The Blessed Greenness!
It is beginning! The great greening happens so quickly in Napa! Within the week of the first substantial rain of the season, tiny green sprouts present themselves below dried vegetation. Within days the landscape changes from the brown and grey grace of summer and autumn to the benedicta viriditas of winter… so different… Read more »
Happy Thanksgiving from Harms Vineyards!
Boey and St. Francis: Thanks for the animals! Happy Thanksgiving from Harms Vineyards! There is so much for which to be grateful this year: the harvests of grapes and lavender; our dear llama Racu who guarded our goats these last sixteen years and passed this fall; our customers who have supported our Biodynamic organic farming… Read more »
The Blessed Greenness!
Morning light through remaining frost cloth. The Blessed Greenness! The great wind played havoc with our new lavender plants’ frost cloth. The cloth gives six degrees of frost protection, enough to protect the tender plants while transmitting 75% of the light. The rain goes right through, so we leave it on all winter, if… Read more »
Guard Llama
Hijo and me after our bonding walk. Now I hope he likes Gaviota and Dasher, Boey and Petunia, Agaleah and… Racu’s demise has left a power vacuum on our ranch. The goats have been unruly and the coyotes get way too close at night. A consult with our Animal Communicator Rafaela Pope suggested… Read more »
Compost Cycle of Our Ranch
Dasher and Valley clean last leaves from chardonnay vines. White strips are pheromone strips to control European grapevine moth. Compost Cycle of Our Ranch I think of our goats as kinds of blenders: they mix up the food stuffs of the ranch, then release what isn’t digested to be composted and put back into building… Read more »
Zipping up for Winter
Frost cloth stays on all winter, transmitting 70% of the light as well as the rain and allowing several degrees of frost protection. Goats have to be watched with the tender new plants (which you can just see in the mulching straw.) They love tender green almost anything! This season is always more… Read more »
Propagating Rose Geranium
The tiny cuttings will spend the winter in our greenhouse and be planted in the spring after frost danger. Propagating Rose Geranium Moon in Aquarius, an air or flower day, and we propagate 288 rose geranium cuttings this morning. We work with the aromatics on “flower days,” days that the moon is in an air… Read more »
Natural Nematode Suppression
Nematode marigold Several years ago we planted a marigold that was designated as a suppressant of nematodes, and we have not had to replant since! The five foot stalks bear tiny yellow marigold flowers which produce copious seeds, which then scatter throughout the garden. They sprout later in summer and we leave them… Read more »
Recycling Olive Branches Part of our goats' diet includes prunings of olive trees, other brush, you name it!
Goat Waving Olive Branch (of which most is in her mouth) Part of our goats’ diet includes prunings of olive trees, other brush, you name it! This week they are busy at work on branches from three olive trees in our courtyard. There is a cyclical process here: the olive leaves nourish the… Read more »
Walking the Land:There is an old saying: the best fertilizer is the farmer's feet.
Walking the Land There is so much you learn from walking your land each day! There is an old saying: the best fertilizer is the farmer’s feet. I understand this in many ways. Most days my goat companions walk with me, along with the dogs, of course. There is an implicit order: who walks… Read more »
© 2026 Patricia Damery.
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