Author: Re-Farmer

Fall planting grape hyacinth, day two, and planning ahead

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The girls were sweethearts; by the time I got outside, they had already planted at least half of the second bag of grape hyacinths. One daughter was still using the broken trowel to dig the holes! It’s really unfortunate that the auger couldn’t be used. :-( That would have made the job must faster and easier!

I did find another trowel among the odds and ends we found while cleaning out the sun room, but it was so cheap, and the soil so hard, it kept bending. I used a weeding tool to loosen the soil, first, then I could gently dig a tiny little hole for each tiny little bulb. :-)

Then, while one daughter watered both sections we planted the bulbs in, my other daughter and I used pieces from the trees that were cut away from the power lines to mark things off.

At the far end it where a walkway will be. Eventually, there will be a sort of V shaped pair of walkways leading from the fire pit area to the broad path that runs down the middle of the grove. At the dead tree, near where the rolling seat is, we marked around a spot where wild strawberries are growing. There are more of them near a tree to the left of that spot, but with the bulbs planted on either side, we didn’t bother going in to mark them. At some point, I’d like to transplant those strawberries to somewhere they won’t be choked out by grasses and wildfowers, but wild strawberries are not the sort of thing that takes to being handled well. It does make me wonder how they ended up here! I used to find them only deep in the bushes, during very damp years, when I was a kid.

This is the next section we will be working in.

We have 20 bulbs each of 5 different types of snow crocus. This area is very narrow, so it should be quite enough to plant the length of this. These were my daughter’s choice, so I will leave it to her, whether we will plant each type separately, or mix them all together.

The crocus bulbs are even smaller than the grape hyacinth! They need to be only 3 inches deep into the soil.

Weather willing, we should be able to get this done tomorrow. After that, we might be done in this section for this year. We still have a double tulip collection on back order, with a total of 58 bulbs, but I’m not sure where they will be planted. I think they will need more sunlight than they can get in this area. The product info says “partial sunlight”, while the further we go in this area, the more “full shade” it gets! They might do quite well in the old kitchen garden, as long as they are planted closer to the house and away from the ornamental apples.

Something we still have time to think about!

Meanwhile, we will work on keeping these well watered while it’s still warm out, to make sure they are established before winter sets in.

I do hope the back ordered items come in soon. I really want to get the garlic in!

The Re-Farmer

Morning kitties

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I was very happy to see Butterscotch’s babies this morning. I didn’t see them at all, yesterday, and even their food bowl was only being pecked at by the blue jays!

When I saw them by the house, I made a point of staying to play with them. Much to my surprise and delight, Creamsicle Jr. was the one to join me!

It’s hard to tell, as they are not very co-operative, but it looks like Creamsicle Jr. is male. He was willing to play on my feet, but would not let me touch him!

The calico made a slight attempt at playing, but was not willing to come too close. She does like to climb the lilac bushes, though! I am pretty sure she is female.

Of the two orange tabbies, I could only get pictures of this one – the other kept itself hidden away! This guy (and I’m pretty sure this one is male) is more willing to let me touch and pet him – or support his butt when he started to slide off my knee! – before running off. He comes right back to play, though. As for the other orange tabby, I suspect it is female, but she would not come anywhere near me today!

Today is working out to be a very windy day. There is a thunderstorm predicted for early this evening, but from the looks of the weather radar, I expect it to miss us. We should still be able to get the rest of the grape hyacinth bulbs planted today. :-) Where we are putting them is a bit more sheltered from the wind.

It’s wreaking havoc on our internet, though… :-/

The Re-Farmer

Fall planting grape hyacinth, day one

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So a few things we’d talked about before have changed a bit, as we decided where to start planing the grape hyacinth (muscari).

This is the area we settled on, before clean up.

Two summers ago, this area was quite overgrown. Some of the lilacs and carigana I cut back have started to encroach again. I deliberately did not mow around here, because I wanted to see what would come up.

Not much, it turns out. Lots of crab grass, and a few of a type of wildflower we have all over the place.

In this area, there are rows of trees planted varying widths apart, with a path to the old garden that splits it into east and west sides (this is the west side we are working on). After clarifying where we wanted to keep walking paths, one of my daughters and I started raking, and I also cut away some of the encroaching lilacs, caragana and the maple suckers that were coming up.

