Larrapin is over at www.larrapin.us

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I'm so glad you've made Larrapin a regular stop on your garden blog walkabouts! Please don't lose touch - we're still planting and growing and discovering!

Thanks and see you at the new blog!

Larrapin Blog Has a New Home

I've moved over to a new blog site. Please visit me at http://ozarksalive.org/larrapin

Around Here in January

My neighbors cows are in the pasture nearest us this week and I just love it. There are three new calves which I'll try to take pictures of this week.

With the cows lowing to each other and rustling in the dry grass, the roadrunner hanging about in the garden, the wind chimes singing and the chickens' nonstop conversation with each other while they are shredding leaves for me*, it sounds pretty lively around here. But the light is dim, the winds are cold. (Other than the freak 70 degree day we had last week...) It feels like January. I feel like the big calf above, looking at that frozen pond, wondering if swimming season will ever arrive. For some reason, this feels like a long winter already. We've had more cloudy skies than usual. I miss the wonderful Ozark winter sun.

I seem to have re-entered my sleepy winter hibernation...too drowsy to even get my garden seeds ordered yet. I'm going back to my cave...

*Need someone to shred those tough oak leaves still hanging around your yard? Hire your chickens! Just toss dry leaves up to a couple of feet deep in their pen, toss on the scratch corn, and the shredding will begin. The girls have a great time scratching and rearranging the piles of leaves while looking for corn that slipped through. After several weeks, the leaves will be down to a few inches of beautifully shredded leaves, ready to use as a no-blow-away mulch, or as the beginnings of a great compost heap. Photos to come.

Hens On The Loose

Whaddya mean we can't go in the garage??

Buckeye Pullets at 5 months

Is that a handsome gal or what? The Buckeye pullets are 5 months old now and beginning to look like real grown-up hens. (You can find out more about Buckeyes by clicking here to go to the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy page on the breed.) I've raised this batch of Buckeyes and Australorps from day-old chicks. We only had one chick lost out of two-dozen, and that was on New Year's Eve to a huge owl who went inside the open door of the chicken shed at dusk and got an Australorp...



Here are the girls at scratch-time - their favorite time of the day!


The Buckeyes are almost as big as the Australorps, but the Australorps are heavier. I still love those big yellow feet on the Buckeyes.



So once I tossed out the scratch, I couldn't get them to pay me and the camera any more attention. So I'll wait till I get some better photos to post more. This Spring a handsome Buckeye rooster from a breeder near Little Rock will be coming to meet his 12 new gals and Larrapin will have a real flock of Buckeyes....my own little (adult) 4-H project -- and great fun!

Winter Kale & White Bean Soup

Amazingly, despite the really cold weather, the bed of kale is still green and doing well out in the garden. I was doing a cold-weather experiment in this uncovered bed. Those are Tyfon greens, or the remains of Tyfon greens, to the left. They pretty much vanish when the temps hit the mid-teens. The kale, as you can see, is quite perky despite multiple nights of mid-teens and no cover at all.



So I picked a batch and found a wonderful Kale & White bean soup recipe over at allrecipes.com by Jean Carper. You can click the the title below to go to the site.

Bean Soup With Kale

SUBMITTED BY: USA WEEKEND columnist Jean Carper
* 1 tablespoon olive oil or canola oil
* 8 large garlic cloves, crushed or minced
* 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
* 4 cups chopped raw kale
* 4 cups low-fat, low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
* 2 (15 ounce) cans white beans, such as cannellini or navy, undrained
* 4 plum tomatoes, chopped
* 2 teaspoons dried Italian herb seasoning
* Salt and pepper to taste
* 1 cup chopped parsley

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large pot, heat olive oil. Add garlic and onion; saute until soft. Add kale and saute, stirring, until wilted. Add 3 cups of broth, 2 cups of beans, and all of the tomato, herbs, salt and pepper. Simmer 5 minutes. In a blender or food processor, mix the remaining beans and broth until smooth. Stir into soup to thicken. Simmer 15 minutes. Ladle into bowls; sprinkle with chopped parsley.

