Category: gardens

Though it was still slightly below freezing this morning, the day is warming and tonight staying above freezing, so very tentatively, the greenhouse was opened. All of the spinach and Komatsuma look great! It never got quite as cold as they predicted, staying above 25 f. The next 10 days of forecast only drop the temperature barely below freezing one night. With rain due on Thursday, the peas, sugar snap peas, and potatoes were planted today. The lettuce starts will go in the greenhouse and it will get watered again.

The potatoes that I had left from last year’s crop looked like Medusa on the shelf in the basement. This is what is left after filling the bed with some small sprouting Russets, some variety of gold (Vivaldi, I think), and these Kennebecks.

Now we wait. Nothing else but the lettuce starts and maybe some radishes can be sown until early May. There is still some clean up to do, moving trellis fence posts out of the paths where they were dumped when the beds were cleaned up a couple of weeks ago. Removing the parts of the last cedar box that was in the corner around and under the compost pile. The pile needs to be turned and the coop cleaned and added to the pile. It is beginning. The bee hive parts are on a wooden pallet. If a couple more can be located, the compost can be in a bin, not just a pile. Hopefully, soon there will be asparagus.

The bee set up is planned for Easter weekend. Son 1 is coming to assist Son 2 in the project and I will do what I can to assist and learn. The charger post will be purchased soon and if I can’t find the ground rod that was here, one will be purchased as well. An inventory of insulators made to be sure there are enough to do the job. It is exciting that we will have hives on the farm.

With both men here and daughter living nearby, we can have a dinner with the whole gang.

A 24 foot box truck backed down our 2/10 mile curvy gravel driveway and unloaded a 394 lb pallet into our garage.

The pallet contains the 2 bee hives, assembled and hive bodies and supers, frames, and accessory boards all in assorted cardboard boxes. The bases are coming separately according to Son 2. The bees will follow in a few weeks. There will be a lot of cardboard that can be used to create a ground layer under the hives that can be heavily mulched so mowing won’t have to happen under them. The position of the hives will be behind or below a cistern system we have for rainwater runoff that runs to a yard hydrant and that area is heavy with vetch all spring and summer long that the bees will love. There is an area near the proposed placement that isn’t mowed because of large rocks, but excess bearded Iris have been dumped there a few times, so in addition to wildflowers, wild berries, there are Iris flowers very close by. In front of the cistern system not too far away is the walled garden full of perennials, annuals, and herbs. The back and side of the garage have beds that are full of flowers, the vegetable garden with it’s blooms nearby, and 30 acres of wild flowers between hay mowings. Lots of pollen producers for the bees.

For now, it is still wrapped on the wooden pallet it arrived on.

This morning was sunny and mild, so the potted herbs went outside for a few hours. Then it clouded and chilled off, so back in for the next 5 nights that vary from 21 f to 33 f. The little ground greenhouse stayed closed today, but will be opened during the sunny days and closed at night. Tomorrow is cold with rain and possible snow showers off and on all day, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday are slightly milder during the daylight hours, but bitter at night. The last frost date is still a few weeks off, but temperatures in the 20’s should be about to end. This comes just as the peach, plum, and one of the pears have bloomed, so there may be little or no fruit from them. The apples and other pear haven’t bloomed yet. The lilacs are heavily budded, but not open and the Forsythia will probably tolerate it, if not, we have had several days of pretty yellow to enjoy.

Spring takes 3 steps forward and 1 or 2 backward this time of year, but it is moving toward garden season.

The hummingbird report puts first sightings at the Virginia/North Carolina line, less than 80 miles from here, so the feeder was filled and placed outdoors to invite the tiny hummers to visit. A second feeder was purchased and filled when we went to buy chicken feed earlier today. Todays spinning challenge word was action, thus the spindle sitting with the feeder. The feeders are at opposite ends of the front porch.

The tomato seedlings were ready for pots, so they were pulled from the hydroponic starter and put in paper pots with seed starter soil mix, but not yet put outdoors, though it is very mild today, we will have several days of very chilly weather and 3 freezing nights. Once they have passed, the seedlings will move out to filtered light during the day and back inside at night until either it is time to put them in the ground or they outgrow the starter pots and have to be moved up to larger clay pots until they can go in the ground. The lettuce starts are getting leggy, but they can’t go in the ground until after the freezing nights. The spinach and Komatsuma were transplanted into the ground greenhouse then rained on yesterday. Some more spinach starts were purchased at the local nursery today and added to the green house and overwintered spinach picked for tonight’s stir fry. The greenhouse will be closed up tonight and left that way each night until it warms back up next week. The pepper seedlings are beginning to get secondary leaves, but aren’t ready to move up to pots yet.

The tomatoes in the pots perked back up by this afternoon, not suffering too much transplant shock.

As soon as the peppers are transplanted, that unit will be scrubbed out, refilled with filtered water and restarted with salad greens. The herb hydroponic was totally out of control, so Genovese sweet basil, Thai basil, chives, and rosemary were pulled and potted, set just inside the dining room doors or kitchen window sill until warm enough to move them to the back deck.

