Those Pesky Wabbits!

Okay, I know I said that all things are beautiful and even the cute little bunnies that eat my garden every year are part of the great circle of life, but I'm over it! :) The "cute" little bunny ate 3 broccoli plants and 2 cabbage plants. The very plants that I worked so hard to save from our mid march snow, that I worked hard to prepare the clay and rock ridden soil, and that finally have been showing signs of health and growth. Yeah, I'm bitter, I admit it.

I also, for some reason, deeply connect to the plants I help to grow. I care about them and take great joy in their life. When one is destroyed I actually feel sad. Maybe that sounds weird, but it's true. Now I don't cry or anything, but it does make my heart pang. I would leave the bunny alone if it would leave me alone.

So I went online last night to try to find some answers on keeping bunnies away. Basically what I found were numerous opinions. I read that animal blood or blood meal sprinkled in the garden would help, that taking dog hair and placing it around the garden would also scare the little creatures, numerous foul smelling or hot pepper sprays were suggested, and even placing a big replica of an owl would deter them.

So here is what I have decided to try: We have a German Shepherd named Domi, so I brushed her outside tonight and took the hair and placed it in the garden. I do have a bag of blood meal in the garage so I sprinkled that in the garden. I am going to try these first and see what happens. Finally, I did buy some rabbit repellant that apparently is so foul that I was warned by the salesman to wear gloves so it does not get on my hands. I am ready to prepare some cayenne pepper spray this weekend if I have to.

Like I said, we learn as we grow here. So I'll keep you posted on what works for us with that pesky wabbit.....and even what doesn't. So keep reading! Also, take a look at the pictures in this, it will show you what our healthy plants look like compared to the damage the little varmant did. Take care and keep on growing!

Spring is Popping Up Everywhere!

I love when I can walk around and see all of the new life popping up around me. I can finally start to see the new seedlings begin to look like the plants they will soon become and the trees and plants we have planted in the ground start to show signs of growth. I even spottoed a bunny hopping through the yard today. Although I don't like that they eat my garden, they are pretty darn cute. Our dog loves to chase them around, but can't ever seem to reach them before they are through the fence.

The Asiatic Lillies have begun to peak up in the flower bed, along with the Day Lillies and Rose bushes. We planted a young fig tree this year as well. It was just a big stick when we put it in and is now covered with the most beautiful and velvety leaves I have ever seen. Just around the corner, next to the very spot where we will plant our new Oklahoma Redbud tree, the grape vines have begun to grow taller. The garden is beginning to fill out with cabbage, spinach, broccoli, garlic, red and yellow and green onions. There is life everywhere and I love being a part of it all.

Radfield Farms for me is more of a philosophy, a goal for my journey. I like being a part of the food I eat. I like being connected to it, helping it grow, knowing what I fed it and put on it. We have become so disconnected to what we consume, blindly trusting others to keep us nourished. I realize I cannot know everything that I eat so well, at least not at this time, but any part of my diet that I can be connected to is better than no part at all. That is part of the reason for my passion, the other is that I just LOVE to watch things grow. It is so exciting to me to watch a plant grow out of the ground from a seed that I sowed. Then to eat what it produces that helps to nourish me is amazing. It is the circle of life and I love that.

So Radfield Farms may not currently resemble a true farm, but the idea is the same. We believe in sustainable life, in becoming part of the process again, in being healthy and connected. As we say here, we are learning as we grow!

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Tip for the week: Most seedlings should be growing pretty well in their containers by now. If they have new growth, a second set of leaves, you can begin to take them out into the sunshine a few hours a day. This will help them get stronger as well as get used to spending their lives outdoors. In a couple of weeks they'll be ready to plant!

When cold weather strikes!

Hello to all of you new gardeners out there! As we explained in our first blog post, Radfield Farms is all about learning to grow our garden as we go. Even though we have grown gardens before we are still novices. We figure others can learn from our successes and learning opportunities. It is very important to us here to be connected to our land and our food.

Now we have put in our early season crops here. These would include our broccoli, cabbage, spinach, onions (red, yellow, green) and early season garlic. March is the typical month to plant these vegetables since the danger of frost is normally gone and spring is beginning to show its beautiful face. So we felt pretty safe when we began planting a few weeks ago.

