The Onion Sets Have Sprouted

When I planted out my onions I had about half of the bed filled with onions that I started from seed back in January.  The other half was filled in with sets that I got from the local hardware store.  I planted all of them about 3 weeks ago, but until just a couple days ago the bed only looked half full because of the seedlings.  Now the other half is slowly filling in as the sets send up thier first leaves.

 

I still have a few sets left over from the planting of the main bed.  I hope there are enough to border the brussel sprout and broccoli bed.  I would hate to let any of them go to waste when there is perfectly good dirt to put them in. 

All in all I think there will be a total of about 450 onions when it is said and done.  I know that sounds like a ton, but we use them in our cooking almost every day.  I also want to make my own onion powder from the onions that are small or have thick necks at harvest.  The rest will become storage onions.  Last year I think we planted about 100 - 150 onion sets in the spring.  I never did count how many we harvested total, but I know they only lasted us until December.  My goal this year is to not have to buy onions from the store until the next harvest.  Lofty ideals I know.  But I think it can be done as long as I am able to store them properly so they don't go bad.  If it works out well this year it will also give me a good idea of how many onions I need to have room for when I am planning next year's garden.

Are There Craft Fairs In My Future?

I have been making crocheted hats now for about three or four years.  Mostly I have made some for family and friends, but I have also sold a few here and there to co workers.  Unfortunately that leaves a very small audience for any type of business pursuits I may have had.  I think it may be time to branch out.  I do have a small collection of premade hats and scarves, but selling them to people can be hard because I can not predict what colors or patterns most people will find appealing.  I know what I like, but that doesn't mean that someone else would be willing to pay for it. 

I was thinking about talking to shop owners at the nearby ski resorts to see if I could find a market for my items there.  Another idea I had was to start up an etsy site of my own, but I think that market is so full of other people's products that mine would simply not be noticed (and I'm not willing to pay extra for their version of marketing).  That's when the idea of craft fairs popped into my head.  I've been to a few craft fairs out here and they can be very busy places.  Busy means that it would be a good place to try to sell my wares because people don't just go to craft fairs for fun - they usually want to buy stuff (hopefully my stuff).  The last idea I had was to try to sell my goods at the local farmers market.  That would work out in many ways because I could sell more than one type of thing.  There would be a place to sell my extra veggies, home made soaps and handmade hats and scarves.  The only thing that is holding me back from that is the size of my garden ( so far I eat everything I grow - no extras), and my limited amount of time for manning a booth.  It's hard to have to work so much when I'd rather be making things that I can sell.  Maybe someday I will find my happy medium

Garden Plan Evolution

I always find it interesting how my original garden plans take on a life of their own as the season progresses.  Sometimes plans must be adjusted because the number of plants is more or less than expected.  Take my potato beds for example.  In my origianl plans I only had two beds.  Then I went out and bought far too many seed potatoes for two beds, though they fit perfectly into three beds.  So I needed to find a new place for the beans I had planned for that extra bed.  I basically shifted everything one bed over and cut back on a bed of bush beans I had planned.  That is the nice thing about gardens - nothing is set in stone.  You just shift things around a little and you will find room for everything that you want to grow. 

I also want to work more with the seasons of gardening by using succession planting where I can.  I imagine that once some early season plants are finished producing I will pull them out and replace them with something that will mature in a short time period.  This way I can get more food out of the same space by using it for two crops in a season instead of only one.  I just haven't decided what crops will be going where once the first crop is gone.  This year's lettuce patch will probably become next years garlic patch.  After the early season peas are finishing up I will start adding lettuce to that bed until it is time to plant the autumn round of peas.

I also have ended up with a section along the side of one of my garden extensions where I had nothing planned for it because that space simply didn't exist on paper.  I was thinking about using it for a wheat bed or maybe planting some wildflowers in it to attract pollinators to my garden.  I noticed even a difference in the kinds of visitors that come to the garden in the past few years.  The first year there were the regulars: bees, flies, mosquitos, gnats, grasshoppers.  But last year I think I saw more things like praying mantises, ladybugs, all kinds of spiders (which I don't adore, but I do think they are useful) - a nice array of predator insects to help control bugs in my garden.  I also noticed many more butterflys and different kinds of bees. 

