a few baby pictures...fruit babies.

Well, my deer situation is still a work in progress and it is pretty depressing to go into all the details so here are a few happy pictures of baby fruit.

baby plums on the west tree

 Last year this tree had maybe four tiny plums.  It was the first time it had set fruit and just as they were starting to turn color they disappeared.  This year there are a least 20 on the branches.  The largest ones are already about the size of an almond in the shell and similar in shape.  Last year those first couple of fruit never got this big the whole season.  The other tree did not have any fruit last season and this year I have so far spotted only a couple of very tiny fruit.  It may be that this year that tree, the east tree, is doing what the west tree did last year. 

from a different angle

 Last year was the second year that we had apples on our two trees.  The first year we got maybe a dozen of smallish apples from each tree.  Last year, the second year we got only a few apples from the east tree but at least 20 or more of large, very nice apples from the west tree. 

baby apples on the east tree

apples on the west tree

 The grapes are full of clusters.  Just loaded.  This is the purple grape.  It has seeds and is very tiny and makes great jelly. 

baby grape clusters

 These are the raspberries.  They are tiny gray beads right now, but they will turn red and then black.  The canes are full and once they start to turn it will be a race to see who gets more, me or the birds. 

black raspberries

No fruit coming on the two pears.  Still waiting for their first fruit production.  Other fruit that we have planted recently but not gotten fruit from yet are the sand cherries, the elderberries, the cranberries and the gooseberries.  They were only planted last year so it may be too soon to expect any but I will be checking them out just in case. 

Other stuff--the greenhouse is empty.  It was just too hot for plants so the last of the plants are up by the house waiting for the deer situation to be better managed before they go in the ground.  The timer is working great for watering.  I have adjusted the timing a couple of different times hoping to discourage the deer.  The lawn is mowed but the part mowed first is looking like it needs it again.  The potager is completely planted, both seeds and transplants.  I have been working on a decorative spot in the big garden that so far has a small piece of picket fence, a bench and a couple of perennial plants.  The bench is the only part that was not given to me by my sister.  Thanks, Lisa.  I am hoping to make a seated scarecrow for the bench as part of the grouping. 

the potager gets a little attention and the cornfield is getting planted

Before there was the big vegetable garden, I gardened in raised beds.  It started out as four rectangular raised beds laid out in a square.  It eventually got a taller square bed in the center and a wood and chicken wire fence and then finally a few more smaller rectangular boxes squeezed in here and there for a total of 11 raised beds.  A potager was born.  The original four boxes were showing their age with some rotting of the wood and loosening of the screws that held the corners together.  The summer before last I replaced one of the boxes and my plan was to replace one a year building a new box, moving soil from one of the other boxes to the new box and then replacing the empty box with a new one and repeating the process until all four of the boxes were replaced.  Last fall we were given a trailer load of black dirt so we quickly put together the remaining boxes and filled them up with the black dirt ready for planting in the spring.

When spring arrived so did the thistles, dandelions and various grassy weeds.  They were everywhere, in the boxes, in the crushed granite that covers the walkways between the beds and around the outside of the potager.  While I have been busy with the greenhouse, the big garden, the mowing and the orchard the potager has gotten no attention.  A potager is traditionally a kitchen garden and my plan has been to put in there things that might be tempting to a rabbit since there is a fence around it.  Last year I tried planting edamame for the first time.  I planted it in the big garden and it was gone immediately, nibbled off at ground level.  I decided that I would try it again but this time in the potager.

I have lots of planting left to do in the big garden (the cornfield) but decided to focus on the potager while I wait to see if my deer repelling strategies are successful.  More about that later.  I had a some great help from Caitlin and Willow who were visiting and offered to help.  We were able to clear the weeds from all of the boxes and some of the walkways.  We then planted the center box as a meadow.  I am shamelessly trying to copy Su's meadow that can be seen in her blogpost here.  Scroll down to near the end of the post for a picture of the cutest meadow ever.

After Caitlin and Willow left I worked on planting the prepared beds.  The edamame seeds went into one of the long beds.  Next I planted the Kohlrabi seedlings in one of the perimeter beds.  A second long bed was planted with eggplant seedlings.  A third long bed was planted in short crosswise rows of salad greens--12 different kinds.  A second perimeter bed has lengthwise rows of three different kinds of romaine lettuces and a row of spinach.  The final long bed got two rows of onion seedlings and a row of beet seeds.

