• The pumpkins and squash are growing… slowly. The plants look good, they just aren’t producing much. And for some odd reason, a couple of the seeds just germinated a couple weeks ago.
• Occasionally, particularly in the summer, I like to take photos of the night sky. I didn’t get any wowing pics this time around, but it’s still fun to try.
• Tomatoes growing in a barrel. Love!
• It seems we are having more than usual squirrel and chipmunk type critters visiting us.
• We live on an unmaintained logging road. The only upkeep on the road is after a logging task or when we or the neighbors fix it. New neighbors moved in not too long ago. They fixed the road! Woop, woop! I love them already. As a small token of our thanks we brought them hard cider and apples from our trees.
• The company sent us, at no charge, a new batch of hatching eggs. There was not any better outcome than last time. This time one cream legbar hatched. Also, one of our own olive eggers hatched. Crummy, crummy, crummy. This really messed up my breeding plan. Time to come up with a new plan… without using hatching eggs shipped across the country.

The post 2016 Update – Week 36 appeared first on .

The summer harvest season is here. All the time and effort is paying off in delicious ways.

MAIN GARDEN AREA

Squash. That pretty much sums up what we’re getting from the main garden right now.

In a separate bed, but still in the main garden, are more squash & pumpkins. I planted these later than the first batch, but I think we’ll still get to harvest them before the first frost.

There is a handful of other things in varying stages in the garden, as well.

Raspberries! At the beginning of July, the raspberries were quite plentiful. A couple times I went to the garden for other tasks and came back with a shirt full of raspberries because I just couldn’t resist. By the end of July, the raspberries are mostly gone, but we are still getting a few.

FRUIT TREES

The plums were green at the beginning of July. But, now almost a month later they are ripe and delicious.

We have one apple tree that is so full of apples the tree can’t support them. I will happily take this problem. Our fruit trees, in general, have not done well over the years. I’m thrilled we will have more than one or two apples to munch on.

AQUAPONICS & GREENHOUSE

The tomatoes, Mexican sour gherkins, and Asian eggplants have gone bonkers in the greenhouse.

HERBS

Much of last year’s sage in the main garden has already grown, flowered, and gone to seed. Farm Kid2 collected some of the seed.

The herb barrels are doing well. The parsley, especially, is growing almost faster than I can harvest and use or preserve. I didn’t tend to the cilantro well enough and much of it has flowered and gone to seed. So, I planted more and will hopefully stay more on top of harvesting it. I also planted more basil, since much of the basil didn’t transplant well.

I have never grown tarragon until now. I’ve decided I’m not a huge fan of the flavor. But, I do love its flowers.

In the herb barrels are also a couple non-herbs – tomatoes and peppers. At this time, the best growing pepper is called Ancho Tiburon.

BOUNTY

Bounty in these pics:
Lavender – Harvested. Hung to dry. And now placed in a jar waiting to become sachets or soap.
Red Tomatoes – Turned into marinara with onions from the garden and herbs from the patio herb barrels.
Yellow Cherry Tomatoes – Just for snacking
Mexican Sour Gherkins – Also, for snacking
Kale – Let’s be honest. I’m not a fan of kale. I fed it to the chickens. In exchange I collected their beautiful, scrumptious eggs.
Raspberries – Devoured
Parsley – This batch was used in potato salad and the rest was frozen in oil to use at another time.
Squash/Zucchini – The majority of the squash has been blanched and frozen. The larger one were given to the chickens. And, some were made into zoodles.
Calendula – Picked. Dried. Now sitting in grape seed oil. Later I will transform the calendula/grape seed oil into a salve.

What fresh items are you harvesting?

The post How Our Garden Grows – July 2016 appeared first on .

Thankfully, we had a mild spring. So, planting the garden early worked out perfectly. Everything has gotten off to a fabulous start. Some things are even ready to enjoy.

MAIN GARDEN AREA

Well, it’s not our most beautiful garden. Parts of it are horribly overgrown. It needs weeded. But, the majority of the produce is growing well.

Zucchini

In a separate bed, I recently planted rows of squash, pumpkins, and gourds.

