2015 Farm Report

  

This is officially the summer of tomatoes here at Highclere. I haven't taken pictures of the garden since mid spring but here's what everything looked like then. Green and tidy and full of hope. Now everything is enormous and spotty and rather overwhelming. The dreaded tomato blight is back but since I know it's game now I'm not as distraught as I was last summer. We're getting tons of tomatoes and I think I finally came up with a good strategy in planting lots of cherry and grape tomato varieties that are easier to snack on than the enormous heirloom varieties I planted last summer... not that those didn't have their own charm.

This year I sweet talked Prince Michael into building me just one more raised garden bed, which I filled with tomatoes, obviously. Much to Mikes Chagrin that extra space meant I could also plant pumpkins and cantaloupes and I'm thrilled to say those are coming along nicely! I think that might be the first time I've ever typed out the word cantaloupe and, did anyone know that's how cantaloupe is spelled? What's that u doing in there. Also of interest... purple string beans! I never get enough to really do much with so I just eat them straight off the plants. I also in my ambitious early spring planting, planted lots of lemon cucumber seeds that grew wildly (visualize it climbing up trees) but never fruited. I'll need to do a little research on what went wrong there.

My blueberry bushes and raspberry plants also seem to be having great summers but only the birds are reaping the rewards since I haven't worked myself up to do bird netting yet. It doesn't much seem in the spirit of sharing but perhaps next summer I'll reclaim at least the blueberries for myself. The big thing I want to remember for next summer is black eyed susans! Every year I mean to plant those and then somehow forget in my tomato buying haste. Also pictured below are two of my favorite farm hands, Zoe and her new friend Huck. And that's all from the mid-July farm report...

Notes from the Farm

At this the end of our second full summer at Highclere I'd like to discuss the farm. Also known as the garden to those with less fanciful imaginations then myself. 

At the beginning of each summer thus far I have been so wholly enthusiastic about the enterprise. I buy all the seeds one might want and I read all the garden books given to me by MoCo. I lovingly start my seeds indoors or in the greenhouse. I check them daily for progress and adjust their conditions as best I know how to ensure their growing success. During this optimistic early part of the summer I both assume nothing will grow while also thinking that one day soon I'll be like a modern day pioneer woman living off the land. 

And then we move into the middle of the summer where I am still blown away that seeds become plants and plants provide fruit. It is singularly amazing to me. At this point my excitement about the garden is probably at it's peak only to descend from there. And that is because the dreaded, rotted, miserable mosquitoes are back. This means I can only go in our yard clothed as though I am expecting some form of chemical warfare attack, or a surprise visit from the pope. That is to say I am wearing a lot of clothing for 90 degree weather.

This July I also found that my precious crops were suffering from the dreaded tomato blight! And of course in my early summer enthusiasm I had quite unreasonably planted approximately 1,739 tomato plants. The horror. I took to the web looking for the best way to salvage the crops and landed on copper based fungicide. I hesitate to admit this here but I actually lost sleep over the tomato blight situation. But the good news is even with the blight I had a very successful tomato harvest. And very little to harvest from most of the other things I planted. I guess it's fair to say farming is still a mystery to me.

As we roll through September I'm doing very little in the yard except cutting some zinnias and Mexican sunflowers to keep around the house. And let me mention here that Mexican sunflowers (the tall orange flowers in the photos) are the best. Hummingbirds love them and they seem to sturdy, always a plus in my garden. As the gardening season winds down I'm already thinking about what I might plant next year.... Pumpkins! Butternut squash? And so my adventures in farming continue!

Lately

We've been back from Ireland for about a month now and I miss it. The weather on this trip tested our fortitude (rain, cold, gale force winds! - did you even know that was a thing?) but it was still an amazing trip. And as the Irish were quick to point out, we have the seemingly never-ending rain to thank for the luscious green of the countryside. Also. There were rainbows. Lots of them. Photos to come. For now you'll have to settle for these cow photos from Doolin which for some reason seem to be my favorite photos from the trip.

Shortly after our return I read a couple of books MoCo gave me years ago. Heaven's to Betsy and Betsy in spite of herself. I don't know how I'd made it so long without having come upon the Betsy Tacy series but let me tell you in just the same way I must see PE Island per the Anne of Green Gables books I have now added Mankato MN to my travel wishlist because of the Betsy Tacy books. I'm not sure who I will talk into this pilgrimage, perhaps some sort of bribery is in order. No offence Mankato, obviously.

I also recently read The Dirty Life which is one of those books about someone trading in their city life to become a farmer. I've read a few books from this genre before and I've been pretty ambivalent about them, but THIS book has really got me itching to become a farmer. Due to some practical and logistical challenges,  (lack of farm, lack of farming knowledge, etc.) for now I'm settling for simply referring to myself as a farmer. I do after all have 2 raised garden beds and a herding dog. Kind of. As a part of my new farmer lifestyle I now ask people at the farmers market what type of cow the milk came from (Jersey Cows!) and I've been trying to figure out how I can get in on a CSA. I've also acquired poison ivy. Fitting.

Also in just two weeks I'll be 31. Where does the time go.

The Weekend

 

 

Mike and I had another busy weekend which happily included lots of good food and some progress on Highclere's prestigious gardens. On Saturday I talked Mike into going to historic Bowie (if you're local you'll see why this is humorous). Historic Bowie basically consists of roughly one block. But in that one block's defense it is a pretty cute block consisting of a few antique shops and a cute little restaurant with some delightful ice cream. After lunch we biked on the BWA trail in a somewhat pitiful attempt to squeeze in a little triathalon prep!

