August happenings...

Summer is humming along here at the farm! The geese and the chickens have gotten through their introductions without a single feather plucked, but there are feathers EVERYWHERE as Herdie and Gerdie go through their annual molt. The gardens are doing wonderful, with lots of veggies being harvested, despite the onslaught of slugs that we are battling! The fall garden has been planted and the seedlings seem much happier than they did when planted in the wonky spring we had this year... here's hoping for a fantastic second harvest!

 Molting season makes for itchy new feathers!

Fall garden preparations!

June in the garden...

The frost is no longer a danger, the flowers are blooming, the birds are singing, and Gerdie is sitting on 9 eggs! So many things are springing to life around here that I thought I would share a few more pictures with you guys!


The flowers are blooming...

Lettuce is having its best year ever!

Remember the 6 Sunchoke roots I planted last year?...

Happy vegetables...

And a new project to work on today!

Geese in an organic Alaskan garden.....

The weather has been warm and beautiful, the days are getting noticeably longer, and the snow is slowly melting.  These are all wonderful things, but this year the sure sign of spring at Woodside Gardens is goose eggs!  Gerdie has laid 3 eggs so far this season, and it has me excited for the year to come!  My geese are most definitely my pets, and I would keep them simply for the compost boost they give me, but I've decided to sell her eggs to cover the cost of their food (see the facebook page!), which really works out nicely!

 A goose egg compared to a large chicken egg from my Mother's flock.

I have been ridiculously impressed by how well these birds did over the winter.  Their coop is not heated or insulated (except lots of straw, of course), and I had no supplemental light other than a string of small white LED Christmas lights around part of the fence perimeter to help me see the MOOSE.  I kept a metal trash can in the coop for food storage, along with a heavy ceramic dish for them to eat from and an elevated (so they don't try to swim in it) heated dog dish for water.  That's all it took!  They have 24 hour access to their fenced run, and they actually chose to spend most of their time outdoors.  I filled the coop with a bale of straw last May, and added another this past January, stirring it a bit every month or so.

Having a permaculture-centered garden means that I don't purchase fertilizers, I make them myself.  My compost bucket in the kitchen doesn't fill up very fast anymore because I feed the geese all the edible scraps. Those scraps still make it to my garden soil, but first they provide free food for my birds!  They also eat all the weeds I pull out of the raised garden beds, and every dandelion they can get their beaks on!  After Gerdie is done laying eggs for the season, I'll pull all the straw out and throw it into the compost pile, and start the whole process over again.  The compost feeds the soil and also builds it up, so every year I have more soil to build more gardens, which feed my family and birds, and feed the compost pile!  It's a beautiful, never-ending cycle!

I do feel that it is important to note that geese are BIG birds, and they can be dangerous.  When I steal an egg, Herdie wants to kill me, no kidding.  I know how to handle them, and I'm not afraid of them, which helps, but they are NEVER near my children or visitors.  Geese are easy to care for, but I don't want anyone to think they are cute and friendly like chickens (which can be vicious also!).  Some geese are sweet as can be, but most are not, and you must realize this before you get them.  That being said, they have provided endless value to me, and I'm glad I have them!

The last leg of the 2013 garden...

With all of the leaves gone, the weather is starting to feel less like fall and more like winter, and I'm somewhat surprised that there is no snow on the ground yet. I've been taking full advantage of the un-frozen earth, however, and am still enjoying the harvests from the garden. I'm eating broccoli, chard, bok choy and lettuce, having just finished the last of the turnips and beets last week. I'm not harvesting any more sunchokes, as I want to have a good crop next year.

Along with stretching the garden out, I've also managed to get an extra fence project started! I'm building a small wattle fence at the back of the herb garden, to protect the siding on the house from back splash and to keep the dirt from eroding toward the house as well. I love the look of this type of fencing, and with all the brush that grows up around here, I'll never run out of supplies! Wattle fencing is such an easy solution around the garden, and it's a great way to utilize the natural materials on your property!

The geese are doing well, although Gerdie is quite confused as to why the swimming pool is so hard and slick in the mornings! I've left it out for them up until now, but I'll be removing it this weekend and putting it into storage for the winter. We should HOPEFULLY be building the arctic entryway for the goose house this weekend also, so with any luck, I'll be able to get my projects finished and all of the tools put away before the snow decides to let loose!

