Moving Outside

April 10, 2009 - After keeping the baby chicks inside for a week, it was DEFINITELY time to move them outside. For me, the nighttime tweeting was a bit loud, and the aroma of chicken poop in our living quarters started to get old. Joe didn't seem to mind having them inside at all, but luckily for me, he felt they needed more room than we could give them in our small space. So they were moved into their second home - the refrigerator. I must admit that Joe is very clever about these things and he created a very nice little home for the babies. There's lots to worry about - maintaining the proper warmth, having good air circulation, and also being protected from predators... but Joe's design has been working out perfectly, and the birds are very happy and safe -

The next step is to move them out into the chicken tractor Joe built last year for our first round of chicks. It's still way too cold to put the babies outside all the time. But on sunny days, Joe has started to move them into the tractor, where they are learning to scratch for food and having their first tastes of bugs and grass. Of course, this set up is well fortified because I'm sure there is nothing more tempting to surrounding wildlife than 30 tasty little chicken nuggets.

They are definitely too cute for their own good.

Greenhouse Days...

April 10, 2009 - The growing season officially began at Hardeman Orchards just a few weeks ago. Once the new plastic was on the greenhouse, John got busy seeding. Here are the beginnings of many happy vegetables that hopefully many people will come purchase from the farmstand!
After filling the seed trays and planting the seeds in the greenhouse, he places the trays in his germinating chamber inside. There are lamps and heat mats to keep everybody warm and toasty until they're ready to wake up. Some things germinate very quickly while others can take several days or even weeks. Once they've germinated, it's back out to the greenhouse, which is kept at 50 degrees at night and is generally quite toasty during the day.

With my work schedule, I haven't actually been able to spend a huge amount of time in the greenhouse yet. But I have had a few hours each weekend to spend helping out. The first project I participated in was potting up some flower plugs John had purchased. They come looking like this -

All tiny, cute, and happy. Then we pot them up into something bigger where they can have a long and happy summer. These geranium hanging baskets are going to be beautiful once they've filled in and begun to bloom -

Last weekend I spent a few hours seeding cabbage, collard greens, and lots of tiny little flower seeds. Hopefully sometime this weekend I'll get to go over and see if they've all come up!

What's Growing

March 28, 2009 - It's not even April yet and things are progressing very quickly here at Zen Acres. Each weekend I update a running report I keep on the status of all our seedlings. The idea is that next year when I'm seeding, I'll be able to reference my notes to get a better idea of how much of each veggie to seed and what worked and what didn't.

The point of my story though, is that my list of vegetables that I have to keep tabs on is getting incredibly long! Here's the list so far -

Arugula

Mesclun

Onions

Bell peppers

Cayenne peppers

Habanero peppers

Eggplant

Romaine lettuce

Mixed lettuces

Brandywine tomatoes

Rainbow cherry tomatoes

Blondkopfchen cherry tomatoes

Crnkovic tomatoes

Czech's Bush tomatoes

German Pink tomatoes

Amish Paste tomatoes

Swiss chard

Broccoli

Cabbage

Brussells sprouts

Italian Basil

Sweet Basil

Purple Basil

Cilantro

Celery

Kale

And there's still more to be seeded in the next few weeks!!!

Today was an absolutely beautiful, warm, sunny day, so almost everything went out in the greenhouse. Here's the pretty shot of the happy plants -

Plus, last weekend we started our direct planting over in the garden at my mom's. We put a few pea seedlings that we had already started, plus a full row of new seeds into the ground. We also planted a short row of spinach and some radishes - not a favorite of ours, but they grow so quickly (3 weeks til harvest) that they're just really satisfying this time of year.

Since we were expecting a few nights below freezing right after our seeding, we covered the newly planted rows with some of the old greenhouse plastic, hoping it would keep it warm and moist for better germination. Upon examination today, it doesn't seem like anything's happened yet, but we've got our fingers crossed. The next few days are going to be pretty warm and the nights won't be below freezing, so we left the plastic off today.

The row on the left is where the peas and radishes are. The second row to the right of that is completely covered with plastic. We're hoping that by keeping it warm under there, any weed seeds will sprout and we can get rid of them before we plant the row.

We threw down a few rows of arugula seed today over there as well - it's our absolute favorite spring time treat.

Last but not least, we have garlic coming up! Last fall Joe planted several heads and last weekend they started to peak out of the soil. Today, they are really starting to look substantial!