That left four small perimeter beds left to plant when the rain chased me out of the garden and into the house.  It wasn't much rain but more is predicted for during the night and it will be great to have all the newly planted stuff get a little rain.

And now a little bit about the deer in the big garden.   A couple weeks ago I had planted some kohlrabi, beets and onions.  They were all seedlings, the kohlrabi was a bit bigger but the others were pretty tiny.  I came back the next day and some of the kohlrabi had been eaten.  I was unable to locate the beets and onions so I am not sure if they were eaten too or just were too small and didn't make the transplanting and uncooperative (cool nights, cloudy but dry and brutal winds) weather.

Last weekend Nathan and Michelle and Nikole and Brad were at the farm along with their dogs Reese and Greta and Honey and Indiana.  We spent some time in the garden.  I would like to have the garden be no-till but it might be a bigger project than I can handle without tilling.  We will have to see how it evolves.  So we tilled the one end of the north half and planted the vine crops.  There were 110 plants in all including zucchini and yellow summer squashes, cantaloupe, and acorn, delicata and butternut winter squashes.  The area that will hold the sweetcorn was also tilled and after the kids left that area was readied and planted with 15 rows of sweetcorn.

We are growing six kinds of tomatoes, a hybrid slicer, two heirloom slicers, one paste and two cherry tomatoes.  The hybrid slicer, paste and one of the heirloom slicers went in first.  A row of each.  The next day I noticed that some of them had been broken off and the tops left laying and some were gone completely.  I was really surprised that they would be eaten.  I replanted and it was just about dusk when I finished and the very next morning some of them were gone.  I have three big dogs and although the garden is on the edge of the property and kind of separated from the house I really didn't expect to have so many repeat visitors.  I really cannot afford to fence the whole thing in and I don't want to unless I have to, so I checked the internet and came up with a list of things to try.  The easiest was to hang foil pie pans from strings to make noises in the breeze.  Mom and Dad were coming to the farm so i asked them to pick up some pans for me and by nightfall I had replanted the tomatoes, planted the other tomato varieties that had not been planted yet and as a test a couple of eggplant seedlings and Brussels sprout seedlings.   I have nine fence posts down the center of my garden and they all got a foil pan wind chime.  I also hung some on the trellising for a total of 12.  That was yesterday.  Today I walked to the garden and found that there were no new eaten tomatoes.  The eggplant and Brussels sprouts were just like when I planted them.  One night is not a guarantee of ongoing success.  It has been an extremely windy spring but that doesn't mean it will always be windy enough to move the pans and make noise so I am going to try a few other deterrents as well.  And keep my fingers crossed.

Thanks kids for all the help.  I will try to get a few pictures to share. 

Strawberry moon arising...

Made me think of CCR's Bad Moon Rising so I had to go to you tube to take a quick listen.  While I was there I listened twice.  Still a great song.  I was a kid when it was released.  I may have even listened to it as an oldie.

I had some of my kids at the farm this weekend and all of the dogs--8 dogs total, including the three that live here.  What a great time.  I had some help with the garden, weeding and tilling.  I am still planting and to be honest we have still been having some nights drop into the 30s so it is probably fine that we are getting a later start.  We have had terrible wind so the plants already in the ground have taken a beating.  The water timer is working well.  Tonight some rain is predicted but unless we get a bunch I think I will let the sprinklers do their thing in the morning also.  Hoping to post some pictures soon once I get everything in the ground and looking presentable.  I have not had much success selling plants in the farmstand.  I may have been late getting them out there, so I will be looking for space to plant those plants as well. 

garden update

It has been 10 days since the last post.  Doesn't hardly seem possible.  I have been keeping busy.  The lawn is growing like crazy and between yesterday and today I finally got it mowed.  Parts of it was pretty long.  Last time I mowed I was only able to finish part of it before the rain so what didn't get done was really long now.  The nice thing about when that happens is that it makes for lots of grass clippings to collect and lay in the walking rows to help with weed control.  If the weeds keep growing like they are we will need lots of grass clippings.  So far I have enough for five or six rows. 

