A Tidy Harvest.

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We are using a combination of herbicides since our weed whacker doesn't work. This year is our first year trying out a 1-Year length chemical. We only spray this under fences where we know we are not going to want anything to grow for a long time. It can't be used under trees, or it can get into the root systems.

Here is the garden fence. We sprayed here about 4 to 6 weeks ago. We ended up moving the fence a little after we sprayed. So far the horses are keeping this part chewed, so I'm not going to worry about it.





I did a little spraying around the house with short term spray, Round-Up, to keep stray weeds from taking over, as well as along the side of the property so the electric fence doesn't short out over there.

Here the berry rows look much neater having been sprayed a couple of weeks ago. You have to be so careful not to get any leaves on your plants. I've actually gotten really good at this and can spray even in the wind and right up close to the plants. So far, so good...





The vineyard never got sprayed for weeds, so we'll try to get to that this coming week.





Michael is taking care of push mowing where ever the riding mower could not be taken. We should get a good crop of those bush cherries and bush plums this year. The frost did not get either grouping.





The hardy kiwi are looking good. I hope another mockingbird builds a nest in there again this year. We so enjoyed watching the babies.





I will really enjoy it if we ever get a crop. But wait, what's this....?





Could we be getting flowers for the first time? I hope so, and I hope that means enjoying some fruit from them this year!





Many suckers need to be cut off from the grapes before we can spray for weeds. Also, with the black rot, you want as dry an area near the vines as possible, so the closer to dirt we can make it below the vines, the better our chances of getting a grape harvest.





This vine is always laden with clusters. It's a European grape, and highly susceptible to black rot. Tasty, but after this year, I am probably going to thin out the grapes in each row to about half. This one may go.





The Doyle Thornless blackberries are getting ready to blossom out.





Getting ready to harvest some Red Sails lettuce. I believe the deep red color is likely due to the abundance of sunshine, as I have another bed in the shade, and it is almost all green.





I decide to take the outer leaves rather than cut the whole plant.





And this is what came from one. About two dollar's worth of organic lettuce. I ended up filling the basket to overflowing.





We can't eat it all, so I just take the biggest for now.









I planted Arugula to go with the lettuce...
Now what? LOL I'm thinking it is probably too far gone.





On my way up to pick strawberries, I get to enjoy the variety of herb blooms.

Chamomile.





Cilantro.





Sage.





Here's that marker stone I was mentioning before. I like them, but there were only four available. I would like to make some for all the herbs, and maybe even vegetables.





The chives are about to go to seed now. I need to build alternate year beds so I can have a cutting bed, and a bed to enjoy the blossoms.





This rhubarb's crown ended up being covered by the time heavy rains came. Once I cleared earth away from it, it got a lot happier and sent up some leaves to match it's sister plant.





The strawberry bed. I believe the sparse section is the one grouping of June bearers we planted.





They produce quite a few berries, but look awful. And, of course, I've forgotten which type we put in. Most of what we picked came from here.





The ever bearers are much healthier looking, and getting ready to gear up for production.





About 4 dollar's worth of berries, but half of them are gone. I told Michael to just eat his fruit while we picked. I like the really ripe ones. He likes the ones that are not quite, in my opinion, ripe. So we've got quite a mix here.





Washing the lettuce and hoping it will dry well enough before we have to leave for office cleaning.





Then a fun evening of barn prep!

~Faith

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French Drain, Planting Salad, Jamming.

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After getting school work and household chores done yesterday, we went outside to do more work on the French drain we'd begun the other day. Leah had come over and helped us dig a ditch for it. Here we've laid the pipe in to see if we've got a decent slope for correct drainage.





Original French drains did not have pipe. They were simply channels, or ditches, dug out and filled with gravel or rock. Water seeks the lowest point, so you can seriously effect the amount of water in a given area by drawing it into the rock filled ditch that gradually slopes away, and takes the water with it. A pipe is not necessary, but adds length of time before the ditch becomes filled with earth and ineffective, due to erosion. The larger your drain, the longer it will take for it to fill with silt, so balance how much you want to dig out and fill with gravel to how soon you want the ditch to stop working.

Straight PVC pipe would have been better, I discovered after already purchasing and getting this good and dirty. The reason is that should it ever get clogged, a snake, not the animal kind but the drain clearing tool, can be used in a smooth walled pipe, but not in this corrugated pipe. Also, it's a little easier to choose your slope when your pipe holds a shape, rather than conforming to the ground.

Here is how the corrugated pipe fits together. The blue lines help you line them together visually so that the holes are all on the same side. When in the trough you've dug, the holes need to be on the top side.





At this point I got distracted by another chore that had to be done yesterday, as we were expecting rain. Michael went to get some tools and I began working in the herb garden area. I always hope that in winter, no weeds will grow, but I rediscovered that not to be true. The entire beds were covered in weeds. Not for the first time, I marveled at the amount and variety of plant growth that takes place, even in the dead of winter. I again wondered why we don't just eat that instead of purchasing greens in the market.

I know for myself it's that I do not know if it is all safe. Look at a few of these choices. This first one, if I remember correctly, is something I HAVE actually tried, but I'm not sure.





























Michael cut back some of the dead growth from last year on the the taller herbs, like the basil and the fennel.





Many of my highly valued plant markers had been heaved out of the ground by the freezing and thawing of the earth all winter.





I found a new lavender plant. I have all sorts of beautiful pictures in my head about these.





Those images have not yet transferred to the actual plant bed, but I have high hopes.





A new rosemary plant.





The beds sure don't look like much right now.





And I could not resist this lemon thyme. You just push your face into the leaves and inhale... aaaaaaahhhhhh. I could not decide where to put it, so I just stuck it at the end of a row, deciding I'll move it later if I want to. I am burying my head in the sand concerning whether or not this is spreading, like regular thyme.... (Fingers in my ears, "la, la, la...")





Then we moved on to a ready made salad garden. I thought about all the effort we put into growing stuff from seed last year that did not amount to much, then I looked at the packs of 9 Red Sails lettuce for $3.50 and decided it was worth it. So we prepped a spot in the herb beds with hand tools, as our vegetable garden area is not ready for planting. We still plan on growing later plants from seed, but this will give us an early crop.





Moss intrigues me. But it was hand dug into the soil.





And we planted them in rows of three, about a foot apart.





And added in some Arugula, flat-leafed parsley, and curly-leafed parsley at the end.





And there is our early salad garden. So cool to have a head start on the weeds!





Back to the French drain. Michael was cleaning out the debris and spider webs from the pipe that had been laying outside since last summer.





We ran some water to check our slope.





It was pretty good, except at the end where I was dreading having a trench running across the entry of the greenhouse. But we had to dig it out. We can fill it will gravel, but this will always be a problem without spending a lot of money. The lesser of two evils if I do not want to struggle with a muddy floor inside the greenhouse during rain.





The landscape fabric we must wrap around the pipe to slow the entry of earth into the holes as it gradually sifts through the gravel over the years. We cut the 50 foot roll in half, long ways, to save money.





And then we had to tie the fabric with twine to hold it around the pipe, as it barely fit at that point. Once the gravel is on top, the decomposition of the twine won't matter.





And that's where we had to leave off and get ready to take Michael in early for worship music practice before our Bible study.









After our study, almost all the young people brought out instruments and jammed for an hour. Some are cut off out of the photo here. This is always fun and great practice.





Today, more French drain work and, I'm hoping, getting some grass seed in the ground.

~Faith

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