Garden at the Farm

My parents have almost three acres of space at their farm, but this is by far my favorite garden on their property. It's a beautiful, meandering garden that is just exactly who they are. The rocks and wood have all been poached from different places they go motorcycle riding and camping...from Wilseyville to Pi-Pi Valley to the Apple Ranch near Yosemite. Here is where they sit quietly drinking wine and listening to the small fountain in the pond, where they battle snails and deer and wild turkeys, where they lovingly transplant and shape and tinker. They experiment with light and foliage and structure and it is a beautiful treat for all my senses. I often step out of my car and walk the paths of this garden, to the side of the kitchen (including the veggie patch and fruit "orchard" of a half dozen trees), opening and shutting each gate behind me, before I even venture into the house. They often find me here, and because my mother is crazy, she greets me with, "What the hell are you doing?" And it feels like home. So I tell her, "I'm visiting." I love that garden.

Gardening :: Sage

 It's that time of the year, when I've started assessing the garden plan. Besides the monumental weed situation, two beautiful plants came up big losers. The top one is a flourishing rosemary and the bottom one is a stronger-than-ever sage. Both of these herbs started as $1.99 starts several years ago, but both have outlived their planting arrangements. I hated doing it, but the sage had to die (I'm sorry honey and bumble bees, I know this is your favorite friend!) and the rosemary had to move out of the tub and into the ground.

 After about an hour of hacking, pulling, and cursing, the sage BUSH had been reduced to a pile of branches and an enormous stump.

The raised bed that had been buried under the sprawl of the sage was now free and clear, and with compost and soil amendments, it has been planted as the cucumber patch.
 

The only thing that made this task bearable was the fact that this amazing plant had lovingly cast it's seeds into the surrounding areas and a half dozen small sages were growing nearby. I carefully dug them out and kept them immersed in a bucket of water until the next afternoon, when I finally had time to plant them in the front yard.

The front yard is going to be the kitchen garden, and I'm happy to report that three of the new sage plants and the enormous rosemary bush have survived the move and appear to be thriving. That's a decent mortality rate for my gardening record, if I'm being honest. Fingers crossed that I can, in the near future, amend appears to be thriving with just "thriving". Wish me luck....

Rip Van Winkle

I love fall. Even though it means the end of my summer garden, and that I need to do SOMETHING about all these tomatoes. I think today will be that day....

 Easily the best garden I've ever had! Cucumbers and all manner of tomatoes (those yellow ones? oh my!), plus two kinds of squash, honeydew melon (small but oh so sweet!), and more eggplants than probably any one person ought to eat.  But I'm doing my best!

The pole beans were a huge success! Many summer meals consisted of steamed beans and white corn on the cob, with just a little salt added to each. I wish I could grow corn here.....it just doesn't get hot enough with the lovely bay marine layer. Maybe I need a greenhouse....oh yes, I think I do!  Let me get right on that.

Oh! By the way? Are you surprised to see me? : ) I've been missing in action....not really checking facebook, or the blog, or anything else for that matter. But I miss it. And I miss you. Fall is the perfect time for new beginnings....don't you agree?

Totally Rad

I am in love with this project.  I don't even know how long it's been going on; I've been watching it on and off for a couple of years.  It's unbelievable how far they've come in the last few years.  It was on my radar last week because they're looking for votes to come to the Maker Faire.

From their blog, Factor e Farm this is their mission:

“We are farmer scientists – working to develop a world class research center for decentralization technologies using open source permaculture and technology to work together for providing basic needs and self replicating the entire operation at the cost of scrap metal.”

Global Village Construction Set in 2 Minutes from Marcin Jakubowski on Vimeo.

They are basically designing and building a set of machines and methods that are open source, which means the plans are free for all,  called the Global Village Construction Set.  You should check out the videos and the wiki for their group, because it's hard to even fathom what they are doing (it's so AMBITIOUS).  Essentially, the set is just about everything you would need to build a community, from the house you live in to the food you eat, from scratch. 

