Heartland Homestead TV Tour

I've been spending a lot of time writing my blog in my head. Just relaxing, watching Spring develop, noticing the daily miracles in my yard and being overly enthusiastic about not doing anything. In spite of my determination to "not garden" this year, to take a fallow break, I'm finding myself itching to dig...push the dirt around and for Pete's sake...weed. But...I'm a control freak if nothing else...so my yard is looking wild. And, that's okay...for me...for now.

Loving spouse and I were married the Sunday prior "Spring Break" 9 years ago this year. But, he's on the fast track to finishing up his PhD...so, I decided to take a drive up through the heartland to visit some good family and folk and give him time alone to study and write. So I loaded the car with lots of country tunes and a book or two on CD and hit the road, knowing full and well that I was entering storm central and would be leaving behind my blessed roost, and latest obsession... just as the apricot and peach trees were dolling it up and my wine and cheese iris's were ready to burst open.

The first stop was DeSoto, Kansas to visit my Mother. Who, at this time in her life has downsized to the bare minimum so we headed over to North Kansas City, just off Lister to catch up on some homestead TV Uncle Clyde style. My Uncle Clyde has about 2 acres right in town that he's been working on for years. This was the first time though that I'd been able to see the famous Wild Turkeys of Lister Rd...as written up in the Kansas City Star (that's what I are...humming along with Roger Miller) a few years back. Clyde feeds 'em corn because they're just too awesome to ignore and man does it make the TVin' amazing!

There are about 15 hens and a dole of 5 bachelors, here are the 'dudes' that just wondered out of the woods and right up to the house.

Clyde just broadcasts the corn...you can see some in the empty bird feeder...and they mosey on up. Beautiful, Beautiful birds.

My shutter speed was too slow to catch 'em in the birdbath but this fellow posed nicely. Check out that beard!

Clyde can do anything...really. He was an electrician by trade but he has more hobbies than I and his yard was a wonder for me as a child. He always had a huge vegetable garden and pets and standing out there in the sun eating fresh strawberries and tomatoes warm from the vine are some of my fondest childhood memories. This little playhouse surrounded by some 32 black walnut trees was build for his grandchildren.

This is the view of Homestead TV at Clyde and Jane's from the back porch. His property extends just beyond where the land dips down into a creek.

Uncle Clyde and Uncle Art, seen here with Repugnican beer...for shame...he clearly ran out of Gin. A few years back Clyde tried his hand at making some plum wine...not such a good story. But, he's fearless and will try anything, both of them are wonderful role models for sure.

I should've taken more photos at Arts place outside of Oceola, Missouri (Missoura, for those in the know...Misery for mother for some unknown reason.) Arthur Ray and his buddy Omer share over 80 acres of pristine duck hunting property that is magical in any season. The variety of trees and birds and wildlife (including the folk around the fire pit) is amazing.
The story telling, unbeatable. Art has a laugh that is robust and contagious and if you're ever honored to meet him, ask him to tell you the story about "Marcy and the Llama." Better than Prozac, a few days with Uncle Art is (insert Yoda giggle here.)

We headed over to Francis's farm on the other side of the river for a bit and I ended up taking too many pictures because the animals stole my heart! She has around 40 chickens (she thinks) cows, goats and...

this is "Fanny" her rescue deer that keeps coming back.

Country Road take me home....

Here's ole' Omer about ready to fall on a goat, good grief. Omer's got his own luscious spot but the day simply ran out on us.

Care to add a caption to this beauty!

I wanted to dive in too. There's hardly anything as cute as baby goats and I love the sweet sounds they make.

Francis's homestead TV perch.

There's the old stinky Billy Goat that's gotta be kept from the mommies and babies, isn't he handsome?

My visit to the north Ozarks was far to short, and it was dang cold unlike years in the past at this same time...what a winter we've all had. I got to the Homer/Brunson homestead late in the afternoon, just outside of Stillwater, Oklahoma. Early enough to grab a brew and take in the long shadows and watch the kids play in the sandbox.

