Garden Getting Away

The garden is getting away from me.  I've been able to hold my own against the weeds and the bugs better than ever this year since I've been home more, but even still, I nearly lost the whole potato crop (just twelve plants), to these voracious leaf devouring bugs.  I spent some time kneeling in the dirt picking these cute little orange and black larvae from the nearly defoliated plants, and dropping them into a bowl of soapy water.  

They didn't even try to hide or run away!  The next day I checked and found a few stragglers, but after that they haven't returned.  I looked them up, and these are the larvae of the infamous Colorado potato beetle, called Leptinotarsa decemlineata.  Whoever named these guys decemlineata must have had their crop decimated too!   The plants started making new leaves right away.  Whew, close call!   

The little cabbage plants in the greenhouse were being munched on by the green caterpillars of little white butterflies called cabbage white (Pieris rapae).  Sigh.  Despite the heat, I searched each leaf and squished the poor caterpillars. Then I fashioned some hoops from cut branches, and draped some garden cloth over the hoops and anchored it with bricks.  I meant to do this chore much earlier, before the butterflies arrived, but apparently I needed eminent cabbage death to encourage me.  After a few days I could tell which plants still had caterpillars because the new leaves in the center of the plant were chewed.  I've been patrolling, and I think the cloth is working!  

That green tangle of plants in the greenhouse next to the covered row of cabbages is the overgrown spring greens.  In the center of that mess is a row of onions.  

The lettuce plants were still pretty, but turned bitter once they bolted.  I usually just let them go and clean up the beds in the fall or winter once it's not so hot under the plastic dome.  Not this year!  I chopped, yanked, and pulled until I removed every plant, and then collected the onions.  

I spread the small onion bulbs on some mesh chairs so they can dry, and draped some burlap over them to block the direct sun.  I like to cut the leaves, peel the outer layer from the onion bulb, and grill them.  Bite sized and tasty! Once they all dry I'll cut off the leaves and store some for planting next spring.  

Now the greenhouse is so tidy!  I prepped the bed in the center by hoeing out all the plant stubble, and mixing in buckets of compost.  It made for a nice seed bed, so I planted two rows of rutabagas, and a row of two types of kale.  I've always thought that it would be possible for the greenhouse garden to produce lots more food if only I would cycle in new crops and keep things growing in every season. 

The greenhouse dome helps protect the cabbage row cover from the wind and heavy rain, which is good so it doesn't disintegrate, but it gets so hot in there that I'm struggling to keep the newly planted seeds moist even with twice daily watering.  I'm afraid I will forget one time and the little seedlings will be toast.  

After taking this photo I got motivated to pull weeds from the squash plants and their purple onion neighbors.  The squash vines look amazing!  I'm hopeful the the vine borer bugs won't show up until after I get some zucchini and spaghetti squash.  

All of the mustard greens and some of the mixed lettuce plants in the summer garden are bolting too.  If I get ambitious, I'll remove all these plants too, and start a new crop of something.  Maybe.  It's getting hot out there! 

Solstice Rainbow in the Garden

Yesterday, on the longest day of the year, Brandon and I worked in the garden late into the muggy evening hours.   Dark storm clouds on the horizon gave us some warning that heavy rain was on the way.  It didn't last long, and the sun burned away the moisture quickly, making a bright rainbow across the sky.  

I ran for my phone so I could take it's picture, and walked all the way from the front yard to the garden admiring it on my way.  Can you see that clump of vegetation near the back door in the photo above?  That's the herb spiral!  It's out of control with giant sunflowers, zinnias, and wild milkweed.  There are plenty of herbs mixed in there too.  When I walk outside from the backdoor I am greeted by a wonderful sweet smell.  It's the milkweed flowers.  

The milkweed flower clusters are as big as soft balls, and make a wonderful scent.  It's a good thing I can smell them from feet away because they have so many insects crawling on the blooms that leaning in for sniff is risking a bug up the nose.  

