And then there was corn

Seeds are erupting everywhere in our garden. We could do a whole photo show of the various beans that sprouted since Monday. Two days ago we got our first signs of corn. I think we'll have no problem hitting knee high by the fourth of July.

More Photos Coming

Our polling peas were in need of a place to climb. This is our third year gardening and every year we change the design of our trellises. This year's model is a little labor intensive, but all of the major materials are natural. We should be done with the whole thing tomorrow, weather permitting, and will share more photos with a more detailed description. Until then, here's a sneak peek.

New Shoots

Early May is when tons of little alien spiky things grow out of our yard and begin to turn into bamboo. Kelly likes to kick them over and our landlord likes to eat them, but I just think they're kind of nice looking.

No Mow

Our landlord has a keen interest in just letting things go. We won't mention the condition of the house (bad vibes), but outside there is an odd array of random volunteer trees and patches of grass a foot or so high. I don't know what it is, but he hates having the grass cut. We suffer our share of ticks through the year, nothing bad, and the chickens think it sucks. However, right now it's not so bad. The wildness of our yard has invited a shabby meadow. There is color everywhere.

Shady Grove

Not too long ago we erected a sunshade to protect the bed of greens and peas. When the rest of the garden fills in we won't have a need for the contraption, but for now the high-noon sun is just a bit too much.

The set up really is as easy as it looks; we just tied a sheet to one end of the fence and ran a line from the corners of the opposite end of the sheet to the fence on the other side. The string running on the left side of the photo is attached to the fence with loops as opposed to tying it on. The loops allow us to slide the string on and off the fence posts so we can pull the shade back on cloudy days.

Feathered Chain Gang

When Meg and I are in the garden we bring the chickens along to do some weeding and bug hunting. They never work where we want them too, but they're always good for a few laughs.

500 Gallons of Water

Yesterday we had a good rain come through. The amount that came down was enough to top off our rain harvester and set us up with 500 gallons of water for when the rains aren't as plentiful.

The photo on the left is the top of the front barrel that is closest to the filler tank. When the water doesn't drain back into the vent hole, then we know the barrels are at their limit. What's amazing is that we are utilizing very little roof to fill these things. The second photo is a pretty good shot of the area we are gathering from (just the bottom section of roof, not the top end too). That tiny section of roof keeps the rain falling on our garden whenever we choose all season long.

This is our second year with our harvester and it has been the best improvement we've brought to the gardening experience. What's great is that they are easy to set up and extremely cheep. Just recently Ali and Dan over at Henbogle just set up a few harvesters for this year's crops. They actually found plastic barrels, which will last a lot longer than our steel drums. I give them high-fives all around.

If any of you have any questions about setting up a low cost harvester, please feel free to give us a shout.

Dogwoods

There are a large number of trees on the three and half acres where we live and we have become quite familiar with the lot. We've come to expect their changes though the year as a way to kind of catalogue time. The dogwoods have recently come into bloom.

Of all the varieties of trees on this property, the dogwoods are my favorite during all seasons. In the summer they are a spectacular source of shade. Their leaves in the fall are always colorful and enduring. During the winter their branches bend and twist in all kinds of peculiar directions. And in the spring, just like the fall, they provide an array of colors that are both vivid and long-lasting.

The Cover Up

The brassicas are officially on their way. The cloches did absolute wonders for the indoors to outdoors transition. I swear they doubled in size. We hung up the cloches, which are in great shape, and will utilize them again with the squash, peppers, and tomatoes.

The row covers are in place. We're not sure if we'll make frames or just leave them directly draped. I think it will be determined by the amount of time we have down the road. I'm sure either way will be fine and any decision we make will not make too big of an impact on the health of the plants.

Bring out your dead.

The beautiful thing about spring is that it is so much easier to identify dead branches for pruning. If I haven't led on to this earlier, Meg is extremely talented with a bow saw and a set of loppers.


On a number of occasions we have shared with you stories about the nightmare of an orchard that is festering in our backyard. Recently Meg has said to hell with the landlord and has started to do some preventative maintenance to these poor neglected trees. What she did was look for any branch she could reach that didn't have leaf buds and removed it. Over all the project took her about three hours. I think the before and after shots are pretty damn impressive.

Where was I during all of this? Well someone has to weed the garden and our lettuce needed a sun screen. Besides, we only have one saw.

*We would like to make an apology to those of you who have left comments this week and have yet to receive a reply. Meg and I have been totally busy lately with student needs, garden needs, need a full time job with benefits needs, and whatever else this wonderful life has to throw at us needs. We love the comments and please keep them coming; I get worried that you might be dead in some ditch if we don't hear from you once in a while. We'll back at you soon.