This is what became of the kale:



And WOW it is a delicious soup. I did a couple of things differently - probably used a bit more kale than it called for, added 1 tsp. of bacon drippings (I am a real Southerner...) and instead of plum tomatoes - which aren't in season when kale it -- I used a small can of diced tomatoes. It was WONDERFUL! The parsley really adds a great green flavor. Can't wait to make more.

Hope you all are staying warm in this cold January! Here's to warm soups and warm hearts.

Garlic & Asparagus in Winter

One great thing about a garden blog is that I can look back at pics from the summer and marvel at how green and lush everything is. Right now, those are not words that would come to mind looking at the garden and surrounds.



This is the asparagus patch's first winter. It grew very well it's first year - seems to love the raised bed and rich soil. I plan to plant another bed of it this spring. We should be able to sneak a batch of these this spring to steam and dip in butter, then by Spring of 2010 we should have a strong supply going. I understand asparagus can live for decades. It's a great garden investment, but one that require a few years patience!



Meanwhile, over in this bed we have the baby garlic that went in the ground in either late October or early November....



So next summer, hopefully, we'll have fresh garlic out of the garden. Exciting! Meanwhile, we're expecting two nights this week down to 10 and then 4 degrees. Yikes. Got to go rake a big pile of leaves over the fig "bush." You can see it this past summer in this post "What a difference two weeks makes"

Barn in Winter Sun

One pleasant thing about the erratic weather is that between cold fronts you get the occasional lovely day! Yesterday was in the 50's and sunny. Perfect for a long walk about the place. Over the fence I can see the neighbors hay barn, show above. I love the way the afternoon sun shines on it in the winter, especially combined with the silver and golden winter grass.

My inner "Garden Clock" started stirring this week. Despite the arrival of the garden catalogs starting in late December, it was quiet. But yesterday I felt the first stirrings of the 2009 gardening season - within anyway! Soon I'll be getting the monthly garden guide out (Thanks Arkansas Extension Service) and doing the little mental calculations to adjust the suggested dates, which are for Little Rock, to our slightly colder NW Arkansas. If I remember correctly, there's stuff I can start planting as soon as mid to late February! OK, not much stuff, but a thing or two? I'll check and let you know...

Thanks for stopping by Larrapin Garden. It's good to be back.

Roadrunner Seeks Wife: Has Three Houses

On my walk today, I snapped this pic of my favorite little birdhouse, which I found at a craft show in Missouri. I put it up in early summer 2008 and several little birds were checking it out, but then vanished.



This was soon explained when I noticed the male roadrunner was constructing a huge nest in the tree above where I had hung the little birdhouse. No (smart) little bird builds a house just below a fast, wily predator...



Ricky the roadrunner spent time sitting on this next during the summer, but no lady-friend ever appeared. Ricky also built nests (or were they hunting blinds?) in the big pine out back AND the top utility shelf in the garage (via the doggie door) incorporating the business end of the electric chainsaw on that shelf into the twigs of the nest! So it seems he's still single. But hopeful.

And one more..

Couldn't resist adding this one showing his little woodpecker head in action!

Back to the Larrapin Blog 2009!

Well after a long holiday season of work, projects, more work, and the holdays, I'm back to posting here on this blog! I missed it. Knowing I'm committed to posting once a week gets me out taking pictures more often. This morning I was trying to get some good shots of the chickens (those will post later) but when I came back in, we saw this cutie on the pine tree outside the kitchen window.



The bird book says he's a juvenile yellow bellied sap sucker. He was busy pilfering the stashes of seeds and suet that the nuthatch hides under the pine bark...



With the weather cold, we're seeing every kind of woodpecker with the notable exception of a red headed woodpecker. Even though the bird book says they range here, we've never seen one here at Larrapin (yet).



Happy 2009 from the folks and critters of Larrapin Garden!

