Tag: Gardening

October On The Farm
Gardening · Homesteading

October On The Farm

Sarah

October was a typical October for farming. Lots of tidying up, final harvests and lots of new projects to do. We got in the garlic (which for me was huge – it was the first seeds in the ground here) and we built the blueberry orchard. Next month I will be working on figuring out the fencing for the rest of the lower right field for the deer, finishing moving the greenhouse into its final spot, building one more raised bed and then….working on more wood chipping. It won’t be a quiet winter I am sure. Not like in years past, but that is ok. You have to work to have what you want!

The start of October brought a little of this – and a sharp reminder it was time to clean the gutters, and get water tanks hooked up for the rainy season.

And across the water the Olympic Mountains got a little dusting:

One photo might say it all and it is this:

This was October in a nutshell. October started with a tiny bit of rain and then was dry and warm nearly the entire month. With it being nice weather, we didn’t lounge around – we did a lot of work. From dropping more trees, to hauling them out of the forest to be chipped or burnt – that was this past month.

In September we had rented a pro chipper and got a massive pile off our field. Well, we pulled back out the small chipper that goes on our BCS Tractor. Lord I hate this chipper. It is awful, However, it helped us finish clearing that field, so I could get going with putting in beds!

With one of two fields cleared finally of all the trees and branches we have pulled out of the woods, we sat down and had 3 fires. There is just SO much wood to deal with. It is overwhelming. We burnt all the rotten trees, stumps and branches that were too dry for the chipper – along with around 40 Holly trees. Those awful “trees” shred horribly and the leaves rip at your skin while chipping. Holly is invasive here – and the best thing we could do is to burn it. While we still have a field covered in wood, and 3 other piles around the land, it is less overwhelming now. Maybe I should be glad the previous owner left a random hole in the ground……made a great fire pit.

Fall in its glory.

So many types of Fungi!

The second year for the Chilean Guava. I am now testing it to see if the deer bother it….

Here is a thing I loved this Fall. We had to cut down a number of very unhealthy Madrona trees – which are native. They have two issues currently: a blight and a canker infection. However….new tree growth comes back quickly and it is very healthy! The newly opened forest allows enough light to get in as well.

Beets growing in fall.

The boys brought me home beans from farm school to plant next year!

Garlic in the ground.

Alistaire found this bird nest hidden in an Evergreen Huckleberry bush on the edge of the woods.

The final harvests of the strawberries, in the final week of the month.

In the final week I decided to redo the flower bed by our patio (that overlooks the fields). When we had first moved in, I frantically was putting plants in the ground. I have gone back to look at it and well….it was time for change. So we took the 6 blueberry plants out (they went into the blueberry orchard I wrote about last week), and I cleaned up the bed. Next Spring I will put in more herbs. I want a bed where we don’t need ANY fences around it, and the deer seem to hate most herbs. Good goals to have.

Helichrysum by the way.

Lavender in bloom, even in late October.

Last of all I splurged on a great sale on these Carhartt gloves! They are quite thick, more a work glove than a garden glove. Great for tractor work. I found them at Sierra trading Post.

~Sarah

Creating The Blueberry Orchard
Gardening · Homesteading

Creating The Blueberry Orchard

Sarah

I have always wanted an “orchard” of blueberry bushes, all in nice and tidy rows. Before, at our last house we had 45 or so plants, but they were all over, tucked into corners. While it was a way to have them, it wasn’t efficient for growing. I dug up a dozen plants in preparation for our move last winter, and they came with us. This year the plants sat planted in an area not great, but they at least lurked along. However, as fall came into play, I noticed where the blueberry bushes were sitting, they were getting about 1 hour sunlight, so I knew we needed to put in the work, and get the orchard done – and put the blueberry bushes to bed.

I chose the lower right hand field. It is in an area where I didn’t want to till deeply and it needed to be fitted in between the road, the well line and the field. It sits at the base of the sloping hill, with the massive maple tree above it (however, the maple tree doesn’t project shade on the lower field).

Roughly marked out with stakes.

Kirk broke the land open with our BCS Tractor, with the rotary plow attached. There was a lot of chipped wood on this field, as it originally held the first brush/tree piles we shredded. This was both good and bad. Good in that once decomposed, it will better the soil, bad in that it was a pain to chew up dry wood into the ground.

