KW Homestead

Pasture Raised Poultry & Edible Landscaping Plants Since 2013

Month: August 2014 (page 2 of 2)

rainy day reflections

well, finally we’re getting a steady, lengthy, solidly wet rain. i feel like it’s been months since the garden swales have filled up with water, and the moisture in the air is thick and sticky (luckily the weather has turned a little cooler). as i was walking around today i noticed that everything was super wet and saturated, which can only come from a nice, long rain. it must have rained most of the day when i was at work and coming home i found muddy puddles all around the yard. the geese seemed perfectly happy in the rain, either sleeping under their tarp or swimming in their pool. the chickens, on the other hand, didn’t have a great day. since they’re not water birds like geese they look hilariously scruffy and horrible when they’re wet. they hid in their house most of the time, but came running out into the rain every time they thought i was coming by with their food.

the cement floor of the carport always starts to sweat when there is a lot of moisture in the air, and i noticed that some decorative wood slices had begun to grow a beautiful green fungus right beside the bark. this made me think about our shittake mushroom logs and whether today’s weather has given them a boost in colonization… hopefully they’ll begin fruiting soon!

n

this wood grows an extra decoration!

perhaps the greatest thing about the rain is the fact that we don’t have to water the garden! plants that are under the carport can come out for a drink and as i said, the swales filled up. so did our little frog pond right by the garden and bolt enjoyed drinking out of it as we went on his afternoon walk.

the ferns that hang in the carport get brought out for a long drink of rain water.

the ferns that hang in the carport get brought out for a long drink of rain water.

 

tonight jason and i are hearing a frog chorus that is much louder than what we’ve heard any other night.

and on top of all of this, rain is just plain cozy. it’s a time for introspection and taking it slow. i love rainy days!

.:.

Duckweed!

We finally got some duckweed! What’s duckweed, you ask? Duckweed is a tiny ,floating aquatic plant often found in lakes and ponds. It is considered invasive by some, and it will spread if left unchecked. In fact, under ideal conditions duckweed can double in size every 24-36 hours. It is extremely efficient at pulling nutrients out of water, so it is often found in small ponds with large catchment areas and runoff.

duckweed kiddie pool

duckweed growing in a kiddie pool

Duckweed can be used as both a fertilizer high in nitrogen, or as livestock feed high in protein. Chickens, rabbits, goats, horses, pigs and of course ducks will all nibble on duckweed. Fish, especially tilapia, will completely annihilate it, so it’s best to keep it away from them if you want any left to regrow. Duckweed is also used in greywater systems where it thrives on the high nutrient water, and is then composted to safely cycle the waste water.

duckweed homestead

duckweed can double in weight every 24-36 hours under ideal conditions

For now, we have our duckweed in a kiddie pool while we figure out a way to best utilize it. The goldfish in our hand dug pond have gotten a few snacks, and they love it so we need to figure out a way to keep it from being completely decimated. But we plan on using it as a supplemental source of protein for our laying birds, and as another way to cycle nutrients on our homestead. Duckweed!

Plant Propagation: Principles, Practices, and Planning

As summer starts to think about turning to fall, the season for propagating woody perennials, trees, bushes, and shrubs gets closer. This spring we planted a bunch of fruit trees and berry bushes as part of our backyard food forest. Some of these plants, especially the ones we planted later in the year, did not appreciate the dry summer we had and will need to be replaced. This can add up when you are buying plants form a nursery, and while the value of a fruit tree investment is immense, it’s nice to be able to keep costs down by propagating new plants from trees and bushes you already own.

Propagation Book

So, I pulled out an old book that we bought at an estate sale a while back called Plant Propagation: Principles and Practices. It’s a textbook for the nursery industry but also has many uses for the home orchard or permaculturalist. My copy is the 3rd edition from 1975 and I think it was 50 cents. Compared to the $132 for a new edition, I think we did pretty good, and if you are interested in this publication I would suggest buying a used copy of an older edition.