That hydroponic was scrubbed out, refilled with filtered water, given a starter dose of fertilizer and reseeded with 3 sweet basil and 3 Thai basil pods to be transplanted into the vegetable garden when the tomatoes are planted out around Mother’s Day. After that, it will sit idle until autumn when the pods will be replanted with herbs for winter cooking.

Though the original plan only had four tomato plants this year because of the glut still in the freezer, a couple of commercially grown starts or a couple more from seed may be started to added variety, but I am committed to control this year by pruning and training even at the cost of some fruit.

This afternoon, with measuring tape, graph paper, and pencil in hand, the garden was measured and drawn out to scale instead of guesswork and the plan penciled in to a photocopy of it after the margins were inked. The original blank was stored in the binder so it will be available for future years.

While at the nursery, a purchase of more starter pots was made so the cucumbers, huckleberries, a couple more tomatoes, and maybe the first run of beans started soon so they can be planted out at the correct time for our zone. The peas and sugar snap peas can be planted in the ground next week. It is exciting to see it coming together for another year.

And the exciting news for the day is the bee hives are being delivered tomorrow afternoon and the bees will follow in a few weeks. Son 2 and I will have to erect the electric fence around them once they are unpacked and set in place. First a 4×4′ post needs to be purchased to mount the solar charger on.

Spring officially arrived in our little corner of the planet on the coldest windiest day we have had for weeks. The Forsythia is showing yellow, the Lilac buds are swelling, the little plum has a few blooms though we have yet to get fruit from it. I fear the apple and pear trees will bloom this week which has warm days and mild nights just in time for the weekend deep freeze. The wind finally died down overnight after howling and producing uncomfortable wind chills all day yesterday.

Some years we get lucky and get fruit, some years, the trees bloom and get hit by frost and there is little or no fruit to enjoy fresh and to can. Our elevation is almost exactly that of town, yet with all of the pavement, buildings, and parking lots a university town has, it is always a few degrees warmer there and the trees and flowers show spring sooner than in the hollow in which our little farm sits. However, this hollow is often a few degrees warmer than the farm at the bottom of the mountain. Maybe we will get lucky and it won’t freeze or the forecast will improve as the week progresses.

The plan had been to transplant the greens into the little ground greenhouse this week, but with below freezing temperatures expected for at least 3 consecutive nights, it might not be a wise plan. Perhaps the spinach and Komatsuma would be okay getting moved out, but not the lettuces. The herbs in the Aerogarden are overwhelming the counter in spite of frequent pruning and heavy herb use. They too need to be moved to the gardens. Last year the hydroponics sat idle during the summer and replanted in early fall before the frost came. This year, the larger one will grow salad greens that don’t do well in hot weather, rather than taking up space in the garden for frequent resowing to stay ahead of the heat and bitterness. The garden plan hasn’t been redone since the greenhouse was added, but some plans have changed and some produce will go in large pots or half barrels instead of in the ground to allow the planting of more 3 sister’s garden and potatoes which were fairly successful last year but not in this year’s plan. There does need to be a better storage system for them however. The basement stays cooler than the rest of the house as we don’t run the HVAC system down there most of the time, but the area where the shelves are build also houses the chest freezer, air handler, water heater, and pressure tank, so it stays a bit warmer than ideal for storing potatoes or apples and as it is less well ventilated, the potatoes and apples don’t do well in there together.

The Swallows are back so the hummingbirds aren’t far behind. The Swallows are checking out the nesting boxes in the gardens and always get them before the Eastern Bluebirds. There is one that hasn’t been mounted on a pole yet, so once the Swallows settle, it will be mounted for the Bluebirds. Soon it will be time to make the syrup for the hummingbird feeder and maybe add a second one this year.

And spring will bring two beehives to the farm. Son 2 has had them shipped, ordered the bees and will come up to set up the hives and be the basic maintainers of them. He will have to show me some basics and together we will erect electric fence around them to thwart curious bears. We don’t see them often, but we do see them occasionally and last year, one got my bird feeders at night and destroyed them. It is time to move back to bringing them in at night as the weather warms and the animals start to wander more.

We are still weeks away from the last frost date, but getting closer to getting back to gardening. The last of the paths were cleared over the weekend and some of the beds that had already been done, hoed to clear the recurrent weeds. There is still a Creeping Charlie issue around the edges of the garden and beginning to move into the path that surrounds the boxes. It is an annual fight that I guess will continue into this summer.

Another beautiful day kept me busy outdoors and away from the anxiety producing news. Saturday’s are Farmer’s Market day and breakfast out. The market was a zoo. Some protein and storage veggies, plus a loaf of rye bread with cherries, walnuts, and raisins for breakfast toast to go with an egg. Egg delivery, a small grocery run, and Tractor Supply for chicken scratch and dog kibble all made and home by 1 p.m.

Once everything was put away, a ladder was pulled out and the carpenter bee traps were hung. It is early, but with a few days of warm weather, some will emerge. We need at least 3 or 4 more. And tomato cages are needed to stake up the raspberries and blackberries that are in the half barrels. Tractor Supply had neither, so we will venture out again soon to one of the big box hardware stores to see if the can be obtained there.

