Gardening
Homemaking on the homestead means providing not only some beauty but, at least some of what the family eats from your own soil. What if everyone grew something to eat? Think of the ecological impact; reduction in packaging, irradiation, pesticides, chemical fertilizers and trucking. It would effect everything in that bleak line of progression leading to the hybridized, infertile, fumigated, nutrient depleted vegetables withering on supermarket shelves. And this would be fine. Not very long ago, growing your own organic vegetables was what everyone did. Then our emerging global economy began demanding standardized products. Hybridized vegetables were easy, cheap, engineered to ship well, be showy, and last a week on the grocer’s shelves. Eventually though, we saw the downside in the malnutrition of souls and soil. We recognized the problems of plastics and packaging and petroleum fertilizers.
Homesteaders have thankfully, moved beyond the disenchantment with high production veggies from afar, and are pioneering new ways of living. Or is it old ways? It seems that homesteaders are again, picking up the very best of what has been left in the past and enriching our present. So, homemakers of America, grow a garden. And if you can’t grow a garden just yet, start with sprouts!
I should have read the fine print on the Shasta Daisies. I thought that Shasta Daisies were Shasta Daisies. But, no, I managed to pick up some that said "dwarf" in very tiny letters. They will not grow to be 3 to 4 feet tall as I had hoped. They will grow to 18 to 24 inches. Kinda like they are now. What you see is what you get. But they're very pretty. I just need something taller for the backdrop.
I've replanted the fox glove several times as something has dug them up. They've survived the brutality and I put some chicken wire around three of them. I must do the same to the other three. All the plants are doing well except the ranunculus which is very unhappy and I think experiencing a botanical crisis. Dying.
I wish I could put more time into working there every day but, the moments I can spare for the garden are delightful to me. I love sitting out there playing in the dirt like a child, hearing the birds and watching the squirrels, feeling teased by the warm breeze and comforted in the shade of the big oak tree. Sometimes, I pray - in the prayer garden.
One side of Prayer Garden
From the other side.
I've always wanted to grow Lobelia. So pretty.
06/01/11 - I Can Dig It
I just keep digging. In my spare time I dig rocks up and throw them over the hill toward the creek canyon. I'm creating "planters" and refilling them with a mix of my own dirt and some organic enhancer material. I have successfully set two Echinacea plants, and one of the two Shasta Daisies. I have yet to do the other one and the several Foxglove starts. I surrounded them with some old dried straw we had around here for mulch. The Foxglove will grow and make a nice folliage but won't bloom into those gorgeous bells until next year. But, you know what they say. The best time to plant an apple tree is twenty years ago. The Foxglove will be worth the one year wait.
I went to check on the plants at the “Prayer Garden” and Oh No!!! The plants still in the pots from the nursery weren’t doing well. One Echinacea looked terminal. Its leaves hung limp like the strings of a wet mop. I ran to fill the plastic Martinelli’s gallon sized apple juice container with water. I poured water into the Echinacea pot first and then the Shasta Daisies and Fox Gloves. I also watered the plants in the ground though they looked okay. It wasn’t even a hot day but, I guess they can’t miss a day of watering in those little black plastic pots. Amazingly the Echinacea/ Coneflower that had been “mostly dead all day” sucked up the life-giving water into its stems and leaves and revived. Okay, that was close.
05/19/11 - Boulder Blues 
This is not exactly easy. In digging a space for the Echinacea, I kept trying to get to the edges of this one big rock and eventually discovered it was a boulder the size of Gibraltar. Almost. It was about four foot square on the top surface with a groove down the center. Who knows how deep. But I realized I’d been beaten. I really couldn’t move this boulder. So I’ll pack some soil on top and plant shallow rooted things there. I’m going to try for a spot behind Gibraltar for the Echinacea.
I have started with a few spent daffodils and added some Mexican Primrose starts that my brother-in-law gave me hoping they aren't deer food. Then I transplanted some wild morning glories. They nearly died in the transition but have now perked up. I was intending to move in some other wild flowers when my husband - the Homestead Hero - took pity on me and in a moment of chivalry whisked me off to the local nursery where I picked out some perennials and a few other things. Shasta Daisies, Coneflower (Echinacea) and some tiny starts of Fox Glove. I’ve always wanted to grow Fox Glove. I also got some English Lavender and Rosemary, a couple of yellow marigolds and a purple ranunculus.
I hope it works. I still have a LOT of rock digging to do for the two sections on the other side of the oak tree and bench. The rain has stopped and the sun is out so with pick over my shoulder I whistle "Hi Ho, Hi Ho" and it's off to work I go - though I'd prefer to be Snow White..
05/17/11 - From Rock Quarry to Eden - maybe
I want to create a Prayer Garden here. This will be a simple affair as I am fiscally restricted and working mostly with available materials. I will not be employing the services of a backhoe. Instead back labor will be used. I’m starting with a rustic wooden bench, one large oak tree and a lovely creek canyon vista opposite. I’m also starting with a plot of thick weeds (some waist high) and “soil” that is composed 95% of rock and the rest rock dust. If you try to push a spade in you hear a metal-to-metal ring. The idea is to scoop out some of the rock and fill back with some real dirt and stick some deer resistant flowers in. I’m hoping the flowers will also be chicken resistant since we’ve not yet been able to build a chicken yard OR that we will enjoy some nice chicken dinners soon. Here is the Prayer Garden in its beginnings.
