Monthly Archives: June 2012

4 Quick Tips for Summertime Composting!

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Summertime is a great time to compost. It’s nice outside – there are lots of available kitchen and garden scraps to add to the pile – and you can make batches so much quicker with the hotter temperatures.  Here are four quick tips to help keep your compost bin successfully cooking through the heat so you can add “black gold” to your garden!

Turn that pile!

1. TURN BABY TURN!

Keep the air moving in the pile – A pile needs oxygen to really start cooking. By turning the pile more frequently (with a spade or pitchfork every few days), you keep it alive and hot – and you are making sure to incorporate all of the materials more thoroughly. In the summer – the more you turn – the more the pile can heat up and burn. Once a day is optimum – but at least every few days to keep it hot and going. If you add scraps each day – just use that time to turn – it just takes a few seconds, and the reward is finished compost in a third of the time!

Keep it moist!

2. A LITTLE H2O PLEASE!

Water- that’s right – keep that pile moist. In the summer heat – especially here in Ohio where we are experiencing no rain and a lot of heat – you need to add some water to the pile to keep it moist. Don’t drench it and don’t let it dry out – just add some water every few days to keep some moisture content in the pile and keep it cooking.

shred it!

3. CHOP AND BURY THE GOODS

Summertime also means active animal time – so if you have an open style compost bin – or if animals can get to it – make sure to bury the additions to the pile to minimize the attraction to vermin. Whether you have a shredder, an old lawn mower to run over the scraps with, or a big knife or spade to chop it all up with – keep what you are adding to the pile in smaller sizes and it will decompose that much quicker. It will also be easier to bury in the pile and be less attractive to skunks, raccoons and scavengers. Remember to never add meats or oils – they are harder to compost and really attract the pests.

Burlap makes a great compost cover

4. MADE IN THE SHADE

Our compost bin is out in the open in the middle of the garden – when it start to get really hot – we will put a few boards or a piece of roofing over the top to help keep the moisture in and the sun from drying it completely out. So give your bin some shade – and if you keep an open pile – cover it with a burlap sack or some straw to keep in the moisture.

SO GET THAT COMPOST GOING!

Good Compost + Healthy Plants!


Get that compost cooking. Add all of those summer salad remnants, coffee grounds, melon rhines, corn husks and all the other good “extras” that come out of the summer kitchen. Remember that finished compost should be fine and sweet smelling and cool to the touch. If you are turning the pile and still feeling heat – it’s still cooking and is not ready. If its broken down, sweet-smelling and cool to the touch – it’s ready to use! When you get a batch that is looking close to being good – start a new one for new materials – and turn the old one for a few more weeks to finish it off.

It’s an incredible side dressing and mulch to your summer garden plants.
Happy Gardening – Jim and Mary

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What Do I Do With All These Carrots?? – Homemade Carrot Cake, of course! (Recipe Included)

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This past weekend I was so excited to start to pick the first round of our summer crop of vegetables.

Early Spring Crop Picking

I picked a few cucumbers, small onions, zucchini, peppers, and carrots.  I was very surprised at the amount of carrots that were poking up through the soil, begging to be picked.  Because I was in the zone of pulling weeds and digging out the veggies, I didn’t notice that my basket was full of so many carrots that even Peter Rabbit would have been stuffed.   So as I was at the kitchen sink cleaning the crops, I began thinking of what I could make to use up all of the carrots.   Of course, feeding them to our family as a nice crisp snack as we watched baseball games was my first thought.  (You can only eat so much ballpark food, and honestly, by June, I don’t want to even step foot near a concession stand).  So as I packed the orange treats in small snack bags, I realized that we barely made a dent in the supply.  The boys will snack on them when Ranch dip is available, but I knew we would need to get creative to ensure that we would not to waste the remaining supply.  It has been extremely hot in Ohio, and the thought of putting the carrots in a crock pot with a roast all day, honestly just doesn’t sound appealing right now.  I had to think of something fun and cool to make in order to use the rest of the first picking crop.

Of course, with future crops, we will be sharing our treasures with family, friends, and the community, but these are first picking carrots –which are not so pretty, if you know what I mean. So….last night, as I got my nightly sweet tooth, it came to me!  Homemade Carrot Cake!    This isn’t a family recipe passed on from generation to generation……YET!  I did some research on the internet and added a few changes to this basic recipe, and by the end of the night, it was GONE!  Yes, a success I would say.

