Morning … flowers?

July 12, 2020 / Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

Today is Sunday, which I try to keep as a quiet day of rest, but of course, the morning rounds must be done.

After putting kibble out for the yard cats, I paused to enjoy some of the flowers that have come up in the old kitchen garden.

Though we covered the entire area with cardboard and mulch, some things have managed to come through. Like there cheerful yellow flowers that have come up near the rain barrel.

A whole bunch of these white ones have come up near the sun room window.

Then I got joined by a beautiful, furry flower!

Who insisted in being carried for most of my rounds! :-D

While one of the goals of mulching this area was to kill off some of the more invasive plants my mother had introduced, I’m not too worried about what’s coming up now. The weeds and quack grass are much easier to pull out, with such a deep layer of mulch, and the flowers have been coming up very strong and healthy. The other goal for this area is to level it off to the retaining wall, so we’re focusing on adding material at the end furthest from the house, and leaving all these flowers to grow. Eventually, this will be a kitchen garden, for herbs and vegetables that we tend to use the most, but there is no hurry on that. It’ll be done in stages, and as I figure out what flowers are there, and which I want to keep, I can transplant them to other areas.

For now, we will enjoy the flowers where they are. :-)

Including furry ones that follow me around and give love and cuddles!

The Re-Farmer

Old kitchen garden, retaining wall progress

September 3, 2019 / Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

I am so happy I was able to get back to working on this today!

It is now basically finished for this year!

Here is where I started today.

I loosened the soil and leveled off the space where we could fit 1 more of the chimney blocks. In the process, I realized that I could completely miss the bunch of chives. However, I wanted to add a block to form a corner, so I decided to dig some out for transplanting, first.

After discussing what we wanted to put in these in the future, we decided to transplant just some of the chives into two blocks, just inside the corner. The bottoms were stuffed with mulch, then topped with peat, before transplanting. More peat was added, later.

I then went to work on the opposite corner, which had a bit of a problem.

That metal fence post is every so slightly in the way.

The ground here also started to slop upwards towards the house on this side, so I had to level the area by taking soil away from the area. On the other side, I had to level the soil by adding to it!

As for placing the block, I found I could push the metal post aside, just enough for it to line up right.

After everything we jammed in and settled into place, the post ended up being very close to straight, still. So I was happy.

On to the next step!

I raked the mulch I had moved aside, right up against the blocks, then used some of it to jam into the openings until they were filled to about an inch or two from the tops.

Next, I put a layer of peat on top of the mulch.

As I worked my way down the line, I added more mulch to some of them before adding the peat, just to make sure there was a deep, tamped down layer.

I then gave all of them a thorough watering, to give the decomposition process a bit of a head start – and wash off the tops of the blocks a bit.

As it breaks down, I expect the mulch and peat to sink by an inch or two. That will give us the space to add soil as we plant things in them.

As for the small openings, my daughter and I talked about filling them with sand or gravel. I don’t mind the idea of filling them with soil and planting things in them, though they are really too small for that. Even just leaving them empty will serve as a layer of insulation to protect the soil in the middle. However, if we were to put sand in them, it would keep unwelcome things from starting to grow in there, plus give a nice base to add garden stakes, supports, or even solar lights for lighting up pathways.

Since we’re stuck with those metal posts anyhow, I like the idea of using them to string decorative LED lights across, too. :-)

I’m pretty happy with how this area is starting to shape up.

For those new to this blog, here is what the area was like, when I started cleaning it up last year.

Part one
Part two
Part three
Part four

We’ve made a lot of progress here! :-)

The Re-Farmer

Old kitchen garden, retaining wall progress

September 2, 2019 / Re-Farmer / 5 Comments

After finishing up at the old wood pile, there was time enough in the day to start on the retaining wall at the end of the old kitchen garden.

Here is the start of it.

Continue reading →

Outer yard mowing – a sadness!

June 9, 2018June 9, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

Today, I broke out the riding mower to work on the outer yard.

Although I don’t intend to focus on any clean up out there, we do still need to keep parts of it mowed.

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I started by “framing” out the areas I wanted to mow, mostly for access. You can see how tall it is, plus there is last year’s grass under it, too. So I was extra slow and careful while going through the thickest parts, and keeping a very sharp eye out for anything I didn’t want to mow over. I did have to get off a couple of times to move away sticks or old wooden shingles.

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Next, I started working on sections, beginning with the driveway.

The area to the left of the driveway in the photo had lots of horse droppings. Just that side. The other side didn’t. Which is weird.

My parents didn’t have horses.

