Garden resolutions

Will you be making any garden resolutions this year?

Jumbo

One of our girls has been laying rather large eggs the past couple of days.

"Jumbo" just does not describe how big these double yolkers are.  

Just 3 eggs equaled a half dozen

Egg-cited

My pullets recently started laying but it took us a little while to figure it out, because there was a thief in the hen house...

We finally caught the egg snatcher red handed! 

It was none other than....... Daisy!

Yes....Daisy!!!

Our 13 year old Basset Hound had discovered the joys of nice, warm, fresh laid eggs. After we caught her and blocked the coop run....We have now magically had 7 fresh eggs daily. 

That darn dog!!!!

Well her shenanigans are over and we are once again enjoying farm fresh eggs.

In the "Frosty" air

We may not be doing much gardening this time of year but that doesn't stop us from enjoying the greenhouse. 

 Christmas snow is here and my garden is fast asleep beneath it all!

Saving the Rainbow

The blossoms of Summer have have faded,

and taking a few moments to collect the dead heads can be quite rewarding!

As Summer came to a close, I collected the blossoms and left them to dry in the greenhouse in a paper sack. 

After pulling the seeds from the dried heads am left with 4 gallon size bags filled with a beautiful confetti of dried petals and seeds. They are almost to beautiful to hide away...I may need to find a couple gallon size jars to display and enjoy.

I will be looking forward to planting a Rainbow next Spring!

Little Tote

I love my little tool box...

I received this perfect gift from my youngest son, who made the handy tote in Wood Shop. 

Couldn't be anymore perfect to hold all my small gardening tools. 

No poop in the coop....

 For now anyway....





Today was housekeeping in the Hen Hotel.

• New bedding has been added
• Fresh Tub of  wood ash and diatomaceous earth added
• A bowl full of ground oyster shells.
• and a new flock block  to give the girls something to due now that the days are shorter

Garlic Grid

Sunday evening was spent getting a few rows of garlic in.

Loved having the extra help around...Corbin added compost to the rows.

Bone meal and Blood meal was also added.

The parsnips were covered with left over mulch from the old rows. Troy took care of tilling all the amendments in.

Using grid lines from a piece of cattle panel ....we went to work getting the garlic in.

We were able to get 5 varieties in and 375 cloves planted and ran out of daylight with  half the job done.We will continue planting in the next few days.

She Gathers...

One of the things I love most about gardening is Seed Saving at the end of the growing season.

Saving seeds has helped me save money and I've learned to be a little more self reliant. I also have a better understanding on how my small scale crops grow.

There is always something new to learn and today is no exception. 

Morning Glory Seeds were easy to find on the dried vines.

A few random Nasturtiums blooms were still hanging on... 

 Underneath the foliage... seeds were scattered all along the ground.

 The seeds have been gathered up and will need to finish drying.The Broccoli bolted early in the season....

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the plant was loaded with hundreds of seed pods.

Pods open up easily for harvest.

 These Leek seeds have been growing in the greenhouse for 2 growing seasons.

To my surprise...small bulbs resembling garlic bulbs surrounded the base of the Leeks when pulled up.

I guess it should have been a no brainer, but I never knew that leeks could form bulbs and now I know different.

So, I broke apart the bulbs and replanted them in the greenhouse.  The seeds have been saved for Spring planting. 

*Upon further research I discovered that I may have harvested the seed head to soon. If left alone the seed head would have formed grass like hair with bulbils that could have been replanted as well. 

There is always something new to learn!

Garden Neglect

It is true...

Sadly I have neglected my garden!

It was high time to get it together...and get my sad, neglected, frost kissed garden cleaned out.

The Parsley and Kale are still truckin' along despite my total lack of care.

There were still plenty of Hungarian Wax Peppers to harvest.

The last of the tomatoes were pulled from the vines.


 and even though the  carrot harvest was terrible this year.....I managed to pull this monster ;-)

Feels good to get caught up in the garden...

Flower beds have been cleaned...
Seeds have been saved.....

and garlic is scheduled to be planted tomorrow.

More fall bulbs

Yesterday, was spent playing in the dirt and getting some more Fall Bulbs planted. We chose to add a little sunshine along the side of the greenhouse with Daffodil Bulbs from Breck's

I couldn't decide on just one...So, I planted a mix of three varieties....and added some Blue Muscari bulbs in too.

Roulette image source Breck's

Smiling Maestro image source: Breck's

Spring Fever image source Breck's

Re doing the flower bed

Fall is the perfect time to plant bulbs...and we have been wanting to change the front flower bed beneath the American Flag, for some time. 

Although, the Monarda ( Bee Balm) is stunning through July...

It quickly takes over and chokes everything else out. The scale of this flower just doesn't work where it's at....

So we spent Saturday digging it all out and relocating it to a different part of the yard.

We amended the soil with compost ...and got to work setting the bulbs in place.

Covered the bulbs to recommended depth and covered with a blanket of leaves for added insulation.

  We chose the combination of Plaisir Tulips and Blue Muscari Bulbs from tulips.com

Image source:tulips.com