Will I be sorry?

Meet my comfrey plant.  I am not sure what kind it is.  I do not think it is a bocking 14, which they say is a sterile comfrey.

 

 

I only purchased the one because I felt that I could propagate it if it doesn't self seed this year.

 

 

It is a rather lovely plant, isn't it?  I bought it from a small, local nursery.  He had lots of people as for it last year, so he got some, but wasn't sure why they wanted it.  I told him that I was looking for a local source for it to use in my compost pile.  He said he was going to look into that.

 

 

Then, I asked at another nursery and when I did, the owner said, "why do you want a weed?  I have plenty of those by my compost pile, if you want some, I'll dig them up for you,"

 



 



I planted this one at the top of the yard near the new compost pile.  In that part of the yard, there really isn't much but weeds that grow there already.  What's another "weed"?  Only with this one, I will use the leaves in my compost pile and around my garden beds as mulch.

 



Comfrey has many uses in the garden.  I have clipped a few from WIKIpedia that explain why I wanted the plant in my garden and the uses for it.

Comfrey is a particularly valuable source of fertility to the organic gardener. It is very deep rooted and acts as a dynamic accumulator,^[7] mining a host of nutrients from the soil. These are then made available through its fast-growing leaves (up to 4-5 pounds per plant per cut) which, lacking fibres, quickly break down to a thick black liquid. There is also no risk of nitrogen robbery when comfrey is dug into the soil as the C:N ratio of the leaves is lower than that of well-rotted compost. Comfrey is an excellent source of potassium, an essential plant nutrient needed for flower, seed and fruit production. Its leaves contain 2-3 times more potassium than farmyard manure, mined from deep in the subsoil, tapping into reserves that would not normally be available to plants.^[8]
There are various ways in which comfrey can be used as a fertilizer. These include:^{[9] [10]}

• Comfrey as a compost activator - include comfrey in the compost heap to add nitrogen and help to heat the heap. Comfrey should not be added in quantity as it will quickly break down into a dark sludgy liquid that needs to be balanced with more fibrous, carbon-rich material.
• Comfrey liquid fertilizer - can be produced by either rotting leaves down in rainwater for 4–5 weeks to produce a ready-to-use 'comfrey tea', or by stacking dry leaves under a weight in a container with a hole in the base. When the leaves decompose a thick black comfrey concentrate is collected. This must be diluted at 15:1 before use.
• Comfrey as a mulch or side dressing - a two-inch layer of comfrey leaves placed around a crop will slowly break down and release plant nutrients; it is especially useful for crops that need extra potassium, such as fruit bearers but also reported to do well for potatoes. Comfrey can be slightly wilted before application optionally but either way, avoid using flowering stems as these can root.
• Comfrey as a companion plant for trees and other perennials. Soil tests confirm^[11] that soil nutrients increase in the presence of comfrey even when it is not used as mulch, side dressing, or liquid fertilizer, but just allowed to grow.
• Comfrey potting mixture - originally devised to utilize peat, now environmental awareness has led to a leaf mold-based alternative being adopted instead; two year old, well decayed leaf mold should be used, this will absorb the nutrient-rich liquid released by the decaying comfrey. In a black plastic sack alternate 7–10 cm (3-4 inch) layers of leaf mold and chopped comfrey leaves. Add a little dolomitic limestone to slightly raise pH. Leave for between 2–5 months depending on the season, checking that it does not dry out or become too wet. The mixture is ready when the comfrey leaves have rotted and are no longer visible. Use as a general potting compost, although it is too strong for seedlings

I am not really sure how well this will do where I have planted it as the area is on top of a large boulder and only has a 2 inch layer of dirt on top.  I say dirt because it is an area that I have not gotten to yet, however, I did mange to put some newly made compost from the yard and the free compost I get from the county on to it and around it and it has since flowered and seems to be doing better.

I would love to know what your thoughts are, won't you leave a comment?  Thank you.

Our visitor or pest control

 

While straightening the area where one of the water barrels was, look who I found?

 

I almost missed him or hurt him.  He was so difficult to see and was so camouflaged in the stone.

 

 

 

We have learned since we moved here that we have toads in our yard.  This year, especially, we have noticed a toad in every area of gardening that we have.

 

And I know that it is not the same toad, as I have seen several in one day in far different locations.  As well as a few different sizes of toad.  I do not have an idea what kind they are, I guess I will have to go google that, but I am glad to have this wild life in my garden, it means that I am doing something right to help support wild life.

DH wishes we had more of them to eat all the gnats in our yard!

What is it?

I was recently at my dad's, where I have a garden as well. (I'll write more about that adventure in the coming months.)

DH and I decided to make a few raised beds there and we were working at putting in another one, so I had to do some weed removal before we could put the bed in.

So, I'm on my knees pulling away the weeds and all of a sudden a tuft of fur is revealed.  I couldn't really see anything, but all I could think was, "oh no, who have I disturbed?"

 

I didn't want to reveal too much, but I had to know, what was there.

 

 

 

It turned out to be a rabbit's nest with 7 babies in it!  What on earth are baby rabbits doing being born in mid September?!!  DH said, They're rabbits!  They're always having babies!"

