Last week, I mentioned making Red Bud Jelly. Well, I made it! You can read all about it in my Red Bud Jelly post.

Here’s this weeks tour:

We have several Red Bud and Dogwood Trees. I love it when they bloom at the same time. These two trees are in the back yard by the creek.

I found this flower growing down on the edge of the creek. I had one of the boys move it.

I moved it to this new garden in the back yard right next to the creek. The creek is between the green in the front, and the mud hill in the back. When we divided the Hostas from the front yard, I put them here and off to the right of this picture. You can see the yellow of the flower above on the left behind the Hostas. Also in this garden are some Wild Iris’s and Wild Roses.

While I was out for my picture walk, I took one of the front yard. The Bible Garden is on the end of the house, you can see a little sliver of it. There is another Front Garden on the other side of the porch. You can see the red of the Tulip in the Front Bulb Garden.

The Apple trees are blooming. So pretty!

Here’s our line of Apple Trees. My husband transplanted all these trees from up on the hill a few years ago. We got enough apples last year to make a small batch of apple cider. I froze it, and we drank it on Thanksgiving. It was sooooo good! I hope we get more apples this year for more cider. My inlaws next door (the brown house with the white shutters) have a couple of big apple trees and they share with us. Those are the ones we use for pies and applesauce. Hopefully, in a couple of years, we’ll be apple self sufficient. lol You can also see the fence of Raspberries in this picture. We actually need another fence, as lots of new vines are coming up.

Here are a few links I found interesting and helpful:

Stevia – Grow Your Own Sweetener
Recycled Spoon Garden Markers
How to Recycle Jeans into a Garden Apron

Growing Herbs for Beginners
7 Ways to Plant Potatoes
Container Gardening

[Read more…]

I have more Daffodils blooming. These are in the front bulb garden.

Last year, my Tulips didn’t bloom. This year, I have one.

Beautiful! And here’s the Tulip and the Daffodils together.

The Dogwood trees are getting ready to bloom.

The Red Buds are blooming!

Did you know the Red Bed is in the pea family? I didn’t either until this week. See the beautiful little flowers? They are edible! You can eat them raw in salads. The kids and I were nibbling on the tree today. I think the flowers taste like lettuce. They would be nice in a salad.

You can also make jelly out of the flowers! I have my flowers soaking right now to make this Red Bud Jelly. The pods that develop on the tree are edible, too.  They are like snow peas when they are young and green. We will be trying them as soon as they are ready. Have you ever eaten Red Bud flowers or pods?

 

The Dogwood trees are getting ready to bloom.

 

 

Here are a few links I found interesting and helpful:
10 Tips For Growing Onions From Seed
5 Newbie Gardening Tips for a Successful Season
Homemade Wasp Trap

Seed Starters Out of Paper Pulp
How to Grow Carrots
36 Things You Can Compost

[Read more…]

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

[Read more…]

I went out a couple of hours ago and took some pictures of what is blooming and growing here.

The Mini Daffodils are dying out, but the full size Daffodils are still growing strong. They still have a lot of buds coming.

In the Bible Garden, the Burning Bush has buds.

And look what is leafing out by the back stairs. The Lilacs! My hope is still alive that this will be the year they bloom.

The Wild Rose Bushes are leafing out everywhere. These are in the back yard by the creek. And by my clothesline. They make hanging clothes on the line in the spring even nicer.

These are in front of the house growing on an old wagon wheel we found on the property when we moved here.

Hope you enjoyed a little tour. What’s blooming in your yard this week?

 

Here are a few links I found interesting and helpful:

Growing Poultry Feed
Our $67 Greenhouse
Common Vegetable Gardening Mistakes

Grinding Coriander, Cilantro Seeds
Best Ground Cover Plants
Practical Guide to Making Herbal Tinctures

 

[Read more…]

This has not been a good week for Kentucky. So many tornados, so many deaths and injuries.  There was a tornado about 15 minutes southeast of where I live. Several deaths, a lot of injuries and houses demolished. I have a lot of relatives that live in that area. As far as I know everyone is ok.

Please pray for all those affected by the tornados this week in Kentucky.

In between the bad weather this week, the kids and I have been getting some work done outside. One of my favorite things to do in the spring is put my rocking chair back on the front porch. The chickens seemed to like it, too. lol These are the only 2 chickens we have left. We are planning on getting some new chicks and most likely turkeys this spring.

The rocking chair will be getting a new coat of paint shortly. 🙂

The Daffodils in the front bulb garden are still blooming. The full size ones are starting to open now, as you can see on the back right.

There was one that opened fully, but lost it’s battle with the wind, so I brought it in the house.

Beautiful!

The Wild Rose bushes are starting to leaf out all over the property. This one is growing on a wagon wheel in front of the house. This was taken after we trimmed it back. The 3 bushes all along the front of the house got a good trimming.  And the trimmings were placed in the compost pile.

The kids and I also gave our 2 Butterfly Bushes in the front yard a good trimming.

We also laid newspaper and cardboard in the vegetable garden and the herb garden.  The grass and weeds are already growing here. Now’s the time to get the cardboard, newspaper or other mulch down to stay ahead of the weeds.

I was very excited to see the Lilacs starting to leaf out. We transplanted these here from a nearby property 2 years ago. This will be their 3rd summer in this spot. I hope it will be the summer they bloom for the first time! I love Lilacs!

 

 

Here are a few links I found interesting and helpful:

What Foods to Grow in a Small Kitchen Garden
A Guide to Seed Saving & Seed Stewardship
DIY Raised Bed Seat
Greenhouse From Old Windows

Grow 100 lbs of Potatoes in 4 Square Feet
Growing Your Familys Pharmacy
Lower Maintenance Chickens
3-D Vertical Barrel Gardening – video

 

[Read more…]

Spring is definitely around the corner here in Kentucky.

The Daffodils are growing in the front bulb garden.

 

The full size Daffodils in the back have buds on them!

 

And the mini Daffodils in the front also have buds!

It has felt like spring this week, too, with several days in the 50’s and lots of sunshine.

They are forecasting a snow storm for tomorrow.

But spring in Kentucky is right around the corner!

 

Here are a few links I found interesting and helpful:

 
Planting Calendar – Plug in your zip code, and it gives planting dates for your area.
How to Build a Cold Frame with an Old Window
DIY A-Frame Trellis

Planning the Family Garden
Cottage Chicken Coop – so cute!
Greenhouse Space Saver Plus Milk Carton Recycling – A great idea for your green house using milk cartons

Spring is coming! Well, the flower bulbs think it is!

I had to clear all the leaves and bedding out of the way so they could get more sun. We’ve had an easy winter so far, so the bulbs are early this year.

Which reminds me that I haven’t planned this years garden yet.  I’m just going to stick with the basics in the vegetable garden because I want to add more fruit this year.

I want to put in a strawberry bed this year. Even if it’s only 25 or 50 plants, I want to get started. I would also like to get a Meyer Lemon Tree and a Dwarf Fig Tree this year. We will also be expanding our Red Raspberry patch.

We have one Asparagus plant, that my husband found on the side of the road and transplanted here. I would love to get a few more.

Have you planned your garden yet?

 

Here are a few links I found interesting and helpful:

How to Prune a Dwarf Lemon Tree
Growing Basil
Growing Persimmon and Mulberry Trees – We have a Persimmon tree we got at a tree giveaway, and we found a Mulberry Tree on the property, too.
Deep Chicken Bedding with Christmas Trees – video – Plan ahead for next December. 🙂
63 Things to Grow in Containers
4 Simple Steps to Grow a Hundred Pounds of Potatoes in a Barrel
Mason Jar Herb Garden