View after Kirk got done with that. We have shredded/chipped so many piles, that we have brought out from the woods. To say the woods were not healthy is an understatement. The forest is so much healthier now, 7 months into it. We finally started small burns once the rains returned, to get rid of the brittle wood we can’t shred: Madrona limbs, root balls, rotten wood, and the horrible invasive holly trees. Two pictures up that is a pile of Holly waiting to be burnt. Holly is hard to chip – the leaves shoot right through. They are jagged and rip at you – and yes, they will slash your hands and legs open! That crap is only good for burning. We have taken out over 40 of the trees so far, some were 40 feet tall. (The worst is each “tree” often has 10 to 20 stems so you can’t just take it down like a normal tree)

So while I tended the fire, Kirk did the plowing.

Early the next morning, in the coastal fog. Kirk ran the tiller attachment after the plow, to smooth it out.

I put down garden tarps/fabric and then Kirk brought in piles of wood chips to lay down over it. Using the Kubota tractor really sped that up. Kirk could only access 2 sides of the new bed due to the hill, but at least most of our hard labor was done easily.

At this point I had put in 4 T posts for the fencing as well. In the background, across the driveway, you can see one of the piles of wood waiting to be shredded. It never quits growing….

T posts in, sun setting, and the mulch spread.

The next morning, my oldest son and I dug up the 12 blueberry bushes and brought them down to the bed. Fabric cut, holes dug, planted and mulched.

I did this bed with a light fencing – I wanted to see if it would work. Jury is still out on it, but it went up well. No sagging at all. I found the Deer-X netting at Tractor Supply, where it is a bit more affordable. In the past we used the heavier netting material, which runs $70 to 100 a roll (100 feet). That will wrap a bed that is 35 feet long by 15 feet wide. One thing about the lighter weight is I could use less poles and the netting was very taught once up. We used zip ties as usual for tying it on to the poles. With the smaller beds I am comfortable doing this method. I wouldn’t be so much if it was an entire field I had to fence. The deer on the island are smaller in stature than deer on the mainland, so jumping is a bit harder. However, they will go for jumping into larger areas. I am sure at some point I will have an idiot deer test my theory. Since the netting is nearly invisible to the eye, I had Ford lay down cut logs all around the bed (like the other bed we did, at the other end of the field). It holds down the extra netting, but also gives visibility. I am going to tie on rainbow tape for eye visibility as well this week. If the deer test this one, I will pick up a roll of red twine (used in hay baling) and wrap the fence with it at the top. Deer seem to understand that and won’t jump it.

But for now, 12 blueberry plants are in the ground, in their (hopefully) forever home. They are tucked in for the winter. There is room for 2 more, plus an optional 3rd row, that can hold another 5 max. I have a half-finished gate, which I will finish as I have time, however the netting is zip tied shut till then. I don’t have any reason to need to get in for a few months!

~Sarah

Lavender Granola
Backpacking · Gardening · Homesteading · Recipes

Lavender Granola

Sarah

Who doesn’t have at least one pretty Lavender bush? Lavender provides a nice crop yearly – for both edible and aromatic, and food for the bees. Our Lavender bushes are covered in both honey and native bees, from spring to mid fall!

Some varieties are better than others for eating, Grosso is often the most popular for kitchen herb gardens. It is an English Lavender that is highly prolific, and grows fast.

Once baked into lavender granola, it is a mild floral scent and the taste is very nice. Bonus points if you can source local honey that is Lavender sourced……If you use gluten-free oats, the recipe is gluten-free, and is food allergy friendly.

Lavender Granola

Ingredients:

  • ½ cup avocado, or other neutral oil
  • ½ cup honey, preferably raw
  • 1 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1 Tbsp dried culinary lavender, finely ground
  • ½ tsp fine sea salt
  • 8 cups old-fashioned oats, gluten-free if needed
  • 1 cup hemp seeds
  • ½ cup Shredded Unsweetened Coconut
  • 1 cup dried cranberries
  • 1 cup golden raisins

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325°.

Mix the oil, honey, sugar, vanilla, lavender and salt in a medium saucepan over medium heat until the sugar dissolves.

Meanwhile in a large mixing bowl mix the oats, hemp seeds, and coconut. Pour the warm oil mixture over and stir until mixed, using hands if needed.

Spread on two rimmed large baking sheets. Bake for 15 minutes, take out and stir, bake for another 15 to 20 minutes.

Remove and stir in the berries, let cool, stirring as it cools.

Once cooled store in an airtight container(s).

