Going to the next step

The urban garden experiment has moved beyond our backyard. Next Saturday, we are starting the Illinois Farm Beginnings class. This is it! We are going to be farmers!
Now we just have to figure out what kind of farming we want to do...We have eliminated having a dairy as we don't want to do the daily milking.
We have explored the pastured pork and grass raised and finished beef, fiber goats, wool sheep and meat goats. We plan to have chickens regardless of which animal we chose.
We decided not to be plant farm as we both really just weren't as excited about them but we may experiment with a large family garden with extras going to a farmer's market.
Oh, we also will definitely have bees!
There is also the livestock guardian debate. It is between donkeys and llamas. Feel free to weigh in.

image courtesy of Hobby Farms Magazine

Getting Ready for the Summer Season

We have been planting all spring and hope to get a variety of vegetables and multiple harvests in. Very early this spring my husband planted garlic which is almost ready to harvest. I look forward to braiding garlic groups but have no idea what I am going to do with that much garlic. (recipe ideas welcome!) Relatives may be receiving the gift of garlic this fall...
In keeping with traditional crop rotation, we had to find a new location for the tomatoes. They are a member of the nightshade family and are nutrient hogs and they will suck the life out of the soil if planted in the same location every year. On the other hand, peas and beans are givers and they will restore nutrients to the soil.

The climbing peas. I plan to get some of the trellis netting for them. I will document that when I do it.

The beans just jumped out of the ground a few days ago. We had a bum batch and none sprouted so I had to replant them last week.

My mini carnations. I tell my husband that they "attract pollinators" to keep adding pretty flowers. Its true but I also really like them.

Pineapple sage, this smells amazing!

Clemantis

Double Petunia

My rose, Home Depot clearance special

More "pollinator attracters" and Charlie

My summer pot with a volunteer lettuce

Christmas All Year Long

To get into the Christmas spirit this year, I got a poinsettia from the Home Depot. Two days later I had my first child and the poinsettia took a bit of a back seat. 

I watered it every now and then when I noticed it looking droopy and at some point in January, I noticed most of the leaves were falling off. One day I decided enough, let the poor thing go and I looked closely at it and noticed a lot of little leaf growths from the main stems and decided to try to make this plant work. 

Research has begun, everyone warning me that it is difficult to get a poinsettia to rebloom.

I have obtained a schedule of things to do to my plant from the University of Ohio’s website and some of them sound quite brutal (pinch off all new growth in May, put it in a box in October.) 

Houseplants are not really my thing, I do outdoor garden stuff, indoor plants and I do not usually get along, to high maintenance. I have a Christmas cactus that has been with me for about 10 years now, not sure how that has happened, but other than that, no houseplants.

I will attempt to make this plant work and rebloom for next Christmas and track its progress on this blog. Right now it lives in a sunny south facing window and looks pretty happy.

In Chicken news, my Easter Egger chicken finally laid an egg in the nest! I have previously had to hunt for her eggs in the chicken yard, like every day was Easter (with green eggs and everything.)

She is not the brightest bulb in the chandelier but she lays pretty eggs, so we will keep her for awhile.

Imagine my shock when I saw that there had actually been 39 views of my blog! I may be one of the worst bloggers ever as I take forever to create a new post, but I am resolving to change that.
There isn't much to talk about on a blog about gardens during the winter in the Midwest but the next spring is gearing up now and I will be posting more.

Updates from last post.

I have gotten some garden chickens. I have one Easter Egger chicken (a generic term for a mixed breed chicken who lays blue or greenish egs),  one Delaware chicken, and one Cochin. I also had a Buff Orpington but he turned out to be a boy so he went to live on a farm where roosters are welcome.

All the chicks at one day old, so cute!

New (Garden) Year

It has been some time since my last post but not much was happening in the cold frames. Things are still alive, but growing very very slowly in our very mild Chicago winter (still cold though.)

 I have ordered a variety of new plants to try for this coming spring and among the ones I am most excited about are:

Mexican Sour Gherkin Cucumber

From www.rareseeds.com, this is suposed to be a slightly lemon flavored cucumber and it it pretty cute too.

Moon and Stars Watermelon

I really don't like watermelon, so I am growing this mostly for my husband and family, but I think it is the prettiest watermelon that I have ever seen. (Also ordered from www.rareseeds.com)

Aunt Ruby's German Green Tomato

This is a tomato that I read a review of in Hobby Farms Home (January/February edition) and it is supposed to be a prolific tomato. I ordered this one from www.groworganic.com.

Late Season Veg

We planted some late season peas and carrots on Sunday, they don't look too exciting yet. Notice the oddly paw print sized depressions in the bed...Allie the Springer Spaniel a.k.a. "The Garden Marauder" has struck again. She is under the impression that she should be involved in gardening.

Close up of peas and carrots bed

A cool thing about some of the early vegtables is that you can plant them early in the spring and be able to enjoy fresh vegetables early in the season and again at the end of summer and get another crop before the frost. Some ideas are broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, chard, lettuce, onions, peas, potatoes, radishes and spinach. You can extend the growing season with simple cold frames, which we plan to try (post pictures and how to later.)

The pumpkins have taken over the section of the garden they were given taking down corn and several blueberry bushes in the process. It has become commonplace to see the dogs running around with a small unripe pumpkin in their mouths as a cool new toy. (Don't worry, they don't eat them most of the time.) Here is a picture of one safely behind the garden fence. They are they typical pie pumpkin, so no carving, just eating. I plan to try to figure out how to can pumpkin this fall, should be an interesting experience.

A pumpkin safely behind bars

The Garden Marauder herself with Charlie grazing in the background

Said potatoes