On the wiki page, you can see another 2 minute video of progress with the Construction Set, including the compressed earth building blocks.  If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you can see the "packages" they're open sourcing.  I mean, really, it's just too much!  You can get an operational saw mill going using scrap metal and their free plans.  Plus, it's all highly efficient and sustainable.  Imagine! 

What a beautiful world.  *swoon*

This Week in the Garden

The longview of the main raised bed.  It probably doesn't look like much is happening here.  But, as many of you know, sweet garden surprises are the reason I garden in the first place.

Because the closer you get, the more life you see!  Blooms and veggies (fruits? oh, tomato, you vex me!)  are right there for your enjoyment....

So many tomatoes!  Turning all shades of green, pink, yellow, orange, and, yes, finally red!

Squash...I don't know what this one is called, but it is by far my most prolific squash plant.  Beautiful and lush and churning out a dozen squash where my zucchini and yellow crook neckeds are barely earning their keep. 

My cucumbers and eggplants are so happy!  I'm having a bumper crop of cucumbers, and with just enough tomatoes to keep me in cuke/tom salad for dinner every night, well, you won't hear me complaining about that....ever.

Not a single strawberry has made it past the garden pests known as Scotty and Tommy.  I won't lie to you...I've committed my own crimes against the possibility of future freezer jam, standing in the garden, tunneling through berries. 

And have I ever mentioned the number of lizards living in my yard?  Seriously!!!  I see hundreds, every day.  Wasps, honey bees, turtle doves, lizards, dragon flies, hummingbirds, butterflies, moths, sparrows, blue birds (cuties!), blue jays (bullies!), and too many finches to count, all count my backyard as home.   Let's not talk about the deer and the raccoons (or the damage they cause); let's just enjoy the diversity and get lost in nature's uncertainty.

Making Something Out of Nothing

I've gotten 8 or so cucumbers from the garden so far.  They are SO BIG!!  I blame credit the bees for this.  I loved what Gina said about walking through the gardens and "just seeing what needs to be done".  A few years ago, when I first started gardening for production, I very much worked off a 'check list' of when to plant, what to do, etc.  As I get more used to the whole process, so much more comes from experimentation and intuition.  That's what caused me, several weeks ago, to put up a 'trellis' (repurposed some wire shelving) for the cucumbers to grow on.  For the most part, the cucumbers coming off the trellis are straight (see cucumber Exhibit A in the foreground) and the ones that are still sprawling around the bed are coming out crooked (such as cucumber Exhibit B in the background).  Note to self:  More trellis next time, please.  Of course, it's not a perfect system.  My "intuition" is what makes me think, every single year, that this seed will never turn into a seedling, but if it does, it will never turn into a plant, but if it does, it will certainly never produce anything.  Happily wrong, much of the time!

One thing I'm learning a lot more about this year is how to make plants from plants that are already growing.  These plants here, in the brick planter by the front door, are a bit of a cheat.  I just separated them from their friends and plopped them into their new spots.  Only the geranium came with no roots...everybody else is fully formed.  That's hardly impressive though, as geraniums will GROW no matter where you put them or what you do to them!

What I've really been dying to do is to propagate the hummingbird sage I have growing in my front yard.  Since my cousin is now a Master Gardener (yay!) and since she recently propagated some hummingbird sage at her house, I hit her up for some advice.  I've tried to do this several times for my mom, actually, and it never has worked.  I think I know why though!  Kelly explained in great detail (thank you, people who love to teach, from the bottom of my heart, as somebody who loves to learn, it is truly helpful, and appreciated!!!)  how to find and separate a piece of the sage that would be suitable for starting a propagated sage.  It went down exactly as she described it!  I also used her advice to cut back the spent blooms.  The original sage looks awesome!  So here I've got five (potential)  hummingbird sages, ready for some TLC.  The reason I think it's never worked for me before is, I don't think I pruned my other attempts down enough.  It goes against any and all intuition I have to cut back on plants!  I'm learning though...it's a way to get more blooms, to get plants to spread, and now, to do proper propagation, too.  But it feels so wrong!  I've had to pluck the blooms off tomato and strawberry plants, too, because I was given the advice in both cases that I'd get way better production.  They were right, but man, did I dread doing it!  It's so hard to pluck something off that's could have been a future veggie!

