Plant...Then Wait...Plant...

Stuff's happening in the garden!  It has been very much a start-and-stop season, so far.  It took us forever to dry out enough to work the land.  Even then, there were tractors stuck and such fun farm things!  You know you're in trouble when you have to go borrow a big tractor 'cause the little tractor can't pull out the medium tractor, which is mired in the middle of the field.  When we did get going it was a couple of days of planting, a couple of days of rain, a day to dry out, a day of planting, a couple of days of rain.  Potatoes were planted first and I still worry a bit about them....was it too wet shortly after planting?  Was it too cold?

 

Now, at June 10th, most of our seed planting is almost done.  Garlic, onions, beans are looking good.  Lettuces, spinach, kale are peeking out.  Carrots seem to be a 'no-show', so just yesterday I purchased a whole new round of seed at Lindenberg's.  Beets, chard, snow peas, summer squash and winter squash are in, but no signs yet.  We still have second or third succession plantings to do of greens and beans.

Still on the agenda: all our seedlings of tomatoes, peppers, ground cherry and tomatillos, as well as herb seeds.  The greenhouse is almost full with about 20 flats of mostly tomatoes and a few peppers.  Inside, in the sun room, there are another fifteen flats of peppers, tomatillos and ground cherry.  Forecast looks good for the next couple of days!

Then, of course, it's the never ending weeding.  Easy to get distracted from the work with so many baby goats to play with!  And really, at some point, we should take a look at our ornamental beds in front of the house - the quack grass seems to be taking over!

Weird...but true!

Cloves of garlic getting tucked in.

It is so weird: It's May 18th and we are just starting to plant!  Even weirder: We're starting with garlic!  Most years we would be almost done with seeding the gardens.  This year, between the Winter-that-wouldn't-go-away and the Spring-that-wouldn't-come we've just barely started.  It took seemingly forever for the gardens to dry out and warm up, then we had a cold, rainy spell.  If you follow our Facebook page, you know last week we had a day when tractors got stuck in the field a couple of times.

And garlic!  We usually plant garlic in the Fall, but last Fall we were a little distracted by jobs, life, harvest, breeding goats, etcetera and missed our opportunity to purchase seed bulbs.  The last few seasons we had saved our own garlic to replant, but a poor harvest and disease left nothing.  Fortunately, we were able to purchase some lovely garlic through Lindenberg Seeds this Spring.  I spent an afternoon two days ago breaking up the heads into the cloves on ten pounds of garlic!  When Farmer Man finally managed to get most of the cultivation done, we were waiting for a decent day (like today), when both of us were home and we got busy!

We and our CSA members can all breath a sigh of relief now that the garlic is in.  We, personally, love garlic and the taste of naturally grown, farm fresh garlic is head-and-shoulders above the store bought stuff!  CSA members have come to love garlic scapes, too!  Have you had them?  The scapes are the flowering stems of garlic; raw, they have a lovely mild, green garlic taste.  Cooked they taste something like asparagus.  We think they are best raw and make an awesome pesto, a great addition to salads or a delightful topping on pizza or pasta.  And they are in the ground, with more rain in the forecast.

Some peas, chard, some beets, some carrots, some onions and some lettuces are also in the ground as of today.  So, a good start has been made!  Rain tomorrow, then we're going to spend a day planting potatoes.  Shortly, we'll get back to successive plantings of many of the vegetables.  Corn and many of the winter squash will go in when the soil is just a little warmer.  Beans and summer squash can go in anytime now.  In the meantime, the sun room is bursting with seedlings of tomatoes, peppers, watermelon, cantaloupe, ground cherry and tomatillos.  They will go into the ground in June - we're never in any hurry because we can easily still have frosts for the next two to three weeks.

It feels good to get a start made!  Were you working in the garden this May long weekend?

Just About Ready to Plant!

Ready to plant!

 I always love this time when the soil is all tilled, smooth and black!  Just waiting to receive seeds and water, to produce little plants and then to grow beautiful food.  Within a week, it will be cut up, tramped down in places and will be full of stakes and rows!  This time is all about potential, what might be!

