What a crazy week!  Sam, our golden retriever, followed his nose two miles to our neighbors’ house.  They were not grilling steaks, but their Brook, a beautiful female rotweiler, was the winner of Sam’s heart and nose. 

Heeding Bob’s request for no puppies, we confined Sam to his doghouse along with Brook’s blanket.  He playfully cuddled up with it, but howled throughout the night after realzing ‘it’ wasn’t the real Brook. 


Wanting an uninterrupted sleep, Rusty chained Sam to a table in the barn.  The next morning we discovered Sam gone and the table was moved with its top on the floor split in two.  Claire jumped in the truck to retrieve our retriever and to drop off a new blanket for Brook to aromatisize. 

Walker was the one to calm his father’s frustration by showing him the hidden drawer located in the split table top.  In the drawer was an envelope full of German coins from the 1800s and one uncancelled postage stamp. Being avid collectors, the two took the pale blue Benjamin Franklin picture and headed to consult the Internet. They determined the stamp to be extremely rare.

Meanwhile Ashton and Claire arrived home after learning how to spin wool into yarn with their friend Maryann.  Ashton, a concientious young man, picked up a pencil and paper to show his appreciation to Maryann in a thank you note.     

The plot sickens now that Rusty and Walker returned to the barn to dissect the table for more treasure leaving the postage stamp in the office.  Claire helped stamp their note, but realized she needed a two one-cent stamps to add to a forty one.  She sent Ashton to the office to located the stamps and he placed them on his envelop along with the address to their spinning acquaintance. 

Recently Quiet Creek was honored to host Mark Ritke with his passion for the Eastern bluebird. Mark taught us stewardship skills to positively impact the beloved, beautiful, blue buddy so many of us enjoy.

Mark describes our feathery friends as localvores eating year round. Caterpillars and grasshoppers are highly prized in the summer.  Although in the winter, bluebirds love the stag horn sumac, rosehips, and bay berries. In addition to fruity dining, one may provide barn flies and carpenter ants brushed out the windows or knocked out of wood burner logs as done for Quiet Creek’s blue winter companions. 

Instructing on how to improve on bluebird habitat, Mark shared construction and placement ideas.  The typical bluebird house holes are smaller than the head and shoulders.  If a rectangular entrance is built into the house design, the hardworking parents don’t need to expend extra energy crawling in and out of their residence.  A shallow floor, as suggested by Mark, keeps the mother bird from having to make such a deep nest. 

Mounting boxes on metal poles with a baffle is very important.  Trees, fence posts, and telephone poles encourage predators like raccoons and black snakes for unwanted dinner engagements. 

Wooded areas are likely to find house wrens twigging up the boxes, so open fields with nearby posts are ideal for perching when searching for six-legged critters. Mark uses an eighty inch long and three quarter inch wide galvanized conduit for his posts with a capped two inch section of four inch plastic drain pipe that sets eight inches below the bird box.  This wobbly obstacle will prevent squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons, cats and other animals from snatching the clutch of eggs or young. 

When renting to bluebirds, we as landlords must seriously watch for invading species. Sparrows and starlings tend to take over a bluebird nest by murdering the parents.  Traps can be installed to catch uninvited invaders.

The bottom of the box should be examined for the blow fly maggot that crawls upon the clutch sucking blood at night. 

The health and well-being of the nest will depend upon your close monitoring.  Bluebird parents appreciate your help and never mind daily visits since they are unable to detect your scent. 

Mark offers expert consultation and supplies for blue birds at '[email protected]'.  He is a selfless, hard-working individual and sets high expectations in helping to preserve Pennsylvania’s favored friend. 

Since moving to Quiet Creek thirteen seasons ago, many fruit trees and bushes have been established. Apple, apricot, blueberry, and gooseberry have all been traditionally spaced in rows, so many feet apart. Even our few plum varieties were planted similarly.  Today the boys enthusiastically helped Rusty plant another plum orchard with a whole new approach. 

