Coop Farming for Farmer's Market?

To do or not to do...that is the question. In theory, we are like kids in a candy store and can't wait to jump in and get started. In reality, we're hoping to meet soon to discuss what exactly we're talking about possibly getting involved in and determining if it is something that we can, or really want to do.

The idea arose when a post was found about a new Farmer's Market hoping to start up here in our neck of the woods. initial thoughts were to expand Naomi's veggie garden and we'd just go bonkers growing produce and then we'd harvest the extra to sell at the Farmer's Market. As discussions progress, the idea continues to scale down. Hopefully, though, we'll have a pretty solid idea as to if this is something we're gonna tackle (in addition to our day jobs and regular Garden Hoeing). Keep posted for updates on the Garden Hoes Harvest of Byrne-Out Farms (or Ranch).

Sharing with the Hoes vs. Others

As much as I have been enjoying a plant/seed swap group to which I belong, nothing compares to getting plants/seeds from my fellow Garden Hoes.

After 1.5 months I FINALLY received my end of a plant/seed trade, only to be disappointed. :O( The other party forgot to include the seeds they were supposed to send (bee balm and King Henry viola seeds), the "rooted chocolate mint" they sent was dead and the gladiola bulbs were very moldy. The Lily of the Valley pips appear to be in good shape though. Still, after having waited so long for my end of the trade, I was so saddened by the contents of the package.

Compare that experience to ANY I've had with my fellow garden hoes. I steal... I mean, I gently and with permission (LOL..that one time meant all the time, right?), take cuttings (or plants..hee hee) from Naomi's garden and if they don't work, I get to get more. Same with seeds. The last work day we had, at Anna's, she loaded us down with healthy and beautiful rhizomes of what we are all anticipating to be GORGEOUS iris and Nancy brought mystery bulbs for us to plant! I can't wait to see what they pop up as.

I just needed to vent about my less than expected trade I received and send a huge thank you to the wonderful hoes for all the wonderful plants, seeds, cuttings, bulbs, tubers, rhizomes, etc that you share with me!

Winter is finally upon us

Last night was the night - the night when winter finally turns the corner and fall has become a distant memory. I don't know why last night did it for me, but it seemed like yesterday everyone I knew was wishing for the summer heat again.



So, in this introspective mood, I wanted to present you with images of my garden-to-be...It's not actually my garden, nor could it be, but the images are so beautiful that they inspire me in my dreaming of spring. (The picture above is of my pond pre-freeze - hope it looks this good again in a few months.)

I want to thank Tom Spencer, the author and photographer of the blog I've linked below. I had the good fortune to actually meet Tom at a completely non-related event this past week and it reminded me I needed to check out his blog again. While the pictures of places far from here are wonderful, it's the simple yet powerful images of his own garden that evoke the most emotion from me.

Take your time and enjoy his images at Soul of the Garden.

~ Hoe Naomi

November Garden Hoe Workday

Saturday found us "hoeing" around at Anna's. Before/After pix will be posted soon...

Anna had recruited the help of her sisters, who must love her a LOT to have driven a good hour, to help her prepare the delicious breakfast and lunch we had. We had a yummy breakfast casserole (from Naomi's recipes), sausage wraps and donuts that Nancy brought from Round Rock donuts-fried in LARD-which we discussed was a wonderful thing, coffee and mimosas. Lunch was a totally yummy chicken pasta salad and fruit salad, of which I think we all had seconds.

After a little visiting, we went to work. There were two projects we planned to attack that day. The first was trimming back the ivy on one of the beds in front. Beautiful as it looks, that stuff is a pain in the you know what. We got it whacked back though, hopefully to a nice size, and put what rocks we had available around for a border. At one point, the ivy tried to get back at us for whacking it all up and tried to "eat" Nancy. Unfortunately, she escaped before I could get a pix.

The second project was supposed to be to just extend the depth of Anna's veggie garden. One thing about us, no matter what we initially THINK we want to do, it ALWAYS ends up being a bigger project. Anna's veggie garden was no exception. Why just extend it a few feet when we could make it HUGE? After moving the compost pile back and pulling expired plants, Naomi started tilling. Rock removal and raking followed hot on her heals. What resulted was a GORGEOUS vegetable bed of fabulous dirt (I was really tempted to make a dirt angel in it it was such heavenly soil) that is going to result in lots of beautiful produce. I can't wait to post the pix...

In the meantime, here are a few snapshots of the fun we have during our work days...

