Our Backyard Homestead

Grow Kale - No Garden Necessary

While we are thrilled with our move this summer, I was very sad to leave my garden behind.  For five years I poured precious time and energy, not to mention lots of sweat and chigger bites, into building that garden.  When we made the decision to move in June, I stopped attending to the garden completely and focused on the details of moving.  Despite a very dry summer, my garden lived on without me!  I was so pleased this fall when we put the house on the market to have just enough growing in the garden to hopefully make it a selling point rather than an eyesore.  I had a few tomato plants, a couple peppers, lots of basil, onions and kale-mighty, impressive kale!!

I stopped by the house last week to pick a little kale and brought home two huge shopping bags full!  I would have easily spent $30 to buy that much organic kale from the grocery store!  The only effort I put in was planting it last March and watering until it was established.  Well there was that tiny detail of picking off the caterpillars that were calling the kale home, but they left more than enough to share and the chickens were happy with their little protein feast now that grasshoppers are in short supply. 

When in the course of human events does a mother have to scold her children for eating too much kale?  Never?!  Well that is until I made kale chips and my children inhaled them.  Kids, REALLY, you are going to get upset tummies from eating that.much.kale, at least in one sitting.  Yeah, we are pretty crazy in this house.

Kale chips are extremely easy to make.  Simply wash up your kale, making sure to diligently remove all green caterpillars that might be hiding in all those curls (if you buy your kale from the grocery, you can skip the caterpillar step!).  Pull out the stem and tear into about 2 inch pieces.  I then put it in a bowl and toss with olive oil.  Spread on a parchment lined cookie sheet and sprinkle with sea salt.  I baked mine at 375 for 5-10 minutes, watching carefully and turning about midway through.  Remove when starting to brown and turning crispy.  Amazingly, I only over baked one batch of the many that I did.  Even more amazing was to take them to a party that evening assuming I would be laughed out of the room with my crazy kale chips.  Not only were they well received, but I returned with an empty bowl and everyone was asking how to make them!

Now about the title of this blog entry.  As my picture clearly shows, this kale was grown in my garden.  However, have you noticed the nurseries are selling lots of kale right now?  They are selling an ornamental variety and while google tells me the ornamental type can be eaten, the eating varieties are preferred.  The main difference in the eating varieties and the ornamentals is the height.  Why not slip an edible variety right into your current landscaping?  I am so amazed by its hardiness this summer and it loves the cold more than the heat.   If it turns out to be a few inches taller than its ornamental cousin, even the strictest of the HOA police would likely be fooled!  I stopped by Marshall Grain on Friday and picked up a few more kale and Swiss chard plants that will hopefully provide us with kale chips and greens for juicing all winter long.

Starting over

After investing five years in building an organic garden at our old house, I was quite sad to leave it behind this summer.  I am not in a season of life that will allow me to invest a great deal of time in building a new garden and starting over.  Between homeschooling, making all of our food from scratch and trying to keep up with three musical kids each playing two instruments, my plate is very full.  How ironic that we now have four times the land, but not much margin for gardening.  I previously wrote briefly about choices and right now I must choose to focus on creative gardening efforts rather than building a large garden space.

This spring I build two new cedar, raised bed garden boxes.  I added one to my garden at the old house, but hadn't yet filled the other when we made the decision to move.  I brought the box over to the new house and with a little good soil, I have an instant garden.  In my other space, the soil was double dug and amended, so the fact that the beds are only six inches tall was not an issue.  My new instant garden is less than optimal because I simply laid down several cardboard moving boxes, set the cedar frame on top and filled it with dirt.  Since I am filling it mainly with greens, hopefully the shallow depth will not be an issue and if I am lucky, the worms will get busy breaking up the cardboard and improving the soil below.

I "fenced" in the space to protect it from the cats, chickens and neighbors goat.  Unfortunately, I did not take into account the army of grasshoppers that decided to feast on the first round of kale and lettuce that I planted.  They ate every last bit, leaving only my hardy favorite, Swiss Chard.  Hopefully round two will be more successful since I planted it mostly from seed instead of transplants-by the time the seedlings start growing, maybe the cooler temps will have reduced the grasshopper population slightly.

I planted kale, cilantro, beets, spinach and collard seeds.  Additionally, I put in two Brussels spouts  and two romaine transplants.  I am also working on some plantings in my existing landscaping and using some pots on the back patio. 

