Our Week in Pictures

The past week has been a bit of a whirlwind, between Little M's first hotel stay and then surgery, casts, and cast removal, several family visits (grandpa, cousins, and then cousins again), first snake sightings of the season (a gophersnake and a rubber boa!), a quick vet visit for Lily (the 4 year old 'puppy') to determine that the alarmingly large & rapidly appearing lump was just a bruise, all on top of the usual spring gardening chores. I'll show you through our week in pictures, ok?

first hotel stay and acceptable bed-jumping = happy hyper girl!

silliness

Pool jumping!

hot tub time with daddy

once the fun left the pool and entered the hot tub, mama got out to read and get ready to snuggle a worn out girl!

Dopey little girl from pre-surgery funny drugs prior to anesthesia

post-op rage when I was expecting neediness (mama take them off -- sorry, I can't love bug -- NO! GO!).

quickly adapting to the casts, happy smiley girl showing back through once more

Cousins! all the better to decorate my casts mom!

Started turning over the soil in the back of the garden for this years dry bean bed

get well soon card from a friend (see those decorated casts?!)

Transplanted the largest peppers and tomatoes into larger pots, the shelf is getting filled quickly!

Figuring out how to eat her favorite food (white cheese 'sticks') with limited arm and hand mobility

Planting potatoes

Digging in the garden

Ummm... getting rather filthy in the garden... Oops! Luckily the casts come off in 24 hours from this point!

 

Saw the first hummingbird of the season, so put up the feeder - no bird on feeder pictures yet, but soon!

One last picture before my casts come off mama!

Bath for a dirty girl with no casts! (the bandages cover the dissolvable stitches for a bit longer

Happy Spring?

Not a lot to report here. We've been doing some more seed starting (some early romaine lettuce and lots of peppers followed the onions). Little M's sunflowers sprouted and are likely nearing the transplant out of their 4-pack stage. We of course got a very wet and very unwelcome 2-3 inches of fresh snow this morning, startling everyone as most of the snow had melted except in the deep spots down in the shadows of the hills in the fields down by the creek. Happily it was (mostly) melted by the time we got home this afternoon from an afternoon appointment down in the 'city'.

The gate into the new side garden area, as seen from the back deck.

The mister and I have been doing some great fence-building work. And by we, I really mean him, although I've been helping him keep the posts level and pound the dirt in around them! We've got a fair number in, including cross members making up the H-braces on the ends of the fence; many more than the 2 around the gate that the picture shows, I just couldn't bear to take a picture with all the new snow this morning! We're getting to the point where he'll need to cut some more from the woods if we are to continue, though. I think we might be able to make it work with what we have now in terms of the new garden space, with the addition of some temporary t-posts, and the additional fence area between the house and the new garden space will just be an added perk to keep the dogs a little more contained until we get the entire perimeter more secure. Once we have the fencing up on it, I'll do a more detailed post about the fencing stuff.

Hope you enjoyed the first day of spring in your neck of the woods!

Seed Starting with Little M

So last week Little M and I got the final components of our seed starting mix, combined the mix materials, left it to sit overnight to give the peat moss enough time to soak up water, and then the following night we started planting our garden seeds for 2013. That first night we just planted 2 types of onion seeds - Walla Walla & Cipollini, and a six pack of sunflowers for Little M. It kept us nice and occupied, filling our little pots, patting the soil in with the potting spoon, then carefully placing and covering the seeds. Then we covered them with a bit of plastic or a clear tub, and set them on the seed starting shelf unit, not yet under the light until they actually sprout. Little M has been back out to the sunporch several times since to check on her little seeds, ever the watchful mother, that one! Here are some pictures of her process, and some better daylight shots of the seed trays themselves.

New seeds for 2013

So Friday afternoon I called and spoke with the owner of our local garden store, to see when she would be around for Little M and I to drop by and pick up some seeds. As luck would have it, she was available the very next day, and Little M and I already had plans in town and would be driving right by her store. Saturday rolled around and we stopped in and picked up all the seeds on our needed list, as well as a few on the potential list.

