Greening Holly Hedge

HollyHedge Keeps Growing

2011-08-05T17:18:00.018-04:00

We started this growing season with good planning and pretty good luck. The spring rains were plentiful, often teetering on excessive. Despite some loss to wetness, we still managed a good harvest.

The spring garden was planted with leeks, peas... turnips & cabbages... & fennel... all ending up in the kitchen & on plates. In addition, this year we also experimented with onion sets, spinach & arugula.

Crowns of asparagus planted 2 years prior, offered their first delicious spears in May (asparagus requires a year or two to get established before harvesting). Our summer plantings, however, encountered quite the set back. Although fending off the critters is an annual struggle, this year was a particularly disheartening one. Cat birds feasted on blueberries despite our netting. Groundhogs & rabbits devoured our peas despite our fences & row cover. Pumpkins, squash, beans, broccoli raab, broccoli & parsley fell victim. Even hot pepper plants felt the sharp tooth of the hungry rodent. This certainly reinforced the idea that a diverse garden improves the chances of a successful garden.
While blueberries were eaten, our raspberry crop was beautiful. Though we haven't a single pumpkin plant left, the tomatoes have once again yielded more than the chefs could imagine. Even the cucumbers managed to inundate out baskets for a few weeks. Garlic continues to prove to be unpalatable to our garden fauna. Many herbs also seem to harbor those essential oils that rabbits just don't care for. And as of now, we have a promising apple crop hanging in the orchard.
Much of our summer successes also heavily relied upon our watering system; the rains didn't seem to frequent us as much as they did in the spring. Saying it was dry is an understatement. Each year, we seek to manage & refine our watering system, striving for efficiency and resourcefulness. Negotiating an irrigation system is plenty of work, and involves maintaining a balance between what is coming out of the ground and what is going back into the ground.

Ben finds himself watering each bed as it is needed & having the sustainable resource at hand to do so. We like to keep in mind that, in a way, the water the garden demands is the same water that offers showers at the inn, washes dishes after a wedding, or simply quenches our thirst.
Though on hot dry days, dragging water lines around is nothing short of hard work, we rejoice in what the sun offers. This July, our solar panels have provided our biggest solar output to date & we've just harvested grapes that thrive under abundant sun.

Maple Sugaring

2011-03-10T13:01:00.011-05:00

Maple sugaring commenced early this year at HollyHedge. After having taken a year off to make sure the trees were healthy, we, quite coincidentally, decided to start when we were almost out of syrup, literally down to the last bottle from two years ago. We had also been taking note of the temperature dipping below freezing at night & staying above freezing during the day... ideal conditions for collecting.

So on a sunny February afternoon, we set forth with our bundle of tools...

...and for three weeks thereafter collected the sap daily. Though the sap flow started off slowly, day-time temperatures climbed and yields increased. Sap flow peaked in late February with a steady run that was producing around 10 gallons of sap a day from our 8 trees. While this video surely doesn't capture the excitement we felt during our daily collections ("How much will there be today?!"), it does show the slow but steady way trees deliver their sap.

After a little over 3 weeks, we had collected a total of 84 gallons of crystal clear sap.

It was time to get cooking but this time, with all the knowledge we had gained from two years before. We chose a quiet day and took advantage of the big range that was usually used for feeding hungry guests. With 6 burners and two LARGE shallow pots, we were evaporating faster than we could have imagined, transforming crystal clear sap into brilliant gold syrup.

Although still a lengthy process, we had cut cooking time down by more than half & ended up with a beautiful reward for our efforts, a subtle, fragrant, soul-warming maple syrup.

Then time for the final test, pancakes.

Maple sugaring is a tradition available to few geographical ranges where sugar maples grow. While this is only our second time maple sugaring, much joy was taken by the simple process of repeating what can be an annual event, a seasonal joy only available during a time when it seems spring will never come.