Here's a nice view off the back porch...one of 4 wild chicken flocks that roam their 21+ acres. Dana used to have goats, milked 'em twice a day but she's taken on a position at OSU so they're part of a prairie-coop and they sent me home with a gallon of raw milk and kefir grains to get my own kefir started. They've got bees! mmmmmmmgooodhoney!

This has got to be one of the nicest perches for homestead TV, I've seen. Dana's the one who coined the term, I was calling it "backyard TV" before, but even though we're on a lowly urban lot in Austin, we're still homesteaded.

And, here's my buddy Homer. Homestead TV guru, brewer, unschooler, bluegrass musician (currently in Austin to play with the old Waller Creek Boys) and all around good guy. I went to school with Homer, worked with him at "Hideaway Pizza" in Stillwater, and he and the Waller Creek Boys played at my backyard wedding. It was a mighty fine visit!

I got home around dinnertime, and spent so long gazing at the amazing color that turned my yard lavender and spring green while I was gone that those dag-nab flies tried to hone in on my home brew! It's okay though, I share...it's one of the principles of being a gardener, which is synonymous with being good folk, or a dedicated Homestead TV fan.

Special Thanks to all the folks that made my trip up through the heartland a blessing.

Coming soon:

A Homestead TV Meditation Manifesto

and...

other adventures in living a good life.

Happy Gardening!

Hope Springs...Eventually

Yesterday was glorious. By the time I reached the bottom of my first glass of wine the indentation of my socks around my peaked ankles was gone and I was soaking up the sunshine.

I've been honing my latest meditation "Homestead TV" now for over 2 months, rain or shine and I've come to a few conclusions about how I feel about my garden. First, let me explain the nature of Homestead TV. I come out to the very back corner of my yard, book, journal, libation and chicken scratch in hand and I let out the critters for a minimum of 2 hours, that's four chickens and 2 bunnies...after the Boston Terrorists have been safely secured in my bedroom with their own treats. Oh, I grab my camera as well...when I remember. Then I sit, and observe the space. What's growing, what's the weather like, where's the sun, what's coming back...what's a lost cause...what the heck is that crazy chicken doing, are those rabbits trying to mate...wait they're sisters! And so it goes. The girls join me when they get home from school with a snack and devoted spouse sometimes shows up with a 6 pack of delicious IPA and it's wonderful. Before the crowd happens I take note of what birds are visiting and what subtle changes the thawing brings.

Things of interest...well to me: My uncle Clyde sent me 2 bluebird houses he made a few years back that have sat empty until Monday. We now have a Chick-a-dee couple taking up residence in the one we installed at the pitch of the chicken coop. The sedum in the window boxes made it through the winter! Without being watered? Wow. 3 of the plants in the paint cans survived without attention...I thought the metal would conduct the cold and freeze the roots...? Go figure. I'm ready to eat my chickens that are not producing eggs. I never thought I'd do that.

Last week the city came and took out a huge portion of my American Elm, they said it was too close to the wires...it was covering them up, which is why I liked them. Anyway, they were nice enough to tie my tire swing back up, and did a better job than I. That tree doesn't have much longer to live and it's really a shame because it's the home to a pair of Ladder Backed Woodpeckers and many, many squirrels. I put up a Screech Owl Box, but no takers so far. I thought I had a pair early last Autumn but they were just short term-renters I guess.

Onto my realization. I need a break. Some time to absorb the changes that must take place because I simply don't have the time, energy or desire to maintain my garden like a city-wide tour is next week. I'm going to do the necessary Spring pruning (it's underway) and put some Turkey-poo on the St. Augustine and aerate the poor damaged minuscule lawn...it still hasn't popped back. I'm going to transplant a few things that look ridiculous where they are, straggling among nothing else that lived and I'm going to throw out, yes THROW OUT seeds...maybe the chickens will eat them, maybe they'll work 'em into the soil...I don't know. But, I have way too many seeds and they're just going to go to waste waiting for me to make up my mind...I'd rather have the space. Something else I've decided...I'm tired of dealing with indoor plants. So, I'm going to need to find new homes for them...though spouse wants to take a good portion of them to his office. A few sentimental ones I'll keep...like the new Orchid my daughter got me for Christmas, that is STILL blooming. I love Orchids.