Better Buckeye Update- 12 weeks

I wasn't happy with the photos of the Buckeyes I posted yesterday. I've been jumping back and forth between doing the blog photos at Flickr, uploading to Blogger directly (hence the small photos yesterday - that is my least favorite method...) and using the Picasa web albums now that there is a new Mac uploader. The last method seems to be working well. The photo size options are not the best - either the tiny 400px like yesterday, or the giant 800px below. (I prefer a nice 600px) But's it's fairly speedy and easy, so we'll go with BIG photos!

So I went out to get some photos of the girls again at 12 weeks old. Tossed out some oats for them to snack on to keep the group close to the camera. Otherwise, they will come briefly to check out what you are doing, then most will wander away, while the handful of particularly chummy birds will stand so close that it's hard to walk around without stepping on anybody.



Above is a group shot, mostly Buckeyes with a few Black Australorps thrown in. If you missed the post on why Buckeye chickens are pretty special, you can read about Buckeyes at the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy page here. You have to be careful though, on that website, or else you'll find yourself with a new hobby of preserving heritage livestock like I did. It could be worse, I could have picked cows or horses to work with! (I wish I had that much land!) Anyway, it's a great organization to join and their newsletters are really interesting.



But back to the Larrapin Buckeyes. Note the chicken bloomer shot above. Since I had tossed out oats, it became difficult to get any pics that included their heads, since they were VERY busy looking for those oats in the leaves. This is my sneaky way of making my chickens work for a living. All leaves get raked into the chicken pen, all scratch grains get tossed on the leaves. And presto, a month later the leaves are reduced to a finely ground leaf mold that is exquisite for a compost base or for mulching garden beds! This method words even faster if your chickens are in a smaller coop - you can pile in the leaves and they will work on them all day, every day!



Above is a good representative photo of the pullets at 3 months old. They have huge feet! If chicken are like puppies, these should grow up to be big girls!



Buckeye's have lovely feathering, even if their coloring is pretty routine. The feathers are very distinctive and textured as you see above. Another characteristic in the literature that turns out to be VERY true is their need for a lot of space. These gals love to explore and wander the whole pen - a series of three paddocks. So I can see they would not like a constrained space. They are the ultimate free rangers it seems. I do note though, they like a long afternoon nap sprawled on the hay in the sun... Smart chickens.



This is one of the personable girls, saying, Hey, got anymore oats in your pocket?? They are very curious and like sparkly things - especially my ring. I switched to oats from cracked corn for scratch since the oats are supposed to be better for egg production. (Though that will be a while for these girls...) I'll add some corn in over the winter for heat. The Buckeye's are bred to be fine in Ohio winters, so Arkansas winters - even in the farthest NW corner where we are, should be a cakewalk for these girls. Note the very small pea combs - that's to avoid frostbitten wattles in cold climates.




And then the guinea hoodlums show up, run all the girls off and the photo session is over. Thanks for getting to know the Buckeyes better. For folks with the room, they are a fine chicken to preserve.

Buckeye Update- 12 weeks

The girls are growing up! Here's a Buckeye pullet, about 12 weeks old, out for an afternoon stroll in the leaves..

And here's the wide angle view of the gals out of their pen and strolling the grounds and nibbling on everything...luckily it's late enough in the season that the nibbling doesn't matter... The Buckeyes are comparable in size to the Black Australorps, which is pretty good.




And finally for this quick post today, a shot of one of the random hardware-store roosters I accidentally bought. I don't know what kind he is, but he is beautiful, if shy. Well there's a superquick poultry update before I dash off to work!

What a difference two weeks makes...

Still on the subject of time, I look around today at the thinning leaves on the branches, the sea of copper oak leaves on the grass, and I can't believe that just about two weeks ago it looked like the pictures below.


The fig tree made it up pretty big this year! As I've said before, being from Alabama where figs really grow into tree sized, this still seems like a fig bush to me.



It's a brown turkey fig tree (bush) and this year for the first time we had several handfuls of delicious figs. Incredibly, this hot spot against the south facing wall is still a little too shaded by a neighboring sycamore tree to bear fully. The figs don't really ripen till October. By that time the sun has dropped low enough for the sycamore to cast shade. Hmmm. I'd like to plant another higher on the property to get *more* sun. Amazing that the Arkansas Ozark sun is still not quite enough for these guys!



