So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish!

In an amazing feat of sheer physical labor, and in spite of pouring rain and cold temperatures, my husband managed to tear down the old goat shelter (in the 2nd garden plot) in a single day yesterday! I was VERY impressed! And he didn't even take out the fence (much)! He also managed to get a good portion of the downed shelter taken apart and stacked into piles by the edge of the pasture. I'm so thrilled/thankful/excited! The shelter stood at the far western corner of the pasture, and directly blocked the afternoon & evening sun from about half the pasture, therefore rendering that half of the pasture useless for planting. But now that the shelter is gone, it's amazing how much light gets through! Hello garden expansion!!

(A photo of me with the "Original Three" - aka a very young Zilla, Cheerio, & Breeze - in the old goat pasture-turned 2nd Garden plot)

Today has dawned another frustratingly-cold day (24 degrees for morning chores), which means that the ground will be frozen for a good portion of the day. Sigh. Still, we are hoping to be able to take the tractor and begin working the huge piles of donkey manure and compost into the 2nd garden plot. The only two sections that I will not be rototilling in there are my artichoke and celtuce patches. Everything else is getting tilled under. It's going to be beautiful! In about two weeks I will be planting peas and fava beans, as well as my early spring salad greens (namely Arugula, Spinach, and assorted lettuces). Yesterday, I planted my fall-or-early-spring pot herb crops (which require a period of cold stratification before germinating) in my newly-made salad bed: Good King Henry, Chickweed, and Buckshorn Plantain. Just for kicks, I also planted some Chives and wild Purslane in there as well. I collected the Purslane seed from wild plants found growing on my property. Purslane is a truly AMAZING plant: not only is it incredibly tasty as a salad green (or as a topping in cold Zucchini soup!), but the seeds can be ground up into a nutritious and delicious bread flour! But Purslane's "coolness" doesn't even stop there!!!: Purslane is the only plant I know that will continue to put out flowers and create seeds loooooooong after you pull it up from the ground! Instead of just drying out and turning brown and dying, it stays green and fresh and continues to flower and go to seed. Don't believe me? Try picking it sometime. I did, and was amazed!

Purslane is one of those plants that cracks me up: most gardeners just consider it a weed, and tear it out of their garden without a moment's consideration. Then, they go over to their local farmer's market and pay a ridiculous sum to eat it in their "organic salad mixes." Never do they stop to think and identify what they are eating. So many "weeds" that grow wild around here are delicious, edible, and USEFUL plants: Purslane, Yellow Dock, Lamb's Quarters, Plantain, etc. But I supposed if people are stupid enough not to do their research, then they deserve to pay top dollar for something that they could be eating for free.

Besides my salad greens, I also planted some Blue Vervain & Black Cumin. Both require cold stratification in order to germinate, but if you just plant them in your garden around January, you'll be surprised at how well they grow with no coddling on your end.

I noticed that my broccoli and Walla Walla onions in Seed Tray #1 sprouted in under 3 days! So exciting to see some new green in this time of white and brown.

So you see, even in January, it's not just the potatoes and Litchi tomatoes that can be optimistic! My fellow Zone 7+ gardeners can begin their early spring planting on several plant varieties!

Keep checking back for more gardening updates as the months progress. February will mark the beginning of the first big spring planting, so stay tuned!

Herbs, Rocks, & Scorpions, Oh My!

Ryan and I have decided that we do not have enough projects (sense the sarcasm?), so we are going to turn the old baby goat pasture (directly behind the solarium) into a new formal herb garden. This herb garden will have four raised beds marking the Four Corners, and a center lavender/heirloom rose bed with statue. We have been hauling river rocks up from the ravine on the far side of the property to make the raised beds, and have been filling the beds with our very own compost mix (which we - big surprise - have in large supply!). It's been backbreaking work, but Ryan and I have been immensely enjoying ourselves. It's a bit like playing "Fort" for grown-ups! Although, no one else we know seems to think this...All of our friends have become mysteriously "unavailable" since we have begun this project...? Anywho, Ryan has estimated that between the two of us we have hauled about 2 tons of rock thus far. We have three of the raised beds finished (1 culinary and 2 medicinal). The third bed will be for raising herbs used in natural dyes. We will hand-tear-out all of the grass and weeds, and lay gravel down on the walk ways in between the raised beds. We are going to dismantle the old baby goat shelter, and rebuild it in another pasture for the angoras to use. Then, we will landscape the area that the shelter used to be into a beautiful walkway to the site of our future trout pond. I have been training my multitude of grapes and climbing roses to take over the ugly old wooden fence that lines the baby pasture, so that instead of the fence all you will see is green and pink! Everything is going to look truly gorgeous when we are finished!

Speaking of rocks, we have discovered where the local scorpion population on our property is located! I always thought that scorpions in southern Oregon was a bit of a myth, but apparently not! Pretty much every single rock we turned over as we hauled them out of the ravine housed at least one (more often two or three) little dark brown scorpions. I am happy to say that I was already wearing very thick leather gloves!!


Now that three of my raised beds are complete, I have begun to plant in them! For those who don't know much about me: I am at my absolute happiest when I am covered in dirt, playing in my garden and talking to my plants. I have transplanted my five valerian plants, and 4 of my 5 comfrey roots, into one of the medicinal beds. I am currently in the process of transplanting my newest batch of sprouts: chives, lemon mint, lavender, red bergamot, elecampane, white horehound, black mustard, epazote, stevia, toothache plant, marsh mallow, black cumin, coriander, arnica, mexican tarragon, and dotted mint. I am still waiting for my chaste tree and cramp bark seeds to germinate. I have had excellent luck with my madder seeds, which will be going into my dye garden as soon as it's completed in the next few months. I am also waiting for my angelica, meadowsweet, and gravel root seeds to germinate. As I have mentioned many times previously, Ryan and I are trying to be as self sufficient as possible, and one of the ways that we try to accomplish that is by growing 99% of all of the herbs and produce we need. That is yet another reason that people will enjoy staying at our bed and breakfast: practically everything we serve comes out of our garden or fresh off of the farm! We have dairy goats and chickens, as well as a large orchard and garden, and an enormous selection of culinary and medicinal herbs! We produce our own line of all-natural home grown & processed botanicals (soaps, lotions, teas, tinctures, etc.), which we stock our guest bathrooms with. Speaking of the garden, it's really going to be phenomenal this year! Ryan and I worked incredibly hard to put in the largest garden yet this year. We have just finished harvesting our kohlrabi, arugula, spinach, heirloom lettuce, peas, and fava beans. There won't be any new crops until fall. Now we are waiting on our bean crop (we put in SIX large beds with Dragons Tongue, Black Turtle, Kentucky Wonder, Liana, Painted Lady, & Lima Beans), squash, 25 cucumber plants (representing three different varieties), 5 cantaloupe plants, 8 Moon & Stars watermelon plants, as well as beets, turnips, quinoa, and corn. I just planted our first batch of Red Garnet amaranth about two weeks ago, and it's finally germinating. In another week or two I will plant the second batch of amaranth (Hopi Red Dye). The plums, apples, and pears are ripening on the trees, and we are at the tail end of our strawberry harvest, and just beginning our blueberry & summer raspberry harvest. In another month the blackberries will probably be ripe too! I love summer! Ryan is thinking about possibly setting up a small produce stand on the property to help us stay on top of the harvest season. I agree with him that we will most likely have more fruits and vegetables than we will know what to do with! Nothing wrong with that! ;)