Normally by this time I would have at least two shelves of trays of seeds started. This year I don't. Not even a one. I just decided to not let the pressure rule me into getting started.
We went to MI for the holidays and didn't return until Jan. 3, then we took the next couple of days to rest up and put things away that we brought back from the trip. Frozen candytuft, a broken tuberous begonia, drying geraniums among the many things my mother sent home with me.
Just can't seem to get in the mood. Matt got me the Lunar calendar book again. That always puts more pressure on me because if I miss a particular time for a type of plant, say flowers, I have to wait at least another week or maybe more until there is another flower day. And they don't always wait for the weekends to happen. I'm just so tired when I come home from babysitting that I don't feel like planting and I leave early in the morning so unless I start getting up really early again, it's just not happening except on weekends.
I am trying though. Tonight I went to the greenhouse and got three APS units and two bags of seed starting mix and brought them into the house so I can try and do my broccoli tomorrow (flower day Jan 13 & 14). Then the next two days (15 & 16) are leaf days so I will try and plant my cauliflower.
Looking at the seed cataglogs, waiting for my seed swap package and updating my seed database usually gets me really excited but remembering the dismal spring last year -- heck, the entire year -- it's kind of hard to get enthused about seed starting, knowing it's all for nothing.
Well, I know every year is different but it's been such a cold winter this year and I think the vole issue really took the wind out of my sails. I am usually just in denial about a problem but I can't get around this one. It doesn't help that the farm is 12 miles from my house and I cannot get to the garden every day. With babysitting four days I really only have Fri. - Sunday and I need to spend some of that time home to do laundry, dishes, cleaning. (Okay, I don't really clean much during the gardening season).
Now, my other thing is this. Matt decided to get another dog besides the AmStaff. Yes, he will then have THREE dogs! (First dog is a livestock guard dog and not an issue). The third dog is a rat terrier to help erradicate the rodent/critter problem in the chicken coop, basement and hopefully, the garden. Hmm...terriers like to dig. So, yes, he may be able to catch those pesky voles eating all my crops, but am I going to break an ankle stepping into a hole unexpectedly in the garden? I'm a bit nervous about how this is going to go.
Ira (ex) will be keeping him downstairs with him, and be responsible, I think, for his training. Well, since Matt is gone a good portion of the week, it will have to be. So hopefully he can train him to not tear up my garden. But I remember him laughing when the chickens kept tearing up the garden so I doubt that will be high on his priority list.
If that is the case I will give up the gardening at the farm. I can grow some things at my house, but it's a small lot and I already have a lot of it filled. To try and do vegetables would be a challenge. Market gardening would probably be out of the question. And you know what, that might not be all bad. I would have more time to do other things! Like cleaning my house!
Our car navigated itself by the farm on the way home from Sam's club automatically, so we stopped by. No one was home so we just checked out the garden. How sorry! The voles just timbered all the carrots! They were really looking good too, some of the biggest tops I had ever had. Also, the one cauliflower I was really counting on maturing was totally gone! I thought maybe matt had picked it but he said he didn't even it was there, so i have no clue what happened to it.
Since Matt is getting a new AmStaff puppy next month we will get her used to going out to the garden right away and hopefully that will help with the critter problems. I think he is trying to talk Ennie into also getting a rat terrier to help with the critter problems in the basement/perimeter areas. I don't know how well that will go over.
i did tell Matt if we can't get a handle on it I may give up the garden because it is very depressing to have everything eaten.
We got another load of straw this morning. Got shorted one bale, bummer. Not going to complain cause sometimes we get an extra one. But we came back to the farm and got it stacked and covered right away.
I got my onion sets planted. Each bunch was supposed to be 50-75 onions but it was more like 100! I got four varieties but two bunches of Texas Legends and one each Yellow Granex, Southern Belle red and Creole Red. I sure hope I get some to maturity this year. I just don't have a lot of luck with onions.
Then I mulched the three rows of garlic. There were a few peeking through already. Mulched with chopped straw and one row with the fresh straw, not chopped, to compare.
Ira took the spring plow through the remaining rows of the garden that needed working up. We hurried up and pulled the few carrots out in one of the rows. There were a few nice ones, surprisingly. David rototilled a few spots to smooth it a bit so we can plant some wheat. Matt said not to plant for a few days even though it is supposed to rain tomorrow, because we're supposed to have a few days of freezing so I guess I'll wait a bit. I would rather NOT plant anything and just mulch it but it really does need more amending so I guess as long as he'll cut/plow it under when I'm ready to plant in the spring and I don't have to wait for it to mature it will be okay. Last spring between the rain and cold and green mature not cut/plowed under, I was really LATE getting my garden in and it made a huge difference for market.