This narrow leaf sunflower was a beauty this year.




This was one of the last monarchs to emerge. This was his first hour of morning sunshine. His wings were still soft. I hope he caught a strong tailwind and made it down to warmer climes before the first frost we had on October 25th or so.



So it will be many months till it looks like this again. But there's plenty to do, designing, reading and dreaming of the garden 2009! Thanks for stopping by Larrapin for a look back to two weeks ago. The next post will be a Buckeye update!

Where does the time go?

My Grandmother always said time speeded up when you got older. I guess I thought she meant when I got her age, not my age now! Autumn is here in all her glory. The leaves are full of color and falling on every breeze. This purple birdhouse in the front yard maple looks like a postcard for Autumn to me. Of course it is Arkansas, so I'm out messing around in the garden every day, getting beds cleaned out and covering them with a deep coat of chopped leaves. Ahhh, back to the chopped leaves.

You see for the first time ever, this year I was on the ball enough to plant a cover crop. A lovely cover crop, the "soil-builder" mix from Peaceful Valley Farm Supply. It came up and got about six inches high. Looked completely lovely, like it was doing fabulous things to the soil right before my eyes. Then killer-bambi descended.

We are having deer trouble for the first time in ten years of gardening in two states surrounded by deer. Our big dog Shug is about 13 now. She's still pretty tough up close - she's a big chow mix, but her eyesight and hearing have faded enough that she doesn't see or hear the apparent HERDS of bambi that must march like hungry zombies out of the woods towards the garden while Shug keeps her nearsighted and nearscented watch from the porch many yards away. Ahh, the indignities of old age... Shug would be mortified if she knew there were armies of deer *just* over there in the garden. You can tell them by the crunching...

So anyway, the deer ate the cover crop down to the stubs. Horrors. So I'm back to covering the raised beds with deeps layers of chopped leaves. Not as good for the soil as cover cropping, but the next best thing for me. Sigh... I will get even with killer bambi. I've been online and discovered the electric-fence-wire-dabbed-with peanut-butter treatment. Next time I'm at Tractor Supply, a fence charger is on my list. And a big jar of peanut butter. Bambi, prepare for a PB & J (peanut butter & jolt) you won't forget!

I know this sounds harsh from a person who welcomes (most) wildlife to the garden with open arms. But some wildlife just can't be good neighbors with the garden. Nevermind there are fields of grass all around that seem fine for cattle. And acres of brushy woods that deer favor. So bambi, please back off a bit. I'll try the fence and see if that works. It's not fatal, if a bit startling, no doubt. If that doesn't work, I may have to sit out in the garden with the shotgun like Ozark gardeners of the past have probably done many a night, protecting the garden, and planning for venison stew!!

Food, Farming Gardening Links #1

I read a lot on growing food, farming, and ecological gardening. I thought I'd post an occasional link list so that if you are into it, you can find out more about these issues.

It's about more than gardening. The food we choose doesn't just affect our health. Some foods I choose are votes for healthy soils, intact forests, biological diversity, human and ecological health, honeybees, humane farming, and beautiful landscapes. Other foods I choose promote inhumane factory farming, air and water pollution, fossil fuel dependence, topsoil loss, climate change, and other stuff I don't really want to promote. I'm trying to become more conscious of these choices.

It's also about gardening! We have such an opportunity to make positive change with our gardens.

Below are some links you might want to check out when you are hanging out online. If you find other good ones that were helpful to you, please share them with me and I'll add them to a later collection.

