Growing forward

A few weekends ago, with the help of some very knowledgeable folks, I made a decision on the location of my greenhouse. Thanks Scott and Chelsea!  I appreciate your helping me with this, and look forward to the design and construction of a workable, efficient, and cost-effective 10' x 12' greenhouse in a few months! Scott and Chelsea are wanting to have a greenhouse of their own someday soon, and we will experiment with mine first.  Great idea, huh?!  They are part of the Naca Valley Vineyard that is being cultivated just north of my farm in Nacogdoches County.  My friend, Wanda and her hubby, Buzz Mouton, are the driving forces behind it, working hard towards fulfilling their dream of operating their own winery on family land. You can visit their site for more info here:  https://www.facebook.com/nacavalley.winery  It is quite an exciting adventure!  

Scott and Chelsea are in the foreground, Buzz in the back.  To the right are some of
the rows of grapevines planted.  This photo was taken in very early spring, I believe.

As for my little greenhouse, we chose a nice, fairly level spot in Jagger's old pasture beyond my backyard fence .... in the same general area where I made the new raised bed for the asparagus beans and am also growing the squash, eggplants, and melons in pots.  The greenhouse will be to the east of that planting area. The location is south of my home structure and away from the large pine in the southeast part of my back yard that would have blocked some of the winter sun that I will need to fall on the greenhouse.  It will be out of the way of the north/south wind tunnel directly behind my parking pad, and far enough away from any shade trees in the pasture and near the house to allow for plenty of sun in the spring and summer.  A bit of shade at that time of the growing season will be fine.

Greenhouse location!  I have already removed one section of the
fence separating my immediate back yard and this former pasture.

It will be built out of pressure treated wood and either fiberglass or the new type of plastic panel now available.  I need to go check both out face to face at Lowe's soon, and decide which I like best visually as well as which will hold up better in the long run for me.  I have gotten quite a bit of information from this website:   www.littlegreenhouse.com     The site sells greenhouse kits and equipment, and offers some tips for construction of the foundation and such.  I was particularly excited about a lever that will raise a roof panel for ventilation and it is powered by the outside temperature .... no electricity and no batteries needed! I think that is way cool!  Sort of like solar energy, but not exactly!

I have decided that the floor will be made of this great recycled rubber mulch I found at Lowe's and have tried out in between two of my raised beds this year.  First I hoed all the weeds out of the pathway, then lay down 6 layers of newspaper (not any of the shiny sections like the ads/flyers) over the bare ground.  Then I thoroughly soaked the newspaper before laying down about 4" of the mulch.

This is the recycled rubber mulch I used.  It costs about $10/bag, 
but will last much longer than the usual bark type, and doesn't soak
up water or attract termites and bugs.

As you can see, it has worked very well keeping out weeds, which
had been a major battle for me for years. And it looks nice, too!

I have tried numerous things over the past few years and this stuff is the best for my needs.  It comes in two other colors, I think, and I chose the brown.  For a person who loves to be barefoot, however, I have had to remember to wear my clogs into the garden when I need to go down this path.  The rubber really heats up in the sun!  Like asphalt!  This may be one reason why it does a good job as a mulch .... the weeds can't stand the heat!  I do get a few brave weedlings here and there, but they are easily removed, and not anything like what I have battled before!

Because of the heating up factor,  I plan to use it as the floor of my greenhouse!  In the winter, with the sun shining through the roof, this rubber mulch should heat up and hold its heat to keep the inside of the greenhouse nice and toasty, and, hopefully, I will not have to install a heater that uses electricity.  

Meanwhile, I have pretty much given up on my Brussels sprout plant and the fava beans this year. (sigh)  I need to move on.  I pulled them all up this weekend, and, of course, added them to my compost bin.  I need to do more research on the cultivation of the B.sprouts and other members of the brasica family because I really enjoy eating them and they are a wonderful source of good things for your health.

As for the fava beans, I have enjoyed watching them grow and bloom, but the weather here doesn't seem to be conducive to them, or at least the weather we have had this year.  It has taken FOREVER to have any pods large enough to harvest, and the winds have beaten them down numerous times, snapping their stalks in half or bending them low to the ground where they have ended up rather moldy and muddy.  This is even though they were caged with wire fencing for support.  The plants themselves are stalks that do not form tendrils for clinging, nor do they bush out for strength at their base.  In fact, they tended to be quite top heavy, especially in the rain.