Here is what we picked up:

Walla Walla Onion
Cipollini Onion
Dark Green Zucchini
Arugula
Romain Lettuce
Carrot Mix
Basil
Yellow Pepper

The only brand of seeds this store carries is Irish Eyes Garden Seeds, a relatively local (aka eastern WA) seed company. I was crazy happy with the seeds we got of theirs last year - our Walla Walla onions that we harvested last fall are just nearing the end of their lifespan, at about the same time as we are running out of them, and we really haven't started eating the more storage-type Cipollini onions. We did get a bumper crop though, and the onions are actually the one plant that I feel we nailed the right number to plant to harvest enough to get us through the winter & it looks promising to keep us in onions until the next crop is ready.

Other seeds we purchased from them last year included a packet of mixed hot pepper seeds. The peppers were great, although getting a hot mix resulted in Little M learning her first lesson of - no, don't eat that, its hot.... no.... okay lets run up and guzzle some milk there little one...We had one plant of what I think were long slim cayenne peppers (which Little M learned not to sample), and two plants that I think were both hungarian hot wax peppers, which were really great in stir fries for a bit of extra kick (although leaving them to grow too big equaled a bit too much kick on one occasion!). Although we don't have room in the main garden to grow the hot pepper mix again this year, since pepper seed lasts several years, and we still have lots of the hot mix packet left, I'm going to start a bunch and plan room for them in the new area. I want to see if there are any other types in the mix than the 2 we had last year. After all, if they don't make it over there, they are just extras!

We also got a couple of other packets of seeds from them last year - sacred basil (which my husband hated the smell of, which is why we're trying a different basil variety this year!), a lettuce blend that we really liked and will grow again this year, cilantro which we loved and let some go to seed and will grow those seeds this year, and kale.

As I look back at our 2012 seed list, I'm not really adding any new plants, just changing the variety in some cases, and changing the quantities - mostly in an upwards direction. We're hoping to use the new garden space for some of the less important (to us) food - the dry beans that we don't use too much and the peppers that my husband isn't too fond of, as well as adding extra plants of some of the food we want to grow more of that we think might do ok over there right away - including raspberries and perhaps green beans.

Little M and I started our seeds the other night, but I'm still waiting on the camera & my laptop to talk nicely to each other to show you the photos! I guess that post will have to wait until Monday :) Happy Weekend Folks!

Seed starting excitement

Over the weekend Little M and I went in to our local garden store and picked out the seeds we needed to add to our seed stash for this summer's garden. I'll share what we purchased later this week, I promise. We then tried several different stores over the next few days to get vermiculite, which was all that we needed to have all the seed starting mix ingredients we needed, but I struck out at three different stores! This afternoon I finally tracked down some vermiculite, though, so we've got everything we need to get started.

Right now Little M is down for her quiet time/nap, so until she wakes up and we can get started on planting our onion & pepper seeds, I'm distracting myself by writing this post and working on finishing up the crochet bunting I'm planning to put up in her big girl room over her bed. Is it corny to admit that I can hardly contain my excitement about seed starting later this afternoon?

If anything, seed starting gets more exciting every year. With Little M getting older, each year she will be more and more of a help with the process, which is also really exciting and rewarding for me. I think this year I may even give her her own container of potting soil to start seeds in - maybe I'll get her started on some of the cherry tomatoes that she loves so much. Or sunflowers. Or both! I'll share pictures later this week!

New seed list for 2013

So after some quality time spent on the couch last night with my seed bin of past years seed packets and last years saved seeds, I've got my seed list ready, including the new seeds I will need for this gardening season. For new seeds, I've got:

• Arugula (at the misters request
• Romain Lettuce (also at the misters request)
• carrots
• walla walla onions
• cipollini onions (or another storage onion depending on the selection at the garden store)
• basil (specifically not sacred basil as the mister hated that variety last year!)
• Potatoes - yukon gold, russet, red pontiac, fingerlings? (depending on what the store has later in the season)

There is also a list of potentials, if I want to spend the money, and/or if I see a neat new variety:

• cucumber (still looking for an heirloom variety that does really great here)
• zucchini (same as for the cucumbers)
• green/yellow peppers
• tomato (my seed might be getting a bit old)
• brocolli (if I'm feeling ambitious!)

