Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Feb 6, 2012, 9:48 am
A few years ago, I wrote about heaving in the garden. When you live where I do, and have winters where the ground freezes for several months, it's unavoidable. It isn't the freezing itself that causes a plant or bulb to heave out of the ground, it's the repeated cycle of freezing and thawing and fre...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Feb 2, 2012, 11:20 pm
It was a little over a year ago that I made a trip to Toledo with the specific intent of purchasing a Meyer lemon tree (Citrus x meyeri 'Improved'). Because I made a silly assumption, that trip didn't have the ending I anticipated. You know what they say about assuming. However, being a good s...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Feb 1, 2012, 3:00 pm
If there was anyone more excited than I was to see the Smiley Park Children's Garden featured in Horticulture magazine's current issue, it was likely my mother. If you've ever met her or you've been a follower of this blog for awhile, you probably know that she had a lot to do with its creation. The...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Jan 30, 2012, 10:59 am
This is the time in winter when I start to get twitchy. I look outside and though I love seeing the snow showers we're receiving right now, I'm tired of having to bundle up every time I go outside to do anything. My indoor growing keeps me going, garden-wise, but I really long for the fresh smell of...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Jan 29, 2012, 4:28 pm
I'll make this brief, quoting a joint statement released by the National Wildlife Federation and Scotts Miracle-Gro today (January 29, 2012): "The National Wildlife Federation has worked together with ScottsMiracle-Gro over the past two years on programs to educate gardeners about global warming, ...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Jan 28, 2012, 11:38 pm
About a year ago, I came across a photo online of a beautiful bloom. I read the caption, then read more about the plant sporting it. Ah...it was a tropical, so I kind of dismissed it because finding certain tropicals in the north can be as much a waste of time as shoveling the snow while it's still ...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Jan 26, 2012, 10:01 pm
If you monitor the goings-on in the gardening world, you know that a firestorm is raging that began with the announcement by the National Wildlife Federation that they're partnering with Scotts Miracle-Gro. If you haven't heard about it, I want to make you aware of the impact of this quite frankly, ...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Jan 25, 2012, 4:37 pm
We love our cats. We love our Great Horned Owl, too. But they don't love each other. Well, one of them does, but not for reasons we particularly are fond of. This was brought home to us this week. A couple of weeks ago, Tinker Belle, the latest stray to find its way to Our Little Acre, and who is no...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Jan 23, 2012, 1:50 am
Carl LinnaausMy friend, Christopher Tidrick (From the Soil blog), has a new meme launching today that he calls Linnaeus Day. It is so named in honor of Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), the Swede who is credited with the origin of plant taxonomy, or the naming of plants. He prepared the way for the use of ...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Jan 17, 2012, 10:56 pm
The seed catalogs are coming fast and furiously now. The companies are playing to our weakness, especially those of us that live in the north. We're all rested from last year's hectic gardening season and we're ready to get back at it. The beautiful photos of the flowers and seed packets make us wan...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Jan 11, 2012, 11:01 pm
Anemone coronariaI love spring. Especially when it's in winter. Except for a couple of times when we got some snow and ice, this winter has been anything but wintery. It doesn't feel like an extension of fall; it feels more like early spring. In just three more weeks, Punxsutawney Phil and Buc...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Jan 9, 2012, 11:08 pm
Ask me if I like Brussels sprouts and I'm likely to turn up my nose. But I really don't have a good reason to do that, because to be honest, I've never tasted them. But now I want to. I grew Brussels sprouts in 2008, but I never ate them. It wasn't because of the aphids either.Annie White, Ed...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Jan 6, 2012, 11:37 pm
When our grandparents were busy plowing the fields and hoeing the gardens, they were likely growing plants from seeds that were saved from year to year. They saved the seeds from the best plants each season and each year the results were better than the year before. Why were they better? Because the...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Jan 2, 2012, 11:54 pm
Dear Readers, This blog post is very personal in nature. I realize that many of you won’t care to read it and that’s okay. While this is mostly a blog about gardening, it’s also an expression of who I am. Writing it fulfills something in me that I find difficult to explain to others, so I don�...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Dec 23, 2011, 9:54 pm
As of today, our eight hens have given us a total of 350 eggs, since Pippa first started laying in mid-September. It took until the middle of November for all eight to start laying, and though we rarely have an eight-egg day, we're pretty consistently getting 5-7 eggs per day now. Last week we got 3...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Dec 20, 2011, 2:23 pm
This is a conversation I'm witness to every fall and winter: "Oh no! My bulbs are coming up! It's not time!" "Mine are too! This can't be good. What's going to happen to them when spring gets here?" I learned several years ago that certain bulbs will make an appearance in the fall as a normal ...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Dec 19, 2011, 2:36 pm
