Saturday on the Farm

I have a lot of pictures to share this week. We worked outside today and got several spring chores done.

The chives in the Herb Garden are getting big already.

The Hardy Cyclamen in the Bible Garden. Why, yes, that is grass growing around it. I have spoken with the lawn mowers (the people, not the machines, lol) and reminded them how last year I spoke with them several times about aiming the grass AWAY from the gardens when mowing. I also reminded them that THEY would be pulling the grass out of the gardens and they BETTER not let it happen again this year! (No, I’m not really mean….)

Thankfully, the Daffodils are still blooming.  (They take my mind off the grass in the picture above.)

The Hostas in front of the house are coming up. As you can tell, they are getting big. It’s been at least 3 years since I divided them. So we did that today.

I had my 17 yo help me. He wasn’t excited about it, or very happy. But he divided 6 plants and planted the halves he took out else where.

I’m starting a new garden behind the house by the creek. So I had him plant them there. I didn’t get any pictures of that today. I’ll wait until they leaf out.

I also had Abby & Zack put magazines under the Butterfly Bushes in the front yard. Because the chickens free range, we can not use any old mulch, as the chickens think we put it there just for them to fling all over the yard. I have yet to see one of the chickens fling a magazine across the yard. lol

This is the smaller of our two bushes, it has purple flowers. We just found it growing in one of our flower beds a couple of years ago.

This is the biggest Butterfly Bush. It has white flowers.

Abby also weeded the Raspberry Bushes. And laid some dried grass down as mulch. They are starting to leaf out! Can’t wait for Raspberries!

This is our compost pile. The pile on the right has been going since last summer. It will be ready soon. We just recently started the pile on the left. It looks farther along than it is, because of the addition of partially composted hay and “stuff” from the goat pen. It is made from free pallets. We leave the front open. I though the chickens would be in it all the time, but we have no trouble with them spreading it out.

The Red Bud Trees have buds on them!

 

Abby also put newspaper around the grape vines to control the weeds.

I like to use hay as mulch over the top of the magazines and newspapers. We’ll go back and add some soon. When the hay is on top of magazines, newspapers or cardboard, the chickens don’t bother it too much. They will dig through it if the hay is laying directly on the ground. Gardening here means outsmarting the chickens. lol

My husband got a lot of trimming and such done today, also. I had wanted to plant peas today, but that didn’t happen. My Grandmother always planted peas and potatoes on March 17th. I, however, can never seem to get it done so early. lol Maybe sometime this week.

 

Here are a few links I found interesting and helpful:

Rose Hips – How to harvest and use
Onions, the self sustaining vegetable – video
Reclaimed Wood Plant Hangers and Bird Feeders

How to Build a 14×14 Solar Cabin – video
A Better Way to Grow Cilantro
Buried terracotta pot irrigation – video

For more Farm & Garden posts, please visit:

Homestead Barn Hop
Bloomin’ Tuesday
Fertilizer Friday/ Flaunt Your Flowers