I think the final picture of each year's garden will always become more complex than the year before.  There are so many things I would like to grow, but I need to work towards it slowly.  I only have so much time in a day after all.  My future garden will extend to the limits of my backyard and imagination.  It would ideally include a fruit orchard complete with raspberry bushes, a variety of fruit trees, a rotating pasture for my chickens (and possibly some other medium sized livestock), and a veggie garden that would sustain a small family for a whole year.  Lofty ideals again. I do know that if I work towards it one tiny step at a time, then one day it could really be mine, one seed, one egg, one flower at a time.

The downside of raising baby chickens

I was looking closely at the babies today and noticed that one of them had a bald patch on the back of it's head.  Looking closer it appears as though the other chicks have been pecking at this particular chick quite badly in the past few days.  Then after I put the baby back in with the other babies I noticed something else.  That same pecked baby looked knock kneed to me.  It was standing on both it's legs and using both equally to move around, but one leg was definitely at an odd angle to the other.  At first I thought that somehow it had gotten a broken leg.  I felt up and down the leg and nothing seemed out of place, though the thigh bone did feel curved to me.  The poor baby had a leg deformity.  It would never be able to walk normal and as it grows the deformity would probably cripple it completely.  Unfortunately this means that I did not want this chicken in my flock.  I do not want to breed sickly chickens with health problems.  I also think that the other chicks were pecking at it because it was the weakest chick in the group, and it couldn't defend itself well.  I decided that it should be culled to end it's suffering.  I know it sounds cruel, but from a farmer's point of view, it would only cost me more in the way of feed and time to allow this deformed chicken to live out it's natural life.  The same feed and time I could be devoting to the other healthy, normal chickens that I would like to have more of.  I don't regret killing the baby because it's future only held more suffering - of getting picked on by the other chickens, and pain in it's deformed leg when it got bigger.  Sadly our flock has shrunk by one, but hopefully none of the other chicks will have that problem and grow up to be healthy and happy.

Pole Bean Experiment - Round 3

The first year we planted pole beans they were planted along the fence that outlined our garden so they had a decent support structure right along their bed.  Unfortunately I had no idea how tall pole beans would grow and needless to say the fence just wasn't tall enough for them.

Since I am a firm believer in crop rotation I couldn't plant the beans in the same place again the next year so I had to devise some sort of trellis for them.  I used some pvc pipe, a few pieces of rebar and some twine to make a trellis that held up well until the beans got too heavy for it and dragged it to the ground.  I also planted some beans in the three sisters patch and it seemed to be quite happy to grow up the 11 ft tall corn stalks it was planted next to.

This year I am going to try yet a third kind of trellis to see how that works out for me.  I am going to see if I can make bean tipis by using long poles tied together in a tripod fashion.  After wandering around home depot looking for the perfect cheap tipi material, I decided to use pvc pipe again.  I figure that they will hold up better with fewer plants hanging on them and they are still sturdy and flexible enough to tolerate the high winds in this area.

I only wanted one bed of beans so I staked out four tipis in my 14 foot bean bed.

 

I used 2 foot rebar for stakes since they worked so well in the past and are easy to move and reuse as needed.  I also alternated a square layout with a diamond layout to hopefully make things a little easier to pick when the plants are big.

 

First tipi finished.

Almost done.

The final layout.

 

I am planning to plant three or four plants at the base of each pole.  The hope is that they will entwine themselves around their pole and make the tipis look fairly filled out by the end of the season.  I also hope I made the tipis tall enough that I can stand inside of them to pick beans as well.  I love trying new things in that garden!

