We got it cleaned up and set it out in the bird garden under a tree. The other lady said to put some sugar water out there to attract the bees. I have that done but have not moved the bee hive yet. I am hoping she will find someone to come help us get set up.

I am excited to have the hive and although she said it would be two years before we would get any honey, I am happy that at least the bees will be safe here.

Sheri

Tulip, our cashmere goat, has taken quite a liking to Leonardo. The two of them are stalled together, right next to the dairy goats. Needless to say the dairy goats are acting like they are really missing out, but they were the ones who wanted to beat the two smaller goats up all the time.

We have spent most of the day working on the room next to the stalls. We thought we were going to make that a sheep room - but suprise, there is concrete curbs and a metal stand in there that is unmoveable without more work than we want to invest. So, back to the drawing board. We have decided to use the room as a milking room and feed room instead.

We are considering purchasing a pair of Leicester Longwool Sheep in late July or early August once they are weaned and need a new stall area to keep them in. One is black and the other one is white.

Sheri

Sometimes nature sure suprises us. Today, as I was cutting dill for our salad, I noticed some caterpillars. I came inside to research and grab the camera. The caterpillars will be black swallowtails eventually. Needless to say I won’t be harvesting from that dill patch anymore until they are gone, that is, if anything is left then.

 I also wanted to share some photos from my garden with you.

 Sheri

Last night we brought our six month old Angora buck home. The girls, even Tulip, are being a bit pushy. The buck is rather timid and has not started showing them who is the new boss yet. He did ok in the pen overnight and is eating, but not with the girls yet. Jerry keeps reminding me this is the way it goes everytime we bring a new goat in.

He does not have a name yet. I think we should name him Loverboy! He is such a sweet little guy and after all he will have all those does to himself!

He came with health papers and is CL free. Woo Hoo! I cannot wait until spring to see what the babies he creates look like. The lady we got him from said his father was huge. She had got rid of him in favor of a white buck. His mother was a pretty good sized doe and just loaded with fiber. His fiber is so soft. Of course the first cutting is always the prime mohair.

Sheri

So far I have put up quite a bit for winter. I go out eraly every morning to see what is available to can, freeze or dehydrate for that day. Last night I was blessed with ten dozen canning jars - that makes almost 500 jars! I only need 1,000 more! I just might make it.

Here is what we have put up for winter so far - and the list grows daily.

6 half pints of rose jelly

2 half pints of rose honey

2 two pound packages of honey wheat bread

2 one and a half pound packages of honey wheat bread

1 package of orange sugar cookies

4 pacakges of peanut butter and oatmeal (mixed flavors) cookies

4 packages of dinner rolls

1 pacakage of honey spice cookies

4 pounds of noodles

3 quarts plus 1 1/2 pints of chicken broth

5 pints plus one half pint of strawberries

1 pint spinach

3 half pound pacakges of sugar snap peas

1 pint of carrots

1 pint plus 14 four ounce jars of grape jelly

7 pints of tomato juice

7 four ounce jars plus 1 6 oz. jar of lemon balm and lemon verbena jelly

1 half gallon of mixed herb vinegar which I will divide up once it is ready

1 pint black stem peppermint leaves

2 pints sage leaves

1 quart lavender flowers

1 quart chocolate mint - still filling the jar

1 pint lime balm - still filling the jar

1 pint rosemary

2 pints tarragon

1 pint oregano - still filling the jar

I have raisins in the dehydrator. I have no idea how many I will get but I am guessing around a pint. I may package these in little zip bags to make division easier.

 I am heading back outside now to see if there are anymore ripe strawberries or any vegetables ready to harvest.

Sheri

It has been a busy time here at Exotic Gardening Farms over the past few days. I have been canning more food as it comes on. I have frozen sugar snap peas, canned spinach and strawberries. My first picking of strawberries today came to five and a quarter pounds of fruit. The plants will continue to produce berries for several more weeks so there is much more to come.

We have been working in the garden trying to get rid of the creeping Charlie that wants to take over and laying paths. I cannot wait until all the pathways are laid so there are nice places to walk. The weed cloth simply became covered in weeds in too short of a time plus our ground is rocky so walking on it was difficult.

