Monday, March 30, 2009

Did I actually say on Tuesday that I "didn't care" about the weather??? No wonder it rained and sleeted and snowed on Saturday. It warmed up Sunday and now the gardens and yard is so darn wet...thank goodness we're on a hill here at GBH Farm so it will drain quickly...I have dandelion root to dig.


There is a little female cardinal camped out in a bush at my front window. Saturday, yes during the storm, we heard this tiny little thump-thump and thump again. Yes, she's throwing herself against the window pane. For three days now. She's like a mail carrier, nothing stops her. We've shooed, tapped, shouted and meowed (Professor April McGonnagal is involved) and still she throws herself at the glass. We've put the blind up and down, turned the lights on and off; even her bright red handsome husband has flitted and chirped and still she continues her ritual of self-destruction. I hate to call her a bird-brain, but come on now sweetie, STOP IT.
Now, back to the dandelions. You would be hard pressed to find a better SPRING tonic. Dandelion is good for your complete digestive system, kidneys, urinary, immune, lymph..oh my I could go on and on. I am still on a campaign to convince folks to STOP hating the dandelion and susbsequently, stop poinsoning themselves and save money. What a combo. USE the dandys in your yard instead of buying chemicals to pour, sprinkle and spray. Check out the dandelion article on my website for starters: www.GBHfarm.com. If you have more questions, shoot me an email or find me on facebook: Elizabeth Wenig. Have a monumental day :) e

Friday, March 27, 2009

It's sleeting. You have got to be kidding me. Trees are budding out, bulbs are blooming and our water garden fish are awake and hungry. So help me if it freezes I am going to do unspeakable violence to P. Phill, that fortune-telling, narcissistic groundhog. My daughter told me that in like a lamb, out like a...you know...trumps the groundhog thing. I don't think I have enough hutzpa to take on a lion, so I'm sticking with the groundhog.

My husband bought me the most wonderful garden tool. It is a like a super skinny shovel. I have problems with my wrists and can't work hand tools with any level of proficiency, but this thing works like a charm. I have been digging up dandelion root to make oils and tinctures (good stuff) and I am amazed at how easy it is. Thanks, Gary, you're always thinking of me.

The worms are doing GREAT. A few "escaped" and I worried they didn't like the cayenne I fed them, but I dug around and they all had smiles on their tiny little faces. The web (that ethereal know-it-all) says they don't like onions, but it never said anything about peppers.

Well, I have a bucket of roots to clean... have a monumental day...:) e

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Spring sprung?



The artificial sun is shinning, several of them in fact, so what do I care that the wind is cold and the rain is falling in spite of the calendar's assurance that spring is here? Thanks to my handy-dandy husband's carpentry/engineering skills my herbal seedlings are growing in the basement blissfully unaware of the weather outside. This is a shot before I separated and transplanted them. I can't bear to "weed" them out, so I save all of them. Makes for an extraordinary crop!




I mustn't complain as we have had monumental gardening weather for several days that has enabled me to start cleaning Green Blessings Farm beds and even plant a few things. I am overjoyed at the new plantings who made it through the winter: valerian, elecampagne and some "wild ones" burdock, mullein, plantain. Last year we put down ground cloth to help control weeds. When we purchased the property it was OVERGROWN with weeds and it has taken several summers to get a handle on them without using herbicides. But, the ground cloth did not let enough water through, so I ripped up the cloth around the plants and just left it in the pathway. I found a golden treasure under part of the cloth...carrots!

Farmers Market Managers did not see their shadows and are getting the contracts in order, a sure sign of spring. Let the summer season begin!!

My husband and I are trying to eat more vegetables, but not for obvious reasons. My little worm farm is expanding; literally eating us out of house and home. OK, not really, but, wow, can they eat. They are busy creating castings as fast as they can chew. I love "making soil"! My herb and flower beds are crawling with earth worms; at last the conditions are right and the dirt is supporting life!!




I participated in a Health Fair last week with the help of my daugher. I think she was a little bored and I so appreciate her willingness to help me out. Isn't it great to have support? Here's a photo of our booth. My new skin care and candle line did very well...must have been that NO CHEMICAL INGREDIENTS thing! Check out all our new products on at GBHfarm.com




Sunday, March 8, 2009

It's time...

Ahhhh, March has to be the flagship month for GREEN Blessings, to say nothing of my Scotch-IRISH lineage. I had the urge to plant seeds a couple days ago on the fifth so I dug out my garden journal and, lo and behold, LAST year on March 7th I planted seeds!! I guess once the calender flips out of February, my dormant compulsions wake from their long winters nap, rub their little fists on sleepy eyes and walk doggedly toward seeds, earth and trowel. I started by exploring a small round leaf-covered bulge (that looks suspiciously like an ancient elf burial mound) under my beautiful crooked apple tree.

Last fall after winter came knocking with frost I had several flats of tiny peat pots "left over" from summer planting adventures. I kept putting them on my potting table (a wonderful octagon picnic table under aforementioned apple tree) to dry out and every single time it rained. After several days of this, even I was discouraged and unceremoniously dumped the lot into a wet sour mess under the apple tree. Let nature do what she may with them, I was DONE.

So, three days ago when the spring seed bug bit me, on a fluke I decided to check out my peat-pot mound. I scrapped away the leaves as carefully as any CSI agent and discovered tiny peat-pots strewn and piled in heaps as if someone had carelessly, thoughtlessly tossed them out--as indeed they had. I picked up one and sniffed...no sour smell here. Sweet as a newly plowed field. I picked another one...sweet....another. Then I saw them. Squatters come to claim this fertile patch. Homesteading as if they intended to stay for generations. Worms. Not just any worms, EARTH WORMS. Joy effervesced up through me to the point that had my neighbors been listening, it would have confirmed what they have long thought...I'd lost it.

As gardeners know and the rest of the world would if they would just listen, earth worms can work magic in the soil. And, they had. Now, my little peat pots not only smelled good, they were replete with castings...the magical part...the part that helps things GROW. So, I garnered enough for two big flats--I'm anxious to see how much better seeds sprout than in "normal" peat. I'll keep you posted!! Gotta go....seeds calling. :) e
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