The hydroponic and a starter pellet flat were seeded yesterday with tomatoes and peppers in the hydroponic garden, and spinach, Komatsuma, and two lettuces in the flat. The lettuces from the hydroponic garden were trimmed back for a salad and they were planted in the new mini greenhouse. Once the new seed sprouts and get enough size, they will join the spinach, Komatsuma, and lettuces in the greenhouse. We do have a couple of bitter cold nights next weekend, but by then the transplants from the hydroponic unit should have settled in and with the greenhouse closed, should be fine.

All of the beds and most of the paths in the garden have been weeded. There are still some stakes from last year’s failed tomato trellis to be pulled, but all of the string is removed. The cornstalks and pepper bushes need to be chopped up in the compost and that entire pile turned.

Tomorrow is another nice day and because the top of the chicken run collapsed in one of the heavy snows last winter, I am going to reconfigure the pen and try to put another top up for the period when the hawks are actively trying to feed their chicks and free ranging the hens becomes hazardous to their health and they need to be closed in except when I am out in the yard or garden with them.

A notice that the hydroponic pods will be received tomorrow, sent me on a flurry of activity yesterday and this morning. The Komatsu was pulled from the hydroponic unit and planted in the garden beside the overwintered spinach and covered last night with a plastic bin. This morning the lettuces were removed and potted with hopes of moving it also to the garden after tonight’s temperature drop into the 20s. The unit was scrubbed out thoroughly, refilled with fresh filtered water and fed. Once the pods arrive tomorrow, they will be seeded with two types of tomatoes and two types of hot peppers to get them started.

The local nursery opened yesterday and a stop made to pick up seed starting pellets for the starter trays for other veggies and seed starting medium for the transplant pots as the tomatoes and peppers outgrow the hydroponic unit and before they can go in the garden.

While we were out for our walk today, the wind picked up strongly as the front started moving through, dropping the temperature and clouding the sky. The plastic crate that was my mini greenhouse wasn’t large enough and a stop was made to pick up a larger one or a sheet of plastic to put over the hoops, hoping to get more spinach, Komatsu, and some lettuce and radish seed started in the garden. My search led me to this 3 X 6′ mini greenhouse.

Putting the frame together was easy, it took both of us to get the cover on it in the wind. It was tied to the frame and rocks placed along the inside edge of the cover that folds to the interior. It is still very light and I feared the wind would carry the entire unit away and damage it. To solve that problem, 6 nails were hammered in to the garden box and para cord strung over in three places, hoping to tie it down. If I leave it in this box for the spring to allow greens to grow, the garden plan will have to be altered, but that is okay too. There are two boxes that it will mostly fill, but as some of the greens are already there, it is a good place to leave it. The other box will have peas in it and they will be gone by the time to start the fall greens. I think the greenhouse cover can be removed and the frame covered with row cover to allow cole crops to be grown without cabbage worm damage. With the cover in place, the season can be extended both fall and spring to get more use from our garden.

I’m ready, knowing it is too early to get too deep in the garden yet, winter isn’t over, spring is still teasing us. It will be cold tonight, cooler than today, tomorrow, then warming up for a few days. Next week we will have cooler weather again. The local weather blogger recently posted that March is the only month in the 100 years that weather has been tracked that we have had both a 90 f day and a foot of snow. March is fickle.

A beautiful spring like day, sunny and in the 60’s. We loaded a very heavy destroyed recliner in the back of the old CRV. The back would not come off like most do, so it was a struggle to load, but we did and drove to the convenience center. I feel like Arlo, who knew the dump was closed on President’s Day. The chair is still in the back of the car and we will have to unload it tomorrow in the rain. Maybe the attendant will take pity on us and help.

We took a nice long walk along the river and returned home. I have had erosion fence laying over the east garage bed that is full of day lilies and Dutch Iris, protecting it from the chicken scratching. The bed on the south side of the garage has Bearded Iris, day lilies, lavendar, echinachea, and where I plant much of the calendula was left bare and the chickens have dug in it, kicking out mulch, and digging holes. I took time to stand the erosion fence up and add to it to enclose both of the beds, weeding as I went. The day lilies and bearded iris are beginning to show new growth and the deer and chickens now need to be kept out.

Of course since I was out there, the hens thought I must be bringing them treats and were quite confused that they were now blocked from them.

Because it was still gorgeous out, the garden clean up was also begun. The north edge of the garden had a weed that didn’t seem to be bothered by the frigid period we had and was beginning to spread. My photo memory from today a number of years ago had me weeding the asparagus bed which is at that end of the garden.

A couple hours later, it is cleared and the last box end finally attached. Some of the soil will be shoveled into the bed then newpaper and wood chips or spoiled hay will be placed there. The asparagus bed is cleared and a couple of the beds also done.

The next 4 days are rainy, so no more will be done there for a while. After the rain ends, the cold returns. But it is started and seed has been ordered.