Today I’d like to give you a brief tour of the Kisner Homestead. We have had a lot of snow in Central Pennsylvania this winter…at least more than in past years. Now we’ve had over an inch of rain over two days that is determined to melt all the snow still on the ground. Today high winds are predicted. Our wind sock seems to still be working properly and is not too shredded from winter weather. It seems we have to replace it every year.
This is the time of year we get antsy to start garden seeds under grow lights (although we probably won’t do that for a few more weeks). I’d like to take pictures like this every few weeks to document the changes in the garden. Today, however, here is a general overview to see how the yard and garden have survived over the winter.
The front of the house shows much of the snow is gone. My Spring door quilt shows up pretty well through the screen door, at least as well as any wreathe I might put up.
Moving to the right of the house, Bert’s shop looks like it survived the winter also. The new paint job he did last summer looks good.
To the right of the shop are the wood piles. Luckily, we have plenty of wood to finish out the winter. Our wood stove keeps the house cozy warm and Bert does enjoy working with wood. It also cuts down on the use of the electric heat!
The tall plants to the right of the silver-covered wood pile are lilacs. They will be removed this spring. They haven’t had flowers for several years due to early frosts and just are not doing well.
Walking around the back of the house is our patio and there is the pot of lavender that was never moved before the cold weather came last fall. We’ll probably have to pitch it. We’ll see if it survives.
Close to the patio are my two herb garden beds. This is where I grow lettuce, radishes, herbs and cucumbers…plants that I want to keep an eye on every day.
Looks like the garlic chives are holding on tight to their seeds!
The chamomile is hanging in there…it truly is like a weed. I’m sure enough chamomile seeds have planted themselves to get this next year going strong.
This is the view from up the hill by the garden toward the house and shop. One rain barrel (60 gallons) will be situated under the down spout on the left of the shop. The second will be on the front corner of the shop. Less than 1/2″ of rain on the roof of the shop will fill the barrels. When they are full, Bert will use a small electric pump and pump the water up the hill to the bigger holding tank (36o gallons) by the garden. We will use that to water the garden all summer. More pictures later of that process as we get those set up this spring.
We use the compost barrels at the back of the shop all year round. Sometimes the cold freezes the lids shut, but a little sun and they open up just fine. Bert will rotate them frequently and by the end of the year there’s hardly anything left. Then it gets rototilled into the garden.
Here’s a picture of the larger holding tank for rain water.
The garden looks so lonely! See that green wooden fence! We are visited every evening by a group of 5-7 deer. For now, they visit the bird feeders. I’m sure that in one leap they could have quite a feast. By putting spacers between the garden and the fence at least they can’t just lean over and have a snack. However, we will be watching to make sure they aren’t wandering around inside the garden after dark!
The deer like the bird seed that spills on the ground, but they love the bird bath water that has a heater in it to keep it from freezing. Bert has to fill it every few days!
So, that’s the tour! At least we can see most of the grass and every day stays light a little longer. There is something about Spring that gives us all hope for the rest of the year!
If you have any question or comments about this post, leave a comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net. Enjoy!