I grew my first ever beets this spring.  I only planted a few and ended up with only one harvested, but it was delicious.  I have space for three rows of beets and have planted the first one.  I am trying my hand at succession planting so will put in row two next week.  Below are the beet seeds.  I am not sure why I find them so fascinating, but of anything I have planted from seed, I think these are just the coolest seeds ever!  And beets that look like a bullseye, how cool is that!

Maybe it is because we are studying ancient history right now, but I was especially fascinated with this seed that looks a little like a weathered ancient Greek statue to me.

Here is my replanted fall garden:

It seems I was quite distractible while planting.  Too many new things to photograph!  Here is the one of the three oaks out front. 

And the gorgeous view of the sky off to the west:

And the plane that few overhead:

It was a great day getting my hands dirty and knowing that with minimal effort, we will hopefully reap some nice rewards....if only the creatures great and small will be agreeable to share!

 

It's Harvest Time Already

Let the record show that we picked our first ripe blackberries on May 8!  This is at least three weeks earlier than ever before.

We have also been harvesting zucchini, cucumbers and onions for two weeks now.  I have three large-ish zucchinis in the fridge that will hopefully be turned into a successful attempt at grain free lasagna for dinner tonight.  The above pictures is the 3 squash and 2 cucumbers harvested last week.  Below is the 3 zucchini and 2 cucumbers that marked the very first harvest of the season!

My lettuce is finished and I finally pulled the long been flowering cauliflower and cabbage plants that once again produced nothing more than butterflies.  Maybe I could be successful at growing this category of cruciferous vegetables in a fall/winter garden?

We have not had any measurable rainfall for about two weeks now and the cracks are forming in the back yard.  Our watering restrictions have been changed from twice a month to once a week, but I am still glad to not have much planted this year.  I am hoping for the kind of summer that we had when we first moved back to the North Texas area.  It started raining in July and I believe set all kinds of records for how much rain we had in July and August.  One and hope right?!

The chiggers and all other bugs are pretty much TERRIBLE thanks to our very mild winter.  We need to get the yard treated with sulfur ASAP so as to cut down on the number of chigger bites that is growing by the day.  I have found that if you treat a bite with apple cider vinegar immediately after discovering it, this will almost completely eliminate it.  I have also been taking Epsom salt baths after working in the yard. 

Scenes from the Garden - End of April 2012

The garden is full of life these days, both good and bad.  The great news is that I have baby cucumbers and zucchini!  The tragic news is that chigger season has started.  I consider myself an expert on chiggers now.  Did you know you gain expert status once you have weathered over 250 bites?  Surely I must be there in my fifth season of battling chiggers.  I am making note that it seems they make their appearance when temperatures begin to hover in the upper 80s for more than a few days in a row.

I am in love with all of the blooming onions in the garden right now.  I believe that I read that it is not such a good thing when your onions bloom, but we have already established my weakness for all things beautiful.  I did not plant any of these onions, they came back from last year so I consider them a bonus and love their beauty.  Hopefully they will taste good as well.

The onions aren't just beautiful, they are HUGE! 

My cucumber trellis seems to be working great.  I planted three different cucumber varieties and it won't be long before we are harvesting!

Behind the chiggers, my second place nemeses in the garden would be squash bugs.  Hurry up little zucchini, grow quickly before the squash bugs come to get you!!

This little guy makes me so happy!  Sauteed in a little coconut oil, patty pan squash are about the best variety of summer squash ever!!

It was quite windy, so I had a difficult time photographing the blackberries, but they are loading up with berries! 

And finally, yes, one more onion picture.  But we will call this one the butterfly picture instead.  Considering the number of chigger bites I sustained to get these pictures, I think it is only right to post as many as I can!

 

 

I Have a Confession

I love beautiful things and that makes me a pretty terrible gardener!  Why, you ask?  Well, see that adorable little ladybug?  The ladybugs were thick on the weeds that desperately needed to be pulled from the garden.  I left weeds, spilling seeds that will in turn create more weeds because I didn't want to destroy the ladybug habitat. 

I noticed that the caterpillars have taken up residence in the garden and are munching on some of my greens.  I have BT spray that would take care of the caterpillars and is supposed to be a natural and safe for humans treatment.  I haven't sprayed a single plant.  You see, while I am washing dishes, I watch those beautiful butterflies dancing over the flowers.  If I kill all of the caterpillars, how will I have more butterflies?