On the other side of the door is a wild elderberry shrub with giant platter sized flower heads.  It smells nice too, even though the blooms are so heavy they have pulled the entire plant to the ground.  

 

The rainbow is starting to fade as I make my way behind the greenhouse. There's Brandon, busily weed whacking in the garden and completely oblivious to the rainbow above. 

Brandon!  Look up, there's a rainbow!  

The greenhouse, which was an oasis of warmth during the late winter and early spring, is not a very comfortable place to linger now that the summer heat has arrived and there's no more lettuce to harvest.  I routinely look in through the open sides to make sure the plants aren't dehydrating, but it had been more than several days since I ventured inside to face the heat.  Weeds have colonized the pathways, but the sunflowers, kale, brussel sprouts, volunteer tomatoes, and the nasturtium flowers must be loving the heat, because they are growing fast.    

The brussel sprouts in the greenhouse got sprayed with thuricide/Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which is helping keep the caterpillars from doing too much damage.  The brussel sprouts I moved to the garden outside look terrible.  Two of them turned yellow and died, and the remaining plants are less than half the size of those in the greenhouse.  

The sunflowers are blooming!  Most of them are so tall the flowers are smooshed against the plastic on the roof. 

Some of the nasturtiums have orange flowers and some are red.  I ate one of each and they both taste super peppery.  Like eating hot wasabi!  Whew! 

Out in the garden, Brandon cut down all the weeds around the tomato plants, which have a ring of hay mulch, because it's time to add the tomato cages and stakes.  I pulled weeds by hand from around the dying brussel sprouts, and tiny lettuce plants.  I have a healthy patch of kale, some marigolds, zinnias, sunflowers, some green beans, and sprawling tangle of cucumber plants.  Despite the rabbits, I can still find the sweet potato vines, too. 

A cucumber!  I've had such terrible luck growing any kind of vine plant that I really never expected to harvest a cucumber.  The seeds for these plants come from our good neighbor.  He always gets a glut of cucumbers and shares.  He told me to save some seeds, so I let some dry out on a paper plate.  So easy.  These must be hardy plants because they got no special treatment and they are making fruit! 

Look at that.  I could make some pickles!

What the Heck?!

I yelled, "What the heck!?!"

Brandon heard me through the plastic of the greenhouse, where I had just entered with the hose, and asked me what was wrong.  My entire bed of chard had vanished!  Gone! There wasn't a single stalk, or leaf to be seen.  Brandon asked if it was slugs, but I've never seen a slug attack that was so clean.  What could it be?  

As soon as I started spraying water on the row of peas, I had my answer.  Baby bunnies came tumbling out of the pea vines, and raced around the greenhouse.  Aha!  Brandon and I tried to chase them through the door, but all that accomplished was to let in a chicken and Wendigo, who thought chasing chickens and bunnies in the greenhouse was great fun.  Stop stepping on everything!  By the time I evicted the dog and the chicken, I was so frustrated I just put on some gloves and grabbed the bunnies up.  They didn't try to bite either.  

I caught two bunnies by hand, and found two dead bunnies under the peas.  I think momma bunny must have come in the greenhouse through a small hole in the plastic and the babies followed.  She figured out how to leave, but the babies couldn't find their way.  It's too hot and dry in the greenhouse to survive for long.  Poor babies.  I released the two I caught so they can live to eat the garden again.  

Our recent bat catching adventures allowed me to meet this big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus).  After catching those tiny small-footed bats, this guy seemed gigantic. 

After he was measured and weighed, I open my hand and he quickly flew away.  This bat had several scars, including a notch from his ear.  Big brown bats can live almost twenty years, especially a big male like this one.  His scars and fierce attitude make me think he's been in a few tight spots during his life.  

