the farm + the blizzard of '10

I am going to put up several sets of photos, starting with the recent blizzard and work my way back to August's garden bliss. We love it out there. Peaceful and tranquil. We find so much harmony.

The big snowstorm this weekend collapsed a dilapidated outbuilding, our pole barn. Historically it probably housed horses and elk as our land has a history of raising both. We had started preparing to either jack the sagging trusses up or taking some of it down next spring. I guess we will prioritize this work now that it is really a hazard on the property. Enjoy.

Locavore pizza

This was two weeks ago now, but it was DELICIOUS: pesto pizza with locally grown/raised roasted beets, asparagus, potatoes, caramelized onions and local pork sausage. Heaven.

Flowers and birds and bunnies oh my

So we've had our share of garden pests this year. Squirrels, bunnies, chipmunks and other little critters also enjoy the fruits of our labor. So we've decided to fence off the lowest beds first - the tomato beds.

Secondly, I've attracted a lovely mix of birds just by changing our food source. We now have northern cardinals, purple finches, goldfinches, nuthatches, chickadees and hummingbirds regularly feeding in our yard. They are much more beautiful and have the sweetest songs. The sparrows continue to feed but I beam every time I see a goldfinch - or two or three - feeding on our thistle. I had no idea it was that simple around here to attract birds.

Midsummer Garden

We are suffering from a midsummer garden. So many crops so close to harvest (carrots, onions, more broccoli, squash, loads of tomatoes); so many main season crops just sprouting/transplanted  (green beans, edamame, corn, more storage onions; cucumbers); a few spots laying low for a few weeks before fall crops are sowed. Hard to think about cold-weather crops on a week like this.

The heat and humidity have been a boom for the garden. The watermelon tunnel is the best we've ever grown. Three varieties growing in an 8-foot long remesh hoop house. It should be a bumper crop this year, thanks to our hoop house we placed over it - and still have in place. After this cold high pressure moves through this week and it looks like the heat is with us for good we'll take off the plastic.

We have been eating well from the garden but still feel there's more we could be doing:

• savoy cabbage
• broccoli goodness
• greens, more than we can eat 
• basil (need to do another double batch of pesto, seems to be a monthly routine)
• carrots, baby carrots to think out the main crop
• strawberries continue
• raspberries, just starting to be gobbled up
• tomatoes, a few more this month!

Grow beans, grow!

I spy red, orange and yellow in the garden beds!

Mmmm, sweet bells. This is our early variety. The later one is just opening flowers. Perfection.

Feeding the family

I suppose we shouldn't be too surprised. We are eating a fair bit of food out of the garden. Ezra's favorite are the shelling peas; Jonah prefers the snap peas but has enjoyed his share of fresh peas! I love having fresh, tender salad greens I can pick fresh every morning in my Mother's Day gift: a harvesting basket.

As May comes to a close, here's what we've eaten from our vegetable garden this month:

• radishes, two plantings - enough to put in salads everyday
• pok choy, about 8 heads - enough for about six different meals since early May
• loose leaf lettuce, pounds and pounds - overabundant by the second week in May 
• spinach, many pounds
• snap peas, handfuls at a time
• shelling peas, bowlfuls at a time
• tomatoes - three ripe ones and one big slicer ripening as I type
• basil - made a quart of pesto on May 30(!)
• strawberries, a handful here and there since last week

Symmetry

It is with much effort that we are gardening with a more refined aesthetic. Part exercise in garden planning, part beautification of our neighborhood. John built this trellis on Friday, along with all of the tomato trellises: a simple Eliot Colemen design we modified slightly after the first one. Instead of having them be flush on the ends we let the top overhang, thus giving it more of a Japanese arts and crafts feel. 

 

Butternut squash trellis.

The trellises for tomatoes (middle and back beds) and for our pole beans (front "lettuce" bed). The middle bed was the first one built and after that we allowed the extra length overhang, in part because it meant no scrap wood.

The bed I'm most proud of for it's sheer symmetry: basil, tomatoes, carrots, peppers and cosmos. 

Purple haze carrot patch in the above-mentioned bed.

The Growing Garden

Ezra has a knack for picking more than just our radishes.

  

Jonah harvested our first ripe tomato, May 20. Unfortunately the kids love tomatoes too so we had to share with them!

My favorite view of all the front garden beds from the 'orchard'.

Watermelon and cantaloupe hoophouse.

Grow, garden, grow.

Mid May

Well this garden continues to inspire and delight me. I am quite proud of both the timing and amount of food we have eaten thus far this spring. We cooked a stir fry with most of the pok choy on Tuesday night as some heads were starting to bolt; I sowed another row in our lettuce bed which we'll probably be eating in another week or two.

the lone ripe tomato. won't be another one for at least a month.

We harvested our first planting of radishes over the past 2 weeks. Our second planting is swelling so it won't be long before those end up on our plates as well. Our pea vines are flowering and the pods are growing by the minute. We are now completely eating greens from our yard, yet we ask ourselves why it takes so long to get to that point (mid-May versus mid-April). Next year I will sow lettuce in mid-March in a covered bed in addition to starting lettuce really early indoors.

