I've been gardening for most of my life and have been a devoted fan of organic gardening the whole time. It just makes so much more sense to work in harmony with Mother Nature than to fight her. Besides which it is better for the planet and better for our bodies. Here you can see what I'm planting and harvesting, with gardening hints and resources thrown in for good measure.
Whoa! Things have been crazy around here this week! The garden is exploding with produce, flowers are blooming, bees buzzing, pesky rats, mice and squirrels have all shown up (and wiped out several crops!) Chicks and ducklings are hatching and growing like crazy.
Cilantro, aka Chinese Parsley is entirely edible, root, leaves, flowers, seeds and all. The seeds are known as the spice Coriander, but there are varieties that are slower going to seed, that are grown for the leaves. Cilantro is sort of an acquired taste. I find you love it or hate it, but once you develop a taste for it you actually crave it. I often snack on it while working. Cilantro in my climate is a winter weed, growing well while it is cool and damp, then running to seed when it gets hot. I always leave a few plants to bloom even if I don't need the seed. Great bee and butterfly fodder and I often see a lot of ladybugs on the plants. Cilantro will not grow in the summer heat, in fact the seeds won't even germinate when the soil warms up.
Collard greens
This is probably the last week for this patch of collard greens, it is trying hard to go to seed and a lot of leaves were damaged in the heavy winds last week.
part of the small hoophouse
The little hoop house has a motley collection of chard, lettuces and potted seedlings. along with a couple of flowers and a flowering radish.
A giant red mustard and chard
A Giant Red Mustard volunteered in the chard bed and is going to seed. The chard is also trying to bolt. The nice thing about chard is that if you cut them back and give them some fresh compost they will go back to making leaves. These plants are over a year old.
Snapdragon
I grew this snapdragon from a cutting. It is easy to do, after they are done blooming cut the stem back and when the new shoots are big enough cut them off and put in some fine potting soil or seed starting mix. Keep in the shade and keep moist. They will grow new roots quickly.
Scarlet Kale
I don't have enough of the Scarlet Kale to bunch by itself, so you will find a few leaves mixed in with the Red Russian for now.
Dahlia seedling at perfect size for transplanting
This dahlia seedling is at the perfect stage for transplanting. Note how it does have roots through out the space BUT it is not root bound. Set in a bigger pot or the ground it is ready to take off and keep growing. Any plant held in a too small pot too long will get root bound and then it will try and bloom at a small size, even if transplanted later it will never make as good a showing as when moved at the right time. I transplanted about 60 of these into one gallon pots this week. Dinner plate dahlias from Baker Creek Heirlooms.
I LOVE peas! Any kind, any way (except canned; canned peas are just nasty). Snap peas, snow peas, shelling peas, soup peas. Raw, steamed, stir fried. Yummy! This year I only had room for some rows of green and purple snap peas. Hopefully next year I'll be able to plant some of the other kinds too. But the peas are in and the vines are loaded. Peas season isn't very long here because they don't like the heat so I just gorge on them while I can.
Buttercrunch lettuce
The Buttercrunch lettuce is ready and the heads look really nice. Buttercrunch is sort of a cross between butterhead and crisp head lettuce. Lettuce season is also short here. As soon as it stays about 80-85 degrees or warmer every day the seeds won't sprout and the plants will be bolting (going to seed) which makes them bitter.
Collard greens
Getting ready for the Superior Farmer's Market tomorrow (Superior, Arizona). Besides peas and lettuce, there will be the usual kale, collards, rainbow chard, spinach, fresh eggs and cilantro. See you there!
I tossed out wildflower and other seeds over the winter and this is one of the things popping up. Have no idea what it is, but it is a pretty little blue flower. Forget me Not perhaps?
planting carrots
The baby mustard got tough and was trying to bolt so I fed it all to the chickens and worked up the bed. Normally I would broadcast carrot seed this time of year, but we have been pretty warm and dry so I used my summer sowing technique. With my triangular hoe I make a little furrow and sprinkle some worm castings in the bottom, sow my seeds and cover with more castings. The worm castings are rich in organic matter, soluble plant foods and even plant growth hormones. They will help keep the seeds moist and provide excellent nutrition for the seedlings. I planted a short row of Amarillo Yellow, Pusa Rudhira (bright red from India, supposed to have very high lycopene content) and Atomic Red. I planted 2 rows of Rainbow Mix. I watered them in well and covered them with a row cover.
52 Tomato plants going in
Last year at this time I was putting tomato plants into 1 gallon pots, in case we had a late frost and I needed to bring them in. This year I am more daring and have put them straight into the ground under row covers. This is the 'way back' garden. Some of this years tomato varieties are Snow White, Black Cherry, Berries & Cream, Yellow Pear, Chocolate Pear along with Black Beauty and Black from Tula.
3rd Hatch of the season
I now have 3 hatches of chicks (and some baby ducks!) with several more to go. Some of the cuties in the last hatch are for a friend of mine and some are for me. Baby ducks are just so stink' adorable!
