Gathering of Thoughts

I keep kicking myself.  I was going to go to an auction on Saturday and I completely forgot.  You are probably asking what this has to do with the garden.  Well, it was a landscaping company's auction.  They had trees!  And I missed it!  Doh!  I didn't even realize I had forgotten it until Sunday when I was finally getting around to reading Friday's paper.  Oh man.

Such as life. It does save me money to not go but still... It would have been really nice to get our apples.  We want to start an apple orchard.  I guess we'll have to go about it some other way.  Of course we need to decide where we want the orchard first and we should probably dig out the sage brush.

I am about to go ahead and dig out my other four beds.  I'm seeing I'm quickly running out of room.  I still have about 20 tomatoes, 6 Brussels sprouts, several Walla Walla sweet onions, rhubarb, garlic, spearmint, lavender, sage, and I want to add a pumpkin area for the kids too.  On top or our stuff I'm doing a half share in one of our local CSA (community supported agriculture) farms.  I'm going to be canning like mad.  Yippee!!  I need to keep an eye out for a dehydrator too. 

A few supplies I need to get for the summer growing season:

A hot plate/burners - I have a flat top stove and it doesn't work for canning
Jars, lids, and rings
Dehydrator
Lid rack for my jar lids
Probably another shelf set up for the canned goods

With the CSA I can also get milk.  I don't know if we'll go in on that full time.  I'll find out if the kids and us even like raw milk before we dive in and/or commit to anything there.  There are also opportunities for flour, honey, meat, and fruit.  I'm thinking I'll like having this in addition to our own garden.  I'm also considering the Co-op that is trying to open in another little town close to us.

I'd better see if I can get some digging done this morning.  Also, I just realized that my husband had said he was going to work on putting the chicken coop together this afternoon.  I'd better get my cinder block set up for the feet.  I also need to clean up some more of the tumbleweeds back there and work on the new gate.

Changing weather

That snow moisture is helping us now.  It has turned hot.  I mean mid-70s pushing toward 80 degree hot.  You'd never know that 2 weeks ago we had 4 foot drifts of snow in the yard.

I've been planting like mad and need to plant more.  I  need to get my Brussels sprout seedlings in.  I don't think they are hardened off quite yet but I might plant them out with some cloches anyway.  I'll make them a mini cold frame.  I need to make sure to get the rest of the areas with grass seed watered today.  I got a good portion last night.  In doing so I also got the grapes, apricots, and ponderosa seedlings that just went in.  You can check out my other blog at http://lazymomgardner.wordpress.com for pictures of those.

I need to figure out what I'm doing with my gardens.  I have 20+ tomatoes that will need space, I want strawberries (I don't have them yet), and I want flowers and herbs.  I just need to figure out how it will all fit in.  Of course I need to get things like the strawberries.  I think I'll go see if anyone needs some strawberries thinned.

Double whammy

Last week we got hit with some pretty good winter weather.  Today we are getting it again.  My garden sure is loving the moisture.  I'm not sure how I feel about it.  I'm glad for the moisture but I am ready for spring.  We had some nice spring weather earlier and it gave me a taste for it. 

Now I get to wait.  I got grapes and an apricot tree in the mail yesterday.  I don't think I'll plant them just yet.  We got about 2 inches last night and it is still coming down.  I'm even keeping my oldest home from school.  Apparently the roads are nasty and there is just no point in putting us all in danger.

Competition for the Garden

In my back pasture is where I've seen them.  But the other day I saw tracks in the front yard too.  Guess I'm going to have to make sure to have deer resistant plants.

Happy 1st day of Spring

Whew! Finally got a half way decent day and some time to play outside.  We got the garden most of the way staked out, got my compost area fenced in, and I got two big beds (5 feet x 28 feet) cultivated and ready to plant.  I have four more big beds to prep.  I don't think I'll need/want them this year so they'll probably get mulched or cover cropped for next year.  I do need to figure out where I'm going to put my asparagus.  I found asparagus starts the other day here in town so I bought them.  I also found onion sets and shallot sets.  Those won't be as tough to figure out where I'll put them since they aren't perennial.