Come to think of it....I may not have cut these back far enough.  I mean, technically, I could go down to one leaf, I think, and it would be better rather than worse.  The fragile new root system can't grow itself and route energy to leaves and blooms, so the less leaves, the better.   Hmmmm...Kelly?  Anyone?  Bueller?

I just can't get over these tomato plants.  The one in the back and the one in the front were planted on the same day.  The one in the back is towering over the top of the cage!

(Confidential to Jason:  Doesn't kitty look majestic?!)

This tomato plant?  Planted on the same day.

Here...these tomato plants?   You guessed it!  Same day.  Why so different?  The ones closest to me our taller than Scotty; but look at the ones just to the right here....so tiny!  It's really so strange!

Looking at this picture...aren't the flowers so pretty?  They remind me that....

We still have visitors!  When they showed up last weekend, I was so (happily) bewildered.  What could they possibly see in our underdeveloped patch of land?  The flowers above were planted last year, virtually ignored, and now lookit ~ so pretty.  It makes me wonder if they're suddenly so stellar because that's what bees do...make things flourish.  I know bees travel far and wide to get their pollen, but still, I have to believe our little gardens are majorly benefiting!

One of the things their arrival has done is to make me so much more aware (and appreciative) of all the plant life.  The green bin they've moved into is under a pine tree, and for the first time ever, I realized how gorgeous these purple blooms are that become pine cones.  I'd never stopped to notice such a thing!

There's also a wee-bit of blooming going on inside ~ my fabric!  This is the fabric I won in a giveaway at Beautiful Beatta's blog last fall, and I'm finally going to make it into a quilt.   I'm joining Carmen for a quilt along...this will be the first quilt I do from start to finish!  Wish me luck.  It's six weeks, and each week to tackle just a part of the project.  This was the week the wash and iron the fabrics.  Check.  It's never too late to join if you want to throw your hat in the ring!


Alright.  Just so you know.  As I was writing this up and waiting for pictures to upload, we got another nasty (but quick) jolt.  Earthquake.  There were two last Thursday night, too.  Almost exactly the same time.  All three have been between 2.5 and 3.0.  I'm a native Californian, so I won't even get out of my chair for less than 5.0, and even then, I wait to see how long it will last ~ I perk up, but I'm not going to get hysterical.  It could be over by the time I finally stand, so why break my neck hopping up?  Anyway, when I came home tonight, Erik said, "Earthquake weather."  I'm pretty sure he did it to tease me, as it is one of my long-standing pet peeves (right up there with stickers on fruit) that any time it gets "muggy" in the Bay Area, some dork starts in on 'earthquake weather' (I assure you, there is no such thing) but man....now I'm wondering!  The epicenter last week was less than 2 miles from our house (we live ON the Hayward Fault, I'm telling you) and this one I'm seeing here was also 2 miles away (in the other direction) and at 2.5.  Even when you're right on top of a 2.5, it's not a whole lot of shaking...but man, they're just loud when you're that close.  You hear it before you feel it, even.  Anyway, all this to warn you, that I'm fairly certain I feel a hey-I-updated-the-earthquake kit kind of post coming up.

Surprise!

Last week, after Erik finally agreed that I could get a few chickens, I decided to play a little game that I like to call, "Pushing My Luck".  On Saturday morning, I looked at him and said, "Hmmm...are you thinking what I'm thinking?"  He allowed that he was probably not.  When I went on to say, "We should get bees, too!  Wouldn't a honey bee hive be perfect for us?!" he confirmed that, no indeed, he was not thinking anything like that, no ma'am.  Not at all.

I think his exact words, to his credit, were, "How about one thing at a time."  Fair enough.

So was it my fault that a few bees started hanging out near my green bin this morning, near the side of our house?

I say no!  If I had wanted to attract some bees, I would have no idea how to even go about it.

By the time we got back from the A's game today, they really seemed to establish themselves.

