On the lighter side plus a FAB picture!

Gorgeous isn't it? My peonies this year are (or were) awesome. Sorry I didn't post more pictures. They're on the downhill now but the colors were outstanding! And along with my Constance Spry rose bush---they just scented up the whole side of the garden. Imagine what they will be like in a few more years! Wow!



Anyway---thank you for all the wonderful comments on my DNA posts---I so appreciate it.
Today though, we are back to blogging about food. One of my favorite subjects.

I ordered some wild plum trees a week or so ago to put along the side of our property and form a shrubby hedge area. They came yesterday and I want to highly recommend the place I bought them from: OIKOS purveyors of "native" and uncommon fruits *don't forget to notice that under the green bar/link section is a "subcategory" section----I missed it the first few times through and thought they didn't carry very much at first*.
They didn't say why but they up graded my size of trees on 3 of the 4 varieties I purchased. No extra shipping or anything did they charge and the trees---though in paper tubes---look great.The prices are excellent though most are seed grown which is why they are cheaper. If you have access to seeds of some of these you could easily start your own plum hedge however they no longer grow around here that we have seen so...purchasing was the only way to go for us. Yes, we could have chosen a grafted/domesticated plum but we needed a hedge to hide one side of the ram/chicken pen and we liked the idea of using something most people won't know is usable :-) So since today is cool, cloudy and rainy---perfect for planting trees---I will go outside and get started soon planting.
I would have liked to have a few more of their items, but they were either sold out or I just wasn't quite ready to purchase yet---but after this experience I will go back later this season probably.
I know some of you are wondering why I keep planting all these permanent items.I had told some of you earlier this year that we may sell our home ---but things have changed so we will be staying here. This is really good news for us since moving would have created a few problems difficult to solve easily---but some good things too which was why we considered it. However the choice is out of our hands now (in a very good way though) and so planting goes on. We are still downsizing some of our animals because of a few personal things we would like to do or accomplish now that our children are getting older. Unfortunately without farm sitters animals make some of our dreams difficult to do (Like a month long bike trip through Europe???? A long long long time dream!)

Anyway---off the rambling topic and back to food. Eventually I would like to add some paw paws and a few more persimmons to our property (we lost a few adult trees to storms). Oikos site has those including apricots which I would like to add and some more figs. Anything that can extend the season of food production here.
While doing a quick search for eventual size of my wild plums (I bought without thought of size or space!) I stumbled on a site called the natural food hub. Most of the external links are dead now but it had some interesting little tidbits on food so I thought I would share it: The Natural Food Hub.



Oh yes---SUPER SUPER SUPER congratulations to my brother and sister in law. I am going to be an AUNT again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah! (thinking girl here brother in law!!) Oh yes---and on their new home too! We didn't get to talk to you brother in law but we wanted you to know how glad we are for you! However---we notice we don't have an address yet---maybe you don't want us to know where you live now!!?? :-D

Making it look good

One of the things we liked most about our house when we bought it was the fact that one of the longest sides of the house faced south. All the better to help heat it in the winter time we thought. It is so nice in fact that we had to reduce some of the glass to reduce the amount of heat that came in during the winter---another "story" altogether that I will blog about later. This story is suppose to be about plants and landscaping not low E glass and windows.