I also will need to pick up some more vermiculite and perlite if I decide to mix seed starting soil again this year. I might just get lazy and mix dirt and peat moss together and call it good, will likely depend on availability and my budget after my main seeds are purchased! One other thing on my list to add to my seed starting set up is a heat mat or two, but I suspect that might be a later addition.

Other than the additions above, I'm just growing my usual - beans, squash, corn, peas, garlic, etc. I know what I normally grow, and what seeds I have, so once I add the few additions necessary, I should be good to go. At some point in the next week or two I'm going to sit down and work out my seed starting/planting schedule, but I haven't gotten around to that yet.

Right around this weekend in past years is when I've planted my peppers, and shortly thereafter my onions, but until I make it in to the garden store that won't be possible (and since they don't have regular hours for another month I will have to call and set up a time to stop by). I'm not worried though, this year will be a laid back year in the garden, and if I don't get around to any of the above tasks, I'm really not too worried! Our second little girl will be born & grow this summer and that is the highest priority item on my horizon!

What about you? Started any seeds in your neck of the woods? Figured out what seeds you need to add to your seed stash this spring? Made a list of what plants you will grow in your garden this year?

Balancing gardening & pregnancy

I'm just itching to start planning this summer's garden. I can't wait to look through my seed bins and see what is left over from past years & will still be usable, what seed was saved from last summer's garden, and what seed I will need to buy. I've got a tentative list floating around my head of what I want to change from last year's garden, and a couple of new plants I want to try growing.

The problem is, this here baby, just starting to be kicking up a storm in my belly, is due in mid-June. Now most of my more tender plants get planted out in the first week or two of June most years, depending on the weather. So regardless of whether this baby is early or late, I don't know how much gardening I'll be getting done about that time of the season this year...

I've told myself that one year of not having a huge garden is perfectly acceptable, and I know that with a newborn I won't have a lot of time to be keeping up on weeds, but I'm just still not sure what level of gardening I want to aim for this summer... There are some things that it seems like a no-brainer to grow based on planting time (for example to not-so-tender crops & the crops I just sow as seeds), however some of those crops need a fair amount of weeding throughout the season to grow optimally (onions anyone?!).

So in the meantime I'm trying to put off even looking at my seeds, much less making a list of plants to grow or putting a garden plot plan down on paper until it is a little closer to go time when I need to decide whether I'll start onion seeds or how many I'll start... Since last year we had an amazing onion crop, and I started my onion seeds sometime in March, I've been trying to put off thinking of gardening until February at the earliest. Maybe even mid-February. I figure as long as I've decided on at least the onions by planting time in early March, I should be ok. And really, I've grown onions from seed planted once the ground was workable in the spring too. Not huge onions, not a bumper crop like this past year, but a crop nonetheless. So we'll see. And in the meantime I'll try not to fall asleep thinking about the garden... :)

Our Weekend & Spring Seedling Progress

Well, it was a warm and mostly sunny weekend here, and man did we enjoy it or what! Little M and I did all sorts of fun chores outside, and kept our time inside to a minimum. First we raked up the winter's worth of bark chunks and sawdust from the carport/woodshed area, pitched them into the back of the truck, and took a full load of them down into the burn pile area in the lower field.

Ahh... all raked out and ready for more wood to be split and stacked!

One evening last week, a work friend of my husband's was over with his family to help us prune our orchard trees and have supper, we had a whole mess of twigs and branches on the ground under the orchard trees. We had managed to get all the branches piled up, so during one of Little M's naps I filled the truck bed with branches and took two loads of them down to the burn pile too.

Normally we put the bark chips and orchard trimmings in a pile area across the creek to decompose on their own back to nature, but when we took the first load down there I realized there was still a couple feet of snow on the pile, plus a big snowbank at the edge of the road... So that was a big no-go! Oh well, I guess we'll burn them and not compost them this year!