We were hoping for a very early start, but the rains of late April and early May have lessened that possibility somewhat...we will be getting on earlier than usual but only by about ten days.  What the recent weather has brought is a full dug-out.  After the snow melted our watering pond was only half full, a big worry, but now it's full to overflowing.  The irrigation system itself needs a little work before it will be ready to use, but the soil has ample moisture now and we usually have sufficient rain through the end of May to get things going.

The dug-out full!

Farmer Man got the tilling of the main area finished last evening.  After watching the end of a hockey game, we got out close to dusk to set up the rental plots.  We gave up in the dark, before finishing, but that is getting taken off the 'to-do' list this morning.  The gardeners, with recent sunny days, have been anxious to get started!  This little farm will probably be a beehive of activity this weekend!  All the doggies will be so happy; they love the attention and all the extra pats!  We'll have to corral the chickens soon, or they will happy scratch up and pluck out everybodys' little seedlings!

There is more tilling to be done: the potato field is being moved to an area that was alfalfa/grass last spring.  We've been slowly taking back more and more of the old alfalfa field, for crop rotation and as our business expands.  The soon-to-be potato field was broken up last summer, disked in the Fall, disked again just a few days ago and will now get at least one rototilling to smooth it out.  The area around the dug-out is still a little wet and heavy, so we'll leave that for a while.  We're not in any big hurry: our last frost date is officially June 6th, so we're not in any rush to plant out our started seedlings of tomatoes and peppers.  Seeds and seed potatoes will be safe for planting now, and that will keep us busy enough for a couple of weeks!

New Era School Comes To Garden!

We've donated a garden plot to New Era School this year.  They've got some great gardening projects going on at this small, inner-city school.  As well as having different grades of kids starting seeds indoors and learning about gardening, New Era has created a community garden for families in the neighborhood.  I love seeing kids learning about gardening, where their food comes from and getting out to commune with Mother Nature!  I also love that New Era is really working at getting good food into their breakfast/lunch program and into their community!  Very forward thinking, kudos to New Era!

Teacher Greg Dinsdale and teaching assistant/garden coordinator Blake Hamilton brought out a class of Grade 6'ers yesterday afternoon.  This project has been slightly delayed due to weather but, finally, yesterday was a gorgeous day.  Farmer Man had tilled the plot three days ago and then we'd had a good rain two days ago, so the plot was prime!  Their session started with a little chat from Farmer Man (and Grizzly Bear, who otherwise would have been too disruptive): gardening organically, not to leave plastic pots and tags lying around, don't drink the water from the watering taps and stuff like that.  Then a quick tour of the place.  The goatlings were a huge hit!  Everyone wanted to pick up a baby chick.  The dogs were quite the stars, as well.  Blaze the Border Collie was experiencing nirvana with all the tummy rubs!  Kids even wanted to try to pet Rocky the Rooster, which we did not allow.  Then, the kids got to work planting seedlings that had been raised by all grades at the school!  Their little garden is looking great!

I just love the questions from children.  One young man just wanted to know when the tomatoes would be ready, it was really important to him.  Another wanted to know all about broccoli: was it a tree or bush?  Would he recognize it?  When would it be ready and how would he know?  Had a few questions about why some of the chickens are white and some brown.  We only had the kids for about fifteen minutes; I can only imagine the questions Blake and Greg were getting all afternoon!  Same time next week, to finish planting and do some maintenance!

Thinking Spring!

