This bumblebee on one of our roses reminded me to recommend the documentary, Vanishing of the Bees, which is about honeybees, not bumblebees, and will make you think twice about ever hurting a bee.
Check out our Flower Farm at Poudre River Stables.
Life doesn't get much better than driving up to a bed of edible cut flowers on your old John Deere tractor. See more photos.
I love the variegated coral tones in this calendula. Who knew the marigold's cousin could be so elegant? Many thanks to JohnnySeeds for these easy-to-grow seeds. We are testing the idea of edible cut flowers as a diversification strategy for our stable.
You might also enjoy our Flower Farm photo album.
This is when having horses is a real bonus. Our compost pile, a mixture of aged horse manure and soiled shavings, makes a very nice flower bed. This compost aged about a year before we used it.The weed cloth is a lifesaver, as are the drip line supplies from DripWorks.
You might also enjoy our Flower Farm photo album.
Different area on the farm from our new flower area, but I could not resist including these farm roses, which by the way, also happen to be edible. Imagine how they would look crystallized and candied, on a cake.
You might also enjoy our Flower Farm photo album.
Legolas the Goat enjoys his canopy of crabapple blossoms. The crabapple trees produced spectacular blossoms this year, which are also edible. I've also heard of people drying blossoms to use instead of dried rice at weddings because the blossoms are better for the animals and the environment.
You might also enjoy our Flower Farm photo album.
Diversification project this year at Poudre River Stables: Edible cut flowers!
You might also enjoy our Flower Farm photo album.
Pasture grass can be very tough stuff. This is how the planned bed looked after only one pass with the tiller.
The process of a manure pile "cooking" is hard to describe, but the video clip above captures the process nicely, complete with rising steam. We use the windrow composting method, which basically involves keeping the pile moist, and in our case, pushing the pile periodically with the tractor bucket to keep introducing air. You can also insert perforated PVC sewer pipes vertically throughout the pile to introduce air.
Garden plants like flowers and vegetables love this composted mixture of soiled wood shavings and manure! You can see our "end product" in the distance, a much smaller, darker section. To ensure all seeds are killed, be sure to store your "product" under a black tarp for a few months after it reaches the end composting stage to really cook the seeds under the sun. Remember, never compost your manure near water. We also use our compost as valuable fertilizer on hay fields, as fill under horse sheds, to fill low spots in the lane, and to build above-ground planting areas in old stock tanks or as stand-alone dirt berms.
If you read Gene Logsdon's book on manure and its value, which not only educated me, but made me laugh out loud several times, you will understand the book's title, "Holy Shit: Managing Manure to Save Mankind". Gene Logsdon also writes a great rural living blog, The Contrary Farmer.
"Mount Manure", our compost pile made of soiled shavings and horse manure, produces amazing plants. This cherry tomato plant was living in its pot with our raspberries in old water troughs filled with Mount Manure "product". I pulled it into our bay window room in the middle of last night's freezing rain. Planted from seed, this tomato is an indeterminate variety, meaning it should have multiple growing seasons, and is still full of flowers. I hope the grow lights keep it going through the winter! Read also, Easter 2013: Grandang's Rhubarb, which shows how we use old, leaky water troughs as planters. Grandang's rhubarb, shown below in an updated August photo, is also in a bed created from our horse output. The rhubarb produced like crazy, even after being split earlier in the spring. Arrangements can be made if you are interested in a piece of Mount Manure.
