Our Home Works

I’m back from a month’s hiatus from blog posting and lots to report.  Thank goodness Matt posted occasionally so you weren’t totally in the dark.
Getting chickens was perhaps one of the best decisions we have made - we get so much enjoyment out of watching them and petting them, not to mention eating their eggs.  [...]

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The rewards of our urban farming endeavors are showing up now in miniature form.  A couple of weeks ago, we found the first egg laid by our most modest hen Buffy.  It was tiny.  A few days later, she went teeny tiny – maybe half the size of the first.
 

These eggs are in good company, as some of our [...]

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Our dozen blueberry plants are in the ground, finally.  We planted them on the west side of the house, along the hedge.  We managed to document most of the process to share with you, in case there are others out there considering blueberries.  We are currently on a little weekend jaunt in Bend, OR and [...]

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We have watched a lot of NCAA basketball the last week, but we have also spent a lot of time in the yard.  After planting the 11 fruit trees, we decided to tear up more grass and plant about a dozen blueberries.  When he wasn’t watching basketball last weekend, Matt was shoveling away sod to [...]

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All eleven fruit trees arrived within a couple days late last week, so we have been digging a lot since last weekend.  So far, we have seven of them planted - with two pears and two cherries left to plant.  The Danube cherry and Mirabelle plum were purchased from Raintree and the rest were purchased [...]

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It has been a busy week in the garden.  The sun came out for a few days and inspired us to get outside.  I am most excited about my Christmas present that Matt finished yesterday - my very own cold frame.  It’s a perfect place for our newly started seeds to go before they are [...]

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The sun came out yesterday so I took advantage of the break in weather to plant our peas.  Before planting, I checked the soil temperature and was pleasantly surprised to see 50F on the thermometer.  When I checked the temperature about a week ago, it was under 45F.  Between the soil temperature change and the [...]

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After learning about bees in last week’s Master Gardener class, I was inspired to create a home for mason bees.  We are considering keeping honey bees as well, but that takes a bit more of a commitment than putting up a little house on an east wall.
Part of the motivation for the bees is our [...]

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Our first garden that we planted this past spring was easy - almost zero pest problems.  Our biggest problem was keeping the tomatoes on steriods properly supported (which we were only somewhat effective at).  Then we decided to get all local and do a winter garden.
I think that all of our winter crops have suffered [...]

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It was almost 70 degrees in Eugene yesterday and I took full advantage.  As promised, I took photos of the garden in the filtered morning sun.
Before planting our winter garden, I picked up a copy of Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades by Steve Solomon.  We grew the turnips, chard,  peas, beets, broccoli rabe, and [...]

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