Catching up with the Garden and Nature

in HiveGarden3 years ago

Spring is around the corner! All the winter rains have soaked the grounds and with the sun showing itself a bit more and things feeling a bit warmer, everything has had a sudden growth spurt. The rabbits have been fattening up on the lush green weeds and grasses after the rather dull looking winter foods.

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The cock quails were the first to let me know spring was arriving as they began to crow again. The chickens and quail are now also laying again so eggs have started going out to family and friends. I'll need to start creating meals to use eggs in.

Over the last year the garden has been left to its own devices for the most part, so I'm wanting to start making a bit more effort again to get more food growing. In one of the big cages the nettles had gotten out of control. In all honesty, I procrastinate over harvesting them when I can grab things like chard which won't require gloves and careful handling. So I figured it was about time to set to work harvesting all the weeds as animal fodder and seeing what volunteers were being hidden underneath while also clearing the edges to put some snake bean seeds in. The soil in there is probably the best in the whole garden after years of chickens running in it and lots of carbon going in, in the form of straw and trimmings from the garden. It was also a veggie growing patch for the previous owners, so it had a head start.

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Progress being made in the cage. The pathway is made from emptying the straw from the rabbit cages. This will also mulch around plants as they grow.

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Some volunteer lettuces were hiding amongst the weeds, which is a boon, because I didn't have much luck with my saved seeds this year.

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The soursobs and nettles went to the chickens, because they aren't good for the rabbits in large amounts. The rest of the weeds went to the rabbits, except for the odd wild poppy or any weed I can't identify, which gets dropped back down as mulch. The chicken looking at you is called Cutie and she likes a cuddle, which is likely what she was after here. Judging by the size of her crop (that bulge at the front) she's had her fill of food.

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The chard volunteers are much easier to handle than the nettle volunteers when you want something for dinner.

I put some sugar snap peas in another cage a bit late in the season as these are a winter crop here. If I keep up the water to them I may still get a harvest, though. The beans are a summer crop, so I'm actually getting them in on time, for once.

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The nettles are also getting out of hand in the other cage it seems. Meanwhile, the peas are going to be facing some warmer days soon.

Because I've been neglectful for a while, the seeds I'm using are old or didn't get collected properly, so it's been a do or die approach to seeing what grows. The peas were several years old and slightly less came up than usual, but still plenty. Carrots can be put in most of the year in our climate and I'd had some go to seed but neglected to collect the seeds and they sat on the dead plants through heat and rain for months. I threw a head full of them in a planter in summer and only had a few take. Even they waited for autumn and the cooler weather. I've sown some more in a couple of places in the garden beds, but no signs so far and signs of lots of earwigs which will find any seedlings tasty, so I'm not holding my breath there.

I nice surprise was some coriander seeds, which I discovered had lots of little dead flies in the jar holding them and holes in many of the seeds. These were also a couple of years old, so the pests would be long dead and I felt it worth giving them a shot so planted them all out. Lots of them sprouted and I ended up having to thin them out, netting lots of micro greens for the rabbits. Nature really is incredible at finding life where it can.

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The coriander sprouting in clumps.

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The coriander thriving today after a good thinning.

A few potatoes are going in the ground, as I clear more weeds away, and I plan to go through my seed stockpile to figure out what else I can get in now it's spring.

I’m definitely seeing signs that the soil in the garden is improving. I haven't seen dandelions as big as some of the ones I've been encountering since England! The soil is still very clay laden in places, but it's getting much easier to work on the whole.

- To be continued -

~○♧◇♡♤♡◇♧○~


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Fun to read through your post @minismallholding and picture you enjoying the outbreak of nice Spring weather. While here in the high country? We may have another 2 to 3 weeks, if we are fortunate, before the first frost. How this "virtual world" makes the real world seem so much smaller ...

The nettles were intriguing to me, as they look very similar to what we find here in the wild near water. We call them stinging nettles. Why? Because they will definitely leaving you with a very unpleasant stinging sensation, if you brush up against them!

In my youth, as a Boy Scout, I passed the requirements for many of what were then called Merit Badges. One of them was for edible plants, which we passed by both identifying and then eating plants found in the mountains. One of mine was stinging nettle. I had found you could boil them in water, pour off the 1st boiled water (which softened the nettles and removed the poison in them), add fresh and boil again. In my memory, they then tasted like a sort of watery spinach ... 🤷‍♂️

What do you do with your nettles?

Love also to see how well everything is coming up and the rabbits and chickens in there amongst it all. Gotta be good for the soil, all that fertilizer. Great stuff!