A Woodside Gardens Radio Interview!

alaskapublic.org has a radio interview that I did last week available...

http://www.alaskapublic.org/2013/10/07/the-year-round-alaska-gardener/

Give it a listen!

What have you been missing?

Have you joined us on facebook yet?  I keep the blog posts here, but there's a lot more chatter and pictures at https://www.facebook.com/woodside.gardens... come say hello!

Sunchokes in Alaska...

For those of you who don't know, a Sunchoke, or Jerusalem Artichoke, is a perennial related to the sunflower with a tuberous root that is very edible and quite tasty.  I have been hearing about Sunchokes and their cold temperature hardiness for many years now, and they seem like a great perennial vegetable for Alaska, yet I've never seen them planted in the gardens around here.  Known for their pretty flowers as well as their plump roots, they seemed like the perfect fit for my permaculture aspirations!  I finally found them in the produce section of our local grocery store last fall, and I have been looking forward to testing out their potential all winter!

The package came with 10 roots, and I experimented with cooking 4 of them, using them raw in salads or roasted like a potato with a little olive oil.  The remaining 6 were wrapped in plastic wrap and put in the back of the refrigerator crisper drawer, where they remained until the end of May.  This spring, when the ground was ready to be worked, I simply opened the package up and let it sit on the counter for a few days, and then planted them about a foot apart and 6-8 inches down into the soil. I made sure to select an area where they can fill up the space over the years without bothering anything else in the garden.

They sprouted out of the ground within about two weeks, and a month later, they are growing beautifully and providing a shaded area for my geese as well!  They seem to be very tolerant of the heat we have been having, and don't seem to be bothered by any pests so far.  We'll see how they do as the season progresses, and hopefully they will become a permanent resident in the garden!

It started as a greenhouse...

It started as a greenhouse that turned into a garden shed... but this year I have found a new, permanent use for the structure...

Moving the building to its new location, closer to the house...

Adding the new floor...

 Cutting the access door...

Framed in to protect from sharp metal edges... (the access ramp is temporary, we'll build a better one shortly!)

And Herdie and Gerdie have a new home!!!

The Geese have FINALLY moved in!  I'm ridiculously excited!  If you follow Woodside Gardens on facebook, you've seen me gushing about these critters all winter.  Herdie and Gerdie are a 1 year old mated pair of Toulouse Geese.  I fell in love with them as soon as I saw them, and I've been waiting for the snow to melt for MONTHS so that I could set up a proper shed and run for them.  The geese are beautiful and very friendly (toward me, not everyone...), but the best part is this...

Breakfast!

It's mating season in the goose world, and although she won't lay all year long, Gerdie is giving me one of these every 2 days right now!  Her eggs average 160 grams (she won't be fully mature until next spring at 2 years old) which is approximately the size of 3 chicken eggs!  Scrambled goose eggs with a little sea salt and dill make the best breakfast ever!  I have saved all her egg shells, by drilling a small hole at each end and blowing the egg out, and they will be used for some craft projects in the future.

I love this basket of egg shells sitting in my kitchen window!

Do you have geese or other poultry?  Come on over to the facebook page and talk about it!

Turn Off Your TV!!!

About 3 years ago, my husband decided he wanted satellite television. We had been TV free for about a year, and I was doing just fine without it, but we DID hook it up, and started paying that ghastly monthly fee. Ever since that day, I have been trying to get him to turn it back off.

I don't like television! The last year especially, I have noticed my children begging for everything they see on every commercial. I have seen commercials play in the middle of children's programming that are COMPLETELY inappropriate for children to see. I have watched shows advertised for younger kids that send out completely inappropriate messages and values. I have flipped through hundreds of channels, over and over again, only to find that there is nothing to watch. The price has gone up, while the number of channels has gone down. In short, I am very unhappy with the service!

This weekend, however, something awesome happened... my husband agreed with me... and we turned off the TV! The satellite service is CANCELED!! He finally saw what I was seeing, and decided that for our family, the right decision was to get rid of it! We still have movies, and the internet is available if we want to stream a particular show, but the crappy reality shows and the over the top commercials are gone!

Have any of you decided to take back control of your home from the obnoxious advertisers and network executives? Do you miss your TV?

Mmmmm Dinner...

On the menu tonight...

Vegetable Beef Soup & Fresh Baked Dinner Rolls

All from scratch, all organic, all delicious!!!

We eat good around here...

Fall Vegetables...