HOMEMADE CARROT CAKE RECIPE

     Ingredients:

Mixing the ingredients

  • 4 eggs
  • 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 3 cups grated carrots

    Cream Cheese Icing

     Icing Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 4 cups confectioners’ sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9×13 inch pan. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots.

Folding in the shredded carrots – Hint – use the coarse grater not the fine grater to make the moisture content perfect!

Pour into prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar and vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy.  Frost the cooled cake.

The Final Product – Moist and Delicious Carrot Cake!

ENJOY!

Mid Season Garden Review – The Winners and Losers

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The plan – how it all looked on paper in March

Way back when we were planning the garden last Winter, we made a point to make sure we would review our choices not only at the end of this growing season – but at the  midway point as well.  Why?  Because it gives us so much more information to help choose what varieties to plant in next year’s garden.  It’s important to know how the garden progressed and when – so we know what to expect in the coming years, and what to repeat and what to avoid.  So we have divided this review into four categories – Top Performers, Holding Steady, A Little Disappointing, and the Jury Is Still Out.  So here are our thoughts on the garden so far:

A Cajun Belle already taken from the garden. The peppers are crisp with little seed core- great for stuffing for appetizers

TOP PERFORMERS:

Mini Belle,
Cajun Belle and Tequila Sunrise Peppers,

The Mini Belle and the Tequila Sunrise we grew from seed -so a little bit of extra pride with how they are coming along.  Both varieties are topping out at about 18″ of good growth and of the 18 total plants – all of them already have at least two or three peppers hanging, with a lot of blooms as well.  The Cajun Belle – well it just continues to amaze us.  We have already picked four to five peppers that are crisp and have good heat…and the plants are just super healthy, and loaded with blooms.

Celebrity and Rutgers Tomatoes : Even though the Romas are still the workhorse of the garden (30 plants in the ground) – these two varieties are just booming in the garden.  Both the Celebrity and Rutgers have filled out the Stake-A-Cage’s with about 3 feet of solid growth.  They all have a good start of mid-sized green tomatoes on the vine – and should produce a bounty of nice, firm slicing tomatoes that are baseball size.

Purple Green Beans (Royal Burgundy)

The Purple Green Beans are off to a great start!

We are so happy with this variety – so far the bush beans are showing good growth and a lot of seed pods.  We had really good germination rates with the seed – so we are hoping for a bumper crop.  They are a beautiful shade of deep purple until cooked – so they add some color to the garden as well.  They also hold a little bit of sentimental value – my parents grew them growing up.

Roma’s are growing well with a good start of green tomatoes on the vine already

HOLDING STEADY:

Roma Tomato – A mainstay and workhorse of our tomato crop.  We use the Roma as a main ingredient in canning our sauces, tomato juice, ketchup and salsa.  The plants are doing really well – filling out the cages and filled with blooms and small green tomatoes.  With 30 plants in the ground – it should be another good crop to help us reach our canning goals.

Zucchini producing heavily

Zucchini (Elite)  Continues to be a good performer.  We have already picked a few nice sized fruits – and have a good 5 to 7 on each plant that will be ready soon.

A LITTLE DISAPPOINTING:

The cucumber plants are starting to produce – but we think an early frost stunted them

Straight Eight and Bush Cucumber – Although they are starting to come on strong and the plants are looking healthier every day – our cucumbers have lacked the size and strength of the other plants in the garden.  We did have a very close call on a frost a few days after putting them in the ground -and we both are starting to think they were hit and stunned with it.  Either way – we want to look into some other varieties for a fall crop and for next year.

GREEN BEANS (Blue Lake)

Very low germination rate on our Blue Lake variety – although, quite honestly, we were using left over seeds from last year.  We are going to plant some new seeds for a late summer crop and see if we like any better.

INTRIGUING….BUT THE JURY IS STILL OUT:

The Big Mama

THE BIG MAMA ROMA -

What can you say…the plant is producing…it has 5 to 6 huge tomatoes that are already turning red on the vine – way bigger and faster than any of our regular romas.  If it holds up to its promise of producing 12 to 16 oz. roma’s with little seeds- then it may quickly move into the TOP PERFORMER category for us.  So what’s holding us back from putting it in there?  Well, for one, we haven’t tasted any yet – and quite honestly – the actual plant just  lacks the good looks of a big leafy plant.  (how shallow are we? :) )

Hope you enjoyed the review – we would love to hear about how your garden is faring as well!