Fruitless efforts by other growers have prompted experimental spacing and pollinating of various Asian and American plum hybrids.  The most recent discovery comes from an article written by Professor W.H. Alderman from the University of Minnesota.  He states, “Very few hybrid plums will accept pollen freely from other hybrids, but they all accept pollen from native plums.” 

Our plum distributor, Fedco Seeds and Trees, make claim “this is the breakthrough we’ve all been searching for.”  Fedco growers recommend planting hybrid plums in clusters with native plums, three to six feet apart, so branches intertwine and co-mingle. Fedco offers over a dozen varieties. No personal space needed for plums, although they will still need pruned to allow for ample air flow.  Select a well-drained site with lots of sunshine for the plum blooms.  If the plum curculio, a small insect pest, becomes a problem, try an organic control by spraying “Surround”, a powdery coating that protects the leaves from insect damage.  With decent pollinators nearby, “Surround” may not be needed. 

The boys are excited to try this clustering experiment with hopes of sinking their teeth into juicy treats for years to come.

As spring progresses, we find planting at Quiet Creek accelerates. Vines, trees and bushes, ordered months ago, when the snow was blowing, are now arriving in bundles impatiently awaiting nutrient-rich soil. 

Rusty’s eyes, sometimes larger than his allotted space, must adjust to finding an appropriate home for his adoptees. Fortunately for the grapes, he knew there was plenty of vining potential under the arbor Joe built last summer for his school project. 

Grapes are easy to grow when offered proper room and board.  They prefer soils that are well-drained with plenty of compost. Full sun is a must and extra heat is appreciated by placing them near a stone wall or building on the south-facing side. 

There are plenty of good grape choices for western Pennsylvania. Rusty is trying Bluebell, Chontay, Reliance and Somerset cultivars, plus a few cuttings from his Dad’s hardy concords.

Bluebell is a dark seeded grape ripening three weeks earlier than Concord. It boasts immunity to most or all fungal diseases. 

Chontay is a Midwest variety that is good for fresh eating. It is very reliable and hard producing loose clusters of large purple fruit. 

Rusty enjoys the convenience of seedless grapes and found the hardiest one listed, Somerset.  It is described by Fedco as “a crispy texture and great flavor.” 

Reliance, another seedless variety, finds a spot in the garden because of its promise of “tender melting sweet pinkish-red fruit with a strawberry like flavor.” 

For best grape production, try the Four-Arm Kniffen system. To begin, these vines are planted as a single stem, six inches long, with two or three buds. Next year the vines will be pruned to a single stem, six feet long and trained on wire from three to five feet off the ground while allowing six buds on each wire.  On the third year, select eight canes, four for each wire, while removing the rest. Tie two canes to each wire, one in each direction. Cut these four canes back to ten buds and the remaining to two buds each.  Finally on the fourth year of production, be sure to remove last year’s fruiting canes and select eight new ones and repeat the procedure from the prior year. 

This pruning technique is a bit complicated but well worth the effort. We invite you to Quiet Creek to witness grape pruning in action and enjoy some tasty treats from the vines. 

Last summer Joe Hanchar and his parents, long-time friends of the farm, spent hard working hours building a pergola at the back of the herb garden.  With the help of Paul, another enthusiastic volunteer, Joe was able to see his senior project rise from the ground to become a beautiful and versatile structure. 

After digging twelve deep holes and filling them with concrete and rebar, the work crew continued to erect, plumb, square, and nail the Pennsylvania hemlock to completion.  The result resembled a railroad trestle, but Rusty reassured Joe the beefy beams were necessary to support the proposed planting of a variety of vines. 

Gracing the entrance to Joe’s accomplishment one will find two “Aunt Dee” wisteria vines.  Running down the sides on cables are an assortment of grapes.  The bulk of the pergola will soon be covered with vines that very few farmers from this temperate climate know anything about – the hardy kiwi.

This kiwi lacks the fuzziness of its tropical cousin and it is the size of a large grape.  The flavor is likened to a combination of a banana, strawberry, pear and its fuzzy relative.  They grow on vigorous vines and once established are winter hardy perennials.  They require a male and female plant to insure pollination and may take up to nine years to produce 50 to 100 pounds of fruit per vine.  Hardy kiwi will “after” ripen meaning that when picked it will continue to sweeten in cold storage for up to two months. 

