New Humongous Row Garden

I have written about the plans for the new row garden for the last few days. This plan (idea) has been brewing for the entire winter and now we have begun working on it. The rain has slowed the appearance of the excavator but we got another huge load of compost yesterday and deposited it near the new garden area to be worked into the soil. That makes 3 or 4 big loads now. Should be good soil (probably already is) for the garden. I have been trying to convince my husband that a 'no-till' method would be favorable to a traditional row garden. He likes the old-fashioned (Read: tillable for weeding purposes) row garden and I like the permanent paths with slightly raised beds that remain the same every year. We would rotate the crops of course, but the basic layout would be the same. I have been reading a little about cover crops and with the sheer scale of this undertaking, I think some of the beds will need to be planted with a cover crop this year and uncovered and implemented next year. I like to get the 'bones' of a project completed and then fine tune it as time goes on. That way we aren't disrupting our crops as we define areas from the previous year. The gray areas are the main paths that we would be able to drive a yard tractor or a 4 wheeler with a trailer on for access and ease of adding compost and the like. I guess I still need the 4 wheeler but I have a nice yard tractor. The green represents the actual planting beds, and the white around them would be smaller paths for accessing the growing area for planting and weeding. And finally, the yellow is the corn area on the north end. Here I would be willing to let my husband do it his way, with a rototiller in his paths as I suspect the corn will be his baby. I like things to be neat and orderly. His obscession with tidiness is non-existent. (As I read him that part, he mentioned that I pick on him here sometimes, which is certainly not my intention. I tease him constantly about his lack of neatness and he reminded me that he sleeps way better than me and maybe I should be more like him. Maybe in the next decade I will accomplish the zen-like attitude he has about not sweating the small stuff. For now, we laugh at each other and our quirks. I will continue to remain grateful that he puts up with my OCD and high strung personality:D)

Asparagus From Seed

 

Look what I have!!! I planted asparagus from seed last year and waited and waited for one of these babies to pop up. I finally gave up when a funny little fern-like plant came up instead. I was actually going to pull it out when I noticed that there were matching ones in all the other places I planted the seeds so I left them and waited for a sprig of asparagus to come up anyway. Well, not having grown this before, my wait was in vain.  The first year you won't get the actual spears, you only get the plants. Then this year I got one or two of these near each of the mother plants. The instructions say to dig them up and lay them in shallow trenches covering them with more dirt as they grow but I am bucking the system and doing it my own way. I planted them in rows and spaced them appropriately so I am leaving them right where they are. They are in one of the shallower 4x10 raised beds and I plan to leave them there for all eternity. These things grow wild on ditch banks all over Idaho and I figure I can grow them without too much fuss if mother nature can do it with no effort at all. I won't be able to harvest any of the spears this year either. I will let them go to seed to propagate more plants and maybe a very light harvest next season. By the fourth year I should be good to go. I would love to have a much larger space for this veggie as my whole family loves it so maybe I will dedicate a spot in the new (humongous) row garden. We will have to see. For now I was excited to see my patience pay off. Yeah!

What DId I Get Myself Into?

We have been talking about adding a row garden into the north field all winter. We actually started planning it last fall but just didn't get it done for spring. My husband wants to grow corn, melons, and some of the larger plants in this garden so my raised bed garden stays neat and tidy. I thought, no problem, I only work 3 days per week, I can handle it. He said he thought 100 x 40 would be a nice size. I agreed. Did I mention I don't visualize very well? Well in reality that is 1/3 of a football field. Dammit. He scraped it off and called me to come look at it. Crap. That is one big area. I actually started to panic. I don't sleep if things still need weeding. I know I have mentioned my 'issues' with mild OCD. Well, that is one of the ways it manifests itself. Still have weeds, no sleep. This picture does not truly represent the scope of the size here. I had a better picture from the other end but the barn is in that picture and the barn is very ugly. I am not really ready to show off an ugly old (old is the key word here) milking barn. No, I don't milk cows. There is just so much cement in the flooring in that barn, it's easier to leave it standing and let the goats live in it, than to dynamite all the cement out of it. It really was a masterpiece of engineering for it's day. Maybe I will show you the barn someday:D


I have some plans as to how to build this garden. My husband want a true old fashioned row garden he can weed with a rototiller. I want permanent paths with slightly raised wide rows in a no-till garden. I have a feeling it will be a combination of both. Corn, his way. Everything else my way. See how we compromise? I want the path down the center and one perpendicular to that to be drivable with a garden tractor or four-wheeler. That will make adding compost much easier every year. I will draw a big map of what I envision and let you all help me plan it better. I love input. That will be tomorrow. Today, you get to see the site of the future end of my free time. The excavator is coming on Friday and the Bobcat will likely follow. Even in a no-till garden, if you are converting field to garden you must till it first. Then plan to be kind to the soil for the rest of your life.

Finally in the Garden!

I am so excited to finally get into the raised bed garden. It has seemed like the longest snow melting season in history even though this time last year we were still covered in snow. Maybe two heavier snow years in a row has worn me down. But I am over it now. I even braved the wind to go outside. Don't get the wrong idea... Idaho isn't always windy, just in the spring when you really want to go out. It will die down soon enough it just irritates me to no end. I think I even got a sunburn on my face. Whoohoo!

