i seem to be nothing but platitudes

while the progress on my front yard hasn't been what i had hoped for, in my avoidance of that dastardly task i have accomplished a great many other things.

• needing to test my tiller skills, i tilled the side garden by the patio. while it was all fresh and new, i decided to plant an herb garden. sage, rosemary, thyme, dill, and some chives dug up from another part of the yard. sprinkled some red california poppies—if it all comes up it will be ah-mazing.
• today i tilled in the middle front vegetable bed and planted the entire thing: sunflowers, (tendersweet, purple haze) carrots, chinese cabbage, (cylindrica, golden) beets, italian lettuce and fennel. i hope the weather rewards me.

other wonderful news in the gardensphere

• the tomatoes and peppers have been successfully hardened off and i think i will plant them this weekend. the favas have done nearly nothing and i expect that they won't—so i think i will just till them in.
• the arugula, radishes and mizuna are making some headway. (it only got warm just this weekend.)
• the front window box is looking nice, ants killed my chinese cabbage and broccoli but the salad greens, purple cabbage and (california?) poppy seeds are all coming up lovely.
• the melons, zukes, cukes and squash are all started. zinnias too!

will i successfully grow peas this year? (pretty iffy).

very very very excited for this season. this is going to be a good one.

they're alive

yesteday i spent some time puttering with the plants. i'm not sure if it was smart or just neurotic—but i moved the seedlings around by size, which allowed me to put the lid back on one of the trays to help nurture the little guys some more.

it also provided an opportunity to take stock of what was doing well and what wasn't. to my pleasure, the tomatoes are all looking good. if i keep on top of it, this could be my first year to grow tomatoes from seed. (last year i massacred all of my little friends through neglect.)

the peppers were also looking good, and the rosa bianca eggplant. a handful of things died and did not come back, so in the restructuring i did a quick replant in hopes of more peppers and more herbs. for good measure, i planted another tray heavily with thyme, cabbage and lettuce.

so i have three trays going and in a few weeks i'll start my cucumbers, melons and zuchinni. this april has been unseasonably cold and with the rate that squash and melons grow, i think it would be tempting fate to try and plant them now. soon, soon.

a new spring

today i planted my tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and some herbs. mingus helped.

trying to plant and tend more thoughtfully, carefully—successfully. 

using a potmaker given to me by a friend. i was intimidated by it, but its easy. i think i'll sit down tonight and build another tray out so that i can start more herbs and some flowers. contemplating peas.

holy crap. it's almost that time.

seed starting time.
i'm a little excited.

of course, i have a lot of work ahead of me in my basement before i can really get set up.
baby steps. baby steps.

seedling update: success!

tonight when i peeked in on my babies, i saw dozens of little green faces staring up at me expectantly.

hooray!
of course...they need some friends. so i planted a mixed-tray of medicinal herbs, thyme, purslane, bunny tails grass, and lavender. when i peeked in this morning, another tray showed signs of life in the beets.

outside i have two beds forked over and raked, they are easy on the eyes in their fresh, springy, statement of expectation. tuesday night i planted two rows of peas, two rows of radishes, a row of parsnips, walla walla sweet onions, touchstone gold beets and purple haze carrots. its been a series of sunny, dry, cool mornings. i wouldn't mind a light rain to keep me from turning the hose on.

still a lot of work to go, but i'm feeling pretty good about my fledgling garden this year.

seeds two-thousand-ten

okay. its here. the spring seed season.
using kathy's tool at skippy's vegetable garden, i learned that i am already behind.
but in my defense:

1. i am not that far behind.
2. it was quite cold yesterday and today, so spring isn't quite as close
3. technically our 'frost-free' date is early may. and i fibbed for late april.

this is the first year that i've used heat mats and lights, and this is the first year that i haven't purchased much in the way of seed. i am also tracking my garden spending this year, so i'll have numbers at the end of it all to boot.

all of these elements are combining in such a way that i feel incredibly relaxed about the entire garden process. i took the time to know my seeds are good, tuesday night i sorted them out and last night i got the area set up and the first set of babies in the ground.

seeds-twenty-ten round one include a flat of onions, a flat of brassicas and cabbage, four kinds of eggplant, a flat of thyme, fifteen kinds of peppers, eight kinds of tomatoes and herbs. saturday i intend to turn over all the beds and set up a small patch for peas, radishes, arugula and fava beans.