The row of elm and maple on the left has a narrower space between them and another row of trees to the north. Then there is a wide space that will be kept open as a walking path, followed by several more rows of trees planted way too close together.

We will be planting a bag of bulbs on either side of the row of trees on the right of the photo, and not too close to the lilacs and caragana. We want to encourage them to spread outwards from that row of trees.

There was quite a lot of debris, so we ended up using the firepit to burn it. When my other daughter was able to come join us, they continued the hard physical labour, while I tended the fire. :-)

This sort of stuff makes for a very smoky fire!

After the dry debris on the surface was raked away, they went over it with a thatching rake to get even more up, and try and loosen the soil. The piles from what were not appropriate for burning, so they’re going to be used as a sort of mulch, elsewhere.

The girls even kept going and raked up the next area we’ll be planting in.

Just not today!

They also remembered that auger I bought, intending to use in the old garden area. On realizing how much rockier it was than expected, we never did.

So I got it out, attached it to our drill and tested it.

Yeeaahhh…

No.

That didn’t work. Too many roots! The auger would jam and stop turning, almost immediately! Those circles you see where as deep as I could go before it got hung up and starting making some very unfortunate noises.

Which may well have been a good thing, I guess.

After scattering a bag of bulbs fairly randomly in the prepared area, the girls got to work, digging 4 inch holes manually (the recommended depth for muscari) and planting them, while I continued to tend the fire.

We are now down a trowel.

There it is – with the rock that broke it!

We have another one, but no one can remember where it ended up, so they found another tool and continued.

Hitting a rock like that with the auger probably would not have broken the auger.

It would most likely have broken my drill, though!

Here is one section they worked in. It’s hard to tell where they planted the bulbs from the ground scuffed as they worked! It was a very difficult job, with many roots and rocks in the way. The soil is very hard. I know, however, that grape hyacinth can handle that, since I’ve seen them growing in much worse conditions!

The entire area has been watered and, tomorrow, we will work on the next section.

The crocuses will also be planted in this side of the maple grove (the east side still has piles of dead branches waiting to be chipped), but the iris and tulips will go someplace much more prominent and visible. They don’t have the spreading habit the grape hyacinth and crocuses do, so we’ll be more particular about bulb placement, too.

I’m so happy! When I was a kid, going through catalogs, grape hyacinth were among the things I always wanted to grow. When living in Victoria, BC, where they grew like weeds on the sides of roads (which is how I know they can handle the hard soil of this area just fine!) that only solidified my desire to have them. Now we finally do! And with a couple hundred bulbs planted, I think we can be assured of a decent number of them sprouting next spring.

As long as the skunks and squirrels don’t dig up and eat the bulbs!

The Re-Farmer

Morning cuteness, and a sad little gourd

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Before heading outside to do my morning rounds, I spotted 3 kittens out the window…

… playing on the roof of their cat house!

Of course, as soon as I went outside, they ran off, but mystery kitten stayed to spy on me.

It was so funny to see her hide behind the frame, pop her head up, hide, peek, hide, peek… watching me as I brought out some kibble for the outside cats.

In checking out the squash bed, I just had to go looking for our one birdhouse gourd that was developing.

The one, sad, squishy little gourd!

The frosts have completely decimated all the squashes, so it’s time to prep the beds for the winter. I don’t know that we’ll plant squash in the same places next year, but we will definitely plant them again. With what we learned this year, I hope to be able to do more to protect them for late and early frosts.

The squash beds will not be cleaned up today, though. After lunch, we will be planting flower bulbs in the maple grove, in areas that are the hardest to mow around.

I’m really looking forward to it! :-)

The Re-Farmer

Guess what we’re doing this weekend!

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A package I was expecting next week, came in today! Our first shipments of bulbs for fall planting.

Which the cats found very, very interesting…

That’s better!

Mostly. :-D

We’ve got 2 packages of Muscari (grape hyacinth) of 100 bulbs each. There are 5 bags of crocuses. I believe we were planning to mix these all together and plant them randomly. There are also an iris and tulips. We still have some on back order, including a fall garlic mix. The long term weather forecasts show no temperatures dipping low enough for frost over the next too weeks. Hopefully, the rest of the order will come in before things start to cool down that much again.

