Casualties of the Snow

The snow was pretty to look at, but we were very ready for it to go away so we could move on with life.

What we found after the snow melted was that our low tunnel didn't like to have a foot of snow on it...

We got a really good look at the tunnel this past Saturday and it didn't look as bad as it did just over a week ago. You can go HERE to see that photo.  I should have taken a photo of the plants...just got into straightening things out...they look good actually. So just for good measure I threw some plant food at them and then recovered the hoops.

Tom had used zip ties to keep the cover material in place, but it did more damage as the wind blew the fabric around. That was before I made these...

Canvas bags that we filled with some crushed aggregate. I had a couple of yards of canvas that I had purchased for a different project, but decided that these bags would be a better project instead. They are easier to handle than the bricks and they look nicer too.

Anyway, as you can see there are clamps on each "rib" to hold the fabric in place - so I really don't know what the purpose of the zip ties were. So I clipped them off and things are much better now.

Since we were out fixing stuff we went and straightened out the one on the raised bed.

We haven't quite figured out how to handle this poor thing. So we did the best we could with straightening out the fabric and actually pulled the fabric toward the trellis to protect the plants at that end of the box. I think it will work out okay - these plants suffered quite a bit before they were covered, so I'm really surprised that they are still alive - yet another missed photo op. Same routine here threw some plant food on them and then did the cover.

It looks better -

If the weather continues to be decent we'll just keep an eye on these guys and make sure that nothing gets all messed up again.

For this year's Fall/Winter garden I think we'll invest in metal hoops for the low tunnels. First we'll have to research what will be best. Separate hoops...hoops that are connected to a frame? A movable structure? If I were to think about it I probably could come up with some other ideas too. For now we'll stop here and pine away for the last frost.

They Just Won't Die

We have finally experienced the thaw from the Winter Storm of 2017!

Just last week this is what we had in our back yard...

I didn't have much perspective of how deep the snow was on this particular day - I know it was more than 6 inches. I was sure that the plants underneath were done. My husband reported to me that the plants were doing surprisingly well. This, of course, is something that I need to see with my own eyes. It will be hard for me to give an accurate assesement of the status of my now winter crops. An update will come this weekend.

The hoop house had a bit of accumulation in front of it. Both photos were taken on the same day.

I wasn't sure that the Hoop House seedlings that I have been essentially neglecting for weeks survived either. Check this out though...

I'm pretty sure that they would benefit from some sort of plant food or even just a transplant into the bed in the hoop house. They are kind of pathetic...but still alive!

This is the first time that we have attempted doing any kind of "gardening" outside of the regular growing season of Spring and Summer. Actually, it had never occurred to me that we could even do fall/winter crops here until I got Eliot Coleman's Four-Season Harvest. I don't think that I really knew that he has his farm in Maine. MAINE!! They get snow...lots of it too! Also, according to his book  the U.S. gets more winter sunshine than Southern France. Yeah, so I'm not good with my European geography...oop...just checked that out. The US is further south than France...who knew?! Amazing!! So, there is no reason why winter gardening couldn't happen.

Anyway, I'm pleased with how things have turned out so far. We'll make adjustments for next time. I know that I started things pretty late to get anything in the garden earlier than we did this year. Part of the problem was that it was really quite hot in the hoop house for a lot longer than I thought it would be. Come this fall, I'll be able to use the former Bike Garage - which has been converted to being the Garden garage (which it was for awhile early on). Things do come full circle I guess.

Maybe there will be a mini harvest once I can get into the low tunnel this weekend. Kale & Pac Choi await!

Progress

On this day two years ago we had a HUUUUGE Cedar Tree in our driveway. It being in the driveway was on purpose - especially after the top of it ended up in the driveway on its own.

It was time.

It was already leaning toward the house. It was really super messy and some of that messy ended up being tracked into the house. It was a neverending battle to keep things tidy.  All. Year. Round.

After the tree was down and thinking for awhile I came up with the idea of putting a hoop house near that spot. One that would be big enough to walk into. I think my first idea was to build these over the existing garden boxes, but then I thought why not build an actual hoop house? After watching some videos on the YouTube and checking out Pinterest we talked about it and tried to come up with a plan of sorts, but all I knew was I wanted it to be something like this:

The project was started way back in August of 2015...here is the early, early stage and design -

This whole project was really just trial and error kind of thing. We had some white PVC pipe that came in a roll and that just did not work out for this project - so that was taken apart and saved for a different project. Off to the home improvement store we went and chose  to use Electrical Conduit instead. PERFECT! After the ribs were put in place life happened and it sat for a few months. The holidays came and went and then it was 2016. It would still be a couple of months before more progress could be made on this and I was getting antsy because I REALLY wanted to get some seeds started. After a few more weeks this is what we had and I went ahead and started some seeds, because it was a nice space and fairly protected.

As with all things that we have been doing in the garden - this is an experiment. Knowing that it would be fairly hot in there we got a box fan and Tom mounted a shelf opposite the door to help keep things not too toasty. I think this year we'll point the fan out and not in. Lessons learned right?

