Category Archives: Garden Stories

Ramblings

Posted on June 12, 2016 | Leave a comment

I strolled around the garden
I rambled and I wandered
I drifted through the pasture
I wondered and I pondered

The flowers were fairly bursting
With shades in every hue
Marigolds, nasturtium
Bee balm, salvia too

Lettuce, beans and spinach
Tomatoes on the vine
Lovage growing taller
Amaranth and thyme

The beauty of the orchard
The lovely, charming fedge
The wonder of the pasture
The life at the pond’s edge

My cup, it runneth over
My life is pure delight
No sunset with its beauty
Can dim this lovely sight

Bee Balm

Nasturtium

Marigold

Beans

Okra

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Posted in Garden Stories, Life, Poetry, Writing

The Squash Arch

Posted on June 7, 2016 | 3 comments

Today, I finally made my squash arch.

That’s right. I made it.

All by myself…mostly.

I found the design on Pinterest. It looked easy and we had all the materials in the garage already.

I used 4 garden fence posts, an insane number of wire ties, a 10′ section of wire fencing–the same kind we used on the new chicken run–wire cutters and a pair of needle nose pliers for bending.

First, I set the 4 fence posts in a 3’x3′ square.

Then, with a little help from my two adorable helpers, I cut a 10′ piece of wire fencing. The boys, of course, assumed I was making a home for them and were a little peeved when I told them what I was actually doing.

Next, I draped the wire over the fence posts and attached it to the hooks along each post. This is where the needle nose pliers first came into play as I had to force some sections of wire into the hooks.

The boys were still trying to convince me to make them a home.

I reinforced the fencing to the posts using wire ties and noticed that the fencing was a little too long for the 3×3 grid.

So, naturally, I decided to trim up the edges a bit and make them even with the fence posts.

Only, in my pride and excitement at having made this rather crooked arch all by myself, I didn’t pay attention to what I was doing.

I ended up snipping the fencing right off the fence posts.

I was able to fix my mistake with a few adjustments, several scratches and a very cheerful disposition…as you can imagine.

I stood back and surveyed my work.

The arch was crooked, the posts uneven and the wire ties plentiful…yet I was smiling because I made it.

All by myself (sort of).

3 Comments

Posted in Garden Stories, Life, Preparedness

Name That Weed #3

Posted on June 6, 2016 | 5 comments

There are so many gorgeous weeds on our homestead!

The first one I found turned out to be a variety of wild mustard.

The second hairy vetch.

I found this one growing tall and bushy in the pasture.

The taproot is fibrous
The stems are so thick
The flowers attract many bees

The tiny white flowers
The sweet smell of grass
The bushy and ferny green leaves

They tickle and prickle
They grow tall and wide
They swish and they sway in the breeze

What is it?

5 Comments

Posted in Garden Stories, Poetry, Writing

Late Bloomers

Posted on June 3, 2016 | Leave a comment

Walking through the swale today
I saw a lovely sight
Almost all the trees had leaves
Or small buds green and bright

Persimmon, paw-paw, cherry
Chestnut, apple too
Pecans and red raspberry
And redbuds, just a few

Green cherries hang down heavy
On happy little trees
This fall we’ll have a bevvy
Of fruit to share and freeze

A warning to the creepers
That prowl each day and night
We don’t play finders keepers
This fruit is mine, alright?!

A late bloomer! Almost all of the trees I thought were dead now have leaves or tiny buds.

I sure hope we get to pick these cherries!

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Posted in Garden Stories

Name That Weed #2

Posted on May 31, 2016 | 3 comments

Here is the second installment of “Name That Weed”.

Almost everyone who guessed the first one said it was a variety of wild mustard. I pulled a few handfuls and fed it to the chickens. They loved it!

This purple beauty is spreads almost like a vine.

The leaves are small and oblong…kind of like a fern without the jagged edges.

The flowers are a gorgeous purple on the outside of the petals and a light lavender, almost white inside.

Any guesses?

Fern-like leaves of green
A flower of purple beauty
Spreading like a vine

3 Comments

Posted in Education, Garden Stories, Haiku, Writing

Gradually Growing…Suddenly Surprising

Posted on May 29, 2016 | Leave a comment

We spent a week in the Smokies on our first family vacation. I was a little nervous about being gone that long.

