Farmfresh's Thunder Ridge Garden Journal

I live in Missouri. Zone 6 is what it is supposed to be, but often it is more like zone 5 and we are on the edge here so that is what I go by.  We have 3 acres most of it is fertile black loam except for the hill in the front yard which tends on the clay side.  We are high and flat here on the top of the hill and tend to have wind issues. 

The entire property has been neglected for many years and we have been cleaning and clearing since moving in in Sept 13.  The front of the property is technically a highway easement for the state, be we can basically use it as we choose.  The front is a rather steep north facing and more clay area.  Currently it has several neglected mature trees on the easement side.  I did plant a native pecan on the part of the easement closest to our true line this summer.  Hopefully it survived the winter.  

Where our proper line is we have a lilac hedge that was planted several years ago by my daughter.   I planted three elderberry bushes and several red raspberry plants along the west line this year.  I also planted a shade entry garden this year.  The front of my house is hard to garden because it is on the top of the hill and faces due north.  We get a lot of strong cold wind and little sun there.  

Our east line in the front is a hill full of storm damaged messed up scrubby trees.  They line the driveway on that side and need to go. 

The backyard is where most of my proper gardening will happen.  I started it this last spring by planting a row of currants along the west line of the yard.  I have also been planting some new fruit trees.  So far I have a Stanley dwarf prune plum, a dwarf Rainer cherry, a dwarf Bing cherry an a semi-dwarf Montmorency cherry.  This spring I have a dwarf peach and a dwarf nectarine coming.  I am also plan to be transplanting a grape from our old homestead this spring.  

My gardening has taken a lot of twists and changes over the years.  Since I have physical issues I do a lot of container gardening.  Hopefully this year I am also going to add a raised bed to the garden as well.

Sometime this month I am supposed to be getting two more fruit trees. I am buying them from Starks. I am buying a dwarf Reliance peach and a dwarf Mericrest nectarine. Once again the plan is to plant these in the same spot and grow them on as a multi trunk multi fruit tree.

I also need to go to D2's and prune her grapes and dig one of them that she wants gone to move to Thunder Ridge.

It is also time to get busy and get my seed orders in for the spring. I was going to do that sometime this last week, but the week got away from me.

I know that feeling!

I took a bit of time and at least got a few seeds ordered yesterday. I also ordered some leek plants even though the Kid and I planted leek seeds the other day too. Kid keeps wanting to mess with his "garden", so those seeds are going to be fighting an uphill battle.

Farmfresh wrote:I took a bit of time and at least got a few seeds ordered yesterday.  I also ordered some leek plants even though the Kid and I planted leek seeds the other day too.  Kid keeps wanting to mess with his "garden", so those seeds are going to be fighting an uphill battle.  

We have wild leeks around here, called ramps. They are very strong flavored, and stink to high heaven when cooked, and even worse when you belch after eating them. I know several places where they grow. Most of them are near old homesteads long gone. This makes me think that they were cultivated at some point in the past, but all of mine and dad's attempts to do so have failed.

I will be interested to know how your cultivated verity turns out. I may have to buy some at the supermarket and see if they taste anything like the wild ones. Sense they (the wild ones) are getting harder to get because so many people dig them.

God bless,
Chad

No tame leeks are mild. Almost more like a giant green onion. They make great soups, stews and casseroles and dehydrate really well. I have grown them in the past. They require plenty of water and a good deep loose based soil. Raised beds work best.

Here is a picture of my Sage dog (excuse his glowing eyes) and some leeks that I grew a couple of years ago. (the summer of 2013)

I never grew leeks although my daughter mentioned it a few days ago and was wondering how to use them.

Your dog Sage is beautiful FF.

Thanks Rohn!  He is a great help to me as well.  I was talking to hubby just this morning about how wonderful it is to have a service dog like Sage.  

One of his daily tasks is to open up the chicken coop for me in the mornings.  On a cold day like today especially, when I wake up barely able to move because I am so stiff, it is a wonderful blessing to send him out into the cold to do that chore.  Much better than me needing to go out and do it or needing help from another family member to do it.  Even days when I am moving fairly well, he saves me lots of steps everyday by retrieving the things that I need. He is definitely a blessing.

Is he a German Shepherd? He looks like it. We have had several GS dogs and they are very intelligent.

