Progress, Harvesting, Recipes & Goatsbeards

{flowering chives}

Sorry I have not been posting here more often! Things have been a tad hectic 'round here, but busy as I might be Nature doesn't wait. ;)

Some of the plants are starting to flower including our chives and the tomatoes that we have so far.

{flowering tomatoes}

And all of the other plants are doing well for the most part I think.

{peas}

{lemon balm}

{spearmint}

Unfortunately the garlic isn't doing so well...it's not doing anything now. It died off and I think it was probably due to the nasty winter storm we had because the same thing happened to two other local growers at the same time. So I ended up planting bush beans where the garlic was.

{bush beans}

We are almost finished pulling up the sod for our other veggie patch, which will have corn, squash, pumpkins, pole beans, sunflowers, carrots, and other pretties in it.

While we have been pulling up the sod, we have also been digging up the dandelion roots in that area and are now cleaned and drying. The roots just like the leaves and the flowers have excellent nutritional value, medicinal properties, and can be used in magical workings. I am working on a wortcunning post for dandelions, so more info on that to come.

{dandelion roots}

I have also been taking advantage of our rhubarb patch and making all sorts of yummy things. Here are some recipes that I think that some of you would enjoy!

Stewed Rhubarb w/ Ginger & Honey

Rhubarb Tapioca

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble Pie

Old-Fashioned Bottom-Crust Rhubarb Pie
Rhubarb Granola Muffins

Vegan Rhubarb Walnut Bread

{rhubarb}

The last couple of weeks we have been enjoying the sweet scent of lilacs {a wortcunning post on those as well coming up!}. They only bloom for a couple of weeks so we enjoy them while we can.

{lilac bush}

{lilacs close up}

The wildflowers are still growing like crazy, the most recent ones are goatsbeards. They are funny flowers that are closed by late morning/noon.

{goatsbeard}

Well, I guess I should get back out there. I hope to have some more posts up soon!

Sláinte!

Laurel

More News & Peektures from the Garden

Howdy folks!

I hope that all of our readers who garden/farm are having a successful season so far!

Over here we've been getting plenty of pollinators and other beneficial bugs {I hope that they will stay!} and a lot of different wildflowers popping up.


The other day I picked up a couple of Yellow Pear tomato plants and I am waiting for the rest of my tomato seedlings to be ready {a couple of friends were nice enough to start some for me!}. A couple of days ago I planted some bush beans {Contender & Orca so far}, Swiss chard {Rainbow & Fordhook Giant}, columbine flowers {Woodland Gold & White}, and a wildflower mix. I also planted some peas about a week back {Peas for Peace, Wando & Laxton's Progress}.


While cleaning up behind one of our sheds we have found all sorts of treasures and trinkets, from antique fishing weights to this piece of wood with some fungus on it {Turkey Tail?}, so that is now sitting in our shade garden.



Sláinte!

Laurel

Wortcunning & Leechcraft Pretties on Etsy

These are pretties from Etsy for folks who like to grow and wildcraft plants for magical and medicinal purposes. Depending on each individual certain tools are essential, but these are the types of things that I like to have around {plus a few extras!}. ;)

Harvesting basket from ModishVintage

Functional & artistic blade from rekamepip

Pottery cauldron from Curio Castle

Herbalist journal from Belcast Curiousities

Potion bag from Barbwire & Roses Leatherwares

Wall pocket for plants from Last Chants Studio


The Herbalist from Danielle Barlow Illustrations


Mortar and Pestle from Butler's Pottery

Clay bottle from Az Arts

Herb jar set from New Earth Clay Pottery

Apothecary jars from Thrifty Finds for You

Herb drying rack from Mr. Hudon

Apothecary drawers from Red Rooster B&B Folkart

Wall cupboard from Buck Creek Furnishings

The Hedgewitch Herbal from Shakti Studio

Sláinte!

Laurel

A Luverly Version of Chì Mi Na Mórbheanna

This is one of my favourite songs and I love Savage Minstrel's take on it!

Sláinte!

Laurel

The Coast is Clear! {Garden Updates/Witchy & Homesteading Projects}

Hi folks! Well, the snow is finally gone and save for the branches the fell and some damage on our rhubarb patches, it looks like everything is ok. I am hoping that is the last of the snow until Winter. *fingers crossed*

As you can see from the picture above, our lilacs are starting to bloom, and we've got tulips coming up and the sweet woodruff is starting to blossom as well.


