Riona Abhainn

We had a nice time, thanks to Julia+fam. for hosting at their farm, great to visit with Paul and others from here on permies, plus those who were there who aren't on here yet.

Sandy the Squirrel:
Well I figured out what's digging holes in all of my containers, and displacing and/or eating all of my seeds planted for future autumn harvest.  This squirrel.  My BIL saw it one morning when he spent the night, I named it Sandy because it lives where it doesn't belong  And she doesn't like pumpkins as we already figured out.  I'm not ready for autumn yet, but I put it on my porch because I won't let her ruin my life, I'll add the others come Oct. once they're maximum mini-pumpkin sized.
Anyways she has also started stealing my carrots, so I'm headed outside to harvest the rest early, before she gets them.  Only one radish sprout has survived her ravaging.  But in trade a surprise fava is coming up, as the second batch I planted is flowering.  Additionally some hearty plants that continue to grow overwinter for early spring harvest have started, hello again chickweed and dead nettle.

So we had a nice time last weekend visiting with Julia's family and Paul, Liv, Jeremy etc., doing a bit of a farm tour and having dinner altogether.  Really fun to meet Paul, and other permies members, in person.  I think I successfully planted Paul's walking onions, but I'm afraid the sunchokes got a bit squishy before I got them in the ground  Since the garden hose doesn't quite reach all of the back yard I've turned it into "the dry garden", where things live which only need occasional watering, I put the possibly defunked sunchokes and the walking onions back there, and moved my alovera back there too.  I'll have to bring the latter indoors once the rainy season starts.

I have a kombucha squash from the neighbour, which supposedly will be ready in Nov./Dec.?  I put it on the south side of the house to maximize sun as the days grow shorter, we'll see what happens, I need to do some research.  I also figured out why my broccoli plant won't make heads, because its from my sprouting seeds, so it isn't bred to make a head haha.  We'll eat the leaves in a salad one of these days, and yes, I still successfully grow microgreens and I feel like I've gotten really good at it, I can get three batches per jar now.

This week I got sick, but at least we got to go to Southern Lights Park and I got to play in the creek after a walk.  I can't say much else about this week which was good, a lot of really hard things, big life disappointments, some plans will have to change.  I'll be ready to talk about it in my next post, but not yet.

You could pick it and sell it in an honour farmstand.  And you could sell starts too, because clearly it is sought after by some.

I've heard it can be done safely if you get them set up before they're active, and get them finished after they're dormant for the winter.

I learnt that a squirrel is competing for my garden with me, I need to do baby seed netting to protect stuff when its just planted.  This squirrel displaced and/or ate most of my seeds I planted for intended autumn harvest, and now its started "harvesting" my carrots for me.

Some others are calendula (you can eat the leaves and flowers in salads, plus the flowers make tea), and radishes.  Both easy-to-grow plants in containers..  Chamomile, facelia, ostrameria.

Harvesting my carrots early tonight, before the squirrel which has been wreaking havoc takes more of them haha.

While the original poster doesn't seem to be around anymore, good to see people nearby that same area doing good permy things.

You've got some great ideas to start with, including having it so people buying at the farm stand can pet the animals, kids and many grownups will love that, and it will keep visitors who are local coming back again and again.

Re. meddlesome squirrels, I can relate, so much for most of the seeds I intended for autumn harvest in Oct./Nov.

Glad you're getting some good eat'n ))))