I'm happy to report that Little Buck is feeling better.  He plays with the baby goat, and fights for his share of the food.  He is still thin, but I think he looks stronger and not so skeletal.  It's a good thing he is feeling better, because he had a job to do.  Peaches was crying and acting like a maniac for several days, so I think there's a good chance we will get another baby goat in September.  Oh boy.  I stopped milking since my work is keeping me on the move and the summer looks to be a busy one.  If she's already pregnant, then I won't have to worry that I'm not going to get a chance for goat milk later.  

I'm keeping the fly masks on the donkeys, even though I miss seeing their pretty eyes.  We don't have lots of flies, but we have enough that if I leave the mask off, the donkeys will get little bloody bite marks on their faces.  Especially Hattie, who has lost the hair around her eyes where her tears keep her fur wet.  I rub vaseline on her bald spots under the mask, like the vet said to do, but I can't tell that it's helping yet.  She's getting used to it now and she doesn't run from me.  She's a sweetie, and likes to have her face hugged and her chin scratched.  

The chickens and I re-worked the stones on the herb spiral. I stood them on their ends so they make more of a terrace to hold deeper soil.  I've been reading Lord of the Rings, and I think it has influenced my stone work.  I see the tower of Orthanc at the top of my spiral.  

The gas company came to claim the large white propane tank that was in the back yard.  I'm glad it's gone.  I dug up the wild sunflowers and new England aster that grew near the tank, and moved them to a new bed.  The chickens follow me around like a pack of hungry wolves and snarf up the earth worms that get exposed as I dig.  They get so excited for worms that they dive in to my excavations head first and I'm afraid they are going to be decapitated by my shovel.  It's sometimes irritating, but I forgive them.  I can only imagine how excited I would be if ready-to-eat stadium brats popped up every time the soil was turned!  

I ordered fifty asparagus plants that will go in the bed that the chickens use for their dust baths.  I haven't given them the bad news yet - but bath time is almost over! 

Mud Season

 

It rained, and it rained, and then it rained some more.  The roads flooded, the earth turned to mud, and poor Wendigo got her hair wet. 

 

I've heard farmers talk about mud season before, but it wasn't until we moved to this clay soil that I really understood the challenges.  As bad as it is when it's so cold the ground freezes, at least during the freeze the mud doesn't suck you down.  Just look at the ground outside our front door!  Even the stones Brandon planted for a walkway are covered in water and mud.  

This weekend, Brandon was so tired of having to change out of his muck boots once he reached his truck, just so his work shoes weren't coated in mud, that he made a trip to town for a load of concrete paving stones.  He really wanted to pave a path with natural stone that we find here at the farm, but the progress was slow, and our feet are getting dirty now.  

In a short time, he had plopped about forty of these pavers into the mud on our pathway, creating stepping stones so we can get to the car or gravel driveway without coating our shoes in mud.  There's something else that's different about our place in the photo too.  Can you see what it is?  

I moved the old dairy sink that we've had by the hydrant.  It was our only sink for years while we worked on the house renovations.  I moved it near the greenhouse, since so much of my work is centered in that area these days.  With the sink gone, and the new paving stones in place, our yard will look even better, especially once the mud dries up and the green grass reclaims it.  

During all that mud making rain, I continued to work in the greenhouse.  In addition to the baby greens that are coming up in the spokes of my wheel, I planted a row of peas, swiss chard, and brussel sprouts with basil.  The greenhouse has a drip line on each side, where the plastic pieces come together.  I've noticed that the soil stays moist most of the time where the rainwater or condensation falls in this line.  I planted the peas in one of the drip lines and the brussel sprouts and basil in the other.  I've never grown brussel sprouts before, and I'm not sure they will do well in the greenhouse, but I'm excited to try them.  

I Planted a Garden

It's February - and I planted a garden!  This is the month for starting seeds, right?  With last year's seed starting experiments in mind, I spent some time messing around in the greenhouse during the rainy weather we've been having.  It's nice under that dome of plastic on a drizzly and cloudy day.  

