Old Fashioned Lifestyle

Snowy winter afternoons, a perfect time to read that novel you haven’t found time for yet, work on that knitting project, or start preparing for the garden.

What?

Prepare for the garden? We still have months of winter left!

True enough.

But now is the perfect time of year to start figuring out what to plant, where to plant it, and get ready to either order seeds from the catalogue or exchange seeds with other gardeners.

Exchanging seeds can be a great way to go if you like to plant heirloom seeds or you are in the market for crops that are not sold at your local grocery store in the spring.

This year, I will be planting some new (to me) crops, as I plan to follow the methods presented in “Four-Season Harvest” In this book, Eliot Coleman teaches his reader that it is possible to harvest year round, even if you live in a zone 5 climate. One of the most elements of his process is to pick a crop that can tolerate cold weather.

So, this year, I am in the market for the following (new to me) garden seeds:

• Arugula
• Green Chicory
• Endive
• Escarole
• Kale
• Kohlrabi
• Leek
• Mache
• Mizuna
• Radicchio
• Sorrel

While I love the winter, this afternoon has made me look forward to spring!  Do you have any of these seeds?  I’d love to exchange with you.  I’m listing my barter items at Swaperoo.

August brings in a mix of feelings for the gardener. The garden is in full abundance. All the hard work that was put into the soil earlier in the year is now paying off. And yet, there is a feeling of regret. It is too late for this year. Time already to think of next. Next year, I will get more tomatoes into the ground. Next year. Next year.

The feeling is accentuated if something has gone wrong. Perhaps a hail storm has come along and wiped out your harvest. Perhaps the animals found their way into the garden and helped themselves! Perhaps you were busy, and the seeds went into the ground late. I have coped with these gardening dissapointments by thinking of next year.

Until Now.

Why?

Because, I’m reading the book, ‘Four-Season Harvest’ by Eliot Coleman. Mr. Coleman lives in Maine and he manages to harvest greens all year long.

What? I can plant seeds in August and September? Let the dirt digging begin. I am inspired.

Technorati Tags: Gardening

This photo was taken by Giggle Goose.

I am planning a protective hedge on our property.  The purpose of this hedge is many fold:

• Create a protective area for our small livestock (chickens and rabbits)
• Create a santuary for birds
• Create windshield

We lock our chickens up at night, but during the day we let them free range.  Occasionally, our neighbors dog will head over for some lunch.  We have tried scaring them off with a shotgun, but they don’t seem to remember for long.  We have contimplated actually shooting at the dog, but I would feel horrible about that.  Then again, I feel horrible when I catch the dog red-handed killing our chickens. 

 My long term solution is to provide a protective hedge around the primary area that they range.  

I have also picked out the shrubs we would use.

• Silver Buffaloberry.  Thorny.  Provides an excellent protection for birds.  Fruit highly prized for making jelly.
• Nanking Cherry.  Shrub producing edible fruit – tasting like a tart cherry.  Also often used in making jelly.  I’m just not sure if this will be dense enough to keep the neighbor dogs out???
• ChokeCherry.  I was considering the chokecherry until I read on wikipedia that it is toxic to horses!  Yikes.  Could it be true?
• Common Lilac.  I LOVE lilac bushes.  Need I say more?
• Woods Rose.  Beautiful.  Thorny.  Need I say more? 

The kids had fun getting involved in this as well.  They helped me measure the perimeter and do the math required to calculate how many seeds we will need to order.

I record this for numerous reasons:

• Humor.  We must remember to laugh.
• As a Benchmark.  One day, I will look back and feel pride and accomplishment at how far we have come.
• Did I mention Humor?
• As a way of celebrating the baby steps.  The small stuff.  For it is the step.  and then the next one.  and then the next one that carries us to our dream.

What is all this about?  The first Homestead harvest, of course!

Our projects – combined with my husbands wanderlust carried us away from the homestead for most of the spring and early summer.  As a result, the seeds didn’t even make it into the ground until July 1st.  Pathetic I know.  We fully understood at the time that there was really no point.  Our short Montana summers would not give any seed time to develop the harvest a homesteader longs for.  But we planted anyway.  How can you not?

This is what we got.  Well, we did get a little more than that, but you get the idea!!!  (The tomato plants were purchased from a nursery and later damaged in a hale storm.)

PS.  You will notice the two eggs.  In the fall, we also finally started to get eggs from the chickens.  The first batch we got – in about March – was slowly killed off due to the neighbors dog – but that is a different topic for a different day.   As a result, our egg yield was pretty low and every egg was a celebration!

Technorati Tags: Gardening