My friend who owns the house we just moved into was sweet enough to go out and grab us a new compost bin. The better half and I were/are planning to build a large composter eventually and this should do the job nicely in the mean time. Can never have too much compost! ;)


We have some other projects in the works that we want to get done this Summer, and I thought I would share some plans with you all that I found online:

Chicken Coop {like this or something similar}
Hoop House
Mason Bee House
Hanging Bird Bath

I also have some 'witchy' projects that I will hopefully get to soon. It turns out that the fallen ash branch will be perfect to make a stang out of, and I want to use some of it to make an Ogham set for a friend since she loves ash trees so much. Since lilac is supposed to be great for love magic I might also make a wand out of the wood from our dead bush.

We've already have a little altar/shrine in our yard, but I do want to erect something a little more 'substantial', so if any of you have some ideas please feel free to share them! :)

Sláinte!

Laurel

Luverly of the Week: Veery from A. Drauglis Furnituremaker

Photo from A. Drauglis Furnituremaker

We've been having a rusty coloured thrush stopping by our yard the last few days, and s/he is one cute and cheeky bugger! I did a bit of searching and it turns out that it is a veery. They have a very pretty song. :)

Be Careful What You Wish For {!!!}

According to this article local farmers have been hoping for some relief for their parched soil. I can understand this, my garden has been pretty dry too. And of course I also understand that the farms are much more important than my humble patch of dirt.

Farmers, gardeners hoping forecast precipitation arrives

It's not often you find someone praying for rain or snow, but Dave Lewington is desperate and is willing to take whatever he can get.

The Lavigne farmer is counting on this weekend's precipitation to moisten his crops of peas, spinach, radishes, carrots and beets.

"The ground is very dry, actually bone dry," Lewington said Friday morning.

"We've been watching the radar and crying for rain. North Bay and Sudbury got showers, but we were missed," he said.

"It's never been this dry and if we don't get rain it will be hard to carry things through. Anything that is planted now, if there's no or little rain it will be hard to grow and they'll just develop more slowly."

This weekend might not bring much rain to the area, according to Environment Canada, however the agency was forecasting 10 to 15 centimetres of snow overnight Friday and today.

"I'm looking forward to getting some snow this weekend to moisten the garden," Lewington said.

Well, I think we should be careful what we wish for, because sometimes we get it, and more of it than what we were looking for.

Yesterday we had fallen branches because the snow was way too heavy {the one below is from one of our ash trees} and there might be more to come. We also lost power for almost the whole night because of other fallen branches. So did many other folks.

The only garden chores I will probably doing for the next few days is praying that the garden survived. Grrr.

I know in the larger scheme of things this is at the most an inconvenience, but it is a good reminder for me to frugal in my wish-making, perhaps even more so when it comes to the weather. ;)

Sláinte!

Laurel

I Guess I Won't Be Getting Much Gardening Done Today!

If I am shovelling anything it won't be dirt.

A Dandy Thing to Make...

Yesterday I plotted out our other veggie bed {which is going to be a larger rectangle instead of the circle, about the same size as our already established bed}. So before I dig it all up, I want to take advantage of all the dandelions that we have in that area.

We hope to make dandelion wine, dandelion fritters, and more salads of course! Yesterday I made dandelion vinegar after getting the idea from the wonderful blog What I Made Today.

I put filled up a large jar with dandelion flowers and then filled it with a nice cider vinegar. The jar looks more full of flowers in the picture below than it really is; after just a few hours there was about a 1.5 inch space at the bottom, as the flowers seem to want to float to the top.

I used a glass 'canning' lid and will keep it in a cool, dark place for about a month before straining it and putting it in a labeled jar. This recipe says that you can use the roots and leaves as well and white vinegar.

This vinegar will not only be good for the folks in my home but apparently it is quite tasty.

Sláinte!

Laurel

Early Morning Prettiness

Hello everyone!

I got up ridiculously early yesterday morning and decided to go out with my camera to get some sunrise peektures. The sunrise was quite pretty, but there was also a double rainbow, which is something I have only seen once in my life before.

I took some photos, and even though the quality is shoddy I thought I would share them with you folks anyways. Enjoy!

Sláinte!

Laurel

superMOLLY capes!

This is a bit of a shill for my cousin's super cool cape shop on Etsy, superMOLLY capes. Got a superhero in your life, well they should definitely have a cape! ;)

She does capes for all ages, and custom requests are welcomed.

Sláinte!

Laurel