We figure we've got around 40 or 50 plants in the ground, which will be a pretty decent harvest for our first time out. We eat a lot of garlic, so it probably won't supply us for a year, but it'll help. You know, even though you're generally supposed to plant garlic in the fall, I read that you can actually plant it in the spring too. Both plantings will be ready for harvest in the fall, but the spring planting will just be a bit smaller. I think we'll probably plant a few more heads soon, just to test this out. And because you can never have too much garlic.

Little Peepers

March 23, 2009 - Joe got a call from the post office this morning at 7:15 letting him know that our new baby chicks were arriving on the 7:30 am truck. He was out the door without breakfast, sooo excited to meet our new friends! Watch this video to see how they come -

There are 50 birds in this box - they aren't ALL ours - Joe ordered them together with a neighbor of ours. But 31 of these adorable little girls are going to live with us from now on.

They were hatched and shipped out on Friday, so the very first thing to do is get them some water. They tell you to actually force each one individually to take a drink, so that they learn how and will seek it out again on their own. Joe got a larger plastic box ready -

and then lifted them one by one out of their shipping box (where things are a bit crowded)-

gave them each a drink -

and then set them down with a little more room.

Marina, the proud mama of the rest of the birds, rushed over to meet her new babies, and everybody got to work trying to identify Araucanas from Silver Spangled Hamburgs, Red Stars from Rhode Island Reds, Buff Orphingtons from Buff Rocks, and Black Giants from Black Australorps.

In the end, who knows if we each ended up with the right birds!

Joe's big plan was to keep them in an old refrigerator he found that he has refashioned into a brooder. But it's still a bit too chilly outside, so he has decided we're keeping them inside for a few days. Remember how small our place is? Can't exactly get away from the 'peep, peep, peep.' We can't let the poor little ones freeze to death though, so I guess I'm on board. We'll see how I feel after I spend my first night with them...

For now, they're in the corner in this wooden box Joe just built -

In a few days, they'll move into the fridge on the back porch -

There's a mega heat lamp in there that will keep them warm and that cord is attached to this -

which is just inside the door and will keep us updated on the temperature inside the brooder. Joe tested it out, and it did get up to around 90 degrees, which is what you have to keep them at for their first few days.

Very exciting!

Transformations

March 15, 2009 - It was a weekend of many transformations for us, as the quickly approaching spring forces us into action. It was in the upper fifties on Saturday and Sunday, pefect weather for being motivated to get lots of things done. Plus I even got some sun!


Saturday, we started the day by making some changes in our apartment. So far we've been dabbling in some early seeding, but next weekend it's time to get serious. So we had to set up a slightly more efficient system before seed trays take over our home. Joe had the very clever idea to take full advantage of our full length, south-facing window in the kitchen. Before, there was a counter with a cabinet underneath blocking the lower half of the window -


Now, we have shelves to put our planting trays on so that they can get as much sun as possible on days when the greenhouse is still a little too chilly -

Cooking last night was a challenge with so much less counter space - er, none, basically. But it's a small sacrifice for lots of happy seedlings. Plus, it's temporary. Come May, everything will be outside.

Next on the list was getting the garden space at mom's house ready, because next weekend we also start planting a few things outdoors! Joe had done a lot of cleanup work late last fall, which made this a relatively easy job. Basically we were left with all the plants that we were still eating from into the fall - broccoli, brussel sprouts, collard greens, etc. Here's what was left of them -

I spent a few hours composting all the old plants, raking up the garden, and collecting and rolling the fencing. At the end of the day, it looked like this -

On Sunday, Joe came over to help me finish the job by putting up all the fencing. Last year we had many different fenced beds so that the chickens could run around between the gardens and eat all the bugs. It was definitely challenging getting in and out of a million fences. Plus we were constantly changing the fencing setup, so it was a bit like an ever-changing maze. Not this year though - no chickens at mom's means one very straight forward fence encompassing the entire garden space. One gate. Always in the same place. I'm excited. It's hard to see, but this picture shows the whole fenced in garden - it measures 55' by 32'.

Plus he tilled up one row in the back there (the left hand side of this picture) for us to plant our first crops next weekend. Can't wait to get started!

And now for the biggest project this weekend - I had been waiting for the call from John Hardeman that would say the weather was just right and everything was in place. It came on Saturday night. Sunday was the day. The greenhouse was getting a new skin!

Joe and I arrived after John and Campbell had already taken down the old plastic.
The three men lifted the 300+ pound roll of new plastic up onto the ridge of the house, and carefully rolled it down the length of it.

