Full circle organic gardening

Welcome to my blog. My mother has been telling for years to write a book about the funny farm we live on. So this is me following her advice, in blog form! My husband and I and our two Kids live on a 60 acre ranch in Northern California. No where near the "California" that made the zip code 90210 famous in the 90's. On the contrary, we live in the sticks! We are just far enough our here that we have to drive to town and plan out groceries in advance to avoid disasters like no onions on Fajita night!

This area was historically covered in wild grape vines. For which parts still are. This is where the full circle idea started. Our ideal for our little niche is to create an atmosphere that is definitely country and ALL GREEN! We currently house chickens for eggs and meat, goats weed mowers and Lots of plants! We are surrounded by cattle fields which make for very interesting stories from time to time! We would like to bring all full circle and create an area where biodiversity reins supreme!

So, my plan for this blog is to journal the best and the worst times, the silly and the CRAZY and all the ups and downs of trying to breathe new life into an old cattle ranch. I hope to include recipes from the past and present and any helpful hints about gardening that I can! Please contact me for any garden help, if i don't know the answer I will find it!

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3 keys to my organic garden

When I first started gardening organically I was armed only with books and magazines that swore it was not only possible but beneficial to garden with out chemicals and pesticides. As a gardener for many years using what it thought were the conveniences of chemicals it was hard to convince even myself that this was even remotely possible. However, now that I have been hard at it for the last 6 years I feel like I have a pretty good handle on what I believe to be the 3 keys to organic gardening. Attracting beneficials: I have found this to be my favorite thing about organic gardening because it give me a perfectly legitimate excuse to justify buying flowers that don't produce veggies that we can consume. The right ones, however, do attract the "good" bugs that an organic garden SO needs. It is common knowledge that lady bugs are good for the garden but the why of it is not always clear to everyone. Lady bugs are very effective "bad" bug predators. Aphids are th...

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! (Repurpose!)

Reduce! Reuse! Recycle! (Repurpose!) Three words that speak volumes. Around the farm, these concepts have been applied for decades. My husband, Eric, has an impressive local family history. According to the land deeds recovered while organizing paperwork from the other house on the property, his ancestors purchased this particular plot in the 1930’s. The family was in the area for quite some time before that, however, and are rumored to have been numbered in the Stevens Party who came over via none other than the Stevens Trail. Frances Lenninger, a local Vina historian and author wrote in her book, Vina’s History in Photos and Stories, that Eric’s great-great-great-great grandmother, Matilda Foster, came over the trail from Iowa in 1848. This photo (Left) of Sam Henry Stephens, Eric’s great-great grandfather was taken in front of the Vina Hotel circa 1910. As locals during the time period prior to the great depression of the 1...

Don't worry, BEE Happy!

I have long wanted to join the ranks of the beekeepers. With all the gardens, flowers, blossoming trees and garden veggies that need the little flyers for pollination out here, I knew they would be happy out here on the ranch. I have done a little research about them but haven’t taken the leap to start me an apiary. However, as I often find is the case out here, they choose us! Early this Spring I was weed eating on the North side of our house, a pretty low traffic area, and discovered to my surprise bees were frequenting a hole in the side of the house where my husbands grandpa had installed the hot water line for the bath tub many years ago. At the time I thought, “this weed eater is going to make them mad, I should steer clear” and did so. Later that evening, suddenly realized the ramifications of what I had witnessed and I nearly shouted at Eric, “there are bees in the side of the house!” My son’s wall is directly on the other side of this area so our first thought...

FullCircle Florals Gardening

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