(laughter). The Rat House paddock is starting to show its green though the ground is still so cold it is taking its time coming up.
I have had to let the stock out on the fields before they are quite ready, (I would say the grass is three weeks behind normal growth) this is bad pasture management but I am almost out of hay. I need to save the last few bales for Daisy’s milking treat and the pigs eat a fair bit.
Below is the Dairy Mistress paddock (sown last year) and when it is about three inches higher, I shall start to graze it using the electric fence.
It is also very slow to start this year but once the ground warms up it will spring into action. ‘Scuse the pun.
The Haymaker’s Field was left with good cover last year so it is way ahead of the rest. The dogs and I inspect each field on our morning and evening walks
The house is still a building site. The roofers keep setting new dates as the rain and wind hinder plans. The latest date is this Monday which is the date for the drywaller to come as well. So we shall see. The exterior cladding is ready to go on too. So once they all start work it will be full steam ahead (I hope).
Good morning. Today is Saturday here so I have help for the heavy stuff. We are going to open up the potato bed, clear the strawberry fields and try to recover the blueberries. I desperately want blueberries but along with the hazelnuts they just will not thrive. My soil is the wrong type. Too acidic or something. Compost and liquid worm fertiliser are my main additives so if these don’t work I might have to give up. Such a bore. But one of my garden rules is to grow what wants to grow in my environment. Difficult crops are frowned upon. Sad. I did want blueberries and hazelnuts.
Isn’t it just delightful about the moon? That last night we were all looking out our bedroom windows at the same moon. I know I knew this in some part of my brain but when I fully realised that you, (over in Australia and South Africa and France and England, and Scotland and Germany and Spain and Turkey and Georgia and all the other countries you come from that I don’t even know about) are all looking at the same moon that I am here in the US. Well. That gave me a warm fuzzy feeling.
Have a lovely warm day.
love your fuzzy friend, celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
64 responses to “green, the good stuff”
I love your updates – all of ’em! Happy spring to you…
Blueberries prefer acid soil, so yours is probably on the alkaline side. You can raise the acidity several ways, but the easiest is to dig a good large hole and mix some shredded or composted pine bark into the soil you’ve dug out of the hole. 1/3 pine bar to 2/3 soil should be about right. Mulching the plants with pine bark will also help raise the acidity slightly.
I did this the year that I planted them but now I am wondering whether I should be amending the soil around them each year, I shall give it a go, thank you SO much for the advice, it is more than welcome.. I shall onto this today, c!
Celi, the pine bark will eventually give you a more acidic culture, but while it is breaking down it is using up nitrogen. If these are relatively new plantings you may have to supplement their feedings. Hagelkultur is an excellent method, but it takes time to actually kick into gear. 🙂
http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/
Sorry, I should have clarified, but the adding of the bark is similar to the effects of Hagelkulture, but on a much smaller scale.
Celi, I think you can get blueberries to grow in pots… which may solve the ‘wrong soil’ problem really easily?
Ah, this is an excellent idea, i might try that.. thank you janet! c
Good morning Celi; thanks for the building updates its a guy thing. i like to see the progress . the paddock looks to be growing my hay is creeping along. have a blessed day 🙂 mike
I bet (like us) you will be smiling like crazy when you get your first bales of hay in! It is my favourite scent in the world.. c
And as with sharing the same moon, here on Skye we’re also sharing the three or four week delay in all growing things. Our guests from near Europe nod their heads too! Enjoy your busy Saturday!
Christine
Isn’t that strange(and yet not that strange) that the seasons are so similar the world over.. c
Hey Celi! The pastures are coming along and look great! Don’t know if you have it there, but we have an agency, I think it’s called AR County Extension Agency where you can take soil samples of any place on your land and they will test it and tell you its composition. And it’s free!!! Then you can amend it to support what you want to grow. They even suggest what to amend it with and it what proportions. My John says for the blueberries you can add pine (shavings or needles), straw, or sawdust to acidify the soil. We did that last year and it looks like we just might be eating blueberries this year. They are flowering now! I’ll keep you informed as to when you start popping them in our mouths!!! 🙂
cruel girl, Imagine popping blueberries into your mouth without me!! I shall go sweep up some pine needles this instant and we are not short of sawdust at the moment! c
Hello my fuzzy friend. Thanks for all the progress pictures. It is beautiful here at the moment, but changes to arctic at the drop of a hat. I can’t keep up with it and am still having to dress in removable layers! There’s a new quilt on my blog.
The house is looking very good – blink a couple of times and it will be Christmas already and long finished 😉
Time waits for no man!! morning mad.. c
It really was a fantastic moon last night. We have had nearly a full week of the brightests moons I have seen in a long time here.
good morning and welcome, i have always thought that the full moon is like a smiling baby, it is hard to look away!.. c
Your fields are looking rather nice, I do say. We hope to start planting corn in about 8 days… imagine that? And it’s warming up here…75* today.
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com
EIGHT days,wow . , the farmers here are all in a hufff about too much rain.. but the ground is too cold anyway.. oops i hear john and his tractor in one of my gardens, i had better go and see what he is up to! c
It puts a smile on my face that despite all the things that keep us all apart, there are other common things, simple joys that link us together
I hope the work on the house will go on schedule this time
same moon here in israel =) also we have a late start into summer. seems like the seasons are shifting a bit every year…when i was a kid in germany, we used to have snow for christmas almost every year… it got less and less, and later and later.
have a lovely weekend!
Israel i knew I was missing a country, i shall add you in.. c
Hi Fuzzy Girl 🙂 I can tell you something, blueberries dislike rich soil, and also cedar mulch is toxic to them because they cannot assimilate nitrogen from nitrites and also have a shallow root system, somewhere around 6-8 inches, but even the deepest roots only go 14 inches or so, and can drown very easily if they get waterlogged soil. The common thinking these days is to plant them in an 18″ raised bed in acidic soil and mulch with bark mulch or saw dust (not cedar). Something which might make you smile: There’s a store close to us which sells all sorts of Wooey Wooey new age stuff like angel cards and fairy jewellery. Well, they have guided meditation evenings which are good for Chloe and me. Anyway, the result of this is that once/month Chloe dutifully lines up all her crystals and jewellery along the window ledges to “Purify” them in the moonlight. It looks like a Zen-new-age-hippie house around here every full moon night. 🙂 (all we’re missing is the incense and the sitar)
Chloe and her crystals, how fantastic, and raised beds! this is a good tip, as you know we are in an old drained swamp land so I bet they have got too wet, can I mulch them up with the pine chips and so forth, or should I replant them? c
If you replant them into a raised bed that would be your best bet I think Celi. Loads of work for you though.
We have to use raised beds here (low land with sticky gumbo) but raised beds do produce berries
And we all howled at that moon too!
you guys all howled together.. excellent! c
well, actually June Buggie don’t howl… but he fussed at the moon!
There’s nothing like good grass.
Ae.. c
Your thoughts about the moon got to me a little bit, C. I am separated by geography from a few loved ones and we have our secret language when we share the moon. 🙂 I’m pulling for you with answers for your blueberries! Debra
My favorite band, Patchouli, does a song about looking at the same big sky. Celi’s post and your comment struck the same chord.
If you want a listen, go here, click on the album “The Light Behind You,” then click on the song “Puzzle.”
http://www.patchouli.net/music
Thank you, Nancy! This is my first introduction to Patchouli, and I can see why you enjoy this band! I really like their sound. I’m definitely going to explore the possibility of getting to know them better! 🙂