I also moved the seedlings around under the grow light so that instead of having a plastic cover over them, they have a plastic tray under them so that they can stay a bit more moist. Little M of course kept a close eye on the proceedings. We've got some Kale sprouts, some peppers, lots of onions, a bunch of cilantro, and just yesterday some marigolds coming up too.

This week I'll likely start the tomatoes, some more Kale, and hopefully more peppers will have sprouted on top of the freezer. I'm really hoping that by next weekend we'll be down in the garden doing a bit of prep work! The snow was melting really fast over the weekend with the warm sun, but there were only a few patches melted through down in the garden, the majority of the garden still had a half foot to a foot of snow on it...

In terms of other chores we did, we also raked a bunch of weeds from the side field that got a bit out of hand last summer after the riding lawn mower died. Hopefully we'll get it back up and running soon so that I'm not attempting to use the push mower on our couple acres of fields! As Little M wandered here and there, often after whichever dog I had out with us, I meandered along after her, thinking about our long term plans for the property...

Last week Little M and I went over to a coworkers house, to see one of his ewes, who had given birth a couple days earlier. She had two 3 day old lambs, and there was a hour and a half old new lamb freshly birthed by his other lamb. My coworker and his wife have a really lovely set up, 2 donkeys, 2 ewes (and now 3 baby lambs), a flock of chickens, and in the summer, a nice garden. Not to mention their cute little house that they've been slowly remodelling. All on just an acre! It really made me stop and think about how much potential we've got here on our 3ish acres of farmable land! Ah dreams for the future! :) I hope you all had a great weekend, and that your garden seedlings are coming along as nicely as mine are!

Planting seeds (with Little M)

Over the past week and a half I've planted peppers (March 1st), and onions (March 6th). The peppers I got started on a beautiful sunny Wednesday afternoon after work and right before picking M up from daycare. I started 3 varieties I grew last year - Golden Treasure, Chocolate Beauty, both from Seed Savers, and Marconi Rosso from a friend at work. Unable to resist the pull of new seed packets, I also started one new one, a combo packet - Hot Pepper Combo, from Irish Eyes.

Like last year, I have them sitting up on top of the fridge & freezer, centered over the warmest spot. I can see a couple that look like they have germinated, but nothing definitive popping up fresh green leaves.

The onions weren't so easily started. It was after supper on a night the mister worked, and Little M and I decided we needed something exciting to do. I'm not sure if she really realized what we were about to do, but to her, doing something on the sunporch sounded fun. Whew. Prepping seed starting mix, repotting a couple of houseplants that were rather potbound, and planting onion seeds was a challenge for her and I! Luckily we made it through, and got 4 containers of onions started - Cipollini and Walla Walla, both new packets from Irish Eyes.

I set them up on the new grow unit out of the reach of small fingers, and started getting some reused plastic containers set up over them to keep the moisture in. Then I noticed what I at first thought was a bat fly out over the eaves and towards the tree row between our property and the field next door. Mid-flight I realized that it was far too large to be a bat, it was an owl!

It was a great horned owl, sitting in one of our trees, listening for mice! I got a couple of tolerably clear shots, but it was basically dark, so it was hardly more than a silhouette. It didn't stay on the tree very long (can you see how it obviously grabbed onto a thin branch to sit on, and bent it over with its weight?) but it stayed there long enough for me to run and get my hoot flute, which of course Little M then wanted to play with.

That worked fine for me, she blew on the hoot flute and I finished setting up the light unit over the new seeds to get everything adjusted to the right level. I also put new batteries in the temperature sensor we have on the sunporch, since I hadn't bothered replacing them last time they ran out. This way we can monitor the temperature over night to make sure it isn't too cold for them out there. In fact, the next morning I wasn't very happy with a low of 48, so I might see about getting a heating pad. Or bring them inside for a little bit until they germinate. We'll see. What about you, getting any seeds started? Seen any owls lately? Have a little one running around underfoot who likes to 'help' sprinkle onion seeds & call in owls?

2012 Seed List

Ok, so now that I've figured out basically all of the seeds I'll be using this year in my garden, I thought I would share my list with you. You can check out my 2011 list here if you want to also. I haven't started any of my seeds yet, but seeing as last year I started my peppers on March 3rd, Little M and I might be spending some quality time out on the sunporch this weekend!