Some of my kale and my cilantro have bolted which any "real" gardener knows is not a good thing.  I, however, find the flowering plants too pretty to pull and make space for another vegetable variety. 

Evidently, I once again missed the window to harvest the cauliflower but I am too fascinated by the transformation of the plant to pull it.   I should have pulled the plant about a week before I took this picture when it was all still snowy white, but seemed too small to be ready to harvest. 

Thankfully, my children seem to share my appreciation for beautiful things and while I was working in the garden, The Chicken Whisperer decorated our cracked up driveway for Easter.  She amazes me with her artistic ability!!

The State of the Garden - April 2012

I believe I have mentioned that I am full of pessimism about the prospects for a garden this summer.  Watering restrictions are severe and the last I heard, summer drought conditions are expected to prevail once again.  My children are involved in many activities this spring and there just isn't much margin for the garden, so we are keeping it to a minimum.  However, the weeds are far too willing to take over, so I am spending what time I can to get a few plants in and attempting to keep the weeds from ruling the world.

Last week, we made a stop at our favorite nursery, North Haven Gardens.  Yesterday was my first opportunity to get the plants in.  I have never seriously attempted cucumbers, but I put 6 plants and three different varieties of cucumbers in the ground.  Also in are 3 tomato plants and several summer squash plants-mostly zucchini, but also one flying saucer variety.  I noticed that I have self-seeded basil beginning to pop up and some malabar spinach sprouting as well.

I have attempted many different trellis options, most using bamboo and none all that strong or permanent.  We shall see how this year's experiment goes.  We were doing a little spring cleaning in the yard and the swing that was severely damaged by last year's hail was headed to the curb for bulk trash day when one of the kids suggested that we should use it in the garden.  Low and behold it fits nearly perfectly around my raised beds!  I wire-tied a trellis/net around it and it appears we might be in business.  Our green juicing operations would certainly appreciate some nice organic, homegrown cukes!!

 The blackberry plants are in full bloom.  They seem a bit skimpy this year and I am thinking that maybe last year's hail did more damage than I realized?  However, they are tossing up new plants left and right so if I let them, they will be in a decent competition with the weeds for who shall rule the roost!  I love using that phrase having witnessed exactly what ruling the roost entails.  Our new chicks are in quite the battle over who will rule.  But, back to the blackberries, I am digging up new plants every time I am out there, so local friends, let me know if you would like one.

 

My New Garden Friend

I was working away pulling weeds in the garden when I heard this loud chirping today.  I looked toward the new chicken coop and thought maybe one of our new pullets had made its way to the garden.  More chirps.  It sounds so close, maybe it's a bird on the other side of the fence.  Several chirps later, I am about to go check on the chickens, when I glance over and see this cute little frog just hanging out a few feet away from where I am working.  Uh-oh, I hope I didn't just destroy his habitat!

He didn't seem to be scared of me and let me get quite close to take his picture.  After I returned to work, he stopped his chirping and disappeared.  Oh, no, he was probably trying to tell me that I was destroying his habitat.  Sorry little froggy, but the weeds really need to go.

A little googling reveals that it is a Green Treefrog.  They prefer swampish areas, so not sure why it is hanging out in my garden.  Though I do have two pails filled with the "brackish" water where they are said to be found on occasion.  I guess I won't dump those pails just yet.

I made some pretty great headway in the garden.  I got a huge section of weeds pulled.  Why does it look so small in this picture?  I moved half of the pile of mulch.  Enough that the mower can now make it to the front yard.

I am putting a thick layer of cardboard under the mulch.  The worms love it and the weeds hate it.  Recycling at it's finest!

Scenes from the backyard

Tis the season for spending time in the yard and soaking up cooler temps before another hot Texas summer is upon us.  Sadly, March temps have felt more like May.  However, I have been telling myself for months to expect 100 degree temps by Easter so that I won't be disappointed when we have a warmer than normal next six to nine months.  I am not planning for a big season in the garden because with very severe watering restrictions in place and the potential for another scorching summer, I just don't think it is worth it.  I am thrilled with the outcome of my cool season garden and will work harder in the fall to have a better planned winter garden for next year.  We have been harvesting lettuce since January and if I had put in kale in the fall, I think we would have had a bumper crop.  The Swiss chard has been amazing and the cilantro that I planted in February is providing quite nicely.  If anyone has suggestions on drought tolerant ideas for the garden, I would love it if you leave a comment with your ideas!

