Garden Helpers

Besides my two sweet girlies and occasionaly Homestead Man, I have some other garden helpers I employ. Bunnies are fantastic for lightening fast composting! We give veggie peelings, roots, grass clippings, carrot tops, etc. to our bunnies and voila...by the end of the day (it seems!) there is a pile of fantastic fertilizer just waiting to be added to the garden! Here's our newest worker...we call him Stormy:


Also, if you recall, last summer I purchased two Praying Mantis egg cases online and we hatched them near our garden. It was so much fun to see all those tiny Mantis babies crawling around our garden and they eat all kinds of pesky pests, doncha know!? Anywho...I'd decided that we would order them each summer and had already searched a few websites looking for a good deal. Then, one day when we were planting peas in the garden I looked up on the pea trellises and saw THIS:


Yep, one of our mantis mamas decided that our humble garden would be a fantastic place for her babies to begin their lives! We are so excited and so flattered! We can't wait to welcome a new batch of mantis babies into our garden this summer!

Of course, our two chickens are some of the greatest garden helpers...but they deserve a post all their own! Stay tuned!

Calling in the good guys...

Our praying mantis order arrived today!!

The eggs were much bigger than I thought they'd be. If you click on this photo, you can read the instructions that came with them.


We took them right outside and found a nice, sheltered bush to wire them into...can you see them?


Here's a close up. I used copper wire to securely attach them to the branches of this bush in filtered sunlight...just as the instructions said. These bushes are right beside our garden, so I'm hoping as they hatch they'll stay near and begin eating aphids and potato bugs!


We'll be keeping a close eye on these and with any luck we'll be able to see some of the babies hatching out of the egg. I'll keep you updated!

Recycled Ollas

So, this year I thought I'd plant a few 2-liter bottles and see what happens...a cola tree perhaps??? LOL! Seriously, we live in Oklahoma...land of crazy weather patterns. Every summer we go through a period of drought that wreaks havoc on the garden...especially larger plants like tomatoes. After much research, I found this information on ollas from one of my favorite blogs, Little Homestead in the City. After reading, ollas seemed like a great solution to my water woes; however, the cost was a bit much for me at $29 each!

Back to researching. I soon found several websites with instructions for recycling pop bottles to create a homemade olla! PERFECT! So, I set out making a few of these little beauties to deliver aqua straight to the thirsty roots of my tomatoes and peppers! We'll see how it goes...my goal is to get bookoos of tomatoes to can my own spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, and ketchup!!

Garden Gathering...

In preparation for the upcoming gardening bonanza, I've been gathering supplies, seeds, onion sets, etc. Here's the progress to date:

16 pounds of assorted seed potatoes (buying more when they get a new shipment)
320 onion sets (overkill?)
a million assorted packages of seed ;-)
soil test kit (I'm gettin' all scientific this year!)
innoculant for legumes (from a local coop)
several varieties of seed proven for our region from the coop

Last, but certainly not least...I always seem to need ties for training cucumber vines, taming tomatoes, etc, but haven't been happy with any previous materials. It seems that garden twine is too rough and scars the plant...also, it has no give when the wind comes sweeping down the plain. My new idea you ask? (Okay, you didn't ask, but I'm telling you anyway.) I found an old pair of tights that my girls had looong since outgrown. After carefully cutting them into strips, I ended up with a bag full of stretchy, soft ties for the garden and a headband (made from the waist) that my oldest likes to wear when she's practicing yoga poses on the Wii! I think these will work perfectly and they didn't cost a penny! :)

Planting Peas & Finding Eggs...Spring is Coming!!

We planted Alaska Peas today in the garden. I've not planted them before, but here's what Victory Seeds has to say about them:

Alaska (Earliest of All)
55 days — This variety was introduced in 1881 in England as 'Earliest of All', by pea breeder Thomas Laxton. A cross of 'Ringleader' and 'Little Gem', it became the parent of many subsequent varieties. First offered in the United States in 1882 by James J. H. Gregory and was in several seed catalogs by 1883. It seems that it was renamed in 1884 by A. B. Cleveland of Cape Vincent, New York and given away as a premium for subscriptions to the periodical The Rural New Yorker. The name stuck.