The Re-Farmer

Cat crowd and sad sunflowers

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We had another frost last night, and today is going to be distinctly chillier. We’ve already had a smattering of rain, which is supposed to continue off and on.

Then, on the weekend, we’re supposed to go above 20C again!

The outside cats seem to be taking it in stride. In this weather, they will be growing in their denser winter coats.

How is this for a lovely family picture!

Starting from the top left, we have Rosencrantz’s baby. Next to her is the mystery kitten; I am unsure which mom she belongs to! Next is Rozencrantz herself – who as even been letting me pet her! Until the food is out, of course. :-D

Next in line is Tabby, then Little Braveheart (her head is hidden behind her mom), and finally, Junk Pile cat.

Junk Pile cat was the one kitten of Rosencrantz’s that we were unable to catch. Keith and David, with their leaky, glued shut eyes, were caught and treated and are now both indoors.

This means that Rosencrantz’s babies are siblings to Junk Pile, while Junk Pile’s kittens are the grandkittens of Rosencrantz. Which means Rosencrantz’s kittens are also the aunts/uncles of Junk Pile’s kittens! :-D

I did see Butterscotch around when I first came outside and started getting the cat kibble. I have put the container for her and her kittens at the side of the house, near the steps I have been seeing them play around most often, lately. She went past me as I was filling it. Later, as headed towards the old garden area, I could see her kittens, playing among the squash beds.

Which confirms that Butterscotch has moved her kittens again.

Across the road, to the neighbouring property! No one lives there, but there is still the house, barn, garage, and various sheds and equipment used by the current owner.

*sigh*

She has done this before, and when her kittens grew bigger, they did stay at our place on their own, but I don’t like that she and her kittens are crossing the road like that. That one is a main road, and gets a lot more traffic than the one our driveway leads to.

I really wish Butterscotch wouldn’t do that. :-(

The frost we’ve been having seem to have finally done in the sunflowers.

The leaves are drooping on all of them, and even the unopened seed heads are drooping. I don’t expect many of them will ever open, even as we warm up again.

With the ones that are already open, I’m sure they can better withstand the frost. The problem is, it’s too chilly for the pollinators. No pollinators, and the seeds will never develop. I’m hoping they will be out again as things warm up.

Not all of them are tucking down for the winter. The wasps on the tree outside the kitchen window – the tree we need to cut back in hopes of establishing an internet connection for the second satellite – is still buzzing. As chilly as it was this morning, I could see a few flying around, too.

It’s hard to know how much longer it’ll be, before we can safely cut that branch down. Meanwhile, we’ve already got our 90% data usage warning, with 2 weeks before the account flips. We’re still rationing our internet usage, but we’d have to basically stop using the internet almost completely, to avoid going over the limit. Our service won’t be interrupted, but we will be charged double per gig once we do.

I really hope taking that branch down works. The tech already checked everything and replaced everything he could, and it still got zero signal. If it’s not the branch blocking the signal, there’s really nothing else left to fix. Yet, if it was just the branch, we would have had at least an intermittent signal, rather than no signal at all.

Ah, well. We’ll find out, one way or the other, once those branches come down.

The Re-Farmer

Fall Clean up: finally clearing the second tire planter

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When we moved here, there were two tractor tire planters in the yard. One of them had been next to a willow for so long, it was actually damaged by the willow as it grew.

You can read about what a job it was to clear that out here, and here.

Thankfully, this one was not as big, and easier to get to!

The other one was likely about 130-140 pounds, so I’d guess this one was probably around 100 pounds.

Not counting any soil inside it.

The first thing to do was pull up the spent, self-seeded flowers, which I’d already done before taking the picture. Then I needed to loosen the soil and clear out the remaining plants, weeds and grass.

There had been a concrete block in the middle of this, to support the bird bath that used to be here. I dug it out to use in the fire pit, leaving a hole behind.

You’ll notice, there is no hole.

Junk Pile’s kittens LOVED playing in the dirt, and filled it in with their rolling around in it.

They were also very fascinated by me working on this, and were even willing to stay fairly close to watch!

Though I could pull out a fair amount of roots, stems and bigger rocks with my hands, it still wasn’t good enough for the soil to go into the retaining wall blocks.

