Well, I see it has been a week since I last posted. I guess so much for updating the blog at least every day or too. But in my defense, I have been really busy. The weekend was beautiful—as anticipated. And we got a lot accomplished around the homestead.
We worked on Sunday in the garden. The first order of business was to go to Lowe’s to get the plants that we needed. Since I did not make the time this year to start my own seeds indoors, we needed cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and onions (we picked out two varieties—sweet reds and sweet whites). Unfortunately, they were out of cauliflower, so those will have to be picked up later in the week. While we were there, we saw some other plants that we thought may be nice to get a head start on (we will start more from seed later). Those included Romaine lettuce, Red Sails lettuce, Butter Crunch lettuce, and Bok Choy, a Chinese cabbage. We have never eaten Bok Choy, but thought it would be nice to try something new. If we do not like it, maybe we can find someone that does.
After the trip to Lowe’s, Daniel and I removed all the big weeds and clumps of grass from the garden, then used the weed eater to cut all the other incidental weeds as close to the ground as possible. This time, we used the tiller to break the ground and smooth everything up. Initially, I did not think about the root systems left behind from the weed eating exercise. Now we had to use the garden rake to remove all the unwanted (which is all) root balls from the newly tilled soil. Thinking that this garden job would take only a couple hours at most was a mistake. BIG mistake! We spent most of the day clearing out the roots and weeds missed by the tiller. But it was a very enjoyable time—it’s hard to go wrong when you are out in the warm sunshine with your kids doing a job that you know will provide lasting benefits!
Not only did we get the “regular” garden prepped, but we also were able to get the grow boxes
ready. Last year, we experimented with the Square Foot Gardening method espoused by Mel Bartholomew. It was successful enough that we decided to continue using the grow boxes. But, since the area we used to place the boxes was covered (infested?) with wire grass, we had a lot of work to do. Wire grass is a relative to crab grass. Old timers around these parts call it “Devil’s Grass”…and it is the devil to get rid of. One old man told me once that there are only two ways to get rid of wire grass: 1) move and forget about it, and 2) die and not worry about it! And I am beginning to believe it! Anyway, after much digging and some black plastic, be had our grow boxes in place and refilled with the growing soil. Now everything was ready to accept the plants…except Daniel and I were both pooped and it was almost time to milk the goats. So, we decided to call it an evening with the garden. The picture is of the terraces we built and the grow boxes are at the top.
We had also decided that today we had to catch the fear mongering pigeon. It had eluded capture for long enough! Early on, we set up a simple trap…birdseed, milk crate, stick and string. Sometime during our busy day, the pigeon ate all the seed before we realized he was there. Missed him! So we re-baited the trap and returned to the garden work. Daniel happened to be going to the shed to get a garden tool when he saw said pigeon in the trap. He pulled the string and our strong, manly hunter/trapper instincts paid dividends.
But there was a flaw in our trap. The milk crate we used has larger holes for handles and I as I was reaching in to grab the pigeon, he squeezed through handle and off to freedom. Ah, man! So we would have to get him later. I spied him perched on a ledge in the shed later that night and tried to reach him, but he once again escaped. Funny thing is, I haven’t seen him since. Maybe he decided that he better move on while he still can.
I will update again soon with some pictures of the garden. Until then…be blessed and don’t be afraid to leave a comment if you have one. All you have to do is click on the comment link at the end of this post. :)
We worked on Sunday in the garden. The first order of business was to go to Lowe’s to get the plants that we needed. Since I did not make the time this year to start my own seeds indoors, we needed cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and onions (we picked out two varieties—sweet reds and sweet whites). Unfortunately, they were out of cauliflower, so those will have to be picked up later in the week. While we were there, we saw some other plants that we thought may be nice to get a head start on (we will start more from seed later). Those included Romaine lettuce, Red Sails lettuce, Butter Crunch lettuce, and Bok Choy, a Chinese cabbage. We have never eaten Bok Choy, but thought it would be nice to try something new. If we do not like it, maybe we can find someone that does.
After the trip to Lowe’s, Daniel and I removed all the big weeds and clumps of grass from the garden, then used the weed eater to cut all the other incidental weeds as close to the ground as possible. This time, we used the tiller to break the ground and smooth everything up. Initially, I did not think about the root systems left behind from the weed eating exercise. Now we had to use the garden rake to remove all the unwanted (which is all) root balls from the newly tilled soil. Thinking that this garden job would take only a couple hours at most was a mistake. BIG mistake! We spent most of the day clearing out the roots and weeds missed by the tiller. But it was a very enjoyable time—it’s hard to go wrong when you are out in the warm sunshine with your kids doing a job that you know will provide lasting benefits!Not only did we get the “regular” garden prepped, but we also were able to get the grow boxes
ready. Last year, we experimented with the Square Foot Gardening method espoused by Mel Bartholomew. It was successful enough that we decided to continue using the grow boxes. But, since the area we used to place the boxes was covered (infested?) with wire grass, we had a lot of work to do. Wire grass is a relative to crab grass. Old timers around these parts call it “Devil’s Grass”…and it is the devil to get rid of. One old man told me once that there are only two ways to get rid of wire grass: 1) move and forget about it, and 2) die and not worry about it! And I am beginning to believe it! Anyway, after much digging and some black plastic, be had our grow boxes in place and refilled with the growing soil. Now everything was ready to accept the plants…except Daniel and I were both pooped and it was almost time to milk the goats. So, we decided to call it an evening with the garden. The picture is of the terraces we built and the grow boxes are at the top.We had also decided that today we had to catch the fear mongering pigeon. It had eluded capture for long enough! Early on, we set up a simple trap…birdseed, milk crate, stick and string. Sometime during our busy day, the pigeon ate all the seed before we realized he was there. Missed him! So we re-baited the trap and returned to the garden work. Daniel happened to be going to the shed to get a garden tool when he saw said pigeon in the trap. He pulled the string and our strong, manly hunter/trapper instincts paid dividends.
But there was a flaw in our trap. The milk crate we used has larger holes for handles and I as I was reaching in to grab the pigeon, he squeezed through handle and off to freedom. Ah, man! So we would have to get him later. I spied him perched on a ledge in the shed later that night and tried to reach him, but he once again escaped. Funny thing is, I haven’t seen him since. Maybe he decided that he better move on while he still can.I will update again soon with some pictures of the garden. Until then…be blessed and don’t be afraid to leave a comment if you have one. All you have to do is click on the comment link at the end of this post. :)
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