Nibblers!

Note to self... Fence asparagus.

 

Cold frame lettuce

The first trip to the greenhouse provided some useful context. Their lettuce starts (in flats) were about the same size as mine, maybe a little smaller. BUT, the lettuce in their cold frames, planted last fall and over wintered were fully harvestable, and their spinach, planted last September and over wintered was 10 inches tall!

The cold frame arugula is also interesting... The direct seeded row was started 5 days after the transplanted row and is twice as big. It gets a little more light, it has probably been kept a little wetter since I used those cardboard planting pots and left the plants in them, and there are differences in soil.

 

 

Asparagus...

The first tiny shoot. Hooray!

 

Infrastructure

So as not to have hose running all over the yard all season, we have been planning to bury a hose from the house spicot to the garden FOR YEARS...

Today we rented the T-4 Ground Hog from Best Line and cautiously started it up. Brilliant!

 

The hose runs through 1 1/2" PVC the whole length of the trench. At the garden sink it will be connected to a 4-way splitter to feed the garden, a hand watering hose and drip lines. 

 

 

 

 

Raspberries!

Leaves are budding, April 17th.

 

Beets, parsnips, greens

After fencing all the peas and the fava beans to protect them from varmints (actually, Edie (the dog) already dug up and ate some of the pre-soaked peas, but never mind,) I moved on to bed preparation and some planting.

I got three 7 ft rows of beets planted, three 4 ft rows of parsnips, and transplanted some of the pathetic collard, chard, and kale seedlings that have been doing nothing in flats in the cold frame.

Then I gave the carrot transplants a try. They had grown a couple true leaves, but apparently had put more energy into their roots. Transplanting was definitely a challenge. I decided to go ahead with the experiment despite my doubts. Here's what they looked like pulled apart from each other in the flat. 

 In the cold frame I was able to transplant some strong looking seedlings from densely planted rows into new rows.

Update: On April 22nd I left the cold frame cover on until mid-afternoon and completely COOKED the contents. So... we will not find out the result of the carrot seedling experiment.

Sorrel, garlic, and rhubarb are responding to the spring weather, but the rest if the garden is still just dirt. 

Parsnips?

Look what I missed last fall!

 

I love growing garlic.

 

Shrub

Finally doin' it! We got a bottle of Tait Farm Shrub in our house a couple weeks ago and after reading the ingredients list (fruit, sugar, and vinegar) we were thinking, well, gosh, we have that! We are also nearly through our bottle from Tait so it was time to try.

First step: mix fruit and sugar, roughly equal amounts. (I am using our frozen fruits from last summer, can't be as good as fresh, but we are practically pickling it in the end anyway...)

Next step: put in the fridge for two days.

Final step: strain (I pressed the blueberry through a sieve and ran the raspberry and peach through a foley mill) and add apple cider vinegar, equal amount as the berries or the sugar. (Note, if you add 1 c fruit to 1 c sugar, and then 1 c vinegar, you do not get 3 c. Something closer to 2 c shrub, or 1 pint jar. My quantities were a little less.)

Mix 2 T with a glass of seltzer!

Ours turned out a little too vinegarry for my tastes. The raspberry is the best of the bunch. Although dark purple, the blueberry doesn't taste enough like blueberry - it probably should have gone through the foley mill  too.

For more about shrubs see:

http://mobile.drinks.seriouseats.com/2012/08/cocktail-101-complex-shurb-syrups-how-to-add-herbs-to-shrubs.html

http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/programs/ark_product_detail/shrub/

Peas

Yesterday I planted the peas. About 5 feet of shelling peas and 15 feet of sugar snaps. Though it seems late (because of our insanely warm temperatures this week) a scan through my previous years' pea posts says it's not. Mid-April seems to be a fine time for peas to come up, if they are protected from rabbits!

We are at growing degree day 30. In 2011 I noted that the peas emerged around growing degree day 38, but that they had sat in the ground awhile waiting until then. This time they were pre-soaked. Given the forecast this week and the later planting date, I have a better feeling about emergence.

Gotta get the rabbit fence up ASAP.

Seedlings

The cold frame continues to under impress. Everything lives, nothing thrives.

The arugula is just starting to sprout true leaves. Those started on March 10th indoors, and March 15th outdoors seem to be neck and neck. The lettuce started indoors and transplanted is growing well, but they really should be further along by now.

Spinach, lettuce, and chard from a March 29th planting emerged today.

The green onions in the small cold frame, transplanted at about 2 inches high, seem to have accepted the abuse. The lettuce transplants on the other hand, disappeared like their predecessors... Slugs?

Peas are soaking right now and are going out tomorrow.

Last week was winter, flurries still in the air. This week we have forecast highs in the 70's. When are we supposed to grow peas?

 

Progress!

Two beautiful days (finally), and so much to show for it...

An inherited compost tumbler brings our system into better rotation. This was particularly necessary after noticing the resident groundhog chowing down on our bok choy stems out of the open bin. Now we have one tumbler filled with the uncomposted top of the bin, the other holding our active kitchen scraps, the bin emptied onto garden beds (see below) and then refilled with raked up winter yard waste.

The compost went onto the asparagus, rhubarb, sorrel, horseradish, sage, and new tomato beds. That's awesome! Unfortunately, that was all of it so I don't know what I'm putting on the rest of the beds...

We also took down a walnut tree, maybe 30 feet tall. Fortunately it was right next to our shed which served as scaffolding for the enterprise. Getting rid of that tree was a major advancement for the homestead. I had planted Jerusalem artichoke under it because it was the only thing I thought could do well there. But as the tree got bigger and bigger it was getting dangerously close to impacting the vegetable garden. Not cool. It took most of the day, but it's history!

 

Tulips

April 1.