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The next section I focused on was in front of the shed we’re storing my parents’ stuff in, so we can get in and out of it more easily as we add more to the shed.

I had to go over this section twice.

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I had not originally intended to do this, but decided to mow a pathway to the other gate. We still need to fix the barb wire gate, and this way, we can get to it without having to fight our way though tall, tick infested, grass.

I was REALLY careful doing this section, because I remember there were all sorts of random piles of stuff. Basically, I just followed old tire tracks.

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Next, I started working on a section between my dad’s old car, and the burn barrel.

I had just got around by the car, when this happened.

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Yeah. I broke a belt.

On my new mower.

Sadness.

Woe.

Thankfully, belts are not expensive, but I will have to enlist the help of my older brother to fix it, I think.

I guess I just pushed it too hard. :-(

I wasn’t about to let all that wonderful cut grass go to waste, though. After putting away the mower, I got out the rake and a wheelbarrow, and started hauling grass to the flower garden. Amazingly, I had to actually start scrounging for grass clippings to finish it! I not only raked in front of the storage shed, but also to the barn, then back to the driveway.

Which is when this happened.

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It finally gave out.

And this was the good fan rake!

We do have one other one, though I expect that one to break soon, too. I only needed one more load of grass clippings to finish, though. I had to go to the path I mowed to the back get to get enough!

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But it is finally gone! The entire flower garden is now covered with a thick later of straw, leaves and grass clippings. I’ve even started adding the contents of our compost bucket.

It is now being thoroughly soaked down.

The next step we plan to take (aside from continuing to add any grass clippings, etc. that we can, over the summer) is to pick up a couple of bales of peat moss and add that as another layer. I really want to build it up, to kill off the invasive plants and cover any little remaining stumps from stuff I’d trimmed away completely. Especially at the old fence line at the end of the garden, where things had gotten pretty wild.

Over by the fire pit, my mother’s lilies are now in full bloom.

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They are doing really, really well. I think, once we have the flower garden built up, I’ll transplant these into it.

While I was taking pictures, I felt something rubbing against my leg…

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It was a Butterscotch!

She looks ticked off. :-D

She was seen earlier today, carrying a kitten. My daughter barely saw more than little legs and a tail, and couldn’t even tell what colour it was. It seems she had moved her kitten(s?) to the garden shed. I’d gone into it yesterday, looking for something, and she came out from under stuff in the back and began hissing at me. Even though I didn’t go much past the doorway, I guess it was still too much for her, and she found another place for her kitten(s?).

So we are back to not having a mower, until I can replace that belt. I won’t be able to phone the shop my brother got it from until Monday.

*sigh*

Ah, well. It’s not like there isn’t plenty of other work to be done!

The Re-Farmer

Yard in Bloom

June 6, 2018June 6, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

With all the yard work we’ve been doing over the past while, I’ve been really appreciating all the blooms.

The ornamental apple trees and plums are long since finished blooming, but now we have all sorts of flowers, scenting the air!

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Right by the sun room door is this white rose. There are others in the flower garden, but they are not as prolific as this one is!

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After clearing away the vines that had climbed up the lilacs by the people gate, I could finally see that they were blooming! I’m sure my mother told me, at some point, that these were white lilacs. Not that I can remember one way or the other! So it was a nice surprise. :-)

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This is the huge lilac bush with teeny, tiny leaves and flowers, that I’d cleared a maple tree out of, earlier. I’ll need to go back to this garden and finish cleaning and clearing it. It, too, is inundated with vines! There are regular lilac bushes at the other end of this flower garden.

This is also technically the “front yard”, and the door in the middle of this side of the house is the front door. Which isn’t used. In fact, I still haven’t been able to open the screen door; it’s still stuck at the base, and I don’t want to force it and break something.

If all goes as planned, though, that is the door the ramp we hope to have added will be installed at. Depending on the dimensions, it may be necessary to remove this garden.

The post in the foreground had a bird feeder on it. I took it off after I turned away from pruning a branch and smacked right into it with my glasses, knocking them askew.

Thankfully, the base was designed to lift right off. It needs to be cleaned up and repaired, anyhow. :-)

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In the big flower garden, off the old kitchen, is this honeysuckle bush, in full bloom! When talking to my mother about clearing this garden, one of the things she requested as to save this bush. It was being choked out by the invasive undergrowth!

20180606.flowers.honeysuckle.flower

I can see why she wants to keep it! :-)

The Re-Farmer

Status after storms and rain

May 26, 2018May 26, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 5 Comments

This morning, I made a point of walking around the yard to see if there was any damage from the storms. We’re all still very wet – enough that our sump pump has actually turned on! – and everything is so wonderfully green!