I have quite a bit of work to recover from the fact that I ignored the weeds in the garden for the warmer half of the summer and fall.  In an effort to be completely "real" I thought I would post a picture of the true state of terrible mess the garden was in before we went to work on spring clean up!

Last spring, I mulched the other side of the garden with the chipped mulch of a Bradford pear tree that we had taken down.  I ran out before getting to this side and the thin layer of mulch I had down was no match for the likes of Johnson grass and other invasive weeds.  We lost another Bradford out front (no loss as it was planted much too close to the house) and I now have another pile of mulch to put to use on this half of the garden.  I also requested that if the tree service needs a place to drop off another pile of mulch, I would be quite grateful for one more load.  A little extra effort to prevent weeds and make my space pretty is what I am all about!

It appears that I might be evening up the score in my kale wars with the rabbits.  It makes me a little nervous that I may be jinxing myself to post about it, but thus far the rabbits have left my new kale plants alone.  Unfortunately, at the rate that spring is heating up, the growing season left for kale will be very short.

In other exciting news, we bought a new mower for the homestead.  We were quite appreciative to benefit for several years from a riding mower passed on to us by my father in law.  It was a great mower, but it has been in use for at least 15-20 years and we were finding that every spring we were putting enough money into fixing it up and keeping it running that we could have nearly paid for a new one of the same model by now.  Our kind neighbors previously let us borrow their John Deer when our mower was in the shop and it was amazing the difference.  With the new mower, Hubby was able mow our yard in about half of the time that the old mower took!  We planted winter rye and with our warm and wet spring, we are beginning to get a taste for why many people are quite against winter rye.  Given the right conditions, it grows amazingly fast!!  Now that we have the new mower, hopefully our neighbors won't be hating us quite as much. 

But this reminds me, I must get off of the computer and go move my pile of mulch.  Not thinking, I had the tree service dump it right in front of our gate.  There will be no further mowing of the front yard until I get that pile moved!!  It is only about 100 wheelbarrows worth....no need for the gym this week!  Hopefully, there will soon be pictures of a much improved, deeply mulched and weed free garden.

How to Build a Cedar Garden Box

I built two new raised beds this past weekend and took some pictures so I could share how I put mine together.  My first three raised beds have been in use for four seasons and the wood is holding up quite well.  Cedar is more expensive, but will pay off over time.  Whatever you do, do NOT use any form of treated wood as you do not want the chemicals in the wood potentially spoiling your soil.  I wrote another entry about building the raised beds, but took couple pictures and thought I would share a few more of the nitty gritty details.

The Cost - $39 per box

• Each 4x8 box consists of 3 2x6x8 cedar boards from Lowe's at a price of $10.24 per board.  I had the nice employee at Lowe's cut my third board exactly in half (free!).
• The only hardware I use is 3" corner braces, with screws included.  There are 4 in a package so 2 packages are required per box at a cost of $3.77 per package 

Tools Required

An electric screwdriver was my only tool.  The wood was soft enough that I didn't have to pre-drill, I just screwed the screws right in!  If you don't have an electric screwdriver, I think they could be screwed in by hand, but you might want a partner to help speed up the process or consider pre-drilling the holes.  I used 32 screws per box.

The Process

I simply laid the boards out on the most level spot in our cracked up driveway that I could find.  I held the brace in place while using the electric screwdriver to drive the screw in.  I used two braces per corner, though best I could dig up in a corner of one of my old beds, there are some I only used one brace on and they are still holding together beautifully.

The Time

I couldn't believe how quickly I managed to get the first box put together so I decided to time the second box.  Using the electric screwdriver did allow for this speedy work!

I was a little surprised at how fast it went.   Granted this is the fifth box I have now built, but even if you add on a little extra time for learning curve, they go together quickly!  The trick is to let the lumber store cut the wood.  That step alone would have stopped this little project in it's tracks until the hubby was home to help.  I now feel like I can conquer the world with the electric screw driver/drill, but I have not graduated to sawing skills yet!

Rabbits 5, Stephanie 0

It has been a few years since the rabbits and I have been at war, but battle is underway and the rabbits are way ahead in the game!  With all of the delicious lettuce growing everywhere, you would think I had provided plenty to keep them happy.  Have they touched my plentiful lettuce?  Nope.  They have however, feasted on every single kale plant that I have planted. 

I put in eight new plants on Monday and haven't been out to check on how they have fared in the past 36 hours.  The odds are not in my favor!