garden

Clean Up: mowing the big garden

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Today started early for me, as I had to drive to my mother’s to take her for an appointment to get her CT scan. She had a requirement to drink a litre of water an hour before her appointment, then restrictions on going to the bathroom shortly before, so I wanted to make sure she got there early enough to not have to worry about the restriction. Given how long it takes to drive from her town to the city where her appointment was, that meant she had to start drinking her water while we were driving.

She also had to fast 4 hours before the scan, but my mother went a bit overboard and, aside from eating some crackers with her morning medications, she had fasted since the supper! So as soon as we were done, I made sure to take her to lunch somewhere fast.

By the time I got home, it was mid afternoon. The weather was holding, so I decided to break out the push mower and get as much done as I could. (I only got rained on a tiny bit! :-D ) I was going to start working in the trees, but then decided to do the old, overgrown garden, instead.

When my brother brought the mower back, he walked me through what he had done. It started fine when we tested it, but he mentioned that he felt the prime pump wasn’t doing its job. So, just in case it wouldn’t start, he showed me where to open up the side of the engine, where there is a filter and an opening behind it, and told me I could basically just splash some fuel into it, and that should be enough to start it.

I’m very glad he told me that, because it wouldn’t start. I ended up having to do it twice! The second time was after I ran out of gas, but I found that if I filled the tank before it was completely empty, I didn’t have to do it again. Except I didn’t just splash it. I tipped the mower onto its side and poured a tiny bit, using the cap of the jerry can spout to hold the tiny bit of fuel I needed. After that, it started just fine.

Mowing the old garden ended up taking about 4 hours.

It is not a small garden.

It was also incredibly rough. Plus, I had to look out for stuff like this.

Thankfully, it wasn’t sticking too far out of the ground, but that’s something we’re going to have to dig up at some point. Maybe. Depends on how big it is, underground!

Here are the before photos.

Right now, the garden area is split by the section we covered with straw to mulch it, used some RoundUp when things started to grow through the mulch, then covered with tarps, that I worked around. That is where we are hoping to be able to start planting something next year. I also tried to get into those trees my mother left growing when she transplanted her raspberry bushes, as much as I could.

Here is what it looks like now.

Did I mention it was rough in there?

This picture barely begins to show how rough it was! It’s hard to grasp from the photo, just how big that hill in the foreground is. When this area was last plowed, this is where the tractor turned, so there are huge ridges all over.

If the weather continues to hold tomorrow, I want to work on mowing between the trees in the maple grove, plus the area leading from the big garden to the gate. My mother said she planted elms in there, so the area had not been mowed, but I see no signs of them.

And now I have to try and get the burrs out of my pant legs.

The Re-Farmer

Work done, things found and kitten fix

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While doing my rounds yesterday evening, I decided to prune away the dead parts of the mock orange at the clothes line platform.

It did so well last year, it’s a shame so much of it died over the winter. At the same time, I was happy to see the tiniest of leaf buds struggling to emerge from some main branches. I pruned all the dead stuff off and cleared out some Virginia Creeper that was trying to re-establish itself. That’s a wheel barrow full, right there. Now that it’s all open and pruned, I’m thinking it will recover quite well.

While hauling this away, I also started picking up branches in the West yard that had come down in the storms. I kept finding more and more branches – most were just small enough to be hidden by the grass, but still be enough that I wouldn’t want to hit them with the mower! I probably cleared another 2 wheelbarrows worth from the West lawn, including the section behind the storage house. I found more in the maple grove. I’m glad I was able to mow as much as I did, as it made it easier to find the fallen branches. Branches that had fallen into the areas I still need to get to with the weed trimmer were almost completely hidden! I’m also glad I brought my pruners with me, because I ended up cutting away spirea and caragana that was trying to reclaim the spaces between the lilacs, plum and apple trees again. It’s going to be a constant battle to keep those under control!

Then I checked on the transplanted raspberries and found a surprise.

A single asparagus spear!

It wasn’t there a few days ago. It wasn’t there last year.

It may be that, after having cleared away the weeds and mulching the area, a hidden root was finally able to grow.

Of course, I did have to go into the sun room to get my pruning sheers, and managed to get this adorable picture.

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Prep for winter: the old kitchen garden

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Well, today was certainly a productive day outside!