Here we have the nicest tomato plants we've ever grown. We attribute this to being in the 3rd year of our "Back to Eden" adventure in gardening which I have posted about in the past. We are also very excited about this being the 2nd year of getting a new asparagus bed going. It looks like a virtual forest right now, so we have high hopes for our next Spring, when we can begin to harvest them! 😋


I hope all is well with you and yours, my friend. What we read and see here about how the "latest round" of COVID restrictions are being handled in Australia is pretty sobering. Not being there "on the ground," we wonder sometimes what is the truth ...

Take care! 👋

 3 years ago  

They are the very sane stinging nettles that you know so well! 😆 I did some research on them and it seems they've pretty much migrated across the globe as well as we have. Here the summers are too hot for them, so they grow in winter instead.

I generally use them like spinach. They aren't a bad flavour rait, it's just the stings that make them off putting to prepare. I have made a pesto from fresh leaves before as well. Blending deals with the stingers too.

Gosh, has it already been 3 years since you started back to Eden gardening! I recall you looking into it all. That's fantastic it's working so quickly. I can't do it myself due to our curl grub populations which eat the roots of the seedlings if not kept in check. I dig over each season to remove them for the chickens.

Fingers crossed for the asparagus next year. I have a couple of plants and started getting some the last couple of years. I want to make a larger area for some more.

Thankfully things are fairly quiet in my state, but we're on edge hoping that they don't start on us next. What you're seeing abroad is likely pretty accurate. You may even have better reporting on it than us, as a lot of social media tracking and censoring is happening here.

"They are the very sane stinging nettles that you know so well! 😆"

Wow. That surprised me @minismallholding. In all my life, I have never heard of it coming up in someone's yard!? Maybe you actually planted it?! 🤷‍♂️

Growing up here in the Mountain West, it is mostly all high desert country with little rainfall. So I can't imagine it coming up here "volunteer." Up in the mountains, it grows along streams, where it gets the water it needs. You must live in a much wetter climate than where I have ever lived.

All that said, great to see you make this kind of use of it. You are far braver (more adventurous? 🙂) than I, as I have been stung by the blasted stuff too often to give any serious thought to eating it ... 😉

"Gosh, has it already been 3 years since you started back to Eden gardening!"

Yep, the summer of 2019 - the first year of my retirement. I have made mistakes along the way, but I think I have learned how to manage it better and the results are there. We still have a long way to go for it to result in the wonderful soil that you can see on Paul's videos though. He said (if memory serves) that his had been in place for over 25 years. Not sure I'll still be actively gardening that far out. But ... You never know! 🤷‍♂️


Nice to hear it is quite there. Where we live it is also, but what we see on the news is very sobering. Never thought I would live to see some of what has taken place here in America over the last 1-½ years ...

Our summer was disrupted by contracting COVID-19 ourselves. While on vacation ... 😒😔 At our age, we are in the "high risk" category, but ... We survived it just fine. 👍 Never came remotely close to thinking we would end up going to a hospital.

 3 years ago  

I didn't plant the nettles, but I don't go out of my way to discourage it. We have two extremes here in SA, blast furnace in summer and a LOT of rain in winter, so the winter is perfect for them. Because some thing's can be so hard to grow, I try to make use of what doesn't mind growing, while I try to improve the growing conditions.

I'm glad to hear you weathered covid well. You must look after yourselves well. I have an aunt and uncle in the UK who had it and were quite sick, while my cousin sailed through it with next to no symptoms. I don't think they ended up in hospital either, though. I'm coming across more people who have had severe reactions to the vaccine... but we can't really talk about that for fear of reprisal...

Because some thing's can be so hard to grow, I try to make use of what doesn't mind growing, while I try to improve the growing conditions.

That makes a lot of sense. What doesn't mind growing around here are dandelions! And we are across the street from a park and there are a lot of trees in our area, so ... We have lots of squirrels (who eat the grapes off of our grapevine ... 😠). We joke that we'll still be good, if things continue to "go south," since we can eat squirrels (I have traps and they can't resist peanuts for "bait" ...) and dandelions! 😂


Well, we are in pretty good shape, all things considered. But we attribute our outcome to not "following the herd over the cliff" ... Strong words I suppose, but that is our view of so much of what we are told / "guidance" these days. We were never vaccinated.

Our own research turned up the Zelenko protocol, named after a very courageous (in our opinion, given all that he has been put through ...) Jewish doctor (Ukranian immigrant) in New York. Lots more info we came across, in support (one example), but this was the key for us. We thank God for it.

"I'm coming across more people who have had severe reactions to the vaccine... but we can't really talk about that for fear of reprisal..."

Yep. Up to and including those who have died after having it administered. But ... Who's counting ...

 3 years ago  

As with so many diseases there seeem to be quite a lot of options with regards treatment. Recently there's been a lot of talk about ivermectin for it as well.

"Recently there's been a lot of talk about ivermectin for it as well."