This is one of my typical weekly harvests of fava beans from about

20 plants.  Fairly scant, wouldn't you say?!  This is after shelling them

from the pods, but before blanching them to remove the outer casings.

Here, on the left, we have a bowl of those same fava beans with the
outer layer removed after blanching, and, on the right, is the outer layer

casings.  That is right!  You have to shell them twice!!! And all I got for
all that trouble was what's in the bowl on the left!  They were good, tho.

I won't say that I am not interested in them enough to try again, because so far what little I have harvested were really quite tasty, with a buttery, nutty flavor. But, I think that I will stick to growing the more common types of peas and beans next spring, instead. Gardening should be a fun adventure, not a frustrating one. Don't you agree?!

The vegetable plants are doing very well, especially after a recent week of heavy, soaking rains.  Ben and I added an arbor over the path between two of the raised beds so that the cucumbers on both sides of the path could grow up and over it!  I love the way it looks!  In my mind, there will be a race to see which side reaches the top first!  Which type of cuke will win?  I'll keep you posted .....

The cucumber arch with slicing cucumbers on the 
left and the lemon cucumbers on the right.

Tomatoes and marigolds.

Asparagus beans beginning to climb their trellis!

Bed mates and cousins, okra on the left and cotton
on the right.

Squash plants doing very well in the plastic raised
bed containers.  Once a week I add water to each

through the watering tube that leads to the bottom

of the container.

Beefsteak tomatoes ... can't wait for a tomato and onion and fresh
basil sandwich on multi-grain bread!

Cute little baby patty pan (button) squash.

And, just as cute, a baby acorn squash!

My gardenia bushes bloomed profusely this week,  more so than in recent year!.  They must have really enjoyed all that rain we had. I have two bushes next to the parking pad, so when I drove up after work each night,  I was greeted with their wonderful fragrance that I love. It always reminds me of the beginning of summer and school being out for the summer!  I am thinking of trying to root some in my greenhouse, so that I can plant a few outside my bedroom window.  I usually still have my windows open in the house during their bloom time. Can you imagine how wonderful it would be to fall asleep with the fragrance of gardenias on an early summer night?!

Mmmm! Deep breath! Can't you smell them!

Life is so very good here on HeartSong Farm!

Shear joy!

At its height, HeartSong Farm had 33 llamas, old and young, in its pastures. One of my greatest pleasures was to sit in my back porch swing with a glass of something cool to drink, and spend time just watching and listening to the female herd and their crias grazing, chewing their cuds, sunbathing, rolling in their dust bowls, and interacting within the hierarchy of their llama society. The crunching sounds of grass being cropped, the ear flicks and tail swishes at the interference of pesky insects, the clouds of red dust, the stand-offs and neck arches, and, yes, an occasional spit!   I whiled away many a fine hour in such a fashion.  It was a form of meditation for me, and it helped greatly in my need to relieve much of the stress of my daily living at the time.

That was in the back pasture.  Out front, in their very own individual pens, were the male llamas who needed to be separated not only from the females, but from each other.  A fight between two male llamas is not a pretty sight, not to mention they could and would kill each other if they got a chance....over breeding rights! Males! These guys usually weigh in at 400 to 450 pounds each, and are generally so sweet and amenable, but when those hormones start coming into play, their strength and determination can seemingly double their weight instantaneously.  You need to be very careful when separating them.  Believe me, I speak from experience!

LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO MY HERD SIRES:

GL Ramsey

Catfish

HSF High Noon Sir Prize

Smokin' Jaguar

Ramsey and Smokin' have passed on and Catfish went to live on a farm nearby several years ago.  Smokin' and Prize have been my main studs through the years, and Jagger is Smokin's last cria and the only male he put his spots on.