This week our mail box has been full of not presents and holiday cards but seed catalogues! For us, it's rather like receiving presents, except they'll cost us money! We love getting the new catalogues, although we're a little busy to deal with them now. After Christmas, we'll curl up by the fireplace with a cup of hot chocolate and make our plans for the coming Spring. A few of our favorites are here already: Johnny's Selected Seeds, who are really geared for the market gardener, with lots of organic selections. West Coast Seeds, with lots of organics and heirlooms, but we've got to be careful with our selections because they are rather focused on the cooler, moister climate of the West Coast. Veseys Seeds is here, a Canadian company with lots of selections and breeding for commercial growers - some great tools and growing aids as well (really craving some of their 'Snap & Grow' greenhouses!). We've also got Stokes, William Dam and T & T, a Winnipeg company with lots of great selections for short season gardeners. Still missing in action are Heritage Harvest Seeds, a great little Manitoba company preserving heirloom varieties. Prairie Garden Seeds, a Saskatchewan company also preserving heirloom seeds and looking for interesting stuff including grains. We got a lot of our basic seed from Brandon's own Lindenberg Seeds, who have really improved their selection of organic seed in the last few years. And we always look forward to Terra Edibles, with the most amazing lists of heirloom tomatoes and beans!

The Manitoba Sweet Potato Experiment

So, they said it couldn't be done, but the proof is in the picture! We grew sweet potatoes in Manitoba! Now, we didn't grow monster sweet potatoes, or even the sizes that you can buy at the super market. Our three, nice big ones are about five to six inches long and an inch and a half in diameter. More like a fingerling potato, really. We also got about ten that are pencil thin and five inches long, and about ten more even smaller. But, they grew! And we've got a stock to get planted next year. We're going to try really hard not to eat any this winter and save all for re-planting.

Now, I must confess to having nothing to do with harvesting. I'm feeling a little like a cold is coming on and went for a nap. In the meantime, Farmer Man got busy. If you remember from a previous post, we received rooted cuttings, late, in June. We planted them in large containers of garden soil and compost, and put them in a protected spot by the willow windbreak. Apparently, the hardest thing about harvest was breaking the containers away from the willow roots that had grown up through the drainage holes in the pots! Can you imagine: those pesky willows had grown right up into the pots in just four months! I didn't think I was over-watering the pots in such a big way that water would be draining into the ground and attracting the willows! I didn't have high hopes for a big harvest: we weren't as hot as usual this summer (something sweet potatoes like) and we received the cuttings quite late. So we're please with what we got, and we'll get them planted early next year!

Planting Garlic

We're late; a little late, anyway. In a perfect world, we would have planted the garlic at the beginning of the month, when the soil was a little warmer. But, that's life on a little farm; the potato harvest had to be finished, the tractor had to be changed over to the tiller and some maintenance done, then the garlic field had to be tilled. So, we're getting it done now! Will it ever be good to cross this one off the 'to-do' list! We needed an area where garlic and onions hadn't been planted for a few years; crop rotation, you know! We needed some room because we just haven't been able to keep up with the demand for our garlic, so we're planting almost double the amount this year. And, we are also going to plant some of the wee onions that we dug up during the onion harvest for tasty spring onions. We ordered our usual garlic, organic 'Magic' from Vesey's Seeds. What a treat when it all arrived already broken up into the cloves! And some absolutely gorgeous, monster cloves they were, too! We also ordered a couple of small parcels of organic specialty garlic from Botanus: French White Silverskin Softneck and Legacy Rocambole Hardneck. From CSA member Elaine, we received a bulb of Purple Mexican, so a nice variety for us to taste! Because we're a very cold climate, we're pushing in our cloves to 4 - 5 ", and we'll probably mulch the whole area with straw. I'm a little worried about soil erosion in the area we're planting, so the straw mulch will help. It's suppose to rain early next week, so that will be a good time to get down the straw. MMMmmm, all this talk about garlic, I think I'll roast some of this year's harvest for dinner tonight!

Planting Summer Squash!

