Tag Archives: weeds

Requiem to a Backyard Garden

Backyard Gardening, ,

It was a convolution of events that led to our drastic action. First it was the pandemic. With our events cancelled and our restaurant customers ever so slowly re-opening, we THF folks had time on our hands. Then on June 2, Ron’s mom Anna May died. She was 99 years old and the youngest of nine children. She outlived her six brothers and two sisters. The Halpin girls got the better end of the family genes though, as they lived to be 101, 98 and 99. Again because of the pandemic, we could not have the funeral services she had planned and prepaid for. We could not even have a small family get together. This left Ron feeling very unsettled and with time for pondering on the meaning of life.

His once lovely and loved garden had been overrun with weeds. Our family had for years enjoyed its bounty, as did lots of our friends. But now, it was a sad sight and one we bemoaned but did nothing about. We had made attempts to get it under control or cleared out, but Tiny House Farm interrupted, as did our lack of enthusiasm for the work that would be involved. Weed pulling ranks right up there with rock picking on my list of things I would rather not do. But that was neither here, nor there and Ron dragged me and Jo along with him in his plan to clear out our yard.

When I say clear out, that is exactly what I mean. He had plans to gut everything; front, back and side yards. Then we were going to cover all the newly cleared spaces with black plastic and let Mother Nature do her job by killing all the weeds. This was not going to be a simple, done in a weekend project. We got started on Saturday June 5th as we had no Tiny House Farm plans. Because of the pandemic, Anna May’s service could not be held until Monday June 8th. The numbers of way this virus is messing with our lives is just unbelievable. And we were all edgy. We hit the front yard first. Yanking, digging, weed whacking and chain sawing everything in our way.

Ron’s chain sawing came to an abrupt stop when he spotted 2 young morning doves in our front yard tree. He was in the mood to chop the whole thing down, but he would not risk harming morning doves. So the tree got a pass. For now.

Our local dump is just a few blocks away and that turn out to be a very good thing. Ron and I took five or six or twenty loads (I lost count) of green waste there and then about the same number of dump loads. The wood from our garden beds, old pallets that our firewood stacks sat on, the sad little greenhouse that sat, ignored for 3 years; all of it went. The five trellises that Ron built for the tomato and cucumber beds went to Rudy, our Amish farming partner. Things Ron builds tend to last and I refused to toss them in the trash. Ron does have some regret about getting rid of all his trellises. We have a pair of mourning doves that lived in our yard and with the trellises gone, they lost their favorite sitting spot. He misses hearing them each morning.

Once we dug up, chopped down and dragged out everything that needed to go, we were left with the dirt, weeds and grass from the raised beds. Not a pretty site, but we knocked them down the best we could.

It is a good thing we already planned to cover the whole area with our old and critter chewed tarps. Our yard actually looked worse once we got all the tall weeds and raised beds out. On top of those we laid out the larger tarp that we used on Tiny House Farm. While we expect Mother Nature to do her thing and kill off the weeds, which will take a few years so it does not hurt to help her out a bit.

A few days after the tarps were laid down we got hit with a wind and rain storm. I had already made the executive decision to take down our rail fence. It only lined both front side yards and was in a constant state of needing repair. We have replaced all the rails and shored up every post with rocks and dirt over the years. The fence parts came in handy as we used them to weigh down the edges of tarp and plastic. But they did nothing to stop the wind from getting under the tarp and making waves. I tried to catch this in action with limited success. But as consolation prize I caught a mama deer and her baby walking along our hedge line. Do you see them? That is something else we will miss. All the critters that enjoyed our overgrown garden. And we enjoyed watching them. One of the mamas would bring her baby into our yard and bed down in the overgrowth. The rabbits and squirrels running all over the place. They were such fun to watch. But we will not have so many of them now, without the weeds that they could hide in.

This was a major project and a lot of work, but when we were done, we really felt a huge sense of accomplishment. We had tackled the beast and won.

BUT, wait there’s more.

Ron decided to take advantage of the situation and find someone who would cut down and mulch up our cedar hedges. They also had seen better days. I believe they were planted when the house was built in 1985. Now they were overgrown and the lower parts were dying off. They were a sad sight indeed. And certainly did next to nothing at keeping out critters and such. I felt rather guilty at ignoring them for years. But I have seen other houses with the same hedges that they kept cut down and still had the die off. So it was not just our neglect causing the problems. That made me feel a little bit better.