Anyway, I feel better about everything now. The bees and birds are back and I think we've found a system that will keep the chickens safe. I will be planting veggies...that's not an option, I can't live without fresh greens and vegetables. I hope the fig tree makes it...only one branch is sporting baby buds.

I'm excited about the process of letting things rebound. I'm over grieving for my lovely lost yard and energetic about the long sit. Sound contradictory? Naa, "Meditation in Action." A lot of watching and wondering, still an enormous amount of spring cleaning. I'm keeping a journal of what is truly Texas hardy...I didn't cover anything up but my eatin' greens so what lives is a true Texas winner...and those will be the plants I'll use in the yards I design.

You'll get to work now! Happy Gardening!

Hibernation in Progress

I think it was November '09, the last time I bothered to join in the GBBD share, concept by Carol of May Dreams Gardens up in Indiana. This clear blue sky shot was yesterday in my backyard, it was around 60 degrees for a few short blessed hours and I was out in it, sun dressed...soaking up the rays, collecting some vital-vitamin D and thanking Mother Nature for the reprieve. Damn. Last summer had me thinking I'd moved a tad too far south and this winter has me researching the likes of Mexico for a new home. I'm a sensitive being...I used to think of myself as a sunflower, a weed...able and willing to grow anywhere, so long as I could turn my face to the sun. Not true, I'm more like an Ocotillo...prickly, blooming only for rain, cold bare and stiff in the winter. Man, I hope my Ocotillo is still alive.

For the past 6 weeks or so I've been forcing myself to sit in the yard, and allow the chickens and bunnies some 'play-time' while I listen for and identify my backyard birds and journal. My girlfriend Dana calls this "Homestead TV." I haven't felt the urge to move around, yank out the death, prune, turn the compost...nada. And then, Valentines Day...sunshine, clear skies.
Bobble the bunny

Since I was back in the corner when the sun came out, peeling off layers of clothing, I got restless and began moving things around and taking stock. I had nearly 35 plants in that corner for the garden tour and now less than 10 remain. I'd decided to give it all to the animals...watching them devour what was left after the winter. Ooops, maybe that was the wrong thing to do?
Blanca, high stepping it back to the coop

The chickens and bunnies like the same food. They've been nibbling the roses, Buddleia, Coral Berry, parsley and anything new and tiny...just coming up. They avoid the Powess Castle, which I thought they'd eat...hearing somewhere along the line about it being a natural de-wormer. But after a little research found that the some 400 varieties of Artemisia are used for damn near everything but had nothing to do with worms even though they are commonly called 'wormwood.' In fact, they're most often used to ward off fleas. Note to self: chop up that Artemisia and shove under the sofa, under the rugs and anyplace else for upcoming spring invasion!

Leah and Blanca

The bunnies have been sharpening their teeth on the tough stems of the Cast Iron Plant...and I was letting them! I need to move the Buddleia and Oleander out of that area and figure out some natural/saving scheme for everyone involved. Anyone out there know what chickens and bunnies won't eat? It needs to be native and winter tough.

The Winter Greens-Garden: Brightlights Swiss Chard, Arugula, Culinary Sage, Onions, Red Lettuce, Beets, Mustard and Winter Savory.

Thank goodness for my greens garden. I didn't do a thing, except leave the leaves that got caught up in there for insulation. They've kept me alive this winter. I read Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" the first week in January and was so moved that I made a promise to shop at the farmers market on Wednesdays, and eat only humanely raised animals and food from my yard for a year. This patch has been keeping me alive.

I'll be sorry that I didn't cut the Fall Aster back, the seeds have been spread all over and I see the new growth coming up through the crushed granite and in the yard!