Farmer Man and I, with Vartan and Natalia's help, got most of the summer squash planted today. We put in two 500 foot double rows - we plant on a slightly larger scale than your average home garden! These are all bush varieties, so we planted pretty close: these are eventually going to form something like two hedges, side by side on the drip lines. We planted regular black zucchini (which is dark green and the most common variety in the stores), golden zucchini, Ronde de Nice (a round zucchini), Portofino (an Italian Largo type, with a nice herbal flavour), Papaya Pear (one of our favourites, great grilled), Lolita (one of the Moroccan or Cousa types) and a whole bunch of different patty pans or scallopinis. Some good eating coming up! We plant these bush types very close, partly for maximum efficiency and partly because we do like to take them when they are small - that's when they are the best. Farmer Man also got some of the winter squash seeded. Now, for those of you that don't know: summer squash has edible skin, winter squash has hard skin. Winter squash, like butternut or pumpkins, will generally take longer to crop and will store better. Now you know! Are you planting any summer squash?

The First Seedlings Get Planted!

First out, this year, cabbage! Farmer Man had the field all prepared, next to the onions, so Natalia and I spent some time crawling around stuffing little cabbage seedlings in the ground. The seedlings were a little 'lanky' this year, and it was very windy, so we did break a few! But, most got in the ground, looking good. We immediately watered them - Farmer Man had to haul water 'cause the irrigation systems' pump seems to have cracked over the winter. Then, we immediately covered them with row cover or horticultural fleece. This is the very light weight, spun stuff. It will give them a bit of frost protection, but more importantly right now, will protect them from wind and too much sun. Even though we consider them 'hardened' off or ready to be planted, we often find that it is a bit more rugged out in the field, as opposed to in the greenhouse. The big, long-term bonus of row cover - it will keep the cabbage butterfly off them so we should have beautiful cabbage without having to spray!

Planting Potatoes!

Today's the day! Or the next few days.....Farmer Man is ready to plant potatoes. He's been bringing up crates of his potato collection for a few days. Each seed potato needs three eyes to grow well, so he's been cutting the larger potatoes and then leaving them to dry in the crates. We don't want a wet, gooey cut going into the ground; they would be more prone to rot so each cut variety dries for at least twenty four hours. I've got to work the next few days so Vartan and Natalia will be helping him. Our potato planter is a recycled (up cycled?) tree planter; Farmer Man's father Andy Aagaard was very good at re-using and recycling. It's not the most comfortable ride - but a couple of cushions help. Vartan and Natalia will be here the next few mornings, I'll probably be riding the planter the next few nights when I get home from work. By the time we're done, we'll have almost four acres of some twenty different varieties in the ground!

Planting Onion Sets

The first official planting in the garden has taken place! Onion sets are in the ground! I co-opted my pal Deb on Thursday and we planted a couple of rows of Spanish onions. Vartan and Natalia have been helping prune the raspberries, and since they were finished that job, they finished the onions while I went off to work yesterday. Spanish, red and yellow onions are done! Farmer Man made small trenches with the seeder and then we did two staggered rows of the little bulbs down each side of the trench. We just push the little onion sets down into the soil, which goes fairly quickly in our sandy soil. The sets are planted fairly thickly, because we will take out smaller sizes of onions earlier in the season, thinning the lines as we go. Cross one job off the very, very long to-do list!

Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It......

Farmer Boy has his work cut out for him! We want all these seeds planted, in the next five days! Too bad it's raining today, no planting today; but yeah, it's raining today so what is in will get a good soak! Farmer Boy wasn't very productive yesterday; we were at an absolutely lovely dinner party at our friends' Joe and Calla's new house the evening before. Calla is an awesome cook and they are gracious hosts. Also included in the fun were the ever-amusing Bruce and Diana. Calla made a chicken and prune dish that was incredible, and a side-dish of red quinoa stuffed in tomatoes. Yummy! It was waaaaaay past our bedtime when we got home. So, not too much went on yesterday (plus, there were Hockey Playoffs on TV). Weather predictions are better for Tuesday so hopefully some planting gets done then. Because there is still the hundred flats or so of seedlings we've started this winter........

The pile on the right in the picture is all squash. We LOVE squash: winter, summer, odd, weird - we haven't met one yet that we don't like and won't try to grow! We're growing over thirty five varieties this year and particularly the winter squash need to get in the ground now!