We've had some snow here at Our Little Acre already this season, even though winter doesn't technically arrive until Wednesday morning. It hasn't been anything that we needed to shovel by any means, but it's only a matter of time before we get a snowfall that requires a method of removal. 9 December...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Dec 15, 2011, 11:27 pm
Herbaceous peonyIt came as a shock to me when I first began gardening that not everyone can grow tulips and peonies. If you live in the south, most spring bulbs that we in the north take for granted, like tulips, daffodils, crocuses and such, just won't make it down there. But of course, they have t...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Dec 9, 2011, 11:58 pm
When winter comes, and the outside garden is fast asleep, it's time to grab color inside where you can find it. The winters are long and cold here in Ohio and each year I think I can't bear another one. I look for ways to lift my spirits, which can become as gray as the skies. I'm here to tell you t...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Dec 7, 2011, 10:14 am
Petunia x hybrida 'Improved Purple Wave™ ' "Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." Sir Winston Churchil...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Oct 20, 2011, 11:29 am
Those darn roses. Just when I think I'm not ever going to plant another one and am considering yanking some of them out, they charm their way back into my good graces. Thanks to the cooler fall weather, my roses have managed to make me forget (sort of) the ugliness of black spot that I had to deal w...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Oct 11, 2011, 2:32 pm
And the surprises just keep on coming... Last week, we had an egg with no shell. It was likely the first egg laid by the second of our eight hens to start laying. She probably just wanted that thing out of there before it had a chance to get its shell. We do now have two hens laying and we've ...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Oct 11, 2011, 12:41 pm
When we moved to Our Little Acre, one of the drawing points was the mature trees on the property. There were four huge oaks and one shagbark hickory tree. When I say huge, I mean oak trees that have been estimated to be over 200 years old. Our property was once native woods and it wasn’t t...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Oct 5, 2011, 11:12 pm
... s been mid-afternoon. I happened to notice that all the hens were in the run as I walked by and only Pippa was in the coop. I peeked in ... checked about 10 minutes later, she'd laid an egg and was out in the run with her coopmates. I love when I can gather that egg and it's ... let out for ...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Oct 3, 2011, 10:57 am
Every season has its stars. While we love the plants that give us blooms and color all summer long, we look forward to those that have their place in the sun (or shade) for a brief time, too. In the fall, we have fall-blooming crocus (Crocus pulchellus and Crocus sativus, among others) , toad lilies...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Sep 29, 2011, 3:01 pm
Earlier this summer, Flat Tire Décor sent me two of their unique containers. I’m a sucker for plant pots anyway, and these are extra cool. They’re made from used automobile tires! The way they’ve cut the tires and put them together is attractive and no two are exactly alike, because of the wa...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Sep 27, 2011, 11:07 pm
A few years ago, we lost a white pine tree. It seemed like one day it was fine and the next it was dead. Of course things seldom happen that way, and we really don't know what happened with this particular white pine. But we cut most of it down and used it as a directional and pedestal for a b...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Sep 25, 2011, 11:36 pm
There's a sweet little rock garden plant, native to the Pacific Northwest, that caught my fancy several years ago. I first saw Lewisia (Common names: Cliff Maids, Bitterroot) on the Spring Hill website and I knew I had to have it. 'Little Plum' came to live in my garden, but it didn't live very long...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Sep 23, 2011, 10:55 pm
“Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile.”~ William Cullen Bryant Autumn arrived here at approximately 5:00 a.m. today and my first thought for the day was, "Where has the summer gone?" I ask this every year, although I never ask, "Where has the winter gone?" Since gardening comes pretty much t...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Sep 20, 2011, 11:36 pm
When things get stressful, I go to the garden. There's something calming about walking among the flowers and plants and trees and this afternoon, I needed that. Some health issues in our family are an immediate priority at the moment and while the rest of our lives needs to keep up, family comes fir...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Sep 16, 2011, 11:53 pm
Every summer, I love to watch as the monarchs fly around, laying eggs on the milkweed and seeing the tiny caterpillars chomping their way to a size ready for the miracle of metamorphosis. Last week, I found two of them, hanging in the characteristic "J" position, one on a daylily leaf and the other ...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Sep 12, 2011, 1:23 pm
When it's a moth. Yesterday, I had the pleasure of watching and photographing a hummingbird moth as it sipped nectar from the garden phlox and the obedient plant. I spent nearly half an hour entranced by it and it didn't seem to know I was anywhere around. White-lined sphinx moth (Hyles lineata) ...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Sep 11, 2011, 12:03 pm
I fell in love with a rose in July. Many people love roses and if you watch as they make their way through a rose garden, you'll hear, "Ooooh, look at this one!" and "Wow, this smells really good." Roses have been said to be the most beloved of all flowers. I don't particularly love roses. I l...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Sep 9, 2011, 10:14 am
It's amazing the things that come to your attention once you decide to raise chickens. I just wanted eggs, but the world of backyard chickens is a quickly-growing subculture all its own that I'm now a part of. I've met some pretty cool chicks, some with feathers and some without. One of the best con...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Sep 7, 2011, 11:56 pm