Jim and Mary

Barn Landscaping Project Finished On A Dime – Before and After Photos

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Finally – It is finished!

It is finished! Last night the last pile of rock was leveled out for the outdoor kitchen – the last rocks put into place on the hill – the final bags of mulch laid down – and the last few plants transplanted into the landscaping.   The retaining wall and barn landscaping are finally finished!  It has been a long continuous 3 month project – starting way back on the 28th of February when we began to transplant grasses into the hillside. The best part of all, other than a lot of labor – we were able to do it all with mostly reclaimed materials and little cash. Now – it’s all about maintaining and hopefully watch them grow into what we hope will become a beautiful back wall.  The plants are doing well so far – out of the 140 or so transplants – we had 135 survive.  The grasses should get to about 50% of their final size this year – and then next year should be full go. All that’s left now is to build the outdoor kitchen with the reclaimed barn materials and seed a little grass around the edges. What we really want is to sit back for one evening – fire up the grill – and finally…FINALLY enjoy a grilled meal on the patio!  We put some full before and after pictures at the end of the post to show the 3 month transformation.

The Final Totals:

135 transplants of grasses, daylillies and landscape plants that we started, divided or propagated from existing plants   TOTAL COST : $0

24 ton of boulder rock – 25 ton of limestone screenings – another 18 tons of #8 gravel for a topcoat – TOTAL COST: We were able to purchase it all for the cost of selling a few pergolas and selling off some extra barn wood from our reclaimed stash.

1275 bricks for the patio – gained for free from the flooring of the old barn we reclaimed.  TOTAL COST: $0

Patio Edging – this was the killer – TOTAL COST $125 – but such a must to keep the patio square. Really hurts when you have more in the edging you don’t ever see – than in the actual patio!

Drainage Tile – $125 – That includes the rental of the trencher and tile. Again – more labor than anything – but something we had to install so that the wall and barn stay put for a long time!

Mulch – 75 bags – TOTAL COST:  $75.00 – All purchased at .99/bag by buying damaged bags from a mulch distributor.  A little extra effort to get and lay down – but so worth the savings!

About 200 hours of labor – TOTAL COST – countless sore muscles, sore backs, two smashed fingers – a bruised shoulder and poison Ivy for Mary – but otherwise – $0

The massive bottle of Ibuprofen we went through – $13.50  :)

So here are some before and after pics:

The back hill on Feb 28th – putting in the grass transplants

The Hill with all rocks in place as of June 21st

The Front Patio Area – Feb 28th

The Barn Patio Area – June 21st. Still some minor things to attach to the pergola tops.

The back side of the barn – Feb. 28th

Back barn area – June 21st


Here are 1 year old transplants from last years project on the stand alone pergola – we hope our back wall plants can grow the same!

News From The Coop – The Hens are Happy!

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George stops for an early morning pose outside “The Coop”

Of all the things we do on the “farm” – the one that seems to receive the most attention from everyone are our chickens.

The chickens were the first ever true residents of the farm – heading out in the early Spring of 2011 at the tender age of 8 weeks to their newly built home we call “The Coop”.  We built The Coop on the cheap from recycled shipping crates and pallets.  We then added some protective measures like welded fence wire to the bottom to keep out raccoons – and cemented in fence wire to their attached outdoor fence run to keep the raccoons, coyote and other prey from digging under and getting to them.  We had heard so many horror stories from other friends and farmers who keep chickens – so we took a little extra care in securing the coop.  So far - we have been fortunate enough to keep all of ours accounted for.

One of our nine – Sherwin Williams

We have nine chickens (all hens) in all, led by Big Mamma – our 10 pound + hen who is to say the least a little “weight challenged”.  She happily shares “The Coop” with the other 8: Amelia, Comet, Curious George, Co-Pilot, Digger, Foghorn, Goldie and Sherwin Williams (named for her love of pecking at paint).

Amelia quickly found a way to “fly the coop” – climbing up on the flat roof and escaping to total freedom

The Chickens don’t have complete free range anymore thanks to some chicken wire – but they still have a large green space to roam and dust

Goldie finds a worm in the straw

The Girls in their laying boxes – the nine hens provide an average of 8 eggs a day for us

They produce on average about 8 to 9 eggs every single day.  We certainly don’t raise them as a revenue source – however the 5 to 6 dozen we get each week is more than enough to keep us in fresh farm eggs.  So we sell the extra’s for $2/dozen to an ever growing list of farm fresh egg lovers.  It’s been a win-win for us – as it covers all of our feed and straw costs – and there is usually enough money left over for a pizza or two.  It’s amazing how quick a simple posting on Facebook can clear out our holding fridge of extra eggs.