Flower Show

It's fun to watch and wait for trees to flower. One of my favorites on our property is the magnolia. Does my affinity have anything to do with the Grateful Dead's Sugar Magnolia? Maybe. Or, they're just big meaty flowers and I love them.

The next tree on my list of wait-fors is the dogwood. All year round the dogwood puts on a very unique display of color and form. But for now we can wait, because the magnolias are out and they deserve their turn.

On a bed of greens

This is our third growing season together and consequently it's our third year growing lettuce. The first year we didn't get to the spring planting in time, but the fall harvest was a boom. The second year saw results that were the complete opposite; the spring planting was on time and plentiful, but the deer and rabbits had their way with the fall sprouts. What has been consistent is that every planting has been direct seed.


This year we reinforced the fence, said to hell with consistency, and started some of the seeds indoors. We were really surprised at how well they did. Out of a tray of 72, only two didn't sprout. If I knew the names of the varieties [Buttercrunch and Black Seeded Simpson --Meg] I'd tell ya, but Meg's at work and she's the wiz at keeping that shit straight. I usually learn food names by consumption. (and I digress) Last week we hardened off our sprouts and Saturday we put them in the ground.

We're pairing this particular bed of greens with poling peas (the ones that survived at least). Last year this bed was a mix of fabulous carrots and failed parsnips. As I was digging the trench to put in the plants and fresh compost I discovered a carrot that managed to go unnoticed last fall.


We made short work of the carrot that evening. It was tasty.

It's been two days since we transplanted our future salads and everything looks great. Hopefully this weekend we can return to consistency and direct seed a bed of lettuce and also get our spinach going as well.

In Which Our Parsley Returns from Beyond the Grave

Don't you wish all those rocks were in your garden? I do.

We've had a really mild winter—less than ten inches of snow and an average temperature of 40°F—and the garden is loving it. Right now we have parsley, swiss chard, bok choy, kale, and lettuce that have slowly been doing their thing since the fall. Temperatures are supposed to be in the mid-50°s for the next week, so perhaps we'll be eating salads by next weekend.

Spring is in the air ...

The crocuses are blooming, the magnolia is ready to pop, and Kelly shot a groundhog. I hope you all don't mind, but we decided to spare you the photo of that last bit.

Cause to Celebrate

Today Meg and I have been married for one year. We celebrated the occasion by planting peas.

'Sup, Seedlings?

Have you heard? It's Spring now. You all are going to get evicted, and soon.

You've been hogging the lights and the heat for too long, so you're moving out. The temperatures outside haven't been below freezing in weeks. Just in case, we have a million billion gallon jugs-turned-cloches saved up. You'll like your new place. We raked and pulled weeds, and we even threw fresh compost all over the place. Better start packing.

That grow table real estate is valuable and, while we like you guys, frankly, we like the peppers and tomatoes a whole lot more. And besides, if you hang around in here for too long, we will eat you.

On Pruning

Everywhere there are subtle hints spring. The birds are filling the trees, the squirrels are making a mess of the lawn, and the chickens are laying eggs every day. Another sign of spring is some bushes and trees are starting to bud. The sap is rising.

Our adopted apple tree needed to be pruned badly. A while ago we posted about our lack of knowledge on pruning, and we received some very helpful advice. I think we leaned towards what El had suggested and went with our gut.

We knew that the spikes in the middle were sucking all the life from the other branches and if the spikes bore enough fruit they'd be liable to snap. So on the large scale we took out three hefty branches from the middle of the tree. On the finer side of the operation we cut some of the smaller branches that were rubbing against one another.

There's still one questionable big branch to take care of. It's the one that kind of swoops from right to left. We decided it would be best to save that one for next year and not risk shocking the tree any further. Standing back, it certainly looks more like how a fruit tree should.

Rain Harvester Reactivate!

We have aroused our rain harvester from its winter slumber. With the ides of March upon us, we figured that the threat of a hard freeze has passed. To be quite honest winter never really showed. I'm sure we'll get a few more cold spells, but nothing deep enough to burst our lines.

The process was pretty simple. All I had to do was remove the garbage bag cover and two layers of plastic underneath the bag. The screen and chicken wire we covered the filler barrel with to act as a debris shield was still in tact and in great shape. We closed the spigot we had left open to allow any condensation to run out, and that was that. All that's left is to wait for some rain so we can check for leaks. The whole process took maybe ten minutes.



If any of you are planning to invest in a rain harvester, now is the time to do it. The spring rains are either here or on their way. It's nice to have a bit of that water stored up for planting season, which is right around the corner.

Blooms

Spring is still nine days away, but the warm weather has inspired some flowers to show up early.

Aah, crunchy jeans.

It's not officially Spring yet, but it sure feels like it.