11/04/2016 11/04/2016

Su-per-CORN!

30/09/2015 30/09/2015

Out with the green, in with the brown

Anticipating a big rain, I pushed through pulling nearly everything out of the garden and planting it in cover crops.There are few tactile pleasures to rival plunging a hand into a sack of seed and hand broadcasting it:)

29/09/2015 29/09/2015

Potatoes

Not bad for a bed that I didn't plant any potatoes in!

27/09/2015 27/09/2015

First frost

25/09/2015 25/09/2015

A Skirtful of Tomatillos

24/09/2015 24/09/2015

Jungle hens

The greenhouse is a jungle. I don't know why I didn't really believe my tomatoes would grow into monster vines taller than me. They did. Just like everyone else's.

27/08/2015 27/08/2015

How chickens can make their own bed (ding).

I love my Chicken Mulch Cycle!The chicken make the straw for their bedding, add fertilizer, and their bedding becomes mulch.

25/08/2015 25/08/2015

Volunteer garlic growing after 15 years abandoned

This garlic must have been planted over 15 years ago; it's growing on the site of an old garden. It will be interesting to see how big they get next year in a cultivated site without competition. Hopefully the year after will see them to full size.

28/07/2015 28/07/2015

Currants!

Yay, first currants on the little $10 twig-in-a-pot we planted last year.

16/07/2015 16/07/2015

Fun task-planting strawberry runners

Many of them I pegged down in the existing patch, for replacement and more density, after separating the mulch cover for them.But I hope to be able to cut these off their umbilical cords once they get established, and move them to start another row of strawberries, so I am encouraging them to take root in my pots.

12/07/2015 12/07/2015

Trees are doing well

We got about a dozen hazelnuts, pecans, persimmons, and a mulberry from Grimo nurseries. Most of them are now quite nicely leafed out with new growth - very exciting.

04/07/2015 04/07/2015

Planting in the greenhouse

However, when I raked away the chips from a swathe of dirt for a garden bed, the soil was dark and moist. Wow! Best of all, no sod! The hens took care of that this winter.

02/07/2015 02/07/2015

Screen doors

Made screen doors for the greenhouse, so now I can plant in it.You're evicted, chickens!

15/06/2015 15/06/2015

Comfrey!

Comfrey is perhaps my number one (desert island) herb. I've been wanting it so bad, and wishing I could find some, and lo and behold, it was already here!

13/05/2015 13/05/2015

Maple trees

Since we have discovered the joy and ease of maple sap collection, I've developed keen eyes for the maple trees. One grey day I decided to go flag all the maples in our general habitat zone.

21/04/2015 21/04/2015

Tree tagging

I numbered all the fruit trees, and tagged them all with numbers I cut out of yogourt tubs and lids. This is so that I can keep notes about health, pruning, fruit, etc, variety! when we figure out what the heck any of them are...

20/03/2015 20/03/2015

First Day of Spring in Nova Scotia!

Officially 4 feet deep. The snow is over the top of our garden fence. Indoors, however, the first seeds of the year hatched today:) Yay, green! Sunflowers germinate so fast!

09/10/2014 09/10/2014

Winter Rye

The soil looks really good, full of worms, nicely friable. I’m sure happy we dug so many beds this spring. Now the beds are about one third in rye, one third in heavy mulch, and four beds will be in garlic in a couple weeks time.

19/09/2014 19/09/2014

First freeze

First freeze, and a doozy. A lot of plants froze despite being covered.

29/08/2014 29/08/2014

First potato

I was digging with my hands hoping for enough young potatoes for a meal, and this big one came up! A little bit on the creative side, but a nice healthy potato.The potatoes, beans, strawberries, and cucumbers are all thriving this year on the unamended soil we dug in the spring.