Would all my little plant babies be ok for that long?

Would our newly planted trees shrivel and die?

Would Pecky Greenleg and the rest of our new chickens miss me?

When we left, the vineyard was just starting to get wild.

The grasses in the pasture and the swales were just starting to get tall.

The fedge and kitchen garden were just starting to boom and bloom.

One week.

That’s how long we were gone.

Now the vineyard is…wild.

Hops gone wild

Close-up of the grapes

Now grasses in the pasture and swales are…tall.

Swales

Jerusalem Artichokes

Now the fedge and kitchen garden are…booming.

Borage and tomato row

Burgundy Amaranth in the herb spiral

Borage and tomatoes

Cabbage and broccoli patch

Brussels sprouts

We weren’t there to witness this burst of growth. And, even if we’d been there, we wouldn’t have noticed such a big change right away.

Growth is gradual. So slow that you barely notice it…until the day you do.

That’s the day you realize that the garden you’ve tended so diligently and with such care has grown into something beautiful…and you almost missed it.

You plant the seeds
You pull the weeds
You watch and tend with care

Until one day
You see that they
Have grown without you there

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Posted in Garden Stories, Permaculture, Poetry, Preparedness, Writing

The Vineyard

Posted on May 23, 2016 | Leave a comment

First hops creeped up the trellis
The kiwi close behind
The grapes were over zealous
They would not be confined

The mint spreads like a river
Borage peeping here and there
The gojis stretch and quiver
A tender, fragile pair

The vineyard grows and varies
There’s change from year to year
From just green leaves to berries
To snacks for kids (and deer)

Cascade Hops – Planted in 2013

Grapes – Planted in 2013

Grape cluster

Goji – Planted in 2015

Kiwi – Planted in 2014

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Posted in Garden Stories, Poetry, Writing

Name that Weed

Posted on May 18, 2016 | 6 comments

Since I have so many new and unknown (to me) prairie flowers, grasses and weeds popping up…I thought I’d start a new series of posts:

Name that Weed

This beauty is popping up all over the pasture. It’s shrub-like with small, needle-like green leaves.

The pretty yellow flowers grow in tight clusters and the bushes are about 1′ tall.

Any ideas?

Little yellow flowers bloom
Needle leaves so prickly
Bushes here and everywhere
Growing oh so quickly

6 Comments

Posted in Garden Stories, Life, Writing

Breathtaking

Posted on May 16, 2016 | Leave a comment

Rose buds almost blooming
Deep magenta hues
Bees buzzing and zooming
‘Round and ’round they cruise

Leaves surround the petals
Light and green and new
And thorns as sharp as nettles
Down each stem stuck like glue

So fragrant, sweet and musky
In the morning dew
And in the night so dusky
The scent of sweet perfume

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Posted in Garden Stories, Garden Stories, Poetry, Writing

Phew!

Posted on May 12, 2016 | 6 comments

I admit it. I was starting to get worried about the trees.

We planted more than 70 trees by the time it was all said and done and only the cherry trees were showing signs of life.

The rest looked like dead branches sticking up out of the ground.

Nothing from the persimmons.

No green buds from the apples.

Nada from the Paw Paws.

I wondered…did we do something wrong?

Did we dig the holes too deep?

Did we not spread the roots out enough?

I thought of that long Saturday when we planted so many trees and had so much hope for success.

I thought of all that research that went into the methods for planting each variety of tree.

I thought of the fun we had digging the holes, planting the trees and watering them in. The excitement of imagining what our pasture would look like in 2 years, 5 years, 30 years…the same excitement we felt when we put the swales in.

I thought about all these things…and I let the anxiety and worry go.

I realized that, while we put a lot of work into this project, we also learned quite a bit. None of that time and effort was wasted.

I remembered that we willingly took a risk in planting these trees, knowing that they may not, probably would not, all make it.

And suddenly, even though I still felt sad and disappointed, I realized that we did get something out of the experience…we got the experience.

And today, while the boys played, I took a walk around and found that the cherry trees weren’t the only survivors. Almost all the other varieties had started to leaf.

I just had to let the worry and anxiety go to see them.