 

I worked 6 of my 12 beds today. We turned them and added compost to each one. I like lots of compost. It makes things grow better in my garden. In case you're wondering the metal grates over each box are cattle panel that is rigid and sits on top of each bed. This keeps the cats out. And the dogs out. I learned this after the first year without them. But it still allows the goats to eat whatever they want. Really they leave everything but the strawberries alone. Goats are browsers so they will eat anything dry and leave most things that aren't. Except strawberries, grapes, red twigged dogwood bushes, new fruit trees, roses. You get the idea.

 

 

I also planted two beds full of peas. These little trellises are planted with Green Arrow shelling peas on either side of each wooden trellis. That will be lots of peas to harvest and freeze for winter eating. I can't wait. I haven't tried Green Arrow before so hopefully they will taste great. They came highly recommended.

 

And last but certainly not least this 4 x 10 bed is another bed of shelling peas. Maestro is the name of this pea and they were the shelling pea I planted last year and loved. Great flavor and good storage in the freezer. My only problem with this pea was that I did not plant enough of them. This year I ought to have plenty. We used metal stakes to make a zigzag pattern and ran string between each one at 6 levels. I planted peas on each side of the strings so that I could harvest all the peas without having to get into the bed and smash down the dirt. Rows would have made me have to climb in. I think this is a viable alternative. We will see how it goes. This too is experimental this year.  I will keep you posted. 

The package the seeds came in said to plant as soon as I could work the earth. Today I could work the dirt so I planted. I hope they can truly handle frost (freeze) as that is destined to happen in these here parts. Like how I said "these here parts"? Makes is sound like I ought to start the post with "howdy pardner". Maybe the next post.

Run on Chickens

When we planned to order chickens for eggs, I never in a million years would have imagined that they would be hard to come by. I called and was online all morning with different reputable hatcheries from around the country. There has been a huge run on chicks. I was looking at ship dates in late May and early June. Maybe. No one could guarantee that I would even get them then. Some places had some but not all of what I would like to order and other places had next to nothing. I guess America is starting to see that knowing your food and it's source is of vital importance.

So here is the lineup of what I ordered from Randall Burkey this morning. This first picture is of a Barred Plymouth Rock. Docile, good layer and cold hardy.

This one is a Black Australorp. Also prized for its friendly nature, good large eggs and cold hardiness. I find that I am attracted to speckled chickens and tried to order a couple kinds of solid colored birds to make them an attractive mix.

This one is called a Buff Orphington. A pretty and large bird that is friendly and curious. Great for egg production and can still lay in good conditions during the winters of Idaho.

This beauty is called a Gold Laced Wyandotte and they are truly pretty birds. My husband was still skeptical about the probability of a pretty chicken until I took him back to the egg lady's house and he got to see one first hand. My friend, Brenda, has truly been my inspiration for having my own backyard flock.

This one is a Silver Laced Wyandotte and is a relative of the golden one above. Both are friendly and mild mannered coupled with great egg production. I love the pattern in their feathers. Each feather looks like it's own lace piece. Very pretty!

And last but not least, I ordered this interesting one. It is a Speckled Sussex. Good in all of the categories that mattered to me. I like the unique feathers and coloration of the whole bird.

These images are all borrowed from Google Images as I don't even know for sure yet when my chicks will ship. We are going to begin building our chicken house in the next week, I hope. I ordered a total of 30 birds which is about double what I needed. I figure there will be a learning curve even though I researched all winter. The hatchery I ordered from had a 25 bird minimum and I just have a gut feeling they will conveniently be out of at least one they promised me at shipping time. Most places have a 25 bird minimum as they are packaged to keep each other warm. I also paid extra to have them sexed so I have as few roosters as possible. We have quite a bit of family close by that will benefit from my over zealous ordering habits. I will keep you updated on our progress. I can't wait to start being a chicken keeper!

Mother Nature, Why Do You Hate Me?

 

I was not very excited to see this scene this morning.  Mother Nature has a cruel sense of humor or maybe none at all. I thought I had been good this year. I tried not to be mean to people, not even my family. I opened doors for people, I even donated my time on a few projects in my community. Why then, am I being punished? I had plans this weekend. I want to plant my cool weather crops. I intended to put the pea zig-zag in use. I even planned out how to build a nice little compost sifter. And now this. On a brighter note, it did melt over the next few hours and warmed up without blowing wind. These are all good things around here. You know what they say........ If you don't like the weather in Idaho, just wait a minute. Actually, my sister said they say this in Texas but according to the weather channel, they are probably saying it all over the nation. Hope your day was filled with sunshine and good dirt!

Peas in a Row? Aha Moment

OK, so I am sure that most people have a solid planting plan for peas. I on the other hand do not and I have actually lost sleep (not much) over how to get the best bang for my buck, so to speak. I have mentioned before that I have some issues with tidiness. Maybe that is obvious to anyone following this blog for any length of time, but I am no longer ashamed of it and use it to my advantage. My rows are usually strait, I like the beds to look organized.... that kind of thing. But I really wanted to maximize the planting of the peas because I plan to harvest and preserve as many as possible. So.... while sitting in a beginners gardening class on Tuesday night, this was brought up and it was an Aha Moment for sure. What about planting in a zigzag pattern lengthwise down the bed. This way all sides are accessible from the outside of the bed. Maybe most everyone knows this one and I am way behind but I thought it was good enough info to share. I cannot believe I have never thought of this before but you know how that goes? Sometimes it takes a lightning bolt. You would set up your stakes and string or whatever pea trellises you use, as the above diagram shows. Then you would plant along both sides of the zigzag as shown by the green lines. Viola', maximized growing space in a 4 x 10 bed. OK, so I have the 4 x 10 bed, but you get the idea. 10 years of gardening and this little tidbit never occurred to me.