Oh my, I haven't posted in ages. Thought I'd come and post and update because it is just way too hot to do much else around here! It's near 100 today, and should break 100 the next 3 days or so. It never gets this hot around here, so we are really not used to it at all. It's also very humid, which just makes it so much worse.
ANYWAY. The garden is booming! We have harvested 5 gallon sized bags of raspberries in the freezer, and eaten our fair share fresh as well. We also have about 3 gallon size bags of blueberries in the freezer. Those are much harder to get in the freezer as my girls wolf them down as soon as they are picked!
Zuccini is coming in like crazy. We've had our first baby potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, beets, turnips, onions and lots of peas, and lettuce although those two are are just about gone now. We should be getting our first beans, cukes and carrots anytime now. Our corn, watermelon, canteloupes, pumpkins and winter squash look to be doing really well. For the first time our apple trees look like we will have a nice harvest and we are excited about that. Next year or maybe even this fall, the kids have requested that we put in some grapes and more plum trees. We have some very old Italian style plums here which are still producing, but they are very small, so I'd like to try and find some type of plum that produces the bigger plums. If you have recommendations, please let me know what has worked for you!
Hope you are all staying cool and sipping some lemonade while you enjoy watching your gardens grow!
Hot Hot HOT!!!!!
Productive Week and Asparagus is up!
Well for the most part the weather was great this week. Supposed to be even nicer this weekend, which will be perfect for finishing the new chicken coop. Over the last few days, I got quite a bit done. I planted alot outside, including 3 packs of peas, two Early Frosty and one Lincoln Homesteader. I also planted two packages of Shallots and half a packet of spinach, and three types of lettuces, red romaine, green romaine and buttercrunch. I also got all my Sweet Peas planted. Most of the seeds I planted inside last weekend are up too. What I'm most excited about though is I have some asparagus coming up! I planted a 30' row last year, and had almost given up hope! But the first spears are starting to peak through! YEAH!!! Now I just have to resist harvesting them this year so they can grow stronger for the years to come. I imagine I'll have to pinch a few though, just to have a taste!
First week in April
Just an update on things around here at the end of the first week in April. Did I mention we are refinancing? We locked in a 5.0% rate. If you haven't looked into it yet, you really should! We will be saving a nice bundle each month at this new rate. We should close in the next two weeks. Make sure you also consider changing the term of your loan. If you have had your mortage for awhile and started with a 30 yr, it may be worth it to refi and go with a 15 yr or 20 yr term. Those shorter term loans will often give you an even better interest rate!
This week is spring break for the kids, and my husband took it off as well. Our primary focus for the week will be building a new coop (our third...yikes!). We are using recycled wood pallets that we got off of Freecycle. You can check out our progress on that on my Keeping Backyard Chickens blog.
The weather has been absolutely perfect the last few days, and it is well deserved! We have had such miserable weather. March was one of the coldest March's on record here, and it seemed more like January. February was actually warmer overall! I had planted some peas and swiss chard in February, and there has been no sign of them whatsoever. I think the seeds just rotted away in the cold wet weather. Today I planted two packs of Alaska Bush peas, as well as half a packet of spinach and two bags of shallots. I am hoping to get my husband to till the rest of the veggie beds by the end of the week. I also need to get my indoor seeds going as I haven't started them yet! I will only be doing easy to grow things inside like my squashes, cukes and melons. I will by tomato and pepper starts later in May.
Last week I got all my apple trees and raspberries pruned. I have 6 new blueberry bushes that need to get planted this week. I think that sum's up what's happening here lately. What's new with you?
Spring Rains are here....
Now that it is officially spring, I guess I can call them that! Since I posted a few weeks ago about it raining, and it still is. We've been busy with my mom visiting, and trying to refinance the house, so we've been pretty busy and not really able to get outside much. We did score a bunch of free pallets off of Freecycle.org almost 2 weeks ago, and will begin working on the new coop this weekend. DH took spring break off with the girls, and we plan to focus on the coop project while he is off. That's the first full week in April. The chicks are growing so fast, they need to move outside! I also purchased our first incubator this week. No using it until the coop is done though! Right now it will just be used to help the breeding project of the Japanese Bantams if it is needed. But I've been spending a lot of time on BackyardChickens.com and am really really tempted to buy some eggs off of some of the members there. But that's on the back burner for right now.
