Building A Strawberry Cage

August 7, 2023 Sarah

I’d not have built a strawberry cage when we lived in town. I can only imagine what our neighbors (and the HOA) would have had to say. But there comes a time when in rural life you must come to terms with caging your treasures. And you just use what you have on hand, and choose to not care about aesthetics. I’d rather spend that money on new plants and seeds.

I have taken growing strawberries, of all varieties, as a focus on our land for the past decade. But the last 5 years has been trying. While I fully support growing for my feathered friends (the local birds), the squirrels and the chipmunks, there comes a time when I am tired of feeding them and not me. I would like some of the harvest.

There’s a lot of frustration to find the nearly ready berries from the day before gone the next day.

At our previous home, in the suburbs, I didn’t have the pressure from as many hungry animals. Overall the deer leave strawberries alone, but not the small animals. It’s feasting season from May to September. Yes, white and yellow strawberries do throw them off, as they prefer red visually. But even that isn’t enough.

So I got to thinking. My neighbors had given me a whole bunch of dog kennel panels a few years back. We were using the majority of them to make the outer structure for the chicken run, but I had 4 sections left. Originally I had set them up to make a small run for my smaller dog to be in, while I am working (she is under 20 pounds and a target for eagles to grab her). Well…she did not like being in it and would bark non stop at the chickens. Fail there. So then I thought I’d make it into a cage for plant starts. Well….maybe not. It wasn’t big enough. I could only fit one table into it.

Then I realized I could put all the hanging pots in it, and even run 2 levels of those.

Then we laid down double cardboard on the ground to keep the grass down, dragged in a pallet. Then I went and found every pot of strawberries hanging out randomly in the beds, across the homestead, and moved them in.

Now they are overall off the ground, and in a cage, where it’s topped.

It will help lower the amount of birds on the plants.

With the strawberry plants now far away from the chicken area, we will have less squirrel presence (they eat chicken feed) and the rabbits cannot get in. But also, as the plants are above the ground, far less slugs.

I never said it looked classy. But it’s a homestead, not a Pintrest-Ready project. Things that work are the only thing that matters. And better is when I can do the project for free, on items I am recycling into yet another use.

~Sarah

July In The Gardens

August 1, 2023 Sarah

Summer came on time, as it should. It showed up around the Forth of July, as it does most normal years. It wasn’t hot though. While much of the US baked in July, it was actually pleasant in July. Though it never stayed warm at night, which is great for us, but not so much for the tomatoes. They are definitely hampered this year due to the cool nights.

It was a productive July, and I won’t complain on that. We ate, and it was tasty.

Early Broccoli harvest.

I had planted a lot, and yes, I picked early. I am always fidgety with Broccoli. Take it early or risk bolting if we get heat?

First Tomatoes came in early July.

First Cucumbers.

First Magic 8 Ball Zucchini.

Calendula, growing wild in the beds.

The massive potato field that grows in the compost pile.

Tricolor Sage, that has grown from a 2″ start, to a massive plant. I haven’t watered it in 2 years and it is doing fantastic.

With an anomaly growing up off one branch, reverting to plain Sage.

Bush Green Beans, growing in an old chicken coop bottom.

Work tent.

Daisies, growing wild.

The berry bed, becoming a mess. I’d tidy it up over the month.

White Blackberries, starting to form, after growing these plants for 5 years.

Not at that price. 4 figs for $9.49 is very pricey. And they were not even local! One reason we added a second Fig tree last year.

Figs growing happily.

Kiwi growing.

Red Currants,

Variegated Elderberry producing this year.

Feverfew growing wild.

Apples on the trees.

Was shocked. The Hawaiian Strawberries actually produced a few berries this year.

Growing ever so slowly, but it was very tasty when harvested.

My gardens may not be pretty, but they are functional. I am encouraging the grapes to grow across this year.

Artichoke growing.

Nasturtiums, growing wild.

Blueberries.

Raspberries that taste like wine.

A short crop, but one we love every year.

A butterfly wing we found. A bird must have had a tasty snack.

First onions.

Early potatoes out of the compost pile.

Marshmallow plant in bloom.

Onions and Cucumbers.

Boysenberries.

Chickens enjoying the parts of the harvest we didn’t use.

Borage growing wild.

Chamomile, growing wild.

Evening picking for tomorrow’s meals.

Chicken eggs.

Lavender.

White Sage, harvested for a friend.

Large tomatoes.

Cucumbers can be worse than zucchini for missing one, and finding a club of one later. The chickens enjoyed this overgrown treat.

Lots of bell peppers on the last day of July.

And the Green Zebra tomatoes started coming in…..

