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Thursday, February 23, 2023

Winter Watering Protocol

 Some buckets have been placed out to fill with water.  The goal is to capture water, obviously, but the hazard is that they will freeze and crack.  While buckets having drainage can be a good thing (insects and water are less likely to become trapped inside), it can also be a bad thing (no longer able to hold water when wanted).  These buckets are somewhat "disposable" in that they're pretty easy to replace (definitely easier than watering cans).  By easy, technically I mean free...











Once you get water, it can go into the greenhouse for use, either transfer (clean) water to the watering can, or use the container with the holes drilled into it to scoop out water containing clogging debris...









In this bed I have planted all kinds of seeds of early vegetables I'd like to either transplant out in time or eat from here between now and ???  I've planted at least twice, but so far precious nothing has come up.  It might seriously be too cold...



...as the same plantings have had a lot better success on the left/east side of the bed.

The peas which were too little to plant out in January were actually lucky, as the ones outside are taking a cold beating now.  They get to come out on sunny days to "harden off" outside at the back of the greenhouse, in preparation of being planted outdoors at some point... 

(False) Spring Planting Protocol

 In February (ok, January), our thoughts on planting seeds resume.  To be fair, Permaculture has no beginning (or end) so we never really stopped, but it's also realistic to recognize that last October/November, when our thoughts turned to grape juice canning and the warm weather turned its back on us, we tend to turn our back on the garden just as loyal-less-ly...

Luckily, minus the volatile wild fluctuations brought on by rapid global climate change, warmer weather is returning to us, and we to the garden.  At this time of year, we think of cool weather crops, early starts, and the long growing season (fall-harvest) plants which need lots of days to mature (and pretty much in that order, too)!  In accordance with that schedule, first we would plant snow peas, then we would  think about tomatoes and peppers, and finally brussels sprouts, beets, broccoli, late carrots, onions, cabbage...

The first step in prep is to get a flat of 4" pots.  These live in the shed.  They need to be labeled, which means you need to look at your seed stash and see what you want to plant.  Then you need to warm up the white grease pencil (which lives at the back of the greenhouse).  Each pot gets labeled with the year, month and day, the name of the plant, and whether it is determinate (grows to a specific height) or indeterminate (needs trellised).  If it is snow peas, and I'm growing them specifically for trellis planting, I won't bother including this on the label.  You want the information you need and no more, bc writing on the pots is somewhat tedious (and also needs to be cleaned off after transplanting).  Every second you can save in one place is a second you can spend elsewhere.

Once the pots are prepared, they need filled with soil.  The soil is harvested from around the compost bins; behind it being the nicest, most plentiful, and most difficult to access.  To the right (west) of it is the easiest to access and usually pretty good quality for a limited time.  In front of it is the most compacted, but the soil height does need to be brought down intermittently.  Pick a spot...  The "hay fork" is recommended, as its tines are the closest together.  This allows you to skim off the top layer of soil with the loss of or damage to as few worms as possible.  The chickens will come to help you out!   











Take the ash bucket sifter and find the stick we use to hold it up when placed on the wheelbarrow:

This is a pretty highly appreciated 1x2 stick, which hopes to live on the right side of the right-hand compost bin (by right, I mean when you are facing it, which is technically west).  Using the small ash bucket screen is a new (this year) approach which I like a lot.  In order to do this using the wheelbarrow, a second coveted 1x2x~3' stick could be useful.  I'm sure there's one laying around, I just haven't slown down to look yet.

One scoop is about all this sifter wants to handle. 


As you screen the soil through, the garbage will remain behind and goes into the garbage bucket which should be right there.  Rocks also should have a bucket for redepositing into the driveway (cruddy chunks of concrete or other debris not suitable for driveway use should be considered garbage).  Compost "fines" which are the coarse remains, get recomposted.    




Wednesday, August 3, 2022

2022-08-03

This was my "hour" in the garden yesterday...  I did not take pics of the squash beetle experiment, but I did squirt them with soapy neem water and a cursory look this morning shows no bugs crawling around.  Whether eggs will hatch remains TBD...

   We're starting to get cucumbers!  They get too big quickly; ideal would be to do a daily lap and catch them when they are young and tender!

A mole/gopher mound in an aisle...

...obscured by tall clover

clover could be sickled and tops used to mulch/seed a bare aisle area

A bulbing fennel!  We are open to indulging these somewhat

non-bulbing fennel.  Not popular.

While trimming, training, trellising, weeding, mulching, I am surprised to discover beans are starting!  

 


Saturday, April 2, 2022

04-02-2022

 The fruit trees are in full bloom,

This is the Asian pear!

the seedlings in the greenhouse are growing,

(mostly peppers & tomatoes)

the bees are super happy, (right now it is the maple nectar flow?)