So I rigged a sieve.

This is the mesh from what had been a screen window that would be put over the window to the old basement in the summer. The wooden frame had rotted and broken, so we built fitted replacement. The old wood frame is trash, but the steel mesh worked well for sifting the soil. A slightly finer mesh probably would have been better, but it did the job well enough!

Well enough that I think I will build a new frame for it, for future sifting jobs like this!

After filling the wheelbarrow with enough soil to top up half the retaining wall blocks, I was at a point where I needed to start lifting the tire itself.

While working my way around the tire, I could hear roots tearing as I lifted it!

And yes, this has been here long enough for moss to start growing on it!

Since this tire planter wasn’t placed next to any trees to damage it, it could potentially still be used for something – in a better location! However, as I cleared the soil and roots away, I could see there is still a fair bit of damage from weathering. I was even pulling broken pieces of cable out.

Eventually, after clearing enough soil to finish topping up the retaining wall blocks, I had removed enough soil to actually lift it up.

As you can see, there’s still a lot of soil in there!

Soil that is jam packed with roots.

I tried loosening the soil with a garden tool, but the root mats were so dense, it was hard to break it loose. It ended up falling over in the process.

Which did a much better job of knocking the root filled soil loose!

In the end, the easiest way to clear it was to roll it a bit, pull it back, bounce it, roll it again, pull it back, bounce it…

I finally got it all out! You can see the pile of roots in the back, where I’d pulled out the biggest, vine-looking ones. I don’t know what they were from; they look like they’ve been dead for a long time. Certainly nothing growing in the planter since we’ve been here came from those long roots!

The tire was just been set aside for now. We might still try to find a way to use it, but not as a planter!

For anyone reading this, thinking of re-purposing tires as planters…

Don’t.

Just… don’t! :-D The tires do degrade quite a bit, they are difficult to work around, and they are a huge job to clean up!

Speaking of cleaning up…

Yay!! No more tire planter!

That thing was such a pain to mow around!

All rakes up and ready to have some grass seed added, next spring.

Another job off the list!

The Re-Farmer

Fall clean up: cucamelon surprise

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The frosts we have had didn’t quite kill off the cucamelons, but they are certainly beyond being able to continue producing.

There were still a few left on the vines that were big enough to withstand the frost, though!

They were still tasty, too. :-)

After taking down the yarn net I made for a trellis, I started pulling each of the plants up.

Which is when I found a surprise.

They have tubers!

When I looked up how to grow cucamelons, I found one site that said, if you lives in a colder climate, you could dig up the roots and pot them. Kept in a cool, dark place over the winter, they could be started indoors for better transplants in the spring.

I don’t remember the site mentioning the roots were tubers!

When I kept finding more, I decided I would try it.

These are the biggest ones that I found. After trimming away the vines, I filled a couple of deep buckets with peat (we still have most of a bale) and planted the a bunch. I fit about 9 tubers between the two buckets. That left a few littler ones that I decided not to bother planting.

The buckets are now being repeatedly watered, to get as much of the peat to absorb moisture as possible. Then, they will go into the old basement (where the cats can’t get at it!) for the winter.

The next thing to do was to prepare the retaining wall blocks. When I placed them last year, which you can read about here and here, I filled the bottoms with mulch, then topped with peat. As expected, everything settled a couple of inches, so they all needed to be topped up.

For that, I wanted to use the soil from the remaining tire planter, so the retaining wall waited for a bit, while I dealt with that.

Which will get it’s own post.

It turned out to be a pretty big job!

Once I had the soil, I loosened and broke up the peat layer, topped off all the blocks with soil, then watered them thoroughly, to help it settle in.

After giving each block a thorough soaking, my daughter and I made a dump run, giving the soil plenty of time to absorb the water and settle. Once back, I topped up the soil again, then gave them another soak.

The cucamelons are now all cleaned up, and the retaining wall is ready for whatever we decided to plant here next.

Oh, I almost forgot!

One of the other things we transplanted in the area where the surviving fennel seedlings.

This is the biggest and strongest of the 4 that survived.