I am now letting the remaining five llamas "age out" here in peaceful pastures. Sir Prize is the oldest at sixteen, then Texanna (the only female left) at fifteen, and the geldings: Armando (14) and Moonshadow (13).  The youngest is Jagger (aka HSF Jaguar Moon) who, at age two, should be around for a long time. Llamas can live to be 20 to 25 just like a horse, although none of mine have made it past 19.  Sir Prize was my first cria, and Jagger is my last.  (sigh!) 

The two geldings escaped into the back pasture with Texanna about a month ago by finding a weakness in the fence that separated them.  They could care less about her.  They saw how green and abundant the grass and weeds were in the pasture on her side of the fence!  However, this did cause some concern on the part of Sir Prize as he does not understand the difference in the meanings of the words stud and gelding.  As far as he is concerned, they are MALES!  Therefore, his fences have been reinforced and are checked periodically.

Just a few weeks ago, I moved Jagger out to the front pasture that his papa, Smokin' Jaguar, used to occupy, right across from Sir Prize.  There is a 10 foot passageway separating the two so that there are no "close encounters of the fighting kind."  There is a lot of glaring and pacing going on, however, on Sir Prize's part.  I don't think Jagger understands, really!  

After all these many years, I just can't imagine life in the foreseeable future without being able to see at least one llama in my pastures. Once Jagger becomes the Last of the HeartSong Farm Llamas, I will get a few goats to keep him company and to help him keep the weeds and brush down.  And that should be fairly entertaining, too!

I got my shears out this past week and cleaned and sharpened them up, then headed to the barn with them and both pairs of toe nail trimmers, a red llama halter, and a bucket of llama treats.  I hadn't been out to the barn since last fall and, oh my, it was filthy.  Winter winds and rains had worked havoc in there, tossing all sorts of stuff here and there.  After picking up a bunch of trash and putting some things back on their shelf, I set my shears and trimmers down, and set off with the halter and bucket of treats toward Jagger's pasture.  He was first on my list for a haircut, but he didn't know it yet!

My tools:  Nail trimmers (2) on left, and my Fiskars shears on right.

I bought some electric shears years ago when I had 28 to shear one 

spring, but I didn't really care for them even though they were faster.

I prefer these hand shears because they produce fewer second cuts.

They are also cheaper! When they get dull, I just go to Hobby Lobby 

and get a new pair.

Jagger, pre-haircut, ignoring me and the halter.

Llamas can be rather contentious about getting a haircut.  First of all, they are suspicious about anytime they see you approaching with a halter!  Then, when they see you have a bucket of treats with the halter, they know you are up to something, yet they are conflicted.... there will be treats! .....  but there is a halter.... how to act, what to do?!  Stay just out of reach, but close to the bucket.... try to grab a mouthful, then step back out of reach again.....see how long you can keep this up before you have to give in to the halter....maybe she will give up.... and leave the bucket anyway ..... just this once!

Once they are caught and have a halter on, they are the most docile of creatures (usually!) that you can imagine. This is because they are innately curious and now they are curious about what kind of adventure is ahead with the halter on their heads.  

HERE IS THEIR THOUGHT PATTERN:

Maybe a date with one of the females (Yes!) or maybe a walk near the rose bushes by the farmhouse..... a mouthful or two of the red or white roses would be quite nice! And there are some blackberry vines over by the driveway... oh, yummy!  But wait, didn't I notice one of my kind with a haircut the other day?!  Oh, no! Is that what this is all about?!  I mean.... it IS a lot cooler with a haircut, but what if it doesn't turn out right? What if the others don't approve of my new look?!  What if they refuse to be seen with me?!!  What if it ends up longer on one side, or is cut too close on the legs?  And, heaven forbid, what if she shaves my neck again....all the way up to my jaw....like a few years ago when it was so hot and humid already before summer had really begun?  We all looked like creatures from outer space!  No! No! NO!  I am afraid!  Haircut, NO!!!!  Time to dig in with back legs and pretend to be a donkey....put ears back against my head and look like spit is about to happen! Wait, no, doesn't work with her....she is calm and patient and encourages me to take just one step towards her and waits until I do....and spit doesn't bother her for some reason....DANG!  Looks like I am in for a haircut after all....  When will I ever learn?  Well, it WILL be a lot cooler, and so what if they don't like my haircut...it'll grow out soon.  Okay, let's get this over with, and no tickling my tummy and those shears better be nice and sharp!!!!

