Saturday on the Farm

October 8, 2011 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

Even though we got down to 30 degress here one night last week, we still have a few flowers blooming.

The Mandevilla still has a bloom. It’s almost time to bring this in the house for the winter.

These are the Purple Hyacinth Beans growing up the tree instead of the trellis. lol Well, it grew up the trellis, too, it just out grew the trellis. This tree is over 12 feet tall and as you can see, the vine is taller.

The bean pods didn’t get as long as the package said, but are still pretty. The flowers are mostly gone, but the pods look cool.

These next two flowers are in pots on the front porch.

The Hardy Cyclamen in the bible Garden is blooming. I love these little flowers.

Each rose bush in the Bible Garden has a bud on it.

I have had roses up into November. Which is pretty cool.

The Dogwood trees is very colorful now.

And it’s time to harvest the Basil again.

My youngest son found a good use for all the leaves on the ground. Put them all in the trailer and take a nap! lol

It just cracks me up how he took his shoes and socks off and lined them up on the side of the trailer. lol

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Saturday on the Farm

September 17, 2011 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

I was very surprised to find a Hibiscus flower this week. They’ve already gone to seed, but decided to give me one more blossom.

This Zinnia is the biggest, fullest one I’ve ever seen.

The Dogwood leaves are changing, and there are berries on the tree. Fall is definitely here.

And this my friends, is the tomato jungle. No, my husband never did get the plants staked. Good thing we put the cardboard down first, then cut holes for the seedlings. If we had a lot weeds in here, we’d have a real mess.

Our newest crops of lettuce, spinach, turnips, and radishes are doing well. Time to thin them out and make a salad!

The raspberries are still coming strong. We haven’t made anything with them yet, we just eat them. 🙂

A few weeks ago, I harvested a lot of basil to dry. I left the plants, just cut the tops off, leaving a couple of leaves. They are all growing again. Looks like I’ll be able to get another harvest or two. 🙂

Despite being neglected by me, (or maybe because of it) the peppermint is still growing. I need to decide if I want to dry any. decisions, decisions…..

The flowers in the planter under the butterfly bush in the front yard are still blooming. Next year, we will definitely move it out from under the bush, though. It didn’t get enough sun, as the bush grew a lot this summer, more than we thought it would.

I’m so excited, the Purple Hyacinth Bean is growing seed pods!

I can’t wait to see how big they get!

Speaking of seed pods…..The Red Bud trees are covered with them.

As is the Mimosa tree! Pretty, fluffy, fragrant pink blossoms all summer and cool seed pods in the fall, it’s a great tree.

The Mandevilla is finally blooming! I’m not sure why it waited all summer to bloom, but I’ll just enjoy the show. 🙂

A very full tour this week. And I didn’t even include pictures of the veggies we harvested. We got a yellow squash, a couple of zucchinis and cucumbers and a lot of tomatoes this week.

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Saturday on the Farm

September 10, 2011 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

A few weeks ago, I sent the kids out to plant some fall crops. They planted turnips, lettuce, spinach, and I think radishes. The rows are only about 2 1/2 feet long. However, I think the one daughter used a whole package of seeds for each row. Look how thick they are!

Up at the top of the picture, to the left of my daughters foot, you’ll see a tiny, crooked row. I asked the daughter who planted them what was where, and she said she couldn’t remember. She does remember putting all the leftover seeds for all 4 veggies in one row. Exhibit A of what happens when kids plant without an adult around. lol Should make for an interesting harvest. lol

The plants are all doing well, though. The lettuce and spinach aren’t a problem. All thinnings will be eaten. Same with the turnips, we’ll eat the greens as well as any little turnip slivers attached. lol The radishes are the only thing that might get wasted. But then again, I’m sure the chickens will eat them. The goats might, too.

We harvested a couple of cucumbers, and yellow squash this week. As well as a lot of tomatoes, and the last picking of the green beans. We picked raspberries a couple of times, too.

