tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73154688537165252162011-07-30T19:34:13.611-07:00Point Two Five FarmA quarter acre of eco-conscious , sustainable, New Mexican, suburban farm (please...don't call it a garden).Shannon McCoy-Hayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02233801731019197840noreply@blogger.comBlogger161100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315468853716525216.post-30719138012145500312010-08-01T15:42:00.000-07:002010-08-01T15:48:38.305-07:00Ya aint got pictures? Ya aint got nothin’!
What my sunflowers really look like
Let’s just get this out of the way first. There is no such thing as a perfect garden. Thus, when one follows a particular blog or several (as in my case) and sighs with head in hands and mopes that one’s own blog will NEVER be as good as those others. Well…that’s just a load of manure! A garden, and a garden blog, is just as good as the work one puts into it.Shannon McCoy-Hayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02233801731019197840noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315468853716525216.post-62974240969812570632010-07-18T14:38:00.000-07:002010-07-26T16:01:14.017-07:00The War on Worms and Other ThingsWait! Before we grab that industrial size jug of Ortho and blast those ants out of existence, think for a minute. Why should we blast ants out of existence? Are the ants really hurting anything in our garden? What about that full-spectrum weed killer we’ve been spraying onto our gardens lately? Have we thought about how it kills those weeds and what else it might kill ? Have we given any thoughtShannon McCoy-Hayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02233801731019197840noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315468853716525216.post-49097477694301890142010-07-17T08:50:00.000-07:002010-07-17T16:28:55.937-07:00Gardening Tips - National Wildlife FederationGardening Tips - National Wildlife Federation
This is a great site. It has numerous projects to choose from if you wish to make your garden (or backyard farm) more wildlife friendly, which is one of our missions. Thus far this year we've had Cooper's hawks, skunks, mice, various lizards, Downy woodpeckers, Ladder-backed woodpeckers, Flickers, an occasional Blue grossbeak & Black-headed Shannon McCoy-Hayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02233801731019197840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315468853716525216.post-29266393528053632422010-07-11T21:14:00.000-07:002010-07-11T21:31:19.651-07:00Predators - coming soon to a backyard farm near you!
Flame Skimmer Dragonlfy (Libellula saturata)
My cousin Kelly swears this guy was posing for me. According to my go-to-field-guide, A Field Guide to the Plants and Animals of the Middle Rio Grande Bosque, the males sometimes stray far from water to prey on small flying insects (like the the white flies on my farm!).Shannon McCoy-Hayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02233801731019197840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315468853716525216.post-2520507323688643102010-07-08T18:07:00.000-07:002010-07-08T18:07:23.433-07:00Herbs of summer Some of the arugula before I pulled it all out due to white fly infestation. The garden is crawling with the little buggers
A few peas in their pods and an image of life unfolding in front of our very eyes! Mint Oregano Dill
Shannon McCoy-Hayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02233801731019197840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315468853716525216.post-60242895466536776922010-07-04T11:01:00.000-07:002010-07-04T13:20:34.284-07:00Sex on the farmIt's high noon on the farm and the plants and animals are propagating wildly. I've just been harvesting dill, oregano and arugula for seed stock. All of the books and blogs say to wait until the flowers are beginning to die back to harvest for seeds. I want a LOT more herbs next season so I am interested in trying different methods; saving seed and re-sowing, and propagating cuttings this year Shannon McCoy-Hayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02233801731019197840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315468853716525216.post-42950729216131754992010-06-30T06:06:00.000-07:002010-07-04T14:50:08.884-07:00Las Golondrinas son aqui!The swallows are here and one pair has re-purposed a finch nest above our back porch door. Has anyone else noticed swallows taking over finch nests?Beautiful weather. It rained Monday and Albuquerque breathed a collective sigh of relief and contentment. Couldn't you all hear it?I think my sugarsnaps on the eastside of the house are toast. Something is decimating them. Sowbuugs maybe (Maybe not)? Shannon McCoy-Hayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02233801731019197840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315468853716525216.post-73454591044029509342010-06-26T16:03:00.000-07:002010-06-26T18:01:28.304-07:00Rain and LavenderJust got back from the Lavender Festival at Los Poblanos and Los Ranchos. We learned how to make a yurt by hand from Dr. Bruce Milne, Director of Sustainability Studies at UNM! Yurts are uber cool!The wind is coming up and it's starting to rain, thankfully!Shannon