Homestead Happenings

 

Hey there, and welcome back to Homestead Happenings,

where we share what's going on here in the Piedmont area

of North Carolina.

The first daisy was spied this week, always able to cheer me.

The beds of lettuce continue to produce,

keeping the fridge full of crisp, flavorful greens.

It feels good to be able to share the bounty with others as well.

Several areas have been planted with garlic,

including this grow bag.

In the next 6 weeks or so, it will be harvested and cured

before storing it for the rest of the year.

Garlic is one of the easiest crops to grow in the home garden.

The bed of leeks seems to be sailing along just fine.

We finally got a good dowsing yesterday,

but before that, rain was very scarce.

No doubt all of the beds will be happy to keep growing now.

This is the most success I've ever had with growing onions.

The bed was filled with Walla Walla onion starts from

Sow True Seed in Asheville,

one of my favorite seed companies.

I'm looking forward to a bumper crop!

I purchased some starts from Piedmont Farmstead,

a local farm which supplies me with greens and other goodies

when my garden is less productive.

Just look at this mouth-watering head of lettuce.

There are still seeds going into the ground,

or container, as the case may be.

These are pigeon peas, a staple of the Carribean diet,

and I told sister I'd try to grow her some this year.

The first step was sprouting in a damp paper towel,

then planted into a pot to grow on.

I'd love to be able to give her a little taste of home.

Here are the soil block trays 2 weeks after sowing.

They did well and had to be watered regularly,

as our precipitation has been absent.

We have a combination of flowers and veg that will be

ready to be planted into the Birdie beds this weekend.

The beans and loofah can't wait for more space!

The continuing temperate weather has allowed

all sorts of perennials to pop back up

and fill our flower beds with lovely blooms.

The mailbox bed hosts thyme, yarrow, sedum,

guara, irises and baptisia.

The pink yarrow is such a treat.

Most of our beds house the white variety,

so it's always so fun to see this beautiful color

displayed among the greenery.

I recently read that yarrow is a medicinal plant,

and makes a wonderful tea.

The pollinator bed is awash in color.

The rue has certainly been a showstopper,

with a bright yellow addition to the bed.

Rue is one of the host plants for the

black swallowtail butterfly,

so we'll be looking for caterpillars soon.

The babies are gone!

The tufted titmouse babies have fledged.

It took only a few weeks before they were ready

to leave the nest.

The parents did an amazing job feeding

six hungry mouths.

The fresh milled flour voyage continues,

and I could never imagine going back to gluten-free eating.

What a wonderful discovery this was,

and I am encouraging everyone I know who has health issues related to digestion

to give it a go.

It's a great gift to me to be able to share this healing bread with others.

For all the mommas out there,

enjoy your special day this Sunday!

"Motherhood:  All love begins and ends there."

~Robert Browning

Homestead Happenings

Well, hello there!

Welcome back to Homestead Happenings,

where we share what's going on here on our Piedmont property.

New life abounds, with the latest family of bluebirds

taking shelter in one of our birdhouses.

These parents are no doubt getting very little sleep,

having six mouths to feed!
 

The lettuce beds are feeding me well these days,

with more being sown this week for a continued harvest.

Watering has been a ritual every few days,

as we are in an extreme drought situation.

This weekend we should see some much needed precipitation.

The kale and lettuce make up my daily

(sometimes twice daily) salads.

There is nothing quite as satisfying

as creating a meal using food you've grown.

The fresh flavor is like nothing else.

The outer leaves are picked so that the

heart of the leaves continue to grow,

creating a cut-and-come again salad bar.

Of course, some of the bounty is shared with our chooks.

They love greens of any kind!

I noticed flowers on the elderberry this week.

This year will be the first time I attempt to

make syrup, which many folks swear

has medicinal properties.

The chooks can also be found hopping up

to reach the berries for a midday snack.

There are blueberries forming on our plants!

I had all but given up on these bushes,

and had planned to replace them,

but lo and behold, they came back to life!

Another treat I hope to enjoy before the 

chooks and squirrels help themselves!

With one bed of potatoes growing quite vigorously,

a second bed was started.

(The netting is to deter critters from digging in the bed.)

This variety is Kennebec,

which I've never grown before.

You can find out more about them here.