Nathan and Michelle were here this past weekend.  While they were here we got the rest of the sprinkler timer installed.  I had mounted it on the post and attached one hose and now four hoses are attached and they are all programmed.  I wanted to get the lawn mowed around the garden before I watered but I did turn it on to see if it was working and it is working great.  There is nothing planted yet in the west end of the garden so Zone 3 and 4 are turned off.  There are thunderstorms predicted for tonight and tomorrow so if we get a decent amount of rain I might be able to turn it off for tomorrow. 

I did get some stuff planted in the garden, some tomatoes, some kohlrabi and some peppers.  The very next day I noticed that some of the kohlrabi had already been nibbled on and a couple of the tomatoes had been sampled as well.  Lots more stuff to plant, both seeds and transplants.  Hoping the weather cooperates.  It has been kind of a cool wet spring.

I got the rings around the plum trees enlarged.  The pears are left to do and I have to spread some wood chips around but it is one of the tasks on my to do list so it is nice to make some progress.

I have this cute little distraction.

 Cait and Robb have a new dog.  She is a rescue puppy named Willow and I am babysitting while they travel to Kansas for the wedding of a college friend.   This weekend the rest of the dogs and their humans will be around.  We will be going to a nephew's grad party and maybe doing a little gardening.  Should be some exciting times.  I will try to get some pictures. 

catching up

It seems like there is so much to talk about that hasn't made it to a blog post yet, so I am trying to catch up.

May 18 is our last frost date

The farm is in zone 4 and resources list May 18 (Today) as our last frost date.  There is actually a frost warning for tonight.  Our expected low for tonight is right around 32.  It has been too wet to plant so I don't have any tender vegetables in the garden yet so nothing to cover tonight.  A couple of area friends were tossing around that dreaded S-word--snow--I hope that they are kidding.  It is cloudy so I suppose that anything is possible.

weekend weather

On Saturday this past weekend our area had some tornadoes and thunderstorms go through and I feel very fortunate to have missed the worst of it.  There was lots of tornado activity in the afternoon and early evening.  I am hearing reports of as many as ten tornadoes touching down or spotted in all directions within 40 miles of the farm.  I am not hearing reports of damage so hopefully that was minimal.  We also had rain and thunderstorms, receiving a couple of inches at the farm but only a few miles away the story was significantly different.  About four miles to the west there is lots of standing water and I talked to a friend who is about that far west but farther north and they had five inches in their rain gauge.  There is water standing in the fields and the road ditches and dredge ditches are full in some areas.  I took a few pictures from my car as I drove into town.

garden tools and toys

Between Mother's day and my upcoming May birthday my kids have gifted me with some great garden stuff.  I am truly blessed to have such wonderful kids.  Most of these are new this year but a couple are from previous years but they are some of my favorite tools so I included a picture.  I am excited to put them to use.  A garden cart from Nikole and Brad and assembled by Brad.  I have already used it to haul cement clocks down the driveway.  It says it will hold 900 pounds.  I had 240 pounds in it and was not able to pull it very well.  When I removed 80 pounds it pulled like a charm.  Thanks Nikole and Brad.

 Nathan and Michelle gave me a timer for my garden hoses.  I will be able to set it to automatically water my big garden.  It can run four hoses.  I am thinking that I can get by with three but we will see.  Since it has been raining and everything is still muddy this is not hooked up yet but it will be by the time things have dried out a bit.  Thanks Nathan and Michelle.

 From Caitlin and Robb I got two new hoses which were desperately needed and

 a new rake.  It has the most interesting features.  The handle is hollow making the rake very lightweight and there is tines on one side and these notches on the other.  I think the notches will be great for leveling and spreading.  Thanks Caitlin and Robb.

 These are two of my favorite tools.  The red is a stirrup hoe.  It cuts on both the push and the pull making fast work of weeding.  I got this from Nikole and Brad last year.  Now that Bobbie has a garden she got one this year from them and I am predicting that she will love it.

