Quieting Life

At Long Last, Chickens

We finished building the coop and the run this weekend, and yesterday we went and picked up some chicks from Wing and a Prayer Farm. The chicks are about 5 weeks old, a mix of Faverolles, Columbian Wyandottes, Araucanas, and some other stuff (maybe Tammy will post a comment and fill in the holes). I'm not sure which, or if any, are purebreds; we were so caught up in the delight of selecting our 12 hens, and agreeing to be chosen by one of the roosters. That's him on the left in the picture.

Making Good Dirt

In order to get and maintain organic certification, an organic farmer must adhere to a strict set of guidelines, which include a prohibition of synthetic chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Growing healthy plants organically requires building fertile soil through careful management – encouraging a healthy ecosystem of molds, fungus, bacteria, and insects that do the work of converting their surroundings into plant food. The best way to do this is to add natural (organic) material that breaks down into usable nutrients as it decomposes.

As a self-anointed organic home gardener, I have only myself to answer to – no one is testing my soil for chemical residue, no one would know if I were dosing my plants with Miracle-Gro (or spraying poison on the circus sideshow of bugs). I adhere to organic methodology as a matter of sustainability and self-sufficiency, and out of concern for my local environment and my own, and my loved ones', health.

Winding it Down

Wasn't I just out showering under the stars? Still waiting for tomatoes to ripen? Now I'm on the back end of the gardening season, undoing a summer's worth of doing. 'Winding down' is really too gentle a way to describe it. If the beginning is a slow unspooling over the course of a few months – planting a little of this, trotting a favorite shovel out of the shed, adding another jug of something to the potting bench...staking this, pruning that – the putting to bed is more like a high-speed death spiral, a mad scramble to get everything put away, cleaned up, and battened down before the whole machine slams into winter.

It would be nice if I had pictures and prose to show for the last two months, but the reality of maintaining the garden and preserving its generous output while putting together a pair of training manuals for a bunch of new cars (my 'real' job) leaves little time or headspace for reportage. I've got a fine haul to show for my efforts, though.

Summer Showers

Showering in the open air is one of life's most delicious pleasures. We've had an outdoor shower in the 10-Year Plan pretty much since its inception – 11 years ago. And this summer, we finally made it a reality.

Garden Report: July 30

Every gardener I talk to says the same thing, even the professional growers. Sure, endless watering because it refused to rain (the drought finally broke last week)...but holy crap the bugs. I've been gardening for 25 years, and I've never felt so under assault. That fella there in the picture is a red-legged grasshopper, measuring over 2 inches long. There are dozens like him out in the yard, each capable of devouring many times his body weight in tasty plant material every day. Add to that his lesser cousins, numbering in the thousands. Factor in the flea, tortoise, and cucumber beetles, the cabbage loopers and moth worms, centi- and millipedes, slugs and snails, all in quantities enough to make me queasy; it's a wonder there's a single leaf left. But.

I am vigilant. I prevail. And my garden thrives, flourishes – and feeds us.