Quote of the Day: Robert Frost
“Something we were withholding made us weak,
until we found it was ourselves.”
Too often it’s not the things beyond our control that hold us back but our fears and inhibitions; we can be our own worst enemies. Since I’m an introvert, this is definitely something I struggle with. I’m slowly learning to not hold myself back and to step out of my comfort zone. It can be tough, but I have found that it’s always rewarding!
Do you ever feel like you hold yourself back?
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The Tour: The Gardens
One of the reasons we chose this property was because of the potential that it had as far as gardening was concerned. The gardens are off to a good start, I’ll definitely be expanding them every year.
We’ll start off with the foundation gardens around the house. I know there are poppies, goat’s beard, asters and a few other things growing here. The previous owner took some of the plants, which is fine with me. It will certainly be interesting to see what pops up next year.
In the front lawn, there are two ancient apple trees surrounded by a fairly lush lawn. No doubt all the chicken poo helps, since the chickens are very fond of scratching around under these trees.
There’s a small potager behind the house, it’s probably a 15 ft square. I’ll be expanding it a bit, building rock walls along the bottom edge to retain the soil, and giving it a formal feel with a four square plan.
There’s also a raised bed nested into the hillside in the back of the house. It’s above the small potager.
Up behind the garage, there’s a large main edible garden. It’s currently planted in cover crops and a few overwintering vegetables. I have big plans for this area next spring, hopefully I’ll be able to put those chickens to work tilling it up and getting rid of some of the grassy weeds.
There’s also an old fashioned out house, complete with bucket of ash sitting over a small hill across the driveway. I suppose this could come in handy should we have big garden parties some day.
There’s also a wood fired sauna sitting down below the house. We haven’t had time to fire it up yet, hopefully we will use it often this winter. It’s a sweet little building to be sure.
There are vast grassy areas around the house, they’ll be frost seeded with clovers and beneficial pasture plants in hopes that it will be well established for some hoofed friends someday. There’s also a large hillside in front of the house that’s completely cleared, we may terrace it and turn it into a permaculture garden. There’s no shortage of possibilities here at the new place, our only limitations will be time and money! It’s a good things we’re patient people.
What’s your favorite foundation garden plant?
Other Stops on the Tour:
The Driveway
The Tour: Chicken Coop
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Book Review: The Small Scale Poultry Flock
If you don’t listen to the podcast, you didn’t hear my review of The Small-Scale Poultry Flock: An All-Natural Approach to Raising Chickens and Other Fowl for Home and Market Growers. Since I love this book so much, I wanted to make sure to sing it’s praises here in case you didn’t hear my glowing reviews on Cultivate Simple.
Just about every chicken related book in print has come across my coffee table, many of them were good, this is the best overall. Most other chicken books I’ve read are what I would call “fluffy” full of useful information, but to a lot of meat. With this book it’s chocked full of just about everything you want to know. There’s definitely a lot more substance to this book making it well worth it’s cost.
How good is this book? Good enough for me to buy for my library. No other chicken book has received a place on my bookshelf. If you’re at all interested in raising chickens, ducks, or geese I cannot recommend this book enough. It covers everything too, from rearing chicks the all natural way and mixing your own chicken feed, to how to use chickens to till your garden and how to butcher them when the time comes. This book has it all!
The funny thing about this book – I purchased a copy right after we moved and accidentally forgot to change my address at Amazon. Since I was so keen on getting the book and didn’t want to wait the month until I headed back to Ohio, I purchased a second copy. The Ohio copy was given away as a prize on the podcast. We had the listeners comment and use the word chicken or one of it’s derivatives in the comment and we chose the most creative one. If you didn’t listen or read the comment head on over to this post to read them, some folks were very creative!
Do you have any great reference books to recommend that are worthy of a place on the library shelf?
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Happy Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving from all of us here at Chiot’s Run. We’re thankful for you, our readers, and the community you provide. Hopefully you’re enjoying a wonderful day with family, friends, and good food.
Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Chiot’s Run.
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A Sweet Gift
On Sunday afternoon, a friend and her husband came over and we spent the afternoon enjoying great food and then soaked up some sun while hiking through the woods behind our house. She’s a blog reader and was the one who helped us find this place here in Maine. She’s also a gardener and brought along a few lovely sweet onions as a housewarming gift. Along with a beautiful pottery bowl she made!
Back in February and May, we stayed with her while looking at this property and a few others. While there, she was telling me about the Ailsa Craig onion she had ordered to grow. True to the description, they grew HUGE. She did provide them with the water they relish by surrounding them with soaker hoses which no doubt helped.
Two nights ago, I cut one of these beauties up for my cranberry chutney. The other two will travel back to Ohio for our family Thanksgiving meal. I’m thinking one will find it’s way into the sourdough stuffing and the other into a sweet onion gravy.
I especially fond of the fact that this onion is an heirloom and that you can find seed for it (I’m going to order them from High Mowing Seeds). When it comes to onions I much prefer to start with seed rather than with plants or sets.
Are there any new things you’ve already discovered for next year’s garden?
