The Spring Rush 2016

This is the time of year we call “The Spring Rush.” What this means is we have a LOT of outdoor getting ready for the gardening season work going on around the homestead and we are super busy as a result.

This week I have been cleaning up my flower beds; removing leaves, weeding and putting down bark chips. I put organic fertilizer on the flowering shrubs that are planted in the pea gravel around our home. I prefer to use homemade compost in the fall on the plants in the dirt beds, but have the best luck with organic fertilizer in the stones beds in the spring. Putting big buckets of dirt on top of the tidy pea gravel mulch would be counter-productive in my opinion.

Gene removed the pink foam insulation in the roofs of both of the chicken coops and got out our five birdbaths. We also put out the tropical plant in a pot that hides the ugly air conditioner on the front of our home that we store in our laundry room crawl space over the winter.

I sprayed the pink bench and the vintage record stand that will eventually hold flowers for a la flea market look for flowers this summer.

I also bought a flat of basil “starts” this week for lots of tasty fresh cooking and air drying. Each sunny day  bring them out into the sun to grow some more and at night put them into the pole barn in case of a light frost.

Last year I planted 12 starts and had delicious fresh and dried basil until February. This year I bought 15 starts in the hope I can dry even more. I have the best luck with my basil plants planted in pots using well composted horse manure so I will use this system again this year as well.

There is a lot of washing and line drying happening around here right now as well, after all it is spring!

Small House homesteader, Donna

P.S. Please note that I have apparently used up my space limit for photographs on my blog. I am not sure what I plan to do. To increase my space requires a commitment of $24.95 per month and I am not sure I am willing to do that. So posts may be without photographs for a bit.

New Catmint Boarder Garden at the Small House Homestead

Although this plant is called Walker Low, it really isn’t low growing but it is a stunning plant.

After several years of trying to divide and transplant Walker Low catmint (Nepeta-faasseni) with very mixed results I finally gave up trying to save money and I bought 20 plants for a planned border in my turn-around bed that I have been trying to create. I used the egg sale money I have saved from the past years.

My catmint perennials are coming up nicely after the long winter. 

Catmint, if you are not familiar with it is an easy-to-grow perennial that tolerates average to dry, moist soil. Their cheery lavender blooms look good when most other perennials are done for the season. They like half sun half shade and are hardy in zones 3-8.

Most catmints prefer full sun and well-drained, not overly fertile soil, although plants in hot summer areas do well with some afternoon shade. Related to catnip but much showier its gray-green foliage remains attractive throughout the growing season as well. Established plants are quite drought tolerant.

This morning we drove to my favorite nursery, Huntree Nursery in Glenn who had them ready for me. Huntree is a family owned seasonal nursery and a favorite place for many in our area to buy trees, evergreen and shrubs. In the fifteen years we have lived here I have purchased a LOT of plants from Huntree.

 Spring has sprung at my favorite nursery, Huntree Nursery, Glen, MI. 

In 1971 Jan and David Landry came to work at the nursery after graduating from Michigan State University. Nine years later they purchased the business. And the rest as they say, is history.

Today’s purchase of catmints will be the base of my new border.

Catmint Walker’s Low is famous for its wonderful fragrance, is deer resistant, attracts hummingbirds and butterflies’ and is bee friendly. Not really a low grower, ‘Walker’s Low’ will grow 24-30 inches tall and had no serious insect or disease problems. It is used in rock gardens, border fronts, herb gardens or naturalized plantings.

Catmint Walker’s Low is famous for its wonderful fragrance that butterflies, bees and cats love. Beautiful, lush, purple flower spikes start to appear in early summer and continue for up to 3 months. It’s a great perennial to add to your garden.

Catmint is a perfect plant for our homestead because it can tolerate our sandy soil and our on- again, off-again periods of drought. I love that it flowers throughout nearly the whole summer and into the fall season. Not only is it beautiful with it naturally rounded mounding shape and blue-green leaves, it the ideal herb to give to the chickens to eat too.

I picked them up in the morning and then I spent the day digging and planting.  They will grow for a few years into a splashy border and then I will have more plants to divide and transplant throughout my gardens.

Here are a few copyright free images if using catmint in the garden border. Isn’t this the most stunning plant when used in mass?

