Visitor

We found a visitor in the greenhouse this morning.

See him?

And we have the first sign of spring on the first day of spring.  Granted, it was found indoors but it gives me hope.

Screw Winter

We're planting for spring!

Feeling Springish

My little purchase of spring leaves me feeling excited.  I can't wait for green life to start sprouting.

I Love Growing My Own Food

First EVER Corn!

That I've grown right out of my own garden.

And the horses enjoyed some summer sweets as well...(they've actually been chowing down on the neighbours corn all summer long.)

Reaping My First Tomato Harvest

These are the first tomatoes I pulled off my vines.

Not bad I'd say.  And check out that tomato on the left.  That's a mega tomato weighing in at .503kg.  That's award winning size!

Smut

Corn smut.  Yuck.

The disease has found it's way to my corn stalks.

Want to learn more about this fungus disease?  Here's a link to wiki explanation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_smut

This post has been shared at The Prairie Homestead

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Mine is doing well.  Some better than others.  My corn, which is a first for me this year, is just sprouting up quickly and nearly as tall as me.  I can't wait to harvest them in September.

My tomatoes are my other super fast and abundant crop.

I've even got some great big ones growing in there.  But they still have yet to turn red.

My beets are beginning to sprout from beneath the ground.

As has the few carrots that grew.

I'm still waiting on the turnip.

And the onions.  Though they are getting nice and tall.

I've got to thin the turnip out and replant as well as some of the beets.  I've enjoyed this garden so much I really wanted to startup a winter garden inside the greenhouse.  It would be fantastic to have fresh vegetables for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Bench Makeover

So now that the front area is completely clear and I have a new slate to begin decorating, I thought I would add some old tired garden benches that came with the property a new facelift and add them to the garden.

And after a fresh coat of paint.  The one in the back is the "before" shot.

They look pretty nice in there I think.

Goodbye Vine

Yesterday, during the scorcher, hubby took down the last of the monstrosity vine climbing up the one side of our chimney.  He had to go through our bedroom window to pull down most of the remaining vine.

And then crawled through my daughter's teeny tiny bedroom window to reach the roof over the kitchen.

So that he could pull down the last piece that was just out of reach.

While up there he cleared out the eavestrough which will also eliminate any nests for mosquitoes or any other unwanted insects or rodents.

So the final result is this.

Before

After

Progress So Far

In our continuing battle against mosquitoes and other biting insects, we have been busy removing all the overgrown shrubs, trees and weeds all over the property.  This is where we are at the moment. The huge mess at the front of the house which in it's glory days was once a beautiful perennial bed I'm sure, has been completely cleared out leaving me a nice clean slate to work with.

The goats have done an excellent job of clearing up the brush to their skeletons.

But still have lots more to finish.

All the overgrown shrubs in front of the bay window have finally all been cleared away.

As well as most of the vine along the chimney.  I was unable to reach the higher branches so will need to either have hubby climb up a taller ladder or onto the kitchen roof next to the vine to remove.

I actually was able to start tackling the huge forest along the lane way this afternoon.  If you look closely, you will see that one is able to actually see through the bushes and to the lane way beyond.

This is what I got from all that clearing.

And this.

It looks like I took down a maple tree but in fact, I took down about a hundred trees.  All baby trees that had been growing wild inside there.  They should have been taken down long ago because what has happened is that they ended up blocking sunlight from the full grown trees that were actually planted there on purpose.  The result is I now have three huge dead pine trees that I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with.

Our focus hasn't just been on the greenery around the house but also on the pasture.  Oldest and I mowed thousands of weeds down today as well.

The horses and sheep have been very good at grazing the grass and keeping it low, but the weeds were a different matter.

Thistle is a popular weed in my pasture.

I'm not able to mow the side of the hills in the pasture, but we do what we can on the flats.  

Not only will the removal of the weeds eliminate places for bugs to take up residence, but it will also help to stop the spread of weeds if cut down before they go to flower, as well as help to restore the pasture by keeping it healthier.  I'm really hoping in the next couple of days to have the remaining brush removed and do away with all possible habitats for unwanted guests.

My Challenge

This is the overgrown bushes, trees and weeds along the side of the house next to the lane way that is my next battle against our mosquito invasion.

Here is another section.

This is the view from the opposite side from the yard and behind my vegetable garden.

Just beyond the vegetable garden and to the left is a once beautiful rose garden that has way overgrown with weeds and has been sadly neglected this summer.

It now looks more like a weed garden then a rose garden.

To the left of the rose garden, is yet another overgrown garden behind the now empty pond.

The pond itself harbors many mosquitoes, larvae and not to mention is home to countless frogs, snakes, and I even saw a turtle down there this morning.  One would think with the number of frogs we have living here, we wouldn't have a mosquito problem.  But that isn't so.

The pond is my next huge challenge and I'm not looking forward to that.  We have been thinking all year what to do with that pond, but any ideas we can come up with have dollars signs--many of them--attached to them.

And finally this gives you an idea of how large this project is when looking at it from the lane way.  I had to paste two photos together to get it all in.

I took a good look at the area while taking these photos, determining which trees/shrubs were staying and which were going.  It is very daunting as many of the trees are obviously very old and huge and will more then likely stay.  But after the wonderful results of clearing the front garden, I'm anxious and excited to get started.

This post has been shared at The Prairie Homestead

Clearing More Brush

With all the weeding and brush cleaning, we decided to take down one of the large pine trees in front of the house.

I was able to do most of the clearing.  This was the front of the house before I began project cleanup.

This is how it looked after clearing away all that brush.

But that pine tree still had to go.  So I called in the muscle, aka the hubby.

While he went to work removing the tree, I supervised.

Haha, just kidding.  I actually did my fair share of chopping.  Me and my favourite tool, the reciprocating saw, cleared away all the lower branches so that hubs could get in with his chainsaw.  It took some doing but it finally came down.  We were shocked to discover a house behind all those shrubs and pine tree.

The bush on the left of the bay window will also be coming down, I just wasn't able to get to it with the pine tree in the way.  So far, however, we have seen a signifant change in mosquitos since clearing up the front yard.  We could actually sit or work in the area with barely a bug bite.  It was so nice.  But we are far from done.  The yard to the right of the house is our next challenge as it too has an overgrown garden that has grown into a forest.  Trees and bushes that when planted 20 something years ago, never thought in hindsight how close they were placed together.