Yes. In our research, we found this listed as "Plan B" (my words), if you could not get access to HCQ. HCQ has been "blacklisted" in many places and is harder to get. While Ivermectin supposedly has easier access and it does have benefit.

I don't know, as we found an "underground" way to get HCQ and is shown to be better.

I have always wondered just how long the seeds we have collected stay viable. Most years, if we have any seeds left over after planting we will discard them.
With our growing season being so short, the last thing we want to do is plant seeds that don't germinate and then have to plant them again as time is of a premium.
It seems that the seeds that you have saved for longer than a year still germinate, making me rethink the idea that they are no good.
The composition of soil sure does take a considerable amount of time to change.

 3 years ago  

I have the luxury that many plants can be grown year round, so I can be haphazard about them. Having said that, I find a lot of seeds sort themselves out and grow when the season is right for them, if I plant them at the wrong time. I think my garden would be a complete failure if I only had a small window to plant things in. It's why I like permanent plants so much. 😆

I had originally planned to always keep back ups with seeds and just rotate them through each year, but I'm far too disorganised.

The garden is looking pretty healthy even if what's in there at the moment may not be quite what you want at this point in time XD

 3 years ago  

A winter of rains and some recent sunny days have really helped things to grow. It won't be long before I'm missing it and desperately trying to keep everything alive! 😅

I actually really like everything that's growing, because while we may not be eating it, it's free animal food.

Wow look how chunky that rabbit is! That coriander is growing so nicely. I’m sure it’s great knowing the soil is improving :)

 3 years ago  

He's a floofy boy! He's actually getting a bit slender in his old age and isn't as solid as he used to be. He's fluffier than most, though, so it keeps him looking chunky.

It's certainly been slow progress with the soil, but it's getting there. Maybe one day the front garden will start improving as well, although I don't do as much there, so I'm not expecting miracles.

I love his fluff :)

Yes, possible a miracle will happen for you!!!!

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Your rabbit ears have gone floppy, maybe feed them some nettles.


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 3 years ago  

Like fussy children, they won't eat their nettles.

Love seeing your garden come back to life. I have the same problem with nettles, having to take extra steps to harvest them. it never happened this year...

 3 years ago  

I'll have to try and get some photos midsummer, as it will likely be weed free, because I've all on keeping the plants I want alive. 😅

You need to be gentle with yourself. No harm in letting things slip a bit. ❤

Coriander sprouting always makes me happy - still LOVE that stuff despite it almost being served as a vegetable here. 😆

Love that "oh-oh- caught in the act" sideways glance from your rabbit!!

Nice to see everything sprouting, shooting and growing. 🌱

 3 years ago  

Most of my family don't like it, unless it's in a green curry...

There's actually some weird genetic reason why some people can't stand coriander - must remember to add that to my "post about one day" list. There are lots of good reasons to make a great green curry paste. I've been PLANNING to post about how to make a REAL green curry paste from scratch. Moving that up my list. 😆

 3 years ago  

It does have an odd, rather soap like flavour to it. I certainly wouldn't eat it on its own, but like the touch it adds to certain dishes.

Don't let me miss your post on the curry paste. I'm sure the ones I come across here are gringoised. 😆

 3 years ago  

You and I have a similar approach it seems. I lack the chickens although I won't because my yard is really too small

 3 years ago  

It started with quails for us, until we got the bigger garden. Mind you, I'm not sure your cats would go so well with chickens. 😉

 3 years ago  

It would not go well

 3 years ago  

I just remembered when I put my daughter's little lopear in with the chickens while I cleaned his cage. The chickens got nervous and he seemed to think it was funny and decided to do little runs at them, freaking them out.

 3 years ago  

I'm glad they didn't pick on him: chickens can be quite gangster

That bunny is adorable! I'm in heaven with that giant tub of coriander, for whatever reason it's very uncommon here in Suriname, even with a huge Indian diaspora. There is no such thing as too much coriander.

 3 years ago  

I'd have thought that Suriname would be the perfect climate for coriander as well! Maybe it's not to their taste. It does seem to be associated with Asian flavours. I have it coming up in other parts of the garden as well, due to it going to seed, so I've already used some early arrivals in a couple of green curries. I have to disguise the taste a bit for my family, but I need to get better at sneaking it in when I can.

Your potatoes is much beautiful, I love your garden and you have poultry too

 3 years ago  

Very cool journal entry!!

To be fair, I had seeds that I bought few months ago, and not all of them had good results, so it's probably about genetics also.

I 've read your comment to @roleerob and it isn't the first time I hear about putting nettles in salads, I haven't given it a shot yet, it has tons of benefits apparently.

I've also read what your thoughts on the situation with the V, and I have to agree with you on this.
I hope that by the end of the year, more info, data will surface about the reported deaths and averse reactions, in the meantime, I send you all the good vibes that I can, as the world is looking more and more like this

take care!