A Surprise Addition to Our Family

For a few weeks now we have been getting ready for another addition to our family from a nearby farm. They contacted me yesterday to let me know that he was ready to be picked up! They asked me when I would like to arrange to drive down there and bring him home. Well, I called IMMEDIATELY and drove down right away yesterday and got him. She laughted when I called her right back. She knew!

The farm I was visiting is next to the one pictured here - Ontario's new wind farm.

These windmills stretch as far as you can see, on both sides of the road. Amazing and so BIG! Ontario's new green power source!

Back to the reason for the trip. Can you guess what I brought home?

This farm has everything, well everything except a milk cow. They have horses.

They have geese and ducks.

Muskovy ducks!
Great bug eaters, but not as great as these guinea fowl, which they also have. Guineas are so cool!

They have turkeys,

and they have chickens.

They have fields full of goats and newly born kids! Lots and lots of boar meat goats and two dairy goats.

Do you see what else they have?

They have Great Pyranees Dogs!! These belong to the LGD class (Livestock Guardian Dogs). The Great Pyranees is the standard by which all other LGD's are judged, the prime, most sought after, biggest and best of the Livestock Guardian Dogs!

These are HUGE dogs! Massive, but called the "Gentle Giant" of the dog world. The breed is thousands of years old. They were used to pull carts and guard sheep in the Pyranees mountains. They have been bred to protect for many, many generations. Their chase instinct is almost non-existant and they don't "herd" everything. They are not herders, they are guardians, gently, quietly watching. They are pacers, traversing the area of their home, alert for danger at all times. They bark often, whenever there is something to warn us about. HUGE dogs!! Much bigger than a golden retriever.

Not only do they have these great dogs, but they have puppies!!!

Now can you guess what I brought home with me yesterday?

They keep the puppies with the kids, for awhile, until the puppies get big enough to be too rough for the new born kids (which is about now). Aren't they just adorable??

This is Jake. He came to live with us yesterday. He weighs about 40 lbs and he's only NINE WEEKS OLD! He's huge! He was still nursing three weeks ago! It's all I can do to pick him up and carry him down the front steps to the yard. He's still too uncoordinated to walk down them. He trips and falls down if left to himself. Because of his size, its easy to forget just how young he is.



He has a black spot on his left ear, a small one right on the top of his head and a little, lighter one on his back.

Coffee Planter Gift

I am seeing a long time friend in about a week. She is also a gardener so I thought I would take her a few seedlings for her garden that I know she has not grown before.

A couple of weeks ago a large fast food chain started selling really good, high quality coffee and had a promotion, giving it away free. Shortly into the free coffee promo, I had quite a collection of coffee cups. One day they were sitting on the counter and this idea came to me. What a unique temporary planter that would make! Being a big coffee drinker, I was able to collect quite a few cups and a holder. The medium size worked better than the large tall size which were tippy.

I thought this could be used to start seedlings, since it comes with a lid as well, but for this purpose I am just going to transplant seedlings I already have growing, into the cups. One week is not enough time to grow things from seed. I could also take another set to her planted with seeds and the lids intact if I have time before I go.

I poked holes in the bottom of the cups for drainage and added a piece of aluminum foil to the bottom of the cup to catch the water.

Into the cups I planted:
Garlic chives
'Keri Blue' dahlia
Aunt Molly's ground cherry
Sweet potato
'Super Shepherd' pepper

I put a label in each cup and put them upstairs in the warm room, under lights. I am hoping they will all be growing and healthy in a few days.

I use slats from horizontal window blinds for plant labels. You can cut them to size and write on them with permanent marker. They last a long time and you get hundreds from one small blind. You can put holes in them to tie onto branches and colour code them too.

I am hoping it will be a surprise but if you are reading this, Diane, see you then!

Its Spring! Happy Springtime Everyone!

Its spring! We, in the northern hemesphere are heading back towards the sun! Yippee!

Spring is usually on the 21st, but not always. This year is it today. The days will get longer quite fast now and the sun will be warmer.

We still have about another three weeks before we can say the winter weather has truely passed, unfortunately. This is a frustrating time of year for gardeners.

