Farm Story and Seed Catalogs
February 2, 2014
As I write, Dan is cooking and we are listening to an audio book called “The Dirty Life” by Kristen Kimball. I saw it recommended on a garden blog and checked it out from the library. It is a story about a city woman who marries a farmer and their experiences on an organic farm. It is great fun, since Dan grew up on a farm, and can relate to the stories. Since I don’t raise food full-time it is fun to hear of others who do this and to follow their adventures.
This is one of the farm implements at Lake Katherine, where I went for a walk this morning. This reminds us of a time when farms were small, so they were more manageable for people who wanted to try to make a living this way.
I have never ordered from this company, but they seemed to have a lot of perennials that I am usually looking for. I ordered purple monarda and venus heliopsis for my little meadow, to add flowers to the tall grass. I also bought yellow butterfly weed and a small butterfly bush. I ordered two kinds of mums to go along the east fence, a hakonechloa grass for a shady spot, and a peppermint ice hellebore for an early winter flower. My goal is to have flowers from early spring to late fall to keep the bees, butterflies and insects happy. I also ordered tomato and pepper transplants from Seed Savers Exchange again.
The snow pack is very deep in the back yard. It may be a long spring thaw. The hoop has been covered by snow for many weeks, so I do not know what is going on under the plastic. It has been too cold to want to investigate.
I have two buckets of kitchen scraps that need to go in the compost pile, shown in the back of this picture. This is the first time that it has been such a challenge to get the compost in the pile in winter.
Squirrel munches on crabapples. It is a challenging time for wildlife with the deep snow cover.
Vegetarian kale soup. I cooked up some soup yesterday and put most of it in the freezer to have when I get home from days at work. It was really tasty!
What do you expect to find under the hoop?
The kale is super hardy, but it turns yellow under the hoop on warm days, since I am not home to lift the plastic. Once the snow melts I can take the plastic off and see if the kale revives this spring. We will see soon…
The soup looks delicious. If you haven’t grown Hakonechloa before you’re in for a treat. I have three varieties and they grow great in shade and just look so soft and carefree.
Good to hear! I have often looked at the Hakonechloa before, but now in the middle of winter I can finally picture where it will fit in the garden.
That looks like a lot of snow. A mere inch or two occupied most of my area for four days this week. The soup looks like perfect comfort food for your weather.
An inch or two farther south can be a lot of snow! Yes, we take comfort in good food…
That soup looks delicious and very warming. Love the squirrel.
I love good soup in the winter! My husband actually took the squirrel picture.
That soup looks yummy!
Tasty and healthy, too.
I’ve a ton of recycle waiting – i actually took some to my moms where she has a cart. I’ve got bins that i have to put out by the curb – and uummm no curb with all this snow!
and the compost bucket – that was overflowing so i actually dig a hole in the snow behind my front evergreen in the corner by the porch and dumped it there…..i figure it will break down whenever we thaw out and won’t be seen due to the bush….but goodness – can’t even get near my actual backyard compost!!!
i think we got about 9 more inches over here in indiana and i guess we are both due more this weekend!
and i made kale and leek soup!! hahaha…..must be the weather!! soup has been all I’ve been wanting lately!
again – your pics are amazing and make me think sweet romantic thoughts about this snow even though i know i am over and done with it already!!!! so happy i found your blog!
you inspire me to get busy this year with preparing a hoop for kale for next winter!
Thanks for your stories my Indiana friend! True confession: I threw last week’s compost in the trash. It was too much work to dig into the frozen compost pile this week. Like you, I am reaching the end of my cheerfulness about this snow. It is beautiful as I look out the window today, though.
Hello! Thank you for liking my photo at In Other Words and Pictures. We recently moved from southern Ca to Oregon. We have a back yard that needs work but we look forward to gardening and finding out what grows best here. We have always had a garden in small spaces so we look forward to expanding a bit. Yes, your soup looks great and we also need to work on healthy eating. It all kind of went downhill while trying to sell our home and then moving and purchasing..
Enjoy planting your new garden. I learn a lot by my mistakes and unexpected miracles, but I also do a lot of research.
We do know what we couldn’t grow in California will do well here except for a lot of the cactus and succulents that my husband likes. Our backyard is a muddy mess right now and we have to wait until it dries out before we can have someone come and dig it up for us. After that we’ll need to have some dirt hauled in. It will be awhile.. A little test of patience,,,