 

After mine fill in and grow I’ll be sharing an “after” photographs of our garden border at a later date.

Small House homesteader, Donna

 

 

 

Small House Weekly Homestead Photo Diary

Not that I am complaining….but summer weather came upon us suddenly this week on our homestead in SW Michigan. One night it is freezing and the next day it is sunny and hot. In fact, it was sunny and hot all week-long and no rain. The daffodils are bursting out everywhere and their bright yellow color everywhere makes me happy. Even the daffodils that I had thought were drowned in the 2009-2012 high ground water flooding have returned with many new blooms and are spreading.

The Rhodies love to scratch and peck in the wood ash from the recently burned down fire pit.

While this is a mood boosting strategy we do need rain here and a lot of it. Not only do the plants and trees need life-giving water to get a really good start, we need to fill our water containment totes for the long, dry summer ahead. The Farmer’s Almanac is predicting hotter than usual and less rain that usual in our part of the state. In a 1950’s style home without a/c and a not-currently-working swimming pool, this is not good news. Sigh.

The daffodils are bursting out in the crab apple tree circle garden right now. 

We hope to get the swimming pool up and running again soon but a large chunk of cash is needed to do that and not in the budget right now. The pool needs to be drained, scraped, acid washed, re-painted and the mechanical’s up and running again. It’s going to a big and expensive project.

Circles of daffodils in the fruit tree triangle. 

Gene worked on removing the deer netting from around the hydrangea shrubs and turned the pool pump turned on and got out the hoses. He also worked on repairing the ruts in the meadow this week. The rusts came as a result of the roadside trimmer driving their large, heavy truck to dump the mulch. The ruts were filled with a mix of sandy soil from the woods, well-composed horse manure from a friend’s farm and topped with good composted soil from the compost pile. In the fall, I’ll plant grass seeds. Grass seeds do not germinate well here in the spring time unless we have a very wet year to keep them going. Grass seed simply does better here if I spread it in the fall and let the snow melt germinate it the following spring.

Gene digging composted soil with his Rhodie helpers fishing for worms.

Our bird feeding bed is edged in daffodils and a bloom.

I spent most of my week dispersing straw and then bark chips. I made some good progress but have a l-o-n-g way to go yet.

This Rhode Island Red chicken is certainly strutting her stuff in the leaves.Crystal wants to get away after wiping down her messy butt from a bit too many kitchen scraps.

Bloom where you are planted my friends!

Small House Homesteader, Donna

The Chicken Garden Project – Phase One – Getting Started

Like many gardener’s we have a new garden project going almost every year. This is how I manage to accomplish new garden projects with my current homestead work load. My working formula is that I work on this project an hour or two each morning and then I accomplish a little bit everyday!

Soil, straw and bark chips make up the base of my boarder garden. 

This year’s project is what I am calling the chicken garden. I plan to add some color and form on the North-end entry gate to our chicken coop and runs.  I also want to add some pizzazz and visual interest. I plan to only plant easy-care perennials so I don’t have more than the basic seasonal work to maintain them. These perennials have proven themselves to be low water and easy-care plant here already.

Just a simple stone and chip pathway lead to the chicken run.

In this case, I am going to transplant some of my standard “nothing will kill them” hardy plants from other parts of our property. I’ll be using the tried and true plants that I know can stand up to whatever weather Mother Nature Give’s us;  from drought to flooding. These are the perennials that have proven their merit over and over during the past 15 years we have lived and gardened here on our SW Michigan homestead.

The eventual recipient of the chicken garden.

Small House Homesteads Top Ten Hardy and Easy-Care Perennials:

1. Day lilies
2. Iris
3. Catmint
4. Black eyed Susan’s
5. Brown eyed Susan’s
6. Shasta Daisy’s
7. Butterfly Bush
8. Comfrey
9. Sedum (spreading and low growing)
10. Autumn Sedum Joy

The herb comfrey in full bloom.

My overall goal is to brighten the place up a bit when we walk out to the coop a half-dozen times a day. I also want to play down the ugly, gray cement blocks that hold down the greenhouse hoops. The blocks are super practical and make the low-cost side of this design work just fine, but I would like to pretty them up a bit.