Now I am new to our region (Tulsa, Ok), I have only been here a year now. Last year I did a very small garden and began to learn about the soil here and how to work with it. We have a lot of rock and clay in our dirt. I am also learning how the seasons go here. Last year in March we got a freak snow storm that dropped about 6 inches of snow. This had been after a week of warm and sunny weather. I thought, what an odd thing to happen. No one told me that this was a normal thing every year for Tulsa.

So at the beginning of march we had planted our onions and broccoli and were excited to watch them grow big and strong. About two weeks after they were in the ground..... the snow hit. It was a bitter cold blizzard leaving 6 to 8 inches behind. I was at work when the snow began to fly and I quickly grabbed the phone and called Mike. I knew we would have to cover the plants in order to save them from the cold. Now these are crops that enjoy cooler weather, but this was a bit too cool. I remembered reading somewhere that you should cover them and try to dig down in the soil with the covering to encircle the roots as well.

When I called Mike I remembered we had some oversized beer mugs and asked him to use them to cover the broccoli, which thankfully was the only crop growing and not still a seed in the ground. He did just that, by the time I got home you couldn't even see the tops of the mugs. After a few days the snow melted. We took the mugs off right away and the broccoli had survived. They definitely looked beaten up but they were alive. A very important thing to remember is to remove the glass mugs right away when the sun begins to melt the snow, otherwise you can fry your precious plants.

It has been over a week now and the broccoli is doing fine and even has new growth. So the plan to cover the plants and surround the roots worked and I am very thankful I remembered reading that tip. The onions and garlic have even begun to peak out from the ground. So it was nice to have a success in a precarious situation and you can guarantee I'll remember this next year!

I will share a learning opportunity we had though. I found a beautiful Red Basil plant at our local green house. I got it home and was so excited to plant it so I didn't do any of our normal research and just put it in. The big storm killed the poor plant. I did some research and learned that basil likes warmer weather and does best in soil that is already around 60 degrees which means a later planting season. If I would have stopped and researched first we wouldn't have lost the basil. To say the least, I bought another and it is growing just fine in our sunroom until later this spring.

So I have learned to always stay up-to-date on the weather and to do my research before planting. I am glad that I get so excited about the plants we get, but I would rather them grow healthy. As always, learning as we grow......

Welcome to the Garden

So here is the original blog idea from Radfield Farms. The other you will find here is, of course, The Vegetarian Experiment found at http://thevegetarianquest.blogspot.com/ We encourage you to follow them both and comment as often as you like.


Gardening has been an interest of mine since I was a teenager. I can still remember my brother and I tearing up my parents backyard to build the biggest garden you have ever seen. We had 5 raised beds and grew a bit of everything and it was successful too. I was fascinated with the idea of growing your own food. The thought of just going to your backyard and picking food off a plant and going inside and making dinner was astounding to me.

In my crazy life, there is a certain peacefulness in gardening. It's a beautiful quiet place surrounded by life and the order of it all. There is a definite "circle of life" feeling that I am connected to. It is a place that I understand my purpose.

As I become more and more concerned with my health I become more aware of the things that I put in my body. I find myself drawn to the idea of having a direct connection with the food I eat. I know how it is grown, what it is fed and therefor what I will be eating.

Although I have grown gardens before I cannot claim to be an expert. I am still a student of the earth, learning as I grow, falling back and striding forward. That is the purpose of this blog, of Radfield Farms. To explore gardening, to enjoy the learning process and celebrate the rewards and learn from the failures. It is our hope to have people follow and share information, learn together and grow. We will have tips available as we learn more and more about the plants we grow. If we can do this, anyone can. So stay tuned for tips on: tomatoes, broccoli, herbs, cabbage, onions, canteloupe, peppers, corn and much more. We hope you enjoy gardening and learning as much as we do.

Tip of the Week: HERBS - If you have always wanted to garden but are unsure where to begin or maybe just don't have the space, try growing herbs. Herbs are hardy and can be very forgiving plants which makes them perfect for the beginning gardener. Herbs can easily be grown in your yard or even in pots in your kitchen. So go ahead, choose some of your favorites, go buy some seeds or the plants themselves and you will have your green thumb in no time!