Gardening

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…just kidding. But blackberry harvest ranks pretty high up there. I needed to pluck those yummy morsels from the thorny canes before they passed their prime and turned to chicken food. Gardening has been one of the easiest outdoor tasks to get the …

As a gardener I’ve not experienced anything more defeating than having something out of my control ruin my crops. We’ve had disappointments over the years when deer hopped the fence and chomped on the fruit trees, or a late frost killed off some crops. This year we were over run …

We are in the midst of a thriving summer garden, with 90+ degree days, and patiently awaiting the onset of fall. Among the many enjoyments of fall is the ability to work more comfortably in the garden. Because of the strict schedule the harsh sun (and the children) keeps me …

I’ve been busy planning away for the next 2 seasons in the garden. It took very little time to realize that in order to grow the variety of crops we envision we will need more growing space. I’m not surprised we outgrew our small garden so quickly, which is why …

While doing some work on the recent bean project, I snapped some pictures of our veggies growing happily in the summer heat.   We’ve been harvesting zucchini and yellow squash for a couple weeks now. We’re just getting into the “squash coming out of our ears” phase. Interestingly, the yellow …

I decided to give a fall crop of beans a shot since I missed the mark this spring. With the unreliable weather patterns here in the Sierra Nevada mountains, I’m possibly starting a couple weeks too soon. I’m doing succession planting in case I’m too far off with start dates. …

We’ve always been conscious of our water usage and do our best to conserve water year round. In years of below normal precipitation it is imperative that we cut our usage. There’s a feeling of helplessness when thinking about the worst case scenario of our well running dry. It has …

We made a big push to get the garden going before losing too much of the growing season. Our season is pretty short normally with cool nights into early summer and they come back quickly in late summer. Even though day time temperatures get nice and toasty, the cool nights …

Now that the fence is up, it is time to get moving on the garden beds. We had built 2 raised garden beds out of some lumber a couple years ago before the fence went up. After the fence was up, I decided in order to optimize the garden space …

With the start of growing season fast approaching and the back yard area still lacking a fence (it’s a big project), we decided fencing in the orchard and the vegetable garden separately was the only option to get growing this year. This was our first attempt at putting up fencing …

With the fruit trees happy in their new home, we are in maintenance mode. The new pear and apple trees have not ever been painted and the few year old cherry and nectarine trees have little of their original coat of sun block remaining.

It has been about 8 weeks since we planted the raspberries. We’ve seen a lot of growth over the last month with the start of spring. All 10 of the canes seem to be doing well, some better than others. With the 6 inches or so of new growth, I …

I was out working on a few things this afternoon with my camera in hand and snapped some pictures of our progress thus far this year with our fruit. It is a few days into May and we’ve had a mix of weather since the official start of spring: temperatures …

In early March we had an unusual stretch of warm, beautiful weather. We decided to take advantage of it and got our raspberry babies in the ground. The plot is a space we were on the fence about for some time. It is prime real estate right off of the …

This is a fun DIY project and probably my favorite recycling project yet. I had no hand in this project as my hands were busy with our newborn baby. Husband and Dad tackled this project one afternoon and I couldn’t be more pleased. I love the convenience of having waist-high …