Makes about 11 cups.

How To Grow Food Not Lawns And Make Your Urban Neighbors Happy
Gardening · Homesteading · Urban Homesteading

How To Grow Food Not Lawns And Make Your Urban Neighbors Happy

Sarah

Today’s ramblings about grow food not lawns come from a Facebook post of a friend awhile back, who talked about her love of green grass. Which, I will give to her: I do get the love of it. But I can’t say it upsets me when most of the Pacific Northwest lets their lawns go dormant every summer. However, I grew up rural and we never had a lawn. We had fields. And now, after a 15 year urban break of living in a town, we have….fields, once again. I joked to her that the only “grass” we have is the septic field, and since it is green, the deer hang out eating and pooping on it. Probably not the “roll on the grass” people fantasize about. Especially since it has blackberry vines and weeds growing in it, that I pathetically try to mow over.

Years ago I first saw the slogan Grow Food Not Lawns pop up on early Facebook. It was one of the first times it clicked in my mind that maybe we could have something else. When we moved to an actual town, we had bought a standard house with a patch of lawn out front, and a lawn in the back. It was a typical town lot. Just enough grass to walk on, but not enough to overwhelm one. I dutifully mowed it, hating every second of it. At least we had an electric mower (then later a solar charged battery one), but listening to neighbors with their smelly, and very loud gas mowers wasn’t relaxing. All so you could have the luxury of pouring vast amounts of water and chemicals on non-native grass. To try to keep it green I wondered about it enough that I read up on it. Kirk and I started fundamental changes that would influence and change our lives.

It’s easy to say to people “Grow food, not lawns” and post memes on Facebook, or hashtag that on Instagram. Sounds simple enough, right? Just make that decision, and start ripping out your sod. Soon your yard will look like that dream on Pinterest, am I right?

But yet….it is a huge chasm to get there, if you live in an urban setting in a town or city. Or even worse, you are under an HOA’s governing. Your ability to take that lawn and turn it into something productive – for you, for using less water, for the environment – may be strangled by HOA and town rules/laws. In some towns the city can force you to tear out gardens, no matter how attractive they are. HOA’s can fine you exorbitant fees if you don’t conform. And force you to return it to grass – and pay those fees on top of it. When we lived in our previous town, it was very hard to find houses not under an HOA. Towns love HOA’s, because it takes the burden off the city and onto the homeowners. For example, street lights are billed to the HOA, parks are maintained by the HOA, not the city. The first one we lived in, for 10 years, was very relaxed and during the recession it became almost too relaxed (sadly, many houses went into foreclosure in it). Our last home we were at for 4 years. It was a new-ish development, so had a more conservative HOA.

I have a friend who has faced issues with the city she lives in, being told her plants are “too tall” and must be removed. If a bureaucrat can find something to argue about, they will. In most cases if you have happy neighbors, you won’t have trouble stirred up for you.

Advice if you are in an HOA:

• Meet your neighbors. Feel them out and let them know you love gardening. This alone will show you if you will have an uphill battle. A neighbor who believes nothing but solid green grass in August and who applies Round-Up liberally will be a hard sell.

• Join the HOA board. Become part of the solution. If things are not looking your way, get on the board and use your influence to change punitive measures. I got on ours the first year, and stayed there till we moved, making my way to President for 2+ years. I took a highly punitive board and mellowed it out. Solar panels? Sure, as long as you get it signed off by the board. Remove your lawn and put in rock gardens? Why yes! Lawns allowed to go dormant all summer? Of course! But I have to think my style was not common in boards. I got interesting feedback, but most were positive. If I wasn’t getting people to see it my way, I always presented the environment benefits, and people would often then agree.

• Buying a home with an HOA will limit you no matter what, but you might have a fighting chance if you get involved.

• Read the by-laws carefully. A few times. Some boards will claim things that don’t exist in the actual printed laws. Always have a copy of the by-laws in case trouble stirs up. Often boards will “interpret” the rules.
• Before doing anything major or permanent, petition the Architectural Control Committee (ACC) for permission. For example, as part of our last house, to remove vast swaths of lawn, I petitioned, and was granted an approval to remove and replace. Just detail out what you are hoping to do, and how long it will take. And get it done. They don’t want to listen to neighbors complain about your muddy front yard that is half done for a year.

• Always have it in writing. Because often boards change yearly, and a new member may decide they don’t like what you are doing. Having signed off ACC paperwork goes far.

