ANOTHER PROJECT DONE
Today’s homestead project involved the boysenberries.
I planted the boysenberries in containers back in 2021 and 2022. The first berries appeared last summer. (I just let the birds have them as there weren’t enough to harvest.)
Last summer is when we also had wild blackberry bushes start growing on the property. While prevalent in North Carolina, they were not on the property in all the years I’d lived here so I don’t know why blackberries suddenly appeared. This is an issue if you want to successfully grow boysenberries. You see, boysenberries were developed from a combination of blackberries, raspberries, and loganberries. You cannot grow blackberries around boysenberries, or the boysenberries will revert. We struggled all last summer to remove each blackberry runner as they appeared.
This spring I decided to move the boysenberries. That’s one of the lovely things about growing in containers – they are portable.
We moved the boysenberry pots to their new spot at the back of the house and set up a cattle panel to use as a trellis. This position is far enough away (greater than 15 feet) from any blackberry bushes, which have only been growing along the side of the property. We will continue to whack out any blackberry runners we see but they are very invasive so I believe they will be an eternal problem.
An extra benefit is that they will be easier to water over here, too. As soon as I see berries, I will put netting over them – these ones are for me, not the birds!
BACK IN THE SADDLE
I had done no canning for months! My supply was dwindling, and I needed to get back on that horse.
The horse is named Yummy –
It’s so easy to do. It’s handy for quick dinners. It’s shelf stable. What more could we want?
PATIENCE, PATIENCE
Sometimes, the endless watering of the garden causes one to wonder if you’ll ever see a payoff. Well, yesterday I found this:
See those itty bitty, eensy weensy bell peppers?!
SPRING IS DONE
Today I pulled the pea plants – a sure sign that spring in North Carolina is over and done. It was a rainy spring, which made watering the garden nicer, but now…
The humidity starts.
I started semi-retirement in March and have been working only part-time. Over the past couple of months, my work hours have become more irregular. This past week I only had a few hours of office work so was home almost all week. Later this month I will need to go to the office every day of the week. I am still working out what “retirement” looks like for me so this transitionary period of part-time work helps keep me busy so I don’t atrophy before I can figure that out!
I have been busy utilizing my new sewing machine. I finished one quilt top and it’s ready to sandwich and quilt.
A second top is in progress and is waiting for the right fabric for the final border. Then it will be ready to sandwich and quilt.
I have unpacked and organized my quilting supplies. This was fabric and projects that I packed and brought with me from Wyoming 12 years ago. It took a long time to accomplish this task but was necessary for me to see what I have. I counted more than 25 Works in Progress and there are additional scraps and yardage for at least as many more! Oi vey.
RUN, BABY, RUN
After the chicks were locked inside the coop for a couple of weeks, it was time to finish the maintenance and repairs on the Run so they could use it.
Oscar reinforced the door into the run. Naturally with 3 years of wet and winter there was some separation of joints and wobbling. Those are now resolved. He also put a plastic cover at the top of the coop – something we knew needed to happen four years ago but never got around to doing.
For as easy as it was, it’s ridiculous how long it took to take care of it!
After we slathered the floor with DE (diatomaceous earth) to sanitize it, we filled the edges of the run with rocks and sand. The big girls had dug trenches all along the edges in their effort to get bugs, sunbathe, etc.
Finally, the run was ready for the chicks to enjoy.
Time to introduce the chicks to the run.
Plan A: “Here chicks! Come here!” – didn’t work.
Plan B: Oscar sat inside the coop and showed the chicks how to go through the chicken door.
Each chick would sit on the edge and decide, “Nope, too scary!” and dash back into the coop. Not to be deterred, Oscar gave them a little shove.
Nope, they were having none of it and would immediately hop back into the coop.
We finally just opened the coop door and left them to figure it out for themselves. Which they did. Apparently, as with humans, chickens want to try new things on their own schedule.
After a couple of hours, we closed the coop door, wondering if they would figure out to go inside through the chicken door at night before it closed.
They did!
BYE, BYE, WORMIES!
A couple of months ago, I mentioned I was contemplating starting a second worm bin. The worm population had increased So Much from feeding them Uncle Jim’s Worm Food that the worm bin seemed over-crowded. (In actuality, I don’t know how many worms in a worm bin is too many worms so that was more the observation of an introvert who thinks another car on the road is too crowded.)
Of course, I could also feed my excess worms to the chickens. The Girls were rooting for that option!
I went with a third option: I put them in the raised bed planters I created this Spring.
Now that the plants in them sufficiently established, today was moving day for the first group of worms. I scooped a trowel full of worms out of the bin and transferred them to the lettuce and green pepper bed.
I split the “wad” into three piles throughout the 8-foot bed and let them dig themselves into the soil.
Those are going to be some happy worms!
LITTLE OLD MAN
Yesterday was Timmy’s 17th birthday!
