Starts

We were just talking tonight about how, with a 11.5-month growing season, it seems like starting a lot of seedlings indoors or in a hooped bed might not really be a big priority. It might be nice to get a jump start on tomatoes (oh, yum), but really we can otherwise just enjoy those things that are ready when they're ready. Our last freeze is typically February 15. We can plant quite a lot of things directly outdoors now, and even before February 15 we had all those greens, broccoli, onions, garlic, shallots, peas, etc. going pretty well. If we do do starts ahead of time next year, we would really make the hooped bed quite a bit more secure so the top doesn't blow off again. It looks like there's a good chance we lost the pomegranate tree, and possibly the lemon and lime trees. The pomegranate and lemon can be easily replaced by locally-available trees so we'll wait and see. With limited time available, we have to be really careful to maximize and prioritize what we can do. Tomorrow - hoping to plant the kiwis and berries.

Photos

I'm finally getting some pictures up. This is the dump truck that dropped off 1-1/2 loads in our driveway a couple of weeks ago. We've transported about half of it to various beds.


We got a good bit of work done today. The asparagus was starting to come up, so I put on the final layer of compost over that.

It looks less and less asparagus-like as it grows into more of a fern, but it was fun to think that in a couple of years we could be eating these!

I took all the surviving seedlings (turns out that only the spinach and lettuce survived the top being blown off our hooped bed the night it got down to 22 degrees!), and planted those in the front yard. Here you can see how many seedlings ended up not surviving. These were nearly all full before the fateful night.


I moved a bunch of compost into the flower bed by the front driveway.


Then I weeded, fertilized, watered, mucked around, and fed the chickens a huge, fat earthworm. Very satisfying.

In the front yard (the north side) the herb spiral had many things that did well all winter. We had...

parsley

tarragon, thyme, and rosemary

mustard in right foreground
garlic, onions, shallots, and lettuce in left top background

mustard - isn't it pretty?

The snow peas and sugar snap peas are coming up very nicely! They're planted in the onion/shallots/garlic bed.


The collards have been good.

The cabbage has been growing very slowly. Our soil is not all that rich (yet!). It take a pretty penny to import really good soil, so we're building it very slowly. I think next year will be better after the wood chips are completely decomposed (they're in the bottom of the bed), the pH on the soil is lowered, and we can get a good load of manure mixed in.

Happy arugula! This has always been one of my favorite greens. Such a nice, peppery flavor. Great on pizza.


I picked this broccoli a couple of weeks ago, then a couple of new shoots came in. It flowered before we ate it, but it's so beautiful I think I'm leaving it!


The loquat on the east side of the house has lots of nice fruit on it. Last year I made loquat jam, and it was heavenly on meatballs. The fruit will turn a beautiful yellow when it is ripe. It tastes a little bit like a plum.


DH took three-fourths of a day off today to dig holes to plant some of our trees. We're experimenting with a technique of planting four trees in one hole, with the trees spaced about 18–24" apart. We hope to keep all the trees on the smaller side for easier picking and a nicely manageable amount of fruit. The greater number of trees that we were able to plant (16 fruit trees + 6 kiwi vines + a fig tree that will go in the back yard) gives us a wide variety of fruit with each fruit ripening at different times. No special preparation was done for the holes. The most important thing is to give the trees the right amount of water - about 5 gallons per week per tree in every week for which we have less than an inch of rain. He put down a three-inch layer of mulch (wood chips) to hold the water in the ground and keep it warm.


Here is where the kiwis will go. Up and over the arbor, we hope! This was a driveway that cut the corner of our property from one street to the street around the corner. We plopped this outdoor living room (to the right) right on top of the driveway with the arbor extending out over the front yard. I had no idea I would be spending so much time in here. It's truly been like an addition to the house! No more drive-through driveway, but we don't miss it. The end we don't drive on any more is a perfect dumping spot for compost and manure deliveries.


And now the backyard...

a partially-built bed in the backyard

four of the beds

the long bed with chickens

building materials - cucumber trellis, bed materials, berry trellis

the water tank for collecting rain water

The back yard. The pool will be moved to the side yard
and used for tilapia. We want a bigger pool for the kids. We have some hopes
for this part of the yard - a club house (with a zip line to the pool?), a swing, and a ?

Aren't these girls characters? I can't get enough of them! No eggs yet, but any day now.

