Stirrup to Stirrup: Gettin' Western: 2012

May 09, 2012

A glimpse...

We gather 'round the table, all giggles and dreamy eyes and the littlest hungry and anxious for melon, morning light falling on hair all shades of gold and brown.

I put cinnamon rolls in the oven and the little girls put on dresses and twirl to their hearts' delight. Then we gather up melon peels and scraps from last night's dinner and converge, a flurry of feet and boots and dogs.

We spill out into the sunshine, a gaggle of girls in dresses and jammies, spring air soft on our faces and dew drops a million diamonds beneath our feet.

Horses nicker deep for their breakfast and even the littlest helps carry hay to the pasture.

Then we are off to the chickens, who run to us clucking and cooing and chase melon peels and make us laugh. The littlest girl in the fancy dress tries to pet them all and holds her dress up too high as we walk back through the dew to a fragrant kitchen and warm cinnamon rolls.

Yes there were squabbles, moments when two little girls didn't want to share or a big girl had had enough of the noise or someone would rather play than do their chores. But most of the time there were girls who helped one another, who discussed cheerfully and decided on their own who would do what to clean the house, who sweetly tended to a tired little one, who laughed and shared and asked, "What can I do to help?"

There were tears and a few harsh voices and now and then a dish left out instead of put in the dishwasher. But mostly there were puzzles and kind words and cooperation and delicious food we cooked together and books and pictures and swings and braids and ice cream.

Can this life please be mine? Could I someday live this farm life with sweet girls all together and a laughing, teasing Daddy? The years seem long and the path uncertain to bring a life like the one I lived this weekend. I love life with my one little girl but for a few days it was like a glimpse of something that feels so much like home. Patience and trust are hard lessons after tasting the sweetness of uncertain future possibilities.

April 05, 2012

Then and Now

May 9, 2011

April 4, 2012

Look how much these same pants were rolled up a year ago - now they're almost too short! And see how much her hair has grown! What a difference a year makes.

April 04, 2012

Small Spaces

In addition to my bigger veggie plots I have a couple of small garden spaces that were here when we moved in (all the veggie beds I have created). There's this lovely little spot out front by the crab apple tree:

It has daffodils which come up every year and a large cluster of peonies that take over and surround the daffodils and produce beautiful white blooms tinged with fuchsia. The area between the peonies and the apple tree, however, has always been a little problematic. It is a very shady area, the soil is heavy and not particularly good and, since 98% of my attention and gardening time is spent on the food-producing sections of the garden, by mid-summer it is usually overrun with weeds and not much to look at. I'd love to do more with this area this summer and really turn it into something beautiful. I'll be adding manure and maybe some sand too and I'd love suggestions on pretty, shade loving perennials (not hostas, I have enough of them already!).

Then there's this little spot by the door to Luke's shop. The vibrant green in the corner is my boisterous chive plant which is always quite large and I never make very good use of. There are some asiatic and oriental lilies that come up in the back and are huge and beautiful in July and early August; in front of them is an astilbe my mom gave me several years ago. The remaining area in front of the astilbe is also sort of a mess come summer - a mix of some random ground cover and weeds that doesn't look particularly attractive. I'd love to put some other things in here, just have to figure out what! Some perennial herbs would be lovely. Suggestions?

Then, Clara and I added this new little space a couple of weeks ago. It is right out next to the driveway in front of the garage. It gets tons of sun and I'm planning to put some sunflowers here. I hope they will be lots of fun!

So those are my "extras" - the spots that need a little TLC but don't get it because I'm too busy raising produce and a kiddo. But now that the kiddo is big enough to enjoy helping more, I'm hoping to give them all a little makeover this summer!

More Garden Progress

We've been working working on our garden spaces, prepping them for the summer. We added manure to the second half of the front garden, as well as the garden on the side of the house, which was my first tiny patch several years ago. Hard to believe that I grew tomatoes, basil, cucumbers, peas, green beans, lettuce, carrots and new zealand spinach all in that tiny space!

