Gardening and Small Scale Livestock

At this point in the gardening year, for our area (Upstate New York), things have actually shut down. We've had night time temperatures of 16 degrees F. (which is a killing frost in ANYONE'S book), the soil temperatures are now in the low 40s and thou...

Good afternoon, my little cheese puffs - it is time today to talk about 'putting things off,' or procrastinating. This year, in late October in the Mid-Atlantic states, we got a little lesson in how Mother Nature can flex her muscles. We can't really ...

Greetings, my little cheeseburgers! Here at Chez Siberia, it's harvest season and this weekend, your Aunty dug up the garlic that she planted last fall. It's always fascinating to see how things have done, taking into account the weather over the summ...

About a month ago, we discussed the fact that a) we'd gone past any growing space in the garden, b) I had huge numbers of basil plants that needed to go someplace, and c) what to do. The DH created 'grow bags' (which is a product which seemed to exist...

Earlier this spring (is it still officially spring?), I started some seeds under glass. And I very carefully wrote down on a diagram what I had planted from the seed packets. There was spinach and winter lettuce, mixed cabbages and Soloist Chinese Cabb...

Just because something is labeled 'compost' does not mean it's safe for you or for the plants.

Time was, when we thought our biggest garden menace were the ground hogs, though we have always found that if we ‘encouraged’ outdoor kitties in the area, the amount of détente that could be achieved in the tooth and claw area was enough to establ...

I know it’s hard sometimes to remember “BTI” (Before the Internet) but there was a time when what people had going for them was referred to as ‘sending away’. Even before ‘direct mail’, there were box tops, advertisements in magazines, an...

The explosion at the Japanese nuclear power plant makes knowing where your food is grown and how clean it is more important than ever.

OK, so Aunt Toby just knows that you’ve got this gargantuan pile of seed catalogs next to the chair or on your night stand and the color photos are just amazing. And your list is growing longer and longer and you are just going crazy with the though...

Don't give up on your garden early in the winter; there are things that will still be good.

paper seed catalogs are still worth getting and reading, if for no other reason than the educational factor.

I feel that as a public service, I have to tell you something: Sometimes, you just have to do things because they are good for you. You may learn to like them later. That is the way it is with kale. Just eat it. Find a way to eat it that works for ...

There are things you can sow in the garden, even after the frost looks as if it has killed everything.

I know for many people, growing things in the garden is strictly done on the ‘what costs me a lot in the store’ aspect or ‘specialty things that I can’t get locally’ aspect. So, there are a lot of people who will grow 6 different varieties of...

The DH and I have been at this marriage/housekeeping thing for a very long time, but even we have not done everything. This year, I became very sensitive to the whole ‘is there no food that doesn’t have high fructose corn syrup in it?” thing and...

here's how to pick a cantaloupe.

Garlic is easy to grow and easy to put away for the winter.

Turkey noises.

more updates on raising turkeys and lambs.

OK, it’s mid-July here at Chez Siberia and it’s been horrifically hot. And dry. And the garden is not, shall we say, looking its best. We’re still harvesting but there are parts of beds that have been picked over, harvested out. There are lettuce...

A lot of people would like to raise some sort of livestock - whether it's chickens or pigs or lambs or whatever - but they are stopped by lack of experience and fear. Actually, raising animals is pretty simple (not necessarily easy - which is a whole...

As Aunt Toby said before, there are a couple of items in terms of raising sheep that if you get them right, everything else pretty much falls into place. One of the most important is keeping hooves trimmed. Years ago, I attended a talk by a ruminant sp...

So, you are thinking about raising sheep. Or, maybe it’s goats. It’s probably NOT cattle because just the thought of raising a cow or a beef animal is so daunting – we’re talking a creature that ends up weighing almost as much as a small car. ...

And, I’m back. Sort of. The orthopedist’s visit last week was a success and I’m assigned to start physical therapy tomorrow. I have to admit that I’m not really looking forward to this. It’s going to hurt and there is no way to step around th...

That photo was taken this morning about 8:00 a.m. EST. It was 31 degrees F and very windy. Yesterday, we had rain, sleet, and obviously snow overnight. Anyone in our area who had already put out tomatoes, peppers, or eggplants, and not with protec...

It's spring (except if you are in the Southern Hemisphere, in which case, it's fall, but this will probably be useful for you folks too). And you want to work in the garden and go to wherever you store your garden tools (Well, let's hope they got store...

Literally one year ago, I posted this report on the garden: End of March Report Now, if you'd like to read that whole thing, go right ahead, but here are the three important bullet points: By the end of March, 2009: We'd had a very dry spring ...

One of the things I find really attractive about gardening is that there is always something happening - even at a place like Chez Siberia (where parts of the property are Zone 2 in terms of what will survive). This week was no exception. You'd think t...

Sometimes, Aunt Toby is wont (yes, wont) to taking things into her knobby but capable hands and not taking 'no' for an answer. This year's winter has been, for practically the entire Continental United States, one long sitting through of "Ground Hog Da...

Far be it from me to make the claim that Aunt Toby and the DH are experts at raising chickens or hatching chickens with a broody hen. Chickens, as I have noted before, are the 'gateway drug' of livestock raising: as long as you can keep them save, fed...

We have a hen that has gone broody so we're allowing her to do what is coming naturally - sit on and hatch out eggs.

Is there anyone in the world who has not seen "Avatar"? Well, if you haven't, what I'm going to say is NOT a spoiler. For those of you who have seen it, think of the scene where Sully first sees his avatar in the tank...floating there, in the moisture...

One good reason to order your garden seeds now: last year, seed sellers reporting running our by March.

Spring is months away. One way to get a little bit of spring going is to start some seeds for greens as a window sill garden.

The White House has now installed grow tunnels on the beds in the garden!

How to cook, prepare and keep horseradish.

A final look at the year.

Planning for choosing seeds for the garden.

Time to move the chickens inside for the winter from their outdoor pasture traveling pens.

More on fall gardening: frosts

Amazing civil engineering bahavior in chickens.

There is still time enough to do gardening in the fall, if you plan well in the spring and summer.

Potatoes are a great investment of garden space.

Good things to do with zucchini.

Everything you ever wanted to know about eggs.

Getting chickens into the freezer.

A plant that seems to protect other garden plants from slugs - by attracting the slugs to itself.

A photo Aunt Toby took is now being used to promote the Philadelphia Flower Show.

What to watch for when growing potatoes to know what is happening under the ground.

Updates on the chicks, strawberries, et al.

How to grow peppers in short season and cool areas.

First experiences with putting chicks out on grass.

How confinement raised pork is connected to H1N1.

Fighting early spring frosts.

Planning for moving chicks out onto the pasture.

For beginning gardeners, the hardest thing is that they cultivate, plant the seeds and then all sorts of things come up. How can you identify what YOU planted versus the weed seeds that are in the soil and are germinating?

It's worth it to cover garden beds with plastic, but the right kind is important.

Early spring updates for the garden, the chicks and the bee hives.

Finding out information on local laws on raising chickens.

Episode 2 of raising chicks.

Starting out with chicks.

How to choose chickens to raise.

Updates from the March garden.

Here's a chart which will help you decide when to plant your seeds to get the best germination.

There's life in the early spring garden, even in Zone 4; time to plan so that next spring you have something you can harvest!

how to start seeds

Next steps on getting ready for a spring garden, even if you are in the winter.

Raising chickens in urban areas is the hot ticket item right now and into the near future - here are a few things to think about if you are considering it.

First Lessons on getting an area ready for a garden.

Growing your own, making your shelter more energy efficient - these things are not just for homeowners. Renters can take some control too.