How Does Your Garden Grow?

My garden? This year?  Not very well, I'm afraid.  I got a really late start for a couple of reasons... one was that our garden gate is one that has very large gaps in it.  Not large enough for sheep to bust through, but plenty big enough for the ducks and chickens.  So after waiting and waiting for said gate to be replaced, I got impatient and tacked a bunch of netting over the gaps.  A little unsightly, but effective.  

So my lettuces didn't get planted... or rather, they did, but the ducks ate it before I had the netting up and I didn't bother to replant.

Thank goodness for garlic that was in last fall:

and New Zealand spinach (not really a spinach) that reseeds itself:
(notice the peas in the background -- that was all the kids' doing, not mine)

So this year, I think I've resigned myself to things that don't need a lot of work, like pumpkins of various types and sizes...

... and raspberries & blackberries that are threatening to overtake a very large part of both the garden and the chicken yard...

Low maintenance, people, that's what I'm going for this year.  I don't have time for succession planting or lettuces that are going to bolt at the first hint of heat.  It's going to be a hot one, so definitely don't need THAT.  I'll concentrate on garlic, pumpkins, and berries me thinks.  Lots of jam and pumpkins to get us through the winter.  Sounds good to me!

And that was Summer

Really.  September already.  I feel like this, the Summer of 2013, has gone by in a blur.   Gorgeous weather for sure, and lots to do... So Much to Do.  Too Much.

My poor garden is so overgrown and crazy-wild, I'm slightly embarrassed by it.  I've totally neglected it for most -- if not all -- summer.  Other than watering it on occassion.  If it weren't for all the volunteer plants this year, I'm not sure I'd have much in there to speak of.  Half the potato plants and ALL the tomatoes grew all by themselves, with no help from me.  The chard and New Zealand spinach are out of control.  My lettuces are bolting all over the place.  Thankfully, some things like the carrots and beets don't really care if I pay any attention to them.  They are almost happier if I don't.  I did manage to harvest the garlic at the end of July, but it's still sitting, drying, with old dirt caking the huge bulbs waiting for a good scrubbing and to be put in the basement.

Thankfully the fruit trees don't need much attention.

Really, the only saving grace of it all is that nothing is really going to go to waste.  Sure, I'm not going to be harvesting or preserving as much for us as I would like, but the pigs and chickens will get several good feasts from everything I pull out of there.

So why did everything get so crazy??  I have 2 answers for that: pigs and unexpected chickens.  The pigs we have managed to feed almost for free if you don't count the time and money spent on gas gathering everything for them: greens and other produce from a local grocery store (a lot of it organic), expired bread and milk from a bakery and another grocery store.  Then we cook almost all their food, other than soft fruits and melon-y things.  Three HUGE meals a day.   They are getting big, but not fat, so I think it's a good thing.  The proof, I guess, will be in the... um... "pudding" ... so to speak.

And the chickens?  Yikes.  I was so proud of myself, having planned the 2 hatches of buff orpingtons, marans, and ameraucanas so precisely so as to have the hens laying by September at the latest.  And then came the gift of Salmon Faverolles and Mille Fleur D'uccles.  Two breeds I personally DID NOT plan on having this year -- or any time in the near future for that matter.  But, they were a gift for my bird-loving daughter from a very generous lady.  They hatched in mid-July and won't lay anything till at least January.  I did sell a couple Mille Fleurs and 6 Faverolles, but still.  I'm STILL raising chicks.  And one of the little "millies" has a severe cross-beak, so requires extra attention.  I can pass a lot of that extra care on to the Daughter, since they were given to her.  And the Fav's -- we ended up with 3 pullets and 1cockerel so that's nice, if we choose to breed them.  At this point, I would just like to concentrate on the marans and ameraucanas.  

Sigh.  Lots to do still.

I'm taking notes already for next year, mostly of what NOT to do.  Like no hatching birds after May, for starters.

