Showing posts with label Flora. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Flora. Show all posts
Monday, September 1, 2008
Garden Update
Yesterday Stef took the boys out to the garden and fixed it. He put new gates, set up the drip hose, watered all of the still living plants and fixed the plastic. I haven't gone out to look yet so this is all still hearsay but I am feeling a bit better about this subject.
Friday, August 29, 2008
A Rant
I give up, I give up, I give up!
I can't even begin to do justice to the feelings of helplessness overwhelming me this morning.
You all know I have been struggling with the garden. The spring garden was first pillaged by the chickens. We put a temporary, flimsy fence around it to keep goats and chickens alike out. The fence didn't even have a real door, we had to disassemble the fence a bit to get in and out. To keep the goats off the fence we surrounded it with hot wire. It didn't take long to figure out the garden was not going to recuperate in the Texas heat of July and August so I took the hot wire down and opened the fence up for the goats to clear the rest of the garden and get rid of some of the weeds. Well, in this process the goats managed to tear up the fence around the garden.
A week ago I decided it couldn't be put off any longer; I needed to get the fall garden put in. I fixed up the fence with the help of Stef and hooked up the hot wire. I was completely stumped with what to do about all of the weeds in the garden area though. The goats had eaten them down but without the goats they would come back. Let me tell you, these are not just ordinary weeds. These are stickers or sand burrs or weeds from the very depths of hell, whichever you prefer. You simply cannot just pull them up. They grow a foot a day. If you till them they still come back. So after telling Stef then that I give up on the garden and then him telling me I couldn't, I decided to just cover the entire garden with plastic. Clear plastic for any spot that was not growing garden produce and black landscape fabric for where plants would be. Not pretty and I really don't know how practical or even long term it is but I did it. Then I went to the nursery and got plants. Tomatoes, green peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, collard greens, mustard greens, cabbage, broccoli, and my favorite red peppers (I really had to hunt these down). Stef and I got the fence really patched up and I finally get my garden in. Planting in the plastic was not easy. I start watering everything and found that the landscape fabric that is suppose to be water permeable, isn't. At least not enough to water from the top. Ok, fine. I say once again to Stef it is not worth it, I GIVE UP. He said no. He would go out and put down the drip tape underneath the fabric. While he was at it he also put a real door in the fence for easy in and out. Ok,fine.
This morning, after chores, I went for a little peak at the garden....I give up, I give up, I give up.
The new door Stef put on the garden fence apparently didn't have a lock, and the hot wire was apparently not put back up around the fence after installation of said door. The goats had been in the garden. Little tell tale goat berries lay everywhere. Good news is they don't like eggplant (just pulled them up by the stem and left them on the ground)and they also left most of the cucumbers and tomatoes alone. Bad news they do like greens, and broccoli and cabbage and they LOVE pepper plants. Especially, apparently, red peppers. Not one is left.
I can't keep putting this much effort, not to mention cash, into the garden for it to get ruined. I'm not sure what we will do now. I guess I will just be an even more frequent buyer at the farmer's market. Better my time and money go there than into the stomachs of any 2 or 4 legged fiends around here.
I can't even begin to do justice to the feelings of helplessness overwhelming me this morning.
You all know I have been struggling with the garden. The spring garden was first pillaged by the chickens. We put a temporary, flimsy fence around it to keep goats and chickens alike out. The fence didn't even have a real door, we had to disassemble the fence a bit to get in and out. To keep the goats off the fence we surrounded it with hot wire. It didn't take long to figure out the garden was not going to recuperate in the Texas heat of July and August so I took the hot wire down and opened the fence up for the goats to clear the rest of the garden and get rid of some of the weeds. Well, in this process the goats managed to tear up the fence around the garden.
A week ago I decided it couldn't be put off any longer; I needed to get the fall garden put in. I fixed up the fence with the help of Stef and hooked up the hot wire. I was completely stumped with what to do about all of the weeds in the garden area though. The goats had eaten them down but without the goats they would come back. Let me tell you, these are not just ordinary weeds. These are stickers or sand burrs or weeds from the very depths of hell, whichever you prefer. You simply cannot just pull them up. They grow a foot a day. If you till them they still come back. So after telling Stef then that I give up on the garden and then him telling me I couldn't, I decided to just cover the entire garden with plastic. Clear plastic for any spot that was not growing garden produce and black landscape fabric for where plants would be. Not pretty and I really don't know how practical or even long term it is but I did it. Then I went to the nursery and got plants. Tomatoes, green peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, collard greens, mustard greens, cabbage, broccoli, and my favorite red peppers (I really had to hunt these down). Stef and I got the fence really patched up and I finally get my garden in. Planting in the plastic was not easy. I start watering everything and found that the landscape fabric that is suppose to be water permeable, isn't. At least not enough to water from the top. Ok, fine. I say once again to Stef it is not worth it, I GIVE UP. He said no. He would go out and put down the drip tape underneath the fabric. While he was at it he also put a real door in the fence for easy in and out. Ok,fine.
This morning, after chores, I went for a little peak at the garden....I give up, I give up, I give up.
The new door Stef put on the garden fence apparently didn't have a lock, and the hot wire was apparently not put back up around the fence after installation of said door. The goats had been in the garden. Little tell tale goat berries lay everywhere. Good news is they don't like eggplant (just pulled them up by the stem and left them on the ground)and they also left most of the cucumbers and tomatoes alone. Bad news they do like greens, and broccoli and cabbage and they LOVE pepper plants. Especially, apparently, red peppers. Not one is left.
I can't keep putting this much effort, not to mention cash, into the garden for it to get ruined. I'm not sure what we will do now. I guess I will just be an even more frequent buyer at the farmer's market. Better my time and money go there than into the stomachs of any 2 or 4 legged fiends around here.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Garden trouble
Or should I say chicken trouble. The chickens have been decimating my garden. They just figured out they can get under the electric fence around it and are eating everything in it. Stef is getting some 5 foot fence to put around it today. I hope this helps. I am very discouraged.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Garden and barn pics
I'm going to harvest some peas today and I have lots of tomatoes working. The zucchini started flowering today. I know it looks really weedy, especially around the corn. I was sick of fighting that battle and I'm gonna see how it works with the weeds.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Stinging Nettle
I believe this is Stinging Nettle or Urtica Dioica. This is horrible, awful, unholy stuff. Well I just found out this stuff is fantastic food for animals and humans alike!! Who Knew? Well, Chickenista from Homesteadingtoday.com knew. Only problem is getting around the stinging part to harvest them. I guess as soon as they are picked the sting starts to dissipate. We have this stuff EVERYWHERE! I am not exaggerating.
I can't go in the back without jeans on. I hoped the goats would trample it or something but they stay far from it. I don't blame them, when I do get caught by it it can sting up to 12 or 24 hours depending on where you touched it. Fingers are the worst place to get it. Anyway, now I'm actually trying to figure how to really grow this stuff for feed for the animals. I think I'm going crazy! We also have Bull Nettle, cnidoscolus stimulosus, not sure if it has as much good stuff in it.
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