05
Aug
Aug
I’ve been a bit negligent in posting pictures of everything growing at the plot, so here are a few taken the first weekend in August. Lots of vertical growing going on!
Author Archives: annabel
01
Aug
Aug
In early July we plowed a portion of our back lawn and planted a cover crop of buckwheat. It grew magnificently, making a nice canopy over the ground crowding out most of the weeds (with the exception of persistent purslane…argh). Last weekend it started to flower, so we tilled it under. In another week we […]
If you’ve been reading along, you have noticed that our backyard is a giant lawn. Well, no longer…at least one portion of grass (~2000 sq ft) will not need to be mowed any more. Phase 1 of our backyard transformation is underway as Spink spent the weekend doing some primary tillage, putting Bertha back to […]
05
Jul
Jul
Purslane has taken over many of our SPIN beds. The weather has been incredible, bouts of rain mixed with warm, sunny days. Of course, we love this combination and so do the plants. Plus, we do not have to irrigate. Unfortunately, the weeds love it too and they are growing like mad in a few […]
03
Jul
Jul
Growing sans chemicals doesn’t come without challenges. The latest pest pressure has come in the form of cucumber beetles, which started feasting on my cucumber and zucchini plants. I had some yellow sticky traps that I employed as soon as I noticed they were there and then purchased a trap and lure, which has worked […]
20
Jun
Jun
The spring has been lovely and tasty turnips are the result. It seems people at the market don’t really know what to do with them. I’ve been experimenting too since this isn’t a vegetable that I was too familiar with either! These babies are hakurei turnips and are sweeter than the purple and yellow waxy […]
31
May
May
We continue to make discoveries at our homestead…some good, some not so good. The grape vine appears to be thriving and we think we may have a couple mulberry trees in our back yard. We also managed to put in a bed of strawberries that look great. My mouth is already watering in anticipation of […]
30
May
May
Another major task at our new homestead involved pruning a sorely neglected grape vine that I hope will thrive after this much needed trim. I think I also need to fix the trellis, but will wait to see if the vine appears to recover before investing time in that. I was afraid I had pruned […]
19
May
May
This year we actually had spring! It has been glorious – a mix of sun, rain, cool nights and more sun. All this has led to some nice harvests the past couple of weeks and the small Birdtown plot has sprung to life again. Here are some recent pics….
22
Apr
Apr
It’s Earth Day and I have always been inspired by those who would plant a tree in honor of this day (even though I kinda feel like we should appreciate our home every day of the year, but that is a different story…). Anyway, now that we actually have a large enough yard and a […]