Putting By

I love that phrase: "Putting by."  I love doing it.  I try to time it for a cooler morning, as standing over a hot stove in the middle of a heat wave makes me grumpy.  (I'd rather be at the beach, knitting, and watching children splash in the waves.)  We had a day like that this week.  So now we have some more jam (apricot and blueberry) put by for the cooler weather to come.   My jam is pretty basic.  I sometimes like to jazz it up, but with kids it's best not to risk it sometimes.  (They can be Picky!)  I think the jam is more versatile if it's more basic anyway.  Really taste the flavor of the fruit and nothing else.  Really, nothing else, as I don't add sugar -- I use the Bernardin pectin that just uses apple juice and NO SUGAR.

Can't wait for the blackberries to really start going crazy!  Nothing better than home-made jam in the middle of a snow storm.

Yummmm...

Chicken Garden 2013

The one and only, "Beep"

Lettuce in the chicken garden

Mixed spicy Asian greens in the Chicken Garden

New black silkies!

I like to spoil my chickens.  They deserve it.  They give us a bounty of beautiful, healthful eggs almost all year-round, they clean up the insects and kitchen scraps, add nitrogen to the compost pile and are a joy to watch.  And so, Chicken Garden 2013 begins.  I've netted the same area that I used for the chicken garden last year.  This year, I'm taking more precautions as I actually want to grow some stuff in there for the people too, like corn and pumpkins (lots of pumpkins!) and different squashes.  The chickens can have a variety of different lettuces, peas, beans and sunflowers.  Plus the millet and oats that we planted in there last year has re-seeded itself so there's that too.  I've roped off part of their main pen as well and planted more corn, millet, oats and sunflowers in there.  Hopefully I can keep the sneaky devils out of there until it comes up enough that they won't devastate it in a matter of minutes.

There's quite a few of our feathered friends down there now -- the main flock of 13 (including Bowie the Rooster and our one last "Old Lady" Sex-sal-Link hen who hasn't laid in YEARS)-- Daughter's 5 Buff Orphingtons, the 9 mixed Orphingtons, and the new trio of black silkies.  Of these, we'll be keeping almost all the hens, and Daughter can choose one Buff Rooster to be her breeder-man for next spring.  Of my Birthday Presents of marans and wheaton ameraucanas, we'll keep one blue marans rooster ("Elvis") and the wheaton ameraucana roo ("Sting").  Of the rest of the boys, I may try to sell a couple, as marans are not always easy to come by, or, failing that, apparently they dress out nicely for the table as well.  It looks like, of the 6 ameraucana eggs I purchased, only 2 hatched, but I may have gotten my ultimate wish -- 1 hen and 1 rooster.  I've learned my lesson about counting my hens before they lay, so  the one I believe to be an ameraucana hen we've dubbed "Happy" -- because that's what I'll be if it does turn out to be a hen :)

Happy and Sting

Hello March!

Well... Can I say it?  Spring has Sprung!

And with it, my dear sweet ewe's ever-widening bellies!

It's only the very beginning of March, but it truly felt like the end of April today.  We were outside all afternoon, digging in the garden, frolicking with chickens, and checking out the state of the very pregnant sheep.

Here's Sunny, who's not as far along as Dulcie...

And for those who haven't seen a pregnant sheep close up, and for my own records as I am totally new to this realm of sheep-keeping, here is Dulcie:

Dulcie from the front...

... and from the back.

 I am hoping that this time next year, I can look back on theses photos, and go, 'Oh, right, so they have x more days/weeks to go when they look like this."  Dulcie's and Moo's (they are sisters) udders are getting quite full and they have a waddle happening as they stroll across the yard.  They are moving none too fast these days.  We're all having a guess as who's carrying what.

For the record, we think that Dulcie and Moo, both quite wide, will birth first and have twins.  They themselves are from triplets.  Sunny and Stella will be a little later, a couple of weeks maybe, and birth singles.  This is what we're thinking anyway.

A Buff Update:
It was SO warm out today, 13C this afternoon, and plenty warmer in the (new!) greenhouse where these little ones were having a party!

