Coming up!

Wow, my early seed planting has paid off.  I am now watching seeds (sown earlier this spring) come up just like they're supposed to - right when they're ready!  They've waited for the perfect time and temperatures for themselves, and here they are:

Bush peas
Bush beans
Blue Jade Corn
Zinnias
Cosmos
Nasturtiums (trailing and climbing - they're Richard's favorite, therefore I planted a ton)
Sunflowers
Hollyhocks
ALL 5 (!!) kinds of potatoes here (2 varieties at my mom's)
Chives
Sweet Peas
Miner's Lettuce
Chard (ready to harvest)
Spinach (almost ready to harvest)
Beets
Snap Dragons
5 kinds of onions

I moved these out of the cold frame last weekend - before the rains:

Velvet Queen Sunflowers
Winningstadt Cabbage (18 of them!)
Bachelors Buttons
Calendula
Black Beauty Zucchini (only one, hail and snow are common this month and are not easy on broadleaved plants)


Somehow, planting early (seeds) makes me have an easier spring as well as a more neurotic one.  I am constantly wondering where the seedlings are, did the seeds rot, what's taking them so long...*sigh* it is hard work fretting over plants.  So I've stopped a bit, but it's still very exciting to see them come up!

We have new beds in the back of our lot, on the ground - not raised - and they are composed of some very crummy soil.  So, we've underseeded it in crimson clover (nitrogen-depositing legume and great for creating root paths because they have a vast, deep root system) and have spread soil with a very low pH over it to help stabilize the acidity since it's sky high.  When planting seeds, we dig a hole, plant the seed, and cover it with this better soil then mulch with grass clippings.  We'll see how they act through the season, but it seems to be helping.  The soil we are adding is from underneath a conifer (pine, spruce, cedar, redwood etc) and it is a simple, free (labor excluded obviously), organic way to help lower the pH in your soil.  Results should show within two weeks on existing plants.

Processing Rhubarb! Lots of it.

 We have a lot of rhubarb.  Think 8 or 9 plants.  They make for a busy spring figuring out what to do with them...and this year I can actually process most of it! 

So far I've made (in two canning sessions):
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Filling (10 pints)
Rhubarb Compote (8 half-pints)
Sliced, frozen rhubarb.

I am a fan of rhubarb for a couple reasons, but mostly it's that it is fresh and edible in early May!  Here, in Montana.  I've eaten strawberry rhubarb cheesecake before, but have never really considered what can be done with it before this season.  This year I'm going to can all that I can! 

Rhubarb Compote

Chopped oranges and lemon (I wish my camera would do close-ups well), I love the colors and the citrus smells;  They go so well with rhubarb.

Cows, Milking-Sub, Rhubarb and Seasonally Neglected House

The cows are officially in next to the barn for us to work them!  I'm excited.  Well, maybe not excited about hopping around the pen halter-breaking calves (and teaching Carrara - who's 2 1/2 - to lead, not just tie), but excited just the same.  I'll be gentling a molly-faced black heifer too, she's Opal's best pal and the farmer & co. want her to be the replacement for her aged mama is the mellow cow of the herd (mama was a bottle baby, but is now an old cow).  She was born the same month as Opal, so they've been the two little heifers of the herd and have consistently stuck with each other from pasture to pasture.  They eat, sleep and play together.  Pretty sweet.  Even sweeter is that the farmer who owns her and the land (and the herd) was concerned that they would be separated.  I am not milking her too.  Just for the record.  She's apparently just going to be a best pal of Opal's for the foreseeable future.

Today the kids and I fed the girls, then went in and haltered & tied Ruby, then brushed her spring-shedding-hair off.  She is almost completely slick and shiny now.  My favorite way for a cow to be! 

I went shopping for a couple rope halters for the little girls to wear/drag/get worked in, but only found tricky-looking ones that have all kinds of buckles and chains...not the dragging, comfy-ish type.  So I bought 10 ft of nylon rope and will be making my own.  Or just attempting to.  Maybe just letting the kids "rope" each other with a severly mangled and melted, 10 ft section of rope.  I'll keep you posted, but will hopefully be putting up a "how-to" for making them soon!

