home,home on the free range

My Hibiscus is Starting to Bloom 

always gorgeous first bloom

     Well today I am going to talk about pictures I have taken of what is going on at the farm. First off I think I have lost my retired chicken Red. She had been mauled twice and recovered and in the last week I think she may have free ranged it a bit too much. Course it could be like the commercial and she sends me text pictures of places she visited. I will get a pic of here on my blog next. I traded a bale of hay for her and two geese a fencer and who knows what else went down in that deal, oh also a white duck. Anyhow the one goose flew back home not long after he arrived, and red and the white duck stayed. I kid the neighbors about how they sold me a goose that flies home after a couple of days. I ask them, now what kind of a deal is that? A little shady if you ask me.

     Red made herself at home and was soon sucking up the retirement life spitting an egg or two out on occasion in odd places , I wouldn’t eat them as I never knew how long they had been there. But she and Whitey made friends and the two them could be found in odd places that would make you laugh when you needed it. They would get together and attack the mulch in mom’s flower garden throwing it out on the sidewalk, or they might be sunning in my flower gardens burrowing into a hole and casting dirt up over their backs, most likely potting soil I had placed there earlier.

     Their rounds included a stop by my door to make sure I left them their portion of food as I went about my chores for the day. I would gladly feed them and would watch them as they trailed behind me to the garage waiting for their tidbits of bird feed, as I called them hither by saying here chicky, chicky. I believe if I don’t see Red by tonight I will move Whitey to the new coop and let her get acquainted with the new girls. Maybe she can teach them a few things. Will miss Red though, she had some kind of personality. Maybe I need to check with the neighbors?

this is Red-if you see her send her home, and no that is not a chicklet in front of her. maybe that is where they got the name. kinda look the same. 

 My peas and beans are continuing to do great and are about a foot tall. Weeding has been minimal and I would say nonexistent as the peas and beans quickly shadowed the weeds and left them powerless to compete. Having planted densely allows you to do this and weeds are less of a problem. So far so good, I like this as it works well, and I just hope I can use for more than one season.

      The potato tower is starting to come to life on all levels as the potatoes too are starting to pop out of the ground. The same with the tomato towers as the vines are starting to grow and I have never saw any heat related stress I have seen with planting as in a conventional garden. Time will tell.

       The bucket tomatoes were ok but they were very dependent on you watering them and then again it all depended on the soil you were growing them in. In some ways they were required a lot more work and caring to get the tomato to produce good size tomatoes. I can’t say they did well for this type of growing. The tomato tower in comparison takes up a small portion of your garden and has ten tomato plants in 2 cages and this should be enough for doing some canning and eating fresh. Again we will see.

     Everyone’s flower garden could use a fresh influx of organic soil to make it healthier. Working in those areas where the plants are doing poorest yet has some sun to grow tomatoes is best type of arrangement I see for using the tomato tower. Moving around year to year in your garden will reduce the blight and reduce blossom end rot in your tomatoes and the plants will be healthier from the increased organics in the soil, as well the need for watering will be reduced as the organics help the soil to retain water. At times organic soil will hold up to ten times their weight in water that would be available to the plants as well as feeding the plant instead of using chemical fertilizers as most use to produce the same size fruit. This is also cheaper and healthier in that respect making the whole process of growing more natural.

     My goal is to have an open mind and try all processes of growing tomatoes to see what would work best for the home gardener, keeping in mind cost of enriching the soil , and space requirements and ease of labor involved. Face it if it isn’t easy or requires an unnecessary amount of work it will look like a pile of weeds better left to the weed eater to harvest as most folks will give up at some point. So we need to grow more with less.

     I am also going to include some pics of the flowers currently blooming in and around the greenhouse.