Oh, the things to discover when you're new to the world outside!

And, in the garden, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that I hadn't killed the rhubarb, and it's coming up!

And the garlic too!! Wow, must be spring!

Tomato Cages are Stupid

Seriously Stupid.  Tomato Cages are.  And the result of such stupidness is such an embarrassment I am not even going to post a photo.    Really now. These heritage variety tomatoes we planted this year were So Huge, the shear weight and size of them toppled the "cages" over weeks ago.  And here I am, attempting to harvest the last of summer goodness, by untangling the web of tomato vines from each other, sadly observing the sorry sight of the mound of forgotten tomatoes, lost and rotting, on the ground beneath said cages.

So, next year, I'm doing THIS.  Seriously, Sophia at the www.joyoffarming.blogspot.ca has it Going On.

Enough of the other nonsense.  Tomato Cages.  I fart in your general direction.

Oh, and by the way?  My List?  Not bad.  Passports applications are complete, awaiting pick up of photos. Garlic was totally planted, then we decided to pick up some Yugoslavian bulbs today to add to the German and Russian already in the ground.  The plum tree has been thoroughly raided and plums are frozen and/or dried.  "Beep" is being transitioned; in that she is starting to spend her nights in a slightly cooler room of the house, but is not yet outside.  Elderberry Syrup?  Check.  Roosters?  We are currently finishing them on organic boiled potatoes (I dunno, I read that somewhere), garden gleanings and black sunflower seeds (recommended by a friend).

Tomatoes?  Well... See Above.

The List

As I watch the summer fade and realize we are now firmly entrenched in fall, I feel compelled to make a list of things I need to get done.  And sooner rather than later.

I've read somewhere that if you tell someone your plan, there's a much better chance that you will accomplish what you set out to do, because you are now accountable. 

So, This Week's Plan is:
- get a ram for my ewes
-  tag all turkeys that will be used for breeding
- harvest the rest of the tomatoes
- process the ripe tomatoes
- pick the rest of the plum tree and process those
- introduce "Beep" to the great outdoors - permanently!
- plant garlic
- either build a chicken tractor or devise a way to keep chickens in the garden without the "tractor", like with netting
- complete passport renewals
- make another batch of elderberry syrup
- set a date for round 1 of rooster processing

The first 2 things I did this weekend, so I say they count.  Plus, it feels good to cross stuff off a list, yes?

Hmmm.  I think I need to stay home this week.  Seems I have a lot to do...

If You Listen, You Can Hear

Can you see it?  Happy lettuce and whimpering basil.

Someone has been whispering to the plants in the garden the past few nights.  I heard rumors that he might be visiting, but I was hoping it was just that -- rumors.  But just in case the rumors were true, I tucked in some of the plants with a blanket of thick plastic in hopes that they could just sleep the night away, undisturbed.

Alas.

Some plants can handle the unkind words and are unaffected.  But, the more delicate ones have stories to tell.

As I was peeking at the sleeping garden babes yesterday, I heard something.  Or a few things.  It's like being in a school yard after something has happened and you're pretty sure what, but you want to hear the real story.

The tomato plants around the edges of the plastic blanket were shrinking back, shuddering, eyes closed, not speaking, hoping that he had gone away.

The basil took the worst of it; the tallest plants are black and blue -- they took the hit for the smaller ones, underneath.  The small ones, polite but trembling, "Excuse me.  Hello.  We are still here-- is he gone yet?"

All I heard from the squash vines was a small sigh. It's like they took one look at him and fainted dead away.   I cut what was left from the vines and brought them up to the shelter of the deck. Hopefully they are salvageable.  You'd think the big fall vegetables were made of stronger stuff.

The baby lettuces are happily playing on the playground, oblivious to the carnage around them.

Then there is the chard.  The Bad Asses.  They are the teenagers, having lasted all summer, leather jackets on, leaning against the wall.  "What?  Huh?  Jack Who?  We didn't see nuthin".