2012 Vegetable Seed List

• Hubbard Squash (saved from a couple years ago, will need to save more this year)
• Butternut Squash (also saved from a couple years ago, need to save more this year)
• Black Beauty Zucchini (unless I can find a heirloom yellow one for our climate)
• Pumpkin (still need to find one, preferably C. mixta so it doesn't cross with my other squash!)
• Bushy Cucumber (unless I can find another one that might do better here)
• Double Standard Corn (thanks to local friends for passing this seed on to us this year!) 
• Amish Paste Tomato (same as last year)
• Italian Heirloom Tomato (same as last year)
• Cherry Roma Tomato (for Little M, same as last year)
• Walla Walla Onion (new Irish Eyes seeds from Local)
• Cipollini Onion (new Irish Eyes seeds from Local)
• St Valery Carrot (unless I can find another one that might do better here)
• Sutton's Harbinger Pea (mix of saved and leftover seed from last year)
• Snow Pea (saved from last year - they did amazing last year, hopefully these saved ones will too)
• Bush Blue Lake Beans (leftovers from last year)
• Kentucky Wonder Bush Beans (leftovers from last year)
• Kennearly Yellow Eye Beans (mix of saved and leftover from last year)
• Dragon's Tongue Beans (saved from year before last, if they sprout)
• Garlic (planted already, saved from last year)
• Yukon Gold Potatoes (need to pick some up once it comes in at Local)
• Fingerling Potatoes (hopefully the few I've been holding off from eating will work)
• Peppers (I've got a bunch, mostly from last year - Chocolate Beauty, Golden Treasure, Marconi Rosso, and a hot pepper combo. Not sure how many will germinate, time will tell!)
• Cilantro (new Irish Eyes seeds from Local)
• Sacred Basil (new Irish Eyes seeds from Local)
• Chives (from some local friends last summer, looking forward to adding this to our herb area)
• Dill (from last years seed)

I still need to pick up a couple more seeds in the above list, and there are a couple other herbs that I likely will end up trying. The last couple years I've been pretty busy with just the veggies and haven't done more than have some Basil, Oregano, Thyme, and Rosemary in pots, but hopefully this year I'll be able to focus a bit more on the veggies that really do well here and instead of attempting any melons I'll put some effort into having a little herb plot in the corner. Oh, and I'm sure the mister will convince me that we need to grow Russet Potatoes again. They are ok, but personally I prefer my potatoes to have more taste like the Yukon's do!

Here are a couple more, some of my dream list:

• Rhubarb
• Scarlet/Sunset Runner Bean
• Kale
• Ailsa Craig Onion
• Sage
• Asparagus

Obviously I'd love to have more garden space, particularly those raised beds between the house and the chicken coop that I've been dreaming of for over a year now, but until we save up enough money to put in a serious deer/dog fence around at least a section of the property, house, and orchard, that's not going to happen, and that's why most of these will likely stay on the dream list!

What about you? Have all your garden seeds purchased and your 2012 garden plan drawn up? Started any seeds yet? I'm hoping to start some seeds this weekend in between hanging out with some visiting family, I'll let you know how it goes next week :)

My new seed starting set up

I remember about a year ago reading a post on YouGrowGirl with really great instructions for building a shelf lighting system. At the time I had just found the old shop light in the garage, and although I would have loved to have heating pads and multiple lights all together in a shelving system, I just didn't have the money to invest in one, and so I just filed that idea away in my brain for later use. Fast forward about a year, and while browsing through Home Depot one day, my husband pointed out some metal shelving units that he had been thinking would be perfect for on the sunporch for my plants, for drying garden produce, or for seed starting.

I agreed, and a little thought started growing in my head. I remembered the post on YouGrowGirl, and remembered the Christmas money from my parents I still hadn't spent. After looking some things up, I ended up ordering a metal shelving unit from Amazon. It shipped really quickly, and just a couple of days later, I was setting my unit up! How exciting to have so much more space, and pretty space at that, to set up my plants!