 

Also on Saturyday, Mike also built us 2 raised garden beds. Hip hip! We acquired a LOT of free dirt from the dump (which is awesome by the way) and then I spent my life savings on some other dirt to mix it with. I planted (drumroll please) cucumbers, squash, spinach, and green beans! Also marigolds for cross pollination purposes. Once I've saved another small fortune to spend on dirt I'll be planting carrots, brussel sprouts, peppers and tomatos in the other garden bed.

 

This weekend was also the Monastery's annual plant sale. I scored not one, not two, but three blueberry bushes! Three varieties, again for cross pollination purposes. I don't know if I'll get much from them this year but I'm hoping next summer there will be blueberries galore in the yard!

 

Also pictured below, a massive hole next to our basement back door where contractors are working away on widening the steps and door frame so that we can eventually finish and furnish the basement!

 

Adventures with building a fence!

Friends! I may have fallen off the blogging bandwagon. This could be due to the fact that the majority of my time these days is spent working, doing chores, and (worst of all) exercising so there’s not many fun activities to report on. I’m hoping that will change in the not too distant future. Anyway I’m here today and ready to share an accomplishment on the home front!

Mike and I have been busy putting up a fence along the back side of our backyard*. When we moved in the view we saw out of our kitchen window was a rusty chain link fence, with logs stacked in front (we don’t have a fireplace so this is puzzling), and the whole mess was covered in ivy. Not a good look as you can see from the ample photo evidence I've provided below.

More after the jump!

Landreth's Seed Company

I'm sorry, but have you ever seen a better looking gardening catalog in your life?  Please pardon the photo, it does not do this little catalog justice.

I first heard about Landreth's Seed Company on this blog and was tempted to check out their seeds now that we have our very own yard. Even though I have a bit of a reputation for killing plants I bought a bunch of vegetable seed packets so that I can have my own little farm out back. My thought is even if nothing blooms I'll only be out $20 and I will have had a little adventure with backyard gardening. I am of course hoping that I turn out to be a fantastic gardener but that of course remains to be seen.

Landreth's has beautiful flower including some heirloom Dahlias which I would LOVE to grow but since we have so little sunshine in our yard and Zoe dug up all the bulbs I planted last time I've decided to not press my luck this year. But if any of you have sunlight in your yard and no dogs to dig up your bulbs (Hi Peggy!) I suggest you give them a try.

The Grand Estate in Winter

Seven months into living at Highclere I can easily say our yard is my favorite part of the grand estate. The yard itself isn't terribly big, but after living in the villa for many years, it feels vast. Our neighbors' sizable yards and the fact that there is no alley behind our house also lends itself to the general woodsy feel of the area. In the summer the mosquitoes are almost unbearable (I talked a little about that here) but in the winter it's really lovely to have our own little piece of land. I particularly love these misty winter mornings where everything looks so soft and quiet. Still, I'm very much looking forward to spring when we'll add a little patio and get to enjoy the daffodils which are so very close to blooming.

Deck Progress

In case you were wondering, more work happened on the deck last weekend but we're still a little ways away from being done. It turns out building a deck, even a mini one, is a lot of work. We're hoping to have this completed in the next couple of weeks since we're both busy with weddings and trips out of town, and in Michael's case, tailgates.

Building a Deck

 This weekend we (and by we I mean Mike and his dad and not me at all) started our first semi-major home improvement project. Tearing down the deck and replacing it with a mini deck! Mike calls it a landing but I think mini deck sounds like more fun (Yes?). I took the picture above during our home inspection and as you can see the deck was not in great shape. The home inspector told us that the deck was beyond its useable life and I think that was putting it nicely. We had someone come out and give us an estimate on tearing down the old deck and building a new one and lets just say that's when we decided this would be an in house project. Lucky for us Mike's dad dabbled in contracting and thus has all the knowledge, and tools, one would need to take this project on.



 More after the jump!

Figs

I don't want to brag. But, I HAVE A FIG TREE! A gift from our very thoughtful friends Alex and Lindsey. Thanks guys! And  while they have already assured me they won't be mad at me if goes the way of the Christmas cactus I'm going to try my very best not to kill this lovely, innocent, fruit bearing plant. Look how cute it is! And it grows figs! I want to go exclamation point crazy here!

Please excuse all the vines and weeds in the background. There is still more work to be done on the weeding front. All in due time. Also, I can't seem to stop using iphone photos. My actual cameras have just been sitting lonely since the move. Perhaps this weekend they will get a little action.

Creeping Charlie

I have some good news for you and some bad news for you. I'll start with the good news. Look what I found growing in our garden! Eeek! I'm using the term garden here liberally since mostly what we grow are weeds. Still, very encouraging and delicious!

Now on to the bad news. We have lots, and I mean lots of this weed that has been nicknamed honeyvine milkweed. It sounds so innocent but it is everywhere and everything I read indicates it's impossible to get rid of! At first I thought it was Creeping Charlie, which I liked because the name sounded A) appropriate, and B) like something I would have come up with myself. But it's not. Actually though upon further research I've discovered honeyvine milkweed is one of the only plants monarch butterflies eat, so perhaps I should keep some.

Perhaps I'll talk to my new best friends at the garden club about this. Or to Mike's dad who is a botanist. Imagine my luck!