...grapevines are thinking about coming to life, 

The transplants in the garden are doing well,  (these are tomatillos)

(Bok Choi)

so are the weeds and volunteers (endive)!

It's almost time to get chicks!  The big birds have taken to coming upstairs to our front door and getting into our compost bucket.  Buttheads!  They like to leave us one or two nice, fat poops right on the stairs, right where we have to walk.  


Sunday, January 30, 2022

01-30-2022

 Left for 3 strange days.  During our absence, the pest problem evidence mounted.  This time, in the greenhouse.  Before we left, I was pretty pleased that I was able to carve out the time to plant a flat of snow pea seeds amidst plenty of chaos..  

Maestro mislabeled Alderman

 Before coming inside or having dinner, I took the first 30 minutes to take care of responsibilities immediately upon our return while Andreas unloaded the car.  Chicken coops cleaned, eggs collected and washed, greenhouse plants watered.  

 What I discovered in the greenhouse was a disappointment.  "Someone" (a mouse or rat) had slipped in through the door, which we had purposefully left cracked open for ventilation.  

  
Maestro Devastation
What you are seeing in the above picture are all the seed hulls left after someone digs the seeds out and eats them! 

This is spinach, with holes from the digging...

Even though these seeds are small and have less food value, they are still apparently worth the effort?

These were the Sugar Pod II

Sigh.  The flats of peas have  been molested, seeds picked out, munched and scattered.

Replanting...

        



The flats are now replanted and resituated.  Since I couldn't cover them, i at least put them higher up.  they will be more difficult for the little rodents to access.  We have also beefed up the arsenal of poison and traps.  let's see what happens...

Sunday, January 23, 2022

01-23-2022

 Today I had hoped to do mint and oregano bed cleanup in the chicken yard and turn the compost pile.  Instead, I had to prioritize the snap/snow/shelling pea misteak.  

Planted a flat of Sugar Pod II and installed it in the greenhouse.  Grow!  Noticed the greenhouse needed water.  We had opened the door a tiny bit because it does get quite warm in there on sunny days, but when I went out at about 2pm the mustard greens were a little hot and thirsty.  The water was cold (coming from outside under the chicken house drip) and they did perk up.  Mental note to self; watch for a second waterer.  One can be filling while the other sits in the greenhouse.  Plants like their water at a neutral temperature, and the chickens like to drink out of the watering can.  

Next, I planted the far half of row 2A at the center with more Sugar Pod II seeds.  I think the slugs will eat them as fast as they come up.  Look for little nubs to come up, a central stalk with no leaves.  Slugs are responsible for this.  They live at the base on the underside of weeds; I notice that as I snip weeds off at the base, I often find slugs.  Lately, I have been feeding them to the chickens and they act like they've never seen food before.  Such hungry, neglected little helpers!

While out there, I noticed that Row 1 really could use some water!  Last year, we had good luck leaving some 5-gallon buckets in the aisle to catch water as it drips off the roof in the morning (or rains).  In each bucket we kept some other containers with holes in them to use as watering cans.  Today I did *not* manage to water Row 1 :-( and tomorrow we are gone all day, but as soon as I can scrape together a couple minutes I will recommission this system.

Had a neat potential idea for a better watering/automation setup in the greenhouse; looking into that... 



Saturday, January 22, 2022

01-22-2022

 

 Today I decided to transplant the whatever-they-are-greens from the aisle by the artichoke bed.  

They are on the north (left-hand) side of the trellis in the middle.

12 or so are hiding in this picture.  I mulched with old pea stalks and weeds, which makes the plants more difficult to see while they're so small.
To the left of the big chard, there are more of these mystery greens.  I ran out of mulch, it was cold, and I was hungry, so the mulch can be added later?

 
The first section of the bed (2B, north side) was the last planted.  By this time, I was losing my enthusiasm to hunger and cold, so it's not work I'm terribly proud of.  However, if the greens live, and grow, I will eat them and be happy.

Today I also spent a little while cleaning up the artichoke bed.  Observations I made during this process are that nature likes to decay old vegetation by making it slimy and waterlogged.  How is the soil prevented from becoming anaerobic?  is it because the stalks are still standing in place as they begin to decompose?  This sure does provide an excellent habitat for slugs, of which I harvested and fed to the chickens.  They LOVED it!  

I really want to clean up all these old stalks

After cleaning up the old stalks, I mulched the ground with them.  This will either work really well, or be a colossal mess...  We'll see!


This entire flat is of MAESTRO pea, not Alderman.  They are mislabeled, FYI



Winter Watering Protocol

 Some buckets have been placed out to fill with water.  The goal is to capture water, obviously, but the hazard is that they will freeze and...