Tomatoes are starting to blossom in the hothouse. Looking forward to having fresh Kakao, Climster, and Frederik tomatoes in the next month. Only one of my Imperial Star artichoke seedlings survived. I planted 10 seeds, 7 germinated, 5 got to cotyledon stage, and 1 made it to second-leaf stage — despite careful temperature, fertilizer, water, and ventilation control. Artichokes have a reputation for being finicky to raise from seed. The lone survivor looks like it’s doing well, though. If it makes it all the way to maturity, I’ll let it go to seed and save those seeds for next year’s planting. Fingers crossed, the sturdy genes will be passed on….
speaking of miracles…
This book came to mind again with my recent experience witnessing the miracle of microwaved, composted, neglected popcorn kernels coming to life in my compost bucket. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle captured my imagination back in 2007, and is at least in small part responsible for my departure from city life to beginning to cultivate crops and building a homestead in the rurals of Montana. Mixing botanical history, recipes, first-hand stories, and personal dreams, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle speaks beautifully to the power of intention meeting the realities of (the rest of) the natural world. Even if you’re not a gardener, this book is an intoxicatingly-written celebration of the will to life —
February 8, 2016
bees for spring
My bee provider sent me a pic of his healthy bee nucs (short for “nucleus colony” — a starter colony of bees). Glad to see they are handling the winter well. Assuming all goes well between now and April, I expect to be re-homing them to Planet B Gardens in the spring.
gardening in winter
Artichoke seedlings!Just as important as growing vegetables to me is the planning. Winter is the perfect time for: evaluating what went well (starting seedlings early in the hothouse, planting in straw bales) and not so well (planting all at once) last season considering what I want to try for the upcoming season checking out seed catalogs and websites (ones I like so far are Baker Heirloom, FedCo, Johnny’s, and High Mowing), purchasing seeds, and ordering trees for spring delivery putting hothouse seed starts on the calendar figuring out staggered planting times and length of time to maturity so plants and trees ripen throughout the growing season instead of maturing all
February 2, 2016
orchard and berries
This year’s orchard plan includes: Apples (Honeycrisp, September Fuji, Granny Smith, Red Rome Beauty) Peaches (Contender, Burbank July, Reliance, Delicious) Cherries (Northstar Pie, Starkcrimson, Hansen’s Bush) Blueberries (Elliot, Chandler, Herbert) Additional blueberries (Northcountry, Northblue) are going into containers on the deck, along with more herbs and flowers. Now to figure out fencing to keep out the local deer.
center garden plan
Center garden area planned, seeds I either have or are on the way. In the center garden this coming spring I’m trying: Tomatoes (Solar Flair, Cherokee Purple, Black Beauty, Black Cherry, Purple Bumble Bee) Artichokes (Imperial Star — seedlings already started!) Crookneck Squash (Early Golden Summer) Cauliflower (Purple of Sicily) Cabbage (Mammoth Red Rock) Broccoli (Waltham 29) Beets (Chiogga, Crosby Egyptian) Leeks (Megaton, Lexton) Swiss Chard (Five Color Silver Beet) Carrots (Atomic Red, Purple Dragon, Pusa Asita Black, Yellow Bunch) Lettuce (Flash Butter Gem, Flame, Garnet Rose) Orach (Magenta Magic) Chilies (Purple Jalapeno, Green Jalapeno, Goat’s Horn, Chocolate Habanero, Cayenne) Flowers (Nasturtium, Poppies, Sunflowers, others TBD) Red Currants (Rovada) Gooseberries
January 30, 2016
lawn to garden
This year I wasn’t able to create a full-size garden due to the poor quality of the soil, but next year I’ll be ready. There is a sunny, level section of lawn between the cabin and the shop that is perfect for expanding to a larger garden. To get the plot ready for next spring, I started by mowing the grass short. Then we spread a couple of inches of composted manure on top. Over the compost we placed a layer of cardboard and wet it down. Once the cardboard was saturated, we added more compost, soil, and dried, shredded leaves, straw, pine needles, and mulch on top. I’ll continue adding kitchen
October 6, 2015
hand pies for freezing
Large pies work well for freezing in my experience, but they take up a lot of room and are more suited for a larger crowd. Hand pies seem like the perfect solution. They can be tucked in nooks and crannies in the freezer, and I can take out as many servings as I have people when I’m ready to bake them. The process starts the same as for large apple pies. If you’re preparing a large batch of apples for pies (or dehydrating) I highly recommend investing in a hand-crank apple peeler and corer. It’s fast, fun, and you get perfectly uniform slices. Once you’ve run the apples through the
October 5, 2015
unboxing the brushmaster
Last fall I hauled three truckloads of maple prunings to the dump. They would have made excellent mulch. I see no such waste in the future with the arrival of the Brushmaster. With 10 acres of trees that need tending, and lots of twigs, branches, leaves, pine needles, and woody vegetable stems from the garden, a chipper/shredder is likely a wise investment. It was difficult to find enough info online to decide which would be the best chipper/shredder for what I need. All had major pros and cons. In the end, I decided to go with a light commercial grade so I’d have enough power to take care of most
October 4, 2015
ripe, delicious fall apples
Friends Sheryl & Dan’s apple orchard is ripe with what seems like an infinity of apples right now. I dropped by yesterday to gather apples for eating, making apple hand pies for freezing and apple butter for canning. The trees were so laden with ripe apples, many were dropping to the ground as we walked the orchard. We picked those up to add to the already full box. Dan had the excellent suggestion of adding apple cider to my list to make use of the surplus. I have no doubt that Dan’s joy and enthusiasm for farming is a key ingredient for making his orchards a success!