Grafting Book

try and find an older edition to save a few bucks

The book covers everything from building greenhouses and cold frames, to starting root-stocks for fruit trees from seed and grafting scion wood onto them to clone specific cultivars. It’s very easy to search the book for specific information on how best to propagate certain plants. I was able to quickly find out that layering is the best method for blackberries, softwood cuttings for blueberries, root cuttings for elderberries, and hard wood cuttings for currants. There are entire sections on how to each technique, with pictures, charts and more detail than you would ever really need to know. Each chapter has a list of less than useful scientific resources and references as well.

budding book proapgation

Easy to understand text and diagrams for every propagation technique

I definitely recommend Plant Propagation: Principles and Practices to anyone interested in propagating any sort of plant material, from fruit trees to house plants. I’d also suggest searching amazon for a used older edition to save some money on it. While it is written for a college level course, it reads easy, and is full of useful information for home gardeners and laymen. For anyone who finds themselves wanting to propagate multiple types of plants, having this book as a reference can save a lot of grief and effort.

saving greenbean seeds: strategies and thoughts

now is the time for our first planting of greenbeans to be left alone and allowed to go to seed. this means that we are simply letting the mature beans dry on the vine until the pods are brown and gross looking (when they even look like they’re molding or something… which they usually aren’t unless you’ve had tons of rain). once the pods look brown and funky, you rattle the pods to hear if the beans are wiggling inside. if they are, then the pods are ready to be harvested and the beans are ready to be removed and saved. you can see from the photo below that the beans in the ziploc bag are darker red/brown. they were collected at the right time, whereas the other beans were collected perhaps a little too soon and some are lighter in color or small and a little funny shaped. i’m not yet sure if these beans will be as fruitful as the others, but we’ll find out next year!

i also tried another experiment with bean seed preservation, which involved dehydrating (using the dehydrator) some large and tough beans that were still green. as expected, the beans did not really cure, since they need to stay on the vine until their nature-designed time for becoming viable seeds. it was still an interesting experiment, though, and i’m glad to know a bit more about curing our seeds for next year!

greenbean hulls and greenbeans, in different stages of curing

greenbean hulls and greenbeans, in different stages of curing

.:.

garden carrots–not just for rabbits!

yesterday we harvested our little bed of carrots so that we could have the space for planting more sweet potatoes. the carrot variety that we planted this year was danver carrots, a variety that i’ve grown before but i never had as much luck with them as we did this year. although we didn’t get a lot, some of them were pretty big! and considering that we never fertilized them or thinned them, that’s pretty great news!

freshly picked garden carrots!

freshly picked garden carrots!

the largest carrot was about 8 inches long… pretty exciting! these carrots are sweet and fun to munch on, and i’m glad we harvested them now instead of waiting.

.:.

chicken update!

ever since we lost primera, we’ve not had any luck hatching any chicks. our last try of 8 eggs were all failures, with 6 of them breaking before their hatching date (none of these were fertilized) and the other 2 never hatching (one of these was fertilized but it never fully developed).

since primera’s story was a sad one for us, it was amazing to visit my parents and see a little barred rock chick that is from our flock. this chick was hatched and raised by one of my dad’s broody buff orpingtons, and he (still not sure if it’s a future hen or a rooster) is doing wonderfully! he is, of course, rex’s son and also the son of one of our barred rock hens. this means he is unlike primera somewhat, who was a barred rock/buff orpington cross.

rex's progeny: first chick!

rex’s progeny: first chick, with mom standing by!

another chicken update that we have is that we’ll be acquiring 9 more bantam hens from my dad very soon. these hens are a beautiful golden/orange/black and they haven’t even started laying yet. it will be exciting to have more bantam eggs and i’m sure roosty will love having some younger hens in his flock. we’ll be moving the bantams to a separate pen in the next few weeks, where they won’t have to deal with the standards. roosty hasn’t yet been given the chance to reign as protector of a flock, and he’s a great little rooster so i’m really happy for him to have his chance without rex bullying him and his ladies.

the bantam hens that we'll bring home soon.

the bantam hens that we’ll bring home soon.

.:.

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