Renewed Garden - 2014

The last few years have seen us nearly abandon our gardening efforts, only to be renewed this past year with more zest and zeal. A new 14th century Edo period style fence was one of the factors that has renewed our interest in our gardens. Not only does the privacy provide a sense of closeness with nature, it also lends itself to some unique gardening styles not within the Japanese style of gardening. Over the very long winter we had, we became entrenched in watching a series made in the 80s, titled; "The Victorian Walled Garden." It was clear from the first episode that the Victorians were on to something very special when it came to their walled gardens, and the methods used to generate vast amounts of food, from very small spaces. The techniques, understanding, and care that went into producing award winning vegetable and fruits was astonishing. The creativity and innovation were mind-boggling. So... using the philosophy of the Victorian Walled Garden, as well as some more recent permaculture ideologies, we've begun the labor intensive process of turning our backyard into a fruit and vegetable producing landscape. 5 bare root fruit trees; Morello English Cherry, Dwarf Peach, and two Pear trees, have been planted and will be espaliered in the spring of next year. Two raised beds were built, one will house medicinal and culinary herbs, the other, tomatoes, lettuces, peppers, greens, and a couple of other veggies. The Greenhouse will bear the burden of producing cucamelons, parisian cucumbers, and persian cucumbers, and hybrid small melons this year. Along the side where the fruit trees were planted are; red currents, chinquapin tree, 10 blueberry bushes, horseradish, and three new elderberry trees. To add to that are; Minnesota State hybrid kiwi vine (male and female), and two honey berry bushes. All of this is an effort to becoming more self-sufficient in regards to fruit with some production of vegetables. The fruit of course, can all be canned into preserves of some sort, or dried for use later on. Several years ago, I said to Brian; "why on Earth are we wasting our time growing grass?" "It has no real purpose, does nothing, and takes up time and energy to maintain." So... we've nearly eliminated all the grass from our lawn, and replaced it with it with either ornamental plants, and in the case of part of the backyard, vegetable and fruit gardens. A beehive is in the plan for this summer, but we'll have to see about the reality of that. For now, that's all to report from the Glen.

09-23-2010

July 11–2010

Tomatoes & Peppers

So, we decided to go ahead and get our heirloom tomatoes and peppers a head start. Yes, it's probably 4 -5 months until they can go into the ground, however, it's also giving them time to mature before going into the greenhouse and the ground. I'll post photos as soon as they pop up.

As far as the weather goes, we had another ice-storm yesterday (01-22-2010). Today and tomorrow, we're in for 3-4 inches of rain, and possibly wintry mix.

Winter Weather 2009

So far, Winter has been an incredible foray into wind, snow, and incredible ice storms. It's only December 28th, and we've already
had as much Winter as we normally do. One week ago, we were graced with a 2 foot snow storm, then on Xmas morning, we had over an inch of ice that devastated the area we live in. (Photos follow)

The current forecast is for another blizzard that will equal the 2 footer of snow we had 1 week ago! Over the past summer I took it upon myself to talk with lots of local people about the weather, and most agreed that this winter; 2009-2010 would be similar to the 1960 winter. Which I understand was incredible! It supposedly snowed every week, without fail, for nearly 3 months. Please email me if you have further information, and I'll include it in this post. Anyway, there were several "signs" that indicated this was going to be a very rough winter; the size of the squirrels tails, the depth that the bees made their nests in the ground, the amount of nuts that the chipmunks and squirrels gathered (don't know how that would be determined), the thickness of the corn husks, as well as the layers of the corn husks, and the thickness of the vegetables, mainly the potatoes. All of which, apparently were indicative of a heavy snow-fall winter. It's panning out to be true so far.

Back to the ice-storm on Xmas. Watauga county was declared to be in a state of emergency, over 60% of households lost electricity, and we in particular, lost electricity for over 36 hours, some people still don't have electricity. After taking a drive around the county, it looks as if someone sheared off all of the trees at the tops, entire trees have uprooted, and branches are everywhere. It's a disaster.

2009 Japanese Iris - "Rose Frappe"

This particular Japanese Iris blooms mid-season, grows to 43' in height and its parentage is "Kimiko" X "Storm at Sea," both varieties of Japanese Irises.

How to Can Fruits & Vegetables - Video Series