First order of business was to clean out the cat food containers, which were full of water logged kibble.

I had several cats come out to see what I was doing.

None of them were co-operative when it came to getting their pictures taken! :-D

I was very pleased at what the flower garden I’ve been working on looked like.

Absolutely none of the uncovered cardboard blew away. I am quite surprised, really. With the winds we had for a while, I’m surprised quite a lot of things didn’t blow away!

No roof damage. No dead branches fallen down – at least not in the yard. Just some small branches and twigs.

We’re getting to where we should be mowing the lawn soon. We’re expecting more rain today, but even without more rain, the grass is far too wet. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get it done on Monday.

Not that there is much grass to mow.

The above photo is of the yard to the east of the house, between the house and a flower garden on that side (though that “flower” garden is now mostly bushes). On the far side of this garden, there is better grass.

The above photo is the west section of the yard, near the fire pit. Mostly moss, some weeds, and very little actual grass.

The north side of the yard has a dead patch that perfectly corresponds with the overhanging maple branches above. Hmm. Do you think there’s a correlation? LOL

The south areas of the yard has more grass, especially on the south east, but under the Chinese Elm by the kitchen, it’s more weeds and dirt than grass.

That tractor tire is an interesting bit of decor. ;-D

At some point, though not likely this year, we will work to improve the lawn. Even if it’s to move to a ground cover rather than grass. Some areas are sparse because vehicles get driven in to the door fairly regularly, so I wouldn’t expect anything to do well in those areas.

One thing I was seeing a lot of were black ant hills, like these. The one in the middle was the biggest I saw. Most were like the tiny bundle of soil to the left of it. They’re not good to have in the yard, since they destroy root systems with their digging, but I’m not too worried about them at this point.

Our plans for the day will depend a lot on the weather, but I do hope we’ll still get some outside work done. I had been thinking of building a new barb wire gate for the other driveway, and we still might start preparations for it (like seeing if we can salvage the wood fence posts in the flower garden to replace the rotting posts in the existing barb wire gate) today. We shall see how it works out.

Little by little, it’s getting done. :-)

The Re-Farmer

It’s Raining! Also, we need another wood pile.

May 24, 2018May 24, 2018 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

This is so awesome!

We’ve got a real, honest to goodness RAIN happening right now!

We recently got more weather alerts, this time for thunderstorms, for the south and east areas of the province. The usual warnings about possible hail, etc. These storms tend to pass us by, where we are. I remember talking to my dad on the phone and asking about storms I was hearing about, and he’s say, no, nothing over here.

I did just hear a rolling of thunder as I wrote that last sentence. Oh, it is so wonderful to see the rain!

So here are some pictures from yesterday.

20180523.flower.garden.leaf.layer1

More was added after this picture was taken, but it still wasn’t enough to cover the entire flower garden.

There are plenty of leaves to rake up that can be added. The maple grove has lots. Unfortunately, it’s such a mess, we can’t actually do any raking.

I started cleaning up around the area closest to the flower garden. Just around a lilac bush and a maple tree.

Most of the lilac bush was dead. Even with the living branches, I still trimmed away deadwood. Thankfully, I’d found some anvil pruners, which made the job easier. At least until those break, too. :-/

I also cut away most of suckers at the base of the maple tree, taking out dead branches that had fallen – including one that had fallen right into the lilac bush – and as much as I could reach of those that hadn’t fallen yet. These suckers have had years of growth, so a saw was needed. The space needed to saw them meant I wasn’t trimming them as close to the trunk as I should be. :-/

(Darn. Sounds like the rain has already stopped. I hope more comes, later!)

This is what’s left of the lilac bush.

20180523.cleared.lilac

I took about about 3 or 4 dead trunks, along with lots of dead suckers, and trimming the excess. I love lilacs, but they do have a spreading habit, so there was quite a bit to trim at ground level, spreading towards the maple.

I moved the old wash basin, once it was clear enough. There’s a maple stump on the left that it used to be sitting on, as a planter (I had to cut away maple suckers from the stump, too!). I considered turning it right side up, but that cats like to sit on it. :-D

Now there’s just the pile of soil from inside the basin to clean up. I might put the basin upside down over the stump, just for the cats. :-D

20180523.mostly.clear.maple

The base of the maple tree is mostly clear; there are still suckers to cut on the other side of the trunk.

It’s amazing how much difference, just this little bit of cleaning did. For one thing, there is no longer dead branches hanging over what used to be an open path.

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This is what I cleaned out.