McCoy-Hayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02233801731019197840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315468853716525216.post-79096641469276008872010-06-21T05:31:00.000-07:002010-06-21T05:40:59.707-07:00Happy Summer Solstice!Happy Summer Solstice everyone! It dawned cool and pink a few minutes ago. It's 60 in the Garden Shack, some clouds. Still no rain last night. We have buddage! The Rattlesnake Pole Beans have beautiful purple and pink flowers on them, the tomatoes on the porch have five or six buds, the Caserta squash, one of the pumpkins & a sugarbaby watermelon are all blooming! There are also new flowers on Shannon McCoy-Hayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02233801731019197840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315468853716525216.post-56972110908306327852010-06-20T09:14:00.000-07:002010-07-01T20:16:39.455-07:00Where's Mike?This morning dawned crisp & coolish so I threw on a sweater & ran out to the garden to see if Mike was enjoying the new dill plants that I bought and planted for him yesterday. But...Mike is missing. I searched in the dill, fennel and parsley & so far, no Mike. I hope he hasn't become Jay food. The Jays were drinking out of the water tank this morning and it's close to the herb garden. Hmmmm....Shannon McCoy-Hayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02233801731019197840noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315468853716525216.post-72287394066870233552010-06-19T09:06:00.000-07:002010-06-20T21:05:33.080-07:00Creature Feature ContinuedSo I think we may have solved the mystery around "Mike" the Monarch Butterfly caterpillar (I felt I had the right to name him, since he was eating my dill). Seems that Mike is not a Monarch butterfly (nor will he ever be) at all. He looks like a Black Swallowtail, which is interesting because I've seen some flying around the house. I am trying to upload another picture of Mike type caterpillar Shannon McCoy-Hayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02233801731019197840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315468853716525216.post-41632114151553910582010-06-18T06:00:00.000-07:002010-06-20T09:56:28.454-07:00Creature FeatureLast Sateurday I bought some plants out at my fav garden oasis ~ Plants of the Southwest. I wanted some dill, so I bought two plants, even though they were crawling with butterfly catapillars. I chose two plants that didn't have catapillars on them, brought them home and confidently plopped them in the ground where they proceeded to flourish. Yesterday, I walked out to water and the foliage on Shannon McCoy-Hayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02233801731019197840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315468853716525216.post-7538183690327601972010-06-16T05:49:00.000-07:002010-06-16T11:18:17.187-07:00Kind of QuietIt's been pretty quiet on the gardening front. Plants are just growing along at their own pace. Bailey dug up two of the lemon cucumbers (BAD DOG). Found some squash bug eggs on the underside of the Caseta squash the other day and have been monitoring daily and wiping them with a biodegradable soap solution. The squash is blooming! Still no rain. It's ranged from about 62-95 in the Garden Shack, Shannon McCoy-Hayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02233801731019197840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315468853716525216.post-21114271443258156892010-06-08T18:08:00.000-07:002010-06-21T19:35:48.271-07:00Sunny with a chance of more sun62.5 Garden Shack. Overcast, high clouds. Black Valentine stringbeans (west side) are all up as are most of the sugarsnap peas (east side) in either of the side yards. The pumpkins and gourds are too. Still no sign of the coreopsis which was my own seed.Used most of the chard and mustard greens in the caldo verde that I made Sunday. Just in time, 'cuz we've got ourselves some white flies.Garden Shannon McCoy-Hayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02233801731019197840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315468853716525216.post-41294159668990212010-06-05T07:12:00.000-07:002010-06-05T07:51:59.392-07:00We are what we eat.....So what's growing now? Chard and Mustard greens!And now that I've got all of these Chard and Mustard greens...what do I do with them? Gather recipes that will make my husband want to eat them :-)My very favorite thus far is from Terence Conran's The Chef's Garden (given to me by Chuck's Aunt Marsha) This recipe calls for Kale, but whatever, right?Pg 65 CALDO VERDE1/2 pound curly kale (This year Shannon McCoy-Hayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02233801731019197840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315468853716525216.post-75100588482084937682010-06-04T21:06:00.000-07:002010-06-21T19:34:41.487-07:00So I had these seeds....When I was a little girl, my grandfathers were my heroes. They had both been farmers and both had been displaced from their farms and were living on tiny acres and half-acres compared to their previous many acres. By the time I was old enough to spend time with them, digging, hoeing, planting, trapping gofers or whatever, they were in their sixties and had been growing things most of their Shannon McCoy-Hayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02233801731019197840noreply@blogger.com0