Getting ready for the hedges to come down meant we had to move all of our stacked wood piles. By piles I really mean remnants of said piles. We had gone through most of it last year. The actual wood had to be moved along with the pallets it sat on and the metal posts that held it all together. Well, was supposed to hold it together. We had more than a few collapses over the years. Last year Ron had a ready rack made to hold wood on our deck. Our previous situation left much to be desired. It involved two pieces of woods and two metal ends holding the wood in place with a tarp covering it. Our new one will hold more wood and do a better job at it. Now he wants two larger ones that would sit in our backyard and hold the rest of our wood. That should prevent pile collapses and keep things much neater.

Then we tackled the burning bushes on the other side of our house. Every couple of years we whack them down but, along with several other things, we ignored them for the past four years.

Ron took the chainsaw to the bushes and Jo and I dragged them to our trailer for the ride to the green waste drop-off. Less than 30 minutes and we were done. One more thing checked off our to do list. I would be happier though, if we had not already added four more things to that list.

Then Ron’s wood sheds were delivered and more fun ensued. We had already hauled the 4 wheeler to our house so we could use it to move the sheds into place. The plan had been for Ron to take our trailer and pick up each shed. Unfortunately, our builder Rudy did too good a job in the actual building. Very strong, very heavy and just a smidge too wide for our trailer.

Thank goodness there was a back up plan. We are after all, talking about Ron. He always has a back up plan. Now we just had to get them off the hauler and into our backyard. This was the best part of our fun. First task was to shift the sheds around so we could attach a large tow strap to it and the 4 wheeler. Took more effort than we thought it would and we needed to use the wheeler to push the shed into place. The second obstacle was our yard. The grass and the mud it was growing in refused to cooperate. There was no sliding across the ground for our shed. The edges kept digging in and creating a mud dam. We tried a small piece of plywood under the front edge but it was not big enough nor could we get it fully under the shed. Ron used the wheeler to yank and push and generally bash the shed up the slope to our back yard. In the process he managed to leave his mark not only on our lawn, but on the shed too. Nothing a good hammering won’t fix. But it was the final straw for our day. We were ready for plan G, at that time I believe.

Two days later Ron come home with Plan G, Rudy and his son David. They arrived with a long metal bar and a “come along” jack. Less than 30 minutes later, both sheds were in the back yard just where we wanted them. A man with a plan is a good thing to have around.

So here they are. Ready and waiting for our wood delivery. And for Ron to get a few tiny, almost unnoticeable dings and dents banged back into place. You remember, the ones that were direct result of his 4 wheeler use.

Thus ends our backyard gardening. Sad really, and terrible timing given what this country is going through right now. We grew so much in those years of gardening, but did not end up with the root cellar filled with canned veggies. I was really more into the dehydration process. But Ron learned a lot about growing veggies and even more about doing the necessary research to find out the best ones to grow or the ones that will sell the best. He is all about finding the new product, the one that no one else has. Which means that while our backyard no longer has a garden, we will not be without one. A simply location move will give us the chance to make some big changes for 2021. Those changes will be revealed in future posts. All I can say is that they involve a horse plowed field, an air blower, a “yet to be named” event, a whole bunch of filled out forms, and a lot of work. We will keep you posted.

Calendula Woes

Ginny Projects, ,

You would think that as calendula infused oils are the base of my soap, lotion bars, lip balm and cream that I would be very invested in the rows of flowers Tiny House Farm is growing. This year, not so much.

Behind all those weeds is my calendula. My poor, neglected calendula. We had covered the rows with a tarp to kill off the weeds and that part worked out great. When it came time to sow the calendula seeds, I had to wait for the right forecast. The rain we had in this area was hit and miss over the summer. I waited for a clear day with two days of upcoming rain. Sadly, the Weather Channel let me down. We pulled the tarp off and I scattered the seeds and then no rain. For a week. I took a quick look at my rows during every farm trip, but the plants were slow to grow and soon the weeds took over. And the real neglect started.

I could tell myself that I was busy working on the farm books and the masks and daily life, but I simply did not get out to the farm. Except when I went along with Ron to work with the shiitake logs. Which turned out to be a bad thing for me. While moving logs from the soaking tank into the wagon, I tripped on a root, fell forward and hit the wagon rail with the log I was holding. Lost my grip and the damn thing landed , cut side down, full force on the right foot. Good lord, the pain. But I managed to hold it together and we got all the logs moved and the two of us out to the road. I spent the next week or so walking gingerly around the house and trying to get my foot into a comfortable position for sleeping. It was painful putting on shoes and my work boots were the worst. But no long term damage, so I was lucky.