I hope to soften down the hard lines of these gray cement blocks with green plants.

I started by amending the soil with good composted dirt from our compost bins and then added spent straw and topped with bark chips from the recent roadside clean up crew. Then I added six flat stepping-stones to a simple bark chip pathway that I put down to deal with the spring mud. The step-tones were once used in another garden location at once point. These stones resided for a few years in the bed behind our three-season porch but the shrubs there grew big enough to fill that open space and I was not longer using those step stones to get into and out of that bed.

Bark chips help to keep the weeds down as well as the moisture in the soil.

Before I could plant any flowers on our homestead I have learned I must seriously amend the soil and kill the grass that was growing there. Because our soil is super lean, sandy oak savanna soil that is also devoid of most necessary nutrients, so my garden prep process typically takes me a year or two to amend the soil before planting.  This small garden border is no different.

This great mound of bark chips will soon disappear.

My formula is quite simple; I add soil from the compost bins mixed with old soil from within the fire pit. Then I added some bark chips and mulch left for us by the local tree trimmers.  This tree trimming mulch includes pine needles and other greenery that will also help to amend our soil and add nitrogen to make a nutrition base for the flowers I plan to add in a year or two.

Another view of the “back forty.”The chicken run, the pool shack and of course, our girls!

While the amendments were doing their thing, I consulted a great book called Free-Range Chicken Gardens: How to Create a Beautiful, Chicken-Friendly Yard. By Jessi Bloom. This book is full of practical and beautiful solution for any gardener who wants to invite a flock into their backyard. It’s a great resource and give good tips and used many lovely color photographs for ideas and interest.

If you are considering landscaping in or around your coop or run here are a few relevant posts you might also enjoy.

• http://www.hobbyfarms.com/why-landscaping-your-chicken-coop-is-both-pretty-and-practical/
• Top Ten Plants for our Chicken Coop: by Tillys Nest at http://www.tillysnest.com/2012/05/top-ten-plants-to-grow-for-your-html/
• http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2014/09/landscape-gardening-with-chickens.html
• http://modernfarmer.com/2013/06/how-to-chicken-proof-your-garden/
• http://www.amazon.com/Free-Range-Chicken-Gardens-Beautiful-Chicken-Friendly/dp/1604692375

Enjoy!

Small House Homesteader, Donna

 

Dispersing of the Straw Bale Wind Block

This week I have been busy distributing the chickens straw bale wind block.

The straw bale wind block that collapsed after the winter snow.

Each fall we set up stacks of square-baled straw around our chicken coop and run with the goal of blocking some of the big winds we get here on the homestead. We live not far from Lake Michigan and we definitely get the results of a lot of lake related winds that we feel on our homestead.

Come spring I use these bales as mulch and distribute the wet straw around many plants and trees in the garden and the landscaped beds including our five-year-old baby pine trees.

Baby White Pines replaced those that were cut down.

As organic material straw will eventually rot and turn into soil, amending the existing soil as they rot. The clumps of straw also hold in moisture from the spring rains which will benefit whatever growing things they are spread around.

Our garden cart full of straw on its way to be distributed.

This year we were also lucky to be able to be the recipients of three (or possibly four) truckloads of organic materials cut back from our community’s roadside program. These are wood chips, pine needles and other brown and green organic materials.

The big pile of organic mulch that needs hauling and spreading. 

The stars all alligned this spring. I simple stopped and talked to the guys who were cutting and offered our property as the free place to dump them and requested that they be dumped in our meadow. Because they usually have to pay to dump these materials and often we have to pay to buy them; so this was a win for us both.

It is certainly a blessing to have these organic materials to work with in our garden, yard and landscaping. Both the straw and the green cuttings will save us money, time and vehicle wear and tear. And having the mulch on site will benefit all the growing things from plants to shrubbery that we have work so hard to plant and maintain.

Nothing is wasted here on the homestead!

Small House Homesteader, Donna

 

Soil Is the Great Connector of Lives

 A nation that destroys its soil destroys itself. Franklin D. Roosevelt

Our garden cart and 5-gallon buckets are an essential part of my garden labor.