If you remember, I spread all the old hay and straw that the goats had slept on last year over the ground inside the greenhouse.  The goats dedicated much of their time to generously fertilize this this material, so I was careful not to waste all their hard work.  I soaked the bedding a few times in the late winter, just to make sure there was moisture enough for the microbes to do their job of breaking all those organic particles into something recyclable by plants.  We used the greenhouse for chicken plucking too, so the ground is decorated with white chicken feathers.  

There's about three inches of beautiful and dark crumbly stuff, which was fun to rake into a pattern to create a garden of greens. 

I settled on a floral wheel pattern for this first garden attempt.  I walked in a big circle, and reached toward the center with my fork, and pulled furrows in the hay to plant my seeds in.  I'm determined to give myself and my plants more room this year.  I want more room between the plants, and more room for me to navigate.  I want to be able to raise some greens and be able to see each plant so I can better manage the bugs that come with organic gardening.  If I have spend time on my knees squishing bugs, then I want to give myself more room to work.  I think I'll aim for less produce in more space, so I can allow myself the time and room to take better care of them.  It's a theory, anyway. 

I planted something different in each spoke of my wheel - beets, spinach, lettuce, radish, swill chard, and kale.  I didn't take any notes about which spoke has which plant, so I'll have to rely on my plant identification skills. 

Look!  Is this a baby lettuce?!  It's only been a few days, but I think maybe I already have my first garden plant! 

It will be a few months before the outside garden is ready to plant, but to get prepared, I've put the chickens to work clearing out the old garden.  I sprinkle their food inside the garden fence, and leave the gate open.  They scratch and dig looking for their breakfast, so I'm hoping they will clear the ground and prepare a nice seed bed for me before planting time.  

Chicks on Stage

I was thinking about you yesterday.  I was standing in the greenhouse, with my hands in my coat pockets, staring at the baby chicks, like I do, as I pondered two things.  First, what could I take a picture of that would be interesting to the blog, and also, what am I going to do about these meat babies.  

The meat babies are crowded in the brooder now.  Their bodies are big, and their feathers are finally covering their skin.  If they were normal chicks, I would just open the brooder and let them roam the greenhouse at will, because I know they would put themselves back to bed in the brooder at night, and I could shut the lid and they would be safe from predators.  But, these chicks don't seem very mobile, so I'm not sure they would find their way in or out of the brooder.  Maybe they need a ramp...

So, what do I see that might be interesting to someone else, or to Future Rain?  How about the crazy looking interior of the greenhouse!  It doesn't seem that odd to me, but if I look at it through your eyes, I could see how it might be nice to get a little explanation.  The burlap hanging from the roof, for instance.  Why?  Theatrical ambiance?  

Before the days became so cold, the sun would shine down on the baby chicks in the brooder and they would seek shade.  I clipped the burlap in place to shade the baby chicks from the bright hot yellow sun.  It appears that the curtains are always rising.  

These chicks eat a lot.  Which means they poop a lot too.  I collect old hay and straw from the barn in the plastic tub, and add several hand-fulls each day to keep the floor of the brooder dry.  There is about six inches of straw and poo in the bottom of the brooder now.  The chicks are bigger too, so they were hitting their heads on the heat lamp.  Several times I came out to find the bulb knocked loose and the chicks huddled up in the cold.  Since they don't have to be so warm now that they have feathers, I moved the heat lamp so that it rests on the lid of the brooder.  

 MJ, are you squished?  

I fill the black bucket sitting on the ground with water from the hose every other day or so, which allows me to dip fresh water for the meat babies.  This morning, after I refilled the black bucket, I sprayed all the old goat bedding that I spread in the greenhouse with water.  I soaked it good, and mice came running from the piles and darted under the old tomato plants.  I want all that organic matter to start breaking down, so that when I plant in the spring, the soil is nutritious.  If I can figure out how to let those meat babies out into the greenhouse, they can add extra nutrition.  I may have to go out there and ponder that ramp some more...