I decided to see how much I could get done on the old kitchen garden today, and ended up finishing the job!  So I’m happy. :-)

When I came out of the house, I startled cats in all directions, including that new grey ball of fluff.  A few of them even hung around while I moved things around the garden to prepare.

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Clearing the apple trees

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This afternoon, I got out the weed trimmer and started going around the edges of the yard, in preparation for mowing.  I wanted to trim all the way to the end of the row of crab apple trees by the main garden, so I grabbed an extra extension cord.  This made for a total of 250 feet of cord, and it was enough to do almost the entire yard, without having to move from the outlet outside the kitchen to the one in the sun room.

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I also tried to go further into the overgrown main garden a bit.  The plow line is there, and my goodness, it’s rough.  What a mess.  Still, I was able to go into the overgrown area a bit to trim out some burdock, before it got too bid, as well as some thistles.

Mostly, though, I’m glad to get the area around the apple trees finally done all the way to the end.

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This is the very last tree in the row, and as you can see, the main trunk is mostly dead.  It’s just got a few little branches with a handful of leaves on them.

I am planning to take the main trunk down completely.  What greenery is there is mostly from the saplings at its base.  I will select the one that looks the strongest and healthiest, then cut away the rest.

It you look in the background of the photo, you can see the north edge of the spruce grove, though a fair number of poplars have seeded themselves further in.  That north side is a straight line of spruces which, I learned only recently, was planted by my oldest brother.  I’m not sure if I was even born when those were planted!

When I am done in the maple grove, I plan to start working on the spruce grove from here.  I want to clear away the majority of the self-sown trees, but mostly, I want to clean out the bottom branches of the spruces.  They are all dead, though hidden by the living branches higher up.

I think, for the spruce grove, instead of working from one end to the other, as I have been with the maple grove, I will start with clearing the circumference.  Especially the fence lines.  They are getting away too overgrown, and I want to reduce the damage being done to the fence as long as I can (though when we moved here, there was already one tree that had fallen right on the fence).  Hopefully, I’ll at least be able to get that done this year.  The bulk of the clean up in the spruce grove will be done next year.  This is going to eventually involve clearing out many downed trees, and cutting down lots of dead ones, too.

It’s going to be a huge job!

The Re-Farmer

Bloom time

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When we moved out here to take care of the farm for my mother, one of the things we knew is that this first year would be a year of discovery.  With the yard in particular, I wanted to get an idea of what was growing where.  Sure, my mother could fill in a few details, but she hasn’t lived here in a few years, and isn’t going to remember everything.

As summer progresses, and things come to bloom in their seasons, I am making more and more of these discoveries.

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This is at the base of one of the dead spruce trees I’d pulled a whole triffid of vines out of, not long ago.  When I was going around here with the weed trimmer, I avoided this area, partly because I could tell it wasn’t just a whole lot of overgrown crab grass and weeds, partly because I wasn’t sure what was hidden in it.  I’m glad I left it. :-)

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The main garden area is completely overgrown right now, much to my mother’s dismay, but I did try to explain to her that I wanted to see what was there.

In the middle of some tall grass and burdock that I’d pulled, there is this splash of colour.  There is another next to it that’s more white than pink.  Just the two of them, in a sea of grass!

I will see about transplanting these somewhere, to salvage them, later on.

There were a couple of areas with a lot of thistles that I pulled when they were larger (easier to pull), but I didn’t get all of them.  There is another type of thistle, with fewer but larger leaves and spines, that grows much larger flower heads.

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The bees and butterflies love them.

There’s only a couple of these big thistles.  I will leave them for the insects and pull them out just before they go to seed.

There were many more random flowers and raspberries (I picked almost 2 cups of raspberries while taking these photos – far more than I expected to get out of them!) growing in between the trees in the maple grove, including in areas where I’d already used the weed trimmer.

The girls and I have been talking about what we’d like to do, and it turned out we’re all on the same page.  When things are cleaned and cleared out, we want to plant, in some areas, a variety of wildflowers and bulbs that will naturally spread.  The rows of trees are not the same distance apart, so I’m thinking of keeping the widest area clear, and planting between the rows that are closer together.  If we’re careful about what we select, we can encourage them in these areas to not only make it look pretty, but to reduce maintenance.  No grass to mow or weeds to trim.  We’ll just have to make sure there is plenty of grassy areas, too (or maybe moss) to walk in.  Plus, I’d like my husband to be able to enjoy the space, too, and not have to worry about getting stung, since he’s allergic to stings.