...and we are on our way!

local seed sourcing

this saturday as i sat down to my locally sourced breakfast i had the pleasure to page through the seed catalog from Irish Eyes Garden Seeds, a seed company i came across during the dark days discussions.

what i love is that they are located in Ellensburg, Washington. i don't know if i've ever come across a local seed producer before. after looking through their amazing collection and reading their personal and professional ethics, i've become quite excited to support them.

so this year i will buy the little i need from Irish Eyes—with my dried beans coming from Seed Savers.

an unproductive weekend

spent the weekend wine tasting and not gardening, so unfortunately i don't have a lot to say.

my seedlings aren't nearly as big and beautiful as anything out at the farm or in the stores but i am hoping that they will pull through. i might collect milk cartons to make some impromptu cloches to aid my case once i get them outside.

last night we found a beheaded baby chicken.
my thoughts on this are:
1. i hope it was the same one that i couldn't retrieve from behind my neighbors fence (thus minimizing my loss.)
2. i hope it wasn't any of my three cats. (other cats are more difficult to control, but i don't want to have a killer in my house.)

quite frankly though, at this point, with this many chickens, i'm not too heart broken over the loss of one. mostly just frustrated that it means they need to be on lock-down.

making small steps towards the backyard of my dreams...

signs of new life, indoors

its amazing what one can fit into their basement.

for one, the basement is now home to more baby chicks.
ten miscellaneous for a john & tristan, ten barred rocks for my farm, and five bantys for fun.

chickens are becoming hot in this town.
the feed stores are scrambling to stock chicks, everyone is talking about them. i kind of laugh. i'd like to think i have something to do with it. so many people who i have talked about chickens to want them now.

it makes me happy to think of so many people eating tasty fresh eggs. i'm glad than while the economy is tanking, people are looking to become self-sufficient. its a lot healthier than them relying on canned peas, frozen pizzas and fast food.

and in other basement news, today i planted oodles of seeds downstairs. tomatoes, peppers, basil and other herbs. it helped that my friend john was also in attendance. companionship keeps me focused.

the eggplants, celeriac and cauliflower are doing well.
a little leggy but very green.

i'm eager for warm weather.
today i was going to turn my beds a little with a garden fork but it began to rain, which of course, reminded me that i need to build rain barrels. soon.

next projects need to be: build rain barrels, fortify the chickens, plant outside, get bunnies neutered and fix rabbit hutch.
doesn't seem too daunting, which is a relief.

its now officially spring!

struggling with the weather

yesterday on a whim i planted some peas.

it was sunny with blue skies. the ground was workable.
i spent as much of the day outside, bundled up but soaking up the vitamin D. watching the chickens and bunnies run around. (i've been letting moses run around, he doesn't go far, he mostly tries to fight with cholo through the fence.)

this morning i awoke to find snow.grumble.
and my roommate unplugged the heat mat under my seedlings.
for all his uniqueness this one is the biggest of my grumblings with him.

i'd like the sun to come back.
its the best thing i have going for me right now.

a return from silence

the shed, fence and bunny hutch are all complete.
what a sigh of relief.

i am resisting the urge to take a day off and put things away in the shed.
i'll have friday afternoon for that.

outside i listen to the birds, new birdsongs arriving all the time. the grass is beginning to take on a green hue, reminding me that soon the backyard will not look like trash. the chickens continue to run rampant, but i think i've at least gotten them within the yard. soon, soon i will add chicken wire and clip some wings! i cannot wait to see the chicken attempt their flight.

my seedlings downstairs are doing meekly.
first too wet, then too dry. i'm not sure if they are warm enough.
maybe i need a combo heat light and light light.

so far i've started eggplant, celeriac, broccoli, cauliflower and cipolini onions.

this weekend i'll be attacking the project once more.

on the professional chicken front, i've been moving slowly. people are running out of the breeds i'm most interested in and its sapping away my motivation. i need to get on it soon or soon i will have zilch.

things don't feel quite as busy as last year and my productivity seems higher.
pictures to follow of my accomplishments soon!

