Where family traditions, history, gardening, & nature grow together
The land is small lot at the edge of town, if you are from an actual city it would be a large lot. We do benefit from a small track of woods behind the house. Out the back door their is a lake probably 1/2 a mile away as the duck flies. A decent creek flows in and out of it and into a river that is probably a mile out the front door. The house is on top and near the end of a ridge in between the two. Located at the base of the foothills the woodland mountain plants tend to emerge here early. There is a lot of diversity here when you look at the whole ecology. At the same time most people on a visit wouldn't think much about, the landscaping and lawn are not manicured. The yard isn't to bad but is a little weedy and the bushes pruned by the deer.
This web-site is more of a journal to make improvements to growing, harvesting, and just to keep up with how it changes over time. Pictures are taken old beat up $400 Google phone. I have no relationship with sites listed or Google. I may have bought plants from some or attended a workshops and listed information from them but it is purely to able to find it again and not because either of us gain anything from it. None of the places I buy stuff from know me or that there is a website. A few links are to products that I was very impressed with and know people have an interest, so it is to show what can been done. So some I haven't tried, Like the Spicebush soap that looks art. I will be adding the Latin names but I can barely say some of the common names and much less spell them. They very important in knowing the best varieties for culinary uses, for the health benefits, and to make sure you get the plant you really want. For natives, you can add these to your yard, along a trail you might have in the woods, on a hill you don't know what to do with, and some can be added under existing plants and shrubs. You could do a planned designed landscape or think Bob Ross and just walk around a look for a spot that looks like a happy little hepatica would live and plant things at random or in a way you saw in nature and liked them. Most even do well in a pot. You can use them, sell them, share them, or just let the wildlife enjoy them.
Mid Sept & a couple days of rain have the turmeric in bloom
The bloom picture is new but the ginger and turmeric in the other pics have filled out. Issues with my phone, and storage has delayed updating this summer. I finally cleared enough old pictures to allow the new ones into the cloud. I had been uploading pictures from my phone to the site, then started realizing some were blurry so I wanted to get it to where I could view them on my computer before uploading. So that is taken care of. Next is a new phone, It has been 5 years and my cracked screen will not focus where I want it to any more. A quick update before heading out to work. The turmeric, leaf wise, seems way ahead of last year. Last year at this time a few had 3 or 4 leaves while most had 2 or 3. This year most have 5 or 6 and a few are working on 7 and 8 leaves. Still just using processed chicken manure but this week plan to start fertilizing ever 5 days up from 7. Should be able to get in an extra dose a month.
Mid March- the early woodland wildflowers
Thinking of Spring
Almost three full weeks of snow/sleet on the ground
After two days of rain melted away the last of the snow, winds have the trees swaying like autumn grasses in a field. The sun, bright, teasing as it's warmth has been missing all this month. All this leads to looking out the window and thinking of new ideas, tweaking old ones, and researching more on things already planned. Some ideas come on chance, I had read about sunchokes orJerusalem artichokes and thought about adding them in the future. Then this fall at a workshop a lady gave out sunchoke tubers, figured it was a sign to try them now(Thanks again). Other plants I come across just but reading and googling things in different ways and looking past page 1. One called Grains of Paradise was ordered this morning. It fits in being a relative to ginger and cardamom and it is used in a sweet potato and peanut soup dish. And then there are the already planned ideas in adding Cardamom and Sweet Bay though ordering for those has not opened yet.
Inside the Fence 2021
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