. The praying mantis is all of this and more to me. He is one of my best friends in the garden. My alien looking warrior friend that stalks insects and swiftly makes his attack on unsuspecting intruders. Sounds brutal I know, but I have seen firsthand what a large family of squash bugs and other such critters can do to an entire plant overnight.

Pap and I bought two cocoons of praying mantis last year to release into our garden. These can be found at some nurseries or bought online. We found ours at Calloways Nursery in Dallas. Each cocoon has around 150-250 babies in it. We let the cocoons do their thing, and each day I peeked in on them to see if any of them were hatching. When the day arrived it was pretty exciting I have to say! I felt as if I was expectantly awaiting a newborn member of the family except in this case we can say lots of newborn members. Pap and I ran out into the garden with the cocoons hatching and laid them nestled in the vegetable plants.

The praying stance these little fellas do is all about attack mode. While quietly waiting to strike they assume the prayer position with their front legs folded up near their chest. They have a huge appetite and will eat all they can get, and have even been known to eat each other. After they hatched I wondered how often I would see them in the garden, and if they would stick around. I did see our praying mantis's from time to time, and they were always going about their eating ways. As you can see in the first picture near the end of the fall season last year I had one land on me as I was sitting on our back patio. We prayed together and blessed the garden, and then off he flew I suppose to find better tasting food.  

Edible Broccoli Leaves, Who Knew!

I had no idea that pretty much the whole broccoli plant can be eaten until recently. We harvested several crowns of broccoli florets when the plants were at their peak. They have produced several other smaller florets since then, but are for the most part through with production for the season. Before pulling the plants out of their beds I thought I would cook up some of these leaves and see what Pap and I thought about eating them. They were delicious! There are lots of recipes online if you simply google broccoli leaves. Here is what I did with them. After cutting them off the plants, clean with water. Core or cut the inner coarse vein that runs up the middle, then roll up and cut into thin long pieces.

 I chopped up a 1/2 cup white onion and several garlic cloves along with one tiny red chile pepper. Heat skillet, and coat with olive oil. Let onion and garlic simmer on low while stirring for about 10 minutes. Then add your cut up broccoli leaves. Add one cup vegetable stock and turn heat on low. Let simmer for about an hour stirring every once in a while. Of course salt and pepper too! I won't be letting any of my broccoli go to waste from now on. It really was yummy. Next time I am going to make up some cornbread to eat with it!  

This is what our beautiful broccoli looked like at its peak.

"I'm a Farmer, see the dirt under these nails?"

Luckily,  the Spring of 2012 was a real Spring here in our little neck of the woods, and we were excited with the prospect of growing and using our own vegetables.   Last year's garden was a experiment with no-till farming with containers along side in case the conditions became less favorable.  At first the land did better, then the containers, then the land.
This year, 2013, the year of the snake, we will try to utilize what the Good Earth has provided with a wee bit of green manure, compost, sand where needed for the clay and perhaps hedge against the bugs with a few containers.   

We have propagating, green chiles, spinach, chard, lemongrass, lavender, melon, tomatoes, tomatillos.
We have spouted green onions, spinach, chard, spaghetti squash, zucchini squash and romaine; they will go into the ground in a few days or weeks depending... if the rain will stop and allow a drying to the farming areas.
Left over from our fall garden planted prior to Thanksgiving is a few cabbages left, one cauliflower, and various kale and broccoli's that have begun to flower.

Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were prep days or sore days as my body would call them.
Soil worked WAY more than last year, compost added along with green manure and bit of brown from  the horse on the property  "Lil' Man.   He got carrots yesterday and a good head scratching.   Compost tea is sprayed daily to enrich the dirt with beneficial nematodes.

Look's like with the hard work, playing in the dirt, coupled with a little good luck with the bugs both consequentially and inconsequentially and we will be putting some great tasting organically grown food once again on our table.

Remember that Dirt under Susan's nails?
I'd like to think that dirt fosters the nutritious eats and all that the good health of harvest entails.

Just One Couples Earnest Desire to Farm

Pap and I started our joint venture into gardening last year. The above pictures are some of the veggies we grew. We discussed starting out small so as not to get too overwhelmed, but that train of thought didn't last long. As soon as we got one bed of seeds growing we found ourselves enthusiastically starting a new bed, and we were up to our ears with veggies in no time at all. I have to say that being newbies at this gardening thing we did plant alot of vegetables thinking if we planted more than enough we might possibly get at least some harvest from the garden. Well, I suppose we have little bit of a green thumb with some of the plants in particular such as the cucumbers and okra! But then again these two were just hardier vegetables in the world of gardening I believe! We were giving away much of the cukes and okra to family and friends! I did try my hand at pickling some of our cukes and plan on trying it again this year with a couple of different varieties. We had great success with our chili peppers, serrano peppers, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. Green onions did well as did our spaghetti squash. We also had a large variety of spinach, lettuce and kales. Small pumpkins and sugar baby watermelons too.

One thing we both strongly agree upon is having a 100% organic garden. It has been interesting making up some of our homemade organic compost teas for the garden and organic insecticides. I have to say that we spent way too much time this last year in the garden hand picking squash bugs and other un-beneficial bugs from our plants. I hope to get better control over the bugs this year! I learned some things this past year about this problem and will be sharing them with you in future posts.

Oh, about that starting out small in the garden thing, well this year Pap and I are tripling what we planted last year! Ha! Thank goodness I love the feel of dirt underneath my nails!  To see more pictures of our garden from last year go here. Garden 2012