While lettuce gets bitter in the heat of summer I am trying to stick romaine heads in around where our waltham butternut will be vining up, as well as on the north side of our green bean vines. Both will be trellised upwards of 6 feet so I hope we can extend our harvest into mid-July and only have about a month without fresh greens.

Our tomatoes, eggplants and peppers are all flowering and flourishing. We have 7 eggplants, 14 tomatoes, and about 12 bell peppers. I am doing 2 successional plantings of summer squash, one in the orchard bed and one in the raised bed after we harvest our brassicas. I am preparing a hoop house for our watermelon and cantaloupes: stars and moon, yellow doll and minnesota midget. Hopefully with a little extra heat from the landscape fabric and the hoop house we'll get earlier and heavier crops. We'll soon know.

the mighty radish.

salad bed.

tomato/pepper bed with carrots in foreground.

peapods.

Cowering

So much for the warmup. It's been cold this week - I'm optimistic that we won't (have snow on the ground tomorrow morning) but just as a precaution I cowered to the overnight forecast of snow showers mixed in with rain. I covered our lovely heads of pok choy, the onions, peas and both of our lettuce/radish/spinach beds with delicate, young greens in them. Everything else is either still covered or can handle a frost should we endure one this evening.

We just can't seem to get away from weather chit chat in this great state.

Spring Flowers + rock garden planted

Vegetable Garden this week

A blushed Super Marzano tomato ... maybe a ripe tomato in May?

The hothoused peppers and tomatoes. Looking good inside there.

Dakota pea flowers open!!

Spring bed full of lettuces, more radishes, spinach pok choy and chinese cabbage.

The Progress

Tomatoes, peppers and eggplants are covered. Everything else is exposed.

Onions, peas, brussels sprouts, pok choi and beets - mostly a spring and fall bed.

Background: A peek into the hothouse of peppers, tomatoes and basil; foreground: germinating spring bed (will be converted to beans and edamame in mid-June) head lettuces, radishes, spinach, pok choy and chinese cabbage.

I will plant creeping thymes and possibly other low ground cover in between the stepping stones throughout the vegetable garden.

Sidewalk edge stones set!! Planning perennials for the area to be planted in two weeks (or sooner if I can find them): hens and chicks, creeping phlox, creeping sedum.

Looks to be a bumper sweet pepper crop this year!!!

Garden photographer self-portrait.

We share our crops with the neighborhood bunnies.

Tulips

I didn't realize until I planted 80 of them that I prefer tulips in the morning or evening light. Wide open tulips are not for me. I think it's how they photograph them, closed up and delicate. They seem so vulnerable during the day as mine open so wide. At any rate, it looks beautiful in my new perennial bed this week with tulips, daffodils and bergenia in bloom.

                                

A Family Affair

I am so lucky the boys like to garden. I use that term rather loosely as for the moment I must be vigilent or Ezra will rake under my delicate lettuce seedlings. They tend to wander down the block while I putter around the beds, watering or transplanting as the work dictates.

To address my friend's question about gardening with children, we love having them in the gardens but have never read any books on the subject. We simply allow them to lead us through their interests. It seems to work out. Ezra is already smelling flowers, the same age at which Jonah started gently leaning down, nestling his nose deep into the bloosom and breathing in deeply.

As far as gardening tips, we love our book from Steve Solomon called Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades. It's really a Willamette Valley gardening reference book but we use it here where soils are loamy and deep and summers are hot and humid. Happy gardening to you all.

Lights Out

We turned off one set of lights in the basement - finally!! Today I transplanted most of the tomatoes, leaving the weak inside. I trimmed them down to healthy branches and will hopefully outplant them or give them away in the new few weeks.

We had fruit set on more than one plant downstairs and two of our transplants in the garden have fruit on them already. John is hoping for ripe tomatoes in June this year; if March and April is any indication of an early summer he might just get his wish.

The quick and economical setup. T8 lights, heating pads and self-wicking watering trays.

The famous indoor fruit set!

Tomato and pepper bed. Will also be planted with basil and carrots in a few weeks, and the trellis system will be more permanently established after the hoop comes off in early June. 

I am working on setting stepping stones in place and will plant the entire perimeter of our new garden space with creeping thyme, hens and chicks, low sedum and dwarf phlox. It will be an aromatic, colorful footpath and alternative lawn.

Spring Garden Update

This Spring has been a huge boon to our garden so far. Temps have been above freezing all but a few days since early March; I've transplanted out our onions (first time growing them),  brussels sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, pok choi, and our pea seeds have germinated. This bed is looking lovely with its little seedlings and small plants establishing nicely.

Last night I sketched out our summer garden in the front yard on our chalkboard, and am working on implementing it.

This past week we ordered 3 1/2 yards of farmpost and topsoil to fill our new beds which are adding 160 sq. ft., making to our front raised bed total about 250 sq. ft. If you include our south bed and the path along the back walkway I think we probably are gardening in excess of 500 sq. ft. in vegetables and fruits. We are also helping an elderly neighbor garden which is probably another 100 sq. ft - it will be our canning garden and Jonah and Ezra's corn 'field'.

I am looking forward to the big yields this year with the larger garden space. The boys are the most amazing sports about it, and have enjoyed the opportunity it provides for them to dig in the earth with their mama. I appreciate that they indulge me in this most sacred, healing part of my life.