Tag: Garden

  • Garden 2021- The Sunflower take-over

    Garden 2021- The Sunflower take-over

    Sunflowers everywhere in the garden- 2021

    We planted ornamental sunflowers one year to attract bees and now they are an invasive weed. This year we tried to use them as a wind block to the garden. They soaked up more water than prevented water evaporation. Now they are a pretty weed in our garden.

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

    Kelly started new experimental planters on the Northside of the farm for herbs and heirloom seeds.

    We added hundreds of flower bulbs in the fall! We’re excited to see what comes in in 2021.

     

    We started Virginia Creeper along the deer fence line around the garden. On the same fenceline, we are trying to get Hollyhocks to grow. NO LUCK. Open to suggestions.

     

    Read more about the farm In our News Section

     

     

  • Garden 2020

    Garden 2020

    Summer 2020- Social Distancing!

    Summer 2020 was my (Kelly’s) first full season living primarily at the farm. What better place to social distance is the farm. That’s a LIE! The Rice farm has been a haven for people looking for outdoor retreat! Bon fires, hiking, biking, sledding. We even showed up for Christmas.

    Garden

    Our giant garden produced a little before the swarm of grasshoppers wiped everything out. Cucumbers, carrots, garlic hardly produced. Corn surprisingly well again this year. Of course beans, peas and beets did fine. We used all heirloom fingerling potato seed this year as we couldn’t find red potato seed. WE HAVE CUTWORMS! Gross!

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    Water

    We ran mostly off of rainwater this year. Our dugout went dry. We shipped cooking & shower water from Pence and Regina.

    Chickens

    We had a flock of 20 birds on the farm laying eggs in the new chicken coop. During the grasshopper invasion they hardly had to be fed. Their Eggs were sold by Malcom at SIAST. Next year there will be a price increase in eggs, so we can make our money back. At the end of the season October 25, the chickens were sold.

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    Critters and Such

    For the end of the season we lit all of Jeffs old brush on fire.

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  • Spring 2020

    Spring 2020

    Spring 2020 is in on a confusing roller coaster ride

    With Covid19 we all started the season early. The more we could get out to the farm the better. Whether Malcolm’s fixing the truck, Tania’s family is out hiking or Kelly’s recluse to her camper the farm acted like a getaway for all of us.

    The dugout is way down of course, the wind has been brutal,  cold toilette seat, cuddling up to the heater at night, all totally worth it not to be in the city with CovIdiots.

     

    This spring we’ve got a lot done (write ups to come):

    Malcolm and Sebastian build a wind generated battery to power the front driveway camera.

    Tent Alley Rejuvenation- Malcolm has filled in the spaces between the trees in Tent Alley to keep the garbage and the wind down. Malcolm always loves visitors and Tent Alley is one of his favorite places.

    Malcolm got the old International truck running in order to get water from Pense.

    The garden has shrunk but all is planted. Spinach, lettuce, kale, dill, cucumber, carrots, potatoes, beets, garlic, peas, 3 different kinds of onion, zucchini, squash, Radish’s, pumpkins. We have everything.

    The Cherry, haskap (Honey berries) , apple, plumb, trees are budding leaves.

    We have a new chicken coop this year made by Jeff. Kelly Decided to up the number of chickens. More chickens, means they needed more space. Jeff magically made the plans up in his head and built it from there. It turned out amazing!

     

    Also new to the chicken fair grounds we’re trying in ground gardens with coop wire over top. This is so the chickens can at the greens but not destroy the plants. We planted different lettuces, spinach, chard, beets, cucumbers and a few more.

     

     

     

     

     

    Kelly’s spice garden planted by the trailer. This year Kelly planted  (experiment saved seeds) pea seeds. Onions, chocolate mint, dill, garlic chives, chives, snow onions, basil, parsley, lemon thyme catnip, saffron and there’s more to come.

     

     

     

     

     

    We have finally picked out new strawberry patch location. We’ve been humming and hawing on a new place to put them. The old place was downing in grass and wasn’t producing garden. We are only on the first layer.  If you know where there are some excellent rocks let us knowing. So after a few years we came up with something! A strawberry rock pile.

     

     

     

    See our previous years in gardening

    Some of the silly stuff we come up with

     

  • Garden 2019

    Garden 2019

    Garden 2019 was huge in spite of lack of water!

    This year we planted the entire Garden plot!

    In the Garden 2019 we grew cucumbers, corn, raddish, (yellow, purple, green) beans, soy beans, swiss chard, spinach, lettuce, (yellow, green) zucchini, (heirloom, orange, purple) carrots, (green arrow, sugaranne, sugarsnap, mixed)peas, (red, yellow, mixed)potatoes, dill, cucamelon, garlic, onions, peppers, hot peppers, Spaghetti squash, pumpkins, beets, Dads tomatoes,

    Added tomatoes along the one grapevine row.

    Volunteer:

    Tomato, spinach, sunflowers, chard, dill, watermelon, squash, borage

    Annual:

    Asparagus (not producing yet), chives, snow onions

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    Fruit Trees/Shrubs/Plants

    Kelly had to nurse the goji berries back from a hard winter. We’re still searching for the perfect spot to put the strawberries. This year we had ground nests in them so we had no great opportunity to get to the berries.The ones we do find are tiny. We got a sandwich bag of hascaps. Lots of plumb and apples, cherries and a few grapes

    Added

    2 Black currant plants, 2 Rhubarb, Gooseberry

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    Canning

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    Pickled:

    cucumbers, swiss chard stems, beans, eggs, peppers

    Pressure canned:

    Beans

    Frozen:

    Peas, spinach

    Some ideas for seeds:

    See all of our garden adventures!

     

     

  • 2018 Garden

    2018 Garden

    This summer (2018) Some produced…and some didn’t produce

    We’ll never plant Tiny Tim tomatoes again. What a nuisance. So many tomato skins to peel off.

    Carrots produced a lot!

    So did zucchini, pumpkin and beans..of course.

    53 pumpkins

    Kelly always manages to get some canning done including this year Kelly and Jeffs Apple Butter/ Jam thanKs to Darsanns apples

    Every year we fail at corn and radishes and this year peanuts. 2018 we prevailed with pickled carrots, peppers, zucchini, tomato sauce, salsa, beans. Also with Potatoes, cherries

    All saved for seed as well as canned

    We’re excited for next year!

    Read more about the farm

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