Since I started the herbs early in the greenhouse, the cilantro has already flowered… oops. It will need to plant more seed. I love cilantro.

The raspberries are starting to ripen. Yay!

Some of the lettuce and kale could already be cut.

The tomatoes have lovely, yellow flowers. This is the beginning of my impatient waiting for the onset of glorious, red tomatoes.

This was fun to watch. One cedar waxwing shared its red berry with its friend.

FRUIT TREES

Apples and plums are doin’ their growing thing.

AQUAPONICS & GREENHOUSE

In the greenhouse we have tomatoes at varying stages, an Asian eggplant is flowering, lettuce and kale are ready, Mexican sour gherkins are ready to be picked, and a few beans are making an appearance.

The post How Our Garden Grows – June 2016 appeared first on .

• It might be a tad late, but I finally got our squash and pumpkins planted.

• I love cedar waxwings and they’re here. Woop, woop! Farmer John has a different opinion of them, though. They are eating our raspberries and when he went to shoo them away one pooped on him – and pooped raspberry goo on him.

• This mess in the upper right photo is the mat of roots that get caught in the aquaponics pipes.

• We spotted a baby bird on the ground the other day. Mama bird was busy chirping away.

• The Little’s enjoying feed, oyster shell, and grit

• A colony of ants decided to stake out in the game cam.

• Mexican sour gherkins are going crazy in the greenhouse.

The post 2016 Update – Week 24 appeared first on .

• The grape vine has taken off

• I think the deer mama’s have gone off to have their babies. There are a couple yearlings walking around by themselves wondering what to do.

• Apples! We have struggled getting our fruit trees to actually grow and produce. I see quite a few apples on 2 of our trees. Woo hoo!

• Waiting impatiently for the raspberries to ripen.

• A flock of cedar waxwings have ventured our way. I love them.

• Foxgloves in bloom are my cue that summer is here!

• Sven mid chew.

• I let the cilantro flower. Oops.

• Our Littles are growing up.

The post 2016 Update – Week 23 appeared first on .

We took a risk last month and planted our summer garden. So far so good. The weather has cooperated and everything is growing well… including the weeds.

THE MAIN GARDEN AREA

Lots of greens, beets, radishes, onions, tomatoes and herbs growing.

HERBS

Over grown sage in the garden.

A variety of herbs growing nicely in the greenhouse.

I put together three herb gardens in old barrels and set them on our patio. Most items transplanted well, but the basil was not impressed with the move. I have intentions of blogging about them later.

The post How Our Garden Grows – May 2016 appeared first on .

Nothing has changed in the aquaponics system. The only new additions are a bunch of plants enjoying the greenhouse conditions.

Outside

Grow Bed #1

The first grow bed has left over swiss chard and one pepper plant. They are there mainly because we needed plants growing over the winter and they are doing alright, so they stayed to help out the aquaponics ecosystem.

Bush beans, kale and romaine seedlings are newly planted right in the grow bed.

A few herbs and tomato seedlings in pots are placed on the grow bed simply because I want them in the greenhouse and we don’t have much shelf space. So, they are sitting in the grow bed for a short time.

Grow Bed #2

This grow bed also has leftover plants from last year – kale and tomato.

I’m also using this bed as a shelf to hold herbs and tomato starts in pots.

Grow Bed #3

Bed number 3 only has plants from last year – sour gherkins and eggplant. Both are producing new goodies for us to eat.

Growing in the Greenhouse

Scattered throughout the greenhouse are even more herbs, veggies, tomato, and flower starts.

Tilapia

The tilapia are doing their daily routine of swimmin’, eatin’, and poopin’.

The post Aquaponics Update – April 2016 appeared first on .

September is nearly over and our garden is coming to a close for the year. This wasn’t our most prolific gardening season, but we managed to enjoy a bit of home grown goodies.

OUR GARDEN

WEEDS
Let’s just be honest. The garden has far more weeds growing in it than edible produce.

However, there are still a few goodies growing between the weeds.

EGGPLANT & KALE

POTATOES & ONIONS
We dug up the potatoes and onions and set them out to dry for a few days.

PUMPKINS
I picked all the little pumpkins. Eventually I’ll get around to setting up something pretty for the fall holidays.

