The Yard is Waking Up!

Plum seedling, now with little buds!

We've already planted a few new seeds in the yard (vit and snap peas), though nothing has come up yet. Well, not nothing. I'm mostly convinced this tiny shoot (below) is vit and not a weed. Mostly.

A weed? Or the first sprout of the season. I vote the later.

But the plum tree has buds, the rhubarb (2 of 3) are emerging from the ground, and our experimental kale overwintered beautifully. Tomorrow I'll do another sprinkling of lettuce and other greens and the season is underway.  We need lots more dirt (maybe delivered?) and two more raised beds built if we want to double our space from last year to this.

Garlic, planted in fall, shooting up in the mulched raised bed.

PS: yes, all those little round bits are Winston's contribution to the garden this year. Bunny poop is the only animal poop you can add directly to the soil. It is nutritious, but not so filled with nitroge that is hurts the plants.

Changes Afoot in the Garden

Last week I was so pissed off with the cauliflower, that I considered pulling it out completely. It takes up probably a fifth of the space in its raised bed. It attracts bugs. It shades everything. It's sort of the worst. But now I'm glad I didn't make that choice. A gorgeous, currently bug-free head of cauliflower is developing this week and it should be mighty tasty. Allegedly, if you cut off the head, another smaller one will grow. I don't really know how to do that, though, because it's pretty difficult to get to. 

The blueberry bush is looking healthy. We planted it in a deep hole that we filled with sandy soil and soil acidifier. The berries are really tart, but I like them that way. I think all in all, we got about a pint of berries, which isn't bad at all for the first year.

Another huge, annoying plant was the brussel sprouts. As you can (maybe) see, though, they are developing sprouts all along the center stalk. Yippee! Two stalks will net a few pounds of brussel sprouts, which is plenty for us.

As I mentioned last post, the chickens are escape artists. We're constructing a new pen so they can roam any time we're home. It's proving a far bigger pain in the ass than we anticipated. And no, it isn't a trick camera angle, nothing on that sucker is level.

The garden looks so lush and happy! Weeds aren't really a problem, since the plants have gotten so big.

There's the first little jalapeno!

And snap peas are forming all over the unruly vines. Next year, even though they are not supposed to need trellising, I will trellis them madly. They are leaning every which way and impeding the carrots' progress.

The last of the lettuce has bolted. I should really pull this out and plant something else, but it's so shady it'd be hard for a new plant, and I'm curious about what happens next. Where do the seeds come from?

Another cool surprise is the bed of tiger lilies growing on the side of the house. They make things look cheerful now that the roses and peonies are out of commission.

Early girl tomatoes are setting in droves! Now all we need is a few more sunny days and we should be drowning in tomatoes all summer!

I'm a bad blogger...

It's been about 2 weeks since I've posted anything. That doesn't mean that nothing's been happening, it just means I've been lazy. That, and my camera is acting unreliably, so I take all these pictures, can't get any of them to upload, and get annoyed.

Chickens:

The ladies are getting huge! They've been out in their coop for 2 weeks now, and are only just learning to put themselves to bed at sundown. This feels like an enormous victory, since I won't have to pick them up and chuck them inside so often. They've also become escape artists! The other morning, I went inside for a few minutes while they were in their pen. When I came back out, two of them were happily pecking... on the other side of the chicken wire! I can't figure out how they got there. It's pretty high for them to have flown over, and I couldn't find a spot for them to squeeze under. Mystery. Because of the great escape, we need to up the ante on chicken security. This afternoon, we're planning to build a new pen. One with a roof, and with a person-sized door. We can let the babies into this new pen in the morning so they have more time to roam, and then force them into the really predator proof run and coop at night. I think they'll be happier for this. The portable pen can go into retirement until fall when we need to sequester the ladies in the garden beds so they can eat all the bug larvae.

Garden:

Things are getting enormous! The snap peas, which you aren't supposed to have to trellis, are almost collapsing under their own weight. I'm going to try to give them something new to climb up this week. They already buried the little metal stake I put in a month ago. The corn and beans are about a foot tall, and my Early Girl tomatoes have a ton of green fruit on them and the limbs of the plant come up past my waist!

Strangely, we have very few pests in the garden beds, but a TON of pests in the plants in pots on the patio. The cherry tomato has (had) aphids, but I sprayed it with Neem last week. For those who don't know, Neem is a plant oil that kills aphids, larvae, and adult bugs. It's ok for organic gardening, but should be used sparingly, since it also harms beneficial insects. The butterflies are laying their eggs in the center of the cauliflower and collard plants, so hand-picking the eggs doesn't work. Every morning there are new caterpillar attacks. Since the Neem, though, I don't see any new worms. It's just a matter of whether or not the plants will bounce back. I've said it before: I am NOT planting cauliflower next year. They take up too much room, take too long to grown, and attract far too many pests to the party.

House:

We are DONE with the floor sanding, which is good, because my knees are pretty seriously bruised from the job. Still haven't received the floor stain, so now it's a game of trying not to ruin the bare floors when we walk on them. I expect the stain to arrive by this Friday at the latest. In the meantime, we'll work on staining the trim for the living and dining rooms, and building a secure pen for the babies. The eco-friendly paint did arrive, so the dining room wall is a lovely yellow, and the hallway is green. Very green. It's a bit Irish Pride Parade, if you ask me. However, I'm hoping to temper the color with a lot of hanging greenery.

The problem with green paint is that it's just one color. Greens in nature are so much more dynamic. I pick something I think looks like grass, but there's no variation and I'm always a little disappointed. I don't think I'm going to post any pictures of the house until the big reveal when the living room and dining room are all done.