"We could put a pond right here!" Always thinking of yet more projects that can be done, Naomi pointed out that Anna's rock garden area that she and hubby have been stumped about what to do with, could be turned into a water feature area. Anna's hubby noted that he'd prefer it be turned into a putting green. We'll see which idea comes to fruition.

"FIRE! FIRE!" Unable to unwind the last of the twine and grass that had become one with the tiller axle, and thereby bogging it down, we resorted to FIRE! Heather is carefully burning the grass and junk hoping not to ignite anything else. It worked great and the fire department didn't have to come over.



Goofin' around... Hoe Nancy taking a brief break from all the hard work.




Garden Hoes... I don't know why we never take a picture BEFORE we dive in and get nasty, but here we are. (L to R) Anna, Nancy, Naomi, & Heather. Nickie was unable to attend.

Like We NEED More Plants

Last night, Naomi and I attended the Native Plants Society of Texas-Austin Area Chapter plant swap in Georgetown. The LAST thing we need right now (especially with winter quickly approaching) is more plants that we need to get into the ground. That said, we're gardening freaks and couldn't resist.

We both got many wonderful plants to add to our own landscapes and enjoyed visiting with the NPSOT members as well. Some of the goodies I personally managed to score include: carolina jasmine, wild onion, snake herb, turk's cap, spiderwort, pipevine, wild foxglove, lindheimer's senna, false guara, salvia coccinea, purple coneflower, and little bluestem grass. Yippee!

It was loads of fun and I'm so thrilled I got to attend. Even if I hadn't gotten all the wonderful plants I did, I learned some things about native plants of Texas. Thanks, Naomi for letting me know about it! --Hoe Heather

Will It Rain or Do I Water?

THAT is the question. My poor pond garden needs watering badly (cause I've been forgetting) BUT the weather person said we've got rain in the forecast so I'm HOPING that the Lord will feel bad for my poor unwatered plants and send some rain to us...FAST.

This is the time of year where I really want to be outside, as Naomi mentioned in an earlier post, playing in the dirt, because the weather is SO beautiful. Unfortunately, there isn't really any planting I can do right now, that I know of, since ol' man winter is on his way. Now is the time to begin buckling down instead of germinating seeds and that is the complete opposite of what I want to do. In fact, the urge to make things grow is even greater since my having joined another group where I've been trading for some WONDERFUL seeds and plants. I am so excited about some of these that I am itching to go plant them. That excitement is going to make for a long winter, I fear.

Anyway, back to the rain... here's crossing my fingers that the weather person was right. If not, I have GOT to remember to water my poor plants later today. -Hoe Heather

I hate this weather...

Okay, I know I said I like this weather, but last night it was 20 DEGREES COLDER THAN NORMAL so ALL my tomatoes, cucumbers, tomatillos, and peppers are mushy black crud. (My canteloupe are mush too, but that's okay seeing as they were a "volunteer" crop anyway.) Even a few of my perennials got a little frosted (like me right now).

Why didn't I cover them? Because it WASN'T supposed to get that COLD. It was ONLY supposed to get down to 50 degrees or so (normal temps this time of year), but NOOOOOO - I have black stumps where my wonderful plants used to be.

Silver lining - my lettuces, chards, cabbages, and other root vegetables are still looking good. I now have planted at least 7 different types of lettuces (seed and starts), four types of cabbages, several variety of broccoli, and collards and kale (seed). I'm trying intensive planting on my lettuces. I planted four rows of starter plants and in between, seeded other varieties. My goal - to have a solid row of lettuces (6' x 2') with no real visible space between the plants so that I don't have to weed. We'll see how it goes...

In other planting news - my GardenHoes project looks great. The number of unplanted plants is slowly going down and I am trying to be sooooo good and not buy any new ones until I get all these in the ground. I have several bulbs that I planted under one of our mock pear trees coming up, so I am hoping to get some flowers. What kind, I don't know, as that area became an experimental bulb planting ground. The deer have managed to eat a few more of my plants, but most seem to be surviving (it may be because my neighbors have taken up target practice and scared the deer away). We got some new fish for the pond...I wasn't supposed to, but when I saw that the new babies that survived the spill were okay, I figured - what the heck? Lots of other stuff in the works, but I can't remember it all right now.

Last thing - I can't wait for Hoe Anna's project day. It will be the first time we've been over there, so i'm excited to see what her place is like.

~Hoe Naomi