Boy oh boy is there a lot of stuff going on around here! Cucumber and squash starts, herbs, flowers, eggs in three! incubators. I love spring, the promise of the harvest season ahead, the new life and regeneration of nature. The bees are buzzing, the earthworms are working, the chicks are hatching. Daily there are new sights, sounds and scents. Nature is amazing and abundant!
about 1/3 of the eggs waiting to hatch
Red locust tree blooming
squash starts
Tansy herb
Lemon Basil
Lime basil
Sage
Madame Cecile' Brunner rose
gosh that is not half of what is growing and blooming right now! And harvesting cool weather crops, with some coming out so that warmth lovers like tomatoes and squash can go in!
loose leaf lettuce
Red Russian Kale
Spinach
Rainbow Chard
6 truck loads of manure
Pictures can be deceiving. That does not look like a huge amount, but that is 6 pick up truck loads of manure. It's still a bit warm, running about 100 degrees F. (yes I do take it's temperature!) but that will be just perfect to keep the cantaloupe and watermelon plants toasty! I just need to get a rabbit proof fence put up around it.
Giotto thinks this hen house is for him!
In other news I bought another kit hen house and put it in mom's back yard. I need to move some birds out of the big barn to make way for all the new chicks hatching!
The spinach and lettuce are coming on strong, but I don't know how long they will last with our unseasonable heat. Things are blooming a month ahead of normal.
mixed lettuce
I have been planting every kind of lettuce, hoping some will manage the heat at least a little while. Oak leaf, Red Salad Bowl, Green Salad Bowl, Bibb, Butterhead. All different shades of green, with some red and speckled ones too.
Rainbow Chard
Rainbow Chard is a garden mainstay. These plants have been producing for a year now with no sign of letting up or slowing down!
Siberian Kale, aka Red Russian or Ragged Jack
With the warmer weather the kale has really been putting out a lot of new growth.
*some* of the eggs in ONE of the incubators
While some eggs are going into the incubators, a lot more are going in the fridge!
The Peas are coming!
I picked the first hand full of peas this week, I should have some to sell next week! Another crop that does not like to be hot. In an average year they are done between mid-May and the first of June. If our hot weather keeps up these may not make it past mid-April.
6" soil blocker
This week I played with my new toy tool, a huge 6 inch soil blocker. It was a little trickier to make good blocks compared to making the smaller 2" ones.
6" soil blocks
But I got them done and put about 80-100 tomato starts in them. The tomatoes were a little overgrown and probably should have been transplanted sooner. The issue was space to put them. I had a big fat pack rat getting into the hoop house where I set my transplants. That bugger wiped out over 100 broccoli and cauliflower starts and was even starting in on the marigolds! Finally caught it and it doesn't look like there are any more at the moment.
commercial style chick brooder
I scored big recently, trading an unused rabbit cage for a commercial style chick brooder. My friend even gave me the table he had it sitting on. I cut the table legs down and added casters so I can roll it under the work bench in the shop when I need to.
Just one duckling and a few chicks hatched last weekend. This weekends hatch should be bigger and in a couple of weeks I have a huge hatch coming (like more than 60 eggs!)
The compost chickens are doing well and give me a few eggs a day; lots of these are going into the incubator because they are all older girls and still laying.
cardboard and manure mulch
I planted out some rosemary, oregano and a Lady Banks rose by the chicken pens. They were mulched with cardboard and newspaper covered with manure.
helpers!
I've had some helpers lately and certainly appreciate them!
The Silkie babies got a new house
The plum trees are blooming
It has been way too warm here, with trees and flowers blooming as much as a month early.
eggs for the incubator
Time to hatch chicks! Lots of eggs going into the incubator, duck, Ameraucana, Buff Orpington, Black Copper Marans, olive eggers.
Superior Farmer's Market
Tomorrow I'll be back at the Superior Farmer's Market with baby mustard greens, kale, collards, Superior grown grapefruit and lots of fresh eggs!
Getting ready for the Superior Farmer's Market tomorrow. I pulled all the red Mizuna Mustard greens, cleaned up the bed and planted cilantro in it's place. In a couple of weeks the Giant Red Mustard will be ready to start pulling.
Ants warming up in the sunshine
It is still about freezing at night, then warm and sunny during the day. I noticed the ants sitting on a rock by their nest enjoying the sunshine.
Rainbow carrots & Radishes
I pulled some Rainbow carrots and a few radishes. There are not a lot of carrots left, but it's almost time to plant more.
Marans egg is #6 on the shade card
The days are a bit longer now and some of the hens are picking up their egg laying! I love the extra dark Marans eggs. This one was a #6 on the shade card (which happens to be upside down in the pic) I'll start collecting eggs to hatch starting this Sunday.
The back garden 2-3-2017
Today was a really pretty sunny day and I enjoyed my time in the garden. Took off row covers and discovered some beds needed a drink of water and most had a few weeds. So I enjoyed the sunshine while I watered, weeded and harvested. The chickens all enjoyed the weeds and bugs I tossed to them.