Enjoy!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/magazine/12policy-t.html
This "Letter to the next President" is by Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma. It's a fairly wonkish article, but is a real education of the larger scale food issues we are facing and will face more intensely in the future. Worth pondering.

http://midwestpermaculture.com/TI-Webinars.php
Free "Transition Towns" Webinar coming up on 10/29. This was great! I listened/watched the first one and loved the overview of a truly hopeful response to climate change. Many towns in the UK, and now a few in the US are becoming "Transition Towns," getting ready for a new and hopeful vision of "peak oil." By all means, check this out if you are interested. You will need to email them (instructions at link) to get the info on how to get in on the webinar. Midwest Permaculture is the organization where I plan to get my permaculture training in 2009! Great informative site at www.midwesternpermaculture.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVJtpuOyCo0
VIDEO - 5 minute overview of the urban homestead in CA that produces 6000 pounds of produce off a typical suburban lot! Plus their solar stuff, goats, chickens and fun farm stuff, all in town!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCPEBM5ol0Q
VIDEO- Another video, this one nearly 10 minutes, about the same family urban homestead. I love these folks! (and envy that California year-round growing...but hey, we have plenty of sun here in the Ozarks!)

http://www.sustainabletable.org/
Sustainable Table is a huge site with good info on good eating. Wander around and you'll find good stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7JgenD4fdw
VIDEO: Edible Estates - one CA front yard project by an artist who does these "Edible Estates."

http://www.fritzhaeg.com/garden/initiatives/edibleestates/main.html
Here's the main site for the artist who is doing Edible Estates.

http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/food/factoryfarms/dairy-and-meat-factories/climate-change/greenhouse-gas-industrial-agriculture
What's the connection between farming, fossil fuels and climate change? This will explain.

Hope you enjoyed! Please pass this on to anyone you think would be interested.

Grow it and they will come: Monarch butterflies

Wow! These guys can eat! These pictures are from about two weeks ago, when I noticed that there were DOZENS of Monarch butterfly caterpillars on a tropical milkweed out in the veggie garden that had eaten every leaf on the plant. Here's a video snippet (1 min) of that plant:



So by snipping off the bare branches loaded with baby Monarchs, I relocated them to a milkweed that had plenty of leaves. They crawled off, eating all the way! The lesson here, same as last year: Plant more milkweed! Below are some pics of the relocated caterpillars...







And here is a tiny video (1 min) after the successful relocation:



Postscript to this story: Since the receiving milkweed plant is right beside the front patio, our front porch is now festooned with little leaf-green cocoons dotted with gold. We kept one (which was on a leaf I accidentally plucked) in a jar with a coffee filter over the top, till it emerged and we released the most perfect Monarch into a gorgeous September day.

Fly hard towards Mexico beautiful friends!

Buckeyes Play Day in the Big Pen

Are these gals growing up or what? From their hatch date on August 6th they have grown steadily and are starting to look like real pullets!

So on days when we're home to deep an eye out for hawks (since these gals are the the perfect hawk-bait size right now) they get to romp with the big chickens for the day. After we've put the big rooster, Red, outside the pen, that is. Red has to go to a new home soon (or the soup pot...) He was a rooster that arrived as packing material with our guinea chicks. He's a handsome Americauna, but that's not what we raise around here now...


Here's everybody on the chick room doorstep. The love to scratch away the straw and take dust baths already.


These girls are serious hunters already.



The Buckeyes are supposed to be a deep red brown (like a Buckeye nut) and some of these are getting a nice deep color. Others are still pretty light. Eventually, we'll select for the good color and good egg production.



Thanks for stopping by Larrapin Garden! Things have been so busy with work and life I've had no time to post, but will give a monarch butterfly update soon.

(Yikes, I had to re-publish this post till I got the pics right. Usually I use Flickr, but was trying to use Blogger images. Tricky! I didn't know you had to choose, it seems between pics 400px wide OR 640 pics wide, OR, they don't show up! Live & Learn...may be going back to Flickr pics...)

Preview: Chicks Outdoors!

Coming Soon - a report on the first day outside! (Really, I'm just checking how this image looks. I'm torn between uploading directly to Blogger, vs using Flickr... Bloggie techno decisions...) More later today, including video of the first venture outdoors!

A Walkaround at the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks (Fayetteville)

Isn't it funny how we don't spend enough time visiting the really wonderful places in our own cities or regions? Can you say you've been to most of the landmarks in your town? If so, I think you have the right idea. I've moved away from areas before and realized I've never been to the places that the tourists travel hundreds or thousands of miles to see. For example, I lived in Asheville, NC for ten years and never visited the Biltmore Estate, I confess. It does, however, give me a reason to act like a tourist when I go back there to visit friends....