The gentlemen that originally owned the house before us was quite the "scavenger". He did not believe in beauty so much as saving a buck. That could mean anything from using something to build with that just didn't quite match the rest of the building OR even, as we have found, some slightly dangerous "jury rigged" things.
So, somewhere along the span of his ownership of this house he built hideous brick planters along the southern side. Of course these were one of the first things to go since they were so ugly and just filled with a bunch of weedy plants. They also stuck out onto the patio by quite a bit (I think so they would catch rain). After our removal of them, and the reduction of their footprint, we filled the remaining sections with medium size river rock. Why rocks and not some good looking plant? Because we have a two foot over hang and rarely does water get near that area of the footing. So it stays fairly dry---really dry. Placing plants there is a kind of hit or miss situation in regards to water---a few windy storms will throw water against it but overall it is pretty close to the Sahara. Why bother I thought---besides after living in Texas I am all for a more xeriscape style of planting. Less water, less grass.
After living with and looking at this for a few years however, I decided it was...well..a bit boring. So after mulling my options (for quite a while since that is my best skill :-D ) I purchased two agapanthus plants to see how they would do. I figured that even though my "philosophy" is to place only plants that can make it on their own, I wouldn't mind watering the agapanthus once in a while since they are so pretty. They are actually one of my favorite flowers and though we usually get enough water for them (remember it's a drought this year) they need a sheltered spot since I am at the very tippy edge of their hardiness zone.
There is one variety that grows a bit more North than I am, but most need it a bit warmer. I thought that since I was at the very edge---they would do great planted against this southern wall that stays so warm, warm enough that it once grew a huge fig tree that was very prodigious. So much so, that it grew into the septic and had to be removed the year before we bought the place (to bad---we love figs).
As you can tell by the picture on the upper left hand though, I was wrong about the agapanthus doing well on the wall. Yes, I did water them but the heat radiating off the rocks and wall got them. Maybe they would have been fine in the winter but with many many record setting days over 100---they cooked.
Too bad since the flowers were very attractive when I first planted them.
So, after looking through many many catalogs without success, one day I rounded the corner of my house and there in almost the same growing situation were my red yuccas. Ah hah! That plant will for sure be successful I thought, and though a more "traditional" flower might have been a bit more to my liking, the hesperaloe (or Red Yucca as it is also known) should do really well there.
Now, I am not a big yucca fan-- but I do like red yucca. It is much more sedate (tame?) and has beautiful striking tall strands of pink flowers. Everyone comments on them when they bloom--even men. (I believe I have posted pics of them previously on my blog) They have not only done well on the rocks but have thrived so that this year when they bloomed and the pods dried I saved some of the seeds and planted them. They quickly sprouted and have done very well for me with barely effort on my part. About the most I did was give them a bit of water and make sure the seed made contact with the soil.
So next year, after these guys grow up a bit, I will plant them in places of honor along the southern wall of my house. Not only should they be able to take the heat but maybe I won't even have to water them.

Can you believe it!

Of course schools are closed, it's still sleeting out, it won't last and the animals are all hiding in their shelters. BUT doesn't it look neat! :-D It will be gone by this afternoon more than likely. Of course you "yanks" see the grass peaking through don't you---pathetic that we get so excited about such a small amount--- but in the early morning lite it is really beautiful. (hate to see it marred by the footprints soon to come)
Have a good day all! And here's looking forward to Spring!

How many colors.....let me count.....

Aren't they pretty? These are 3 irises I would like to acquire (plus possibly a few more :-) --and may this coming fall if I am lucky enough to have a bit of money to buy irises with. These irises are pictures from Mid-American Garden and Iris Sisters Farm.
The Latin meaning for iris is "rainbow" and it is no wonder with all the colors they come in though red is still the all allusive color all breeders aspire too. The picture on the bottom is one of the varieties "closest" to red. It is called Wearing Rubies. I am sure there are at least a few others that are close but the true red they are looking for has not yet shown up. It is the same as the aspirations of some breeders to attain true blue in some other flowers. (If you didn't know there are only a couple of flowers in the world considered to be close to true blue in color--most have some shade of purple/lavender in them).

I knew that iris roots where used for orris powder (used to fix the scent of potpourries) but I did not know this taken from wikpedia *Iris roots are harvested, dried, and aged for up to 5 years. In this time, the fats and oils inside the roots undergo degradation and oxidation which produces many fragrant compounds that are invaluable in perfumery. The aged roots are steam distilled which produces a thick oily compound, known in the perfume industry as iris butter.*

The reason for this post is that I have been out planting the irises I spoke of recently. Having dug them up I now have to find them a new home. One bucket of my irises is now planted but I am waiting for the weather to warm a bit this morning so that I can go decide where to put the rest. These are irises that came with me from my last house---they were purchased the month before we bought this house unexpectedly. I couldn't leave them or a lot of the other plants there. When we sold our house we wrote the contract to include us taking quite a few of the plants with us---many days labor prepping them. The people didn't mind---they just wanted a yard for their dog.
When we moved here I dug up and gave away HUGE amounts of the "regular" purple and lavender irises the original owner planted. I am into flashy plants and like double color irises and those with speckles and spots too so the others were a bit staid for my taste and besides they were overgrown with poison ivy---definitely a need to dig all of them up.
The best thing about irises to me is that they are very very hardy plants and will grow pretty much where ever you put them as long as you choose the correct variety. Bearded are my personal favorite for the color varieties, size of flower and scent even though the flower is short lived. And that does not mean that I don't like the others--we have had or do have a number of other varieties, but as I said bearded are my favorite.
Irises if you didn't know grow in the polar tundra, temperate forests, grasslands, swamps, deserts, mountains, coasts and rain forests. They are grown and flourish on just about every continent and many of the islands around the world.

