Diary 4/30

Tagged plants for plant sale this weekend.  Transplanted summer squash, some more tomatoes, and some of the flower plants I bought in Eugene.  This lady sells starts from her yard on her driveway.  Everything I have bought from her has done great, so hard to miss a trip for some more perennials when in the area!.  Sun came out, and I escaped the greenhouse.  The wind is fierce in between cells of light rain, so taking a break until things calm down. Then off to transplant some more of the flower plants and lettuce among the tomatoes. Much progress!  Morels are coming up.  We have only found 6 in the yard, but my son just brought me a bag of them that he picked whee there had been controlled burns last summer. That is definitely the ticket to successful morel picking, sterile with no competition. 

Potato Planting Photos

Three layers:original soil, mulch/compost, pine needles

Russet seed potatoes in their nests

Roll the soil over to cover

Here are the pictures I promised from yesterday.  You can see the nest of pine needles we put over the mulch/compost mix that we put in the 12 inch deep trench we built. 

Diary 4/29/12

Worked on the first of three potato beds.  Actually finished and planted said bed with Yukon Golds on the shadier end and Russets on the sunny end.  I took lots of pictures, but evidently left the camera out in the greenhouse(I hope) because it isn't here and night fall has come.  Anyway, I will explain more when I have the pictures to accompany.  Weeded. transplanted and foliar fed the babies that go off to be sold in one week and my own starts as well. Ready to get horizontal...

Diary4/28/12

Looking out across the garden and the surrounding forest, it is hard to believe it is almost May.  I am just back from Eugene where everything is in bloom and the yards are colorful and lush.  Here, some leaves are finally showing and the tulips are just now blooming.  The apple trees have their first flowers and the perennials are several inches out of the ground.  In the greenhouse, the peas are blooming and the lettuce is finally making sets of leaves.  It has taken long enough that some of the cabbages are bolting as they are already 60 days old and yet only now getting bigger leaves.  So, onward and upward.  I will start melons, winter squash ,and pumpkins tomorrow as well as transplanting another round of tomatoes and cucumbers.  This afternoon I am attending a FEAST event about food security in the Upper Rogue.  Not really sure what will be accomplished, but I volunteered to be there, so I guess I will be, despite the keen desire to just stay home and play in the dirt!

Diary 4/24/12

This is the sky just before the lightning storm that took out our power for 22 hours.

With the hot days, the asparagus went crazy, canning and pickling some soon...

Potato area gets first tilling, compost and oak leaf mulch coming soon.

Garden Girl is heading out tomorrow for awhile, just in the nick of time for my gardening chores line-up. She is getting better at entertaining herself at the greenhouses as long as it involves water and eventually mud.  Then it is off to the house for dry clothes and start all over again. Lots of progress yesterday in that we were finally able to till some areas.  They are not totally ready, but in a pinch, some of them will do.  Better than nothing, anyway. Planting some tomatoes everyday, but have lots more transplanting to do, so looking forward to cooler weekend and relief from the sudden heat of the last few days.

Diary 4/21/12

Why is it I wait all winter for the cauliflowers I planted last fall to be ready, and then they are all ready at the same time?  Ah well, happy to have some, but cannot eat that much cauliflower in a week!   Very warm day at 80 degrees after hardly any sun let alone warmth.  I think you could have watched the grass grow today.  The plums leafed out and the cherry trees bloomed.  I hope we don't get a hard freeze and have nice fruit for this summer and fall.  It is getting late in the year for a really hard freeze, but I hate to expect or predict anything when it comes to the weather here. The yellow squares around the tomato plants are sticky tape.  It prevents a rodent or anyone else from just walking up and eating the plant. It also catches some random insects especially leaf miners flies.

Diary 4/19/12

Planted 3 summer squash, 8 cucumbers, and 19 SuperTasty tomato plants.  Warm weather ahead, Yeah!  This guy REALLY likes Grama Berry's asparagus soup!

Diary 4/17/12

Had a great transplanting session with some of the Wildflower folks yesterday.  We got most of the tomatoes for the show into their planters and tagged with their names.  Now, they will have almost three weeks to grow before the plant sale. Today I had two two year old helpers in the greenhouse.  It gives "dounle digging" a new meaning. Needless to say, I cannot blog very much longer as their are smoothies to make and more entertainment before a bath yet to go tonight.

Diary 4/14/12

We have had our day and a half of sun. Now the clouds are moving in.  It has been nice, and we have accomplished quite a bit.  Attacked more blackberry bushes before they get going and take over more ground.  In addition they are a terrible fire danger with all the dead growth they store underneath each bush.  I made more soil mix so I am ready for the Wildflower group to come transplant tomorrow morning.  I have also stuck the first tomatoes in the ground; 4 Early Girls and 4 Fourth of July's.  They are both heavy duty climbers and early.  Next I will begin planting our slicers, SuperTasty, in the beds I have ready. 