A granddaughter of a dairy farmer I never realize the real importance of the soil until I came to the Small House Homestead. I have learned that a high quality, healthy and organic soil makes the difference between being able to grow and not grow. Healthy organic soil is the foundation of food security.

Gene is shoveling bark chips from the truck to the buckets.

Our most important job as vegetable gardeners is to feed and sustain soil life, often called the soil food web, beginning with the microbes. If we do this, our plants will thrive, we’ll grow nutritious, healthy food, and our soil conditions will get better each year. This is what is meant by the adage ”Feed the soil not the plants.

Every season I work to make our soil healthier through making my own homemade compost. Kitchen scraps, chicken poop, spent flowers and leaves; everything that is not meat or bones goes into our compost pile.

Our 6-bin compost station built of pallets and T stakes is not fancy but it gets the job done.

Today I spread our homemade compost on the fruit trees, shrubs and some of our perennials. I was able to make about 12 5-gallon buckets this year. Every year I make more compost and every year I do not have enough to go around.

I have to decide which plants most deserve the composted soils and then top dress them with well composted horse manure for the rest. We are fortunate to have as much horse manure available as we can haul home.

5-gallon buckets of compost and manure lined up waiting to be spread.

This is a big deal for us because our Oak Savannah forest soil is lean, sandy and pretty much nutrient free.

I let the chicken do the work of turning the composted soil.

Our soil building formula is simple; homemade compost, horse manure and bark chips as mulch. Without this I don’t think I would be able to garden or grow at all.

Making soil and growing food and flowers is my calling.

Small House homesteader, Donna

Fall to Winter Chicken Nutrition

Fall is upon us here on the homestead and in Michigan this means that winter is not far behind. Some years we get four weeks of fall weather and some years we only get two. So we are quickly getting prepared!

Two Rhodies pecking bit of leaves and seeds from my legs.

This is a transition time for us and our chickens. As the seasons change here in Michigan, so do the nutrition needs of my chickens. I have been focusing on adding more protein into their diets and giving them more free range time in the woods to scoop up the last of the worms and bugs that reside in the fall leaves.

Free ranging in the “black gold” soil of compost bins.

Fall to Winter Nutrition Starts for us in the Coop;

I have started giving my girls what I call the “High Test” each morning and each night. This is a mix of high protein feeds to give them more internal heat and to help them warm-up for the day ahead. These food choice also boost their protein after the brooding and molting time of year.

Laundry rack sprouting station.

You may recall that our Cochin’s spent almost six weeks brooding and that was followed by a severe molting process. They looked pretty tattered and torn. Poor girls!

Crystal vegging in the Cochin’s coop prior to laying her egg.

I’ve experimented with various feeding trays; from rubber foot wipe mats to deep rubber bowls (which I now use fill with water in the non-freezing season) and old plates. What I have found to work the best, and what I prefer are clay pot trays that you can buy in various sizes or find at garage sales. They are heavy-duty enough to not get kicked over, with a short lip they hold the food while keeping dirt and leaves out and can easy be easily washed in soap and water every night. I periodically sanitize them using vinegar and a day baking in the sunshine.

Cochin/Phoenix mix bantam.

Honestly my chickens still prefer to eat their food right off the ground, but I offer it to them first in the clay pot trays stacked on pieces of 2 X 4’s or blocks to lift them higher off the ground. Raising them higher can keep the dirt and leave s from being scratched into them. In the winter months it’s a constant battle between human and naturally scratching chickens, but I do try to keep the poop and the food separate.

My Rhodies love to scratch for tasty treats in and around the compost bins.

High Test Chicken Feed in Olive Oil w/ Fresh Chopped Garlic

I use a wide mouth canning jar to mix the “High Test” feed in. After each use, I pop the jar into the dish washer for a very good wash. I don’t measure the feed, I just eyeball the mixture and that has worked fine for us. Each ingredient measures about 1/3 of a cup. The chickens receive half of this mixture in the a.m. and the last half of it in the p.m., just before they roost for the night.

Small House Homesteads High Test Mix:

1/3 organic layers feed (for their vitamins and minerals)

1/3 meal worms (their favorite food)

1/3 BOSS (black oiled sunflower seeds for protein and heat)

I toss these three items above into the jar, add my pre-mixed olive oil mixture and give it a quick stir.  For my olive oil mixture recipe see those details below.