I talked to Matt about taking the strawberries out of the garden rotation and putting them up by the orchard or maybe up by Miranda's playset. He suggested where we had the sweet potatoes this year, in the field by Thor and the goats. I think I'll have to do the garden row planning this year since Matt is just not into gardening much at all anymore. As long as he doesn't bitch about how I do it, I don't mind.
I pulled a few of the carrots planted this fall and some of them are niced sized. The beets look like they took a beating from the cold but hopefully they will continue to grow. I thought about putting plastic on the row but then I have to make sure I'm there to open and close al the time and I'd like to be able to stay home some days. The lettuce is doing fine, just not enough of it to amount to much!
Pretty much done with the garden except for cleaning up a bit. I have a lot of row weed barrier pulled up that needs to go back down or get rolled up. I rolled up most of the reemay today. I did cover the brussel sprouts and cauliflower again since the next two nights are frost. I sure hope we get to eat them soon!
There is a lot of dead stalks/stems but I'll leave them for the birds since it's not a good idea to cut them until spring. Looks messy but I can live with it. Should have dug up the dahlias I want to get rid of though but maybe in the spring I can dig up and give them away.
I'm ready for some cold weather so I have a good reason to NOT go to the garden on the weekend. I want a break!
Started cleaning the greenhouse at the farm. I got the inside all washed down Friday so I worked on the outside today but I didn't have a decent mop/brush to work with. David gave me an old car washing brush but it had been leaning against something so the bristles were all mushed in. And I cannot reach the top of the curve without a ladder so I swiped down one side the best I could and waswhed down with the hose then put the shelves back inside. David dumped (with his new dump wagon he got me for my birthday yesterday :-) two loads of compost in the bed. I will add some Pro-Mix later.
The ants keep playing havoc between the bricks so I sprinkled around a lot of coffee grounds today. Seems to work better than DE but we'll see. Probably at least the GH will smell like coffee after being closed up! LOL!
I also started digging up some of the perennials that were planted around the outside beds next to the GH. Since everything was let go this year the weeds were about 9' tall and bermuda grass everywhere. Ira said he would work it up for me so I am trying to take out anything I can find that survived to be transplanted but the ground is really packed so it's not an easy task.
I had made several small beds surrounding the GH, flowers on the left and my "herb garden" on the right. That's with tongue in cheek by the way. Anyway, my plan is to make raised beds, and larger ones and do both sides with just herbs. Right now I have been planting herbs in the garden as a holding place for moving later. David uses the right side rear (at the fence) for two of his composters and two piles of raw material. I'll leave him more room to work when it's redone. He makes some mighty nice compost for me!
So I pulled another geranium from a pot and repotted five Helitropes and brought them to the GH at home. One I thought was dead had new growth at the base. YES!!!
I'm already feeling like it's time to get ready to start some seeds, I don't know why. But on Thurs. I will try and get some seeds planted in the garden of perennial flowers that need cold. I haven't been having much luck with Sweet William seeds germinating but I'll try again this fall. I really, really would like more of them since they bloom so early and I always need early bloomers for bouquets at market.
I will plant more scabiosa and Centrus Ruber too. Hmmm, maybe a few bachelor buttons? If we have a really hard, cold winter that will probably be a bust but if it's not too bad they just may survive. Then they would be really early too! Anyway, I can't get to it until Thursday and it works since Thurs. is a flower day on the lunar calendar. Wait, just double checked, it's Tuesday! Gonna have to try and slip out when Jackson is sleeping or take him out in the stroller! Thurs. is a leaf day. Okay, I'll plant some more lettuce, in the greenhouse bed this time.
Got the garlic planted today! So glad that job is done! Planted over 700 this year. Matt says he will cut back next year because we didn't sell it all this year but we didn't go to market after July so of course we didn't sell it all. We certainly would have if we had gone to market!
| Aglio Rosso | 70 | ||
| Ajo Rojo | 60 | ||
| Asian Tempest | 45 | ||
| Burgundy | 70 | ||
| Chesnok Red | 35 | ||
| Chet's Italian | 60 | ||
| Chinese Purple | 25 | ||
| Creole Red | 30 | ||
| Duganski | 30 | ||
| Inchelium Red | 70 | ||
| Keeper | 15 | ||
| Pescadero Red | 40 | ||
| Okrent | 65 | ||
| Siberian | 15 | ||
| Susanville | 70 | ||
| Keeper (leftover) | 10 |