The second tool is a hori hori.  It is a garden knife that I got from Nathan and Michelle a couple of years ago.  It has a wood handle and a slightly cupped (convex?) (concave?) blade that is serrated on one edge and has measurements down the center of the blade.  I use it mostly for weeding.  It works great for taproot type plants but I think that it would also work great for planting or transplanting. You can plunge it into the dirt and pull it toward you slightly to make a hole for dropping a bulb or seedling into. 

The farmstand 

The farmstand made it to the end of the driveway and soon it will be ready for plant sales and then later vegetable sales.  I need to put the signs up yet but it is in place.  As windy as it  has been lately I am hoping it won't need much in the way of dusting.  Tomorrow I will spend a good part of the day in the greenhouse sorting and organizing the seedlings so that I can set aside those plants that will go into my garden and those that have been grown for the gardens of our family.  The surplus will be offered for sale on the farmstand.  I will use my new cart to haul the plants back and forth between the farmstand and the greenhouse.

the baby goats

Yesterday the goats had their last hay in the barn and today were turned into the pasture with the rest of the herd.  They stayed right near the gate at first, eating the very first grass they came across.  The fresh green stuff is so much more interesting than that old dry stuff.  They are doing well, sturdy little goats who are sticking pretty close to mom yet.  I need to get a new picture of the babies. 

blog changes

I have been working a bit on the blog, I added my list of 2015 farm goals to the right side bar and am going to try to keep a running total of how much produce is generated from our gardens and fruits.  I have always been amazed when gardeners talk about how many pounds (or tons) of food that they have harvested.  I am going to try to keep track.  I have my little cute scale which so far is keeping up although I only have asparagus so far.

I am also finally getting caught up on recipes for the Mother's day food on my other blogs.  Feel free to check them out.  Click on the list at the top of the right side bar.  I am going to be making some dandelion jelly and spicy pickled asparagus so those recipes should show up there soon as well.

well, my new rain gauge works

On Mother's Day my new rain gauge had over three inches of rain in it.  There will be no gardening outside for a couple of days.  But there is still work to do in the greenhouse with the seedlings.  I did not have a chance to make dandelion jelly yet but there will be more opportunities for picking and using dandelion flowers.  I have a few flowers picked by Caitlin that are sitting  in my refrigerator and if I can get enough more while those are still good I will report how it turns out.

Last week in this post I mentioned in the last paragraph that I have a couple of events that I am cooking for and one of them was Mother's Day at my mom's house.  I am planning to serve the same food at both events using my Mom's dinner as a trial run on a couple of new recipes.  I brought a salad and an assortment of homemade candy bars for dessert.  I really liked the salad.  It is a Thai coleslaw, colorful and flavorful.  I would definitely make it again.  The candy bar assortment included homemade Trix, homemade Payday and homemade Butterfinger candy bars.  None were especially difficult and I thought they tasted good and similar to the originals.  All in all it was a fun culinary day. 

Thai peanut slaw

L to R- twix, payday and butterfinger

PS.  this post has been sitting on the blog in draft form for several days (since Mother's Day) just waiting for me to come back and hit publish.  Oops. 

A fun surprise

Today my mom and dad stopped to collect some cement blocks from the farm for a project that they have going on and while they were here they dropped off a rain gauge for me.  Mom called it an early birthday present and it is so cute.  I have for a long time had a collection of black and white cows in my kitchen.  At one time I had a lot of them but right now I am displaying only a few.  So the black and white cow on the rain gauge is similar to many others that I have.  Isn't it cute?

I placed it in the corner near the door that we always use to come and go from the house.  Hopefully it is far enough away from the house and trees for an accurate reading.  Last year we removed all the plants that were there and relocated them.  We added some dirt to correct the grade so that it ran away from the house and added the border.  Nikole and Brad brought out a pickup load of wood chips when they were out earlier this spring.  This is the area that will hold my herb garden.  My herbs will be in large pots sitting on top of the wood chips.  I have to admit that my mom has a knack for finding great gifts and will usually buy them when she sees them but a little bit of trouble waiting to give them at the appropriate time. :)  I am glad to  have it even if it is early and hope that she remembers when my birthday rolls around that she gave me this very cute rain gauge.  Thanks, Mom and Dad!!

Speaking of rain, we did have a nice downpour of at least a half inch of much needed rain.  I was even glad to give up on the mowing once the rain got started.  Tomorrow will be soon enough to get back at it.