Both Ruby and Carrara were artificially inseminated (AI'd) a week or so ago, so we'll find out around the 27th if they took or not.  Hoping, hoping, hoping that they did and they the calves don't come out until next year.  I've watched "The Princess and The Frog" too many times, I just had a flash of the little blonde one asking the Evening Star: "please, PLEASE, PLEEEEAAAASE?!!!!!" and felt that it was a perfect example of how much I want calves next year.

In the meantime, I've been milking my friend Letha's Jersey a couple times a week so that she gets a break and we get fresh milk.  It makes me so happy to milk, and I love that it's a cow that's got a few seasons of milking under her um....udder?  I don't know if it's because I've only milked Ruby - who was new to it entirely - or because she's a very nice girl for me, but it is so so much mellower milking Nova.  So much.  She's a nice girl.  I think that I'll try milking Ruby just tied up and hobbled (I just tie Nova up, she hasn't made me want hobbles yet - thank the Lord!) after she eats her grain; that she may like that more than the stanchion.  Lots of time to think about that.

We got our wheat and clover planted early yesterday morning, and can hardly wait to see how it works out.  I'm fairly certain that the children, the short dogs (we have a Bassett/Bordercollie with short legs and a Chihuahua/Terrier/ghetto dog), and the cats will have a ball running through it this summer.  There may be little tunnels everywhere, and I'll love it.  How fun!  We're hoping that the wheat produced on the previously-a-dog-pen section will help feed my mom's chickens, and that it and the clover will improve the soil.  The wheat that's grown up front (between the sidewalk and the street) will be consumed by us.  Clover is a nitrogen-depositing plant that has lovely, deep roots to help aerate the soil for whatever grows after it.  We have some pretty heavy soil in a couple places so I'm hoping it really works!

My house is clean but covered in randomly-placed shoes and jackets and seed-packets.  I guess that'd be clean but not neat.  I don't know, it's driving me crazy whatever it is, but it's much more important to plant right now than anything.  Plus, it's not like the stuff is going anywhere - it'll be waiting for me when I have a moment!  I've been painting a bit too, priming trim and wainscoting, painting the wainscoting finally, and am thrilled with the results!  I didn't realize how much the rental-looking paint jobs in our house bothered me until now, so I'm resisting the urge to go on a rampage and do the whole house at once.  There's cleaning to do, and planting.  I just paint for a half hour a day or so and it's coming along well, and I'm not going crazy because I want it all done now.  This is new thinking, and I like it most of the time.

I've started harvesting rhubarb, then just slicing it up and freezing it for now.  I need to can it as conserve and pie filling, but haven't had a chance this week.  I have all the stuff though, so soon!!  It is wonderful to be harvesting from the garden again, even if it is rhubarb.

A Gardener's Seed of Faith

My tomatoes have come up en masse!  This warm sunshine has brought both the seeds planted on the 12th and the 20th up. 

Nature knows what it's doing.  It is willing to wait...often unlike myself. Sometimes it takes weeks for a plant to emerge, maybe more than a month.  Still, that tender stem will emerge and those soft first leaves will unfurl, slowly pushing the weight of the soil off to reach for the sun.  

Gardening from seed - I've learned - takes a faithful, trusting heart.  It is much easier to skip the hard part, let someone else be potentially disappointed by a dud seed or marauding ants carrying your seed away.  Each year I garden I become more patient.  The winters are so long here that, come spring, we are famished for fresh anything.  We wait and wait for the first edible fruit of our labor to mature enough to be savored. 

To be directly nourished by my labor is about the sweetest return I can imagine; whether it's milk, eggs, meat, or produce.  It makes me immensely thankful for a strong body and a willingness to try, to learn.

