Summer 2013: The Cliff Notes

Despite my best intentions, I've neglected our silly blog again. Here's a few pictures to catch you up on the last 4 months!

A view of our backyard garden.... Babe, our pet pig likes to hang out back here. Some stupid mildew took over our zucchini, squash, and cucumbers. Michael's been out there spraying with a magical concoction that could double as bubbles.... seems to be doing the trick. Michael hates zucchini. It's not my favorite, but I haven't given up yet. I harvested a ginormous spaghetti squash the other day. I haven't decided what to do with it yet. Any good recipe ideas?

Our chickens still think they rule the neighborhood.

They've been busy thatching our yard for us all summer long!

It's taking some time for our neighbors to get the meaning of our signs... We've made a few trades and a sale or two. If you're in the neighborhood and see our signs, please come barter with us!! Can you see Michael's goofy reflection in the window?

A surprise patch of anise, planted by the wind, sprung up next to our chicken coop. The lovely black licorice smell makes for a nice air freshener.

Potatoes! I harvested our first bunch this week. Yesterday we made a trade with a neighbor: a handful of spuds and some beans for fresh apples and blueberries! We're going to dig out the dehydrator today to make some yummy dried apples!

The fennel took over this year. We have a patch on the other side of this that the wind planted for us last year. This stuff grows like a weed. I think I ate a handful of blueberries this year, not for lack of production though. Our chickens got to them first. Next year, we need to build a big tall fence... 

Dahlias!!!!! So may dahlias.... we can't keep up. .

My house looks like a florist's shop. 

Beans, beans, and more beans... and to think I had the thought that we didn't plant enough! We did two trellises for pole beans and two big patches of bush beans. I've been harvesting and freezing these buggers every other day.

Here's a pic of some bush beans and pole beans in the backyard. This patch doesn't get quick as much sun as the beans out front, but it's still producing beans like crazy. We planted 3 or 4 different varieties this year. I'd tell you which ones, but I forgot the names. I can tell you we have yellow, purple, and green beans and another green skinnier sort of bean. They all taste pretty yummy. I harvested a pole bean the other day that was at least 10 inches long.... quite possibly the worlds longest bean.

Our first harvest of strawberries... When I thinned the beds in the spring, I think I pulled all of our ever-bearing plants because all we got was June berries. Thanks to some berry food, these were the biggest, sweetest berries yet! We have a few bags in the freezer, but not nearly enough to get us through the winter months....

We yielded a pretty good harvest of sugar snap peas this year, but they came and went earlier than I had hoped. Next year we need to plant more, I think. 

Michael should really fill you in on the rest. If he blogs like he says he will, then I'll surprise him with something special. So, come on Michael, just blog already!!!!

Sunshine... How We Love Thee and Oh How We Need Thee!

Our garden is starting to look like a garden again, and this makes me very happy! Due to the cold weather we were having, the seeds we planted a while back all went dormant just after they sprouted. They just sat there for weeks waiting for the sun to show up. Judging by the sudden appearance of shorts and flip flops this week, I'd say we were all ready and waiting for those warm, golden rays.


Our mason bee haven

Our mason bees were waiting too. Now they're happily buzzing about our garden, going in and out of their house, and building their little mud nests. I'll have to convince Michael to write a post explaining all about the interesting factoids he recently learned about mason bees.... I can't possibly relay the information with the level of clarity and accuracy that he can.


This is the box that the chickens got
into. Almost time to start thinning
those radishes in the front.
 

Unfortunately the chickens dug up our sunflower sprouts and a portion of our lettuce/arugula/spinach patch. We've since covered just about everything with bird netting and are hoping this will do the trick.

The lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and brussels that we started indoors spent several days basking in the sun this week. Once we were convinced that they had successfully acclimated to the outdoor temperatures, we planted a whole bed of the brassicas and two rows of lettuce beside our asparagus patch.



I know it sounds a little morbid, but
these potato trenches kind of look
like baby graves.

I dug several trenches in one of our backyard beds and planted four varieties of seed potatoes. Three of the varieties were from "fresh" seed potatoes that Michael picked up at the feed store. I planted one row of Yukon Gold from what we had left from last year's harvest. It's a sort of experiment to see if there's any difference between the "fresh" stuff and our own leftovers.






Thanks to our investment in that handy, dandy Jiffy Greenhouse, we ended up with way more plant starts than we needed. We're going to try selling what we have left to our neighbors. But, Michael and I have to agree on a price first....

-Trisa



Dreaming of Goats, Again.

