August

The first Brandywine grown from seed – amazingly delicious

Never ending piles of zucchini – I keep thinking about zucchini pickles

The chickens are getting big – I think they call me “the bringer of treats”

Nate and I got one last camping trip in before school started again

I grew a monster zucchini so that I could save the seeds. It weighed in at 16.3lbs!

I went to the Denver Zoo for the first time. The elephant show is awesome!

We now are harvesting POUNDS of tomatoes each day. I need to can these ASAP. I will probably make oven dried tomatoes, as well. 30 tomato plants is a lot. Nate is happy because this is the first time in his life that he’s ever had more tomatoes than he can eat.

This orange striped bee has been visiting our wildflower patch lately. I’ve never seen one with this coloration before.

I really want to make a pair of these leggings in some merino wool and as running tights, too bad the pattern is ridiculously expensive.

I’m excited for fall. We are going to try some cover crops and some fall crops with row covers. The big hen house is nearing completion, the girls are definitely ready for more room. I’m ready for sweaters and boots and knitting and chai. Summer into fall always seems to make me introspective.

Trellises!

Over the weekend Nate built us 4 trellises.

A friend gave us some hops rhizomes, so we are super excited to get the in the ground and see how well they will do!

We also planted peas, lettuces, kale, chard, beets, turnips, radishes, and sorrel. I planted them in equilateral triangle spacing instead of rows. This should maximize the amount of food we can grow per square foot. Using the little triangle guide got tedious, so after a bit I ended up just winging it.

They are predicting snow AGAIN tomorrow. We shall see – never ending winter needs to end already.

It’s been a long while…

Well, I got busy with work and the house and forgot about this blog. Oops.

It’s winter. Obviously cold. And all I want to do is landscaping in the backyard. So I’m making plans instead.

That is the north west corner of my backyard. The bush is nice in the summer and birds love it all year round but I can’t leave well enough alone. I want to eventually replace it with a red currant bush. I love red currants.

Just to the left I want to build a small brick patio with room for 2 chairs and a small table. A place for two to drink coffee in the mornings.

On the far side of that will be the chicken coop and rabbit hutch and bee hives. Chickens will be the first animals we get I think.

I’m totally building a nice path down the middle of the garden with an elderberry tree in the middle. I read somewhere that its traditional to put an elder tree in the center of a garden and I just love that idea.

The rest of the house is progressing.

We had hardwood countertops installed and they are soooo cool! I love them.

I think soon I am going to draw out actual dimensioned plans for the backyard and plan what to grow where.

I’ve found some awesome gardening books at the ARC lately and I’ll share those with you soon. They are helping me develop my garden plans.