We need to start another wood pile. The dead stuff can go where we are currently piling wood, but the green stuff needs to be set aside to dry, to be fuel for the fire pit next year. :-)

You can kind of see what it looked like before; the following picture was taken from the garden side, and you can see the wash basin planter and the stump it had been on.

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In between working on the open areas of the yard itself (that weed trimmer is sure going to pay for itself, over and over!), we will continue to clean up in the maple grove, and continue to layer the leaves we rake up onto the flower garden.

That will take a few months.

:-)

I also moved this…

A strange place for a bird feeder stand. It is now in the end of the flower garden outside the living room window. We’ll look into finding some way to anchor it, since that area is more exposed to winds. Between this and the bird bath I want to move over there, we should soon have a nice little sanctuary outside our living room window. :-)

The Re-Farmer

Flower Garden Progress: cardboard layer

May 23, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 8 Comments

The ornamental apples in the flower garden are very enthusiastically blooming right now!

While working under it last night, I could hear a constant hum of bees over my head!

I worked on layering cardboard onto the cleaned out flower garden for as long as I had light. Most of the time was spent taking tape off the boxes.

That’s one way to use up all those boxes from moving!

I was able to clear out most of the boxes in the Old Kitchen that my sister gave me to pack up my parents’ stuff before the movers arrived. I kept the strongest ones for packing the books and whatnot that are in the sun room when we finally get to it. Then we started on our own moving boxes. Getting those up the stairs from the new part basement was surprisingly dangerous. We have to close the door behind us because it’s not safe for our cats to go down there until we start cleaning the basements out. The door opens inward, over the steps. There’s just no good way to open a door from a steep set of stairs while clutching a bunch of boxes that are busily working on sliding out of your grip and falling down the stairs! :-D

At least the stairs are not as steep or skinny as the ones to the old part basement!

I could really tell which boxes were ones we packed, and which the movers packed. I was reminded, again, of what a terrible job they did. :-( The ones packed by the movers were a lot easier to remove the tape from, though, since there was hardly any, and they didn’t make any effort to make sure it stuck to the cardboard. :-/

So this is what the flower garden looked like last night.

When I ran out of boxes again, I just stopped. By the time I brought up more and removed the tape, it would have been full dark.

The temperatures were just perfect, though. :-D

I actually stayed out after taking this picture and started spraying the cardboard with water, more to add the weight of water, just in case a wind picked up. The hose we were using was too short, so I found a much longer one in the garden shed (using a flashlight) and set that up.

It wasn’t until hours later that I remembered that there is another tap on the other side of the Old Kitchen. Without the sun room to go around, that tap is much closer to the garden.

Oops. :-D

I brought up more boxes this morning – I even managed to bring up more than I actually needed. Which is good. More boxes available to pack up the sun room and the Old Kitchen.

This is what it looked like this morning, after I finished layering the cardboard.

Next thing to do was saturate the cardboard.

I’d grabbed a lawn sprinkler from the garden shed last night, only to have 3 others come with it. Turns out they were tied together. This morning, I went through them to try and figure out which was the least broken and hooked it up.

The adjustment was jammed in one position, so I took advantage of that and started from close to the house and left it there a while. It didn’t quite reach the opposite side, plus there were voids here and there from the bushes and the clothes line platform. After a while, I moved it to the other side.

There were still some voids, but I got more coverage in more areas missed.

After some fighting with the knob, I did eventually get the sprinkler on the “full” setting, so I could put it in the middle.

I left it there for maybe half an hour, so the whole thing got probably an hour or more of watering.

It wasn’t enough, but things were starting to heat up fast.

I didn’t get pictures yet, but after clearing out the hose, I started moving over the flax straw that was used to cover the septic tank cover for the winter, plus the straw that was in front of the cat house by the old kitchen, then started working on one of the piles of leaves my daughters had left by the garden for me.

For all the soaking it got, by the time I stopped, the cardboard was already starting to dry in many spots!

After I finish covering the cardboard, I will set up the sprinkler and have it run for the night, to make sure everything it thoroughly saturated. Well. At least as much as the sprinkler can reach.

This is some of what I’d pulled out of the flower garden while using the weed trimmer.

No wonder the rake kept catching on things.

I’d made the mistake, yesterday, of doing a bit of raking without gloves. This was the result. :-(

I have learned that this is a very bad place for an open wound. It seems everything I try to handle with my left hand (being left handed, that’s most things) hits it.

Nothing a bit of aloe vera and open air can’t handle. :-)

It’s not even 11am yet, and already we’re at 16C, with a “real feel” of 21C. Our high is supposed to be 23C today.

No more yard work today until things cool down.

Tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter, with a possible thunderstorm. Which works out, since my husband has medical appointments both today and tomorrow.

While working on the garden and cleaning up today, I couldn’t help but notice all sorts of areas that we need to get into, and think; that job is going to be SO much easier, now that we have a working weed trimmer! :-D Having the right tools makes all the difference!

The Re-Farmer

Flower Garden Progress: I broke down and did it!

May 22, 2018May 22, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

It was back to working on the flower garden today. The goal was to rake it and clean up whatever I find in it, before starting to lay down the layer of cardboard on it.

I worked around the edges, at the fence line, first and immediately found…

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… a pet food bowl, buried under the leaves.

I fought with the fence in this area. I tipped over the tire planter right on top of it. Never had any clue that there was something under the leaves, never mind something in bright purple plastic!

Now, theoretically, we could have taken the lawn mower to it. My older brother did make sure we had a push mower that worked, waiting for us in the garage.

This is one of the reasons why I decided against it.

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At least the piece of sidewalk block in another area was likely there as a stepping stone. Half a brick is just… garbage. It wasn’t even there to mark something, since that bush near it has a stick marking it.

After clearing around the edges, I started to work my way inwards. Clearing off what I’d already started before wasn’t too bad, but trying to rake through a mat of low growing greenery, getting hung up on buried vines, branches and sticks I couldn’t see, it was very frustrating.

So, I broke down and did it.

I went into town and bought a weed trimmer.

It was the cheapest electric one I could find, since it had to come out of the budget for something else, but I got it.

I don’t regret it.

That thing saved me hours and hours of labour.

Plus, it’s fun.

I did have to unreel new line about 5 or 6 times before I was done, though. In the process, I uncovered rotting pieces of wood and branches that look like someone pruned them, then just left them on the ground, years ago, to be buried in dead leaves and greenery.

Not only that, but after going over the garden with the weed trimmer, I realized that I wouldn’t have to rake it at all. I was able to clean up the garden, removing various things I found that didn’t belong, in the process. I can start laying the cardboard down as it is right now, then start layering with the leaves and straw that we already have.

Many, many hours of labor saved.

This is what it looked like, yesterday. (click on them to see full size)

The photo on the left was taken from inside the “gate”. The center picture from the end, and the right photo, from the north-west corner.

This is what it looks like now.

The photo on the left is taken from the south side of the garden. The center is taken from the south-west corner, and the right photo is from the north-west corner.

For now, I’m taking a water break, and then I plan to go out and start laying down cardboard. :-D

The Re-Farmer

Flower Garden Progress; done for the day!

May 21, 2018May 21, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

It was much more pleasant working outside in the cooler temperatures! We were heading well towards 30C today.

One of the first things I wanted to do when I went back out was to empty the second tire planter and move it out.

This one still had the other half of the tire attached as a base.

Also…

It was on top of an ants’ nest. The rim was full of ants, some carrying eggs, trying to find their way back to the nest.

I left the planter right where it was. I can get it out tomorrow! :-D

For the garden itself, I focused on trimming, pruning and cutting. There were a few rose bushes at the fence line that I was going to leave, but determined that they were not deliberately planted there, so I took them out. I pruned the apple trees a bit, and cut away deadwood from trees and bushes alike. I cut away lots of those vines, and so on.

Then this happened.

One of the problems we’ve found since moving here, is that so much of my parents’ stuff is gone. The good, working stuff, that is. Tools, equipment, supplies… This was a fully functioning farm and, after 40 + years of farming, my parents had pretty much everything anyone could need, and then some. What we’re finding now is basically the left behind junk. Like these old pruning shears. My husband was able to sharpen them, but they were clearly not going to last long.

Still, I didn’t expect a chunk to actually break off like that!

We’ll have to add “pruning shears” to our list of purchases. Or, should I say, bump it up higher on the list.

So I made do with a small hand saw. There is a large collection of old saws (and axes) here, with most of them being quite large. I remember using smaller saws that would have been perfect for the work I was doing, but I have not seen any of them, anywhere. Instead, we are using my older daughter’s hand saw, that she bought for herself a few years ago.

It did the job. That’s the main thing.

Here is the garden now, from the south west corner.

Clearing that west fence line was the most work.

Here is the garden from the north west corner.

There is still a stick in there, that is supposed to me marking something my mom planted, but I don’t think there’s anything there anymore. I’ll check more thoroughly when I start raking, tomorrow.

The fence posts are going to take a bit more effort to remove. I can wiggle them from side to side quite a lot, but can’t pull them out.

All in all, a very good day’s work!

The Re-Farmer

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