I admit, all I did with them over the summer was water them. I suppse they’re still edible. If nothing else, I think the fronds can be used as an herb, and there are plenty of those! :-D

The only thing left in the blocks are the two with chives in them. I will be leaving them for now, but before winter, those will get topped up with soil, too.

Another job off the list! :-)

The Re-Farmer

Fall Clean Up: the platform bird feeder

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We had a light frost last night, and have frost warnings for tonight, but today was a gorgeous day to get work done outside! We reached a high of 15C/59F, which is an ideal temperature, I find.

The first thing on the list was to work on the platform bird feeder. It has been just sitting off to the side for a couple of weeks now, so it’s about time!

The first thing to do was remove the “legs”. They’re not particularly stable, and showing rot where they touch the ground, so it was time for them to go.

There were a remarkable number of screws holding them in place!

There were 20 screws between 3 legs!!

You can see how they were starting to degrade.

Also, pieces of the platform feeder were just peeling right off!

That took a bit more effort to take off. I started to remove screws from the supports under it, but realized it is really solid, so I tightened them again and left it.

Then I had to find the screws holding the platform to the supports.

I found one I was able to remove. Another would not budge.

It was actually easier to just tear apart the platform with my hands.

I had to use pliers to loosen the remaining screws before I could take them out.

After that, I brushed and scraped away the old bird seed that had gotten jammed around the support post, the scrubbed again with water. Is was then set aside to dry in the sun.

Later, I will cut off the rotten end of the support post, and then I think we will paint it. This can definitely be salvaged. We just need to figure out how to securely set it in place. With a bird feeder hanging off the hook – or even just the cage of a suet feeder – the wind kept blowing it over. I also want to find a way to put on another platform. Maybe something not wood, to avoid the problem of rot that developed on the old one!

We’ll figure it out as we go. For now, we’ll see about getting it painted, first. :-)

The Re-Farmer

Morning surprises, and is the hard cider okay?

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So I had a few pleasant surprises this morning.

And one not so pleasant.

When I headed out to do my morning routine, I had a rush of outside cats come running as soon as I opened the door! And who was in the lead?

Little Braveheart!

She ran right up to me. She still won’t let me pet her, but she’s coming the closest.

While in the sun room, filling a container of kibble at the storage bin, there was a crowd of cats going in and out, including Butterscotch, Potato Beetle, Junk Pile cat and her 2 kittens. When I felt a cat rubbing against my legs, I looked down, expecting to see Potato Beetle, who has been begging for attention these days.

Nope.

It was Little Braveheart! Weaving around my feet.

*melt*

The mystery kitten came out from under the cathouse again. That seems to be a favorite place now. I’m glad she’s willing to hang out so close.

Once he’d eaten his fill, Potato Beetle accompanied me for the rest of my rounds.

He did not want me to put him down, either! :-D

The biggest seed head on the mutant sunflower, with its 20 or so seed heads, is opening up quite nicely!

Once back inside and chatting with my daughters, I noticed a kitten on a side table. They are allowed on this table, but it’s also where the hard crab apple cider is sitting, and the kittens have been going after the airlocks. So I went to move her away and…

… noticed both airlocks were gone.

!!!!

I had checked the temperatures before heading outside, and didn’t notice they were gone. I guess it’s a good thing it’s been relatively chilly; they both read at 17C/62F this morning, while the ambient temperature is 16C/60F. They are both wrapped in a towel to keep the warmth of their own fermentation in, but at these temperatures, there’s not a lot of activity in the airlocks.

I found the airlocks, upside down, between the towel and the wall. The bungs were quickly covered with plastic wrap. The main concern is that we have a fruit fly problem right now, and we just can’t seem to get rid of them all. Another reason to be glad the cooler temperatures mean slow fermentation, I guess. They weren’t attracted to the open holes in the bungs! There were no fruit flies in the jugs. *phew*

They can’t have been without airlocks for long, but even so, could this be a problem? Will they be okay?

I have no idea.

We need to find a way to warm them up. For the mead, we used an electric heating pad, but there is no electrical outlet anywhere near where we have them now. We were thinking of wrapping something warm around them, like those microwavable neck warmers, but we don’t have any.

Hhmm… I could warm up a towel and wrap them in it.

*sigh*

Well, we will just have to keep a close eye on them and see how they turn out!

The Re-Farmer