The Purple Hyacinth Bean is flowering! When they say they grow 8-10 feet tall, they meant it! I think some of these vines are closer to 12 feet. This is our first year growing them. They are very pretty. I’m excited for the bean pods. to grow. I just read they are edible. After cooking with 2 changes of water. Not sure if they would be worth it, though. You can see a blue wild Morning Glory in the upper left corner of the picture. Wild because we didn’t plant them, they just grow wild around here. And like to come up everywhere. And we just let them. lol

Did you grow anything new and interesting this year?

Here are a few links I found interesting & helpful:

Twenty Truths About Goats
The Rabbit Tractor
Seed Saving Season – Do you save seeds?

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Saturday on the Farm

September 5, 2011 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

Yes, I know it’s Monday. Monday is the new Saturday. Not buying it? Ok, I’m just behind. lol

I was so happy to find a blossom on the Passion Flower Vine. I had seen buds this summer, but had missed the flowers. This one decided to visit the Lambs Ear. There’s another bud that I see. Hope I can catch the flower, too.

We had another great harvest week. The green beans are still producing. Although I think we will most likely only get another picking, two at the most. This is Hannah picking green beans. She’s about 5 feet tall and she’s standing between the two rows of green beans. They have grown over the row again this year. Every year we say we need to put the fences farther apart. And every year we say ah, that’s plenty of room. And every year we end up putting them too close together. lol We are going to try again next year for an open path between the rows. I think I’ll have them move the fence as soon as this harvest is over before we forget. lol

Because going in to pick green beans means coming out looking like this. lol Not to mention all the bug bites.

She did find a snail. Although, I couldn’t talk any of the kids into eating it. lol

Here’s what we harvested that night, which was Tuesday.

We have picked more yellow squash, tomatoes, and raspberries this week. However, my husband forgets that I want pictures, and just adds it to the ever growing produce pile. Also known as our dining room table. lol

The cucumbers are finally slowing down. I have made a ton of pickles. Well, ok, maybe not a literal ton. But quarts upon quarts upon pints upon half pints. I’m done making pickles. We just going to have to eat all the rest of the cucumbers raw. I know as tired as we are getting of cucumbers, we shall miss them when they are gone.

To see what I’m doing with all these veggies, visit my Making a Home posts.

Here are a few links that I found interesting and helpful.
How to Make Powdered Eggs – I’ve frozen our extra eggs before. This looks like a great way to preserve eggs, no freezer space required.
How to Propagate Roses – I want to try this!

For more Farm & Garden posts, please visit:
Homestead Barn Hop
Bloomin’ Tuesday
Frugal Gardening 101
Fertilizer Friday/ Flaunt Your Flowers

Saturday on the Farm

August 28, 2011 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

It was another great harvest week! The Raspberries are starting to come in heavy. So yummy!

This is our tomato jungle. lol Yes, not staking them up was not a good idea!

We were excited to pick grapes off our vines. This is the first year we’ve gotten this many. Usually the birds and the chickens eat them all.

We have 4 vines, and were pleased to get this basket full of grapes.

These pictures Thursday night, and here’s everything we harvested that night.

These are the same vegetables as in the basket above, just out of the basket.

And a very pretty Zinnia that Hannah planted in the middle of blooming.

Now that you’ve seen my gardens, what’s in your gardens?

Here are a few websites I found interesting and helpful this week:

How to Save Cucumber Seeds
How to dry basil
How to Propagate Geraniums Using Cuttings

Grab The Saturday on the Farm Button!

Saturday on the Farm is a blog carnival that lets us share links to our blog post. It’s fun to visit each others farms.

To participate in Saturday on the Farm:

Write a post about your homestead, farm, farmette, or the tomato plant on your deck. Your cows, goats, chicken, or your favorite kitty cat.
Add the link to your post (not your main page) below.
Please link back to me so others can join the fun, too.