I haven't started my seeds yet, and still have some more varieties to buy, but in the meantime, I've been enjoying using the shelving unit to house my varied collection of herbs, flowers, succulents, and cacti. I likely will drop some of the shelves down a bit lower to get the seed starting shelf a little lower since I'm on the shorter side, but other than that, this is likely how it will look for the foreseeable future.

Seeds Seeds Seeds

I'm having a bit of a seed dilemma.

Last year I ordered from Seed Saver International. I was overall pleased with my order - good selection, timely delivery, decent prices. But some of the plant varieties I chose didn't do as well as I hoped. Our corn, for example, just didn't produce as much or as early as other varieties I have grown in the past. I selected a variety that I thought should have done well, at least in terms of being a short growing season variety, but it just didn't all mature early enough to harvest before we got frost.

Now we did have a strange year last year, but I had neighbors who had no problem with their corn maturing well before our first frost. The year before we grew corn from a friend who has sinced moved away, but as far as I can remember it was a variety he had been growing for years. We had good luck with it, but had planted 2 varieties that year and so couldn't keep seeds. Last year I was looking to test a variety to save seeds from, but obviously I didn't bother since so few cobs were ready to harvest when we had to bring them all in.

At first this year I thought I would just ask around and see what others in my area used, but in my initial asking, people are using hybrids. Since I'm ultimately looking to be self sufficent with at least some of my seeds year to year (and corn heads the list this year to add to my collection of seeds I maintain myself), a hybrid variety is just not what I am looking for. I guess what I will try to do is match the characteristics advertised for these couple hybrid varieties with heirloom varieties and order that way. But likely that means trying a couple different types until finding the perfect one for where we are. Shucks!

Basically this post is me trying to convince myself to get down to the perhaps difficult work of picking seeds from a seed company that I think will be a better match for our region and that I think will do well. I'm positive that at this time last year I had already made my order, and likely even had my seeds in hand. Boo...

Garden sprouts & sunporch seedlings

This week for the homestead barn hop I'm sharing the garden progress I've been seeing. Both my Sutton's peas & sugar snap peas are coming up in the garden.

The thornless raspberries that we planted last year are doing quite well. Although longer term we will likely move them to raised beds nearer the house, for the time being we are just trying to keep them from spreading too much in the garden.

The garlic is doing really well, and to the left there is a little onion that I must have missed last fall!

Beside the garlic & lone onion are several garlic chives that overwintered well, and past them are the strawberries, which have been taking over since I planted them last spring.

I planted some russet potatoes between where the tomatoes and peppers will go. Hopefully we have better luck with them this year. Last year we didn't manage to grow any potato plants, and the year before our one plant only produced 2 small potatoes in the shorter-than-normal growing season after we moved in.

Inside on the sunporch my seedlings are doing very well. There are 4 types of peppers, 3 types of tomatoes, some onions, some yellow & orange marigolds, and some new little herb sprouts - mint, lavender, oregano, and rosemary. I'm pretty excited to have the herbs. In past years I have tried to grow herbs for the garden, but I've only managed to have some rosemary, basil, and oregano inside on the kitchen windowsill. Outside they have ended up succumbing to too much competition with weeds! Hopefully this year, with it being the third year of having a garden in that spot, there will be fewer weeds!

Click on over and check out the other homestead's joining in to the barn hop today!

Seedling progress & a lime!

Well on the weekend I had to add another bin tower to add space under the sunporch grow light. There wasn't any space for any more new starts! So far I've started 3 types of peppers - chocolate beauty, golden treasure, and now jalapeno too. I traded pepper seeds with a friend at work and now I need to start the marcono rossi peppers from her as well. I've got a bunch of marigolds, all 3 types of tomatoes that I will be growing this year, and some onions that I'm doing to test whether direct seeding or starting inside works better here for me. Oh, and some lavender sprouts to see whether I can grow them to larger plants or not!

Not really seedling related, but my husband ordered a dwarf lime tree with some sunflower seeds for his bird garden, and it came on the weekend. We potted it up in a planter and it will live on the sunporch year round, although when it gets bigger we will likely put it out at times over the summer. Maybe even for insect pollination when it starts to produce limes!