Yes, our little havenful garden has a name now – New Sisters Farm is named after our cats. We were once refused for adoption because someone at an animal shelter told us adult female cats could never get along. Then a grey cat Tarzan, abandoned by her previous owner, came to live with Zenith, a calico who had been with me since I was a teenager. After a period of adjustment and lots of positive reinforcement, not only did the two come to accept each other, but they were like new sisters – truly loving and caring for one another in the last year of Zenith’s life.
Tarzan and Zenith
A week before Zenith’s death from liver failure, we were brought a tiny starving kitten by one of the neighbor boys, who found her by chance while dirt-biking in the forest. This kitten, baptized Effy, helped us and Tarzan through our mourning for the beloved Zenith, and has now become Tarzan’s new little sister.
Tarzan and Effy
So we call our farm New Sisters in honour of the little refugees we take in and the love that we have for them – and the love they have for each other.
Here is the majority of our garlic harvest, from garlic bulbils I planted two years earlier and then pretty much abandoned. Seeing how well they grew and with such little effort, I will be replanting them en masse for future years.
I feel privileged to still have crops doing well in the midst of massive failures from drought all around us. Our small-scale garden is fed with rainwater collected from gutters and stored in two 1200-litre tanks bought second-hand from maple syrup producers. Surprisingly, that amount of water doesn’t last long between rains, so we do have to supplement with water from our artesian well. But the peas and the bean have never been watered – just the carrots, beets, tomatoes and corn.
I want to transplant some hops vines around the tank to camoflage its giant white boxiness. But in my eyes, it’s kind of beautiful – free pure water without the use of electricity.
sunflower with sleeping bee
Best wishes to you, Effy, and Tarzan, and happy growing on the New Sisters Farm.
Thanks very much, Ellie! I appreciate it.
Just like people, cats are a product of their environment. Your fun family is proof of this!
Nice work with the garden. Hops are wonderful stuff; I drink hop flower tea most nights. The vines do use a good deal of water though. Maybe some rose bushes would use less water???
Hi and thanks for the comment! I’m sure you’re right about the cats and a lot of it is to do with trust.
Where I am hops are treated as a perennial and they’re usually only watered on transplanting – I have a pretty good vine going that hasn’t been watered by us this year. So, I think we’d be okay? But roses are a nice idea too. I have to wait for my two little plants to establish themselves a little more before I could get baby plants from them. All in good time!
I have heard of the medicinal properties of hops. Is it true they help you sleep?
take care!
That’s great that hops grow so well there! Very few things grow abundantly where I am, except maybe cactus and crazy politicians.
Yes, the hop flowers act similarly to valerian or chamomile. I buy dried hop flowers from a herbalist here and make a tea, which I drink cold at night. In the morning I add about two tablespoons of hop flowers, one tablespoon of spearmint leaf, and four cups of hot water to a tea pot, then let that soak all day. I drink it about an hour before bed. The hop flowers can be bitter depending on which variety you’re growing, so you may need to vary the amount of spearmint. Some people also make hop tea without spearmint then mix it with chamomile tea for a “double whammy” of sleepy goodness. Enjoy!
Nicely done! Things seem to be growing a bit slower for me, this year. I think it’s due to the fact that I took the plastic off the raised bed hoops very early. Live and learn, I suppose.
Tell me, what are the dimensions of your 1200L tanks? I’m jealous!
Take care…
Sorry, I forgot to reply to your comment! The tanks have the same dimensions as a shipping pallet and are about 4 feet high. I guess they are about four feet cubed. Ha ha … no need to be jealous, just find a maple producer selling off their old tanks and you’re good to go!
I haven’t used hoop + plastic culture before, do you have that on all your beds or just the special ones like peppers and other heat-loving plants?