Tag Archives: rhubarb

The Rhubarb Start

It’s been a long time since I hopped into this sphere. Why?

I could attempt the excuses that everyone else has. Pandemic. Kids. Work.

But…I think it’s deeper than that. Every now and again people, just like the rest of nature, need to hibernate. Regaining strength, direction, and purpose are all necessary to continue on as a living, breathing entity.

This little homestead has been though a vast amount of changes in such a short time. We no longer raise our own animals for meat – eggs only – and our focus on doing everything we can ourselves has shifted to doing what we can, but also utilizing local sources to the fullest extent.

The focus right now is getting geared up for gardening season. We have the idea to expand one of the gardens in order to allow Mister and Miss their own little spaces. They will each get two 4′ x 2′ gardens that they can plan, grow, weed, and harvest all on their own accord. This will also help fence in the blackberry bushes as well, a wonderful two-fer.

The plan to rebuild the chicken coop may have to wait as finances have — once again — gone into the vehicles. At least one small cold frame will be hammered together this week. Unfortunately, raising our own seedlings are still out for this year as we have yet to figure out a set-up that our newest criddo won’t destroy on us, so those will be bought from the local organic seedling farm.

So much of this planting season seems…rough. It’s a rough, ugly start, like a rhubarb plant poking it’s way out of the ground. It’s this weird looking, ugly, alien thing that is slowly emerging. You know in the end it will be marvelous, if not a little sour, but it will be worth watching grow.

Here’s hoping this season can see me time to get back into writing on a normal basis, eh?

The Bluebarb Patch

Roughly three years ago we used the money we got from selling an old chicken coop to pick up five blueberry plants. I planted them in a horseshoe around the antenna and planted rhubarb between them. The flower bed beneath the antenna is home to daylilies, tulips, and chive, making the little area a cute spot to sit and enjoy. Unfortunately the chickens have stripped the plants of foliage and mulch every year.

I’ve had it. I demand blueberries from my plants. This year we’ve decided to put up a temporary fence. The green garden fencing is new, but the posts are reused from another garden bed, one which will be seeing new fencing this year.

All the plants – rhubarb and blueberries alike – were treated with 3-4″ of aged chicken compost. The blueberries also recieved about 4-6″ of pine mulch. I’m hoping, between the mulching and fencing, we’ll finally see something from our bushes. There’s still some cleaning up to do, and I doubt the little flower bed will get much attention this year, but it’s a start!

The kicker is that I’ll have a poop-free spot to sut abd read this summer.