Almost exactly two years ago, we fell in love with the idea
of goats during our cheese-making adventure at Monteillet.

Yesterday, I was in the side yard working diligently to keep the chickens contained when a neighbor stopped by with an "unusual question."

She wanted to know if we'd ever thought about getting goats. At the moment the question was asked, I didn't know that this was a neighbor. It was the first time we had met, so I guess in that sense, it was a curious sort of question.

Anyone who knows us well knows how much we'd love to have goats.

I said, "As a matter of fact, we have considered getting goats. But, unfortunately it's not allowed within city limits."

She went on to talk about how she's thinking about fighting the city on the matter and how some guy fought Seattle and won, so maybe something like this could happen in Lynnwood too.


Our baby ducklings back in 2009

I told her how much we would love to have goats, but that I wasn't sure that we were ready to fight for it. The funny thing about all of this is that I actually had the thought the other day that we could probably get away with having a few goats.... after, all we had chickens before they were legal....

As we talked, we soon discovered that we had quite a number of things in common with this neighbor.


Our ducks weren't meant for a life in
the suburbs. Our survivors, Bonnie
and Wi-Fi, exchanged their
kiddy pool for a life of
luxury at Lake Ballinger.

Her family had chickens long before they were legal too.
And they had ducks too, just like we used to.

Before she left, we exchanged contact information. I'm not sure if we'll join her fight, but sooner or later we'll get our goats!

Now, I'm missing our ducks and dreaming of goats.

The Great Debate

I would love to do something like this in our front yard someday!
I can just see our nieces and nephews running around
 this awesome maze.

Yesterday, Michael and I ventured to Mount Vernon with our good friend Jeffrey for an incredible day at the tulip fields. Captivated by the blankets of color, I began to imagine new possibilities for our garden.

And then it happened: the great, seemingly endless debate about how to plant our garden beds. This debate has been going on for several years now, and Michael keeps winning.

While wandering the beautiful display gardens at Rozengaard, poor Jeff had to endure our bickering.

I love, love, LOVE how our garden beds become full of life and color in the spring and summer. But, I'm not so fond of the dead, lifeless, brown beds during the winter.

I've been trying to convince Michael that there's a way to plant that will satisfy my need for year-long color. He argues that planting anything other than our fruits and vegetables will only reduce our crop production.

I'm not convinced.

What do you think?

Finally, Our First Spring Planting!

I just love waking up with the aches and pains that remind me of time spent in the garden the day before! Even though I'm all out of alignment.... I love, love, LOVE knowing that our "empty" boxes will soon show signs of life.

Yesterday was BEAUTIFUL outside, quite literally the perfect day in every way. Michael took the day off from work to take care of some repairs on our car. While I took on the bulk of the gardening endeavors, Michael joined in on the fun after his long wait at the auto repair place. I had to remind myself several times that it was Friday, not Saturday.

We prepared four of our raised beds for planting, turning and amending the soil with Michael's special blend of stinky bone and blood meal.

Box #1:
Sugar snap peas (the edible pod pole variety)
We were careful to keep this area of the box free from the bone/blood meal as sugar snap peas don't do so well in nitrogen rich soil. Instead we added  a tiny bit of inoculant to help our baby peas to get a healthy start. Last year we planted the peas along the edge of two of our boxes- in our strawberry bed and our potato bed. Our pea crop wasn't our best last year, so we chose a new spot in an area where they'll have less competition for nutrients.

Carrots
We planted three rows, each of a different variety: Royal Chantenay (aka "the all around carrot"), Cosmic Purple (a fun variety that's purple on the outside and orange on the inside), and Calliope Blend (a rainbow mix of purple, red, white, yellow, and orange carrots).

Beets
We planted two rows in this box: Detroit Dark Red (deep crimson in color and meant to grow large) and Gourmet Blend (aka "the beet renaissance") This is a blend that includes Detroit Dark Red, Chioggia (a variety that has bright pink and white interior rings), and Golden Beets (my favorite beet with bright yellow flesh).

Spinach
In this box, we planted two rows of Bloomsdale Long Standing spinach. I'm not sure if we've planted this variety before. This variety is known for its thick, crinkly, glossy dark green leaves. Popeye would be drooling right about now.

Arugula (Roquette)
I just love the peppery flavor that arugula adds to salads. Arugula, like spinach, tends to do better in cooler weather, so I'm hoping that we weren't too late. If it gets too warm, the plants are likely to bolt ("go to seed") and the leaves will begin to taste bitter. We planted two rows in this box.