Finding that balance, and thinking years into the future, will be the key in deciding what we do.  We don’t want to be in the same situation, years down the road, that we are in now with the spirea and the vines!

Until then, we’ll just enjoy the blooms as we find them!

The Re-Farmer

We… don’t have rain. :-(

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So much for weather forecasts.

For all the lower temperatures and overcast skies, and forecasts of 80% chance for rain, there has been none today.  Going into town with another errand, my daughter and I played a bit of Pokemon Go.  In the game, which is linked to local weather in some way, showed pouring rain on our maps.  In the real world, there wasn’t a drop.

Once home again, I did a quick check around the yard and garden area.  After talking to my mother yesterday, I learned that the trees in the flower garden are not cherry trees, after all, but ornamental apple trees.  The cherry trees, she tells me, are in the spruce grove, behind where the wood pile used to be.  No sign of blossoms there, yet.  I am not sure why edible cherries would be planted among spruce trees, while ornamental (I assume that means they don’t produce anything edible) apples are planted next to the house.

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The apple trees in the flower garden are leafing and budding up nicely, too.  The row of apples (all varieties of crab apples, as I recall) are barely in leaf.

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Planted on the north side of the spruce grove, they wouldn’t have anywhere near as much sun as the ones in the flower garden, which is the most likely reason why they are so much slower to revive for the season.

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On the far side of the garden, along the fence line, the lilac border is showing flower buds already on some bushes.  I was looking for a sign of the chokecherry tree that used to be there.  The lilac border runs the entire length of the fence line now, but when I was a child, it was only about half the distance, and the chokecherry tree was at the end of the row, about the middle of the length of the garden at the time.  I may have found it, but can’t be sure, as it’s behind lilac bushes.  The tree I saw that might be it also seems to be dead; likely the chokecherry tree was choked out by the lilacs. :-(  I will see if I can confirm that with my mother one of these days.

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This is part of a row of what appears to be raspberry canes, though it’s hard to identify them among the scrub and without any leaf buds to be seen.  On one side, it’s almost right up against a row of spruces.  On the other, I can see that it was plowed within inches of the stems.  They would be getting light only in the early hours of the morning, now that the sun is rising so much farther to the north than it did in the winter.  By about 9 or 10 am, they would be in shade until sunrise.  We’ll see what raspberries we get this year, if any.  Most varieties of raspberries have canes that produce in the second year, before dying back.  At that point, the spent canes should be cut away, but that is something my parents never did, as far as I can recall; they just let them be until it was decided to transplant them.  I remember when they were planted on the far side of the garden, beyond where a row of trees is now planted.  At the height of raspberry season, we could pick several ice cream pails’ worth of berries in the morning, then come back by evening and have more ripened berries to pick.  On our list of things we eventually want to plant are three different varieties of raspberries, each with a different harvesting period, so we could have raspberries from July through September.

Whenever that happens, we will be sure to plant them somewhere that actually gets full sun.

The Re-Farmer

Getting Things Done

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Today turned out to be a perfect day for working outside.  A bit on the cool side, and not too sunny.  It would have been nice of those clouds brought some rain, but it did mean we got a lot done outside.  Best of all, my husband was actually up to going outside with his walker, and walk up and down the driveway a few times, then just sit outside and enjoy the day.  There used to be a bench under the kitchen window that my late brother had built for my dad to sit and enjoy some time outside, but it is among those things that disappeared after my dad died.  At some point, we’ll replace it with another bench.  It’s a perfect spot to sit and relax.

The biggest accomplishment in the yardwork today is YAY! we finally got that pile of wood in the garden cleaned up.  It is DONE.

While taking loads of broken down wood to the fire pit area with the wheelbarrow, I paused to get some photos of the blooming plum trees.

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On the one hand, it was really cool to see them starting to bloom.

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On the other, it was a bit disheartening to see how few blossoms there were.  Just a few sparse branches spread over several trees.

