I had planted garlics right before Fall, not entirely sure if they will produce bulbs. The growth has really taken off the last two weeks, they look like miniature corn stalks.
The husband and I were discussing perhaps we can chill the cloves before planting in winter to give them the necessary chill hours. We wanted to grow garlics as a main staple on the farm but if Texas weather keeps being this screwy we may have to rethink our plans.
I got most of the planting accomplished this week. I was able to plop in the beds tomatoes, artichokes, zucchini, lima beans, sugar snap peas, kale, swiss chard, grapes, blackberries and many flowers. So far one tomatoes plant and one artichoke plant were met with untimely demise via the heat and some fat footed animal walking in the beds.
We suffered two mild casualties when our new lemon trees died back from the first frost. However, we saw sprouting buds WAY down the dead trunk. So not a total loss but in my eyes it might as well be because they are going to remain ugly and tiny for a long time. I might buy two more, I need organic lemons this summer for mead and teas. For real though!
We acquired three pear trees from a San Antonio Park and Recreations function when they hosted a fruit tree adoption celebration. The line started at 4 a.m. and the event didn't start till 8:30!
Yes, it was raining and chilly. :)
My mother in law came along with us and gave us her tree. Kieffer Pear trees are doing excellent right now and producing many shiny new leaves. Keeping my fingers crossed that they do well this season but I'm not expecting fruit this year. Although, they are LARGE trees so maybe just maybe they are the right age for production.
Our fig trees have put on large leaves before any other tree on our property and they are chugging along.
I would love to have fruit this year from them and use it as a sugar substitute. Also my husband has yet to eat a fresh fig and I want it to be from our trees.
This last month I've been running around getting beds made and figuring out low cost or free borders. We had felled three large trees and I've been using logs to border beds and large branches in the beds as a hugelkultur.
We have a large berm at the back of the property that's all soil from logs and wood decaying over the last ten years. I've used some of that to fill beds along with the native soil, haven't had to buy soil this time around. Free is always good! I dug the beds down, threw logs and branches then add other amendments like kitchen scraps, worm compost, composted yard clippings and composted chicken manure.
I also have fish emulsion brewing in a garbage bin and just today we cut our grass for the first time since last Fall and those clippings are being fermented in another 35 gallon garbage bin filled with rainwater. I will be adding kitchen scraps tomorrow. I got the idea from one of my favorite composting enthusiast and Youtuber, Dave The Good. He has a book called, "Compost Everything", available on Amazon. I got it for the Kindle at a cheap price so definitely worth the three bucks. He doesn't give precise measurements and he tends to ramble just a tiny bit but it has helped me with the problem of not having enough compost. He discussed making a thing called a "melon pit". Its basically making a two-three foot hole, throw in bones, any remnants of spoiled leftovers, kitchen scraps and some carbon. Then fill it back in with dirt and mound it and plant your seeds in it. I have made two pits so far and planted watermelon seeds in them. Will keep posted on progress of the whole shabang-a-bang.
During the course of making regular compost in the bins my husband built me last summer, we have come across some wildlife obstacles. Every morning I go out to the compost bins to throw in a banana peel or tea bags and some jerk face critter had eaten what little things I'd thrown in. The bins are sealed on four sides but they chewed through the plastic mesh and got in to claim their prize. So I attached some old metal fencing to the sides of the active bin. That night I threw in more kitchen scraps and some old cake, confident that nothing can break into my little Fort Knocks. I however forgot about the top, it was wide open. I didn't think the animal would scale the four foot high bin and risk getting trapped inside. But anything for cake, am I right? I can't say I blame them. So I threw another fence panel on the top and zip tied it to the other panels. The next night, the asshole flea bag wrestled the door off the hinge. SO, I then added a cargo strap to the door and squeezed some kitchen scraps through the bars of the panels. SUCCESS! I saw evidence of an animal unable to get into the bins. Saw lots of scratches in the dirt from it trying to pry anything open.
My father in law, after listening to our tales of pilfering night creatures, said he had a raccoon trap and we could use it. So we baited the trap and set it by the bins and after three nights we finally caught the culprit, it was a large possum.
Lets just say he is no longer a resident on our property.
Other than the possum we have gophers on property and we are meeting them with lethal force. I don't relish the thought of losing my entire garden and fruit trees. So far I've used poison pellets and smoke bombs. We are also throwing out castor oil and will systematically keep going to the fence line with it. We will also be buying the vibration spikes. This is an ongoing battle, probably till we decide we don't want to live here anymore or when we die. These gophers are numerous and on each side of us via our neighbors. Once we finish burning our huge brush pile we will be working on a secured garden area with cinder blocks three foot below the surface all along the perimeter of the garden. Then we will dig out whatever tunnels in the garden area with a front end loader to completely evict them, set up vibration spikes and wait to see if any new gopher mounds pop up.
Other than minor animal annoyances things on the homestead are moving right along into Spring.
With as hot as it gets here in Texas I may just limit my outdoors to morning hours and evening hours. It would also give me the time I need to start my yarn business back up and maybe also include some crocheted items to my Etsy store. We shall see, I need to find a rhythm before adding more projects to the mix. Also I need to remind myself that even though things might not turn out the way I had hoped that there's nothing planted here I can't plant again. This is the year for learning and enjoying the journey.
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