What hasn't turned to brown slime or sticks in my yard looks like this Fall Aster, which I think is beautiful...though dangerous. I was really expecting to have more blooms to talk about than the next 3 images. Inside my orchid is still blooming, since Christmas! But, my yard has taken a mighty blow. I let it happen. I'm hard core. I pulled in the potted plants but didn't rush to cover/water/labor over pre-freezing conditions. So, in a way it's all my fault...but not really.

Hallelujah Hymenoxis!

You know, I bought one single Hymenoxis at the old Tex-Zen Gardens that used to be on Burnet road, it was labeled "Desert Flower" and I didn't learn her real name until a few years ago. She's my favorite hell-strip plant and I'm just so amazed by her ability to bloom in every circumstance. I wish I were more like her.

Upright Rosemary, is there a time when it doesn't bloom?
My giant rosemary was covered with bees yesterday...bees! Where have they been hiding?

Snapdragons!

I'm not a fan of annuals but all the snapdragons I put in before the show have made it, and are either fully budded out or sporting a few fierce faces!

This last image is for Lori at The Garden of Good and Evil, who wondered what would become of the plants in my paint can wall...well, 4 made it through and 3 bit the dust! I didn't water them...so the ones that lived are tiny miracles in my book.

That's the unfortunate score from here in the heart of Texas. I haven't been out in the blogosphere checking on my fellow gardeners here in town for sometime now, but I suspect those diligent plant saving folk did better than I. Here's to ya!

Happy Gardening!

What's blooming in your neck of the woods?

It's Friggin' Cold Down Here!

Well, there you have it. About the only thing that's standing up to the cold in my yard. I'll never skip planting ornamental cabbage and kale after this year. I'm pretending they are giant purple, white and yellow flowers...that the bunnies like to eat. Bunnies, that's right...a trip to Callahan's to get a new apron, and I come home with bunnies. My friend Don told loving spouse and I after we rescued our 4th cat years ago..."why not just have a baby and stop collecting pets?" Phooey. Babbie's grow up, talk back, make messes, then leave after you've spent decades picking up after them and driving them here and there and oh the mouth! Not bunnies, or chickens, or kittens, or dogs. Thank you very much, I'm not crazy...I'm a wanna be urban farm girl.

Ornamental cabbage and kale

I got off my duff yesterday and finished a posting I'd started mid-December and took a few hours to check out some other blogs for the first time since before the hustle of the holiday began. This is such an odd year. Last year I refused to take a vacation for fear that my poor garden would die from lack of water and care and now Mother Nature seems to be punishing me for not trusting in her design. Slash, there goes my precious propagation garden...and all the lovely zone 9 plants I'd come to believe in, good bye my pretties...please, please, please come back in the spring.

The ice snake my hose vomited when I turned it on this morning.

I had a chat with Randy (Horselips Horsesense) yesterday and he said he was mulching like mad. He is mad. If it's going to be in the teens by Thursday I'm just calling it quits. When the sun comes out you can find me in the garden, until then, I have a stack of books, some yogi~tea and my heating pad cooing my name, and I aim to listen.

So much for my scented geranium, part of my companion planting project in the rose garden.

I stepped outside this morning to survey the damage...lots of stuff that I would have thought would make it, suffering so. Projects that held total fascination just a few months ago gone. Here it is January and I still have black spot? There's no heat and humidity? Stop it, stop it now!

The comforting thing about gardening to me is the beautiful simplicity, the ageless predictability about it all. If I have a crap day, I know that no matter what, something in my garden will look up at me through it's colorful eyes and thank me for loving it, being there, and I won't be judged for what I have to say. At least in Alaska Mother Nature had the decency to shield me from the destruction with her white cloak. Not here. Crunch, slime, squish...stepping through my yard hunting for a bloom. Pam (Digging) said in her blog yesterday that she had blooms on her abutilon, she had photos to prove it. So I went trekking back to my Patricks Abutilon and a big fat nada...even crunchy forest green tips, ready to crackle and fall if I touched them.

Black spot on an unidentified rose on the West side of my house.