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After we finished with the wood pile in the garden, we went back to clearing up around the yard.  Soon, I hope to start going into these trees, and the maple grove behind them, clearing up the fallen branches, cutting away the dead wood that hasn’t fallen yet, and taking down some dead trees.

The girls worked their way around to the three big maple trees by the fire pit.  These are the ones where I finally wrested away an old awning that had been left under them for some 20 years.  Plus the remains of a chair.  As they raked around the bases of the trees, they found three old license plates (one of them had stickers for 1981 and 1982 on it!) and a flat plastic thing that looked a bit like the bases in baseball, except for the hole and part of a pipe still attached, and the big MAC logo.  They were buried under several inches of soil; composted leaves, really.

I finally got around to working on the flower garden by the old kitchen.  The girls had started to rake around the outside of the fence line, and I took the opportunity to start cutting away some of the things that have started to grow on the outside of the fence.  I got the dead asparagus foliage cleared away, but there is no sign of new asparagus growing under it.

I forgot to get a picture of my find under the leaves inside the flower garden.  A wooden toy rocking horse, completely buried.  I’m guessing it was on the bench on the platform for the clothes line and fell, and no one noticed.  I ended up having to prune quite a few low hanging branches on the big cherry tree, just to be able to get under it.  I could see that it had been pruned back to where I was cutting already, but not recently.

Cleaning that garden up is going to be a huge job.  It hasn’t been tending in so many years, making it hard to rake.  Plus, there’s some sort of vine that seems to be spreading, and I’m finding it as the rake gets caught on it.  The ground is rock hard.  Getting out that invasive plant my mom asked me to get rid of is not going to be easy.

It was good to get so much work done today, but my goodness, there is so much more to do.

Well, that’s what my mom asked us to live her to take care of for her! :-)

Now to go pick the burrs out of my clothes before putting them in the laundry… :-D

The Re-Farmer

How Does the Garden Grow?

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As we clean up around the house and yard, we are starting to discover where things are growing, and even what some things are.

These pictures are of the biggest of my mother’s flower gardens, at the old kitchen.  It actually has a fence around it and everything.

Here is what I am seeing in it, now that growth is starting to happen.

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I am enjoying the sight of leaves and flower buds on this cherry tree.  It looks like we have a second, smaller one.  I look forward to seeing them in full bloom!

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Under the bigger cherry tree, outside the garden fencing, chives are coming up.  Plus what looks like an onion, over on the right.

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There is also some rhubarb growing just inside the garden, near the base of the tree.  I am happy to see it.  I love rhubarb!

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Near this rhubarb, there appears to be a whole lot of onions coming up.  It should be interesting to see what all we find once we get to raking in here.  Though my mom has always called this a flower garden, she’s had onions planted in here for as long as I can remember, though there may have been some years without them.  I remember tomatoes planted in here, too.

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The middle of the garden is completely overrun with these plants.  My mom told me the name of them, but I don’t remember what it is.  She had planted them, only to discover they are quite invasive, and has told me that she would like me to get rid of it.

That is not going to be easy.

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Along the outside edge of the garden, I can see some wild columbine starting to come up.  Next to what looks like a wild rose?  I like wild columbine.  So do hummingbirds. :-)

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Around the corner, on the opposite side of the garden, there is a whole bunch more rhubarb.  Hmmm!

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This tangled mass of last year’s growth is asparagus fern.  We have had it for as long as I can remember; as a child, I used to love looking at the fine sprays of greenery.  What I don’t remember is us ever eating asparagus!  I think it may have just been too much of a hassle, so my mom left it to itself.  I’m hoping to get it cleaned up soon, and see if there is new asparagus growing.

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Then there is this mass of greenery, near the house, under a rose bush.  I have no idea what it is, or even if it was intentionally planted.

The soil is rock hard and bone dry.  It’s going to take a lot of work to get this garden going again!

I think it will be easier if we start by removing the fencing, which is falling down.  Even the fence posts are starting to fall over.

I do hope we get some rain soon.  There hasn’t been anything more than a few sprinkles all spring.

The Re-Farmer

A Day of Progress

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A few more steps forward, today – and the girls are still outside, working on cleaning up around the yard, so the progress continues even now.

The most exciting thing for me is, the septic guy came!  Yay!