All I could do was quietly apologize, assuring them that, yes, he's gone for a little while.  But...
He'll be back.

Triticale Update

I promised a triticale update, oh, I dunno... ages ago.  I was waiting to see if I would get around to the final thing on my triticale-to-do list -- making bread from the flour -- but, that adventure is no where in sight.  I,  currently, am up to my eyeballs in turkey babies (hatching and selling), apple-collecting, tomato-harvesting, and the end-of-season garden clean up (well, only in some areas), as well as entertaining a little fuzz ball named "Beep" who insists she's human.  Or at the very least, a very intelligent parrot.

So, I could go on and on about all those other things, but instead will just give you a glimpse of what this whole triticale experience has meant for me.

It started off as ground cover, to shade weeds and hopefully inhibit their growth.

It did a pretty good job of that, seeing as we had probably about 66% less weeds than last year, and that's only from planting the triticale and the vetch.  Good thing #1.

I have spent several hours among the stalks, cutting off the seed heads and storing them in various containers.  I have to hide and secure the containers, or the turkeys will find them and Eat Them All.

 Which is not a huge bad thing as the grain is high in protein (turkeys need a higher protein than chickens, especially in the first 6-8 weeks), and cheap free.  Free is good! (Good thing #2)  AND I've recently discovered that triticale is NOT on the GMO list, so all the seed heads that have fallen to the ground should germinate in the spring. Yay!  Plus it's nice to know that I'm not feeding adulterated food to my birds.  (Good thing #3)

Good thing #4 - I could be using the straw part of the plant as bedding for the animals, but honestly, I'm too full of other things to do right now... but I could  use it for that.

And then, of course, Good Thing #5 - it apparently makes great bread.  I would love to get a chance to try that, but that remains to be seen.

Oh, and Good Thing #6, predators can't see the sheep as the triticale blocks their view.  I think we would plant it again for this point only.

So, there you have it.  The Update.  Whew.

Weekend Reading

This week: Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener's Handbook.  I borrowed it from our library, but am thinking to purchase one for my own self, as I have to restrain myself from writing little notes all over it.  Because it goes by weeks, specifically, "x amount of weeks since the last frost", you need to do a little bit of figuring and pay attention to when that actually was.  So this book will work in all different zones, though those places with shorter growing seasons would have to condense the recommendations, and those with longer seasons could be a little more lax.  Me thinks that the first year of keeping this type of gardening journal will require the most work, in regards to recording when the last frost was and going from there.  Of course, every year, the date of the last frost will differ, but it "should" be within a couple of weeks.  My only beef about this book is that it should have a few extra pages for notes at the end of each section. It does have 1 page for notes per chapter, but a rambler like me would like a few more.  Insert smiley face here.

Happy Fall gardening, folks!

Absent...

My weekend reading post will be absent again.  I've had some trouble getting into a good book lately for a variety of reasons.  It's September.  (In case you were unaware.)  Septemberrrrrrr. We've actually been hitting near-frost temperatures around here the past several nights.  And with warm afternoons and chilly overnights, I've got my hands full.  We've been outside as much as possible, enjoying the afternoon warmth that may or may not be with us much longer.  And our early evenings are spent making sure the garden is well-tucked in -- and harvesting as much as possible --

-- and the littles are warm.  Mama turkey Violet still has her 2 (we sold the other 8), and the 4 chicks that are now 5 weeks old still need a bit of heat overnight, though they are spending their days outdoors.  Then there's Beep, who still seems happy in the incubator, between bouts of being toted around in some kind of kid-made contraption.  Beep will stay in there (I can gradually lower the temperature) until she really starts to feather-out, then weather-pending, she'll start spending days outside.  I think I will put together a little chicken tractor for the garden as things are finishing up, for the 4 older chicks and Beep to do their chicken thing.  Oh, and there's next week, when Tasha's littles are due to hatch. And she's sitting on 20 eggs.  Oh, my.