The aristolochia vine I planted when we moved in has not done much. It did bloom once, has grown a lot but there were no butterflies laying eggs on it until this year. I went out the other day to find close to fifty pipevine swallowtail caterpillars eating my plant. I am thrilled.

Tonight my epiphyllum oxypetalum has finally bloomed for the first time since I got it which was back in 1998. It has two beautiful, fragrant blooms. See the photo above.
Sheri

The severity of the storm was quite unexpected. I was preparing homemade noodles when it hit. I spent the majority of the next two days getting packages of food ready for the winter months. With gas prices soaring and rumors of higher electricity costs this winter every little bit of food that can be saved now will really make a big difference then.

I made four pounds of homemade noodles, which will not keep us long but it is a start. There is a good chance we will have the opportunity to glean a potato field later in the year. If so, I will can those potatoes to use throughout the winter.

With the roses being in full bloom and so fragrant I decided to try my hand at making rose petal jelly and rose petal honey. I had five half pints spill in the oven so I had to stop and clean it. However I did end up with six half pints of the jelly and three half pints of the honey, one of which we are going to eat now.

I then made packages of dry ingredients for breads and cookies. Later I will freeze the eggs I need for those packages so I know when the time comes to bake there will be eggs. So far I have four packages of honey wheat bread. Two of them will make two pound loaves and the other two will make pound and a half loaves. I also made five packages of dinner rolls, but we ate one already.

I cooked up the necks and backs of some of the chickens Jerry butchered as well so there would be some chicken broth to can. The recipe that I followed yielded a peppery tasting broth. I am going to mark those cans so I can dilute them later on with more broth. I set the broth in the fridge last night so today I could get the oil off easily and then we will can the broth.

I also made up some packages of cookie mix, dry ingredients only. So far I have a package of orange sugar cookies, four packages of peanut butter and oatmeal cookies with a variety of oatmeal flavors and a package of honey spice cookies.

I am keeping all of the packages of dry mixes in the freezer so there is not a bug problem later on.

I have plans to make up some more cookies, some cakes and brownies. This will make putting them together easier when the time comes and eliminate the chance we are out of one spice or the other. With the hints of upcoming shortages of flour, sugar and rice making this stuff ahead of time will guarantee we will have plenty.

An interesting observation was that our goats are in heat. This should not happen, I am told, until at least September. I do not want to breed now as the babies would be born during the winter and I for one am not thrilled about milking in fridgid weather. I spoke with a friend about it and she said this was quite unusual. She allows her buck to run free with her herd and said he was courting the does. I hope mine come into heat again when they are supposed to as I did not want to breed them until November.

 Sheri

The front flower garden is beginning to look really good, finally. The peonies have opened, some iris are open, others are just beginning, the roses are open, the heliotrope are blooming. The plants are much bigger and the empty space that usually fills with weeds, then bare soil, is beginning to fill up. I am quite pleased with the progress.

Most of the day was spent working on another vegetable garden area. The tiller quit working so it had to be taken to be worked on. This slowed the progress but even so, I am pleased that so much has been planted over the past several days. In the vegetable garden there are plants of sugar snap peas, sugar beets - I am going to try to make our own sugar, brussel sprouts, tomatoes - I have a variegated tomato this year, radish, turnip, mustard, carrots, lettuce, melons, watermelon, spinach, kale, potatoes and cabbage. Not bad so far. The new seeds that have been planted include corn - popcorn, sweet corn and flour corn, more watermelon, green beans - purple, green and yellow, peanuts, cucumbers, soya beans, flax, amaranth, African millet and more lettuce. I also planted basil, zinnia, sunflowers and nasturtiums in the garden area. With any luck all of the plants will grow and I will get a nice harvest. The addition of the flowers was for companion planting and to attract beneficial insects.

 We are slowly moving the herb garden into the vegetable garden area. Jerry is building raised beds for the herbs. Each bed will hold a different herb. This will make picking easy for people who do not know how to identify the plants. It will also mean that I can grow more of each herb which I am really excited about. Some herbs, such as mint, I can’t grow enough of.

The fruit trees and strawberries are looking great. The fruit is maturing quite quickly this year. I noticed the grape vine is going to have a lot of fruit this year as well. I planted mint and chives under some of the fruit trees last year. Today I planted nasturtiums under the apple trees.