Joe’s pergola stands proudly and patiently in anticipation of loads of sweet fragrant flowers and fruit.

 Joining the grapes and kiwi on Quiet Creek’s pergola is “one of the most beautiful of all flowering vines” according to Michael Dirr, wisteria specialist.  

For years we have admired wisteria vining on the stone walls of New England and trained on arbors in North Carolina.  A special memory is sitting under Edith’s vining canopy of wisteria’s fragrant purple flowers in Providence, Rhode Island while sipping fresh lemonade.  She was a former landscape client whose garden was over fifty years old.  

Growing wisteria in western Pennsylvania is just as easy.  Our experience involves two vines in two-gallon pots that patiently waited two years to grow on an honorable structure.  

This vigorous vining plant will quickly choke out living trees and crush a weakly made arbor.  We recommend a strong cedar, locust, Eastern Hemlock or metal pipe frame to permit the vines to crawl.  

Getting wisteria to bloom can be a challenge.  Start with a sunny location with lots of damp sandy soil.  Soil too rich will provide foliage but no flowers.  Pruning the vines heavily and root pruning (cutting the roots with a sharp spade each winter) will encourage blooming.  If this doesn’t produce flowers try giving the plant a good beating.  All your gardening frustrations can be bestowed on the wisteria with a wiffle ball bat.  

The hypothesis is that the plant is “shocked” into thinking it is going to die from the abuse, so it then flowers to produce seed to keep its legacy alive.  Rusty has used this method successfully with fruit trees and flowering shrubs.  

The sweet grape-smelling wisteria blossoms are worth the extra care, but don’t fall asleep under them for too long.  You may wake up engulfed in revengeful vines.  

Our family traveled south to Wexford last weekend to help brother-in-law Tom and sister Marilyn landscape around their new veterinary clinic. 

Before beginning, the job seemed simple to Tom and Marilyn, but several times during the day they commented “we sure are glad we waited for Rusty.”  He shared many techniques to improve the shrub planting project.

First, he encouraged them to buy fifteen “balled and burlapped” rhododendrons from a reputable nursery rather than potted look-a-likes from a giant buy-it-all store.  B & B plants are locally field grown bursting with the beneficial bacterial and fungus within the soil.  In contrast, the potted shrubs are trucked in from warmer states in potting soil with timed release fertilizer subduing the beneficial soil organisms.  If not planted quickly, the roots grow in circles at the bottom of the plastic pot and can choke the plant.

Next, Rusty insisted they use compost in every shrub hole.  The holes were dug large enough to allow three to four shovelfuls of good organic compost.  From his experience, this soil amendment shows evident growth where shrubs prolifically grow and flower in comparison to plants with no added compost. 

After being placed in the hole, the rhododendrons were placed best side forward with the top of the root ball at ground level.  Then the burlap was unpinned and tucked below the ground.  If the burlap is exposed to the air it will act as a wick and pull all the moisture from the root ball. 

Rusty never recommends landscape fabric or black plastic.  These materials only make a permanent non-biodegradable layer for weeds to grow on top.

Rusty then gave a good stomp packing the soil around each plant ball removing any air pockets and heaped a donut of soil, a foot from the center of the plant stem.  This mound formed a well to help trap water from running off. 

After thoroughly saturating the shrubs, we mulched with four inches of bark chips to retain moisture and suppress weed growth.   He coached us on leveling the mulch along the brick wall to give the effect of a perfect manicure.

To complete the project Rusty guided us to cut a crisp edge separating the lawn from the new bed of mulched shrubs.    Katie, his niece, accepted the unveiling job of cutting the string off the shrub branches while Danny, his nephew, and our boys shared positive encouragement. 

That afternoon will yield years of blooming pleasure a reminder of a fun day when two families came together to work and play. 

 We all know the saying – when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.  Sometimes it is difficult to see the sunshine when we’re waiting for the rain.   Until recently that was the case, with many “weeds” and “pests” inflicting grief in Quiet Creek’s gardens. 