When we first started out at the farm – we gave the chickens the run of the place during the day.  However, as landscaping and the garden grew -so did their ability to destroy the mulch and beds.  So earlier this year, we opted to enclose a 250 foot area with temporary chicken wire fencing  that lets them roam during the day, and keeps our garden and landscape plants safe from their curiosity.  We move the fencing every 3 or 4 weeks to give them a new area to explore.  As the garden comes to a close later this summer – we will move the temporary fencing around it and let them go to town.  They do wonders with the garden area- consuming hundreds if not thousands of bugs, weeds and weed seeds – all the while leaving “natural” fertilizer behind to help improve the soil for next year.

We will be performing a little remodeling on “The Coop” in the coming months – all in the name of creating a match to the barn.  We will be adding a 30″ high corrugated knee wall to the coop, and a miniature version of one of our pergolas to their “back porch” area that will give them some extra shade -all done of course to match the barn :)

Chickens really are so very simple to keep and care for.  They require very little effort – and if you give them a safe home, water, feed and a little space to roam – they provide countless benefits to your home and garden.  Not even counting the incredible eggs they produce, they keep insect and bug populations at bay, and provide a great source of natural fertilizer for our garden and compost pile.

We plan on adding another 6 to 9 chicks to the flock next Spring – and hope in the coming years to keep our flock at right around 15 hens.  After raising them and having fresh eggs – I don’t think we can ever really imagine a time in our future that we won’t have chickens.

-Mary and Jim

Raindrops Aren’t Falling On My Head….

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The barn water tote filled to almost 175 gallons on the first day of installation – since then – zero rain!

It’s a sad day today.  A day of cheating.   We were really hoping to never again haul in water to handle the watering needs of the farm.  With installation of the barns rain collection system in late May – all we needed was a little rain from above.  However – since installing the 550 gallon twin totes on the 29th of May, Mother Nature has left us out to dry.  Oh, she gave us a great send off – showering us with a big rain the very day we completed it.  It started our system off with almost 175 gallons of water.  But ever since – zilch!  In fact – even when a few little pop up showers have blown through our area – it seems like someone has installed a bubble on the farm property to send the rain around.  As Mary watered on Friday – the water level on our tank dipped below 30 gallons, with little rain in site.  And with the grapevines going in the ground tonight – we will double our water needs from what we have been using each week.

We could really kick ourselves for not having the rain system up earlier in the Spring - when it seemed like we could never have two days in a row without rain.  When both tanks are full, the 550 gallons they hold can easily give us almost two months of watering without a single drop from above.  But the reality is we didn’t get them in – and the tanks are almost dry.

We really hoped to never repeat this scene..but with no rain – we have no choice but to load them back up and go fill the water totes.

So that brings us to today.  We are heading out soon to haul home both of the 275 gallon water totes on the back of the flatbed truck.  Sadly, instead of the barn roof and gutters filling them up – it will be the garden hose from our house.

The irony of it all as I write this morning – out of the blue, there is a small line of showers developing across the state that could bring us rain…but I somehow have the feeling if we count on it –  it won’t rain – and if we haul them home and fill them – it will!! :)  Either way, and with more days of no rain and increasing heat – we can’t take a chance on running out of water.  Off to the farm we go…

HOLY GRAPES BATMAN….NOT NOW!!!

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There it was….the box

“NO….NOT NOW!”   Those were the words uttered when we saw the little box sitting on the front porch after a visit from UPS.   It was our grapevine order from January! One of our goals on our “LIST” this year was to plant the little vineyard on the hill.  We had ordered our grapes way back in January and were all set to receive them in early march – and that’s when it all went a little crazy.

The warm spring all over the midwest  led to a call in mid-March from the nursery we had purchased our vines from.  All of their bare root stock – because of the warm temperatures, had begun to show signs of budding.  And with the chance of a late frost still hanging in the air – they advised us they would not be shipping our Marquette grape vines until they were completely leafed out – and we could plant them as potted vines.

The Marquette Grapevine

So, we waited….May came and went – and as June started, we began to think that we just wouldn’t be able to put them in this year.  Starting new grape vines is all about timing – (cooler weather is best) and good water.  Of course – the weather here lately has been anything but that -little rain, with temperatures steadily climbing into the mid to high 80′s – not a good combination at all.