~Sarah

Gardening · Homesteading

Mid Summer Gales and Wilting

July 31, 2023 Sarah

All it takes is one gale storm warning in the middle of summer to have dread well up in any gardener in the Pacific Northwest.

Last week we got one of those, a week ago on Monday.

The storm came in as predicted, with howling winds, off of the Salish Sea. The morning half of the storm wasn’t bad, and the sun came out. Then part 2 came in, in the late afternoon. It rained, like a mid fall rain, for nearly 3 hours. The skies were so dark it felt like it was after sunset.

The rain didn’t stop till after 8 pm. And then suddenly the wind stopped as well. In summer we usually are dry from May to August, so a heavy rain really can hurt plants.

And what a mess it was. I lost my pop up tent I use in summer, to process veggies in – which I keep a table and chairs under, often with my daily tools on it. It was staked out and weighted down, and still flew off – and was impaled on T posts. Totally wrecked, the top was shredded, as were the bug screen walls. All my tools were tossed across the field, soaked. I had early harvested garlic drying on the table, it was soaked fully.

I was so crabby last Monday, as I stomped around looking for anything I had missed in the grass, to toss into our greenhouse, to hopefully dry. With at least 15 pairs of soaked work gloves I picked up. It was almost dark, so even made my mood more black.

The next morning the sun came out, like the storm had never happened. As it likes to do.

But there of course was more complications:

The dreaded post rain wind storm wilt. Where you just feel so hopeless.

This summer in the PNW, on our island, has been cold at night. It hasn’t hit above 55* yet at night. So things struggle to recover when it gets hit bad. The cold really affects their ability to snap back.

I went out in the morning to inspect the beds. Most was OK but I noted some bad areas:

A couple of blueberry plants were not loving it on their newest growth. There was a noticeable overnight wilt on the top growth.

A feral Calendula full went over. I saw this over and over in the beds/rows. I let Calendula grow wild because it attracts pollinators, and hey, it is very pretty. So seeing it all flat was not a great feeling.

The Sunflowers took a beating. The front ones the most. The back ones stood tall. But the front ones, were bent part way to all the way over in the morning. They were not broken though.

Scarlett Runner Beans. Of all the storm damage this was the worst. The plants collapsed overnight. The beans are fine, they are down low, protected.

The low temperatures that night after the storm were around 50* at our homestead. That was far too cold for them.

A week out it is better looking. While the worst affected sunflowers are not 100% back up, they are not dying. The blueberry bushes look healthy again. The beans? Well….at least we can harvest the pods, so I am not upset.

Nothing spread, even better.

The Takeaway?

Wilt after storms can be scary, but just give it time before you react. Don’t pull anything immediately, nor do any cutting/pruning. As well, don’t tie up things immediately after. Wait a week to see if it needs help. The sunflowers I will be tying gently to the deer fence today, to help them stay tall.

Give it a few days, a week. If it still looks bad, then start removing. But wait to be aggressive.

~Sarah

Gardening · Homesteading · Urban Homesteading

The Accidental Garden

July 14, 2023 Sarah

I can be a lazy gardener and I have no shame in it. There’s just a lot of things that maybe I should get to, but the real chores keep me busy. So I just never get back to it.

And the number one area is my “compost pile”. It sits on the far edge of the growing fields and is a mess. When we do harvesting, all the scraps go there that the chickens don’t eat. Rotten potatoes? “Go throw in the pile” Onions that didn’t grow right and went to seed? “Go yeet them out there”. And that’s what it became. Where plants deemed not worthy for the main garden beds and the fields went to die.

Except they often didn’t.

When the greenest area is the potatoes.

So many flowers this year on the potatoes.

And look at the early harvest? They come out clean, not covered in dirt. They are usually not far below the surface, so easy to pull out. These were not washed, picked only a few minutes before taking the photo.

Feral Calendula. I threw plants I thought were dead. They were not – or at least their seeds were not. I have had multiple plants grow in the last 2 years in the pile.

A lot grows out there. I harvested broccoli this spring, that I had thrown plants out last late fall that didn’t grow well. I have purple cabbage growing. Chive plants. Tomato plants. Onions producing massive flower bulbs.

And it is never watered nor weeded. Much of it is growing out of old chicken coop material, so it is a blend of pine shavings and chicken poop. The richness of the “soil” goes far. The plants are deep green and thriving.

Learn to have an accidental garden. It might actually grow better than your carefully maintained one……Find a corner you don’t care about, and just toss plant material there. And you might be surprised the next year!

Another great example is I moved the chickens out of our orchard, and now I have many random plants growing from seeds left behind from produce treats I threw in for them. We have at least 10 wild tomato plants growing. These ones I have decided to water, and they are growing fantastically.

