Native Garden Angel .................................................

There was a beautiful sunrise yesterday , I love seeing the colors behind the silhouetted trees.

My friend Judie ask what was hanging in the tree near the garden when I posted the pics of Little Froggy and Mojo in my last post. So here she is , it's my garden angel. I originally hung her there to help scare the deer off , but now she just keeps watch over the garden. She's no longer a threat to the deer after being there so long unless I add perfume or cologne to her dress.

Blessings

JoyceAnn

2011 ~ 2012 Garlic Planting

A couple of months ago as I was preparing to plant the garlic .....

I had a new helper , Mojo ( more of a supervisor .... look at those eyes ... LOL ) that took over Ms. Fern's job. Ms . Fern was the rhode island red hen I lost back in the Spring that was always by my side the past two years as I separated the bulbs into cloves to plant.



I planted 2 rows about the middle of November , but it was the week before Christmas that we mulched the garlic.

The weather has been mild , so it's about 2 inches tall and already popping out from under the deep layer of leaves we used as mulch. It was cold the first 3 days of this week , but it's been in the 60's yesterday and today. This weather makes me want to get in the garden , maybe I'll start planning the Spring garden instead.

Happy Gardening

JoyceAnn

Rainy Independence Day ..................................

But , I was thrilled. I enjoyed the rain much more than I would have enjoyed fireworks. It's been so hot and dry here , the little rain we have received over the last few weeks hasn't helped the garden much.

It's been so hot and dry , I haven't spent much time in the garden lately , we did get 3 cucumbers before ...............................

something ate the leaves off the vine.

We've gotten a few squash , but the vines have almost dried up even though I've been watering them each day.

This tomato vine was full of tomatoes , but something ate them also. I've been slack this year and didn't put a scarecrow out. I guess I need to make one this week and put her to work. It's been a bad gardening year for us , we planted the summer crops late and it got so hot and dry that the plants haven't grown the way they should have. I hope the rain we received yesterday will revive most of the plants , but it may have been a little to late.

Hope you had a Great 4th !!

~ Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

2011 Garlic Harvest ...............

We planted the garlic back in Oct. 2010 , by Mar it had sprouted and was around 6 inches tall.


We harvested the garlic the end of May .........

It's been curing for 2 weeks now , a few more weeks and it'll be ready clean , braid and hopefully sell some at our local " Grower's Market.

If we do well with sales at the " Grower's Market " , we plan to expand our garlic production this year.

~ Green Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

Battling Cabbage Worms ............................

Farm Friend Friday ~ http://www.verdefarm.com/

I've been battling those dreaded cabbage worms this week. I handpicked all that I could find , dropped them in a plastic container with a little water then feed them to the chickens when I was finished. It brought back memories of helping on my Grand Daddy's farm , he raised tobacco and looking back I guess he did it organically. Each summer he would give each of the grands an old recycled tin can , our job was to pick the tobacco worms aka horn worms off the tobacco plants. We would go up and down the rows grabbing those worms and throwing them in the can. When we were finished , he had us pour them out on the ground , he would inspect them. He paid us a penny for the small worms and a nickel for the large worms ( LOL ). Yep , that's why we were so eager to help gather worms. It was fun and put a jingle in our pockets. I realize now that Grand Daddy was also teaching us a wonderful lesson in life , he taught us good work ethic and organic gardening before it was hip ( LOL ).

But , I have became a little lazier in my old age , so I make an organic dust to help with the problem now. I put about 2 cups of all purpose flour , some garlic powder and ground red pepper into a plastic coffee can. Shake it well to mix , punch a few holes in the top and sprinkle it on the plants. It works fairly well , but I've still had to handpick a few worms , but that's o.k. , cause I'm not afraid of no worm (LOL).

~ Farm Friend Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

~ First Garden Harvest ~

I gathered our 1st garden harvest yesterday , 4 beautiful little radishes (LOL). Ms. Lame Lucy the guinea also laid her 1st egg of the season yesterday. The hens have been laying well , considering they're 2 years old now. I was planning to put the older hens in the freezer soon , but I've decided to wait. But I will be getting some new chicks soon. The leaf lettuce is also ready to harvest , looking forward to a homegrown tossed salad. What are you harvesting ?

~ Garden Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

It Works ...............................

Monday after I dropped my camera in a bucket of water , I brought it back in the house , took the batteries out and placed it front of a fan for the day. Yesterday we had a cool day and the heat was running , so I sit the camera on the heat vent and left it there all day and overnight. This morning I decided I was going to give it a try , really wasn't expecting much , since I thought it was ruined. But it actually worked ( yay ) , so I went outside and started snapping pictures. I weeded around the daylilies yesterday , they're growing fast.

We got some much needed rain Monday night , the garlic looks like it has grown an inch since then. The plants and seeds should thrive now.

The chickens aren't so happy , they've been confined to the fenced in area now that I have plants in the garden. Their egg production has really picked up over the last 2 weeks , gathered 7 eggs today.

The lettuce has sprouted ............................

and look at the strawberry plants I bought last week from a local lady that had an ad on craigslist. I need to get them planted soon.

and yes ......... we're still waiting (LOL).

~ Many Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

Monday , Monday ...................................