The vines spread out on our back porch table – they look good and healthy – let’s just hope they can make it!

But there they were – all neatly stacked in the little box – wrapped up in paper.   Our future bottles of jam and wine staring up at us needing to be planted – right smack dab in the middle of a dry and hot growing season with a million other things to do!   So we carefully unboxed them, gave them a drink of water, sat them on our porch to begin to acclimate to our weather – and out we went to the farm to finish creating the rows we had started to prepare in early March.

The hillside where the grapes will go in. We had done a little prep work in the early spring – but now we will have to sink the trellis posts – dig the holes and get them in!

For this year – we will have to sink 4 x 4  end posts to each row – and then string up a galvanized wire about 12″ of the ground to get them trained.  That will be good enough for now – and then we can add the final lines to the trellis season this fall when we are less busy.

We figure we will let them get used to the sun for a few days slowly on the porch – and then plant them late in the day on Sunday evening for a cooler start.  Unfortunately – it’s going to be a long summer of trying to get them established.  We will have to water daily for the first 3 to 4 weeks no matter what.   Hopefully, Mother Nature will help out with some good rains and hold back on the scorching sun.  If the sun gets too hot – we will have to come up with some type of a shade system for at least the first few weeks.

But hey – no problemo!!!!  This is what it’s all about – it’s what makes growing such a challenge and far better to have work to do than nothing at all!  :)

Jim and Mary

3 Simple Tips To Growing A Bigger Garden Once You’ve Planted

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Little cucumbers getting a good start on top of the straw mulch

So once that garden is all planted – there are some simple things you can do to really help maximize the growth and yields of your vegetable plants.

  So here are our 3 tips to growing a better garden once you’ve planted:

One of the reasons container gardening works so well – is the soil never gets trampled or compressed by heavy feet walking around them – the same can go for your garden

1.  STAY OFF YOUR PLANTS

Whether you have raised beds, raised rows, regular rows, or just a few simple garden plants tucked in to your flowerbed or small space – don’t walk near them.    When you compact the area around a plant with big soil clogging foot prints and heavy foot traffic  - it really does make it harder for the plant to grow bigger roots.  Less roots = less ways for the plant to soak up the valuable water and nutrients from the soil that benefit the plant.  If you leave the area around a plant undisturbed and uncompacted – it makes for much healthier plants.  It’s one reason raised beds and container gardens can be so effective – but even if you don’t have them – you can make a huge difference just by staying off the ground around your plants.

Mulching your garden plants is a great way to regulate soil temperature – suppress weeds, and hold in moisture for the plants.

2.  MULCH YOUR PLANTS

It doesn’t matter if it’s a pepper, cucumber, or tomato plant.  Applying a healthy amount of mulch around the base of the plant really helps.  It helps the plant retain valuable moisture.  It helps the soil temperature around the plant stay more regulated, and helps keep out weeds that compete for nutrients.  It also helps hold in the water to the plants when it rains.  What to use as a mulch?  Old grass clippings, finished compost or straw work great.

Just spraying your garden with a big garden hose can be a no-no for gardening success.

3. WATER SMART

This may be the best advice of all.  Just remember 3 things when it comes to watering that make it simple.  WHEN, HOW and HOW MUCH.

WHEN:

Watering in the early morning is best.  Before the sun has a chance to really get hot.  Water at the base of the plants and let it soak in.  If you water in the afternoon – you not only run the risk of burning the leaves from the sun scorching the water that may hit the plant – but you lose a lot more to evaporation than watering in the early morning.  Besides your beer or favorite beverage gets so much warmer in the hot sun :)

HOW:

Water slowly and at the base of each plant.  Let it soak in and come back a few times and apply smaller amounts that soak right in where it’s needed most at the root level of the plant  Spraying the whole garden with a big hose and spray nozzle can lead to a lot of problems besides just scorching plants –  like damaging plants, or destroying the blooms that create the vegetables by too hard of a spray, or helping fungus and rot develop on wet moist leaves.