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Saturday on the Farm

August 20, 2011 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

This is a different view then I usually share. This picture was taken by my son from the top of the goat pen hill. I climbed this hill. Once. Once was enough. I really have no clue how the goats can run straight down this hill. The first building at the bottom of the hill is the goat barn. The next building by the big tree is our shed. And that’s our van in the driveway. You can’t see it in this picture, but the creek goes in between the two buildings, from left to right. When I say we live in the hills of Kentucky, I mean it. The top of the goat pen isn’t even at the top of the hill. Our house is in a little valley, before the hill goes up on the other side. Which means the sun doesn’t shine on our house until about 10 in the morning. But we also miss the pretty sunsets because of the hills.

Our dog Shadow will greet you at the bottom of the hill where he lives by the goat barn. He’s an Australian Shepard.

We have a ton of tomatoes in the garden. Here’s a sample. No red ones yet, but we’re really looking forward to them. I’m really surprised my husband hasn’t picked any for fried green tomatoes. For a northener, he really likes his fried green tomatoes. lol

The cucumber vines decided to travel to visit the tomatoes. It’s nice how our veggies are friends. 🙂

The green beans are coming in heavy now. We’ve eaten some and they are delicious. My husband helped my prepare some for canning tonight. We canned 7 quarts. That was just from today’s picking. We actually had enough for another jar or two, also.

The yellow squash is doing well.

The zucchini are still growing. We’ve gotten a lot of them. I have the dehydrator filled again tonight with diced zucchini. We did lose one plant in a recent storm, but nothing else was damaged.

I ventured out to the garden for a little weeding on Thursday night. There are a few small areas we didn’t cover with cardboard or newspaper. The beets being one of them. It’s been so hot, I haven’t been able to be outside working. So the weeds were a little tall. *ahem* While pulling the weeds, I accidentally pulled a beet. They haven’t gotten very big. I would love to get enough to can a few pints. We shall see.

We built a new compost bin Thursday night, also. By we, I mean them. lol My son, with a little help from my husband, built it out of old pallets.

And then our son started filling it with gold from the goat barn. lol Looking forward to using some of that gold in the garden. 🙂

I really like this planter that my husband assembled in the front yard. The only thing is, he put it too far under the butterfly bush. It doesn’t get enough sun. He planted it with the kids and they didn’t read the packages to check the height of the plants. lol But we still like it and have gotten a few flowers on the plants. The two bottom tiers on the left have blooms right now.

Here’s a close-up of the pretty little pansy in the bottom pot. Love it!

Now that you’ve seen my gardens, what’s in your gardens?

Here are a few websites I found interesting and helpful this week:

The Easiest Way to Preserve Herbs
How to Preserve Basil
Healing Calendula
How to Grow Pot Mint Basil Indoors
Herbs for Healthy Chickens
Solar Food Deydrator from old refridgerator video
Edible Plants: Nettle
Wooden Chicken Feeder

Grab The Saturday on the Farm Button!

Saturday on the Farm is a blog carnival that lets us share links to our blog post. It’s fun to visit each others farms.

To participate in Saturday on the Farm:

Write a post about your homestead, farm, farmette, or the tomato plant on your deck. Your cows, goats, chicken, or your favorite kitty cat.
Add the link to your post (not your main page) below.
Please link back to me so others can join the fun, too.

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Saturday on the Farm

August 14, 2011 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

We’ve been getting a steady harvest of cucumbers, zucchini, and yellow squash. Lots and lots of cucumbers. We got large bowl full of green beans last week. and there are more ready to pick now. I plan on canning them this year instead of freezing.

Hannah picking cucumbers.

Lots of cucumbers!

We have a ton of raspberries coming! Look at them all!

Yum! Can’t wait for them to ripen!

My son got stung by a Saddleback Caterpillar. Those things can really sting! I thought others in the family were being overly dramatic after they were stung. Until I got stung and realized they weren’t, that it really hurts!