I can tell you that some people have no desire to grow things, and I get that...I just love to eat and cook so it's a natural fit for me!  Our place is the land of seedlings at the moment.  We have seven kinds of potatoes in: French Fingerling, Amisk Ranger, Alpine Russet, Dark Red Norland, Yukon Gold, German Butterball and All Blue.  I am oddly thrilled about taste-testing them this fall, but of course, until I'd tasted anything but the .37/lb store potatoes I wouldn't have known to be excited.  We have bush peas (Sugar Daddy and Amish Snap) in & up all over, carrots (Dragon and Scarlet Nantes), five plantings of all kinds of onions, two different kinds of chard, Chiogga beets (finally coming up a month later!), a few kinds of lettuce, some flowers here an there (tons of sweet peas, hollyhocks and sunflowers are going in this year), and the cold frame has masses of vegetables and herbs sprouting by the day (today our Cheyanne Pumpkin and Jade Blue Corn came up along with more tomatoes).  When we get back from our 5 day trip, I'll be planting many more seeds outside because we should be close enough to frost-free that by the time the seeds germinate it'll be past our last spring frost.  This is a gardeners hope anyways. 

May nature treat your seedlings well this spring...I have read so many reports of farmers having trouble in the "corn belt" and they're saying that it will cause food prices to rise if they are in any way attached to corn products (meat, cereal, soda, etc...pretty much 90% of the store is my guess - woohoo).  Not a bad time to test your faith in a seed.

Happy Seedlings & Root-Dragging Tomatoes

I'm getting a bit worried about the tomato seeds I put in on the 12th.  They're not UP yet!  There have been no floods or droughts in the cold frame, yet there they are, snuggled down in the $24/bag organic, gorgeous, super-nutrient-rich soil.  I - of course - want them up already.  Happy little green exploratory first leaves should be showing...info on them says 7-14 days and they're pushing it!  Today is day 17.  I'm wondering if they aren't coming at all.  It isn't just one kind though, it's two, so I'm pretty sure they just haven't hit the sweet spot in temperature yet.  Meanwhile, I'm putting in more this weekend just in case. *grumble*

The broccoli, cabbage and eggplant are all up though.  More each day, so I'm not completely neurotic about the appearance of seedlings.  Tomatoes rate so much higher on the taste scale though.

Outside under the bed hoops though, we have all kinds of lettuces up as well as the peas, five-color silverbeet and spinach.  In the Onion Region the seeds I saved last year from our onions have sprouted!!  Open-pollinated and haphazardly saved, but there they are just the same.  The Walla Walla starts (6" tall) I planted must have some roots out because they've perked up and are starting to grow, and they now have a large neighborhood of red onion sets next to them.  We will have plenty of onions this year.

Since the hoops are over everything but the rhubarb outside, the cold snow and wind we're getting right now aren't phasing the little plants that are under them.  This is a wonderful thing.  Had we known what cheap plastic and salvaged pipe could do, we would have started earlier last year.  Speaking of plastic, we're going to put an inner layer on the greenhouse this weekend in an effort to not use the space heater in there at night (and hopefully get those dang tomatoes going!).  Oh!!  And on Wednesday I made Richard very proud.  Our neighbor was tearing down his hoop house to move it out to his new home, so I asked him how much it cost him to build:  he said about $1,000 including all kinds of things we wouldn't be buying.  Then he mentioned he was building a bigger one at his new place, so I asked if he would be interested in selling the pipe from this one.  He not only said "yes" but also said we could "just have it!"  Sweet deal.  Even if it only lasts a year or two, it gives us an expanded growing area with a deferred cost. 

As far as the Harvest Potluck goes, Richard has gotten both beef and lamb commitments from some of his customers, and one of them has said he will BBQ also (the lamb man).  Just as soon as Rick finishes building his BBQ haha.

P.S.  The large, floppy paws of a snuffling, drift-y basset hound are not real helpful in the beds.  Seedlings can take the snuffling, but not the big 'ol footprint.  Good thing he's so cute and comical.  Not sure what we're going to do about it though...

Function Comes First

In response to people who are under the impression that they have to have "the perfect setup" in order to grow plants, I'd like to share some tips we've learned from our "setup" so far.  Keep in mind that we are not big-time market gardeners, so we do not need sparkly new things, we need functioning, any-age things!

Please don't get hung up in the details, the most important things for plants are soil, water, sun, and occasionally protection (hello, giant hail/wind storm).  Also, try to remember that plants have been around a long time, you are much newer to watching them grow than they are to growing...it'll be OK - so long as you read the tag or label that comes with them and follow it.  Just because you don't have a huge space of your own doesn't mean that you can't have a garden either.  People who truly want to do something can always find a way - sometimes it just takes a while to figure out the path.