HOW MUCH

Too little water and they shrivel up.  Too much water and they won’t develop the good and deep root structure needed for big plants.  A good rule of thumb is that a garden plant typically needs to receive about 1 inch of water a week.  If mother nature isn’t supplying that  - then you need to supplement.  What most don’t say is that the 1″ of water shouldn’t come all at once.  If you are experiencing a prolonged dry spell – water every two to three days with about a 1/2″ of water to the plant at a time.  This allows enough water to go deeper into the soil and build deeper roots – but gives the plants more consistent watering.  Why not every day you might ask?  If you water every day – the plants will never send their roots deeper looking for water – and you end up with much less hardy and developed plants.  Call it tough love watering  to develop stronger plants – but it works.

Happy Gardening!!!  - Mary and Jim

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Pepper from our garden – plants thrive with compost

A Great Way to Stake Your Tomatoes

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Our Stake-A-Cage method - we even make smaller ones to hold up our peppers.

Our Stake-A-Cage method – we even make smaller ones to hold up our peppers.

You can see the tomatoes by mid summer have filled the cages to the max!

You can see the tomatoes by mid summer have filled the cages to the max!

Over the years we have tried several methods of staking and tying up our tomatoes.  As the tomatoes start growing by leaps and bounds, you don’t want to risk the plants becoming damaged by leaning over and touching the ground, allowing disease and infestation to occur.  So do we use a stake or a cage?

Well, we now use what we call our stake-a-cage method to support the tomatoes as they grow.  No, we didn’t find this on an infomercial, rather, we developed this method by pure accident.  Last year at this time, we had just moved the chickens into their permanent home after completing construction of “The Coop”.

Inexpensive, thick, super soft and flexible yarn is a great way to tie them up.

We had left over fencing wire from building the outdoor run, as well as large stakes that we had used to stake out the area where it now sits. With some wire cutters, u-nails, and a hammer – we built the ‘best of both worlds’ for our tomatoes.

We simply attached an 18″ wide x 30″ high wire grid cut from the fencing to the 4′ stake with the U-nails.  We now had the support of a strong stake, but also the support that a sturdy wire cage provides. Whala – The Stake-A-Cage was born!

With the open cage and yarn – it’s easy to tie them up and get at the tomatoes when its time to pick

The best part – the cage is open in the front, allowing us to easily tie up the plants to a broader area, it also allows for picking the tomatoes without dealing with the hassle of reaching through a cage during harvest time.

The staking system makes it easy to pick and tie up tomatoes

We then use a super soft and bulky piece of yarn to tie the tomato vines to the Stake-A-Cage. We simply cut 12-18 inches of the yarn, tie it around the stalks and wrap the piece around any of the metal grid area as it grows throughout the season.  The yarn is really an inexpensive way to tie up your tomatoes (we spent less than $3 for 86 yards of material), but there are other benefits as well.  Your family members aren’t missing their favorite old t-shirts anymore and the pantyhose that your wife needs for that fall wedding will still be in her dresser drawer! You can even buy your yarn in a green color so that your garden ties are camouflaged in the background, allowing for a neat and clean appearance to the garden!

For as simple as it was – it is amazing how much it has helped in our tomato harvests!

Jim and Mary

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AND THE WINNER IS…….

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All the way from Oregon.  Beth Huntington from Chic Envelopements – Our Farm Crate Basket Winner

We were overwhelmed with the response to our first ever contest – The Old World Garden Farm Crate Basket Give Away.   We had a total of 690 entries between those following us via email, twitter or Facebook likes!

The lucky winner chosen from the hopper comes all the way from the great state of Oregon – it’s Beth Huntington, who follows us from her blog, Chickenvelopements (http://chicenvelopements.wordpress.com/).  Congratulation Beth!

We really want to send a special thanks to all who entered. We had so much fun finding out about all of the great blogs out there and the people who write them!   We hope to do another contest in the future – so stay tuned for details.  Thanks again for making the contest such a success!

Progress on the reclaimed brick patio continues – we’re on the homestretch now!

It’s been a busy week on the farm – we were able to lay the rest of the reclaimed brick for the barn pergola patio – and now are on the home stretch of installing the brick edging to lock it all in.  After that – the sand will go down and we can start to finalize the rest of the landscaping.

A view of the patio from inside the barn.

Now that the garden is in full swing – and mother nature continues to make us water ourselves – our project progress has slowed a little due to the work in the garden.  Nevertheless – we hope to keep plugging away at building our dream – one project at a time.  Have a great Sunday!

Jim and Mary

The Garden Pergola – overlooking the garden – The transplants are finally starting to take hold and grow!


Wave Petunia pot planted on to a stone outcropping on the back retaining wall