Then, the fact that it's September.  It kind of sneaked up on me.  I wasn't ready to go back to schedules, even though we are homeschooling this year, and more "unschooling" than anything.  We are at the dance studio 3 times/week, plus soccer practice and games, 4H every second week, and music for the little man.  I will breathe a little deeper once October is here and soccer is done and most of the harvesting is also done.  Most because I plan to grow stuff as long as possible, whether with cloches, under plastic, or with straw bales and old windows.  

Oh, and my little reading light died on me, which is where I do most of my reading, in bed, just before the heaviness of my eye lids overcomes me.  So, stay tuned; I have a mess of books on my nightstand and I will get back to those weekly reading posts.  Soon.

Memories of Oma

I pulled this giant of a beet out of the garden yesterday.

It all but whispered to me... "Make Borscht."  So, I listened.  Maybe it was Oma talking to me from the other side.  I gathered a bunch of necessary food stuffs from the garden -- potatoes, celery, onions, garlic, dill, cabbage -- and with stock from the freezer, voila.  Borscht.  Not quite the way Oma would have made it, as she used beef and beef stock, as well as fried ketchup (no, I'm not kidding, but what's the difference between fried ketchup and pureed tomatoes with some honey?),  but still, it smelled the way I remembered.  I could still see her, standing over her counter, cutting and chopping, and wiping the sweat from her brow.  I ate it thinking of her, too, with a big piece of rye bread with butter.  Lots of butter.  She would have been proud.  She really liked butter.

Garlic!

I can't begin to tell you the satisfaction of growing something so basic for the kitchen.  And not difficult!  I love that we planted it in the fall and it did its thing and we dig it up in the summer.  And that we can store it, and enjoy it into the fall.  No way we have enough to get us through to next summer, but we will definitely be planting more this year - I think we only planted about 20 cloves this time.  Onions are about the same on the satisfaction list; especially the ones we planted from seed when I thought it might be "too late" in the season.  Yay!  (Photo by Daughter).

Home-Made Spa

It seems my daughter's friends are all turning 9.  Wow.  They are getting out of the toy-stage of childhood and onto other things.  We like to give home crafted gifts, if we can.  When the kids were really little, this was easy.  Knit a mermaid, sew a pencil case, that sort of thing.  But for a 9 year old?  Hmmm.
Then I came across an article in Living Crafts Magazine on Lavender Crafts.  Fun!  So both kids and I made some Lavender Bath Bombs and Lavender Sugar Scrub one afternoon, in bulk, to give to 3 friends turning 9.

Lavender flowers from our garden

Add: baking soda, citric acid, organic olive oil and lavender essential oil according to recipe, and

press into molds.

Let dry for 24-48 hours, and 

Ta-Da!  Cute, huh?

Abundance!

Summer is about abundance, is it not?  I love how it goes in phases.  After all the planting and weeding and watering.  Then comes the watching.  What will come up first?  What will thrive?  What will we have to re-think for next year?

First, it was the early lettuces and spinach.  We enjoyed our salads daily, let me tell you!  As those got old and bitter, they were ripped out of the garden and offered to the chickens.  (Yum, says they.)

Then, and still, Carrots, Carrots and More Carrots.

So we're eating tons of the things, in soups, muffins and just by themselves.  We keep planting more.  We should have carrots until Christmas.  And then we'll be sick of them.  But then we won't have them again until June when we'll WANT them again.  And so it goes...