 

Another Lettuce Addition

It has been a couple weeks since I last expanded the lettuce patch and the next round of plants seemed pretty ready to go into the garden.  Here is what it looks like before the addition:

The lettuce has been coming along nicely in its protected little corner of the garden.

 

Here are the latest additions:

 

 

 and here is the row after the addition was planted:

 

Right now the lettuce is taking up about 1/3 of the bed I have planned for it.  I have one more set of seedlings that I started indoors that will be ready in a couple weeks. After that I will be planting the seeds directly into the garden every couple weeks to extend my harvest season.  So far things are looking promising as far as my lettuce goes.

 

Baby Chickens Big Day Outside

The chicks are about 5 weeks old at this point and they are almost completely feathered out.  They are getting to the point where their brooder box is looking a little small for them.  Since the weather was so nice today I decided that they should have their first introduction to the outside world.  In the begining I will only allow them to be enclosed in the "broody cage".  It has an outer area enclosed by wire mesh where they can run around and scratch at their bedding.  The inside area is more enclosed and has a roof to protect them from the elements.  When they get a little bigger they will be spending all their time out here, but for now they will just get to spend the daylight hours out here.

 

The doorway to the inner box also gives them a place to perch which they don't have in their brooder in the house.

 

Overall the outside box gives them more room to run around and also gives them time to aquaint themselves with the adult chickens from a safe distance since it is inside the chicken run.  Once these chicks are big enough they will have more access to the second pen while still being seperated from the adult chickens.  When they reach their full grown size the pens will be opened to each other  and the chicks will be able to become a part of the bigger flock.  I believe that gradual introductions into the flock are much safer and less stressful for every one involved when they are done right.

Growing Broccoli

A couple years ago I got to make my first attempt at growing broccoli.  Shortly after we moved west we stared our "little" garden with a bunch of plants from a local nursery.  I had never grown broccoli before and I wasn't quite sure what I was doing. 

My first lesson was that my homegrown broccoli wasn't going to look like the huge heads that you buy from the grocery store.  As I watched the first shoots grow I couldn't wait for them to get big enough to harvest.  Then they started doing something weird.  The shoots didn't stay tight and compact.  In our summer heat they started to bolt - meaning they got long and lanky and the buds decided it was time to make flowers.  That was all well and good, but opened broccoli flowers don't taste quite as good as the compact heads of the young, unopened flowers to be that we all think of when you mention broccoli.  In fact, they taste quite bitter if you wait too long to harvest them, and if you let them go to flower, the plants will just stop making more flowers because they think that their work is done for the season.  So my first lesson was that I need to cut off any florets that look like they are bolting.  That even means that the main crop of large heads of broccoli may need to be harvested long before they ever reach the size you would like them to be. 

The nice thing about broccoli is that even after you cut off the main shoot, the plants will go on producing numerous little side shoots that make bunches of florets.  The hard part is keeping up with the harvesting of the side shoots.  Sure the first few rounds don't make very many florets, but by the end of the season, the plants can be huge and finding every little floret becomes an enormous task.  They like to hide beneath the large shady leaves of older shoots.  Many of them go unnoticed until they bolt and have to be cut off just to extend the harvest season.  Lucky for me, the chickens don't care how bitter the flowers are, they just love to eat any of the florets I am willing to part with.

As for storing my harvests of this lovely plant, we resorted to freezing them that first year.  A quick blanch for five minutes, then dried briefly and into the freezer they went.  Last year we tried to dehydrate them as well, which worked better than I thought, but after reconstituting them some were very bitter.  This year I will probably go back to just freezing what we can't use fresh since it doesn't change the flavor too much.

The Irony of the Simple Life

I have often wished that I could live in a simpler time.  The hustle and bustle of the big city is alluring to many people, but I have always longed for the quiet, peaceful countryside.  Now that I am here I have to chuckle at how noisy country life can be sometimes.  The farmers preparing their fields for summer crops drive huge noisy tractors back and forth across their fields stirring up giant clouds of dust.  Truck after truck hauling fertilizer pass our house every few minutes all day long.  In the distance I can hear the lowing of cattle accompanied by the chorus of sheep.  Dogs barking echo across the valley for miles.  Roosters greet the sun every morning with reckless abandon, then continue crowing at will until the sun disappears over the other horizon.  So much for the quiet countryside. 