All crops were fertilized yesterday.

Fish emulsion is applied by hand

using 2 Tablespoons per gallon of water.

A five-gallon bucket allows me to mix up

all that is needed.

New seeds were sown using the soil block method.

If you ever played with mud pies when you were young,

you'd love this technique!

Conventionally, soilless potting mix is used to start seeds,

but I only had standard potting mix.

Perlite and vermiculite were added for better drainage.

Sufficient moisture is key here,

in order for the blocks to stay together once discharged from the mold.

It was surprising to find how easy it was to get the balance right!

Both crops and flowers were sown, labeled,

and watered in before placing in a safe space

away from curious critters.

It was so much fun that more blocks will be created later today.

After all, how can one pass up the opportunity to feel like a kid again?

So much of the garden is filling in,

and it does my heart good to see that the effort

I've put forth in the past few years 

is paying off.

It's so centering to sit out here with the chooks roaming,

reading a good book or simply enjoying

the wonder of the nature around me.

What a blessing.

This baptisia is one of my favorite sights in the front flower bed.

It's taken 3 years to bloom, but so worth the wait.

The magic of perennials never ceases to amaze me.

This clematis, which resides on the north side of the garden,

was also slow in getting established.

I look forward to seeing it bloom every year,

and am grateful when it surprises me

by being one of the first pops of color in the garden.

Along with winter sowing and soil blocks,

I thought I would try my hand at sprouting some seeds indoors.

Simply using a damp paper towel,

these fresh seeds from Sow True in Asheville,

didn't disappoint after just a few days.

I never tire of the magic of seeds.

Our new babies are two weeks old,

and growing like nobody's business!

They have already figured out how to hop up on 

the warming tray.

They are so much fun, and as you may be able to tell,

they are non-stop!

They all look lively and well,

and we are handling them every day.

Our older gals are enjoying their foraging time,

with plenty of grass, clover and bugs to savor.

I'm so grateful to have these souls in my life.

Life is just better with chickens.

I'd love to hear how spring is treating you!

Pearl Fryar

 Mr. Pearl,

Thank you for the beauty and peace you created on this Earth.

God's Speed, Sir.

photos courtesy of the website,

which can be found 

here.

Homestead Happenings

 

Welcome to Homestead Happenings,

where spring has taken hold!

One of the first signs of the warmer season

is these lovely dandelions that pepper the lawn.

We leave them be, as we know how beneficial

they are to our pollinator friends.

The color is making its way across the flower beds,

with pops of chartreuse breaking up the greens and blues.

It's wonderful to see how much the beds have filled in,

leaving less area for me to have to apply woodchips as mulch.

Densely planting discourages weeds from taking over.

The columbines seen here have really taken off

this year.  A few will most likely be moved within the same space,

just to fill in where nothing is growing.

They also add a bit of vertical interest to the garden.

They remind me of a fountain!

The pink dogwood in the front yard

is one of my absolute favorite trees on the property.

Each spring, I look forward to their splendor.

We have a white dogwood in the wooded area

on the east side of the yard.

What treasures!

The ajuga, phlox and irises are all 

strutting their stuff in various shades

of purple.

These return every spring and in fact,

spread to fill our beds even more.

Great plants to divide or share with another gardener.

We've been seeing butterflies for the past

three weeks or so.

This milkweed springs up every year

in our front porch bed.

It will be ready to greet (and feed)

the monarch caterpillars in the summertime.

The veggie garden is humming along,

with onions, leeks, garlic,

potatoes, kale and lettuce growing.

This leaf was recently found on our Yukon potatoes,

although just this one leaf was affected.

It looks a bit menacing, so out it came.

All of the chooks are enjoying the spring weather.

Once or twice a day, they are out foraging

for bugs and other treats they find in the grass or under leaves.

We will be picking up our chicks later today,

so I hope to have pictures in the next post.

This is the breed we hope to get.

They are blue-laced golden Wyandottes,

and I've been pining for the Wyandotte breed 

for a couple of years now.

Photo courtesy of BackyardChickens.com

The fresh-milled flour journey continues.

This past week I tried my hand at making Morning Glory Muffins.

In college, these kept me alive.

I was absolutely mad for them, and with good reason.