I had a rough start this morning as I was toting water to the goats. I dropped my camera in the water bucket , yikes. So no new pics today , had to dig through some old ones.

The pic above was taken a few years ago as we were planting potatoes. We planted potatoes this past Saturday , Dh and I planted 3 rows and we still have potatoes to plant , we'll probably plant them sometime this week or we may wait to Saturday. I also have 8 more broccoli plants I plan to set out today. The weather has been nice , we're suppose to have stormy weather tonight. I sure hope we get rain , we really need some.

I thought Jo was getting ready to go into labor Saturday , but it was a no go. I'm still watching them closely , I'm sure it can't be much longer before they kid.

How was your Monday ?

~ Many Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

Busy Week In the Garden ...............................................

I've been busy this week getting some of the cold weather crops planted. It felt great to get outside and dig in the dirt ...............

I planted broccoli , cabbage and cauliflower plants and sowed carrot , lettuce , radish and spinach seeds.


I sowed a mixed leaf lettuce in this small bed ......

and a kale , mustard and turnip green mix in the large bed. I'm looking forward to all the fresh greens we'll be harvesting soon.

What have you been up to this week ?

~ Green Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

We went to a Garden Party ...................................

Nana took us for a hike Sunday evening , the woodland floor was covered

with yummy yellow leaves.

The ferns were lush and green , but not very tasty.


We did a little climbing and jumping as we were trying to get down to the creek.


The creek was mostly dry , but made for an interesting trail.


We did find a small hole of water , it didn't look to refreshing though.

When we got back from our hike , the chickens and guineas were having a garden party.

We decided to crash the party , the guinea weren't
to happy with us , they started to leave ................

but the buggy appetizers changed their minds.

The chickens enjoyed a dust bathe in the sun.

I found a low hanging limb along the edge of the garden , those sweet gum leaves tasted um , um ........ good !

There was a sweet gum ball hanging from the branch , I tried to knock it off with my horns. Nana said it look like I was trying to bust a pinata , whatever that is. Sorry the picture is blurry , I was moving around to much.

It was a fun day , hope there's another party soon !

~ Garden Blessings ~

Jazz , Jo and Goatee

Potatoes & Tomatoes

Well , the end of the summer garden is upon us. We've been busy harvesting the last veggies. I made another batch of spaghetti sauce over the weekend. I found another spaghetti recipe and decided to give it a try , you can check it out here if you're interested ~ http://thechickenkeepers.blogspot.com/2010/09/pizza-spaghetti-or-lasagna-sauce-for.html ~. I had one jar that didn't seal when I canned them , so we had spaghetti last night for supper , this sauce is delicious.

Dh and I dug the first 2 rows of red potatoes Monday , they look very good considering the rain we've had. We still have 2 more rows to dig , so it looks like there will be plenty of potatoes to feed our family this winter.


I love finding the funny shaped potatoes , this one looks like a hippopotamus to me (LOL). I also found a muddy guinea egg in that wheelbarrow of potatoes. I'm thankful it didn't bust , because I'm sure it was rotten.


I graded the potatoes , they are drying out , tomorrow I'll store them. We have several potatoes that will need to be canned , due to bad spots or plow hits.

We have a root cellar of sorts under the back porch , today I raked and cleaned out from under there. There were a few potatoes from last year that had went bad that were still in the cellar. They were dried up , but several had sprouted and tried to grow a few new potatoes before they died. I gathered those up too , I see no reason to waste them , they'll be delicious cooked atop some green beans. I left the door open to let the root cellar air out a bit and the hens decided they would check it out :o)

These are the volunteer potatoes that came from under the porch. They're small , but still edible.

So , how's your week going ?

~ Harvest Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

It's been busy around the Farmette ...................................

over the last week. I've been cleaning and getting the garlic ready to store. I've also been deciding which heads I'll keep for seed to plant next month.

Hubby and I spent all day last Thursday getting a separate pen set up for the little buck , we thought the small dog lot would hold him until we got ready to introduce him to Jazz and Jo. But he almost beat us to the house that night (LOL). So we had to put him in the lot with the girls , hoping they don't make babies to soon.


We had several small boards leftover from the shelving we built the goat shed from , but they had lots of nails in them. So I spent several mornings pulling nails out of those boards. I'm planning to cut them in half and re purpose them for tomato stakes next year. Some are starting to rot , we'll burn those this winter , they'll be great to use as kindling.



The broody guinea is still on her nest in the coop , but the date for the eggs hatching was the 3rd ................................................

all the guineas gathered in the coop on that date , but they didn't hatch.

I'm giving her an extra week on the eggs , but I don't think they're going to hatch. So if they haven't hatched by Thursday , I'll toss the eggs out and block her out of the nest. The other guinea is still sitting on her nest , but I'm not sure on her date for the hatching of her eggs. It should be this week or next , we're hoping they'll hatch and we can get to the keets before a predator does.

The garden has almost dried up , it's been so hot and we haven't had rain in about a month. We're still getting a few small tomatoes and peppers.

I let Ms. Crew retire for a few days , but I decided she might make a good decoy around the chicken coop. So now , she's keeping a watch over the chickens , goats and the other broody guinea.

That's what I've been up to over the last week.

What have you been up to ?

~ Many Blessings ~

JoyceAnn