That's a thyme plant from last year that is just starting to come back; I need to cut away all the dead foliage! With the return of sunshine and some slightly warmer temps this week (though not as warm as before!) we spent some time turning over this garden. It still amazes me the rocks I find after 3 years!

Can you see the huge rock in the middle of the path?

I only use the best of help in my garden, as you can see - bejeweled princesses, making birthday cakes with the soil that is just beginning to look decent after 3 years of amendments.

Although I squeezed a lot into that small space the first year, it clearly was not enough for all we wanted to do! I have added a bit more bed space each year and now, instead of just this small corner space, I have the whole front garden I started last year (pics in the last post), this side plot plus the new bed across the front of the house that I put in this spring, and my little back garden that is half garden space, half raspberry patch.

The expanded front gardens

The back garden - covered with ashes, next in line for manure!

I am still working on my garden plan for this summer but I think most of our lettuce, a good portion of peas, broccoli and probably some kale will go in the new bed in front of the house, on the side towards the driveway; then either cucumbers or butternut squash will go in the section next to my older garden, which gets more sun. The front garden will be home to tomatoes, basil, more cucumbers, more peas and possibly some green beans or squash. In fact, my biggest question at the moment is where to put the squash. Last year I devoted the whole side garden to squash plants; it was a good place for them and they did well. I'd like to rotate them somewhere else this year but am not sure where - they don't do well in the back because they don't get enough sun, but none of my other front gardens have quite enough space for them to sprawl as the like to do. Hmmm.... we shall see what I come up with!

March 23, 2012

Garden Prep

Someday, I will have a huge sunny spot where I can have my whole vegetable garden in one place. Right now, the only spot that sort of qualifies is my front yard but, since we hope to sell this house sometime in the not-to-distant future, I haven't dug it all up yet, since I suppose the next owner might not be quite so keen on having such a large and visible garden. So, I make do with what I have and slowly expand each year in ways that I hope will not only increase my yield but also add to the beauty and value of our home.

Last year, I put in a brand new bed across the entire front of the lawn, three feet by seventy feet. It housed my tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, lettuce, kale, chard and basil. Half of the bed I removed sod and dug up and the other half I did in a modified "lasagna" fashion - laying down newspaper, then old leaves, some wood ash and covering with a mix of purchased manure and topsoil. It worked so well that I plan to start all my new gardens in the same way. During the winter (since we hardly had any snow) whenever we cleaned out our woodstove I dumped the ashes on the gardens. As we started garden prep earlier this week, this is what the front garden looked like. You can see the contrast between the lasagna bed on the left and the dug bed on the right.

We started with three trash cans full of old manure scraped from the paddock at our friends' house where our horses live. I spread one can over the entire dug side of the front bed. Here's what it looked like after that! Ahhh, much better.

Then, Clara helped me measure off for a new watering system, aka jugs in the ground. I plant my tomatoes close, every 2 feet, trying to make the most of a small space and reduce weed growth at the same time. We marked off every four feet, in between where the tomatoes will be so that there will be a milk jug for every two plants.

We buried our milk jugs (which I had previously poked full of holes) and put sticks in them so they'll be easy to find this summer after I've built up the soil some more and our plants are getting tall and bushy!

This is what it looked like when we were done. Clara was having a blast making birthday cakes!

Then, I started on the new bed that is going in front of the house and joining up with my existing garden on the side of the house. First, I put down 3 layers of newspaper, hosing as I went, to kill the grass and block weed growth. Here, you can see I had started on the second step: a layer of old leaves from last fall.

Once all the newspaper was covered with several inches of leaves, I used my remaining two garbage cans of manure to cover the entire bed. When I came back to take pictures, I found this little guy crawling happily across the new bed. Isn't he stunning?!

Here's a peek at the new bed. I had to work around some existing daffodils that are coming up but it turned out pretty well. After this I also took 80 lbs of topsoil and spread it over the top of the bed so I can go ahead and plant here within the next couple of weeks. I know some lettuce will be going in here and probably some cucumbers - I need to get cracking on my garden plan!