 

 

I was afraid to move them, but DH insisted since they were in our way.  So, very carefully, with a shovel, I dug all around the nest and move them down about five feet from where they were.  That was when I was able to see that there were seven of them in this tiny nest and that their eyes were still closed.

 

 

I looked up on the internet and it said that if their eyes were closed that they were under 10 days old.  I stayed for four days and on that fourth day, one had it's eyes open just a tiny bit and they had grown to the size you see.

 

 

 

I was afraid that the mother would not come back, but by the second day after my moving the nest the mother had done a great job of hiding her little babies again and I knew that she was coming back to care for them.

 

My DH said we should have gotten rid of them, which I could never have done, because he felt they would eat the garden and leave nothing for us.  As far as I could tell, momma bunny had only eaten one of the cabbage plants that we had let go, so it really was not a garden loss in my book.

 

I'm glad she felt it was some place safe to have her family.  Please, remind me of that next spring and summer if my garden is eaten continually by rabbits!

My lonely sweet meat

 

This is my lonely Sweet Meat Pumpkin.

 



 

Why is he lonely?  Well, out of the six seeds I planted, three came up, and then all three died.

 

So, I planted another set of six, and once again three came up.  I transplanted all three in a separate hill a piece, up by the hugel in lovely rich compost.

 

Two of the plants died.

 

The last plant has grown and flowered unbelievably.  There have been TONS of blossoms.  All but two of them were males.  I almost missed this one, it was near the end of the vine.  And, there was another one, even further along the vine, but a few days later I went back to look and that one was gone.  Or so I thought.  Upon closer inspection, it was a black ball about the size of a tennis ball.

I have never grown these before.  The reason I wanted to was because I heard they store well and taste good.

Here's to hoping.  I'll be sure to keep you posted on this one.

We've moved the butterfly bushes

 

Well, it had to be done.

 

We moved the remaining three butterfly bushes.

 

I had heard that they could be invasive.  Wasn't exactly sure HOW invasive.

 

They are SEED invasive!

 

We have removed hundreds of small plants.  Many of them had grown very well where they fell and I know that I will now have seven years of pulling them out from where they fell last fall.  I can not let them to continue to grow where I had planted them as they were not in the appropriate place for being a seed invasive plant.

 

So, they were drastically cut back, dug up and replanted to the side yard and now it doesn't really matter how many seeds fall.  I just hope they will grow as well where we have planted them as the seeds grew where we didn't want them.

 

Another lesson learned.

New deckside garden

 

If you remember seeing this potato vine last year that took over this area of the deck side garden, you can see why I thought this would be a great place to add vegetable gardening here.  This was one plant that took over the entire area.

 

 

 

DH and I worked on removing the rock border we had and then he put in oak ties (or is it tides?) to the back nearest the deck and along the front.  Along the side opposite the deck, we replaced the rock border there. 

 

Then it was a matter of going to the free composting site to get bucket full after bucket full of compost to help amend the soil at low/no cost.  I also added in some of our nearly completed yard compost and a few bags of humus.

 

I direct planted on May 9th, Gold Marie Vining Beans, Beurre De Rocquencourt, and a Gourmet mix of beans. They all began to show on the 15th of May and have been growing ever since.

 

To the front, or right side of the picture, I direct seeded spinach, then under cover I have lettuce plants from inside.  I did many seeds under grow lights inside this year.

 

And to the back are the three tomato plants that I grew from seed that our son gave us.

 

 

 

 

Our fall project for this area, is that DH will build a cold frame that will be placed where the tomato plants currently are and it will be used to grow some veg during the winter months to help extend our season in the fall and spring of the year.

 

With a little thought and planning, I am sure you too can find new places to plant vegetables or flowers in your yard.  I'd love to hear what you've come up with.





Something is eating the tree bark

This morning while on the phone with my Dear Dad, I was looking up into the yard and I noticed that two of the smaller trees, in a group of many, had the bark stripped off of them.

Now the snow has melted quite a bit over the past week, so last week, there was probably 24 inches of snow at the bottom of those trees, and not having gone out into the yard yet, I would say the bark is gone from between the 12 inches above the ground and 24 inches above the ground.

Last week, Sylvester seemed quite interested in the underneath of the deck area.  I thought perhaps one of the local stray cats was hiding out of the weather under there.  Perhaps I am wrong.

Now, I will need to put on my snow boots and investigate for foot prints in the snow, IF there are any left to be found, AND also keep a closer eye on the yard when I let Sylvester out at night.

Two weeks later:

More of the snow has melted and while I was up at the top of the yard, near our neighbors shed, underneath which the rabbits live, the sucker starts are all eaten about two feet above the ground as well.  AND there is ALOT of rabbit poop near them!

So, I am confident in stating that the rabbits had a difficult time finding food while the deep snow was on the ground this winter.

Two more weeks later:

Today I was in the garden, trying to see if I could plant some pea seeds.  In the garden were still a few Brussel Sprout plants that had been left behind in the fall.  The rabbits had eaten each one until the stalk had become a woody point!  PLUS, they left behind a fair amount of rabbit poo in the garden.  My poor rabbit friends must have been so hungry this past winter.

I have seen both of them in the yard on the nicer days last week, so I am sure they will be having babies soon, and I'm okay with that!