The days are so warm and sunny, I could put all my seedlings outside through the daytime but the nights are still below freezing. It is too cold at night to have veggies in the unheated coldframe or greenhouse, so I do the "in and out" thing now for a few weeks.

When mid April arrives, in about three weeks, all my little veggie seedlings will go outside, some in the coldframes and some directly into the garden.

There are a lot of green sprouts in the flower bed and the herbs are looking green again. I have fresh thyme and oregano to use! I have been waiting all winter for that. Next year I think I will grow some herbs on the windowsill or under lights in the kitchen.

I planted the primulas into the garden yesterday. They had been hardening off for a few days on the front porch. They can take the freezing cold nights. The daffodils and tulips are poking their heads above ground, the irises are growing and many other perennials are showing signs of waking up.

The chickens are out free ranging every day this week, eating bugs, green sprouts and grass. They have been looking at a snow covered landscape all winter! Spring is very welcome here!

Sprouts on My Windowsill

I have a LOT of things I want to grow this year, bags and bags of seeds. I came to the conclusion that only way I will get them all planted is with an early start, so that is what I did. I acquired a few little flourescent lights to extend the daylight at both ends and started planting at the end of January.



The first things I planted were canna lilies and tomatoes. You can read about growing cannas from seed in a previous post entitled "Seeding". You can read about growing tomatoes from seed in "Growing Tomatoes From Seed".


These are some of the canna seedlings. Looking good and getting big!

I also planted peppers, a few red brussel sprout seeds (only three sprouted) and ground cherries a few days later. These are the peppers and red brussel sprouts now.

These are the ground cherries. I think I will put all of these into individual pots soon. I found a large number of 4" pots in the cold frame when I opened it this morning. I must have quickly stuck them in there last fall. I will be planting more ground cherries this year, probably many rows of them. I want enough to can for pies all winter and a large batch of wine. I grew a small amount last year but didn't eat many of them. I used them mostly for seed.

These are the other brassicas I have growing. They will all go directly into the garden as soon as it is workable, hopefully by mid April. I intend to grow a lot of broccoli and cabbage and use a combination of BT and BE on the cabbage worms.

I have two containers this size of broccoli.

This is the cabbage.

This is bok choi.

These are the red cabbage seedlings.

As you can see, brassicas all look alike as seedlings so it is important to label everything.

These are my sweet potato slips.

Grown from these sweet potatoes that I started rooting in water in December.

My edoes are doing well. You can read about growing edoes in a previous post "Edoes and Elephant Ears".

These are my chichiquelites (Garden Huckleberry). I have read that they are close in taste to a blueberry, a bit more sour, but I can always add more sugar to pies. I am hoping to get a lot of berries for wine and pie making all year. I may have to concentrate on collecting enough seed this year and grow many rows of them next year.

The large globe onions are doing well. They will go into the garden with the brassicas as soon as it is workable. They need a drink which I will take care of right away.

I also have chives and garlic chives growing. These will go out with the onions into the herb row.

I have a couple of just sprouted cilantro seedlings in the pot from the grocery store. I planted some seeds in with the growing cilantro. The plant did not survive but the seedlings are coming up. I did not realize they had sprouted so quickly and had them covered in heavy plastic out of the sunlight, so they are leggy and will need more light than they have been getting.

I also have flower seedlings growing.
These are primula seedlings outside in the flowerbed, only yesterday freed from snow cover. They are so hardy!

This is another one in the garden, amidst the green sweet williams. This one has buds on it already! When I saw this, I put the group I had growing indoors, outside on the porch to start hardening off.

I was adventurous this spring and planted four bird of paradise seeds. One sprouted and is growing. It's about 6" tall now.

These are my dianthus "Siberian Blues" seedlings, planted in a cookie tray.

I have both white and lilac daturas growing in here. There is also one tiny 'Black Magic' heuchera seedling about 1/4" high.

Among the seedlings I also have some of last year's dahlias, cannas and callas. This is a dwarf white canna that I grew from seed last year. It bloomed the first year from seed! I grew it indoors all winter on the windowsill. It was looking a bit tattered when the new spring growth started. Now it looks pretty good.

I have a lot more flower seeds yet to plant. I am trying to plant something every day in an effort to get everything planted. I don't know if I will make it or not. The ground is thawing and the snow cover is dissappearing. I have work to do outside!