The Fall Season

2010-10-19T09:31:00.012-04:00

Hay bales… check
Mums… check
Mother-nature’s yearly transformation of color… ... check
Our property was almost an autumn wonderland.
All that was left... pumpkin pick-up day (our favorite)! This year, like years gone by, we went to Penn Vermont Fruit Farms, with a big pickup truck & bought 850 lbs of pumpkins. We really love to support local farms and are fortunate to have such a great network of growers in the area. Along with local decorations, we keep our food pantry stocked with plenty of what the season has to offer, apples, from an orchard just down the road at Manoff Market Gardens. From the spring to the fall, they have kept the kitchen supplied with fresh seasonal fruit.
This fall, we refocused on a few tasks, making revisions to some projects already underway and finishing up others started in the summer.
Learning as we go, some projects inevitably require some changes. While our composting process is working well, its location left some desires. We wanted to make an effort to cut down on driving these machines carrying composting materials across the property. With that in mind, we relocated the new compost pile just off our secondary parking lot. Not only does the new location save time & reduce gas consumption, it keeps our vehicles on previously established roads, thereby saving our fields from erosion.
(Driving repeatedly across grassy areas not only kills the grass, it compacts the soil, making it harder for other plants to get started. Then water run-off starts following the path, leading to further erosion. A steeply sloped hill, like the one we are located on, speeds up the soil erosion process substantially.)
With the pile more accessible, we can turn it more regularly, which speeds up the composting process. Lastly, we made a number of compost bins, allowing for piles in different stages of decomposition.

Our summer chicks grew fast and needed a new home, but where to start?
With the mindset of conserving, we save lots of materials that could “be used for something.” This goal of reuse has left us with a few piles of offcuts & leftovers, which from afar, don’t look like much. However, with a little creativity & imagination, they can really turn into a fun & functional project.
Using old fence posts as the foundation... ...our scrap piles slowly erected a house... ...complete with recycled doors & windows. Leftover from our pond overhaul, thick black rubber (pond liner) covers the roof. Temporarily, this serves a as a waterproof roofing, but in the spring, we hope install a living roof. The black plastic will serve as a liner for a garden that will be planted on top of the coop. The only lumber we bought were 3 sheets of plywood and four 2x6s, used on the roof; a strong roof is required to support the garden that will be living on it. Now all we need is that first egg!

The Rain Barrel & Water Conservation

2010-10-12T11:47:00.009-04:00

The initiative behind out rain barrel project is to move away from pumping water from a well & instead, collect rain water; this water is used to irrigate the vegetable garden, our fruit trees and eventually, the rest of the gardens here at HollyHedge. We even keep the water bowls full in the barn yard! Because such a large quantity of water can be consumed here during events of up to 200 people at a time, we are making a concentrated effort to conserve water wherever we can.

So far, we have installed a 1550 gallon barrel at the back of the tractor barn. A hose connects the barrel to the drip irrigation lines that we have set up in the vegetable garden. Gravity, water pressure & manually opening the water line are the basics of the system; no electricity (nor fuel) is required to operate the system.

The drip irrigation lines slowly deliver water to the roots of the plants.Water isn’t wasted on surrounding soil (or weeds) and you lose a lot less to evaporation. The combination of mulch (be it straw, leaves, woodchips or black plastic) with the drip irrigation maximizes the effectiveness of the water. Using water efficiently doesn’t just cut back on wasted water. Keeping plant leaves dry also helps prevent diseases in the garden.

As we’ve mentioned repeatedly, it was a hot, dry summer. With such infrequent rains to fill the barrel, one barrel proved not to be enough during a dry season. We would like to implement more rain barrels throughout HollyHedge to capture rain from other roofs. It is important to note that the water collected is runoff that would otherwise be diverted off the property. Even with this recent summer, efficient water use helped this garden flourish.