They are filled with pineapple, apple, walnuts, carrots and 

other goodies and they tasted like absolute heaven.

A recipe using FMF could not be found,

so I winged it.

They weren't what I remember,

so I will have to tweak the recipe,

maybe add some zucchini to give them more moisture.

I'll let you know if I come up with something tasty!

Last time,

I told you about a minor project 

in the room adjoining our kitchen.

Did you guess what it is?

This house has no pantry, and I've tried to work around

that for the almost nine years that we've been here.

I bought this little cabinet (on the left),

to help with storing bowls, jars and things,

and used a couple of upper cabinets next to the stove to store food.

I gave it a year, but still wasn't happy with the arrangement.

Big K and C put in these two IKEA cabinets

and while we are still getting used to the new location of items,

it seems like a good use of the wall space.

I think it'll work out just fine.

I'm thinking of covering the glass with fabric or frosted paint.

So grateful to have handy men in the house.

The sprouting has begun!

I've been wanting to get back in the habit of 

growing sprouts in the kitchen window.

They are one of the more nutritious foods

to add to your diet.

They really take tacos and sandwiches up a notch.

So easy to grow in a mason jar with a sprouting lid.

Even if you're still dealing with winter,

you can bring a bit of spring to your homestead!

ajuga

Thank you for stopping by for a visit today.

I'm sending peace and good wishes your way.

Do look after yourself.

Homestead Happenings

 

Well, it's finally happened!

Spring made Her way to our region.

We are still having a few cooler mornings,

but overall, I'd say She's here to stay!

Here's what's been happening on our Piedmont homestead.

All the leeks have been planted in one of our

Birdie raised beds.

There are still a few ready to be harvested 

that were planted in the fall.

They make fantastic soup!

The Walla Walla onions have been planted

in an adjoining bed.

I've never had too much success with growing onions,

but I'm not giving up yet!

We use onions often when cooking,

and this variety is supposed to store well.

It may be hard to see here,

but this is one of two lettuce beds.

By the time it was watered three or four times,

I noticed that some of the seedlings had already been eaten.

The most likely suspects are the pill bugs.

They have been difficult to deter,

so we'll see what we end up with.

Not to worry, there are backups in the winter sowing containers.

We have more lettuce, kale and other goodies

waiting for their turn at planting.

The new strawberries have been added to this round bed.

I've never tried growing them on a teepee,

but it was something I wanted to try.

Now I need to devise a plan to keep the squirrels away.

One decent-looking blueberry bush is leafing out.

There seems to be another next to it,

but I didn't think blueberries could self-propagate.

Any thoughts on that?

In any case, I plan to dig up the smaller plant,

and give it a different spot in which to grow.

Blueberries have turned out to be

one of my favorite fruits!

Color is slowly coming to the flowerbeds.

This vibrant phlox is not only gorgeous to look at,

but the chooks find the flowers irresistable!

I hope they leave some blooms for us to enjoy.

It's wonderful to have this pop of color from the tulips

out in the otherwise rather dreary butterfly bed.

Soon enough, its neighbors will wake up

and fill the space with brilliant blossoms.

Daffodils always seem so cheery,

especially in the early days of spring,

when cold snaps can still wreak havoc!

The way I deal with weeds/grass coming up in the garden,

is to throw some plain cardboard on top of the area,

and follow up with a layer of woodchips.

Works like a charm and no chemicals needed!

Some time was taken yesterday to sift through our 

yard waste compost pile.

We fork or shovel the material and sift it through a sieve

over a cart.

The larger debris is added to a separate pile to use

around flower beds or other areas of the yard.

The final product is easy to clump in one's hand,

just the texture I am looking for.

With half of the compost pile sifted,

I had five 5-gallon buckets of compost

to use on anything and everything I plant.

I'm hoping to be able to complete this task soon.

In the next post,

I hope to show you the redo of this area

just off of the kitchen.

It's quite a change,

but will make my life so much easier.

I'm so happy to report that all 5 of our girls

are doing well.

Even Henrietta, who had to join the Olive Eggers

after she lost both of her coop mates.

It seems that everyone is doing well with the transition.

Our new chicks should be here in a couple of weeks,

and I will introduce them next time.

Until then, look after yourselves.