Quote of the Day: Fences
Put a fence or wall around a garden and there’s now an inside and an outside. You’ve set off private from public and defined the garden’s limits. There’s a sense of belonging and of ownership, of stewardship over the land that the walls encompass. You’ve also defined the scope of your work and delineated the size of your canvas.
Linda Joan Smith (Smith & Hawken Garden Structures)
I love fences, of all shapes and sizes. There’s just something wonderful about a fence enclosing a garden, this quote is very true, it define’s the garden’s limits. I love how fences hide part of the garden, they almost beckon you to peek over. You know you’ll find blooms and lovely things hiding on the other side.
We have a fence along part of one of our property lines. The previous owners installed it and did it very poorly. We’ve taken down part of the fence because it was leaning heavily to one side and we plan on removing the rest of it. It’s a plain wooden picket fence, which is actually quite nice in the garden.
Whenever we’re out driving around I find myself drawn to gardens with fences. Here are a few images of fences I’ve collected during my travels including:
Eliot Coleman’s Four Season Farm in Harborside, Maine. It’s simple and utilitarian, yet beautiful in it’s own way, mostly because the setting behind it is so extraordinary.
I’m particularly drawn to stone fences/walls for some reason, probably because of the amount of this we have around Chiot’s Run. Whenever I think of stone garden enclosures I automatically thing of the Nearing’s Forrest Farm.
White fences are very classic and always lovely no matter what they surround. I really liked the ones at Ash Lawn Highland that surrounded the pastures and the kitchen garden.
I couldn’t forget to mention the huge fence installed by Thomas Jefferson around the vegetables garden at Monticello. This is the kind I really need around Chiot’s Run to protect us from all those deer.
Fences come in all shapes and sizes and can be made of just about anything, from old drift wood or saplings to neatly clipped shrubs. I really want to install a fence around my garden here at Chiot’s Run, I just need to settle on the materials and the design. I guess since I pretty much love all fences I probably will love whatever I end up putting in.
Do you have a fence around your garden? What’s your favorite type of fence?
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Busy Busy Bees
We’ve been busy as bees recently, not making honey, making maple syrup. The sugaring season has been GREAT this year, which is really nice, but it’s keeping us far too busy. We’ve been up late every night gathering sap and we’re up early the next morning to spend our day boiling it down. At least I can check on it while I’m working since I work from home. The lack of sleep is starting to catch up with me, but the late nights and early mornings are well worth the sweet reward. So far we’ve collected 137 gallons of sap and have over 3 gallons of finished syrup.
We’ve been enjoying sourdough pancakes every morning for breakfast with freshly made syrup, you sure can’t beat that! That being said, I’m tired. I need a little of this.
It doesn’t look like that will come until late next week, the weather forecast looks like sugaring will be in our future all next week and maybe into the next.
What keeps you busy this time of year?
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A Big Announcement
For the past couple months I’ve been chatting with the folks over at Ethel Gloves about writing for their blog and I’m excited to finally announce it’s LIVE!
If you’ve been reading here for a while you know how much I love Ethel gloves, I’ve proclaimed my love here, here, and here. Naturally I was excited about the opportunity to blog for them. One of the main reasons I take the time to blog daily, is to encourage people to get out and garden and experience the joy that comes from connecting with nature. Gardening isn’t just bout cultivating food or flowers, it’s more about cultivating your spirit along with a deep sense of appreciation for soil, plants, and the earth.
I’ll be writing exclusive content covering a variety of topics and making videos as well for the Your Day blog at Ethel, so you’ll have to head over there to read it. Check out the introductory post and leave a comment about what topics you would like to read about or see videos covering (it can be anything from gardening to organizing you closet). After commenting make sure you check out all the lovely gloves and use the code CHIOTS at checkout to get 25% off your entire purchase (might be a good time get a few birthday gifts). I always appreciate your many wonderful, thoughtful comments here on my blog and would love to see you over there as well. Don’t worry, you’ll still find me blogging here daily.
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Winter Sowing
Winter Sowing [win-ter soh-ing]– sewing(oops – it was late) sowing seeds in the middle of the winter and allowing them to come up when it’s the right time
I don’t technically follow the rules of winter sowing. I simply plant things late in the fall in my cold frame, usually spinach and lettuce. When the cold frame first starts to warm in the spring, the seeds germinate – it’s very simple and easy. This is really nice because I don’t have to worry about sowing flats of seeds top outside or in my basement seed starting area. I usually have great germination and the spinach and lettuce usually thrives. I noticed these spinach seedlings last week when the weather warmed up.
Have you ever sown things outdoors in winter?
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Looking Back on No Buy February
February is gone. I flipped my calendar to March yesterday morning and I was happy to see a photo of Siberian Squill looking back at me. By the end of the month they should be blooming in my garden. It’s time to think back on our No Buy February Challenge and take stock of how we did, and think about what we want to implement the rest of the year.
I did fairly well in the challenge. I bought box of grapefruit from a small organic farm in TX. I had forgotten to buy them in January, and I knew if I didn’t buy them in February I wouldn’t get any grapefruit. Some organic mushrooms at the health food store and the farmer’s market also made it into my shopping bsket. Since they’re healthy and help boost your immune system, I didn’t forgo buying them in February. I didn’t want to end up sick just because I didn’t want to spend a few dollars on mushrooms. How could I resist these beautiful mushrooms anyways?
We worked on eating up food from the freezer, like the last of the chili I made a few months ago and the last of the turkey and dumplings from Thanksgiving. Potatoes were a staple this month as I still have pounds and pounds of them in the basement pantry and they’re starting to sprout.. Our favorite meal of the month was venison steak smothered in a mushroom wine sauce over rice (that’s where those mushrooms went). I made this several times as we have a ton of venison steaks since Mr Chiots was able to get three deer this year. One area I really focused on this month was making simpler meals. Since I only used items I had in my pantry, I made a lot of soups and stews full of a variety of vegetables. This is definitely something I can try to focus more on throughout the year.
In the not buying food category I did pretty well. I did however end up buying a few things I didn’t need in other areas. I purchased a cookbook, mostly to get our total order up to get free shipping. I was going to buy the cookbook anyways, so it wasn’t an impulse purchase. I didn’t keep track penny for penny of things I didn’t purchase, but I’m guessing I saved around $100.
That amount will cover half a year of schooling for a child in Colombia. I’ll be donating the money to the Colombian Christian Mission scholarship program, which just happens to be what I do for my day job. The photo above is me at the school in Colombia talking to some of the students when I visited a few years ago (and yes I speak Spanish since I grew up in Colombia). Part of my day job is connecting students with sponsors and doing fundraising for the school. I’ll be thinking a little more throughout the year on how I can save money each month by eating simpler meals.
How did No Buy February go for you? Will you be implementing any changes for the rest of the year?
And I just remembered I forgot to choose a winner for the Chiot’s Run Calendar contest. The winner is:
