by Winding Pathways | Aug 26, 2016 | (Sub)Urban Homesteading, Garden/Yard, Nature, Trees/Shrubs
A Guest Column by Jackie and Peter Hull
When we first moved to Virginia fifteen years ago, we had no idea that the entire state was in a drought which had been ongoing for a couple of years. In order to help water the garden we wanted to grow, we decided to construct rain barrels. We had seen the master gardeners of Bedford, VA, demonstrate how to put them together.
To begin we bought four 55-gallon barrels from Southern Flavorings for $10 apiece. The faucets and pool filters added another $15 bringing the total to $25 a barrel as opposed to $75 to $100 a piece fully equipped from a company. When we modified our barrels a few years later no longer using pool filters, we had to add the cost of screening and bungee cords which made a total of $30 a barrel.
In outfitting the barrels Peter cut circular holes in the top of each barrel and fitted them with pool filters to catch debris and give an access to help clean out the barrels in the fall. About five inches from the bottom of the barrels he cut holes just large enough to insert the faucets and rings. To help seal this entrance he used caulking compound. He modified the down spout of the rain gutter to arc over the pool filter to catch the rain. The remaining barrels sat adjacent to the first barrel and each was attached to the other with a short piece of PVC pipe that was inserted from one barrel to the next so the water would flow filling each barrel. The last barrel had an overflow spout at the top pointing to the ground so once it was filled the rain water could dribble to the ground.
As we added more barrels, Peter changed from cutting holes in the top of the barrels to cutting the entire top off and covering with plastic screen and using a bungee cord. Fortunately, the top of each barrel has a lip so the bungee cord fits snugly around the barrel holding the screen securely in place. His thinking was this would make cleaning the barrels much easier. It is. To keep mosquito larvae to a minimum, we put a mosquito donut into each barrel. The screening also protects the birds which was initially my concern when he decided to cut the tops entirely off.
All the barrels sit on benches that we constructed so that the water is gravity fed to the garden through a number of hoses. Over the past several years we’ve added more barrels for a total of eleven rain barrels containing 55 gallons each for a total of 550 gallons of water collected from the metal roofed house and garage. This year we’ve emptied them twice over the growing season as we’ve had alternating rain and warm sunshine.
Winding Pathways Notes: Some people may prefer to buy rain barrels ready to install. Most large home improvement stores sell barrels as do many nature centers. Also, be aware that in some arid areas harvesting rain water is in dispute or illegal unless a person owns the water rights. These laws are changing as times and uses change.
by Winding Pathways | Jul 26, 2016 | (Sub)Urban Homesteading, Flowers/Grasses, Garden/Yard, Nature, Reflections/Profiles, Wonderment
Periodically readers send lovely essays and observations of their Wondrous Yards. Below is a poetic piece by Katrina Garner.
“One of the benefits of creating and maintaining burn barriers around prairie areas is that the resulting “pathways” provide the perfect opportunity to observe the prairies from all sides. Every morning I head out with our Lab Schatzie for our long daily walk around the property, letting Schatzie choose our route. Sometimes she startles a deer, and sometimes a turkey blasts out of the grasses right in front of us. Schatzie holds on to the hope that one day she’ll actually catch one of the hundreds of rabbits who manage to stay just out of her reach. Always there’s a chorus of bird songs, blending together like a pastoral symphony, to remind me to focus on nature’s sounds.
Capturing the essence of prairie blooms.
“I have my phone handy in case I see the perfect view for a future landscape painting. One day this past week we were ending the walk along the path between our first prairie planting and the pollinator strip next to it. The house was above us beyond the prairie. Our farm is named “Himmelhof,” a phrase coined by a friend of ours as an approximate Austrian translation for “House in the Heavens.” Seen from many points on the property, the house does seem to “float” above the prairie, and I’m particularly fond of those views of the house. At this point in our walk, the coneflowers and Black-eyed Susans were plentiful and at their peak, so I took out my phone and framed my photo to capture the “floating house” with colorful flowers in the foreground.
“A few days later, going through the recent photos on a larger computer screen, I was startled to see what looked like a ballerina with her arms raised to the heavens and her face turned towards the sun. If I wished to be pragmatic, I would acknowledge the fact that “she” was a cup-plant (Silphium perfoliatum) just masquerading as a fairy ballerina. However, the romantic in me chooses to see my prairie ballerina fairy as a joyful, whimsical reminder that I should always keep my mind and heart open to the beauty of the nature around me.
Katrina Garner, July, 2016″
Keep sharing about your lovely spaces, folks! Thanks, Katrina.
by Winding Pathways | Feb 28, 2016 | (Sub)Urban Homesteading, Garden/Yard, Nature
By Jacqueline Hull, contributor
Last fall, approaching my three-quarters of a century mark in age, I decided in my gardening life to experiment on a different level with growing vegetables. Winter was quickly on its way with its sharp spears of cold. Some seedlings, specifically beets, carrots and lettuce, would meet their untimely demise if I didn’t intervene.
So I rummaged through my assortment of planters finding an elongated one with a couple of colorful pots. I was in business! So out to the garden I traipsed with trowel in hand and a box to rescue a number of seedlings.
After retrieving the seedlings, I potted and set them in a south window where they have thrived. I even arranged some beet, carrot and lettuce seedlings as if for a floral arrangement – really pretty with various colors and types of leaves. Since then I’ve had many beet leaves in salads or mixed with steamed chard. The carrots are beautiful with their feathery spears. The lettuce keeps flourishing. One beet growing in a red pot became my centerpiece on the kitchen table over the holidays. It is gorgeous with cranberry red veins coursing through the deep green leaves.
Mission accomplished. I’ve had fun. Enjoyed great winter eats and spring is on the horizon!
Editor’s note: Following are some links to indoor winter gardening to keep for planning next fall. Washington Post. I particularly like the last sentences of this article. Vegetable Gardening Online features a vegetable tree, herbs and counter top gardens.
by Winding Pathways | Oct 25, 2015 | (Sub)Urban Homesteading, Garden/Yard
Pumpkins are amazing plants. Intriguing and delicious, they are one of America’s gifts to world food and are fun to grow and eat.
Pie pumpkins are smaller with thicker stems.
Pumpkins were domesticated and cultivated by Native Americans long before Columbus. They valued them as a nutritious food that would keep well into the winter. Not only is the meat nutritious but also the seeds are packed with important vitamins and minerals
Pumpkins exist in enormous diversity. Today, most people buy one in the fall and carve it for Halloween, or just use it as an ornament. Then it gets tossed out. Most sold for carving and decoration are field or cow pumpkins. They are edible, but the ring of flesh outside the seed cavity is usually thin and the meat is stringy and needs straining. Transforming cow pumpkins into pie takes work.
We grow and buy pie pumpkins. Most pie pumpkins are small, but not all small pumpkins are pie pumpkins. Usually pie pumpkins have an especially thick stem and are heavy for their size. Bred to have dense, non-stringy, bright orange flesh, they are relatively easy to process. Pie pumpkins may be small but they are as interesting and ornamental as the cow variety.
Growing pumpkins is a snap. Buy pie pumpkin seed and plant them in hills after spring’s last frost. Pumpkins love rich soil, and working compost into the hill will invite enthusiastic growth. We don’t even weed our pumpkin patch and only thin the young plants so there are two or three per hill. By September the bright orange fruits are ready to pick when the vines dry up.
Well cured pumpkins keep several months when stored in a cool, dry, dark place. Just don’t let them freeze.
To process pumpkin meat cut into large chunks. Place skin side up in a pan with about an inch of water. Cover. Steam until meat is tender to the fork. Drain and cool until comfortable to handle but still warm to the touch. Scoop out the cooked meat into a colander. Squash the meat through the colander into a bowl, scraping the inside and outside periodically. Store in closed container until ready to use in pies or muffins.
Although we enjoy most of our pumpkins in pies there are lots of other ways to eat them. Chunks of their flesh can be added to stew. Hollowed out and baked they can become a container for a savory soup or a sweet dessert when sprinkled with spices and brown sugar.
A favorite Yankee family pie recipe from Yvonne Fellows that has been in our family for three generations. Recipe makes two pies:
2 ¼ cups processed pumpkin meat
¼ cup molasses
¾ cup sugar
(Try Penzeys Spices for superb flavor)
1 ¼ tsp cinnamon
¾ tsp ginger
3 to 4 medium eggs to bind the meat
3 cups milk
Mix ingredients in order given. Bake in unbaked crusts: 400 degrees for 25 minutes (this gives you just enough time to clean up dishes). Turn down heat to 350 about 50 minutes or until done. Test for doneness by inserting a table knife into the center of the pies. When it comes out mostly clean, pies are done. Turn off oven. Let pies set in oven if you wish. Serve warm or cold plain or with real vanilla ice cream.
Granny’s Pumpkin Puffs from Jacqueline Hull in Virginia
Mix the dry ingredients together:
1 ½ cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ cup sugar
(Try Penzeys Spices for superb flavor)
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
Cut in ¼ cup shortening to the above
Mix the wet and cut into the above mixture until just moist. Lumps are OK.
1 beaten egg
½ cup cooked pumpkin
½ cup milk
Fold in: ½ cup raisins.
Fill muffin tins 2/3 full. Sprinkle 2 TBSP sugar over the batter. Bake 400 degrees 15-20 minutes.
by Winding Pathways | Jun 21, 2015 | Chickens, Garden/Yard, Nature, Trees/Shrubs
As we welcome summer we also begin to indulge in Iowa’s natural harvest of berries and cherries. Mulberries must be ripe because purple colored bird droppings mark lawns and sidewalks. Scat from raccoons and coyotes are full of seeds. Mulberries are great to eat out of hand and we get great laughs from the purple tongues and fingers that result from our munching them.
Black Raspberries, or “Black caps”, are ripening. Red raspberries big as your thumb fall into your hands and cherries hang tantalizingly just beyond reach on the most slender branches. If the weather stays warm but moist, we will have excellent blackberries come mid-July into August.
Squirrels and birds naturally have an advantage over humans and our chickens make sure that they clean up any cherries that escape the squirrels. But we are out with the best of them harvesting the fruits of an Iowa summer, indulging in fresh berries by the handful and freezing some for winter.
Take time to walk a trail and have fun with summer’s bounty.
by Winding Pathways | May 4, 2015 | (Sub)Urban Homesteading, Amphibians/Reptiles, Garden/Yard, Nature
The annual evening toad serenade has begun! From May into summer rural and urban folks can enjoy the loud trilling announcing toad lovemaking season. Nature’s summer music.
As amphibians, toads require standing water to reproduce but unlike many frogs they don’t need watery abundance. Toads lay their eggs in small pools that often dry up by summer. Eggs hatch quickly into tiny black tadpoles. While bullfrog tadpoles take two years to change into adult frogs, toad tadpoles are speedsters that transform into tiny hopping miniature adults by mid-summer. Often hundreds of these tiny creatures can be spotted seeking cool damp places to live.
Toads are voracious insect eaters, and gardeners delight in having them live under squash vines or tomato plants. Some people even construct tiny toad homes to encourage them to live in the garden.
We’re lucky to have a big toad living in a shed near our garden. His home is damp and cool with plenty of insects to keep him well fed.
According to the National Wildlife Federation, when pestered, toads eject a watery toxic substance from the parotoid glands. The toxin discourages dogs, raccoons or other hungry varmints intent on a meal from eating them. Few predators bother the placid toad. This bufotoxin can cause an allergic reaction in people. But humans do NOT get “warts” from toads.
Homeowners can encourage toads to take up residence. Building a small pond creates a toad magnet and maintaining a few damp places in the garden will provide toad homes. Avoid insecticides and, thus, encourage worms and insects for these intriguing animals to gorge on.
Kids love toads. When our children, Dan and Nancy, as small children delighted in watching them in our small backyard pond. Toads help transform a boring yard into a wondrous one!