Many people have the misconception that a farmer lives a peaceful and serene life.  Farming, however, can be one of the most demanding jobs you will ever come across.  Farmers are not allowed to take sick days.  There will be no one to cover them if they get injured.  They don't get to claim workman's comp. No one to care for their crops or livestock if they want to take a vacation.   Many farmers don't even make much profit on their farms and many years they are lucky if they get to break even.

So why would anyone want to live this life you ask?  Many of the farmers I talk to say that they take a lot of pride in what they do.  Their work feeds families.  They are stewards of the earth.  Many of them are more in touch with the cycles of life than most city dwellers.  Yes, their job can be back breaking and heart wrenching, but watching a crop go from tiny seedling to something worthy of a meal is like helping a miracle take place.  Who wouldn't want to take part in working miracles?

More Snow!

We had another round of snow today with temperatures supposed to plummet into the 20's tonight.  At least this time around I was able to cover my plants ahead of time.  Last night I pulled the plastic tarps over the pea sprouts and the onion seedlings, covered the lettuce patch and wrapped up the peach tree in bed sheets.  I hope everything survives this second hit of cold and nasty weather.  Sometimes plants can tolerate one frost, but hit them over and over again with it and they will succumb to the elements.  I know the covers don't do that much to keep the plants warm but I figure that it is still better than nothing.  This time everything will be staying covered until the temps warm up again in a couple days - no peeking!  Now all I have to do is keep my fingers crossed and wait.

Strawberry Patch Update

The strawberry patch is filling out nicely with the warmer weather that we have been having lately.

It looks like we will be getting more than two strawberries from the patch this year (hopefully) as long as I can keep the critters away from them.  It has also become evident how far outside the original bed they have spread now that they are actively producing leaves.  On one side they have spread at least one foot over the boundary and on the other they have taken over the irrigation ditch from years past. 

They look quite happy don't you think?

 

I have also started to notice the beginings of flowers on some of the plants already!  I am hoping to make some strawberry jam from this years crop so I hope they flower like crazy.  We have many resident birds that like to hang out near the strawberry patch so I may need to invest in some netting if I intend on harvesting any strawberries for myself - though I don't mind sharing a few here and there.

Mud Season

It's officially spring here and April has no shortage of showers this year.  Last night it rained for hours which is great because we need the moisture here.  The only downside of all the rain is the way it turns our yard into a giant mudpit.  This is the kind of mud that sticks to everything including itself.  Ten steps across the yard will leave you standing tall on ten pounds of heavy clay mud.  The only way to remove it is to scrape it off on other things - stairs, rocks, trees, etc.  Either that or wait for it to dry and then clomp your shoes together until they become mud-free.  Around here you need a seperate pair of shoes to wear out in the garden or you will have some pretty unhappy co-workers following you around with a broom and a mop.  I have no complaints though.  The more it rains the less I need to water my garden, which gives me more time to sit and watch it grow!  I hope the rain brings in the flowers next month just like the saying goes.  I am so happy that it is time to garden again, not even a little mud is going to hold me back!

The Babies are Growing Up Fast!

It's been about 2 1/2 weeks since the chicks hatched and I swear they get bigger by the minute.  Feathers that weren't there in the morning are clearly visible come sun down.    Every day they take up more and more space in their brooder.  They have been making quick work of their food every day, but I think they do more spilling than eating.  Baby chickens are cute, but they sure are messy!  Once their feathers fill out more they will get to start spending their days outside in the "addition".  They may go out there even sooner if they start escaping their brooder on a regular basis.  They may be little, but they are learning to fly!  I came home from work one day last week to find a lone escapee running around in the back room.  She may have figured out how to escape, but getting back in was not quite in reach.  I am sure she was happy to be reunited with her friends.....and her food and water.