Advice for living in a town/city:

◦ Meet your neighbors. Feel them out and let them know you love gardening. This alone will show you if you will have an uphill battle.

◦ Read the laws for the area, and know what you can and cannot do. In progressive areas chickens might be allowed (usually no roosters), but you might be told you cannot do an urban farm on your front lawn or have goats.

◦ Know that if your neighbors complain to the city, it will cause issues for you. Be polite, bribery with fresh produce goes far.

◦ Don’t store stinky items near fence/property lines. It’s common sense for sure, but not storing manure by Neighbor Bob’s patio makes friends. Store your tools after using them and keep your yard from being an eye sore. If you want that, move to the country.

The converting:

▪ Before you dig out even a bit of grass, sit down and think about what you want. It may be hard to picture it, and things change over time. But more, that if you are removing all the grass, you will want to have a plan to start on.

▪ Semi dwarf fruit trees on one side? Raised garden beds? Walk paths? Compost bins? A work area for prepping produce and plants?

▪ Do you want to convert your back or side yards? Also the front? You will need to chart the sun exposure

▪ Do it in small amounts, so it isn’t as noticeable, rather than ripping out all your lawn at once. Neighbors are often nervous when something changes quickly. The fear you won’t finish it, property values going down.

▪ Keep things below fence height. In most neighborhoods fences are about 6 to 7 feet high, though in older areas, they can be 3 to 4 feet high. The less that is visible, the less likely people will complain. If you don’t have a fence, and you can swing one, put it up! Fences make good neighbors.

Finishing it:

▪ Urban gardens/farms will have less issues if it looks finished. Spend the money/time on filling in pathways with mulched wood, beauty bark or crushed gravel. Make it look like a park, rather than Beaufort’s Hillbilly Pea Patch. And frankly I have tried to remember that gem even living in the country.

▪ Add in features like benches, seats, a table, bird baths, trellis, and so one. Garden decor for walls and fences also helps with a finishing look.

Running it as an urban farm:

Keep in mind that people tend to be more lenient if it is a garden, rather than being run as a farm. Read up on city/town laws and if in an HOA, know if you can run a business from your home. Some HOA’s outright ban it. An increase in traffic will get you noticed and you may not be allowed to put out a sign. Always have a business license if required in your area – anything you do wrong, or cut corners on, someone will find out if they don’t like what you are doing. Also research if doing this will be an insurance issue. Some home insurance companies won’t cover accidents if you are running a farm, be it urban or not.

We ran ours as quietly as possible and didn’t have open “farm days”, nor did we advertise our address. Those who were customers knew where we were. This way our neighbors were appeased,

And I won’t lie…it was a pushing reason to go rural and not have to worry so much.

~Sarah

September On The Homestead
Gardening · Homesteading

September On The Homestead

Sarah

September had a theme on the homestead: Clearing.

We built a perimeter path going about 4 acres in length on the side we hadn’t cracked into. Trails were cut, dead alder was taken down.What started as a dead forest, dark as night and no way in, in 30 days now has sunlight pouring in, numerous trails and the feeling of life in it. It took a lot of time from other projects, but we needed to do it.

At the start of the month the strawberry plants were filling in nicely. The tomatoes in the second bed were doing relatively well still.

As the weather started to change I pulled the tomatoes out and brought in the harvest to process and finish ripening, if needed.

Evergreen Coastal Huckleberry season was busy most of the month. I put away quite a few in the freezer.

The lavender is still in bloom, and will till first freeze.

September is a good month for strawberries 🙂

With the crops done, I topped up the large container pots, and planted in all the starts of red and golden raspberries I had babied all summer. Next year they will grown into full size plants.

3 weeks into the month I planted another 8 strawberry plants, 4 varieties total.

With the forest being opened, the garter snakes have been very happy to sun on warm days.

Sunset over the Olympic Mountains.

In the 4th week I planted the first seeds in the ground, which was also 6 months of being here on the land. Next year’s garlic is in the ground.

And in the 4th weeks I set up another raised bed of strawberries, with 12 in the bed.

And on the last day of the month, I re-entered the world of selling at markets. I had missed doing this so much this past year! I was a vendor at the nearby Greenbank Farm’s Harvest Faire. We had a phenomenal windstorm a few hours in, but the sales were good and the customers great, so it was time well spent. I met some new people to collaborate with, and that alone was worth it.

October looms ahead. And I look forward to it!

~Sarah