And will they multiply! They don't just sit there and grow a small amount each year. By year 3--irises can and probably should be dug up and divided for best foliage and flower. Another nice thing is that , except for the really small pieces, they will all still bloom the same year you divide them so you don't loose a year like you can with some plants--just not as much as they will the next year. When transplanting irises make sure you check each part and cut out any disease or squooshy looking parts while you are planting. And according to most sites you should trim the fans to 1/3 ---I have planted rhizomes that the fans got knocked off and I know many people that don't trim the fans when planting. As I said---they are pretty hardy.
In the south you generally need to lightly mulch them to keep out weeds and conserve moisture. If they dry out they will usually go dormant and come up later in the summer /early fall. Too many years like that and some of the less hardy ones can die out though. In the north , from what I understand you need to mulch the first year to make sure they don't frost heave while they become established enough to hold their selves in the ground pulling the straw back in the spring to allow them to warm up .
Irises are also a great flower to "play" with if you would like to try crossing. Using just the bearded group to play with who knows what amazing colors of uprights, falls and beards you could get and that not even considering crossing them with some other types of irises. That is something that is not my cup of tea but I would enjoy watching a friend do it.

If you are wondering why I have all these flowers of different types that I blog about periodically, it is because at one point we thought about supplying cut flowers as a small side line business. A project that was put on hold when we moved to this property and started on the house, but may eventually be a small part of our income down the road. We wanted to specialize in perennial seasonal cut flowers and branches---clematis, peonies, irises, hydrangeas, forsythia, curly and fantail willows etc etc.
Maybe with the advent of spring/summer and a new camera I can show some of the beautiful flowers we are lucky enough to grow here.

Multi Use Plantings

Since we have a "small" farm of 6.5 acres, we try and cram as much into it as possible---in other words making the best use of each item that comes on the farm. When we are deciding on an animal we try and choose one suited to more than one thing. When we plant something we try and utilize it to its fullest---beans can be both a food for us and the animals AND shade in the summer. So recently when I was trying to decide on some new trees/shrubs for the pasture without shade I had the same multi purpose criteria in the back of my mind. We have struggled getting trees started in our largest, and least shady, pasture. If the animals haven't knocked down the fence and eaten it, then the weather has gotten them. Well, I think I have found what I am looking for: Siberian Pea Shrub. The picture above doesn't do it justice---it has attractive yellow flowers too. For those of you in the Midwest--you might recognize this shrub (caragana aborescens) since it is utilized there for livestock windbreaks, but it is also known for its ability to withstand drought, extreme weather and also bad soil. Our back pasture does not have good soil. We are working on improving it with lime, manure and no till cover crops but it takes time. Meanwhile this shrub might be able to help us out. It is a member of the legume family so it fixes nitrogen in the soil. It's seed also carries a protein ratio of 27 to 36% making it a great food for livestock---especially chickens. It can also be used as a food source for humans in areas with extreme food shortage though the Plants for a Future web site suggests it for development as a staple crop . The leaves are edible for livestock if you need them and they are also used to produce a natural blue dye. (Wonder what that will look like if we get to dye our wool with some of it.)
Needless to say---I think this plant fits the bill. We are going to order 50 seedlings from www.kansasforests.org seedling program and then plant them along the fence edges and try and protect them with electric wire this time. They do have a small amount of thorns which should help them out as they mature. The animals might eat the leaves but they won't strip the bark off of them which is how they generally kill the plants they get a hold of.
If you are interested in mutli purpose plants check out Plants for a Future---I linked it in the side bar also. They rate over 7000 plants for their multi purpose uses. They are really interesting and give a number ranking for the plants based on usefullness.