Jagger in the chute inside the barn.  He will also get his toenails trimmed.

It all starts with a cut through the fiber down the back line!

One side sheared.  Look at the spots and the fiber!  This is a barrel cut.

Looking good and feeling cooler.  Still not happy!

Dang! This new hairstyle itches!!!! 

The fiber treasure bag!  I use a pop-up laundry hamper
to collect what is shorn off.

You can just see how wonderfully soft his fiber is!

This is Jagger's  fleece on my breakfast table.  Ahh, luxury!

Well, two more llamas still to shear, but Jagger and Prize are a lot cooler these days, even if they did have to be patient with me as I slowly worked my magic shears.  I tickled no tummies and was very careful with the toenail clippers.  It rained all week here in East Texas, so I couldn't get around to shearing Moonshadow and Armando. The good thing is the temperatures have not been too bad, either, and the wet ground will make toenail trimming much easier because their nails will be nice and soft.  It will be like trimming through butter!

I have yet to turn on the air conditioner, so we are trying to stay cool and out of the rain here on HeartSong Farm!

Gardening e-books

While I waited to plant my little seedlings these past few weeks, I perused several gardening books that I got online for my Kindle Fire.  There are quite a selection of e-books available on various aspects of gardening. Some I downloaded were good, some not so good.  Fortunately for me, I got them all on days when each was offered for free, and so I spent nothing for the information that I gained, as well as spending nothing on those that were a bust. Here are some of the ones I decided were "keepers:"

SOME GARDENING BOOKS I RECOMMEND :

A really well-written book of four pamphlets with loads 

of information and innovative ideas.  How about growing

potatoes in a 30 gallon Rubbermaid garbage can on your 

deck or balcony?!

This book is a great introduction to composting and 

raised beds.

A good book that will convince you of the value

of raised beds.  It doesn't actually show you how

to build them, however.

This short book gives some good info on these 

particular vegetables which are ones I will be

planting quite aggressively.

A really good book that gives great ideas for 

gardening in almost any situation, and especially

for urban dwellers.  It proves you can garden just

about anywhere.  I really liked that!

I have these gardening books (and more!) on my Kindle Fire HD as well as on my desktop computer and an old laptop. The Kindle makes them portable, of course, but when I want to share the photos or I want to show my son, Ben, (who might be helping me with some aspect of a project) what I am talking about, then I pull up the book on my computer.  That way it is easier to see and share.  I can also pull it up on the laptop for a large display that can be carried outside, if necessary.  Sometimes I really like technology .... a lot!

I have been composting now for several years.  My two bins are just old plastic 30 gallon garbage cans with lids that I alternate from season to season.  The way I do it, one bin is ready to use every 6 months or so.  I use my compost in addition to the llama beans I mentioned last post.  This combination of added material to my garden beds insures plenty of nutrients that break down quickly to create a rich growing medium for plants and seeds, and surprisingly fewer weeds to pull.

Here are my two bins made from old Rubbermaid

30 gallon garbage cans.  The lids lock on to deter

any curious creatures from checking out the contents.

We drilled holes all around the upper and base of the

bins in order to promote good air circulation for faster

decomposition of the contents.

This bin is in the last stages of  decomposition.  I have added a final

layer of "brown" ingredients to the last layer of "green" ingredients....

several inches of dirt and leaves that piled up on my driveway through

the winter and early spring months.

The other bin is in the early stages of composting with a "brown" layer 

of leaves and soil from the driveway on the very bottom and a "green" 

layer being build on top.... discarded produce pieces in this case.

I keep a bucket under the kitchen sink where I collect items to add to the compost bin each week.  I put my coffee grounds, eggshells, raw vegetable cuttings, onion skins, orange and banana peels, small pieces of cardboard, and the like.  You will be surprised at how quickly these things can add up, as well as how quickly they become usable in your garden!  Just remember that you do not want to include anything like meat, fat, grease, kitty litter or animal droppings, as this will make your compost smell or even die!  You don't want that, do you?!