Road Trip

A few weeks ago we took a little road trip into the "hills"  Here is what we saw:

I am so glad I moved to the mountains.  The view is never bad here.  Ever.

Coldantlerfarm: Greene, Wyeth, & Me

This is a girl around my age living a life that some only dream about because they are too scared to actually do it.  It is posts like these that make me want to keep reading her blog.  If only we could be such an inspiration ourselves.  All we have to do is try.  coldantlerfarm: Greene, Wyeth, & Me

Frost damage report

Here is an update on what happened after last weeks snowstorm.  Happy to report that everything looks fairly healthy. 

The onion's tops look a little wilted and yellow, but everything that was under the snow looks healthy.  Onions grow new leaves from their base, so I imagine that they will just grow some new leaves to compensate for the damaged leaves and everything will be just fine.

The peas didn't even flinch and are still growing like nothing happened. 

Same with the garlic.

 

The lettuce seemed to fare well also, though the edges of the leaves look a little rough.  The spinach doesn't look as promising, but it grows fast enough that I will just have to plant more replacements.

The peach tree's newly budded leaves are a little burnt along the edges, but the flower buds that grow more on the inner branches seem to be ok.  We just might get a peach or two this year as long as the nights don't keep dipping below freezing.

We are supposed to get another cold spell here in a few more days, but after this first round of frosty spring weather I am more confident that the garden will be just fine.

Radishes in the Carrot Bed

It was time again this week to plant another round of carrots and radishes.  I followed the same procedure as before: 

dig shallow trenches where I want my seeds to go

 

cover lightly with soil

 

mulch with straw and cover with a board

 

I did notice some tiny little seedlings when I uncovered the first row

 

These are the radish seedlings

 

I planted the radishes with the carrots because carrots take so long to germinate.  The radishes kinda act like row markers and they mature very quickly so they are usually picked just as the carrots are making their appearance.  I am hoping this year we can keep up with eating the radishes before they get gigantic and woody.  Last year we had so many radishes that we couldn't even give enough away fast enough.  I figured that one row can only hold about 12-16 radishes, so one row every couple weeks should keep us in radishes throughout the whole summer without letting them get out of control.

 

 

Lettuce Bed - Round Two

It has been a couple weeks since I planted out the first round of lettuce and spinach and to my pleasant surprise they are mostly doing quite well despite the cold nights we have been having.  Unfortunately the spinach hasn't fared as well.  About half of what I planted out must have gotten a little too cold and died even with the mulch and cover I had over them.

The second round of starts that I planted about a month ago were starting to look a little big for their pots so it was time for them to join the first round in the great outdoors.  First thing I had to do was figure out were the first batch ended so I pulled all the mulch away from the end of it, sadly unveiling the stumps left from the dead spinach.  I figured there was no sense in wasting space in the bed, so out came the dead spinach and in went the next round of transplants.

 

Some of the transplants look bigger than the first round I planted out, but I expect that after some time to get over the shock of being transplanted they will fall into the same growth pattern that the first set did.

 

Here they are all mulched in:

 

 

And here is what the bed looks like for now with only two rounds of lettuce and spinach transplants:

 

The older transplants are in the back of the picture and though they don't look very big they have definately been growing - if only very slowly.

 

 

Growing Garlic - Second Attempt

I was pleasantly surprised by how well my first attempt at growing garlic went that this year the plan was to grow even more than last year.  This year I am devoting an entire bed to nothing but garlic and I even went out of my way to buy seed garlic from local farmers.  Seed garlic is just like regular garlic with the exception that it will be the biggest heads from the last harvest.  Garlic can adapt to different growing conditions and if you save your best and biggest heads and plant them you will get more of your best and biggest garlic to use in your kitchen year after year.