Garden projects are piling up way too fast! I've set up my lights for starting seeds, but haven't acutally started any yet. I still have winter cleanup to do in several garden beds. I need to get more peas in. Haven't planted any since I posted here last, and none of those are coming up yet. I fear either the birds have got them, or they've rotted, or maybe it's just too cold still. I've got all my seeds purchased, and just waiting for my final order to come in which included potato starts, onion sets and some strawberry plants.
March 1st and more planting done!
Well, my to do list was very long today, but I made a good dent before the rain came in. I planted 2 more packets of peas, this time the Little Wonder variety, last weekend I planted 2 packets of Early Frosty peas. I also got in 1/2 a packet of Swiss Chard, the Large White Rib variety...that was when the rain started! I had wanted to get some spinach and shallots in too, but I had to stop planting and put up a little fence around the garden bed as Toby the 1 yr old Puggle puppy keeps getting in the garden beds and digging around. He has also been eating my new young blueberry bushes! I planted 6 new ones last summer, and he's chewed them down to the ground! I bought two more to start replacing them, but need to put a fence around them too, so didn't get them planted today as I had hoped.
My husband and I also worked on the chicken coops a bit today too. Their run's are so muddy and gross, I bought tarps to put over them and needed the hubby's help to build a support to help the rain run off of the big one. I checked it out before coming in and it seems to be working well and not pooling too much anywhere. We need to find a rain barrel to place where all the run off goes. We also put 1/2" hardware cloth around the base of the smaller coop where we keep our Japanese Banties. They are the nicest birds we have and the girls want to use them for fit and show at the fair this year. Unfortunately, a hawk was fighting with our rooster this week, and through the chicken wire, the hawk managed to bloody up our rooster Charlie pretty good, by just reaching through with his talons, he was able to grab onto Charlies comb. He wasn't looking very pretty when we found him! I've been reading a lot on www.backyardchickens.com, and they say the 1/2" hardware cloth is the most predator proof material you can use, so hopefully it works!
Planted my first batch of peas!!!
I'm so proud of myself! I've never gotten my peas in so early before. My Mother-in-law and many others in this neck of the woods, have always said February is the time to get the peas planted, and I was determined to get it done this weekend. Hubby even tilled the garden bed for me after I cleaned it up. It's been in the 50's and sunny for the last week, but rain is supposed to come and stay tonight or tomorrow. So yeah for me!!
Happy Mother's Day!
WOW! How did two weeks fly by already since I've posted last? Hard to believe!
I hope all you mom's out there are enjoying our special day! I woke up to breakfast in bed and we are heading out soon to buy all our veggie starts we still need for the garden. Looking forward to that.
Let me fill you in on what's been happening in the garden since my last post! Ok, in the back beds, in the one with the broccoli and brussel sprouts, I nixed the 2nd path on the right, and made one super wide row on the right side of the bed. I did almost half with beans, which went in about a week ago, I did about a 3' square plot of lettuce, and did the other half with another batch of peas yesterday. That bed is now completely full and the broccoli plants have the first teeny tiny heads of broccoli in there if you look real closely.
The other bed in back is full now too. The peas are up about 6" or so now. I should have lots of radishes in another 2 wks or so. I sprinkled them in with all the root crops I planted and they are getting big and leafy. The last root crop that went in were my parsnips and they are starting to sprout now. I already have loads of carrots up, rutabagas, beets and turnips as well. I also planted the lettuce (some starts and some by seed) in the middle row of this bed where I had an open spot. They went in about 10 days ago or so. The walla walla sweet onions are doing great, and have about 8-10" of green on them now.
In the front garden, we got one row of potatoes planted about a week ago. I have plans to do 3 rows, but was hoping to find a furrowing attachment for our tiller, but no such luck. So this depends on if my husband will help me dig the other two rows out because it's a lot of work! Yesterday I planted two more bags of onion sets, one yellow and one white. Also got the shallots in and one 6 pack of leeks. I have another 6 pack of leeks, but ran out of room in that row, will have to stick them in somewhere else. I have been wanting to put in all my "left-over" 6 packs (1 cauliflower, 1 red cabbage, 1 broccoli, the leeks) but have been nervous to do so with the rabbits our front. So yesterday I started with the chicken wire at the bottom of the fence, and need to get the rest of that done this week before I put the new starts in that we are picking up today.
