The Cherry (or Strawberry) on Top

Actually, it's more like a very small pebble or a large piece of sand...my suggestion: don't pass a kidney stone unless you can do so extremely quickly--or--it's SO small you don't know you had it!  Almost $4000 and TWO visits to the emergency room later--and in our hospital--we definitely look to returning Down Under.

But folks here have been incredibly generous as I just transported all sorts of herbs and flowers from the place that I worked this summer and transplanted a few dozen strawberry starts from the plants that the person that I worked with there provided me.  They're all supposed to bear fruit in June, so I planted them in a patch by the house to hopefully keep whatever critters may like them away.

My permaculture plan has definitely evolved into a vibrant vision--and reality--of a garden this past summer and autumn, and has even included a bit of landscaping by using the plants that the deer kept munching that were further from the house.  So, along with all of the plants started from seed, dug up or donated, this has been a pretty economical start to creating a sustainable homestead.  I'll try to take a current picture of that planting as well as the view from the house into the garden in my next posting.

The Garden is Defined!

Can you believe it?  Four months from our first planting and we’ve got next year’s garden all but ready to go!

Son & Son Kettle


Thanks to Steve(n) and Cooper,  essentially all the ‘desodding’ has been completed.  What this means is most of the perennial grass roots have been removed.   We’re hoping this will result in much less weeding in the future.  Again, it’s that idea of trying to get things right from the beginning.  But whatever you do, don’t let Margaret (my organic guru from New Zealand) know…as she met her better half by agreeing with him that he didn’t have to do any digging in her gardens.

Almost there!

So, now it comes down to trying to raise my pH a couple of octaves!   What this means is now I’ve got to get serious about laying down the lime.  Rob was always encouraging me to do this in Royal Oak, and I think he was on to something.  Unfortunately for us (according to our soil test results), that might mean that what I actually should be applying would require a dumptruck rather than the ten 50-pound bags (Yes, no more metrics as we’re out of NZ!) I just purchased yesterday.  Just for the record, the recommendations suggest that I need 9999+ lbs per acre.  As we have about ¼ acre in vegetables, that’s only 2499 ¼ lbs…isn’t that comforting?

And, again for the records, EVERYTHING in the garden has grown well this summer; perhaps, I’m being overscientific about all of this!  BUT again, I AM trying to get this right from the beginning.

IN CLOSING, for this segment of organification, I would like to thank Sandy, Dan, Angelita, Noel, David, Matt, Reed, Steve and Cooper for their wonderful Wwoofing efforts and getting us on track for the future!  And, just to let the Wwoofers know, we’re now in full harvest, and that one big pumpkin is now very big!!!

Getting in the artichokes and rhubarb

As we’re getting to the end of our planting season, it’s time to put in the perennial veggies that were started from seed.  Overall, I’ve been happy with the results…the few rhubarb plants that did come up came from seed from our own plants!

Matt and his four-legged friend, Reed

You’ll notice that my Wwoofers, Matt and Reed, hailing from Washington DC, are planting them outside the deer fence.  I think this will be a safe move as I know that no animals have been feasting on the parent rhubarb plant (which will also be divided and moved to this planting area once the rains kick in) in a very vulnerable open area in which it’s been growing.  I also understand that deer don’t like artichokes (although I’ve covered with netting to give them protection from deer and other varmints through the winter); they have grown greatly from the seedlings transplanted just three weeks ago.

Being drawn toward experimentation, we’ll be planting the other half of artichokes next spring.  I think it will be interesting to see how the two groups of plants grow and produce.  It also will give me more options should a killing freeze do in the artichokes that are in the ground right now.  I think that our climate should be fine.

The seed packet states that these plants may produce a crop next year.  As I got them planted up by the end of June and they’ve had a short summer in which to reach their current size, this may be hoping for too much.