Diary 4/13/12

I WANT SUN!!!!

Diary 4/12/12

Another one of those days with hail, sun, hail.  It was hard to decide whether to keep a jacket on or off.  Worked on the top greenhouse with Allen, weeding, harvesting, and getting ready to till things in pretty soon to have two nice beds for planting.  I am going to need them in a couple weeks, so have to finish up eating a ton of spinach and some cauliflowers which are just starting to make their heads.  The purple sprouting broccoli continues, but with some warmer days, it , too will be done.  Lots of asparagus coming up, but not quite of size.  No blooms on any of the peas, but I expect some soon.  The pool plum( above tree by where we used to have a pool) and a couple of the other wild plums are blooming, but the rest are still holding out for warmer weather.  Hope they do and we don't have a freeze so we have some good fruit this year.

Diary 4/11/12

It was either pouring or sunny all day with some mountain top rumbling thunder this afternoon.  Made two batches of soil for a transplanting session coming up in a few days and a little transplanting of tomato babies in the meantime.  If you grow your own onion starts, or even if you buy some from the garden shop, it is a great thing to trim them back to encourage root growth.  This also makes them more manageable when transplanting; the spindly tops won't be so apt to fall over.  The increased roots of course make better transplants and tougher plants to go out and face life without their buddies right next to them.

Diary 4/9/12

Today for cloudy but mild.  It felt so nice.  I had a chance to work in the greenhouse this afternoon and I really could feel the difference; warm soil, green growth, and in general SPRING!  There is some real progress in there.  Outside the greenhouses, it is still too wet to work up any beds yet, but I am starting to look at which ones I might be able to turn by hand and maybe put part of a fence up to protect from deer. This coming weekend looks like it may have some warmer days, but still cloudy.  In the meantime, it is going to rain and so, more wetness.

HAPPY EASTER!

Diary 4/6/12

Nice day.  Did a little transplanting.  I started squash and some more cucumbers and worked on an area for the next cabbage and broccoli.  It is going to be nice again tomorrow, so hope to get some more transplanting done.  Want to dig up some perennial starts for the upcoming wildflower show.  We sell plants to make money or the fire department.  This year they are hoping to purchase some new hydraulic cutters because dashboards are being made out of tougher materials.  That is the goal, and we will make whatever money we can towards that goal with door donations, plants, a boutique, decorated totes and aprons and 10% of any sales the other booths there make.  Lots of free info there also from Forest Service, BLM, Upper Rogue Watershed and others of that type of institutions.  All this plus a show of usually 200 different wildflowers with their botanical names and organized by families.  This year the show is May 5th and 6th, so hope we have some warmer weather soon so there are more flowers!

Diary 4/3/12

Scented geranium is happy!

Just as suspected, the weather prediction has changed.  Now instead of three days of sun we might get one with  high of 54.  Looks like some cold front must have won out over whatever was maybe gonna happen.  I knew not to get my hopes up too much.  The next couple nights are going to be cold ones, so not going to transplant tomatoes into bigger planters until we get on the other side of this coldness.

Diary 4/3/12

Looks like kale soup for dinner tonight.  In this case, I have a little leftover Italian sausage to use, but you can start with linguisa, sausage, or a vegetable or miso base.  I like to fry the potatoes a little before I add the stock just because it give them a flavorful coating.  Then add your stock and a whole bunch of kale, like a cup and a half coarsely chopped or more if you have it and you like it.  Easy dinner, and it uses up quite a bit of kale which is one of the greens that flourish this time of year. YUM!

Diary 4/2/12

notice the deer trimmed the leaves!!!

It was a very pleasant day and I would like three more of them, please.  (I don't think that is the weather prediction).  I made soil mix, moved tomato trays about, planted some onions, and fortified a greenhouse door where some deer entered and ate some cabbages. I bought a whole roll of insect barrier just to cover everything I plant up so the deer won't get it.  It is not attractive and looks like I am growing table cloths. I think I will ceremonially tap in a couple fence posts tomorrow, Arrgh!

Diary 4/1/12

Cool, rainy day.  I stayed inside except for tending the chickens.  Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and then right back to rain.  Phew, I hate to complain, but we received 11 inches of rain here last month and I am wondering when I can get out to the garden beds, the raspberries that need pruning, and working on the deer/cow fence?  Help is on the way for the second week of May and then a couple other possible WWOOFers for summer.  Hope we get that break soon.  I planted cucumbers today and the second round on tomatoes into trays, so I will just keep on keeping on for now...