This weekend was spent enjoying seeing the early rewards of all my hard work in the garden the past few weeks.  I am really pleased!  The okra and cucumbers are up and growing quickly, as is the squash.  You can almost watch them grow if you stay long enough among them!  The tomatoes are beginning to bloom (there is even a little tomato on one of the Marglobes!) and it is about time to harvest the rest of the winter crop of Swiss chard in order to make room for the spring crop of plants growing in its range.  I hesitate in doing this because they are still doing so well, and their colors of red and green and purple are so lovely in the garden right now!  But soon the heat of the season will make them wilt and I will have to steel myself to pull them, roots and all, out of the earth. I love the sound and feel of pulling weeds out of the ground, but these are my babies!

This weekend I planted the rest of the containers for the cotton and put them way out front away from the variety I planted in the main garden.  This last batch of seeds was from white cotton that seemed to have a yellowish cast to it compared to the rest of the white.  I planted the darkest and bluest green cotton seeds in the main garden.  I also gave some brown cotton seeds to a friend to plant in her garden.  Wanda's seeds were some of the Sea Island Brown cotton that had more of a reddish cast than the rest of my crop from last year.  I can't wait to see what happens with these variations of the originals I had planted.  I enjoy a good experiment!

Meanwhile, I am trying really hard not to be tempted to buy any perennials, rose bushes, or petunias when I visit the garden department at Lowe's.  Naturally I want to concentrate my efforts and finances this year on the veggie beds and saving up to build my greenhouse by summer's end.

And so I am really enjoying the blossoms on my "butterfly rose" bush (Mutabilis) and soon my chaste bush/trees will present their purple blue spires for me, the bees and butterflies to enjoy.

The flowers of the butterfly rose start off as orange buds

then open to five yellow petals which change the next day

to pink and finally to magenta!  All four colors appear on 

the bush at the same time, making it quite a magical sight!

UPDATE ON NEW BIRD IN THE YARD

The greenish yellow bird I saw last week in my front yard was not the yellow-throated vireo that I thought it was. After a bit more research and sightings of the male that accompanied it, I now have identified it as a female orchard oriole.  For several years I have seen a male of this species in my back pastures singing his heart out at the top of the trees, but I don't recall noticing the female, even though I knew that she must be out there.  I do recall seeing a yellowish green bird fleetingly at times, but it was not enough to be able to identify it. This time, last week's sighting, was in the front yard close enough to really see the female as it perched on a bare branch of the crepe myrtles in between making acrobatic swoops for insects. Several times during this past week, I saw a male orchard oriole out in the front yard at the same time, and I put two and two together, along with some online research, where I was even able to hear the music of this happy songster.

Male Orchard Oriole

You can go to this site online and read all about them and even hear recordings of the glorious songs that I enjoy in my back, and now front, yard!   http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/orchard_oriole/sounds

Finally, on Saturday Ben and I discovered some baby cottontails on an adventure in some high grass in our front yard.  (The front yard has been a very busy place lately!)  They were quite a ways from the two brier patches.  We grabbed them and put them back (hopefully in the right one) and hope that Mrs. Cottontail found her naughty babies soon afterwards.

Baby cottontail bunny

Entrance to the brier patch where we deposited the little bunnies.

Well, I guess that is all for now from HeartSong Farm.  Next week we'll be shearing the llamas.

In and out of my garden

I hope that you and/or the mothers in your life have celebrated a wonderful day today, as I have.  Gifts and long phone calls, less humid weather with a nice breeze, clothes freshly washed and hung on the line, and several hours spent puttering in my new garden.

The last three weekends I have been quite busy outside in my vegetable garden, and I believe I have finally finished getting it in shape and completely planted, except for some of the white cotton seeds that will go in large pots out front away from the dark green that I planted in with the veggies.  After all this hard work, I can say that I am tired, but very happy about the results!

IN THE GARDEN

The patty pan (button) squash planted in one of the raised
bed containers after the black mulch cover was removed.