The plants are twenty four to thirty six inches tall and grow well in cool soils. There are typically five to eight smooth peas in each round pod. Classically used for canning or freezing, also fine fresh or dry (in eighty days) for soups. Not a super sweet variety. Seeds are smooth.

We also got a surprise in the chicken coop today...an egg!! We've been without fresh eggs all winter and seeing an egg in the nesting box was pure bliss! Don't let anyone tell you that fresh, homegrown eggs aren't better than the store ones...my 7-year-old said the store ones were a bit like rubber when scrambled one morning. We're very excited to see that our flock is back in business! It's also a sure sign that spring is on the way!

Ladies and Gentlemen...start your engines!!!

Your tiller engines, that is! With the help of my engine savvy neighbor, WatSourced, I tilled up the garden plot this week! I also wandered into Wal-Mart (on date night, no less) and stumbled upon the newly arrived seeds! We purchased 25 packets of seeds and have laid them out on the coffee table, to the delight of my two muchkins. Yes, I know that big seed companies are bad news to seed saving and I'd prefer to buy from organic, lovely companies and from Seed Savers; however, these seeds were only $1 a packet, which is less than half the price of the seeds I'd put on my favorite catalog list...if $$ were no object, I'd have made a different decision, but alas, $$ does come into play. I will still order some of my seeds and hope to order more from companies I can believe in in future years.

In another note, (and one of the reasons that I had to rein in the homestead related spending) I finally ordered a grain mill!!! Yep, I took the plunge! I can't wait to write about my experiences with milling my own grains fresh for baking and let you know about the Oklahoma businesswoman who supplied my mill!

For now, though, Homestead Man and I are about to load up the kiddos and head to nearby big city to get a pickup load of beautiful, rich compost to top-dress the garden!

Mother's Day...

We added a new berry to the OAH this afternoon! The girls (with the help of their PaPa) got me a huge "Austin Dewberry." It's around 4 1/2 feet tall & already producing, so I'll be exploring uses for Dewberrys in the next few weeks! If any of you have had them, please share recipes and preservation tips!

We've also been harvesting a bowlful of strawberries each day. I've learned that propping the berries up on the leaves helps with the rolly polly problem and keeps them off the wet soil, which has also proved to be detrimental.

Although the onions are not ready for a mass harvest, we are pulling one here and there to use and they are wonderful. I'm contemplating preservation methods for these, so please share if you have tips in this area, too. I plan to dehydrate some for quick additions to soups and stews and also chop some up for freezing. Of course, we'll eat lots of them fresh.

The potatoes are almost ready to harvest as needed. At first, we'll get new potatoes then we'll just dig them up a plant or two at a time. I've found that this is the best way to keep them from spoiling and they just keep growing as they wait for us to harvest.

Tomorrow we'll harvest our peas! This is my first ever successful crop of peas. I learned that I've always planted them WAY too late. I went by the Farmer's Almanac this year for my early plantings and boy has it paid off! The girls have enjoyed some of the peas right off the plants..they are amazingly sweet. I've even more excited that there are lots of new blooms so I know our harvest should continue. How do you preserve peas without a pressure canner? I'm saving $ for one, but they are so pricey. It doesn't help that I don't trust the cheaper ones with the weight...I'd prefer a pressure gauge so I'm sure our canned food is safe.

Blueberry Blooms

Growing blueberries has been a real challenge here in Oklahoma, lemmetellya. I know I've murdered at least 4 plants with my hard-headedness. They like full sun, so I always tried to put them out with full exposure to the glowing orb that seems to light Oklahoma on fire in July.

This year, I have a new strategy! I planted three blueberry bushes in the fall right up next to the west end privacy fence. This will give these little beauties a morning of full sun and shade during the hottest parts of the day. They seem very happy here and are just full of blooms! Let's hope these three plants thrive and we are munching fresh blueberries while we tend the flock and weed the garden...yum yum!

I've also heard that they like acidic soil and that you can make them happy by pouring pickle juice on the surrounding soil when you finish a jar. Seems like a great way to add acid and it's FREE! Love it!

A few of my favorite things...

Check out my chives!! They're just about to bloom!


The onions are doing very well. I dug down a bit to investigate and there aren't any bulbs yet, but the tops look nice and healthy. I'll be snipping some of them to use when cooking beginning this weekend.