Some things just take time and there is no rushing a garden. It develops its own personality over time as the plants mature and grow. The great gardeners of the world know this and the rest of us are learning this. Flowers have their own way of showing up in a garden unexpected. Sometimes flowers disappear or change colors. For example last year I had three pink peonies, this year I have two pink and one white with a yellow center. No kidding. Nature certainly does do her own thing.

Tomorrow will be another exciting day in the garden. It is raining quite hard tonight and so I am not sure what I will get done tomorrow but if nothing else I will marvel at the plants that are opening, admire the colors mixing and invite visitors into the garden so they too can enjoy the bounty of the season.
Sheri

The roses are bursting with buds and newly opened blooms. One of the roses I grew from seed bloomed for the first time this year. It is a rugosa rose with a lovely clear purple bloom. It is the most fragrant rose in my garden.

The valerian or as some know it, garden heliotrope, is opening. I love the vanilla fragrance of the blooms. Clematis are either blooming or budding depending on variety. The peony buds are swelling and the iris are opening. The green iris I ordered three years ago has its first buds on it. I am anxious to see what color they will really be.

Everywhere I look flowers are opening. The orange poppies are in bloom. Others will follow closely. Visitors to the garden often think the poppies are thistle but they are not. I have one last lilac in bloom as well as several other shrubs. The mock orange have big buds on them but have not opened yet. The wisteria also has large buds on it.

The hardy banana I planted last year, Musa basjoo, has come back. I have three tiny bananas coming up. Woo Hoo! The Chinese fan palm has also survived another winter here as has the camellia. When the tropicals pop their heads above ground it just amazes me.

The ornamental grasses are not at their full glory yet and are often mistaken for tall grass, especially by those who have no idea what is happening here.  I have been told it all looks like tall grass. I really wish people would take the time to find out instead of just judging.

Beauty the horse and the goats would love to eat some of my plants. I understand that goats love roses and I sure know they love trees and bushes. Luckily for me they cannot get into my main garden. They do enough damage as it is when they escape and get into the bird garden.

I love the fragrance, especially of the evening. Watching the birds is so nice. There are so many and they just seem to be everywhere. Hopefully this means I will not have a Japanese Beetle or mosquito problem this year.

I often wonder if people who start large gardens always struggle until they get it established to make it look pleasing. This has been quite the experience. I would not trade it however. I know one of these days I will look back and wonder where all the large plants came from. I think of the tiny seedlings in my greenhouse now and know they won’t look like more than a weed to most people but someday they will be the most beautiful flowers in the garden to me. After all, I am the one who nurtured them from a tiny seed into a full grown flower.

Jerry thought he had the goat fence fixed today but lo and behold, Darla found a way out, so tomorrow we will fix that. They wanted to snack on the privet hedge we cut down and put in the corner of the bird garden for wildlife to hide in.

Lisa picked me up early this morning. We went with Jackie to dig some flowers. I brought home peonies, a yellow rose, hollyhock, narcissus and naked ladies as well as two bird feeders. When we finished at Jackie’s we went to Shirley’s. Shirley gave us spearmint, bee balm, dill and sedum. After that we met John and Donna who shared some flower essences with us and starts of Oriental poppies and bamboo. It was a fun day. When we arrived back here I gave Lisa some Jerasalem artichokes for her garden.

Jerry had prepared a raised bed for the spearmint and I got busy planting my new treasures. Jerry made two additional raised beds tonight - one for dill and one for chamomile. I have decided to make individual beds for each variety of herb so I can keep them seperated and have more of them. The herbs are being moved out of the herb garden into the vegetable garden and eventually the herb garden will be a second vegetable garden.

The corn and green beans are coming up as are a ton of potatoes. I think this is going to be a really good year for gardening. Tomorow we are going to take the old siding and what is left of the new siding to the back of the house. Jerry is going to fix the goat fence again and then I am hoping he will get a chance to work on the porch. I know he has been wanting too. I would like to work in the walnut garden a bit and the dog area. There is some mowing and weed wacking that needs to be done up there. I am still debating moving everything out of that area. We also have some privacy fence to put up.

Luckily Jerry’s vacation is next week so that will give us lots of time to catch up on projects that really need completed.

Sheri