Lehman’s Country Life

For many people, the mention of roses conjures up images of perfectly formed florist’s blossoms, surrounded perhaps by a cloud of tiny white Baby’s Breath sprays at Valentine’s Day; or perhaps like me, you grew up seeing vines of powder pink “wild” roses climb chimneys and scramble over the roofs of coastal cottages. There are hundreds of variations on what qualifies as a rose, and whether your tastes run to the perfection of form as with the long-stemmed hybrids preferred by florists, or the heavily scented “cabbage” roses depicted by Renaissance painters, there’s a rose for everybody. In this first of two articles, we’ll look at the basics of growing roses, and dispel some of the common myths about their care and feeding.

If your experience with roses has been limited to seeing someone in your family or neighborhood constantly fussing with their plants, you may have concluded that roses are hard to grow and require constant care. Nothing could be further from the truth! I can’t tell you how many really good books on the subject will say quite plainly, “roses love to grow!” There is no need to fuss over your vines and bushes unless you choose to; and even then, I doubt you will much improve upon what the rose does quite naturally given just a few basics, beginning with planting. There are two different ways to plant a rose, and we’ll look at them here.
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One of the better value strategies for a low impact, more carbon neutral way of life is to compost. You do not need a huge garden. You just need to figure out the best way to match your own domestic set-up. When you compost carefully you will be given a wonderful by product - humus. This is a dark brown, light and crumbly soil that is gold to all gardeners.

Compost is the natural way to recycle waste and it is truly a miracle in the making. You layer up newspaper and cardboard (brown material) or woody shrub prunings (also brown material) with the moist ‘green material’ - the potato peelings, damp paper towels, tea bags and coffee grounds. You make a compost ‘lasagna,’ alternating the dry and damp in layers. In time, heat and worms do the real work of breaking it down until there is a lovely, crumbly mixture. My first gardening teacher, Delores Keegan, pronounced that the best way to construct compost was to lay down a piece of newspaper, scrap your spuds, parsnips and carrots onto the paper, wrap it all up and then you have the perfect brown and green balance in a neat parcel to deposit in your compost bucket.
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Spring is perfect soup weather. It’s easy, it’s quick, and many times you can leave it to simmer while you work outside. Around my house it is a staple as springtime is very busy on the farm! New baby animals being born, gardens to ready up, tend and plant and lots of other outside chores. Try these recipes on the stove top or in the slow cooker.

Spaghetti and Meatball Soup
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 carrot, peeled and chopped into a small dice
1 medium yellow skinned onion, chopped
2 small ribs celery chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 cups tomato sauce or 1 (14-ounce) can plus 1 (8-ounce) can
3 cups chicken stock, available in a box on the soup aisle
1 pound ground beef, pork and veal mix (meatloaf mix)
1/2 cup grated cheese, Parmigiano or Romano, plus more to pass at table
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It’s been a long winter and it’s so exciting to see the trees begin to bud and the flowers pop through the earth. When the girls were younger we used to put up “things to look for in spring” like birds, bugs, flowers and other signs that yes, it’s truly spring. It’s also time to begin planning for what the garden will hold, how much I need to plant to get the yield I might need for my family and friends.

Home food preservation is a strong practice in our community and valued as a tradition in many families. The planning, planting, tending, harvesting and preserving have come to mean many hours of family time together, working and enjoying the fruits of the yield. In the 2002 edition of the Ball Blue Book, there is a wonderful chart to help guide the planning process. It details the number of plants to purchase or plant for what yield. Another chart below  indicates the number of vegetables needed for a family of four, served how many times a week and then a final number of quarts that need to be preserved to achieve this goal. On the Ball web site (freshpreserving.com) under preserving guides they have similar planning charts to help us plan in greater detail the size and scope of our spring planting.
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Springtime. The very word conjures up visions of spindly legged lambs bouncing about, chickadees squabbling around the feeder, and trees breaking out in song while the sun beams down benevolently. All very Disney-esque. Unfortunately, I’ve long since been disabused. There’s not going to be a Laura Ingalls look-alike tripping down any of the snow drifts in my backyard any time soon. I have to think that Julius might have gotten to put in the garden come spring of 44 BC if he’d paid better attention to the season- a couple of months of cabin fever is likely to make even the most stoic of Roman Senators a bit cranky.

But there are some undeniable signs that spring is in the air and, rather than hiding under our togas, all that can be done is to grit our teeth and get on with it.
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When the market garden is done for the year (as much as it can be, because there is always something to do) we can sit back and hopefully relax a bit. If the season was good, we can survive the winter with our profits. If not, we must find something to do to make up the difference.

Such is the case for many who try to survive on the income from a market garden or from any seasonal income based project. It can be anything and for those who try to live some type of self- sustaining lifestyle it can be everything.
As for me, I try to survive in the off season so I do not have to work for “the man”. My mind is always working, trying to find ideas to make a few bucks, not to get rich, but to be able to keep doing the things that I love.
This late winter is no different. And my first project hit me right in the head. What started out as a trial run appears to be headed for bigger things, but they will have to wait until next season. Let me explain.

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Today was a productive day in the Buggy Barn.  Roy and Rex, our matched team of belgian Amish workhorses are begining to take shape!  The store was busy with lots of visiors into the Buggy Barn.  Everyone was energized and in a good mood in part I am sure to the spring like weather we had today.  The man who sells homemade ice cream in the parking lot across the street opened for business today signaling spring is on the way!  Another favorite spring sight of mine around the Kidron area is seeing the beautiful work horses, like those in the mural, plowing the fields.  I do hope when the mural is finished people will  take their picture standing beside the horses and get a sense of how big, strong and steady these animals are!  Speaking of draft horses you may want to mark for July 5th to see the Horse Progress Days in Mt.Hope on July 5th.  Draft horse people stop by and see how I did on the mural! 

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“…It takes time to grow food. You can’t grow food in a panic. It takes planning.”

So said Michael Levenston of City Farmer, on the eve of the year 2000, otherwise known as Y2K - the year of panic.

That wisdom is just as relevant now as it was then, although perhaps in a slightly different setting. We don’t expect (at least most of the time) to wake up tomorrow morning to a world that’s suddenly reverted fifty years in technology.

There are other concerns right now, though. One would have to be blind to not notice that the price of groceries have gone up drastically over the last few months.

We can’t control the price of food, but we can control how much of it we buy. A home garden can make a definite difference in how much you need to buy.
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It never fails — no matter how early or late it happens, that first moment when I see that flash of blue…hear that soft, watery warble and finally register that there are a dozen or more Bluebirds in my front yard, for a split second, I can barely breathe.

Journal Entry - February 1st ‘08

The Bluebirds are here! This is the earliest they’ve ever arrived and the ground is frozen! I need to get a rush order placed with Grubco and run to Petsmart for a couple of little cartons of mealworms to tide us over!

Last month, I wrote about “new traditions,” and although I still think of “deep winter” in terms of things I grew up with many miles north of here, there is no denying that here in the Mid-Atlantic, the arrival of the first flock of hearty little balls of winged blue fluff has become part of February into March that is a testament to the natural knowing of animals. Whether they read signs that point to winter ending soon can only be conjecture; but it’s been proven that Eastern Bluebirds do know, from one season to the next, where they can expect to find safe nesting places and where there is likely to be food. In the seven years I’ve owned this land, the collection of nest boxes has burgeoned from one to six, and in the months when they arrive while the ground is either frozen or covered with snow, there are emergency provisions offered up in ceramic plant saucers that are always emptied by day’s end.
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Waste management experts report that