I'm also pulling a crazy amount of New Zealand Spinach out.  Well, picking a lot of leaves and pulling a lot of plants.  Have you ever grown NZ Spinach?  If you have, you know of what I speak.  We still have some in the freezer from last summer.  You'd think I would learn.  Nope.  I planted a row of "regular" NZ, a row of organic, and 2 rows of transplants from the little volunteers in the beds it was in last year.  Ugh.  Now it's crowding out the peppers, onions and eggplants, and spilling over the sides of the bed!  Good thing the chickens all like it!  That said, it really is wonderful stuff.  Full of goodness and freezes Awesome-ly!  (Is that even a word?)  I usually pick a huge bowl of it, wash it in cool water, stuff it into a pillow case and chuck it into the washing machine on "spin".  No, I'm not kidding.  Works like a dream!  Brilliant suggestions from my dear pal Lisa from Urban Harvest.  Then into Ziploc freezer bags - whole leaves.  Let it freeze, then crush it and it takes up 1/2 the space.  It's a hardy plant, loves the sun without bolting, and not really a spinach at all.  I don't like it in salads, as it's too "thick" for my liking, but in sauces and pestos, it's amazing.

I harvested all my cabbages too.  All 3 of them.  These awful little bugs got the rest:

A lot of cursing going on as I found all the holes in the cabbage due to this...this... thing.  If anyone knows the name of this little green monster, I'd love to hear it, as well as any tips to eradicate the beastie from my future cabbages.

More later!

The Full-ness of Summer

"Do you have a sec for me?  Puhleeeese??"

Wow.  It's already August.  Where does the time go?  It seems we spend most of the year waiting for summer and then it goes by in a blink.  I truly wonder where my days go.  I have been working 3 mornings a week at our family business, but the rest of the time is relatively unaccounted for.  I have not enrolled the kids in any camps, other than 1-3hr art camp, and the boy in a 2 hr/day music camp - but that hasn't even happened yet. 

My days are FULL.  With what?  Ummm.... there's been more than a few birthday parties for kids' friends lately.  Not very much beach time at all.  The harvesting of various veggies and berries and the resulting canning or processing of such foods. Knitting where I can, even just for a few stitches.

And my "rounds" as I like to call them.

All of which can be interrupted at a moment's notice by one of the children, usually the boy, hollering about something from the deck as they can't be bothered to come and find me.  (Our place isn't THAT big.)  More often than not, the boy needs me to watch him go to the bathroom.  He's 5.  And on the precipice of becoming a musician.  Me thinks he's just getting used to having an audience.  I half expect him to bow after he's done his business.  Anyway, I digress.

About 3 times a day, I start in the backyard with the turkey babes, watering, feeding, checking the heat and watching for anything out of the ordinary.  Then to the adult birds, ducks and geese included.  Then to the "nursery" yard, where the several of this year's chicks (not so much chicks anymore) are foraging and learning about life as a chicken.  I usually cuddle one or 2 of the little ladies (Princess Leia being a favourite -- she's a pure white Easter Egger).

Wondering to myself when I'm going to get to repairing the little coop in the chicken garden adjacent to the main chicken yard so that I can move these lovelies so as to become aquainted with the main flock through the fence.  Gotta do that SOON.  Then, leaving them, through the garden to be sure everything is going as it should be, stopping to munch on something yummy, or yank out a few weeds.  Then to the sheep yard, a chat & a scratch with the girls there, checking on water, and enjoying the simpleness that is sheep.  Watching them for a while, where they are hanging out at various times of the day, what they are eating and when.

Making mental notes to self about all that and thinking about how we are going to pen them with their newborn lambs next spring.   Lastly, to the main chicken yard to watch the grown up birds getting lost in the tall tall grass there, clucking happily to themselves as they find another tasty morsel.  Watching them for a bit.  And lastly into the coop itself to collect whatever gold lies there (in the way of fresh eggs, of course).  And winding my way back up to the house, wash off the eggs and any other goodies from the garden.

All the while, thinking about all these critters that have found their way to us, what they mean to us, how they enrich our lives in so many ways.  And loving them all, even the ones that will eventally be in the freezer, and thanking my lucky stars that I can do this.

Weekend Reading

This Life Is In Your Hands by Melissa Coleman is a memoir about living off the land and the hardships, blessings and tragedies that can go along with it.  In the fall of 1968, Melissa Coleman's parents, Eliot and Sue pack a few essentials into their VW truck and abandon the rat race for a cleaner and back-to-the-land way of life on the coast of Maine, under the wing of Helen and Scott Nearing, authors of "Living the Good Life."  Summers are full and overflowing, while winters are harsh and difficult.