Summer Crops

2010-10-06T13:05:00.011-04:00

The spring heat carried through into the summer months. Excessive hot weather usually means watering is inevitable. Calculated irrigation & mulch played a key role in keeping our plants healthy & prolific.This summer, like the summer before, we grew our staple crops... heirloom & cherry tomatoes... zucchini, eggplant, jalapenos & herbs in addition to a few new vegetables... tomatillos, purple string beans & a medley of hot peppers. (Visit Cross Country Nurseries, a great local farm that specializes in hot pepper plants.)The cucumbers were especially prolific, so we made pickles, relishes and, of course, used them fresh.There was a lot of excitement over the Asian Pear tree this year. Not only did it bear fruit, we managed to keep the squirrels from getting to it & earned a beautiful harvest!Mid-July also brought us chicks. In an attempt to help supply the kitchen with eggs for breakfast, we rescued 2 chicks from a shelter and bought 6 more locally. Fric, Frac, Sally, Lola, Cecelia, Corrina, Eleanor & Roxanne are all growing up, their first eggs expected late fall.

Lastly, our edible flower project has been going well. Short of a wedding or two, we managed to supply the kitchen with enough edible flowers for each dinner or salad plate.

Spring Crops

2010-10-06T12:52:00.008-04:00

This spring's harvest was certainly challenged by the early heat. Unlike last year's endless rainy days, this spring was much drier.

Despite the hot weather, our sugar snap peas (strategically planted under the filtered light of an old ash tree) were a delightful spring success, a whopping 68 lbs. The plants grew almost as tall as last year, making us glad we also experimented with a shorter variety. Perhaps next year, we will not have to pick on our tip-toes. From plant to plate, the kitchen was supplied from the end of May through the end of June with a fresh & crunchy vegetable.

We experimented a little more with radishes & greens in hopes of having early cool weather crops and were thrilled with the bright red radishes & 2 varieties of kale.This year, the blueberries came early, thanks to the heat. However, our harvest was noticeably less than prior years, making us glad we had planted six beds this past fall... ... six new beds we hope will provide fresh berries for the kitchen & the birds for years to come. Once again, as tradition carries, as our harvest petered off, we turned the remainder of our crop over to the birds. You are welcome Catbirds.

The raspberries were ushered in early with the heatwave, thriving in the heat. Without lots of spring rains, the raspberries could sit & ripen without worries of rotting. We used some fresh in the kitchen, but kept a tidy quantity to make jam & vinaigrette dressing later.

Let The Sun Shine!

2010-05-12T15:12:00.008-04:00

We are proud to announce the completion of the solar project with our new 90, 230-watt panel installation.We owe a huge thanks to the crew from Heat Shed, who not only installed the system, but also designed it. Their work kept the environment in mind as impact from installation was kept at a minimum. No concrete was poured and no heavy machinery was used; it was all clever design, the right equipment and a hard working crew.Using a 78ft by 21ft space), we are now creating a potentional of 25,000 kwh (kilowatt-hour) of energy annually. This offsets our electric consumption of the reception barn, where we hold many of our events. We also anticipate live tracking to monitor our solar production (which will be posted when available).We are happy that by producing solar power, we are positively impacting the world around us. We hope all of our customers share our excitement & our commitment to reducing our footprint.

Hoo -RAY!

Coming Soon

2010-03-29T16:22:00.005-04:00

Solar Power at Holly Hedge.

We are excited to announce that this April, we will be breaking

ground on our solar power project. Now, not only will the sun lift our spirits, but it will also help power your event.

Where does all the soap go?

2010-03-29T15:55:00.008-04:00

Our inn keeper, Trish, and house keeper, Debbie, had noticed "our total waste of soap."
Each time a guest used a fresh bar......it had to be thrown away. While attending a Green Seminar, Trish was told about the non-profit organization Clean the World and their soap recycling program.
Now, we collect our used soaps & send them to the program. There, they are sterilized & reformed, then distributed to impoverished communities throughout the world. Simply providing soap to these communities helps prevent potentially fatal diseases.

