We're back from vacation!

Sorry for the incredibly long period between posts! Taylor and I have been gone for the past two weeks on a wonderful trip all over the south east. The highlight of the trip?

We went caving in Georgia! Last year I got a $1000 grant from the explorer's club to learn about human impact on cave ecosystems. This was our first time trying out our vertical gear as we prepare for our big trip later this winter.



It was sad being away from the garden for so long, but Dennis and Philip took care of everything while we were gone. All was well upon our return!

Blackberry

We're trying to add some more perennial kinds of plants to our garden, and started with a blackberry! We're keeping our hopes up for some warm, sun-kissed berries at some point.

Hand-fed

We've discovered a fun new past time.



Hand-feeding our chickens. Except for Princess (Saleighna's chicken). She pecks at everything but the feed, and it hurts.

New beds

So a while back we added a new 16' x 4' bed by simply loosening up the soil, adding compost, and layering with hay mulch. It's much much cheaper than installing raised beds, but doesn't offer quite as much loose soil. After liking the results of the first bed, we've since extended it an additional 8 feet, for a total of 96 square feet.



We've added more collards, some tomatoes, gourds, and squash to the bed. The tomatoes are kind of a gamble, but if it doesn't work out, we've only lost six seeds.

Our plans include at least three more beds of this size by next spring.

Miura's Nest

Even though we can't feel "marbles" in Miura's tummy (a sure-fire way to detect rabbit pregnancy), she's showing plenty of signs that she's getting ready to give birth. A rabbit's gestation period is only 31 days, and she's been with Toby since mid-August. We're definitely not sure of it, but she's nesting, which is a good sign.



We've seen Toby attempting to mate with her, but we're not sure as to whether or not he's actually done the act. He's still a little young, so we've definitely got high hopes---- it'll happen eventually. Either way, Miura is pulling out the hair on her chest to line her nest, and pulling in a bunch of hay and grass too, both signs that baby bunnies, known as kits, might be on the way.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

.... er.... smell like Christmas.

This morning I walked out into our garden, and noticed something awful.

Do you see what I see? Check out all of those gray spots all over the bean leaves.



I picked out for analysis, and searched the Google machine to see if I could figure out what was wrong. I came to the conclusion that it was some sort of fungus, and it was quickly spreading. It definitely wasn't there (or at least not nearly this noticeable) yesterday, because I was looking for flowers on the beans.



After a few moments of panic, I decided on a plan of action. I had heard from a couple of places that cinnamon is a very effective fungicide, and a completely organic alternative to chemicals. I grabbed a bottle, and dashed to the garden.



I sprinkled all of the infected beans, and to be safe, doused all the other beans in a generous shaking as well. It smells like gingerbread out there.



Hopefully this takes care of the problem, but I'm still a bit nervous.

So many books needing a home

Last week, Taylor and I noticed that there were stacks of books everywhere. We've checked out over 30 books on gardening from the library, and had a decent collection ourselves to start with. Things were just way too crowded, and we decided we needed a better method.

Incidentally, we also had a pile of scrap wood left over from the picket fence we built for our chicken run. Because it was pressure treated, we couldn't really use it to build vegetable beds or a beehive.

Suddenly, we had a moment of insight, which resulted in something really awesome.



It was a fun little project, and it only took an hour. I love looking at our wide variety of interests represented on the shelf. There are books on business, gardening, cars, knitting, art, architecture, beekeeping, and herbs among other things.