Buttercrunch Lettuce
There's a reason for the name. This awesome variety grows in heads of thick, crisp, buttery leaves. We'll have to be sure to thin the two rows that we planted to get some nice healthy heads.

Lettuce (Select Salad Blend)
This mix includes five different varieties: Crimson Butter, Red Salad Bowl, Iceberg, Bibb, and Lolla Rossa. We just love the fresh salads that we harvest from our garden. Our favorite summer salad is a mix of all of our greens, fresh raspberries, amazing feta (from Trader Joes), and a dash of Brianne's Blush Vinaigrette.

Box #2:
Radishes (Champion)
We planted three rows of this traditional red variety. Radishes germinate fast, so we should see growth in about 4-7 days.

Greens
We planted eight more alternating rows of spinach, arugula, buttercrunch, and select salad blend in this box.

Beets
Three more rows of beets (two rows of the Detroit Dark Red, one row of the Gourmet Blend) will keep us happy all season long. Beets, and other root vegetables seemingly keep forever. If only we had a root cellar!

Sweet William
We planted a row of these between sections of the vegetables that we planted. So, we should get a pretty borders of pink, red, and white flowers.

Zinnias
We planted two rows, one on either side of the patch of greens (the giant double variety in mixed colors of red, yellow, orange, and pink).

Box #3
Mystery Flowers
While transplanting some strawberry starts to a new spot, I discovered a few mystery bulbs (probably gladiolus, not sure). After turning the soil, we transplanted these four bulbs to the edge of this box that borders box #2. This will become one of two (maybe three) beds for cut flowers... mostly dahlia bulbs to be planted in May.

Box #4
Asparagus
The asparagus seeds that we planted several years ago have finally formed roots in this box. I think we'll actually be able to harvest a good crop of asparagus this year! We dug up the three tightly packed root balls and divided them into 10 separate roots. The once randomly placed roots are now neatly planted in a row along one edge of this box.

Sunflowers
In the corner, right next to our Harris Farm and Garden Sign, we planted several Mammoth Sunflower seeds. I'll have to thin them as they begin to sprout as these giant flowers grow 7-12 feet tall and will need some space to breathe.


Perhaps the best part of the day was the good company of our neighbors who came over to chat with us while we planted. We just love the way that the sunny weather brings people out of their little caves. All afternoon the buzz of lawn mowers and weed whackers were music to my ears. SPRING IS FINALLY HERE!

-Trisa

Is this cheating?

We did it! We spent the extra money and brought home one of these Professional Jiffy Greenhouse kits. And now I feel guilty because a good gardener shouldn't need a special kit. It feels like cheating.

 

What do you think, is this cheating?

 



 

I don't care if it's cheating. It works!



 

Starting Seeds Indoors: Lessons Learned

Crazy weather brings
AWESOME rainbows!

The weather and my gardening expectations just aren't lining up quite right. Snow, sun, sleet, hail, wind: we've had it all this week.

This year's indoor seed sowing adventures began several weeks ago. Last year was a failure, so I was skeptical about trying it again. Michael saw last year as a learning experience and was determined to try again.  So we dug out our grow light lights and our collection of seeds, determined to make this the big year for beautiful plant starts grown in our multi-purpose guest bedroom.

We filled six trays with lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, tomato, pepper, zinnia, and cosmo seeds. Sadly, what should've been the makings of over 400 tiny little plants, became:


The Resilient Bunch

Six struggling tomatoes
Two less than peppy peppers
Eleven happy zinnias
One triumphant cosmo

Add it all up and you get: one giant disappointment. So, for now, at least the crazy weather is buying me a little more time.




Here's what I think went wrong:

Old Seeds
Apparently there's a reason for the date marked on seed packages. The lettuce seed was the oldest in the bunch, and it didn't even sprout. The broccoli, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts were all at least one year old. Yep, our survivors were all from fresh seeds.

Bad Dirt
We used the remainder of last year's starter mix. Dirt is dirt, right? Wrong. We think there was mold in the mix. So, even our freshest seeds were effected.

Light
Maybe too many trays and not enough grow lights? This time, we're going to try using reflectors on each grow light... hoping this will help.

Temperature
We used a space heater during the germination stage. Once we saw sprouts, we turned down the heat (Michael read that this is the thing to do). I think the variation in temperature may have been a factor. This time we'll turn down the heat after germination but keep the heater on a low, consistent temperature.

Water
When we weren't under-watering, we were over-watering. I'm ready for a drip system.


Tips or advice for starting seeds indoors? Yes, please share.