Joe was completely in his element - he's a monkey and he loves to climb -



It was a double skin, so once they got both layers up on top, they pulled the plastic down both sides.I had the very important job of making sure the whole thing didn't blow off in one strong gust of wind. Too bad the wind was coming from the north. The men were sweating from the hard work and the heat that the plastic was already capturing, while I stood still shivering in the cold, shaded corner.


Once it was all on, they had to secure it to the frame on all sides -

I thought they looked pretty cool with their heads popping up against the perfect blue sky -
Here's me giving orders - oh wait, no, this is me taking orders. For lunch. :)
Here's the happy crew during lunch break - all still in one piece. Joe and I had to head out after lunch, leaving John and Campbell to finish tying down the sides. But by now, that greenhouse should be all ready to go. The outside temperature while we worked was about 57 degrees. The thermostat is set to kick the fan on when it reaches 100 degrees inside. It kicked on before the plastic was even firmly secured. Gotta love how that stuff works.

The very last transformation this weekend was not one of ours, but one of mother nature's - Friday night we took one of our regular evening walks down to the river (my favorite part of the day lately) and we found this -

If you recall, just a few weeks ago the river looked a little different - What are YOU doing to get ready for spring??? Ready or not - here it comes!

A Taste of Spring

March 8, 2009 - Hooray for warm weather! Both yesterday and today were in the upper 50's! Unfortunately it's not going to stay for long, but it's nice to get a taste of what is very soon to come. AND it was the perfect weekend to try out our greenhouse that Joe built and give the plants a special dose of sun and heat. He set it up with this very cool bench to set our plants on -

Here's me bringing the plants in at the end of the day - In my right hand are some pea plants. We sprouted the seeds in a jar inside because last season very few of them came up so we wanted to test the seed. Once they sprouted Joe stuck them in some dirt and they're looking very happy.

The bigger pots in the front are some onion seedlings that I transplanted because they were getting so TALL. There are still a bunch that haven't germinated, so I'm hoping there's still a chance that they'll come up. Otherwise, it looks like we'll have about 8 onions this year...

We also decided to take advantage of the weather yesterday and head over to our property (where we're building the house, remember?). It was my first time back since the fall when we closed down our tent site, and it sure was nice to be there. It's so beautiful and peaceful, and it was nice to remember how much we love it and how great the house is going to be. These are some pics Joe took of the stream -

We had to take some measurements because Joe has some new ideas about where exactly we're going to put the house. He continues to rework and improve the plans, as he's determined to get it just right. As of right now, I may have a sunny loft in my near future! Here he is flipping through books (which are beginning to overtake our tiny little apartment) looking for ideas -


To keep up with my weekend planting schedule, I started a bunch of pepper seeds yesterday. All our seedling are doing quite well. So far the growing season is off to a great start!

Celery, Eggplant, and Lettuce

Based on my planting schedule, these were next in the line up - I'm actually a bit late on the celery - this is my first year trying to grow it (as with the onions), so it'll be an experiment.

I pulled my potting soil out from the greenhouse, scrounged up a few more planting trays (which I washed throughly of course, to kill anything bad left over from last year), and got to work. I only needed a couple 6-packs of each of these vegetables, so it was an easy job. We don't eat all that much celery (mostly just in the fall in soups and stuffing), so a few plants will be more than enough. Eggplant didn't go so well for us last year. We didn't get much yield from our plants, so I'm not interested in giving them a lot of real estate in the garden this year. But I do want to give them another shot since they're yummy to eat. For the lettuce, this is just a first sowing and there will be many more throughout the season. It doesn't hold up too well in the garden and so you only want so much of it maturing at one time.

Here's the finished celery and eggplant packs -

You'll notice the little markers labeling the rows. I haven't been able to bring myself to buy plastic markers so last year I tried popsicle sticks. Problem is - the wood got sort of moldy from all the moisture in the seeding trays - not good. So this year I knew I had to stick with plastic. I ended up using an empty milk container -

I washed it thoroughly and then cut it up into nice little seed markers. Recycling at it's best. Joe was proud.

In case you're wondering how I came up with my planting schedule - it's partly from the seed packet instructions, but also from my very favorite planting book -

What I love so much about this book is that he has it organized by month. You could pick it up at any point during the year, and know what vegetables you could be starting right then. Plus, seed packets only tell you when you can FIRST plant the vegetable. But for a year round harvest, you should actually be making several sowings of a lot of vegetables - for example you can plant peas and beans in the late summer for a fall harvest! This guy knows how to make the most of a garden, which is important if you're trying to feed your family year round.

Oh, but if you do read his book - ignore his soil and pest management techniques. They're outdated and well, not organic. Otherwise, the man's got a lot to offer.