Winter Renovations

2010-03-29T13:05:00.021-04:00

Each winter, we use down time to tackle needed renovation projects

In keeping with our commitment to being green, we work to use sustainable products, practices and solutions.
This winter, three bathrooms were completely renovated. We used bamboo floors, a rapidly renewable resource & made a point of considering our paint options. We chose Mythic paint, supplied by Ethos - a local store that specializes in healthy paints & wall coverings; it is a non-toxic, ultra low odor, zero VOC paint.

We also painted some of the bedrooms... ...the living room... ... & the library with the Mythic paint. We're happy with the outcome and feel good knowing we have created a healthier environment for our guests.

Flower Gardens

2009-11-20T11:46:00.006-05:00

This year, we planted a cutting garden with the hopes of providing plenty of flowers for the inn. Despite the excessive rain this year, the garden did well. And it even managed to survive the first frost, so we had flowers from June through the end of October. Even a few in November...

... zinnias, nasturtium, & alyssum ...... sunflowers (Keeping the bees happy) ...... cosmos & salvia ...... lisianthus, ageratum & rudbeckia ...... cleomi & huge sunflowers ...And in October, while harvesting the pumpkins, we cut some of the Kong Sunflower heads to collect seed for birds!

Fall in the Gardens

2009-11-20T10:03:00.023-05:00

The arrival of fall marks many changes in the gardens. Pumpkins, gourds, and flowers are harvested for decoration, inlcuding goldenrod from out new meadows. The last of the kitchen crops are picked before the first frost, just in time for soups and stews.With the harvest complete, there is still time for planting before the ground freezes. New blueberry beds are dug and planted. Twelve evergreen trees are also planted; that's almost 50 trees in the past two years.

Creating Meadows

2009-11-20T07:35:00.012-05:00

One of our green initiatives has been to convert areas of maintained lawns into meadows.Meadows improve water quality, prevent soil erosion, provide wildlife habitat, and decrease fuel consumption from less frequent mowing... ... not to mention, they can make for some beautiful scenery.

Flowers!

2009-07-15T15:54:00.008-04:00

The summer sun has finally come around and stayed. With it came the summer flowers. The first substantial cutting made for our first home-grown table arrangements.The first collection of nasturtium, an edible flower, made its way to the kitchen, and then to the table on plates.And the vegetable garden seems to be kicking in, yielding zucchini, beans, and the beginning of the tomatoes. The blueberry bushes and raspberry canes are also putting plenty forth.Lastly, the herb garden (and over-flow garden) has been supplementing the kitchens needs.

Wet weather & the vegetable garden

2009-06-26T09:16:00.012-04:00

After a particularly rainy early spring, the weather pattern continued. For parts of the vegetable garden, the rain certainly helped. Plus we didn't have to water the gardens once! The peas grew to over 8 feet high. You almost needed a ladder to pick them. Plenty of them and daily. The swiss chard flourished.

The rain, as it was excessive, did some damage. While we managed to save a few, many of our root vegetables essentially drowned. These turnips were ready for pulling. We still managed a springtime basket of plenty! Turnips, potatoes, peas, radishes, chiggia beets, swiss chard, onions & nasturtium (edible flowers)! Blueberries arrived as the sun finally managed to peak through the clouds. And the champagne pink currants are also finally starting to color. In the background, chamomile and and ladybugs lend their help. Lady bugs eat the aphids that eat anything green while chamomile attracts beneficial insects. (Some even say that it has fungicidal properties!)

With all the growth and new life comes and end too. An old pine was felled, but instead of it laying to waste, we had the lumber milled up to be used in future projects!

Spring has sprung.

2009-05-20T19:38:00.012-04:00

With spring comes the flowering of our lovely old Weeping Cherry tree. This year, however, includes new additions. The young apple trees were an early addition, bringing simple white blossoms to the fields.Our established blueberry bushes set forth with gusto, preparing for hundreds of little berries with hundreds of little white, bell-shaped flowers.But with spring comes plenty of work (hence the delay in this post). New beds were dug in preparation for endless vegetables for the kitchen just as our asparagus came peeping through the mulch.New beds were also dug for grape vines so we could expand our vineyard. Black plastic mulch was laid to discourage weeds and eliminate the need to spray herbicides. The plastic mulch also warms the soil which heat loving grapes enjoy.As of late spring, the plants looked healthy and full of promise. And a bird has even moved into one of our gourd houses, where he has taken up watching over the orchard, preying on nuisance bugs. And the peas are happily creeping up, up and up.