Anyway, I'm breaking that habit of mine now that I'm here in Northwest Arkansas. I want to be familiar with the places that make the place special. So when my Mother in law and Father in law visited the other weekend, we took them to the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks, one of the loveliest spots in Fayetteville. (My other all-time favorites being the Farmer's Market on the Square on Saturday mornings and the Fayetteville Public Library.... And our realtor must have sensed this because once we saw those two things, we instantly chose Fayetteville over the other cities in the region.)

So join me on a walkaround at the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks in Fayetteville, Arkansas:


Shadow Art on the Great Lawn

The BGO is brand new, less than three years old. It's an amazing thing seeing a botanical garden begin, take root and grow where there was formerly just a lovely hay field! It's a series of named and themed gardens that radiate out around the central lawn. The Great Lawn is the site for festivals, concerts and other local happenings. (The whole place is the best spot to have a wedding in the whole region...)

We arrived in late afternoon on a Sunday and nearly had the whole place to ourselves. The angled light was splendid and depth shadows added to the drama.


Artful Horse Apples Near the Event Hall

Now this is a clever use for the fruit from an Osage Orange! This decorative planting is outside the event hall. There must have been a wedding the day before because the tents were still up.


My Favorite Fountain

Since I'm craving more water features here at Larrapin Garden, I gravitated to all the ponds, waterfalls and fountains -- and there are many. This one was my favorite. Made a great sound and the light just sparked off every drop.


My Favorite mosaic of all time

The BGO is full of art. This mosaic is at the entrance to one garden -- a dragonfly of natural stone with shiny glass accents. The dragonfly is probably four foot long. What a beautiful piece!


What a waterlily!

Like I said, water gardens everywhere. Is that an amazing color or what!


If your veggie garden looks like this, who needs ornamentals?

Of course my favorite stop is the edible garden! Someday, I'd like my veggie garden to look this pretty!


The Corn Sculpture in the Vegetable Garden. How can an artsy-farmer -wanna-be like me not love a six foot mosaic ear of corn?


Black Eyed Susan Vine Among the Yard Long Beans

This picture doesn't do it justice, but the Black Eyed Susan vines were underplanted with the pole beans (the kind with pods a couple feet long!) and made the whole trellis look beautiful. Note to self: more flowers among the veggies next year!



Cute Chicken Yard or What?

Now this is not your stuffy uptight botanical garden. You can tell because tucked behind the veggie garden is the cutest chicken yard you ever did see. With art --a bamboo star in this case -- among the chicks, of course. This is one happy bunch of bantie poultry.



World's Cutest Chicken Coop?
And what's not to be happy about when you are a bantie living in a chicken coop that looks like a playhouse?


The Chicken Coop Yard -- With Art. I noted they have straw, rye grass and amaranth growing in their yard. Nice! Ok, I want a bamboo star for my chicken yard. At Larrapin, it could be a good obstacle for running chickens to put between themselves and a hawk attack! (We've been lucky lately, but every morning the hawks fly around and call and call, reminding us that it's a wildlife garden, after all...)


New Bridge in the Children's Garden. This splendid bridge, done up in my favorite blue, appeared since the last time I visited the garden.


Adults Enjoying the Children's Garden
Caught these folks having fun on their way to the "Eagle's Nest" a concrete structure that lets you view the garden from on high.


Secret Passage in the Children's Garden. I loved this mosaic tiny door in the chilcren's garden, leading to a big field...

Wow! What a place in my own town. Go Fayetteville! Go BGO!


Afterwards, A Stroll by Lake Fayetteville. To finish up our Sunday outing, we walked a brief bit around Lake Fayetteville, which is back to back with the Botanical Gardens, and has 5 miles of walking trail through the forest around the lake. I love my home of three years now.

Thanks for visiting Fayetteville, Arkansas. I'd love to hear about some of the special places in your hometown backyard!