Anyway, back to the point of this post we had a tree in the yard. Now we have a hoop house.

Thanks to facebook and reminding us of the things that happened on "this day in history."

Brrr...

So, as of today we have had snow on the ground and colder than usual temperatures since January 10. It started snowing here the evening of the 10th and continued through the next day. The cold has been with us longer than we like and pretty much EVERYONE I have talked to is looking forward to a thaw and kids getting back in school! Six days of serious winter weather!! I'm okay with cold - IF I can still get around with jostling out a filling or two while driving down the road to the store. The roads are so bad right now!

After a pretty quiet weekend, we got out and about earlier today and when we returned I spied ice on the Hoop House - which was very cool.

Maybe tomorrow there will be less snow and ice in our area and I'll be able to check out what is happening with our crops. I'm afraid that maybe things may not have survived under the low tunnel. We couldn't have possibly known that we would experience winter in such a grand way.

I shouldn't totally write this off it is, after all, an experiment. If anything we might still have some purple broccoli just waiting for the right moment. We'll know by the end of the week.

We spent a little time at Starbucks and I started to get an idea of what veggies I want to grow and looked through my Johnny's Seed catalog. Hoping to get together with my partner in gardening crime to plan so we are not doubling up too much on any given item.

But first - there is talk of rain. If the temps are high enough maybe no freezing rain - which is just plain ugly. However there could be flooding instead. Which is better?

Are we having fun yet?

For Sale...

Since we are all about experimenting, I think we'll need to experiment with growing plants for sales. Last summer I order 100 four inch plastic pots with the intent to use for selling plants. As the seeds catalogs come in I'm looking forward to ordering seeds for the veggies/flowers/herbs that I'll be planting in our kitchen garden. I like to start more seeds than I need so why not try to sell the extras?!

Different stages of seedlings.

Along with the plastic pots I ordered a soil blocker - as per the example by Justin Rhodes and Eliot Coleman. Eliot Coleman is the Four Season Gardening guru as well as the host of a show that was on years ago called Gardening Naturally. Even back then, I could not have imagined that I would want to dive into market gardening as a way of life. I better slow down, I'm getting ahead of the plan here. 

If I do this right I can get at least 8 rows of 6 blocks into the plastic trays, maybe even 9 rows. Anyway, I can count on at just shy of 100 blocks and let's say that all of the blocks germinate and are healthy. After a few weeks those could be transplanted into the larger pots and we would have -

THEN after a few more weeks we might have some nice looking plants ready to peddle to people who want nice looking plants. 

Instead of transplanting to the garden, these could be transplanted to customer's hands!

Check them out HERE

I'm not a fan of using funky stuff in my soil mix so I wanted to choose my plant food carefully. We were tripping through Home Depot one afternoon and I knew that I needed some sort of plant food. I looked at all the different brands out there, all of the different forms of Miracle Grow, Preen, Alaska Fish Fertilizer, Jobes and more. I knew that I didn't want anything too chemical-like, so I decided to try out ecoscraps. After opening the package, I liked what I saw and it definitely didn't smell like chemicals and it wasn't blue in color. It was easy to use and even though the instruction was to dig into the soil around the plant, I was just too lazy to do that and end up just sprinkling the base of each plant. It worked out pretty well and all of my plants were very healthy! ecoscraps will definitely be my plant food of choice from now on! 

The shared garden space...

January 14, 2017

Most people that I have encountered are saying the same thing as I am - the snow must go. Seriously, I have lived in Clark County my whole life and snow like this just doesn't happen that often. When it does, winter settles in and stays for awhile. I'm cold and ready for a thaw to happen.

For once I miss the rain.

OH NO....SNOW

Winter arrived this week - in a big way!

Looking to the West - our field is all covered!

Tuesday night it snowed...and snowed and snowed and hey...look it's SNOWING.

Woke up to at least a foot of snow in our driveway. Here's the deal, we don't get snow like this that often, if at all. In fact, we can't really remember the last time it snowed so much! Also, snow in our area stays for a day maybe two days then melts. This time the snow is still here and I think it will be around for a few more days. The weather forecast doesn't seem to be improving much, the temps are still going to be low and there is a chance of rain (oh how I miss the rain) and oh hey, let's talk about FREEZING rain...No Thank You!

So, while the weather outside is frightful, I am going to hunker down with my seed catalogs and my homesteading book, Four Season Harvest book and my Market Gardener book (when it comes back home from Mary's house).

I've been thinking about "the next season" for a few weeks now and this snow is not going to deter me from my planning!

The last time I checked, my little plants under the low tunnel were doing fine. I guess we'll see how things look after the snow...and freezing rain.

What have I been up to for the last couple of months?

The reality is that the last month was totally crazy with Christmas and New Years and all the crazy that goes along with the holidays.

I have been watching a lot of...