Fortunately, this is the only rose suffering. The rest look okay, but not thriving like Annie's at The Transplantable Rose. Whhhhhhyyyy Meeeee (insert Nancy Kerrigan whine here.)

Peruvian Lilly and Spiderwort

Check out this totally confused pair. Peruvian Lilly and Spiderwort got excited this Fall and decided to come up, thinking it was Spring. Now it's melting and covered with frost...after Thursday it'll be mush.

Marjoram

Most of the herbs are doing okay, save the Marjoram and Mexican Mint Marigold, which have been with me now for 3 years...toast. I'm hoping that the root ball hasn't given up, yet.

Giant Red Mustard and Arugula

Stand up! When I peeked out my kitchen window I saw all my greens fainting. Noooooo!

They are what keep me alive during the winter. I have to get out there and heap the remaining leaves on them after they get some sun this afternoon.

Culinary Sage

Frost on the sage? I may as well kiss this baby goodbye. If it frosts over in the 30's she won't make it through the week.

Well, that's the Debbie Downer report from Central Texas, Crestview neighborhood in Austin. I just had to rant after the glorious touting from my fellow bloggers. Good for you all and bah- humbug. Don't look for me on Bloomday, I'll be deep in a novel.

Happy Gardening!

The Driving Force that is Emily Wilson

As you can see by the date, I started this posting some time ago. The holidays always wear me out...trying to be up, all the time, making sure that I'm not forgetting anything/anyone...and of course I always do...but still. So the new year is here and I've got several loose ends to tie up (a stack of Christmas Cards that has yet to be mailed for instance) before I get back into full garden mode again, and it seems that the weather is helping to drag the season out with the lowest temperature prediction coming up this next week. My list of garden chores keeps getting longer and I've managed to put on my blinders walking to and from the car or the chicken coop without looking at all the slimy brown goop and crunch tips...I really should rake but the compost is full and it's too cold to muck around in it so it'll just have to wait a bit longer. Meanwhile, Ms. Emily...full of ideas and motivation works on.

Emily Wilson of Crestview
I met Emily two summers ago on one of our weekly Crestview Garden Tours, set up by Ms. Paige Hill...story will follow. She introduced herself and after hearing my name, told me that she'd been following my blog. At that time, I had no idea anyone was paying attention, I didn't have a counter and only a few comments from friends. She asked for a card and well, that was that. A few months later she called to set up an appointment. She was my first client, an ideal client, really. She's a 'real' gardener, she loves it. She has a romantic idea of cottage gardens with fond memories of her grandmothers place and she's fearless. We banged out a plan in one morning and I left her house elated and terrified. What had I just done? I kept telling myself "let it go, let it go...it's her project now."

Lovable Kat, another great asset to Crestview.
It was several weeks before the phone rang again, a few clients here and there. I was in no hurry to have my business take off and was deeply involved in the Master Naturalist program and had taken on the job of Green Gardener at Zilker...a little bread and butter...plus I was enjoying the writing and working on my own yard. Sometime later that year I ran into Emily walking her dogs and I pulled over in my car and asked her how she was and how her garden was coming along. She was glowing and told me that she loved the plan and was following it to a "T." I could hardly believe it! We talked for a few minutes longer and I went around the block to drive by her place and check it out myself. Sitting in front of her little cottage, I was amazed. She really was doing the plan, and it looked fantastic! She was happy, so I was happy.

Hedrich, gardener and community enthusiast!

I've since been over to Emily's house several more times for follow-ups including to spray paint the path on the ground before her guys took out the St. Augustine and layed the stone. She's extended the original plan and taken off on her own in several areas...using natives and designing with lovely flair! But, this isn't about Emily's yard...lovely as it is, it's about what she did after that. The Watershed Department printed out a booklet entitled "green neighbor" that we handed out last spring at the Grow Green Festival at Zilker Park. A few months after that, while on another Crestview tour, I announced that I had a box of these books and did anyone want to check them out? Emily grabbed a few.

Emily and Lori putting suet on pinecones.