Small House Homesteads Olive Oil Infusion Mixture:

Using a second quart-size, wide mouth canning jar I mix up the following items; chopped fresh garlic, dried herbs and fill the quart  jar to ¾ full of olive oil. Like an infusion, I let this mixture steep throughout the winter changing out the jar from time to time.  My herbs vary between chopped up dandelion roots and culinary herbs like oregano, basil and always chopped raw garlic for my girls good heath.

The Cochin’s coop just after it was completed.

Each day I let my chickens out to free range for between 30 and 60 minutes. Mine must be human supervised so some days their free range time is short and some days I might be able to manage and hour and a half. Generally this is enough time to fill their crops with tasty worms, bugs and seeds and satisfy their deep need to scratch and peck. Often times they are content to be called back into the coop for a nice long drink of fresh water after that. On a beautiful sunny fall day I might even be able to let them out twice in one day.

The outdoor bare seed area. Those pieces of wood on top keep the birds out.

This fall I have been taking them to the leave strewn path in the woods where the worms are hiding under the many layers of leaves. The chickens have really enjoyed this activity and have been very busy scratching and pecking. The also discovered the old dirt pile this fall. This pile has been where we threw any extra dirt or weeds we did not want in the compost bins. This fresh compost pile has never been turned or worked in any way so the chickens have delighted in that dirt this fall.

The Rhodies coop inside of their secure run.

We also removed the boards from the back of our 6-part compost bin and let them jump up and in and work that soil as well. All of these food centers are located at the back of our property under the wood lots edge located behind the blacksmith forge and are protected from the wind. And now that the trees have lost their leaves the sun shines down on this area throughout the day. It is the perfect place for chickens to free range right now.

Happily pecking and scratching in our deep White Oak leaves.

Around 4 or 5 p.m. in the afternoon I toss out sprouted barley greens to make sure that they have eaten enough live greens each day and the last of their high-test feed. In the early fall before the snow comes they eat their barley greens that are growing right in the soil of their run where I have planted three large patches. When those greens are gone or the frost has arrived, then I begin to sprout indoors. I make and give them sprouts because will have many times more nutrition than the adult plant of the seed to begin with.

Of course they have water with garlic, their chicken layers feed and dried egg shells to free feed throughout the day.

Bales of hay to block the wind and for a chicken jungle gym!

As you can see nutrition for humans, dogs and chickens is serious business on our homestead!

Small House homesteader, Donna

Making Hay While the Sun Shines

You know the old saying…”Got to make hay while the sun is shining.” Today that what we did. No, we did not actually make hay, it’s November. But we are in a three or four-day warm up period and we are hustling to get the last of the seasonal work done while the sun is shining. Knowing Michigan like I do, I am figuring that this is the last warm up of the 2015 season.

The White Oak trees have lost their leaves and quite early this year.

I stripped the bed and washed the sheets and mattress pad and put the pillows out in the sunshine to air out. Having been sick with bronchitis I feel an extra strong to air out those pillows. The same with the dog’s bed. I can’t prove that sunshine helps to sterilize our bedding but it sure makes me feel better knowing they were out there baking in the warm sunshine for the day.

Two Rhodies free ranges in the leaves behind the blacksmith forge.

I have also been planning on emptying, sterilizing and thoroughly washing out the chickens feeders before the long winter ahead. So today I finally got to that chore too. I did one hanging metal feeder today and I will do another one tomorrow. Hopefully Thursday will be warm and sunny as well and I can washout the third one and that chore will be accomplished.

Crystal rests on the roost in our warm Indian Summer we are experiencing.

Gene is spending his day draining and putting the hoses away and tackling our big leaf pick up chores. Last week he raked enough leaves to fill up the our three chicken runs with dry oak leaves as well as five large Menard’s leaf bag with leaves to use as coop bedding this winter.

The compost bin for heavier and thicker materials like ornamental grasses.