Why don't we just peek under the lid and see what all we have going here?

Oh my gato!!!!  There must be 10,000 bees setting up shop in our green bin!!!

So.  Here we are.  I don't suppose there's an easy way to move these folks into a top bar bee hive?  

Wait.  Do any of you know where I can get a top bar beehive?

I'm half hoping they just disappear as mysteriously as they arrived ~ I'm so afraid they will come to harm! ~ but 3/4 of me (you do the math) is really hoping I can manage to move them into a proper hive and convince them that they've ended up right where they're supposed to...bee.  :)

Chickens?

I've been wanting a few chickens forever.  Forever.  Erik has always adamantly refused.  Flat out refusal is so...ugly.  A few days ago we had this conversation:

Erik:  As soon as you take care of [fill in trivial situation], you can get 2 chickens.
Me:  Three.
Erik:  Fine.  BUT!  I don't want to feed them, water them, clean up after them, or have to deal with them in any way.  I want nothing to do with them!
Me:  So...you don't want to eat the eggs?
Erik:  [Pause]  I'll eat the eggs.  But that's it.

So magnanimous, am I right?  ;)   As luck would have it, my neighbor's chickens are currently incubating 2 dozen eggs...some chicks are bound to come of that situation, don't you agree? 

Ardenwood Farm, Part Two

At the farm, Scotty liked to push the stroller my friend Kristie had brought for her babe-in-arms, Claire.  Fortunately, Claire felt strongly about walking herself, so there was no danger of an unfortunate toppling incident.

We were very excited to come around the bend and find the farmhouse!  It has a part that is the original farmhouse, and then a part that was added on in the Victorian style.  Guess which part is my favorite?  :)

We sat on the porch and enjoyed the view of our kids blazing across the lawn and playing hide-and-go-seek at the gazebo.  When the kids finally joined us, one of the house tour guides nearly busted her bustle trying to shoo us off! 

Scotty and I paid a few dollars to take an abbreviated "kid friendly" tour of the inside of the house.  Scotty begged to go inside, and he was so curious and excited to be there!  He was cracking me up.  We both nearly came unglued in the kitchen...we know what we like.

Scotty loved the old stove and the 'new-fangled' water heater in the corner...

...while I was completely smitten by the adorable vintage embroidered tea towels.

We were both dying to play with the grinders and handpowered food processors that crowded the island, and we also would have played in that huge sink...except we were also both kind of afraid of our guide.  Yeesh.

Scotty kind of loved her...she was older, and he was right up in her grill the whole time, asking her all kinds of questions about "where did the babies sleep" and "whose bed is that one" and "let's see what's in here...."

She [wisely] kept hustling him out of the more...delicate... areas, though nothing could stop him from clickety-clacking on the old typewriter keys in the study, or trying to crawl into the bathtub upstairs.  She had a sweet and gentle way of letting him know that this really wasn't allowed.  Then she gave him a sticker for his hand and invited him to come back any time.  I kind of loved her, too.

This kid is so domestic.  He just slays me!

Ardenwood Farm, Part One

Last Saturday was a perfectly gorgeous spring day in California.  By the time we woke up Sunday, it was raining and windy.  But Saturday.  Oh, Saturday!  Scotty and I met some friends at Ardenwood Park in Fremont.  Ardenwood is a favorite for me, as it is still a working farm, and the original farmhouse is on the grounds.  We go there to pick berries, see the monarchs, feed the animals, ride the train, pick pumpkins...and, while the kids enjoy all that, plus running and climbing, I also spend a bit of time pretending like it's my farm.  I stroll the grounds and I know it's ridiculous, but I literally itch to go to work!  

I have so many pictures of both my kids climbing the trees at this park!  They are perfect for climbing, no matter how old you are, because of the deep "v" starts in the trunks.

So many new things to try at the farm!

There are naturalist programs nearly every day.  Here is Scotty with our friend Sophia (love her style!) enjoying story time under a tree at the hay circle.  "The Little Red Hen".

After the story, they got to pet...the little red hen!  Good times.