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.
We had a pretty sunset yesterday evening; I was going down the driveway just in time to see the sun highlight the mountains. A good bit of snow up there.
rainfall week ending Jan 22, 2017
In the past week we've had 2.1 inches of rain. We sure need the moisture but I wish it would spread things out a bit. It's raining again already. Can't we save some for June and July?
Leek Seedlings
I haven't grown leeks before but I grow garlic and onions so shouldn't be any real difference. The main difference is planting the leeks deeply and hilling earth up around them when they get bigger. That is what makes a long white stem.
Parsley seedlings
In spite of garden books predicting it taking a long time, my parsley seedlings are germinating, only about 10 days after planting. I think I saw a speck of green in the sage tray too.
Scarlet Kale seedlings
Can't wait to see what the Scarlet Kale is like. This makes 4 varieties of kale this year!
new layer
I don't think the new girl laying quite gets the idea of what the box is for.....
I bought the book Gaia's Garden a couple of years ago. This is a great introduction into the concepts of Permaculture. There are some great projects and ideas to help you get started with becoming more self sufficient, resilient and sustainable around your home and in your garden. If you don't know, Permaculture is described as a design science. Things are designed so that the wastes of one system feed another. Remember in Nature there is no such thing as garbage. Only humans create garbage. Permaculture design principles can be used to design any system, from an urban homestead to a city to a large company. When thinking about something new around my place I ask myself if it fits into the Ethics of Permaculture: Care of the Earth, Care of the People, Share the Surplus
Last spring I hatched some ducks from my old pair of Welsh Harlequins. I ended up with 3 drakes and 2 hens. Love my Harleys! The boys are beautiful with their emerald green heads and russet chests.
The hens are good layers, the grandmother of this brood once laid 90 days straight without skipping a single day. (She did take a few weeks off to go broody at that point tho). These two young hens are now both laying, so yay! More eggs for us. I love duck eggs, especially for baking.
duck eggs
hoop house lost it's cover
main tomato garden
We had snow and rain over the holiday with some high wind. I had to wait until things thawed out this morning to get the cover back over the hoop house. Didn't really hurt anything, I mostly use the plastic to help winter crops grow a little faster in the cold weather.
I got all the old tomato vines pulled up and chopped into the pieces. I've started a new big compost pile in the main tomato garden. The compost chickens will be moving to this area shortly. You odn't have to chop things up for the compost but it makes it rot faster and it is much easier to turn the pile if you don't have a lot of long stringy stuff in there.
parsley, sage, rosemary and lavender
Kale seedlings
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and lavender seedlings are all waiting to go into the ground.
Some Red Russian Kale, aka Ragged Jack seedlings are also waiting to go out into the garden.
seedlings in the hoophouse
Broccoli and collard seedlings have just been transplanted into larger pots and are waiting for garden space. That is the great thing about growing most of your garden from your own transplants. The seedlings can grow off to the side, out of the way and not needing as much water while they wait their turn to go into a garden bed. I can gain as much as 6 weeks growing time this way.
The broccoli I"ve been harvesting is Di Ciccio, an older variety that makes slightly smaller heads but a lot of side shoots. This batch is Waltham 29, another old variety. I don't remember growing it before, so we'll see how it does. All of the collards I'm growing this year are Georgia.
