Vegans Living Off the Land: March 2017

Friday, March 31, 2017

Late March Tulip garden floral photography by Cassie K

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

The early Tulip garden (floral photography) by Cassie K

Peach tree

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Late March flower garden beginning to bloom (floral photography)

The Tulips are beginning to bloom now that we are in late March. In November 2015 I planted maybe a hundred tulip bulbs in the garden. Here are some of the early blooming Tulips that are emerging with the landscape that is changing seasons. There are three red tulips, two Salmon colored Tulips, and an orange one so far. I took pictures of other flowers around the yard as well like the daffodils and the little blue flowers. My favorite tulips that come up a little later are the Happy Generation that is red and white striped, and the Parrot tulips that are ruffled with yellow and red colors, so stay tuned for pictures of those.

Bee on peach blossom

a field of purple flowers

Peach, Plum, Pear fruit trees in Kentucky zone 6 (late March)

Last week was very cold and so I kept all the fruit trees covered--hoping that would protect the fruit tree blooms. It looks like the pear blooms and nectarine blooms survived, while the peach and plum tree waited till after the week of frost to bloom. There was lots of bees on those trees yesterday.

It's sad to say, but the 5 year old Peach tree I planted from Arborday.org died this year. I can at least say I got a fruit harvest off of it last summer, and they were delicious. I believe it was a fungus that is common in Peaches and nectarines where there is a wound around the base of the tree and gum begins to ooze out of the wound. It is recommended to use fungicide, but of course I researched when the peach died so there is no saving it now. I am going to replace it's space with mulberries that I have in pots.

Because it's warmer now, I am taking off the plastic and garden cloth, blankets and scarfs that I had the fruit trees wrapped in. Once it warmed up in the last couple of days, I have been distributing compost around some of the berry plants and on the hugelkultur mounds. I am acclimating and hardening off the goji berry plants and mulberries so I can transplant them outdoors. Below are pictures of the fruit trees that are blooming right now as well as the tulips that are blooming in the garden.

plum tree in bloom

small Cherry tree (left), Plum & Pear trees blooming

20+ year old Peach tree

Chicago Hardy Fig tree

Fig

Brown Turkey Fig tree (front) & Cardboard mulching around blueberry patch

Compost mulching yellow raspberries & goji berry

And of course this dog is a big part of the garden process.

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Hillbilly rig porch into greenhouse/winter dog house

Ideas for Growing mushrooms in containers indoors (pictures)

Depending on the type of mushrooms, certain mushrooms grow under different types of trees. In much the same way there are different types of mediums like straw, brown rice, or coffee grounds that grow mushrooms in containers. Below are some examples of the ways growers use different types of containers and mediums of growing different types of mushrooms.