Little Things

2009-03-24T17:42:00.009-04:00

While some efforts to "go Green" can be big undertakings, its important to think of the little things that can be done. They add up!
When replacing the field stone barn floor, we were careful pulling up the old boards.

Nails removed and trimmed up, the old materials will be used for other projects.
The brick courtyard was re-laid using the old bricks, mixing in new ones to replace only the crumbled bricks. Not to mention, the old bricks helps to maintain the rustic charm of the space. Last year's gourds used for fall decorating were left to dry out. We cleaned them up and made them into bird-houses.They will hopefully attract & house birds that eat bugs in our vegetable garden.Don't forget, little things often grow into big things! We've started seeds and seedlings have emerged!With a planting schedule several month long, there will be plenty of vegetables, herbs & flowers for the kitchen.

Maple Sugarin'

2009-03-03T19:40:00.019-05:00

Another winter project this year was tapping the sugar maple trees with the hopes of fresh, home-made maple syrup. So far, we have tapped 9 trees in various locations around the property.Two behind the dining room of the inn.

One just off the driveway.Two by the pond.One outside the workshop & garage.One in the woods.And one just south of the vegetable plot.

So far, they have yeilded approximately 36 gallons of maple sap. The sap is then boiled down...

...and filtered - voila maple syrup!However, the sap to syrup ratio is 50:1, which means we should get over a half gallon.
Our first batch came out a beautiful color, about 1.35 liters in all.We added this to our pantry of preserved fruits from earlier in the season, which includes pear jam, ginger pear jam, grape jelly, hardy kiwi jam, and even a small batch of wine! Everything was made from fruit grown on the property.

Composting

2009-03-03T19:18:00.004-05:00

A simple step that leads to gardening success, composting is one of our winter projects. Anything biodegradable goes in, which mainly includes kitchen scraps, animal by-products, and garden debris. When you are working with 20 acres, that's a lot of leaves! Shredded, they create an a heavy insulating layer that traps the heat and speeds up the decomposing. Every now and then, the pile gets turned, adding oxygen to the equation, which also speeds up the decomposition.
In the spring, the compost is added to the vegetable gardens.

Baskets of Bounty

2009-01-25T15:52:00.012-05:00

After a summer of experimenting, we had learned a lot and even plenty to show for our work.
Fresh grapes...
... picked...then pressed to make our first-ever wine!
Hoards of gourds!!
Trellised swan (goose) gourds...
Mini gourds...And bottleneck gourds...And a variety of tomatoes...

Last Year's Spring Goats

2009-01-22T09:11:00.008-05:00

Though we had two large goats already,three more arrived in the spring.They do their part eating leftovers from the kitchen and brush clean-up.

Leftovers that aren't appealing to the goats are usually devoured by our hungry chickens.

A peak at last year's work

2009-01-21T20:09:00.009-05:00

The spring was a lot of preparation work. Ten+ raised beds were dug, ready for planting once the frost date past. The plants themselves were started early in the spring, both indoors and in the greenhouse.We planted summer squash, a medley of herbs, heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, potatoes, beans, a mix of hot peppers, pumpkins, winter squash, gourds, eggplants, and lots of marigolds.
An unripe heirloom tomato.
Our pumpkin patch in the summer months.
A bed of young mixed greens under row cover (to keep the rabbits off).We even attempted some late in the season greenhouse tomato plants.The first yield started with an early crop of sugar snap peas.In the spring, the orchard was planted. By mid-July, everything looked healthy.
Some of the apple trees...
And a little peach tree.