Oh yes, another plant we tried---and lost most to the drought (they were seedlings and needed a bit more water than they received) and animals this past year was thorn less Honey Locust. Pretty tree when it is grown---maybe the few that made it will turn into nice trees for us eventually.

Another composting update

So now I can officially call myself the liberator of leaves. The city has actually dumped over 20 dump truck loads on my property since first coming on 11/29. On only two days did we not get any leaves---one rain day and of course Sunday. Yes, we are starting to loose sight of the lawn and garden area now BUT I am not going to tell them to stop. For two reasons---one is that I hate to see the leaves go to the dump and two: I will regret not having all I can get once they break down into the much smaller piles of crumbly good stuff they will eventually be. Believe it or not they are hot and steamy out there too. Surprise to us. Which is hard to believe since we have never been good at getting quick hot compost piles. We have always had slow cool ones. One difference I can attribute to it though is that they seem to be the perfect moisture, something I rarely seem able to accomplish in my other piles. Another thing is the shear volume of material. I read somewhere once that to make good compost, good hot compost, good quick hot compost (sorry couldn't help myself) that you needed to have a pile at least 4 feet by 4 feet by 4 or 5 feet tall. That, they said, was one of the biggest problems most people had besides not layering well enough. Well, we haven't layered anything with the leaves yet and they are steaming away out there so maybe that was our problem all along: SIZE. Of course now we need to find a good source of nitrogen to mix in and I read in my Rodale book on compost making that about 6 to 7 pounds of human hair has as much nitrogen as 100 to 200 pounds of manure. Wow! Amazing. And just think how easy it will be to carry comparatively! Of course I have a hair place about a mile and 1/2 from me that I am sure will let me pick up their hair clippings---they will think I am a fruitcake but.....I need nitrogen! I think I will probably wear gloves while spreading the hair though---I have to admit I have a bit of a yuk factor about touching some one's hair (some un known someone I mean). I laugh at that thought too since the beauticians don't have a problem touching the hair. And of course I would imagine that they would have a "yuk" factor in regards to touching sheep or cow poo--- which I have absolutely no problem with at all. LOL funny how we get used to certain things. Now do you suppose a septic guy gets used to his job? Hmmm....
I had some good pics to upload to show our mountains of leaves but.....alas our camera doth not worketh.
The same ole same ole as far as that goes. Someday I will acquire a new camera that maybe will not only take a better picture but will have either a rechargeable battery or will work with the chip reader I have. Or will just work in general sometimes. That subject I am sure is for another day.

For my own personal reminder (and friends and family that read our post) here are some of the things we accomplished this weekend:
1. Shifted 30 bales of hay out of one side of the garage to make way for the 4 (yes, four---lucky us) round bales we have been able to acquire. For those of you not in the know on this subject we had a SERIOUS drought this year across much of the country and hay is a precious commodity right now. VERY difficult to find in our area--most of ours has come in from Kentucky since everyone was sold out back in September (or didn't even sell any this year). Our neighbors have sent over half their herd to the auction and they have 250 acres compared to our 6.5 acres. This particular hay comes from a work friend of my husband's (luckily he has more hay than animals and doesn't usually sell it) I think we now have enough hay to make it until March (maybe). The writer winces thinking of this.
2. dug up the rest of the over grown shrubs and poison ivy from the side of the driveway with the tractor borrowed from husband's work and prepped it for retaining walls. Looks good too except its all dirt right now.
3. dug up and removed those wretched, slanting, cracking, dangerously irregular cement stairs coming off the drive to the front door. Of course for a while it will be easiest for everyone to come in through the garage until the new stairs go in along with the driveway retaining wall and new sidewalk. All visitors and family alike will have to drag by all the hay in the garage---- but at least they won't have to climb the hill of dirt.
4. Smoothed all the dirt that was taken from the driveway transformation and put in another area to level it out---we smoothed it by hand since the tractor couldn't get it all the way.
5. Dug out a couple of overgrown shrubs and wild muscadines from the area mentioned in #4.
6. Finally we did some xmas shopping---and boy were we tired! Almost to tired to enjoy our kung pao chicken and twice cooked pork at our favorite oriental restaurant (family owned).

Things we didn't get finished this weekend: One billion and counting :-)