We used to consider those unwanteds as liabilities, but now we welcome them as assets.  For instance, in our yard grows a choke cherry, a tree thought of as a weed in most settings.  This tree is a host for the swallowtail butterfly which lays her eggs on the leaves and whose caterpillars consume it as youngsters. 

In addition, the choke cherry is routinely the recipient for tent caterpillars.  Many home owners burn these ugly larvae from their trees, however they attract and feed Baltimore Orioles.  We love the sight and the sounds of these flashy orange visitors.  They are beautiful in color and their flute-like melodies are joyous. 

There are even more many “lemonade” plants, we now view appreciatively.  Over the years we have discovered how the multi-flora rose provides winter food and nesting spots for our feathered friends.  The quaking aspen supplies us with peppery-tasting oyster mushrooms.  The young shoots of Japanese knotweed are an alternative to asparagus and treat Lyme disease.  The early dandelion leaves provide a spring salad full of Vitamin C and the flowers feed the honeybees. 

Even animals can satisfy as a “lemony” refreshment.   We gladly give wasps and hornets their freedom to fulfill the purpose of eating aphids and houseflies.  Snakes are welcome to devour slugs, insects, and mice.  Spiders take care of sixty percent of the insect pests allowing us more fresh fruit and vegetables. 

The positive attributes of God’s creation quench our thirst as we drink His lemonade with gusto.  

 In the past financial trouble, social unrest, and pending doom have spurred Americans to turn to backyard gardening.   The Victory Garden during World War II is one such example.  Eleanor Roosevelt had the White House lawn tilled up to plant vegetables.  Incidentally, the soil is not the only thing that got worked up.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) with agribusiness frowned upon the First Lady’s suggestion.  She wanted “small town” America to grow its own food to insure plenty of food for the military troops.  USDA feared the American people would lose their dependency on food production from large-scale farms. 

By the mid 1940s, the victory over thSue Axis and cheap food soon lured the public back into grooming large lawns with petroleum-based fertilizer and pesticides. 

Sustainable farms, like Quiet Creek, can be a resource to folks in the twenty-first century wanting to replant (and sin no more).   We welcome your questions to discover how easy tomatoes, peppers, beans, and herbs grow.   We encourage families to become involved in growing food in raised beds where the small space is manageable, attractive and full of edible treats. 

Be sure to seek buy-in from all family members.  Who likes cherry tomatoes?  How about red raspberries?  These need full sun.   What about salad greens?  Part shade is best.

Growing your own food will give you a sense of accomplishment, a break on your grocery bill, and a good health report.  Enjoy your summer; the Victory Garden returns.

Mid-March when Rusty and Walker were helping build green houses in hot Jamaica, the Quiet Creek crew was busy planting peas, spinach, lettuce and kale with preschool parents.  The class objective was to interest guardians to help their children get nutritional jump start while saving on their grocery bill. 

Those seeds have flourished in Pennsylvania’s cool rainy weather and now we are bursting with greens, greens, and more greens.  Even with apprentice Alice’s love of eating salad three meals a day and feeding a thousand school kids this spring, we have plenty of bounty to share with others.  The solution – we contacted our local Food Bank (Ed Pearce at 814-849-3469) who is willing to distribute the extra. 

With tough times trickling down from huge manufacturers to small industries, communities are finding more friends and neighbors out of work.  A simple way to lend a hand to those in need is to share your garden harvest directly or through the efforts of Food Banks.  Economic and health issues are in a state of turmoil; a gift of locally grown food will feed body and soul.  

This is the time to plan ahead, plant some extra tomatoes, put in another row of beans, and contact folks who can benefit from your benevolence.    Choose to grow something that you are successful and valued by others.  Ask around to discover who may benefit from your generosity; they may be willing to give you an extra hand in the garden.  Your local Food Bank will have coolers to store your extra goodies.  If you are really ambitious, preserve your excess by drying, canning or freezing to share in the future. 

We all need help sometime in our lives.  Try a little pragmatic giving by planning and planting.  You will feel the rewards of your gifts.