I really had no idea that she'd read the information and taken it to heart...which was the plan but I'd become a little jaded working with the church across the street, trying to get people to care about the environment. So, I took a step back and decided to just live by example and not worry about it so much. I heard through the grapevine about her distributing the green neighbor guide, which I'd given to my neighbors without a peep and that she'd organized a sign campaign putting protection signs on the drains throughout the neighborhood (I would have helped with this had I known before, rather than after the fact.) At some point there was a CNA (Crestview Neighborhood Association) meeting about all things green, then came the Brentwood park project which she and Hedrich organized encouraging folks to come out and mulch all the trees and the footpath and she got taco's and coffee donated by some of our local entrepreneurs to feed the helpers. It was freezing that morning, but there was a terrific turnout! The mulch was delivered by the city, and there were over 20 of us who worked for the better part of a Saturday, my girls were reluctant to get out in the cold, but actually thanked us for making them help and said they enjoyed meeting new people and had fun!

My family at the sign-in station for the Friends of Brentwood Park workday.

We love Brentwood Park, both my daughters attended Brentwood elementary, and when they were little we went to the pool almost daily and to play for years. Today we mostly walk the dogs through and attend the Violet Crown Festivities that are there occasionally.

Working on the path.
Shortly after the workday, Emily organized a nature activity day at her house. Some of the photos of that day are above, we made several different kinds of bird ornaments with peanut butter, cornmeal, seed and nuts (suet for the birds.)
Mud path, before.
It was fun! And, I got to meet some other neighbors and left with a box of goodies for the birds in my yard.

Mulching the 'stick' trees.
As I sit here writing and glancing through the Green City Challenge that is the green neighbor booklet I'm wondering what it is in one person versus another that touches them and sparks the activity needed to promote real change? For me, I was a Girl scout, my mother was the troop leader and I attended Lutheran church several times a week, this is where I believe my civic mindedness comes from . My mom was the driving force behind getting us outside in nature, be it the Black Forrest or visiting National Parks...she was the one who pulled over to read the historical markers and understood that the journey was the goal and being outside was healthy, not a big gardener but someone who appreciated beautiful places.
Loving spouse attacking a mulch mound.
My girls are not involved in scouting, and the struggle to get the church across the street interested in caring about their property, and the neighborhood has left us all bewildered about modern Christian Stewardship...regardless my oldest daughter got involved on her own with Eco-Texas, removing invasive species from Brightleaf Preserve and her little sister will soon be the youngest person in Travis County to complete the Master Naturalist Program. They got the bug...most likely from me, but in the larger picture...where does it come from?

Hedrich, in red. The path, nearly finished!

That's the query...and I'm looking for some answers.

I'm so happy to live in Crestview and know these amazing people, clients, friends and ultimately kindred spirits. In the coming year I plan to feature our neighborhood projects and people who make a difference. I'm probably preaching to the choir here...then again, who else would read something called "Conscious Gardening" but someone who finds the word conscious compelling and this is a gardening blog...and Gardening is the link that's brought us nature lovers together.

Yay Emily Wilson, we are well on our way to becoming an official Green Neighborhood because of YOU...and she's asked me to help with the grand plan for Brentwood Park...I am honored. When I asked Emily why she got involved or how she views herself in all that's being done, she said that she admired all the people in the neighborhood that were doing plantings and growing their own food, essentially making a difference and when she thought about it she realized that we are all just regular folk and that she had something to offer as well. She views herself as more of a project manager, or 'tallyer' the person who'se collecting the data and helping to raise awareness. She's done much more than that, but imagine a world of Emilys? People caring for their neighbors and neighborhoods and doing what they can...Thank you Emily!

In the meantime, I must try to muster up the strength to attack my garden again. Two years without a hard freeze had me believing that climate change had officially come to central Texas...

hah. I've got entire beds that will need to be re-thunk (is that a word?) and so much clearing to do I really should build a new compost bin. Ho hum. The days of mild temperatures and spring wildflowers really aren't that far off!

Happy Gardening!