Garden stuff

It's Tuesday.  I am suffering from sinus, horribly!  I was going to work in the garden today but it rained all day and was pretty cold---not good weather for someone who's head feels like it is going to explode!  It is going to warm up again tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be able to get back out into the garden.  Here is what has been done so far.......
Click the pictures for actual size-

The tiller conked out here, nothing a little gas and some TLC won't fix!

Our hops!  The one plant died last year and the other didn't fare so well but they are looking good so far this year!  We may get to make some mead this year after all!

Another plant I thought was lost---my garlic from last year!  It seemed to die but it's coming back with a vengeance, hurray!  I may even get a few garlic scapes, too!

More garlic.

This was my little Charlie Brown tree.  I was wishy washy on what I wanted to do so Scott decided for me and cut it down.  I feel sad, but hey, the path is now larger!!!

In amongst the weeds the violets are growing all over!  I hate to till them under, but the beds must be prepared.

WOW!  Look at those chives!  They sure came back from last year, I'll have plenty of chives to go around!

My new compost pen, made from pallets.  I think I might paint it or something, make it look more---inviting?  

Inviting to whom, I'm not sure but it's cool either way!

The top bed I did all by hand, then Scott came in with the tiller and started to tear things up!  

The other side.  Since I am going to plant my corn in a field in the back, I'll have a lot more room for other things here.

This is my strawberry bed up by the house--it needs weeding desperately!  Hopefully it'll spread more this year, last year we got a bunch of strawberries but not enough at one time for anything.

The chickens are doing a good job of getting all the bugs by the house!

The daffodils in my front garden, they are at the end here.

Chickens are following me!

This is my front yard, the plan is to get rid of most of the grass and create an English or cottage type garden up here.  I also would like to put in some shrubs by the fence to help block out some of the sounds from the busy highway.

 More of the front yard.  There is a nice slope here, we're thinking of making a tiered garden on it.

This is an old field in the back where the horses used to be.  This is where I'd like to grow my corn.

This is a well at the back of our property.  It used to supply the water to our house and the barn next door (the barn and 5 other properties down the street used to all be part of this property until they split it up in the 90's)  The well was closed up around 2002,  the neighbors said the water was bad because of the gas wells that used to be on the property.  We're going to get it tested, it's been a while since it was used so we want to see if it is ok now, if so we'll use it for the gardens.)

This old pear tree still makes pears, although many were diseased.  We are going to find out if we can bring it back healthy and producing good pears again.

This is an OLD well right next to the house.  It was hand dug--probably when the house was built back in 1865--and lined with rocks, pretty impressive!  Scott and I kinda measured it's depth last year, it is at the least 25 ft deep.  We're going to have this water tested as well, if it's good it'll be used for the garden and around the property.  If TSHTF, we know we have 2 possible water sources on the property---let's hope they are good!

Our old Black Walnut.  We fear it is diseased, all of the nuts were no good, it is losing branches left and right and the leaves don't look too good after a while.  We're going to have an arborist come and look at it, we are hoping and praying it is salvageable, but if not, it'll have to come down.  As a woodworker, Scott is excited for the possibilities of that, anyway!

This is the field that we will be using for our hoop houses.  It is dry---a lot of our property falls into the flood zone and gets very wet.  Scott wants to grade it all out and we are putting a pond up front where it is the wettest.  

That's it for the outside!

I don't watch a lot of TV but it seems like the networks are putting all my shows on the same nights!

We watch Idol, we watch Lost, we watch Glee.  Now they are all on the same night, along with V and Parenthood, which we also watch.  Luckily we have 2 DVR's or I'd be missing something.  We have the same problem on Thursday night, we watch Flash Forward, Bones, The Office, 30 Rock, Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice.  Somehow I've managed to be able to get those all to record all on the same DVR and then I watch them throughout the week as I am able.  But heck, Monday and Wednesday are no longer filled, why don't they move some stuff to one of those days?????  Stupid networks!  Personally, I'd be happy just to throw out all the TV's and get rid of cable.  I can't convince the rest of the household to go along with it, though.  And, I'd have to wait until Lost is done, first.

TTFN!

Leslie :-)