Oh, the things that excite me in my old age… LOL

Seriously, though… it’s one less worry, and I already talked to him about coming back in the fall, as part of his regular route in the area, as we go back to doing the regular routine cleaning in the fall.

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I can’t help but admire someone who can back up a vehicle like this, through our gate into the yard, between the spruce grove and the flower garden along the East side of the house, and turn into the North side of the house – without hitting the downspout (which was screwed in place, unlike the others) or hitting the low hanging branches.

Dude’s got mad reversing skills.

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While chatting with him, I learned he is not a fan of this type of septic tank.

Typically, a septic tank is a large reservoir with only one chamber.  The solids naturally sink to the bottom and, once it reaches a certain level, the grey water drains out to the septic field.  It’s all gravity based.

This system is much smaller and has two reservoirs.  The one for the solids is smaller and has a smaller opening into it.  The grey water eventually fills the second, larger, reservoir until an ejector pump sends it out to the septic field.

He needed to get that hose into the solids reservoir, which not only has a smaller opening, but the hoses from the pump (which is inside the basement) run over it.

He knew the place had been empty for the last couple of years, since he’s been servicing our tank for quite a long time, and had assured me it wouldn’t be a concern.  Still, he was surprised by how much was in it.  I did explain that, though empty, there were still people using the house.  Add in 4 people and 6 months… I’m really glad we got it done.

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All done!

The straw on the left is what covered the lid for the winter.  I was going to pile it elsewhere, but I couldn’t find a pitch fork anywhere.

I checked the garage, the pump shack, the barn, the garden shed – even the basements.  No pitch fork to be found.

What farm doesn’t have a pitch fork?

Like most of the lawn on the North side of the house, the grass here is pretty much all gone.  Not even just dead, like in other parts of the lawn.  It’s basically just dirt and weeds.

After the tank was done, I went back to working on the wood pile in the garden, but not before getting a picture of something that was a mystery to the girls.  A mystery I actually knew the answer to, for a change!

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It’s one thing to find extension cords all over the house, what with the lack of outlets, but an extension cord up a tree?  The tree itself is probably 60 ft high, or close to it, and the cord runs almost all the way up.

I remember when it was run up there.  My late brother, who was an agile climber, put it there.  He also carried up a star shaped frame with Christmas lights in it, and installed it near the very top of the tree.  The cord is to plug in the star.

I can’t see if the star is still up there, but I can’t imagine anyone climbing up there to take it down.  Nor can I imagine it ever being replaced since it was first put up there, which means that is a very old extension cord.

We have no plans of ever using it again!

Meanwhile, back to the wood pile in the garden!

This is a pile of deadwood and prunings that had been put there before we moved out, and my family had wanted to burn in the winter.  I didn’t want it burned, so we now have the job of cleaning it out of the garden area.  Most of it will be used as fuel for the fire pit, but some I’m keeping for future crafting purposes.  My mother is still adamant that she wants the garden plowed, as soon as the pile is cleared.

I’m glad we put our collective foot down about not burning this.  Earlier, I’d already pulled out a bunch of fibre glass insulation that was buried in it.  There are more bits and pieces we are still finding.

I also found this.

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Apparently, no one had a problem with burning this, then plowing the remaining metal and glass bits, into the garden.

Nor with this…

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I’d already pulled out a margarine container.  Today, I found the two lids and some mystery plastic, along with the bits of insulation.

Lovely.

As I was writing this, my daughters called me out to see a discovery they made while cleaning around the yard.

That one is getting its own post.  After I make supper.

Oh, the strange things we are finding!

The Re-Farmer

What is this? The Answer is…

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Here is the answer to yesterday’s guessing game.

The mystery equipment sitting in our maple grove is…

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… A garden row marker.

In the above picture, you see the handle.  One would step inside it, and hold the bar in front while dragging the rest behind.

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Do you see the points?  There are three of them that would drag on the ground, creating three lines in the soil.  When the next pass was made, one of the outer markers would be dragged along in one of the previously marked lines, so that the other two new rows marked would be evenly spaced.

Seeds would be planted in the resulting lines in the soil.

When I was a kid, I remember one of these my dad had made out of wood.  I don’t know who made this metal version, though I would guess it was my late brother, using bits and pieces from other equipment and whatever else was handy.

How close was your guess?

The Re-Farmer