Planting garlic actually takes place in the fall and unfortunaly I didn't take any pictures when I planted this round of garlic.  I do however have some pictures from about a month ago.

 

This was taken shortly after I removed the row cover I had over them all winter.  The plastic sheeting was shredded by a wind storm so it wasn't doing much for protecting them anyways.  As you can see some of the plants are good sized and they actually sprouted sometime last November.  Once the weather got cold the plants just go dormant and wait for it to warm back up again.  These plants may have had a bit of an advantage since I covered them with plastic all winter - so they might have actually grown a little through winter also.  The real reason I covered them was to keep the chickens out of them when I let them run around in the garden in the winter.

 

Here is what they look like this week:

 

As you can see they have definately been growing!  The bigger plants are from the local farmer's seed garlic and the smaller ones are what was left of last years harvest.  Next year I hope to have enough to plant all of it from what we save from this harvest.  With as big as some of those plants are, we should have plenty, maybe even enough to make our own garlic powder.  The next thing I have to perfect is curing them properly.  Last year we had a rainy spell around the same time we were curing our garlic and we lost about half our harvest to rot.  Lesson learned - next time I will watch the weather like a hawk!

 

Late Season Snowstorm

The weather channel has been calling for some snow and cold temps here for the next few days.  When I left for work this morning the temp was hovering around 40 degrees.  I thought that the temps were supposed to drop later in the day and the snow wasn't supposed to start until tonight.  I uncovered the lettuce and the peach tree thinking they would have a little time to warm up before I covered them when I got home.

The snow started at 10 this morning and the temp has been steadily dropping all day.  This is what I got to come home to:

the pea sprouts are completely covered in a blanket of snow

 

the onions have been tucked in as well

 

the garlic stands tall above the snow

 

 

The lettuce and spinach bed was pretty well covered too, but I decided to cover it more with a few plastic containers and a sheet.  I am hoping that the heavy layer of snow acts more like an insulating blanket on the garden.  I know that snow is cold, but the temperatures are supposed to dip into the low 20s which could be fatal to some of the things that have sprouted.  Hopefully the snow keeps their temps at a much "warmer" 32 degrees where they are less likely to be severely damaged.  I am also hoping the straw mulch I put down helps too.  The answer will come in the next couple days when the weather warms up again.

 

The lettuce all covered up with water jugs and buckets and an extra layer provided by an old sheet.

 

Our little peach tree was just starting to put out flower buds, though they weren't quite close to open yet.  I covered the tree with a couple of sheets and tied it securely.  I'm not sure if these temperatures will damage the buds at this stage, but I am willing to try to save them if I can.  I guess I got a little overzealous in my spring planting.  I just hope that I didn't ruin my efforts this far by putting things out too early. 

 



 



 

 

The Peas Have Sprouted

It has been an anxious couple weeks since I put my peas into the ground but they are finally here!

I wasn't sure how well they would come up since I used saved seed from last years crop to plant this year, but I think almost every one that I planted has made it's way into the world.

 

I wish they would show up better in this picture, but if you look closely you can see the tiny green shoots poking through the straw.  They always seem so tiny in the begining, but I am sure they will really take off in the next few weeks.  I am hoping to get my first harvest from these peas by the end of May if I am lucky.....only time will tell.

Chicken Littles

I can not believe how fast our little hatchlings are growing up. 

It seems like only yesterday they were tiny little balls of fluff dancing around in their brooder. 

 

 It has only been about 10 days and they are already growing real feathers.

 

It has been very interesting to see what color their real feathers are going to look like.  These chickens are pretty much just mutts, so none of them look like any breed I've ever seen before.  If you look really closely you can see the beginings of tail feathers too.

 

 

I am happy to report that all seem to be growing nicely and have been very active in their little makeshift brooder.  Once they have a couple more weeks under their belts I will start to put them outside during the day in what I call the baby chicken box where they will learn more about this great big world.  Eventually they will have free run of the second pen until they get big enough to go in with the big chickens.