After weed-whacking and taking the rocks off of the top. I used some for borders.
Digging out the rock has not been easy. At the end of each day of hard labor at the quarry, everything including my hair follicles hurts. Arnica Montana helps. I’ve discovered the secret life of rocks. They are not the inanimate things you might have thought. I’m pretty sure that under the cover of soil-less weeds, the rocks are reproducing. They also have the ability to organize into almost impenetrable masonry. Yet my enthusiasm has been undaunted and I’ve made some slow progress.
- Consider bringing in flocks of ladybugs and praying mantis to naturally control aphids, beetles, scale and leafhoppers.
- If you didn't start seeds you can plant 4-inch vegetable plants and save several weeks of growing time.
- Protect the trunks of fruit trees from lethally hot temps with white wash. Applying a white wash coating to the trunk will reflect heat away from the tender tissue and protect the trees.
- Mulching is great for your garden. It traps moisture in the soil, so you don’t have to water as often, and it acts as an insulator, so your plants’ roots don’t get too hot. It suppresses weeds, so you don’t have to weed as often. Mulching also promotes beneficial microbial activity in the soil and may draw some friendly earthworms. But, mulch purchased from the nursery can be very expensive. But, there is an excellent alternative for the homesteader. Hay straw is cheap and usually accessible to the homesteader and is great for the vegetable garden. It needs to be piled to a depth of 10 inches or so to prevent the hay seeds from sprouting. Flower beds might do better with a bark mulch as it only needs to be 4 - 6 inches deep. Be sure to leave 4 to 6 inches around the trunk or stem for breathing room.
April Gardening Chores—Dirt to Soil
It should be noted that dirt is always called soil in gardening. This is done out of respect for the fact that soil is arguably the most important component in a successful garden. However, when it appears on your clothes, the children, the living room carpet - it is permissible to revert back to calling it dirt.
- Here in the California Sierra Nevada foothills it’s time for tilling or turning the ground, and adding generous amounts of organic material and some type of fertilizer. In a new garden bed, add 3-6” of compost to the entire surface of the garden bed and mix it in well to a depth of 6-8. In an existing garden bed, just add an inch or two if it looks like it needs help, mixing it in just a couple inches down. We’ll be planting here in a couple of weeks.
- Now is the time to hang Yellow Jacket Traps. Early spring is the time to capture the colony’s queens and thereby GREATLY reduce the yellow jackets in the area later in the year.
- Be sure to fertilize all your plants to nurture them through the spring growth.
- Apply grub control to lawns now for a full season of protection. Then you’ll avoid the dead patches typical of grub infestations.
- Mulch fruit trees with 6” of old straw
- Start seeds if you can protect them from the cold
04/12/11 - Caring For Daffodils
To support your daffodils, allow the leaves to turn yellow. You don't want to cut these guys back before this happens because those fading leaves actually nourish and feed the bulbs. This provides the nutrients and food the plant will need to make the next year's blooms. After the leaves start to turn yellow, then you may cut them to ground level.
Here is a sampling of our daffodils this year.
03/23/11 - MORNING GLORIES and what to do in the garden right now:
- Winter cold and rains have washed nutrients from the soil, so fertilize all your plants to support spring growth.
- Prune azaleas and camelilias into shape after their blooms have faded.
- Even lawns need a meal, not a snack right now so apply lawn food.
- Now is the time to set out snail bait. Sluggo is a non-toxic alternative.
- Remember to plant gladiolus bulbs (corms) every two weeks and you'll have armloads of cut flowers through the summer.
- Start anual morning glories from seed this month and establish them in the garden or a pot by summer. Morning glories are one of the most stunning of the old-fashioned garden flowers. The flowers are huge - three to five inches across - and come in bright, colorful clear blue, purple or pink. They are very easy to grow.
02/09/11 - One of the nice things about being a homestead homemaker is the strong connection we have with the seasons. Each one has it's special delights. And one of the thrilling things about this time of year in the Sierra Nevada foothills is that we begin to see little peeks of hope popping out from our bulb-planting efforts.
12/2/10 - Yay! I got some bulbs in the gound yesterday. I've been trying for days ... no! weeks really. But all that responsibility stuff kept pushing the bulb planting off. Finally, it was the perfect day for planting bulbs; cool and sunny. All the time I dug and worked I envisioned the colorful irises and tulips coming up this spring. I will look forward to it all winter.
It's so easy to dig a hole with a spade, put a little potting soil in the hole and tuck the little baby bulb into bed. One year I didn't even use the potting soil and they came up and bloomed beautifully. I sew them in an area where the gophers have aerated the soil very nicely. But, they don't seem to eat bulbs. It was moist and crumbly. On the packaging for each bulb from Breck, it tells how deep and close together to plant them. I felt like I accomplished something really nice yesterday.
Bulbs asleep in the soil until spring.
"You have crowned the year with your bounty!"
Psalm 65:11
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There is something we need to know about Heirloom Seeds. They are a critical link to our agrarian future. Hybrid variety fruits, grains and vegetables often have sterile seeds that do not reproduce themselves. They are like mules, which are a hybrid of a donkey and a horse. All male mules are sterile and most females are. It’s the same with the typical seeds you buy from the nursery or grocery store. They are hybrids. Read more about planting ...
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