I just finished harvesting the last of the carrots from the garden. I got almost 10 pounds this year, and it really didn't take up that much space in the raised beds! I roasted a chicken the other night, and now I have leftover chicken, onions and fresh carrots simmering for chicken and dumplings tonight.

Homemade chicken stock smells AMAZING!!

I also have the carcass boiling away with the leftover onions and brussels sprouts from the first dinner, as well as the stems from the herbs I cut from the herb garden and added to the chicken and dumplings. This stock will go into the freezer to cook with later. I love that I can get 3 good meals (that serve 4 people!) from just 1 chicken and some veggies from the garden!

I also bought my first pumpkin of the season last weekend! I love pumpkin, and I hope that someday soon it will grow in my own garden, but for now I was just happy to see it on the grocery store shelf! There are so many ways to cook it, and the flavor is adaptable to most any dish or seasoning. This one will be roasted and pureed, most likely, and eaten with just a touch of salt and pepper.

Do you have a favorite fall vegetable that you look forward to all summer?

Sometimes Husbands are listening and thinking, just not saying anything!

Last night, for the umpteenth time, I attempted to talk to my husband about getting chickens. He has been adamantly saying no for about 5 years now, but I have been faithfully been pestering him in the hopes that he would at least tell me why. As I said it again, I braced myself for the usual "I don't want to talk about it right now", but instead, he threw back "I am actually VERY interested in getting chickens now, and what do you think about getting a cow?"

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A cow! That is not something that would happen any time soon, but my husband has been listening to me after all! Our conversation briefly touched on raising pigs and rabbits as well, and I can say with some confidence now that this IS going to happen. When my Husband has been thinking about something enough that he starts talking about it, it means that he's already weighed the options in his head, and that part of the battle is won. Now lets just hope that Mr. Super Planner doesn't go overboard on the coop!

Perennial Edibles in Alaska

There are a number of annual vegetables that do well in Alaska, but did you know that there are several perennial vegetables, herbs, and fruits that thrive here also? In my quest to make my property a major source of nutrition for my family, I have focused on bringing in only trees that will produce edible fruit (there's always the exception, of course!), and I am working on plans to create a perennial wing in my vegetable garden.

Here's a list of the Perennial Edibles that currently grow on my property:
Crab Apple
Choke Cherry
Raspberry
Black Currant
Red Currant
Gooseberry
Strawberry
High Bush Cranberry
Low Bush Cranberry
Rhubarb
Rosehip
French Tarragon
Sheep's Sorrel
Mint (Chocolate and Apple)
Lavendar
Chives

Here are a few I would like to add to my property:
Grafted Apple (Norland and Parkland)
Blueberry
Kiwi
Apricot
Indoor Citrus
Asparagus
Jerusalem Artichokes
Horseradish

Making space for perennials in your garden is an important part of any good permaculture plan. It is imperative that you plan for the long term when selecting a location and creating a space for the roots to thrive. Pay attention to not only the soil you nourish them with, but also the amount of sunlight they will receive, the space they will require when they are fully mature, and the amount of shade they will cast onto the surrounding areas. Just about anything can benefit from a fork full of compost at the bottom of the hole before planting, and plenty of loose soil beyond the edge of the root ball will give your plant room to wiggle its toes and settle happily into its new home. If you pay special attention to watering and pampering your plant for the first season or two, they will happily produce for you for years to come, with no more investment needed!

What types of perennial edibles do you have on your property? Do you have plans to integrate more in your garden?

Soooo good...

This is happening in my kitchen right now...

Apple Mint, Cucumber, and water. No sweetener, no artificial colors, no artificial flavors. Just pure fresh garden goodness.

Who needs soda pop?

Transitioning to a New Compost Pile...

It is officially that time of year again, when I start a new compost pile and start preparing the old one to be spread on the raised garden beds. This summer has been considerably colder and wetter than most, and my compost is not as far along as it normally is.

The old compost pile...

I am no longer adding anything to this pile, and I will be turning it every few days, in an attempt to get it to break down as much as I can in the next 2 months, before it starts freezing outside. As I dig through it, I am finding a ton of very large earthworms, which is a happy sight! Most of them will be spending the winter happy and warm inside a worm farm. Between the worms and the more frequent attention, this pile will look very different, very soon.

Because I can't add anything else to the old compost pile, it is necessary, of course, to start a new one! Fortunately for me, my friend just cleaned out her chicken coop a week or so ago, so I had a couple of bags of old straw and chicken manure just waiting to be used!