I must give an update on my findings with the use of the Patio Pickers Raised Garden Kit system that I reviewed a couple of posts ago (click here to view).  I kept noticing that quite a few of the squash plants in each of the three containers were wilting and looking quite sad.  Eventually, some had to be pulled.  Then yesterday I decided that maybe it had something to do with the black plastic mulch cover, because the potting soil around the plants seemed to be wet, not moist.  Maybe it was holding too much moisture in and causing the plants to literally "drown?!"  So, yesterday I removed the covers on each, and this morning and throughout the day as I checked on them, the little squash plants seemed to be recovering their strength.  In fact, I noticed several blooms on the zucchini this afternoon on my last jaunt through my garden.  I am encouraged.

I turned this old, unused Rubbermaid water trough into a raised 

bed for the muskmelons.

One of quite a few eggplants I am growing in containers this year.

Icicle radishes looking good in an old plastic window box, 

complete with a lizard!

And the "corn salad" is also doing well in a matching window box.

Tomatoes, marigolds and basil all in rows!  Okra and cucumbers are 

sprouting in the rows beyond, and soon the green cotton I planted today. 

One of my two old raised beds.

The other old raised bed.  This one has the winter crop of chard, garlic,

the Brussels sprout, rosemary and oregano .... with the new plantings of

marigold, cilantro, basil, frying peppers, pimento, lemon cucumbers, 

parsnips, and salsify.  

The parsnips are on the left and the salsify on the left.  I plan to plant

 more in mid to late summer.

Common Basil

Purple Leaf Basil, very similar to the common variety only with

lovely purple leaves.

Greek Basil, leaves a bit firmer and pointed.

Thai Basil, which has tiny pointed leaves and purple

flower spikes that remind me of salvia.  The fragrance 

is deliciously peppery!

Here is the "front garden" which consists of the original two raised beds and the bed with the fava beans of 

the winter garden.

And here is the new "back garden" which, up until two weeks ago, was Jagger's pasture.  Now it contains one raised bed up against the fence for the asparagus beans and new crop of chard, as well as a number of containers planted with the melons, more squash, and the eggplants.  Today, I planted some of the seeds for the dark bluish green cotton seeds at the left end of the raised bed.

OUT OF THE GARDEN
During the week, I noticed a new hawk on the telephone poles along the highway I travel regularly, to and from town.  I have come to believe that it is a broad winged hawk.  My first sighting was one afternoon, as I drove up to my mailbox on the south side of the highway, and a hawk was across the road and down just a bit.  I carefully walked step by step along the paved shoulder until I was directly across from it and took mental notes of the markings.  It was not one of my red-shouldered hawks as I had first thought!  It's head and beak were different (I'd say smaller), and there was no red on the shoulders, just shades of brown and golden brown.

It let me observe it for about 10 minutes, then one of those gargantuan chicken trucks passed by and the hawk flew to another pole down the road.  In flight, I could see the tail feathers, black and white banded, and once I was inside, I grabbed my Peterson's Field Guide and decided it was a broad winged hawk that I had seen. For a hawk lover like me, this was quite an exciting event! I have since seen it one other time, in the morning on a pole not far from its position on my first sighting.  

As I have reported before, there are two red shouldered hawks that have returned to the area of my farm for several years now.  I have christened them Token and Charm.  (What?! Why of course, I named them! They are magnificent!)  There is also a pair of red tailed hawks that I have been following for almost 8 years that I have named Aegis and Aurora.  Their territory is about one and half miles from the outskirts of town, about two and half miles to the west of the farm, and I see them quite frequently on my way to and from work, either perched atop a pole or hovering and diving for a catch.

If this new hawk stays around and then returns next year, it will earn a name as well!  Any ideas?!

I was happy to see that several scissor-tail flycatchers have recently returned for the summer here in my small part of the world.  I really enjoy watching their ballet-like movements in the air as they select their mates, and, later in the summer, as they spot insects high above the open areas of my pastures. Truly an amazing site to behold!

And, yesterday afternoon I caught sight of a very new feathered visitor to HeartSong Farm, and a quick look at my field guide confirmed my first impression that it was either a warbler or vireo of some kind. I am 95% positive that it is a vireo of the yellow-throated persuasion.  A few more sightings and I should be able to confirm this.  I know that I have heard a distinct new song in the front yard the past week, so hopefully we have a new resident among us!

AND FINALLY.....

In the afternoon, Godfrey confiscated the box that held my Mothers Day gifts.

And that is how it went this week on HeartSong Farm!