Miscellaneous:

On a hot tip from my parents, we learned you could grow a pineapple tree from the top of a pineapple. The trees have to come inside in winter, but how cool is that? We bought pineapples (even though they were from far away) in the hope that we could have our own pineapples a few years from now! You can also grow trees directly from the seeds of stone fruit like peaches or apricots. I'm waiting to find the fruit varieties that thrive in PA at the market later this summer, and then I'll sprout them as well.

We got what I think is the bumper crop of blueberries for the season: about a pint. I tried to eat them quickly, but we'll need to freeze them. Could be fun in blueberry pancakes later in the year! Blueberry jam of syrup doesn't seem as exciting.

The strawberry bourbon vanilla jam looks glorious! I only have two jars, so one for giving, one for eating. Seeing the shelf fill up a bit with new goodies for the coming year makes me feel secure in some arcane way. It also signals that I can use up the last of last year's frozen bounty. I still have a one gallon bag of whole tomatoes, and one gallon of crushed. Pasta sauce and chili will be happening this week. We've been eating horribly since friends were in town (always happens) so it will be nice to get back on track. No pizza! No pierogies! No pitchers of beer!

Weekend Progress

Inside the house:

Curiosity got the best of us and we began ripping down the trim and panelling in the living room. We're delighted to find that there are actual plaster walls underneath and not just cinder block or frame (though given the home's age that wouldn't make a lot of sense.) We are a little dismayed at what bad shape they're in. Do stud finders not work on plaster walls? Because someone dug a dozen holes in this section alone trying to find them.

I also found a vintage dining room table and five chairs for an excellent price. They fit the room perfectly and the couple who runs the furniture store delivers for 25$! Yes, we could have hauled it into the truck ourselves, and up the trillion stairs, but it was great to have someone else lift heavy stuff for once.

Isn't the detailing on the chairs so fun?

Outside progress:

I revised my initial planting plan a bit since we only had one bed in the ground and filled with soil. We keep a binder with all the home stuff like beer recipes we like, cheese successes, garden plans, and all the receipts for the house projects.

The peonies are looking excellent! I wonder what colors they'll be. Had I known the house came with peonies, I'd probably have bought it sooner.

There is ONE BERRY on a few of the strawberry plants, which is pretty thrilling.

AND: the first raised bed is in the ground, level-ish, and planted with the cold hearty veggies like spinach, peas, and root vegetables. We had a nice sprinkle last night; now all we need is good sun for the next few days and magic should happen.

Progress not pictured: we framed up the other raised bed, I bought paint for the living room and kitchen, Alex fixed the back screen door, and I dug a few trenches for Asparagus. I thought about planting them, but the soil temperature should really be a bit higher than it is right now. We're still digging out from under the pile of dirty laundry we took with us from the old house (our washer and dryer at the apartment were broken and expensive.) Somehow, though, the laundry machine pictures didn't turn out as gripping as I thought they'd be...

Gardening Progress / A Local Food Rant

Three weeks ago I helped a good friend plant a veggie garden at her new rented house. We split the cost of seeds (I spent less than 30 bucks), the weeding chores, and the planting. We really haven't a clue what we're doing, but I went over today and sure enough a bunch of lovely seedlings are popping out of the ground:

lettuce
edamame
sugar snap peas
chard
beets
purple carrots
orange carrots
broccoli rabe
peppers
herbs

Pictures of the garden forthcoming!

Then in my little containers at my apartment I've planted basil, tomatoes, and tomatillos! It's so fun to watch things grow, and i've been fertilizing the potted plants with the "tea" from my compost bin (a.k.a. trash juice.) We weren't sophisticated enough this grow season to space out our plantings so they'd mature at different times. Oh well. Next time.

This week I've been reading Barbara Kingsolver's book about eating local for a year: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. It's great! She has some excellent points about the ethics of eating. We don't find it impolite for vegetarians to request non-meat items at dinner, but it's percieved as preachy or nitpicky in our society to ask that our food not travel around the globe to get to us. Eating seasonally is seen as deprivation (I see it that way sometimes, certainly!) Kingsolver writes, "The conspicuous consumption of limited resources has yet to be accepted widely as spiritual error, or even bad manners."

Isn't it more of a deprivation to eat crappy asparagus that's bitter and grimmy outside the 4 weeks (That's IT!) each year it's in season? Or munch on tasteless, mealy apples and tomatoes? Isn't it deprivation that we loose many varieties of seeds each year because of factory farming practice and modification of plant species so that they travel well? Don't get me wrong: I'm not an extremist! I won't stop using spices from Asia. I won't grow wheat on the roof to make my own bread. There are some very real advantages to living in the 21st century. But I will try when it comes to vegetables and fruits to do a better job. Growing my own is a great start, as is supporting local farmers. Dairy is easy to get locally as well. And even if my grains and legumes come from elsewhere, it's still MUCH more environmentally (and economically) sound to purchase and eat whole foods than it is to buy multi-ingredient foods of the processed and boxed variety, which have HUGE footprints. It's cheaper too. And healthier. It's not faster, but I'm not sure what I'd be doing with the time I saved by eating Easy-Mac.

It annoys the HELL out of me when people roll their eyes at me and call me a hippie. Americans have this sense of entitlement. We think we're sophisticated for eating blackberries in the dead of Winter, without regard for what those choices are doing to the rest of the planet and future generations. Catch me in the right mood and I feel this way too. It's irresponsible and sickening. My views aren't radical. They aren't original or groundbreaking; why are things so ass-backward that they're frequently percieved as such?