I enjoy reading books like this; it helps keep reality in check for me.  I often say that I was born 100 years too late, that I would have liked to be a pioneer and do everything from scratch.  But honestly, that's HARD.  Really Hard.  There's nothing wrong with a few modern conveniences (like a real oven, and indoor plumbing) but it's really good to know where your food comes from.

Where ever you go, whatever you do, enjoy your weekend!

Chicken Garden, Part 2

Ok, so here's the short version:

I started with the above, plus some other tasties...

Added cardboard, as mentioned before.

Topped with 1 year old sheep manure and bedding materials (wood chips and straw).

And proceeded to scatter seeds, willy-nilly.  

We then covered the whole lot with shade cloth, to prevent the dastardly quail from eating all the seed.  (Grrrr!) and to help germination with a little heat, as we haven't had so much of the sun around these parts of late.  The shade cloth is the black thing at the back of this photo:

Well, it's comin up like crazy now!  The chickens are poking their heads thru the fence to get at all the greens and I swear I even saw a couple of the smarter ones conspiring to jump the fence today... you think I'm kidding.  I turned the chairs upright after the windstorm knocked them over and when I glanced out at the chicken yard later on, there were 2 sitting on the seat of the chair staring determinedly at the lush greens on the other side of the fence.  At this point, to them, the grass IS greener on the other side!

We've since removed the shade cloth so those tasty treats are looking extremely tantalizing to the ladies right now.  But, we have to keep them out for a bit longer so that the grasses and other plants are well-established, or the chooks will happily yank them out by the roots and the entire yard will be barren by mid-July.  They'll have to be patient and just enjoy the garden gleanings and kitchen scraps for a wee bit more.

Of Thistles and Vetch

I promised to tell more of the lower pasture here.

So. First, a short story.

We have 2 acres, right?  About 2/3 of an acre is weeds.. Ugh.  We want to get rid of the weeds, which is mostly prickly thistle.  Why?  It's unsightly, not fun when the kids run through it, and when it goes to seed, the seeds fly down the road to the other neighbor with the cows.  Not good for the cows. In the past, we've just roto-tilled it in, but this year we wanted to try something different.  Something useful (other than just putting more organic matter into the soil.)  Without digging it up and without spraying harmful chemicals.  Hmmm.  So last fall, we did some research, internet and with some permaculture friends and we came up with the idea of planting vetch to smother the weeds.  Vetch is a legume which, in theory, climbs the weeds (much like your garden-variety beans or peas) and, in essence,  makes it very difficult for the weeds to grow.  In theory.  Ahem.

Well, vetch seems to like warm weather and plenty of water to germinate.  We've had plenty of water lately, but not so much on the warm.  Thankfully, Hubby was wise and decided to also plant some triticale to "hide" the weeds and also to be used to feed the sheep and chickens or, if it wasn't suitable, for bedding. "Just in case" the vetch plan didn't work.  In any case, the long graceful stalks of triticale would look a heck of a lot better than a lower pasture full of thistles!

So the triticale came up amazing and the vetch that is with it, also.  Both are tall and beautiful waving in the wind, and the weeds are minimal in that area.

But then there's the center of this area.

You can see here the difference in the height of the plants:

Thistles on the left, triticale on the right, and the darker green bit at the back of the photo.

The thistle section didn't get as much water or the thistles are too aggressive or... I dunno.  But the thistles are coming up crazy.  The vetch is there, but struggling.  I still haven't lost hope on the vetch, but I wanted to help it out, so I went out this morning with this handy-dandy tool:

... and began lopping off the heads of the thistles.  Very cathartic, I must say!  My neighbor, who will remain nameless, is beginning to think I'm off my rocker.

As well, I didn't want to totally hack away at the thistles, as they appear to be home to these, in all life stages:

Hmmm.

C'mon vetch, GROW!