Seeds

Just placed our seed order at Baker Creek. It was for:

Malali (an Israeli watermelon)
Beit Alpha Cucumber (an Israeli cucumber)
Asian Winged Bean
Crapaudine Beet
Rapini Broccoli
Purple of Sicily Cauliflower
Premium Late Flat Dutch Cabbage
Amarillo Carrot (a yellow carrot)
Chantenay Red Core Carrot (a dark orange carrot)
Lunar White Carrot (a white carrot)
Thompson Prolific Dent Corn
Turkish Orange Eggplant
Listada De Gandia Eggplant
Canton Bok (heat-tolerant bok choi!)
European Mesclun Mix
Sakata's Sweet Melon (little, tiny single-serving Asian melons)
Emerald Giant Pepper (keep producing through the heat)
New Zealand Spinach (this and Malabar spinach both produce in the heat; they are different species than "regular" spinach)
Lemon Squash (cute little summer squash)
Verde De Taglio (a sweet chard)
Basil - Siam Queen Thai (Thai basil, oh, yum)
Basil - Emily (stores well after picking)
Cilantro, Slo-Bolt (slo-bolt, YES!)
Shiso (spicy leaf for sushi and salads)
Sensation Mix - Cosmos (probably my favorite flower)
Tall Trailing Mix Nasturtium (fruit buds can be pickled for capers)
Titan Sunflower (BIG sunflowers)
Aunt Ruby's German Green Tomato
Djeena Lee's Golden Tomato
Brandywine Tomato (drool)
Amazon Chocolate
Southern Night Tomato
Chadwick Cherry
Isis Candy Cherry
Riesentraube Tomato

Looking forward to planting soon IYH. We've got to get those trees in also, now that the freezing weather has hopefully passed.

Loss

I went out this morning to survey the damage to our seedlings. The cover is now off since temperatures are much warmer again - 50s at night, 70s during the day. I got a much better look. Most of them went kaplooey. The lettuces and spinaches are all right, and some of the cauliflower and broccoli might make it too. So, I'm putting together another seed order, and can't believe what a beautiful seed catalog Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds has! The website is not nearly as engaging and beautiful as the catalog (though it is also quite good). So many interesting varieties of seeds. I'm looking forward to placing another order, this time with them. We really want to plant as many heirloom varieties as possible so that we can save the seeds ourselves and replant them every year. I'm sad to have lost the tender little seedlings, but I'm eagerly anticipating picking out different varieties to grow.

Frozen

Last weekend, we had freezing temperatures down to 22 degrees or so. Unfortunately, the wind blew the plastic top off the greenhouse. We lost at least a third of all our seedlings. Very sad. I need to re-order several seed packets now. We're just both glad that we aren't ma and pa depending on these crops so our family can EAT!

On Sunday, we finished loading up beds #2 and #3 in the side yard (about 20 wheelbarrow loads of compost). D. started staining (aka moisture protecting) the trellises we'll be using for the berries. That was our Sunday accomplishments last week, with D. recovering from a week+ of a bad cold/sinus infection.

Here is an analysis of our compost that we got back from the county last week (click on the picture and it should be more legible). We'll do the amending that's needed in the coming week. Really hoping to plant soon if temperatures cooperate!

Bed Frame

On Sunday, I took the kids out to a fair in the morning and to a birthday party in the afternoon, leaving D. to work on the bed frames uninterrupted. He finished a 100-square-foot frame, and got nearly finished with a slightly shorter second one. Our berries arrived on Saturday and got safely tucked into the hooped frame. Wheelbarrowfuls of dirt await my attention to fill those beds! This Sunday night the temperature will be going down to 34, so I think that we'll wait another week before putting the seedlings out and starting a bunch more.

Berries

Today, I added 22 wheelbarrow loads of compost to the 5' x 30' berry bed. It looks pretty good. We still have to test the soil to see what else it might need, but I went ahead and ordered 22 berry plants, or rather, sticks — 10 Natchez thornless blackberries, 10 bababerries, and 2 tayberries. According to what I've read, bababerries are the only raspberry that can deal with our hot summers.

We have a 30-foot long fence right behind the bed. They bababerries will get trellised along that. The blackberries and tayberries will go on four 8-foot long trellises that will come out at an angle from each of 4 posts along that same fence. A berry forest!