Today he is sucking more oak leaves out of the stone landscape bed around our Ranch-style home. The next two days will be saved for blowing and leaf pickup with the lawn tractor. The oaks have pretty much dropped all of their leaves and we are under the gun to get the picked up and distributed on the wood path, along the landscaping beds, in the meadow and so on. He says we did not have nearly as many leaves as we have most summers. By the end of this week  that it is supposed to turn cold and to rain heavily. We are praying we can get these final chores done by then. Wish us luck!!

Even the Amerigas LP company is working to beat the clock of s-n-o-w!

This is the first year the oak branches have been empty of leaves by November 2 – that is VERY early for us here in SW Michigan.

The owl box is up and ready for the schreechers.

Small House homesteader, Donna

A SW Michigan Indian Summer Day

Today we are having what we always call an Indian Summer. I am not sure if this is politically correct to call this by this name now but this what we always called these late fall days in my childhood.

Indian summer is a period of unseasonable warm, dry weather that sometimes occur in autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. Today is sunny and clear and with above normal temperatures. This usually happens late in the season after we have had a killing frost.

For us this means a glorious 70 degree in November; sunny and warm! I could have gone to town today with Gene and gone to yoga and run errands but I simply needed to be outside on a day like today. No meetings, no obligations just time to soak up that sunshine and get well! Like taking a kind of mental health day!

I hung a load of clothes outside on the line and then I worked outside half of the day, planting, cutting back the Autumn Sedum Joy, supervising the Rhodies at their free range activities. I even I tried raking leaves but this bronchitis has made me weak as a kitten and it was time to quit. I give up.

So instead I took photographs of the homestead on this beautiful day. Who would think we would be having a 70 degrees plus day on November 2? November is when the cold and snow arrives in my neck of the woods. A day this warm makes me tempted to go to the beach.

I love how this land looks like a very different place this time of year. The meadow is cut down, the leaves are off the oaks baring their beautiful trunks and the evergreens take their turn at standing out in the landscape.

The animals love this weather too; Sassy is out on a blanket chewing on a bone. The chickens are free ranging and happy as can be.

I’m going to enjoy it while I can because it’s probably just the calm before the storm. So look out Michigan…. the Farmers Almanac says its going to be a colder and snowier winter than usual for us!

Small House homesteader, Donna

 

Daffodils Equals The Spirit of Spring

  Planting fall bulbs symbolizes hope for another spring.

Today I planted 100 Trumpet Daffodil bulbs, a classic all yellow large Daffodil. I have another 100 to plant and will do that soon. I scooped out soil to make two large circles on the inside of the fruit tree triangle and nestled the bulbs in among the comfrey leaves. Both the comfrey and the daffodils grab nitrogen from the air and makes it available to the fruit tree roots in a symbiotic and perfect relationship.

Gene helping me open up the mesh bags.

Planting bulb in the fall of the year is such a symbol of hope for me. Hope that these bulbs will live thru our snowy Michigan weather to come alive when the spring sun and rain again heat up the soil. Daffodils are a renewal of the spirit of spring for me.

If you are an avid gardener you know that daffodils must be planted in the fall or early winter to bloom in spring because they require a long period of cool temperatures to spark the biochemical process that causes them to flower. In fall, it’s important to get them into the ground before the ground freezes. They need time to develop strong roots.

Deer resistant and so easy to grow, these bulbs do really well here in our sandy, well draining and often dry soil. Because we planted our fruit tees just this spring and heavily amended the soil at that time well horse manure compost, straw and bark ships, the digging was easy.

Digging the hole in the fruit tree bed for the bulbs.

We are supposed to get an inch of rain tonight, so watering them in will be done by Mother Nature this time.

I consider these bulbs a good investment because they bring me such joy spring after spring.

There is an interesting history and lore that surrounds the daffodil. Daffodils were brought to Britain by the Romans who thought that the sap from daffodils had healing powers. Actually the sap contains crystals that can irritate the skin.

Giant bulbs yield large flowers.

Greek mythology gives us the term narcissus. There was a young Greek named Narcissus. A nymph called Echo was in love with him, but Narcissus broke off the relationship. Heartbroken she hid in a cave and died. Later Narcissus, who was very handsome and quite taken with himself, saw his face in a pool, and as he leaned over to see better, fell in and drowned and became the flower.

Small House homesteader, Donna