Holding pattern...

The weather has me in this frustrating holding pattern. We're expecting 29 degrees tonight and 26 degrees tomorrow night...followed by 85 degree highs on Wednesday. ACK!! Every few days I think..."Today's the day I'll plant the corn, beans, blackeyes, and squash." Then I check the 7 day forecast...and my plan is foiled!! I'm really thinking these next two nights will be the last freezes of the year and I plan to plant some seeds on Thursday.

The chickens keep growing and I've learned that they LOVE ripe bananas! I go out beside the compost pile each day to pull some of the beautiful green grass that grows around its edges (testimony to the power of compost!) and take it to their coop, along with any fruit & veggie scraps we have from a day's cooking and eating. Still working on them coming to me and enjoying my company, but I enjoy theirs! I love to watch them scratch around, fly up to their roost, and climb into the bunny hutch to steal her food. They really are entertaining.

I did end up getting a barred rock chick and she continues to grow inside...under the heat lamp. I'll put her out with her "sisters" when she is big enough to defend herself. She'll top off our flock nicely and maybe be a good 4-H showing hen for the big girl.

Freeze update....

Well, we did get a pretty heavy freeze with a dusting of snow. You want the good news first? The onions, peas, lettuce, spinach, and garlic took it like champs! The strawberries don't even show any sign of frost damage, either.

Now....the bad news, the lovely potato vines all died back to the ground and the fruit trees took a bit of a hit. I understand that the potatoes will be fine..they'll send up new vines and recover nicely...so it's just a matter of waiting. The fruit trees, while they ARE damaged, seem to have only lost some leaves. The blooms had already fallen off, so maybe the fruit will still be fine? Not sure on this one...time will tell. My biggest worry (even though it doesn't give us any food) is my Japanese Maple. It had leaved out and was gorgeous...breathtaking, really...and every leaf is now sadly crumpled and black. Anyone know how Japanese Maples recover from a freeze? /begs for encouraging stories/ I do hope she'll put out new leaves...

Lovin' Springtime!!

I am having THE HARDEST time getting anything accomplished indoors lately. The weather today is supposed to top out in the 90s and there is nothing I'd like to do more than get the west garden ready to plant. I took a stroll through the backyard with the garden hose and saw lots of exciting news to report...here goes:

• The apricot tree is blooming with lovely white blooms.
• The pear tree is showing it's first baby leaves.
• The peaches look like they will bloom any day now.
• The peas are looking great! Lots of tiny plants.
• Garlic looks promising...maybe I didn't plant at the wrong time after all!
• Spinach is sprouting.
• Radishes are sprouting.
• Both the lettuce and mesculin mixes are sprouting their first tiny leaves.
• The onions look great...lots of green tops poking through.
• Still no sign of the potatoes, but I know they'll spring into action soon. (Get it...SPRING...:-)
• The apple trees look like they've put on quite a bit of new growth. Not expecting any apples this year, but it's wonderful to see them progressing.
• And out in the garage...I only had a few tomatoes not sprout, so I have several plants each for five varieties of tomatoes. Now if I can just decide where I'll plant them and what type of supports I'll try out this year.

I'm hoping we can put a load of compost on the west garden this weekend and till it in. It's time to plant cucumbers and pumpkins.

I'll try to take some pictures soon!

Ol' fashioned fun...

Wanna have some laughs? Throw a handful of grub worms in the brooder with four baby chicks! I would have taken some pictures, but we were laughing too hard.

Seriously, I plan to give the chicks some grub worms and other pests as they are available to "train" them to seek out these little buggers. They seemed to really "hit the spot" as the chicks chased each other around playing keep away with the worms. I have one garden bed that is full of grubs, so this will be a good way to eliminate many of them while also influencing my chicks taste buds. I have absolutely no scientific evidence that this theory will work, but it seems like good common sense, doesn't it?

The tomato plants continue to sprout and I've got a nice germination rate on the first seeds I planted. The second bunch still has some time. No sign of the potatoes, onions, or beets in the back bed. /thrumms fingers on table/ It is so hard to wait patiently.

Big things come in small packages...

The first two types of tomatoes that I planted are just beginning to sprout. Aren't seeds amazing little capsules of life?

