Friday 13 September 2013

Stinging nettle

I was hoeing the parts of the garden that don't really matter the other day, and decided I would replant the stinging nettle that were littered throughout it. If I can grow enough, I should be able to eat it. And I should be able to stew it in a bucket and make a tea that I can use for gardening purposes. These are all things that I've read about and forgot the details of. Still, plenty of time to worry about those details at later stage..

Here's my current stock of replanted stinging nettle:

2013-08-21 - Stinging nettle - 01 - Replanted weeds
Grab by the roots
There's some larger nettle around, but it's growing in front of sheds where pesticides and fuels may have spilt in the past. I think I'll stick with safe garden nettle. Thankfully it's been in there for a week or so now, and it's still green, so the transplanting doesn't appear to have done any harm.

Wednesday 11 September 2013

Dusty roads

I don't live that far from paved roads, perhaps two kilometres at most. For you two Americans who read this, that is approximately 9.94 furlongs using your arcane forms of measurements. What this means, is that my house is set just off a dirt road.

2013-08-06 - Farmlet - 17 - Dirt road

It has been a pretty dry winter. And every time a vehicle hurtles down the road in front of my property, if the ground is especially dry, it will raise a trail of dust. There's usually at least a light breeze that pushes the dust one way or the other, and on the day shown in the following two photographs, that way was towards my house.

2013-08-06 - Farmlet - 15 - Dirt road drifting dust

And as the vehicle went further down the road, the dust trail can be seen to be extended.

2013-08-06 - Farmlet - 14 - Dirt road truck dust

Apparently the solution for this is to have someone pour oil on the roads. As you go past most properties along the dirt road, you can see these dark patches.

2013-08-21 - Farmlet - 01 - Oiled roads preventing dust

It might just be worth doing too, I'll have to wait till summer and see how it turns out.

No power, no phone

Extremely strong wind last night. Power went out around 5 PM. Cell phone reception wasn't working after my run this morning, but was working at around 6 PM last night. Had to come into town to use internet, and trees were down on roads blocking bridges and otherwise just torn up at the roots and lying on fences.

Monday 9 September 2013

Mystery trees

On my property, there are two relatively new trees that I think are fruit trees.

This tree looks very similar to dwarf peach trees that you can see in the nursery sections of local stores.  I don't think I've seen dwarf nectarines, so it's probably a pretty safe bet.

2013-08-15 - Mystery plants - 01 - Maybe nectarine or peach
Dwarf peach tree?
The leaves on this tree looked like the leaves I've seen on nectarine trees.  I'll have to wait and see.  But really, if they were the same leaves, from what I understand it could be nectarine or peach as they are both the same family.

2013-08-15 - Mystery plants - 02 - Maybe nectarine or peach
Nectarine or peach?