Boo and OhnoYes, we have cats in our garden. Every garden needs at least one cat, doesn't it? Ours has six (at the moment). Max, Ohno, Sunny, Boo, Lily and Jack share the duties of patrolling the property and keeping rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, and voles at bay. And they enjoy pretending to be ju...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Sep 3, 2011, 10:24 am
It's that time of year again and I'm in the kitchen, making grape jelly. I've only done this one time before. It was in 2007, when we discovered wild grapes growing along Cunningham's Ditch behind our house. But we have our own grape vines now - six of them, all seedless varieties. There's Himrod, R...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Aug 24, 2011, 11:53 pm
No, I'm not giving away a balcony. Or a rooftop. I'm reminded of some friends who insisted that I was selling my grandma's garage several years ago, when she allowed me to hold a garage sale at her condo. In that particular circle of friends, she's now known as Grandma Garage. There was some amusing...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Aug 23, 2011, 4:38 pm
There's a low rumbling of garden angst across the blogosphere and Twitter is full of it, too. It's late August and for many of us, our gardens have seen better days. Way better. A summer of not enough rain and too many degrees has left us with gardens that look worse than usual this time of the year...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Aug 22, 2011, 9:15 pm
I recently attended the Independent Garden Center Show in Chicago, where I got to see oodles of wonderful new products that will be coming to an Independent Garden Center near you very soon (if they're not there already). One of the categories in which I saw several products was organic fertilizers....
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Aug 22, 2011, 3:08 pm
Annie, of Haven Brand Compost Teas and I have fun at P. Allen Smith's farm in April. I knew this summer would fly by and it has. With so many garden trips and other activities both planned and unplanned, August arrived quickly and it's now nearly over. But time flies when you're having fu...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Aug 13, 2011, 11:28 pm
I recently shared lunch on a beautiful sunny day that was the perfect temperature (unlike Ohio, where we were melting), in the middle of an historic Seattle garden with 70+ gardeners who were in town for the Seattle Bloggers' Fling. The grass was inviting enough to picnic without a blanket and we re...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Aug 9, 2011, 11:50 pm
The first day of the Seattle Fling began with hugs and smiles all around, as we greeted our fellow flingers at breakfast in the hotel and in the lobby. The feeling was that of a family reunion of sorts, which wasn't surprising, given how we've gotten to know each other through our individual blogs o...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Aug 7, 2011, 10:31 pm
Mountains as seen from our plane. This is a big deal for us.Mom and I have been waiting all year for this. In 2009, we traveled to Chicago for the 2nd Annual Garden Bloggers Fling. Last year, it was in Buffalo, New York. This year, we were in the Pacific Northwest, in Seattle - a place in whic...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Aug 5, 2011, 11:12 am
Here at Our Little Acre, we've grown strawberries in a patch in the garden for many years. It's one of my favorite fruits and I love to be able to just go to the garden in June and eat my way through the patch. But what if we didn't have an acre on which to grow them? Just how much space does one re...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Aug 4, 2011, 9:26 am
All may not be lost... As you may have read earlier, our Wisconsin weeping willow is afflicted with bacterial wetwood disease. It didn't leaf out like it normally does this year and it has lost most of the leaves it got this spring. We performed surgery on the area of the trunk that was oozing foam ...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Aug 3, 2011, 4:48 pm
I was really glad to get back to my chickens, after 11 days away from them. I'm sure Romie was glad for me to get back too, since he didn't want them in the first place and had to take care of them while I was gone. (I know he likes them though, because he tells me stories about the cute things they...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Aug 2, 2011, 9:15 pm
I've been out of pocket for the last two weeks, and some of you noticed, as evidenced by the e-mails I received, asking if everything was okay. It's more than okay and I'll explain. I get twitchy when I haven't posted to my blog for this long, but when you're on the move for nearly every hour of the...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Jul 19, 2011, 10:39 pm
I've always called it "my mom's garden." But that's not entirely true. Sure, Mom is the designer and takes care of the plants, but we all know that there's more to a garden than flowers and vegetables. There are paths and structures and artwork and borders and trellises and well, you know, all that ...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Jul 18, 2011, 11:13 am
As I said earlier, I love garden walks for the inspiration they provide. Each garden is as unique as their gardener and I never fail to find design ideas courtesy of others. Since I was helping Mom host her gardens the day of the Van Wert Master Gardeners' Garden Walk on Saturday, I got to go on the...
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Kylee B. posted an article on Our Little Acre - Jul 14, 2011, 10:36 am
I love garden walks. I get to see how others partake in one of the activities that I enjoy so  much. It's pretty amazing how creative people can be and for someone that was only blessed with a shot glass of creativity, I never fail to be inspired by others' gardens. Smiley Park Children's Garden
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