The new compost pile...

I moved the fence to the new compost area, behind my vegetable garden. The straw and manure are simply heaped into a pile, and I've been dumping my kitchen waste on there for a few days now. I'll probably turn it in a week or so, and then once or twice before it frosts.

Here's a link to one of my most popular posts...  Why you should start a compost pile... right now! ... in case you want more information on starting your own!

As I was turning the old pile this morning, I heard a rustling in the fireweed along the side of the vegetable garden fence...

Can you see the little guy hidden up against the fence?

I have been seeing this little rabbit around the compost pile the last week or so. He is fairly tiny, and I don't see much evidence that he has been there, other than actually seeing him. He seems to be after the compost rather than the vegetable garden, and the raised beds are tall enough that he wouldn't get into them easily, so for now, I'm just watching him. All wildlife is welcome here, and I'm honored that he is comfortable enough to let me see him. I even made sure that a bit of fruit made it outside of the fence, so he can find himself an easy snack!

Are you composting this year, or planning to start a pile soon?

Some New Additions to the Garden This Year...

I've done a lot with my garden this year, and its time I updated you all on the progress. Up to this point, it has just felt like some boxes of dirt with a fence around it... but now, I feel like my garden has finally started to develop some "bones". It has become a destination, rather than just a designation. Here's some pictures of what has been added...

I made good on my promise to turn the old greenhouse into a potting shed. This is my new greenhouse. It is detachable, and will fit onto any of the four existing raised beds so I can easily practice crop rotation, even with my tomatoes and cucumbers. There are four door panels, which can be opened individually, so I can control the temperature AND the cross breeze.

I designed this new flower bed to give somewhat of a visual screen to the compost pile. I kept with my tradition of using materials off the property, so I hand-picked all the rocks and built the wattle fence in the background out of willow and alder that I thinned from the endless supply along the edge of the yard.

The entrance to the vegetable garden was lacking in character, so I decided an arbor was in order. This was built out of recycled materials, mostly leftover from last years house re-model, and more willow and alder from the yard.

I needed another trellis to accommodate my beans, so this was the solution... also made from willow and alder.

In the near future, I'll post some photos of how the vegetable garden and surrounding flower gardens are looking now that everything is green and beautiful. The garden is absolutely bursting right now!

For future posts... does anyone have questions or need information on a particular topic? Ask me!

Garden Friends

Just a quick picture of one of our garden visitors today...

Tiger Swallowtail has always been one of my favorite butterflies.  This one had an injured wing, but it didn't seem to affect it much.

Getting ready for this years garden...

So much is happening around here, I am finding it hard to sit down long enough to post about this years garden happenings!  The snow is all gone, and my raised garden beds are thawed out and warming nicely!  I have prepped all the garden beds, and so far have planted lettuce, turnips, spinach and snap peas.  I have also planted potatoes for the first time ever!  I am trying the black garbage bag method, as this is the cheapest, easiest route for me this year.  Also, I have officially started a worm farm!  Vermicompost will be nourishing my tomatoes this year, and I am very excited about it!  I don't have any pictures yet, but I will work on that for all of you yearning for a little garden porn!  What are you all doing in the garden right now?

Homemade Laundry Soap

I just made up another batch of my homemade laundry soap.  I bought my original supplies over a year ago, and still have enough for at least 6 more batches!  This stuff is amazing, and I love the fact that I haven't spent ANY money on laundry soap this past year! 

Here's a link to my original post, with the recipe, if you're interested in trying it for yourself!
http://woodsidegardens.blogspot.com/2010/02/homemade-laundry-soap.html

Snow on the horizon...

Looking out my window this morning, I can't help but notice the snow that is slowly creeping its way down the mountains.  Although the last few days of rain and cloud cover have produced some warmer fall temperatures, there is no denying that winter is knocking at the front door.  Its time to finish up the garden, clean up the yard, and make any repairs to the house that have been pushed to the back burner.  Its the time for baked squash, yummy fall soups, and the family favorite around here, pot roast with roasted root vegetables.

I have mostly stopped eating red meat, as I find that it sits in my stomach like a rock for far too long, but I'm not going to deny the rest of my family the option.  I just make myself something different on the days I make roast for the rest of my family.  Do you make more than one meal at night, to satisfy the different tastes at the dinner table?