~Sarah

Gardening · Homesteading · Urban Homesteading

Prepping Your Fall Garden In July

July 10, 2023 Sarah

Talking about Fall on June 10th seems almost mean. But if you don’t get to it now, you won’t be prepared for an extended growing season. Start planning, as the go time for a fall season is the end of July for those in grow zones 7-8 to have seeds sowed and plants going in the ground. This gives you nearly 3 weeks to get it all done.

Yes, it is hot and bright out, but work in the early morning or the late evening, as the sun dips. I personally love my evening time, as the world gets quiet, working until I can barely see. I love watching the bats come out, and flying above my head.

Every time you plant seeds, you are sowing hope for yourself and those you love.

Wondering how much you should plant? I worked it out for you.

What to get working on this week/month:

Chores:

You knew I would say that, right? But it is true. Chores lead to a happy garden/homestead. Your garden doesn’t have to be perfect

Go out and walk your gardens, pull things that were sapped by heatwaves and won’t make it back (for example, lettuce that is bolting). I feed this to our chickens. They love those days, getting tasty greens.
Weed, even though it sucks to do (I hate weeding so much but it feels great after I do it). Figure out what you will be harvesting soon, such as onions and garlic, and figure out what can be sown in those spots for say the next 60 days. You could do peas or beans, and then be ready to put in garlic for the Fall by October to November…..
Check fences for damage. This is how rabbits will slip in for a quick meal.
Look at trellising you might have up, that needs repairs or changes.
Prune your tomatoes if you haven’t, to promote the energy to the fruit.
If you need to fertilize, do it soon.
If your wood chips in your walking aisles are gone, add in more. They suppress weeds and keep moisture in.
Walk your land and look for noxious weeds to pull. We have to deal with Tansy, Thistles and those nasty blackberry runners that rip at your legs. Pull often, and they decrease over time. Where we live if you put noxious weeds in black bags the local dump takes them for free.
Think long and hard about if you would like more garden space. This is the time of year to start planning. If you have to lay down silage tarps to kill weeds/grass you want the hot sunny days to do the work. It’s a good 6 to 9 months time for it, so get started for next Spring and let the hot sun do the work for you.
It’s also time to start thinking about prepping for cold spells, even though it is far away. It’s easier if all you have to do is run out and attach a sheet of frost fabric, rather than building it all when you see the weather shifting.

Seeds In Soil –

Beans:

Sow every 2 weeks direct seed, bush beans can be seeded up to early to mid-August for fall crops. Bush bean varieties grow faster than pole, and are preferable for fall as they require less time to mature.

Beets:

Last week of July to mid-August for fall crops. Seed every 1-2 weeks till then.

Broccoli:

Transplant first week of August. Get into pots now as seeds. Like today!

This crop grows best as a fall crop. It can bolt to seed in early warm springs. Protect late summer plants from summer heat with shade cloth if needed.

Brussels Sprouts:

Grow like Broccoli.

Carrots:

Seed by August 1st for fall crops. Seed every 2 weeks for continuous harvesting. Consider growing smaller varieties that take less days to mature.

Cauliflower:

Certain varieties are planted in fall, to be harvested the next year.

Chard:

In most summers grow it continuously, when it’s too hot for lettuce. Seed every 2 weeks for continuous harvesting through mid-August.

Garlic & Shallots:

Direct plant October to November, before hard freezing. Buy now, or when you pull this summer’s crop, save some for fall planting.

Kale:

Plant by mid August for fall crops. Seed every 2 weeks for continuous harvesting. In many areas, Kale will over winter and start producing in early spring again.

Kohlrabi:

Plant by August 1st for fall crops. Can sow direct or start in pots late July.

Lettuce:

Resume seeding end of July to plant fall crops through mid August. Can direct seed or start in pots. We prefer seeding in 4″ pots so they avoid slug damage when tender.

Onions, from seed:

Green onions can be seeded every few weeks for a continuous crop, through mid August.

Peas:

Direct seed from mid-July through first 2 weeks of August for fall crops.

Bush takes less time than tall climbing varieties, and are preferable for fall.

Potatoes:

Plant July and on for fall crops. Grow smaller varieties for best results (save the russets for summer). Ensure they get plenty of sun, fall grows well in large containers. Keep them in as much sun as you can and watch they stay watered in the hot days of August.

Radishes:

Resume in August for fall crops. Seed every 2 weeks for continuous harvesting.

Spinach/Bok Choy/Other Greens:

Direct seed or start in 4″ pots by second week in August. Seed every 2 weeks for continuous harvesting.

Squash (Zucchini):

Can be seeded through late July.

Turnips:

Sow every 2 weeks direct seed, through mid-August.

~Sarah