Timmy has been slowing down and showing his age. His days are filled with sleep, eat, and bathroom. His favorite place is in my lap. It’s sad to realize he might not be with me for too much longer (dachshunds live an average of 13 years) so I am enjoying what time he has left with me. In the meantime, if he wants the lap, he gets the lap; if he wants to eat, he gets to eat.
Happy Birthday Timmy!
HARVEST TIME
The fun thing about gardening in the South is that you can have something to harvest almost year-round. I have been cutting my lettuce bed every other day to give to the chickens. Today’s harvest, though, has highly anticipated: I harvested the garlic bed that I planted back in October.
In truth, I’m a little disappointed with the results. There were only a couple plants that had good-sized bulbs, a few more had very small bulbs, and the majority just had the “clove” that was originally planted. While I did not get the outcome I wanted, I think it’s worth trying again in the Fall if further research can tell me why this crop was so underwhelming.
You may recognize the “drying tray” I put them on to dry. I re-purposed the lid to the bathtub brooder (after scrubbing it, of course)! I will let the dirt on the plants dry until later in the day so it will be easier to brush off (you don’t wash garlic after harvesting}. Then, I will need to let the bulbs dry for three to four weeks.
I cleaned the bed the garlic was in and removed old nasturtium branches, weeds, etc. in preparation for the nasturtiums that I hope re-seeded themselves. We shall see what comes of that expectation.
While I was watering today, I discovered a surprise:
My peas have pods!
In other gardening news, I worked a little every day throughout the week and did manage to plant all 19 plant starts I purchased at the Farmer’s Market last weekend. Here are a few pictures of some of them:
Nothing in the garden is organized or pretty yet, but having the plants in the pots feels like a worthwhile accomplishment. With the rain we’ve had recently, and the subsequent humidity, the bug population has been exploding so I really hope these plants will help keep them at bay even a little bit!
We have chicken projects to work on next. Not today though – it’s getting toasty outside. Much of the rest of the day I plan to sit in my chair, feet up, dog on lap, reading a book.
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE BUGS
Saturday, I went to the Farmers Market and brought home a nice supply of bug-repelling herbs and four green pepper plants for the garden.
Basil: is supposed to repel mosquitos and flies but I bought it more for its culinary use. I bought Columnar Basil, a variety that is new to me, and will harvest and dry it for use in the kitchen.
Lavender: repels flies, mosquitos, slugs, squash bugs, ants, and ticks. I don’t much like the smell of it either but if it really does repel ticks maybe I should weave ankle bracelets out of the stuff.
Lemongrass: repels flies, mosquitos, and snakes. I did not have a snake problem last year so I want to see if those results can be replicated. It worked really well for the flies and mosquitos.
Rosemary: flies, mosquitos, slugs. I’m not sure it did anything about the slugs last year as it seems there are more slugs on my property than the number of people living in Alamance County.
Chocolate Mint and Apple Mint: I doubt these will work on bugs like regular mint (flies, mosquitos, squash bugs) but I’ve always wanted a Chocolate Mint plant and the Apple Mint smelled yummy. That is a good enough reason to get them, don’t you agree?
Parsley: I bought this last year to repel flies but found that the butterflies laid their eggs on it and the resulting caterpillars devoured it before I could harvest and use it in the kitchen. I went ahead and bought some though to use as a Trap Plant, luring those voracious little critters away from the rest of my garden.
Lemon Verbena: I was lured by the smell of this plant but Google promises that flies and mosquitos hate it.
Chives: I don’t use chives in the kitchen but I read that planting chives with your apple trees helps deter Japanese Beetles – a true bane / blight / scourge for me – so anything that might do that gets a try at least once. One source said it also may help repel borers and prevent apple scab fungus from ruining your fruit. If it works that is one powerful plant that will have a permanent home in my garden.
It rained all weekend, so nothing was put in the ground. It was sorely needed though so I was grateful for the rain.
Tonight, I planted the chives at the base of the apple trees.
The garlic chives were planted with the Mary Reid and the regular (onion) chives were planted with the Golden Grimes.
The Golden Grimes (left) has oodles of apples on it already! The Mary Reid (right) has just a few.
I will be working on getting the rest of my Farmers Market haul planted throughout the week. The plan for next weekend is to buy flowers. They likely will also be chosen based on their bug-repelling properties.
I hate bugs.
EVICTED!
We didn’t get everything done to the coop that I want to do but I deemed it good enough that today is the day to move the chicks OUT OF MY HOUSE!
It was fun to watch them freeze in place. It was new and big, and they needed to check things out before they were going to venture very far.
They will stay in the coop section for a few weeks. That will be fine as they now have 64 square feet to roam around in. While there, they need to learn to eat and drink from big girl feeders and waterers and to live in variable weather. After a while, we will introduce them to the “great outdoors” of the run and teach them how to get in and out of the coop through the automatic door.
In the meantime, let me declare:
Hallelujah!
Two Chickens Homestead 
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