His mother was German Shepherd and his dad was supposed to be Husky, but more likely Husky/Malamute mix.  Sage is 30 inches tall at the shoulders so that is why I think the Malamute must be in there.   We have had him since he was a little puppy and I self-trained him for his work.  



We used to raise, train and show German Shepherds when I was a kid.



Now he acts like my living cane on bad arthritis days in addition to performing a multitude of tasks for me around the house. Oh and yes... he is wicked smart as well as very compassionate.

I love that one pic of him. He's adorable in it.

He was one cutie patootie of a puppy.  

You can see even back then the intelligence and how much he wanted to please in his little eyes.

Seed order from Baker Creek arrived. I got some interesting seed this time. Most of them are for the Kid to plant this summer.

I got Titan Sunflowers to plant around one of our tree stumps in the backyard and some Runner Beans (Barnside Sweet) to plant on poles around another of our stumps. The idea there is to make the Kid a bean teepee to play in.

I got a packet of Rattlesnake beans and another one of Snow Cap beans to plant along the fence.

For our container barrels I got more seeds for the Kid. First a Green Bush Zucchini that will be grown covered all season. I have a horrible squash bug problem around here. I also got him some soy beans called Envy for snacking on green and boiled in salt water. Finally I got a packet of Tennessee Red peanuts. (thanks for the idea Chad!)

I already have lots of seed for other things. I will be growing okra, tomatoes, peppers, and even some sweet corn this summer.

Sounds like the Kid will be having a ball playing in the dirt this summer. I hope the teepee grows well a he has fun in it.

I haven't even thought about my garden yet, I better get busy and plan. I'm not sure what I'm planting yet or if I need to order any seeds.

Your welcome FF, but it was Not me that was talking about growing peanuts, it was Keith. lol.

Sounds like you have some good plans. And thank you for mentioning sunflowers. I forgot that I was planing to get some this year for seeds, for the chickens and young'uns.

I think the Kid will be very impressed with growing sunflowers.  He likes to build Lego towers that go... as he says, "up and up and up".  

He also likes to watch for cell phone towers when we are driving after we had a talk about them one time.  There are about a dozen cell towers and a TV/radio broadcast tower between home and my hubby's job.  We were driving down there to meet hubby for lunch one time and Kid kept seeing the towers.  Now it is a big deal to watch for them.  

My idea for gardening with the kid this year, is to grow lots of things he would like to snack on.  Last summer he would watch our cucumbers, which I was growing in a couple of my container pots.  When they were big, he would carefully twist and twist until they picked off and then race to the hose bib and wash it off, then bring it to me to break it in half.  

That little booger would eat half a big slicing cucumber at a time when he picked it that way.  He also loved to "snack" (although it was more like eating meals ) on cherry tomatoes, green beans, raw beets and carrots.  No problem getting him to eat his veggies when he could harvest and eat them in Uma's yard!  

I figure that peanuts, edamame soy beans and sun flowers will make nice additions to his summer diet.  

I definitely saw how having my son help with the garden and have his own plot made a big difference in what he was willing to eat. He's still got a bigger and better variety of foods in his diet then many of his peers at 16 years old.

Any time my girls will not eat there veggies all I have to say is "they're from our garden" and they will eat them up with pride that they helped grow and harvest them.

Don't tell them, but sometimes I use that trick even if they are not from our garden.

Hey what they don't know won't hurt them, whatever it takes to get them to eat a healthy balanced diet is ok in my book.

I'll be growing a bunch of sunflowers this year in my chicken pen. I figure it will help give them some shade as well as some food.

I grew some millet around the edge of my chicken pen one year as well. When the seed heads got mature I just broke them over one at a time into the pen.

When I grew them for my chickens they wouldn't eat them. I tried hanging the flower head in the run so they could peck them off but they wouldn't. Then I tried feeding them off the flower head and they still wouldn't eat them so I just let the birds have them.

Birds gotta eat too. lol

I got some surprises in the mail. The other day I got my order from Territorial Seed. It is mixed onion and leek plants, 25 plants each of three onion varieties and 25 leek plants. It should work out nice. Then, today, I got a package of seeds that were sent from a friend. It has several varieties that I have never grown before like lupines and poppies. She also sent me some soap-wort roots.

Kid and I also bought some purple seed potatoes on our last trip to the store. They are Purple Majesty variety.

The sun is starting to shine here. Hopefully we can get planting soon.

Yeah for surprises! Hope it warms up so you can get everything planted.