Napping

The plan for April 29th

replant some eggplant

plant turnips in raised bed-DONE

plant scallions in raised bed-DONE

plant Blue Hubbard squash-DONE

plant Waltham Butternut squash-DONE

plant Rouge Vif d’ƒtampes pumpkins-DONE

plant Sweet Dakota Rose watermelon-DONE

make tomato and lima bean poles- some done

We also ended up hilling up most of the potatoes. 

April 28th

So today's plan was to:

prepare two rows for tomatoes-DONE

prepare bed for sweet potatoes and plant-DONE

plant cilantro-DONE

plant parsely-DONE

plant swiss chard-DONE

replant some of the eggplant-

You can see what we did and did not do. The sweet potatoes look great. I can just picture the vines as they'll look this summer. I also did a lot of watering. And I strung up about half of the twine for the peas. 

I need to come up with my goals for tomorrow. This might be a nice way to help keep me accountable as well as remember what I planted when.

We have so much planting to do!

This is in the front yard looking away from the house. 

This is looking towards the house. That small square on the upper left corner is the same plot in the first picture. This is a strip you are looking at that is about 15 ft wide and goes around the top of the hill otherwise known as our front yard. You can't see all of it in the picture but it goes all the way around and evens up with the front of that square plot above. In the front of the long strip facing the house we are planting sweet potatoes and the rest of it will be corn. 

On the other side of this strip is the hugelkultur bed we are still building. In front of that however we have prepared a row of hill gardens and are going to be planting watermelons, pumpkins and a couple of different winter squash. They will have plenty of room to just trail down the hill between the fruit trees or over the hugelkultur bed. I have a few others beds not pictured for cucumbers and hopefully some more watermelon. 

Here is the front end of the gardens on the side of the house. The peppers are too small to be seen in front of this first row of sugar snap peas. To the right I currently have royal burgundy beans and swiss chard planted. Those are the potatoes in the back ground.

The side gardens. These are two rows of potatoes here. The row to the right is okra but it's not up yet. The next two rows aren't planted yet. I am thinking I'll do the back row in zinnias and cosmos. 

This is the back garden. You can't tell from this distance but it has 4 rows of peas in the back, then a row of eggplant, two rows of a variety of peppers, a row of haricot verts and a row of crowder peas. David just finished preparing two rows in the front for tomatoes and tomatillos..after I took this picture. 

Isn't Emmeline a little doll? She thinks she is so big.

Poultry Pics

Here's a broody hen with 18 eggs she is guarding greedily. We moved her to her own broody suite. I hope she doesn't give up on setting the eggs. It would be so much fun to have our hens start to hatch their own eggs. 

Some of our newest batch of chicks in a new chicken tractor. We are planning on selling most of them. But we'll keep a few. They are mostly Buff Orpingtons, Barred Rocks and Americaunas.

Eudora is showing us the feather stuck on her thumb. The lesson is to never eat squished up marshmellows and then gather eggs. 

The ducks. They have no leader and they need one. They are terribly sweet but skittish and can't do anything on their own. They have to do whatever the others are doing so they do very little. There is just a lot of moving in a group and snuggling as a group. If you get one separated they do their darndest to get back in a group. The chickens have a little more self confidence. Our last group of ducks didn't act this way. But one of them was their leader and they followed that duck around. These ducks just can't get their act together. 

Turkey Lurkeys. Very very dumb but hopefully very tasty.

Can I brag?

This is some of the Yugoslavian Red Butterhead Lettuce I planted last fall. I am so thrilled with it. It's just beautiful. It's on the menu tonight.

April 24th

We got the Czech Black Hot Peppers planted today in one of the raised beds. They have a nice deep purple black color in the leaves. I went ahead and planted 4 short rows of Royal Burgundy Beans next to them. The Sugar Snap Peas look wonderful and we got the screws put in on the trellises. We just need to thread the twine next. 

The two 50 ft rows of potatoes behind them look gorgeous. I love the thick fleshy potato vines. I am going to need to hill them up in the next week. I can't wait to see just how many potatoes we can get. I've never had much luck with potatoes but I have never actually hilled them up before because I kept persisting in believing the fairy tales of just covering them in straw. "If you toss it they will come." 

Emmeline had a blast outside today finding bugs while I planted. There was a lot of squeals of laughter. At one point she was looking on the ground and I asked her what she was doing.  She responded with, "I need bugs". She was carrying a large ant for a while and chasing a spider at one point. I am a little concerned that she'll pick anything up. 

Got some planting done today

It's starting to look nice out there. I have felt so lethargic this spring but am starting to really feel motivated to work in the garden.  

We got a 45 ft row of Masai Haricots Verts planted. I love green beans. I can't wait. 

 

I also have Provider Bush Beans and some Bush Romanos to eventually plant. My mom's favorite are Romanos so I got those for her as well. 

We also planted a 45 ft row of some brown crowder peas that I picked up from the feed and seed on my birthday. I don't know much more about them. Fedco Seeds is where I ordered this spring and they don't have any southern peas if I recall correctly. 

I also got two 45 ft rows of peppers planted. I have Klari Baby Cheese Sweet Pepper, Sweet Pimento Sweet Pepper, Jimmy Nardello's Sweet Pepper, Chocolate Sweet Pepper and Czech Black Hot Pepper. Yum.  

I am feeling overwhelmed about all I bought. I always do. David's the calm and rational one. He reminded me that I can just put aside what I can't grow now and do it next year.  

All the work I spent mulching our 4 rows of bush peas was for naught. The straw was full of wheat seed. Nice healthy wheat seed. It's coming up great. David just hoed out 2 rows and we had 2 other full bales that we broke up and tossed in with the chickens. They can eat the seed and fertilize the hay and then I can used it later in the garden. It's so frustrating to work hard and have something screw up though. Grr. 

We did find a guy locally that will deliver those large round bales directly to our house. What he has currently does have seed in it. But he says he's getting some without seed in this weekend.  

We lost track of time though and spent THREE hours hoeing and getting 4 rows planted though. And I had already prepared the holes for one of those rows of peppers last night. This is why I have to mulch. We just don't have the time or energy to weed that much land on our own. And I think I have a few thousand square feet of garden space this year. Actually I think we have at least 3,000 square feet if I take into account the herb garden but don't count all the fruit trees shrubs we just planted.  

The potatoes are coming up well though. And growing fast. I'll need to go hill them up soon. The bush peas in the back garden are doing ok but they didn't come up as well as the sugar snap peas in the raised beds. Oh boy I can't wait for sugar snap peas. Isaac was just telling me while I was planting the crowder peas how he wanted a garden with even more sugar snap peas. "I'll get 50 bags. Are you impressed with that?" LOL  

Eudora did such a great job helping me in the garden too. She was so cute. She carried a little bucket of the home made "Complete Organic Fertilizer" and would dump a scoop in each hole I dug. Then she carried the pepper plants in her bucket for me and had to help plant them. She did a surprisingly good job. They kids are very excited about the Chocolate Sweet Peppers and the Klari Baby Cheese Sweet Peppers. I hope they aren't disappointed when they find they taste of neither chocolate or cheese!