Here are our lovely yellow calendula flowers. Trapped and hidden by the straw and other assorted weeds. If I was going to salvage any of it, I needed to get started. Weeding, really does not make me happy.

But now there was no choice. I simply had to work on this. If I am going to have any calendula blossoms to dry and seeds to save for next year, the weeds had to go. So when Ron headed out to THF on a bright September Sunday for mushroom log soaking and I went out to weed. It got hot quickly so I swiped Ron’s work umbrella and kept working. My goal was to get one row done. Remember these rows are 60 feet long and 4 feet wide. No easy task. By 330 I was just about done with one row and was exhausted. Tomorrow was another day.

Labor Day actually, and I had the day off. So while I yanked more weeds, Ron harvested and cleaned shiitakes. It was a good day for working outside. It was windy and while I lost count of the number of times I had to chase down my hat, it was easier to work

One row and part of a second have been de-weeded. So many weeds. There was straw, dandelions, thistles and several different types of vine weeds. It wrapped itself around everything. Sometimes that came in handy by letting me grab hold of the vine and pulled out a big chunk of weeds. Also discovered we had Chinese lanterns growing in the mix too. They brought back memories of my grandmother’s house in Herkimer, NY. She had Chinese lanterns in her yard for years. Not sure if I will let them stay though. They can easily overwhelm an area. And I want and need my calendula to be the focus of this side of our field. There will be no harvesting for me if I cannot even get to the plants.

I asked Ron to brush hog the ends of each row and the far right row for me. There was no calendula growing there and I wanted to see what I just how much more I needed to get done. There was no weeding done during the week. This is the type of job that needs to start early in the morning if you have any hope of making headway. I conned our Jo into coming out with me the next Saturday and her help made a huge difference. Lessons learned – I really should have gotten the straw pulled out while it was still green. Once it was fully dried, the seeds flew everywhere when yanked. I foresee more straw in my future.

My poor calendula patch. Most of the weeds are gone but it looks very sad and forlorn. The last thing I did was sweep between the rows. Getting the last of the weeds and, hopefully most of the weed seeds further away from the planted rows. Then I took flags and marked the bare patches where I needed to make sure seeds are scattered next spring.

I then started with the deadheading process. For those not in the know, this is the term for snipping off the actual blossom. Doing this results in more flowers growing and allows me to dry those picked for later use in my products. I also harvested seeds that I will cast around the next spring. Left most of them to fall where they may. Ron wants me to lay down weed cloth and grow the plants in nice neat rows. That is not for me. I much prefer the happenstance of nature. If only I could get that result without the weeds.

Collecting the seeds is easy enough. Once they have fully dried on plant, they fall off into your hand when you tug on them. I store them in paper bags for next year. Drying the calendula flowers is a bit more complicated. You can gently pull the petals off each flower before laying them onto your drying rack. Or dry the whole flower, trying to set them upside down in the process. Either way, your fingers are going to get sticky in the process. I did a combination of both and have decided that removing the petals before drying is the better way. More work up front, but the petals dry more evenly. And once they are dry, the only thing you have to do is collect them all for storage in a large glass jar.

As usual, I made it more difficult for myself. My set of drying racks was in shed at THF and I had just left them alone to dry. As the weather got colder, I needed to bring the dried calendula back to our house. Was not sure if colder temps would effect it at all, but I was not going to take the chance. I didn’t think the logistics through and failed to bring a container for it, so I had to collapse the whole rack and bring it home as is. The dried petals had to be pulled off and transferred to a smaller tray covered with mesh. Needed to be sure everything was fully dry. In the process, I managed to dump a good chunk of the petals on the floor. I didn’t take a photo of that as it was just too depressing. Carefully picked it all up, petal by petal and let them sit for another week before I put all of it in a jar for long term storage. Or start infusing olive oil with it. If I do things right next year, I will have even more calendula to work with. The long term goal is to have enough to dry and then sell to others. That is going to be a lot of calendula. What I harvested this year doesn’t even fill a quart sized canning jar and is just over 1/2 an ounce by weight. I may have to plan holding a calendula harvesting event next year.