Homesteaders on YouTube 

In the last couple of weeks I have been following more homesteader YouTube Channels - mostly in North Carolina. My favorite would be Justin Rhodes. He and his family are getting ready to embark on a very big project this year - The Great American Farm Tour. You can find out all about this on his You Tube channel which I have linked above.

Other channels that are becoming favorites, Art & Bri, Wild Roots and Sounds Like Reign - these are all in North Carolina...Oh, the other I am LOV-ING is Jameson Adventure. They are the bus conversion people that the Rhodes chose to convert their school bus. Super cool family! They are all very unique families with different types of homesteads. Check them out!

I've also been thinking about...

Raising A Pig

Because of Jeff & Stacy of Jameson Adventure and their two swine, I've been thinking about raising ONE. After a little research I learned that pigs don't get lonely so one would be just fine. Alright! More research also got me thinking that we'll need to build some sort of shelter for our future friend. It can be pretty simple like:

photo from ricelandmeadows.com

I suppose it could be elaborate too, but for the sake of experiments, I think we'll keep it on the simple side until we have raised the first pig and then go from there.

Now, what breed of pig to choose, there are so many to consider! The girl in me wants a cute pig. Let's face it, most baby animals are CUTE. So, maybe one that will be a nice looking as an adult, but not so much that I lose my desire to have he or she processed for meat. A good personality is a must - we want feeding time to be a more enjoyable time rather than a throw the food in and go away! I don't want to get too attached, but at the same time I don't want to be neglectful. It will be a fine line.

Since I think that we'll just go with ONE pig we'll have to make sure that the end weight is no more than 250 pounds. A pig of this size could possibly produce anywhere from 160 to 180 pounds of meat. That is way more meat that we could possible consume in a year, so we'll have to share the wealth with friends and neighbors. As much as I like beef, I think that raising a pig would be a more cost effective project and would require less space in the process. This project may or may not happen this year - we will revisit this topic later.

What we are planning...

Chickens for eggs and meat!

I know, I know...I've said it before, but this year the chickens will happen! We have a spot all picked out. Once the weather improves and the snow is gone we'll have to go and check out what supplies we have for a coop and what sort of coop we want to build. Still unsure of what the housing situation will be for the chickies...there are so many options. Chickshaw, chicken tractor, A-frame, hoop house. If you can imagine it, build it right? So, the laying hens will be the first thing we get. I've found a place in Woodland that sells laying hens that are less than a year old and would be close to laying eggs sooner than later. That will be nice - let someone else raise the chicks and we get to benefit from that.

The meat chickens will be from a hatchery in Tangent called Jenks Hatchery check out the site it's a pretty cool family operation not terribly far from where we live. I haven't totally decided on whether we should go with Cornish Cross or Freedom Rangers. It will be time to research more I guess. The amazing thing is that within 3 months we will be able to process the chickens and we'll have meat in the freezer! The first year will definitely be a learning experience, so I won't go into a chicken growing frenzy and get more chicks after a month or so. I may want to do two rounds of chickens though, so we'll see.

Whatever we decide on the chickens will happen for sure!

It's never to early...

To Plan A Garden!

I've been thinking about kitchen gardening for a little while. THEN my first seed catalogs arrived -

Oh yeah, my favorite thing ever...Seed Catalogs! There is one more that arrived this week, but it got a little beat up in the mail and may have been tossed into the recycling bin. I better check on that...Tom pulled it out of the bin...I can see how it might be mistaken for trash.

Can't trust the USPS!

Where to start? Well, favorites is always a good idea - tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, potatoes and a variety of leafy greens, which are also the things that work out REALLY well. Things that we experimented with last year - ground cherries, cabbage and shelling beans. New stuff that we planted in late fall - purple broccoli, flower sprouts and Chinese cabbage. If those items survive the cold snap that we experienced this week we'll have some super early stuff in a couple of months. I peeked at my low tunnels and the snow collapsed them, but I am hopeful that the plants underneath are okay.

We'll see. Everything for the next few years will be an experiment. Planting, observing and harvesting. As well as taking notes along the way to record what went well and what we can improve on.

There have been a lot of things on my mind...

Why Not Become a Master Gardener?

This last week I thought I could enroll in the Master Gardener program at WSU - Vancouver. It's an 11 week program which takes place one day a week and includes other online projects and assignments. Then once the classroom work is done 50 hours of community service providing gardening related information, assistance, problem solving etc. to the public is required to become certified. Afterwards, you commit to 35 hours a year to maintain your Master Gardener status.

We'll see, I haven't made a decision on doing this just yet, but it's something that I could easily commit my energy toward if I want to make a home business a reality. It just might not happen this year - possibly closer to when I think I want to leave my current job behind. Which doesn't bring me the kind of joy and contentment as working on our farm.

One more thing...

It's hard to tell how far the tunnels are hanging as there is a lot of snow in front of them!
I cannot believe that it is 42 in the hoop house!!

I promise to do better at posting here. When life gets busy, you kinda gotta go with it!