2009 garden picks

beans—soliel, maxible
beets—golden, chiggogia
broccoli—romanesco, others at random
cabbage—red acre, glory of enkhutzen
carrot—purple haze, others at random
cauliflower—puprple cape
celery—giant pascal
celeriac—mostorpolgi, brilliant
corn—stowell's evergreen
cucumber—japanese climbing
eggplant—thai green, listada de gandia
hot peppers—ancho, jalapeno
kales—blends, not yet decided
lettuce—blends
melon—haogen, prescott fond, blacktail mountain, wilson sweet
mustards—also blends
parsnips—at random
peas—at random
potato—rose finn, carola, peanut
radish—amethyst, blend
spinach—at random
summer squash—gold rush, cocozelle, pattison panache vert et blance
sweet pepper—feher ozon paprika, orange bell, bulgarian carrot
sweet potato—laceleaf, violetta
tomatoes—black from tula, black plum, federle, green zebra, juane flamme, hillbilly potato leaf, sungold
tomatillo—dr. wyche's yellow
winter squash—thelma sanders acorn, bush delicata, hercules butternut

a hint of spring

a hint of spring is in the air.
my seeds arrived today—how exciting.

yesterday i received fantastic news about the farm.
she has new land and wants to start up a chicken operation! that means i'll be getting to buy lots of chickens and can snag a couple of the more unique breeds that i've been looking for. i'm excited.

spring is starting to look so enticing.

happiness held is the seed

today i took the plunge and bought my seeds.
this year i've decided to grow everything that i can from seeds—and judging by my orders, it appears that i have decided to grow everything that i can.

today i am especially excited because i am supporting some excellent agriculture endeavors—seed savers, territorial seed company ronniger potato farm and sandhill preservation society. all organic, all off-the-beaten-path , many of the varieties i bought are heirloom and heritage—i'm helping keep biodiversity alive in my own backyard!

sandhill was my last stop and i wish they'd been my first. ridiculously cheap. and an excellent resource for affordable sweet potato slips in a wide variety.

we can get into varieties later, but this year i am aspiring to grow: sweet peppers, tomatoes, celery, celeriac, summer squash, winter squash, muskmelons, watermelons, hot peppers, cabbage, radishes, carrots, french filet beans, sweet potatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, cauliflower, broccoli, tomatillos, corn, borage and cumin. not that peas, lettuce, spinach, kale, beets and mustards weren't on the list too, but i decided i could purchase plenty of options locally.

this spring i'll have nearly as high of expectations of myself as last year, and i will admit that last year did not turn out so well. so this year it will be a real test of my renewed vigor to get this shit planted, grown and moved into the ground.

lack of inertia

i've become lazy and have decided not to till the yard. i don't have any way of getting a tiller to my house so i will just build the beds and plop them down and go from there. i might take a hoe to it, but i might not.

the coop has a roof now. tomorrow i'll add the second tarp so that its completely covered. all in all its much better fortressed, i used rocks where there were gaps at the bottom that the girls were able to get through.

i made my first attempt to reseed the back half of the yard. its supposed to be sunny all week, so perhaps something will stick.

(so long as i get the second tarp up and the chickens don't escape and gobble it up.)

learned some tricks for germinating seeds today while at the farm. you can freeze them for a night before you plant them and they will sprout quicker. i will have to try it... thus far only one basil seed had sprouted. i haven't been able to decide between heat and light, which one they need first.

found some cedar tiles to make walkways with. maybe i'll make one to the back half.
maybe i'll finish the beds this week. can you imagine??????
i could get soil over the weekend and start planting greens and peas and carrots and radishes!

trying to decide if i want to try tomatoes from seed or not.
at this point i am running around seed-drunk. buying and planting and growing just because they are available or sound interesting. i'm over-eager.

the chicken situation hasn't improved much. still grasping at straws for amerucanas. chasing my tail. tomorrow may bring new hope.

it's bed time.
tomorrow...look for chickens, finish cleaning the backyard, water the grass. laundry.

check out my beans—!

the garden is coming together.
i feel like i've got the monkey off my back and can slow down a little.
all i have left is two tomatoes and the front bed, which i actually got some work done on last night. the mystery flowers in the front have turned out to be campanula and look lovely.

the beans were my biggest worry.
it will be the first year i've grown beans and i am very caught up in it.
first i thought i'd be too late, now i'm worried the dirt is too hard.

this time around i don't have someone telling me to just let it be. let it grow. let it do its thing. so i have to remind myself that plants want to grow and that hopefully my beans will want to grow for me.
the flower seeds aren't letting me down, so that is encouraging.

the flowers in the trees are all gone: dogwood, lilac, crabapple; the poppies beginning to fade, the peonies at their peak. the irises are going strong, mostly purple with a few yellow ones. things appear to be in a holding pattern, i haven't noticed any outrageous growth from the tomatoes and i am doing my best not to water them too much.

i ended up planting four different kinds of summer squash, eggplant, three kinds of melons, two kinds of winter squash, celery, cauliflower, three kinds of beans, four cherry tomatoes, four slicing tomatoes and one paste tomato. chives, sage, rosemary, parsley, fennel, verbena, and dill.