It's warm enough out now to pick up the warm weather starts, so on my list I have some more (4-6) determinite tomato plants (I'm doing them all in pots this year), cucumber plants, zuccini, pati pan, yellow summer squash, pumpkins, acorn squash, butternut squash, blue hubbard squash....I think that's it. I started most of these by seed in flats this year, but they didn't do well. I still have seed left and may plant some of those as well and do a few starts of each with a few by direct seed and see which fairs better. I also have another misc row out front I want to put another batch of beans in, but I may stagger them out a bit since I just planted a batch out back. Oh! and the asparagus is starting to poke through out front! Just a few tiny purple stalks peeking up. I hate having to wait a year or two before being able to fully harvest them!
OK, I think that's about it for now! I'll try and post more pic's this week. It's supposed to reach near 80 degrees by the end of the week! :-)
Things are sprouting!
I was out today inspecting my seeded crops very closely. The peas are now up here and there, and the radishes I sprinkled in with my seed tapes are also sprouting.
Here's some photo's of my 2 back beds, which are nearly all planted. In this photo below, I have one wide row left on the right for the beans to go in. Then I have one row of brussel sprouts and one row of broccoli.
In this second bed, I have all my carrots, parsnips, beets, turnips, rutabagas, walla walla onions and a wide row of peas. I have about a third of a row right in the middle, that I'm going to stick some lettuce in. Then both of these will be full for the time being.
After I harvest my peas, I may throw a second row of beans in. I'd like to get more peas and lettuce in somewhere also before it gets too late, but that will have to be out front. All depends on how much roto-tilling I can get my husband to do this weekend. Wish me luck!
The status of the veggie gardens
OK, my last post for today. I want to write down what I have done so far this year as far as planting the veggie gardens and what is going where. In the upper raised bed in the back, I have so far planted one wide row of peas (with maybe 2 dozen starts bought at the store). I have also put in two bundles of Walla Walla sweet onion transplants. Some may think that is early, but I'm giving it a go. Today I planted my carrot seeds, using a unique method creating my own paper towel seed tapes. I got this idea from Dick Raymond's book Joy of Gardening (Garden Way Book)
I have also done the seed tape method for my parsnips, beets, turnips and rutabagas. And will have them all in by weeks end. I also have a few shallots I want to put in this bed and then it will be full for the time being.
The second back veggie bed will have my bush beans, peppers, bunching onions, cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts, spinach, lettuces and greens. None have been planted yet. I tried doing cabbage and brussel sprouts from seed, but am not having much luck with them. I planted them about 2 weeks ago in flats, and only about half, maybe less, actually sprouted, and most have gone leggy and dampened off. I have quite a few starts I bought for cabbage, brussel sprouts and broccoli I need to get in. I also have a few lettuce starts and the leeks. I want to get all this in the ground this week. It's been rainy and in the high 40's this week, so not really tempting me to get out there. Tomorrow and Thursday are supposed to be drier and in the 50's, so hoping to get a lot done.
The front veggie garden. This was planned to put those larger space-taker-upper plants. In Dick Raymond's book, he has three garden plans. A salad garden, a summer garden and a huge Eat and Store Garden. My garden is only about half the size of his Eat and Store Garden, but hopefully it will do. The garden is 25'x70' with a 5' path around it inside the fence. So far, I have only put in one row of asparagus. I have ready to go in some onion sets and potatos. It will have one row of onions, 3 rows of potatos. I will do one row of potatos now for some early ones, and two more rows next month in hopes to be able to put some potatoes away next fall. This garden will also have my vine crops including cucumbers, summer squashes, winter squashes, pumpkins. It will also have my corn, hopefully 12 rows of it! I am hoping to do another row or two of peas as well but I need to get them in yesterday! They can easily go in between the pumpkin rows since they won't take up much space until at least mid-summer. I may also through more beans in as well.
I plan to do tomatoes in pots this year. We have a short cool season, and I have never done well with them. I get some, but never a ton. I remember my grandpa's garden back in Massachusetts gowing up, with the tomatoes lining every horizontal surface and eating them like candy. How I wish! But it's not to be out here in the Pacific Northwest. I hope to have 10-12 pots and will be happy to get what I get.
I think that covers my veggie plans to date. So much to do and so little time!
The goal is to not only feed us while the produce is fresh, but to also put alot away. I'm hoping to get a big upright freezer next month and make my first attempt at canning this summer as well. We have an unfinished walk out basement, and I don't know that we'll get a proper root cellar done this year, but I'd be happy to put some winter squashes and root crops away, even if it just gets us into early winter. Anyway, those are the goals. Wish me well! And don't forget to check out Dick Raymond's book below!