Next month, we'll be hosting a planting box workshop of sorts.  We will provide resources for adults and small children to grow a tiny bit of food on their step at home.  They'll assemble their own boxes (we'll help of course) and - hopefully - will learn that gardening is mostly a matter of doing, not of science.

Try not to get caught up in buying the snazziest this or that unless you're food-gardening mostly for fun.  If you're doing it to save money and eat well, investing a chunk of change up front isn't in your best interest.


Learn how to ask people to sell or give obviously un-used items, such as:

a stack of boards nearly hidden by grass "out back" that would be awesome for raised beds
a roll of wire that you could use to trellis plants
a wheelbarrow in need of a bolt or two, or maybe a wheel (replacement parts are cheap usually)
shovels without handles
framed windows (hello protection for your plants - free!)
random piles of dirt from projects dug years ago (to fill a raised bed or planting box)
horses/chickens/cows with a shed of some sort - there's good fertilizer in there and it's probably broken down already (especially if they have chickens)! 

Most of these items can be found at homes/properties that have been owned by the same person for a long, long time.  This stuff collects and they are usually thrilled to have someone use it.  "Waste not, want not" and all.  This also applies to shared fences (train some peas or beans there and you get what's on your side, they get whats on theirs, then you clean up!), open space on the corner down the street, extra space in your neighbors backyard...offer to share the bounty and the water bill, and I'd bet on them letting you use their space to produce food.  Most people, given the option, will not pass up fresh anything...unless it's squash season and they have already been hit by desperately overloaded gardener-friends.  Lock your doors.  Anyways, the point is, don't be afraid to ask!  For the most part, as long as you respect people's privacy and property, you can find a place suitable for at least a bit of a garden.  And if you use your head, you can get started for a very small price!

P.S.  And as I've learned from Rick, keep your eyes open at the dump!  If you're lucky enough to have a FreeCycle in your area, ask for supplies on there!  It's a wonderful resource!

Bed Hoops & Seeds In

Yesterday was the first in a long time that Richard got to stay home and work outside with me (nap time is our "outside/work date").  We got some important things done!  A year or so ago, he snagged a huge roll of Pex tubing (think a cross between drip line and PVC, bendy but pretty hard) and yesterday he drug it out for the hoop supports.  This is one instance that I can honestly say I'm thrilled he's a stuff hound.  It's not a common emotion for me, I may have to mark this down somewhere.  Usually I'm trying to sneak things off to the dump!  Anyways, the front bed is half-hooped/covered with plastic and the others will be shortly (one has all it's hoops and no plastic yet).  Happy seeds/starts.

There are seedlings all over the section on the left, but my cell phone is only so skilled at detail-catching.  Note on the white labels you see here:  they are mini-blinds, cut to desired length.  Recycled due to naughty, blind-destroying children :)

We're pushing the season this year a bit, trying to get things growing earlier in an effort to feed ourselves well, earlier!  We have the following in the ground:

Chiogga Beets
Five-Color Silverbeet (chard, but the pretty kind)
Swiss Chard (green stems)
Lettuce Mix
Simpson Lettuce
Spinach
Yellow Onion Seeds
Walla Walla Onion "starts" aka 6" tall sets
Amish Snap Peas
Sweet Peas

In the cold frame we have:

Siberian Tomatoes
Stupice Tomatoes
Cheyenne Pumpkins
Velvet Queen Sunflowers
Basil
Thyme
Rosemary
Spearmint
Snap Dragons
Eggplant
Cabbage
Broccoli
Calendula
Dill

I am planting in a different way this year in an effort to stem harvest insanity this fall.  The aim is for steady not sudden.  These are things you ponder when you're up at midnight harvesting or canning - "how can I make this less crazy next year?!" 

Next up, we're tracking down a rototiller and getting the "compost" area turned well and also tilling a 12'x60' +/- along one side of the lot, then the strip up front between the sidewalk and the street which is 4' x 120' +/-.  The big, long sections will be planted in sweet clover to prepare for next years production (it's very first).  I am REALLY excited about expanding our planting area by so much, next year is going to be amazing!