I left the Cinderella & Atlantic Giant pumpkins in the garden.

What’ s up with this scrawy, thing? Too little, too late there fella.

GARDEN VISITORS
A whole flock of Golden-crowned sparrows spend most of their day in the garden. I don’t blame them. There’s a ton for them to snack on.

AQUAPONICS & GREENHOUSE

Eggplant, Mexican sour gherkins, swiss chard, okra, tomatoes and peppers are growing in the greenhouse.

FRUIT TREES & GRAPES

We have a couple wimpy apple trees that we’ve gotten a few apples from this year. They’re delicious.

Our 2 grape vines are doing well. The kids have picked quite a few grape clusters. I don’t love this variety, but the rest of the family eats them.

I think that’s about it for the garden this year. We missed the time to plant for a fall garden. Darn it. That works out ok, though. We’re going to move a combination of pigs, goats, chickens and/or ducks to the garden to clean up our mess. They’ll love it. And, we won’t have quite as much to do come spring. Win, win for all of us.

The post How Our Garden Grows – September 2015 appeared first on .

It seems a little strange that it’s already the end of August and we haven’t done much preserving of our our garden harvests. We didn’t plant a ton of zucchini this year. So, we have enough to eat, but not a never ending supply. Other squash and cucumbers are the same way. I had hoped to can salsa and marinara, but we didn’t have much luck with tomatoes this year. We did can 37 quarts of peaches, but the peaches weren’t from our orchard. Our herbs are doing well, but I haven’t preserved them like I should have. There are lots of onions & potatoes that will need pulled soon. Maybe we’ll have time to preserve a few things now that summer is winding down.

OUR GARDEN

THREE SISTERS
The beans went crazy and produced lots this month. Many of the pumpkins and gourds are looking great. But, the corn is only doing so-so.

KALE & CUCUMBERS

TOMATOES
Top: Our tomato plants this year haven’t done too well, but we are getting some red tomatoes.
Bottom: Many yellow cherry tomato plants reseeded or regrew from plants last year. However, they’re growing in a very weedy spot of the garden, making them difficult to pick.

SQUASH

AND MORE
Left: One lone sunflower grew out of the hundreds of seeds I planted.
Right: An entire section of the garden is a weedy mess. Boo! What a waste of space. We just haven’t had the time to keep up.

AQUAPONICS & GREENHOUSE

Produce in the greenhouse is doing very well. We’re getting eggplant, Mexican sour gherkins, okra, peppers, ground cherries, & tomatoes.

BERRIES, GRAPES & FRUIT TREES

Top: The grapes are doing fantastic.
Bottom: We’ve picked only a couple ripe apples. When I think of apple trees, I think of old trees covered in apples – so many they’re falling off the branches. We don’t have that.
Not pictured: The only berries we’re getting are wild blackberries. They’re a blessing and a curse. They are delicious. But, they are invasive & thorny.

The post How Our Garden Grows – August 2015 appeared first on .

We’ve had a handful of cooler weather, but for the most part it has continued to be hot. The garden is taking full advantage of this. Here’s how things are looking this month:

OUR GARDEN

ONIONS
Lots of onions. Red, Yellow & Walla Walla. We’ve harvested a few already.

TOMATOES
All the tomato plants in the garden are the shrimpiest things. Normally they grow so wild I think we need something better than tomato cages to hold them. This year, though, they are barely 2 feet tall. Weird. Not enough water, maybe?
We have eaten a few red tomatoes, and they taste fine.

THREE SISTERS
The pumpkins, squash, and beans are growing like crazy in our three sisters plot. The corn, though, has taken cues from our tomatoes and are staying short. We had this same short corn problem last year…

AND MORE
Eggplant, kale & an odd shaped zucchini

AQUAPONICS & GREENHOUSE

The greenhouse has been producing a few goodies, click here to find out more.

BERRIES, GRAPES & FRUIT TREES

The grapes are coming on.
Plums are just now ripe and delicious.
There are a few apples nearly ready for picking.
And, the raspberry picking is slowing down.

The post How Our Garden Grows – July 2015 appeared first on .