As you can see, these are planted in our newspaper pots that can be planted directly into the garden soil, lessening the transplant shock on the plant. In addition, the pots will add organic matter to the garden. I had some plastic forks that someone brought to a get together here at our house that I decided to use for plant markers this year.

I had hoped to get the carrots planted in the garden yesterday, but our youngest and I have both been down with the flu, so they'll have to wait. Maybe I can plant them later in the week.

In other news, digging around in the freezer, I came across a frozen package of apples that I put up when they were on sale. We made some delicious apple crisp with them.

OAH chores...

Today:

• Cook the last of the blackeyes from the freezer (the smell of these cooking on the stove is so connected to summer for me...isn't it funny how our sense of smell is so anchored in time periods and emotions?)
• Check on applesauce supply...the girls are going through the applesauce I canned this fall at a record pace. I may have to consider making more next fall.
• Crank out some more newspaper pots
• Start two varieties of tomato plants (Cherokee Purple and Genovese...the rest will be started next week)
• Set up an area in the garage for the new plants near the South window

This weekend:

• Till up two veggie beds, one in the backyard and one in the west yard (outside the fence)
• Pick up a load of compost to topdress both beds and the remaining three raised beds
• Check at Starbucks for "Grounds for the Garden" to add with to the beds with the compost (Maybe also enjoy a Frappuccino with my Starbucks gift card from Christmas?)
• Plant peas and spinach
• Prepare to plant onions, potatoes, and beets (Tuesday)

According to the forecast, we're in for a beautiful weekend followed by a few thunderstorms early next week...perfect for prepping the gardens and getting early stuff in the ground.

On a side note, DH is going trout fishing this afternoon, so perhaps we'll have some fresh fish to eat over the weekend as well!

And more seeds...

Okay...apparently I'm in the mood to buy seeds! Here are the ones I purchased today on Ebay:

Corn, Golden Bantam, Open pollinated, Heirloom
Bean, Blue Lake Pole Beans, Stringless
Zucchini, Black Beauty
THYME,thymus vulgaris
Cucumber seeds, Boston Pickling

I did a little Ebay bartering, OAH style, by selling some stuff I really didn't need to get a bit of PayPal "crazy money" which has funded all this seed craziness.

Seeds...

Here's a list of seeds I've purchased for this year's garden:

Italian Heirloom Constoluto Genovese Tomato
Pearly Pink Cherry Tomato
Green Zebra Tomato
Cherokee Purple Heirloom Tomato
Basil (Italian Napoleatano Bolloso)
Bloomsdale Longstanding Spinach
Emerald Green Okra
Detroit Dark Red Beets
Mesclun Salad Mix (Sweet)
Looseleaf Lettuce Mix
Scarlet Nantes Carrots
Petite 'n Sweet Carrots
Sugar Snap Peas

And I have a good supply of saved seed from my Purple Hull Cowpeas.

In addition, I am really hoping that some of my tomatoes from last year will send up some volunteers. I'll try to do better at saving seed this year.

Urban Garden Hoe reminded me of The Three Sisters, a Native American companion planting method, that I've been meaning to try. I'll have to get the proper seeds to do this as well.

Buying Seeds...

Wandering around Ebay today, I found some great deals on seeds. After ordering okra, spinach, and beets from the same seller (Steve), I asked him if the seeds came from his own garden ('cause I'm nosey by nature and also I love to know more about the heritage of the plants I grow). I'd tell you Steve's story, but I'd probably mess it up, so here it is in his own words:

"I try to save all the non-hybrids and heirlooms from our garden unless we are trying something new. Our hybrids I order. We are trying to become as completely self sufficient as we can. I grow for farmers market but the flooding from hurricanes Gustuv & Ike destroyed all our crops, equipment, and greenhouses. So I’m selling some of our extra seeds that I had saved before the losses so we can start all over and am ordering extra big lots so I can try to sell and make a little extra. In the next few weeks, when my new orders arrive, I’ll be listing about a hundred or so new items. We are also hoping to teach our sons. They are both autistic and this might be something they can do later on if they can’t handle a job away from home."

Whattya say we practice the ideas behind Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) from afar. Check out Steve's Ebay site...he's got some great seeds at great prices...and if I've learned anything about homesteading, it's that we all need to stick together and run this race together.