The wind blew like crazy today again.  Not the 40-60 mph we had on Sunday but it blows here.  Pretty much all the time.  Some folks say it is seasonal but I think the only thing really seasonal is that the winds get stronger in the spring.  This semi-flat country just doesn't have anything to block the wind.

I need to count the number of tomato plants I put in.  I know I have somewhere around 20 starts.  I'm also trying Brussels sprouts again.  We'll see if I can get them through the heat enough to produce a decent set of sprouts.  I have kale and garlic up.  They are in the containers I had at our rental.  I don't see any carrots yet but both containers with kale are showing green and the lone garlic shoot is about 2 inches tall.  The garlic was a clove I was going to cut for making dinner and I saw it had a big sprout so I planted it in a container I had sitting there with just dirt.  Guess we'll have a little garlic anyway.

I'm excited now that I have beds ready.  Now I can get figuring where I'm going to put my herbs as well as that asparagus.  I'm debating rhubarb as well.  I'm not a huge fan but it goes nicely with strawberries so I might.  I'm also going to put strawberries in. I suppose I should order my stuff one of these days.

Critters

It seems as if our new place comes with a pile of critters.  Namely mice.  They've gotten into my bird seed and it appears that one crawled into my husband's car and got eliminated the other day.  I'll spare you the gory details but it wasn't a pretty sight.

We have deer which will be interested in my garden.  We have birds too.  Lots of birds.  We are starting to see some Blue Jays now in addition to the little finches and Robins.  If we get cats to help control the mice we'll need to put the bird seed up higher so the cats can't hunt the birds quite so easily.  Also, I spotted what I'm pretty sure was a coyote in the back pasture.  He was far enough out and I only caught a glimpse.  We really need to get some binoculars.  We used to have a pair somewhere.  Maybe in the last few boxes I'll find them again.  I think we got rid of them though.

Garden beds are getting dug this week.  During Tom's spring break he'll work on my paths.  I'm excited to be getting this garden going.  It is going to be quite a bit more real estate than my last one.  I thought we had a big garden before.  I got out the measuring tape yesterday.  My back fenced area is 40 feet x 40 feet.  My main focus area is going to be a 30x40 foot area.  We have two trees and a sandbox that is interfering with my planning.  I want to keep them but they are stalling me when it comes to planning around them.

I need to figure out where I'm going with my laundry too.  I think we'll start with an umbrella type clothesline and see how that works.  I've always just stretched a line from a house or tree to a fence or another tree.  There really aren't any trees or fences to stretch a line here. 

My list of tasks that need done early this year:

Dig beds
Put in clothes line
Plant grass seed
Plant flower seeds
Grub out sage brush in front yard
Build path for front walk/door
Get side yard ready for chickens
Repair/replace front gate for side yard
Replace gate from side yard to back garden
Repair fencing around garden in a couple of places
Get latch for walk thru gate to back pasture

A plan

I have little birds that come to eat every morning just outside my bedroom window.  It always happens about 6:30-7 a.m.  Somewhere between 10-30 of them come in, eat stuff from the ground, and then they fly off.  I want to get some seed to set out for them but I haven't remembered while I'm in town.

I've begun my garden planning in earnest now.  I'm going to work off the four-square plan.  Beds surrounding the perimeter, four beds in-between paths that cross in the middle, and a center piece where the paths cross.  We are thinking with all the birds up here that we want a bird bath for our center piece.  The trouble I'm having at the moment is deciding what material to use for my pathways.  Gravel, brick, cedar mulch, or grass?  I like the feel of grass and the look but I don't like the amount of water it takes.  Gravel and brick are fairly expensive and labor intensive to put in but don't take water to maintain.  Cedar mulch isn't as labor intensive or expensive but in the long run it probably is as expensive since I would have to replace the mulch every year.  The nice part there is that I could change my mind easily about the location of my paths.

I need some pallets for my composting area too.  Or to buy a composter but I think I'd rather have three bins going.  I'm noticing with my little compost that is out right now though I am going to have to get serious about fencing critters out.  Even if that critter is my own dog.  He is a pain about getting into stuff like that.

Once I get compost set up and my path material decided on then I can really go to work.  I've started to dig beds a little.  It looks like I have some pretty decent dirt.  I will amend it some with some manure since the previous folks so kindly left us lots of straw and manure.  Some people wouldn't be happy about that but I am.