i want to start a bucket of chard on the porch but have been unable to locate chard seeds.the salad is ready to harvest, the carrots haven't come through very well for me.

to do:
1. front flower bed: azaleas out, perrenials in
2. chicken coop (see below)

oh the vegetable i will grow

some of the veggies and varieties that i will be growing this year.

beans: this is the first year i will grow beans, and i intend to grow pole beans so that i can trellis them. i am going to grow: blue lake pole, scarlet runner beans, and violet queen. i've been unable to find any yellow or wax pole beans, pole bean seeds have been really difficult to find in this small town, i bought most of mine in portland at The Portland Nursery.

i'm going to grow them with nastirtums below them, sunflowers behind them, and dill to their left. these are all considered companion plants. (This site is a good, and wordy, resource for companion planting.)

cucumbers: lemon. lemon cucumbers. none others, these are my favorites. i am trellising them also, and i may grow the yellow straight-neck squash (early prolific straight-neck) that i am growing with it, as it is also a vine. i am hoping to plant camomile around it, sunflowers behind it and dill next to it.

sunflowers with nastirtums growing up them? or sweet peas? sounds interesting... fennel will go up in the front yard, with japanese anenome and phlox. the front gets full sun, so there's lots of options.

squash: early prolific straight-neck yellow squash, a vining variety, grown with the cukes. baby round zuchini, a bush variety, will be grown next to a bush delicata (yum!) most nastirtums, more dill, marigolds. bi-colored golden sage, oregano, thyme and cilantro will all be nearby. a vining butternut squash called Waltham as well.

the tomatoes are one of the best parts. its been so hard for me to decide which varieties to grow, because i just become enamoured with the colors and flavors and all the choices.

so far i know that this year there will be: green zebras—which are consistently my staple. i love them and they make amazing salsa; old germans—a yellow and red meaty tomato that looks really interesting; and cherry tomatoes: sun gold (orange), black cherry (deep purpley black), gardener's delight (super tasty red) and green grape (green, striped, spicy). the small ones i will be growing in half wine barrels on my porch, two plants per barrel and i think the color combinations will turn out very fun. i also want to grow at least one other tomato variety, either early girl or late keeper (unless something else tickles my fancy) and a paste tomato as well, mainly for drying. this summer i may be able to dry them outside, with the hot summers we have. that will be lovely and very cheap.

they will be grown with basil and parsley in their bed.
i'll have more tomatoes than i will know what to do with.

i don't like egplant but i'd like to grow one called rosa bianca.

there will also be celery, kohlrabi (vienna purple & white), lots of salad greens. (black seeded simpson, oak leaf, red sails, mesclun blends, mustards, arugula, mizuna, red-leafed varieties. i wish i had luck with mache, thus far—none.) purple haze carrots (my favorite), radishes (early scarlet globe, icicle, watermelon).

speaking of melons, there has been a request that i grow some, even though i don't eat them. and i will admit that the climate here is perfect for it. so i think i will do it. after looking at them, i think i would like to grown: golden midget, orangeglo, and tigger. however, i am not sure if i'll be able to find seeds for any of them.

if you can't tell, color plays a big part in what i grow.
i want my food to be colorful, i like salads that look like rainbows.

......my anticipation continues to grow. my hands itch to dig into the ground, lovingly look after my jungle of edibles.

first day of spring

the seeds i planted week before last are coming up.
so far: poppies, radishes, lupines, spinach, chard, lettuce
tomorrow i need to get more sweet peas in the ground and the fence up.

i am so glad that i got the beds worked over when i did.
i've had just enough energy to enjoy the unfolding of greenery. looks like the lilies, peonies, bleeding hearts, roses, delphiniums, daffodils, hyacinth and tulips are all coming up strong. the violets growing in the grass make the entire front yard smell delicious. the liliacs are beginnging to green up and i can't wait to open my window and smell that wonderful smell.

the turtle (morla) is finally outdoors, safely in her pen.
only a few adjustments left, mostly for her own safety.

next wednesday my chickens will be arriving.
what should i name them?
getting chickens is a little ridiculous given my situation.
i should count on staying her all summer, otherwise, everything is screwy.
for right now, i don't care. maybe i'll buy this place after all.
(wouldn't that be lovely? c'mon finance fairy, come and see me...)

tomorrow is friday and fridays are fantastic.
off early with two more days to play.