Green Thumb Sunday: Non-Green-Thumb Edition

Green Thumb Sunday: Non-Green-Thumb Edition

A Green Thumb Sunday when the ground is frozen once again? Fitting for this perfectly weird edition. First off, an illustration of the ridiculous onion problem I mentioned a few days ago re: why the farmer needs improvement when it comes to fall tasks:

New growth. Plus a lot of crap. Hmm. Is there a metaphor here?

Next, and the real headline news is a massive Victory of the Farmer! Remember that trash can, left by the original owners of the house (before the Farm Consumers)? That trash can that was too heavy to be moved and at one point in the summer became the Squirrel Death Trap, forcing H to fish a squirrel carcass out with a stick? And fling it, making the yard smell horrible for days? Yep, that trash can.

Today, I moved it! And, it's set to slowly melt the little bit of water/ice left inside into the neighbor's mess of a "yard" which is also down-stream of the Farm. So. Excited!!

Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 39F
Yesterday's low: 17F
Warnings: Snow. Ice. No, really.
Reason to consider a new career: Maisy caught a bird in her mouth this morning, and when I thought I was going to have to kill it because it was too injured, I nearly fainted. Luckily, it was just stunned. Catch and release, I'm cut out to do... Breaking necks with my bare hands, not so much. But HUGE thanks to Dr. P for the hippie-farming-advice on how to put it out of its misery. And equally HUGE thanks to the bird for rallying and sparing me from having to enact said advice.

All Mixed Up

Folks. It's March. There are seedlings on my windowsill. It is snowing outside. The trees have buds. But the windchill this morning was in the teens. I somehow did this to my computer and spent almost an hour trying to figure out how to undo it (have you ever tried to use a touchpad sideways??? It is not natural, people).

And Maisy Gower, Farm-Dog Extraordinaire alternates between slipping back into hibernation on her special pile of three beds (see below) and making me absolutely crazy by pacing with spring fever.

Nothing to do but work 'til it's over.

In case there was any doubt...

at how new/bad I am at this farming gig, here's one more example:

"Fall chores" on the farm were ignored in favor of "fall chores" of the academic year--the overlap is really unfortunate. Anyway, today I took a peek under the mulch covering the strawberries and green onions, only to realize there are green leaves under there. But the question is, new or old??? Honestly, I think they're a mix, which all boils down to one thing: this Farmer has a Big Mess on her hands.

SO, if anyone reading this actually knows the proper way to grow strawberries and has any suggestions for righting the ship, puh-lease leave them in the comments.

Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 49F
Yesterday's low: 43F
Warnings: more snow is coming. no, really.
Reason to consider a new career: I think this post basically covers it.

It's the First Day of Spring...

...the Obamas are planting a garden on the White House lawn, and it's snowing here in the tundra.

Luckily, the seedlings haven't noticed much. Here's an update!

It's hard to get the camera to focus on tiny rainbow chard seedlings, so I highlighted them for you. (click for a better view)

Cauliflower seedlings all in a row. Note how my labeling strategy has improved astronomically since Tomatofiasco 2008...

The Green Oakleaf Lettuce looks healthy



Don't blink or you'll miss the Romaine lettuce. It's there. I swear.


And finally, from the world's best spring care package, and directly from Massachusetts, my next weekend planting project!

Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 37F
Yesterday's low: 20F
Warnings: Just because the calendar says spring doesn't mean you should start growing immediately if you are a strawberry plant, fyi.

I'm so excited!

Not only has it started to feel like spring here in the tundra, but there have also been a ton of farm-related developments. I was supposed to do a whole mess of work before I posted these pics, but seeds started sprouting today, and I just can't wait! So, here's a sort of photo-essay of recent events. Then I'm getting back to my other job...

There's still a bit of snow on the farm (and all the stuff I never put away. Bad farmer!)

Here's the planting set up. Note the fancy new gloves H&N gave me for Gowerukkah, which worked perfectly.

The Farm Dog watched carefully over the process and piped up when she thought I was doing something wrong...


Planted on March 15th: rainbow chard, oak leaf lettuce (heads), romaine lettuce (heads), and spiky kind of cauliflower (I really will post more about that soon)

And today, March 18th (already?!?!) the oak leaf lettuce and cauliflower is up!

It looks like winter might end after all!

Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 55F (!!!)
Yesterday's low: 34F
Warnings: Hoping the strawberry plants don't get too used to this warm weather.

Farmer Out of Practice

Sorry folks. Everybody knows blog posts without pictures are capital b Boring. Here's a follow-up, plus an apology bonus.

1. The new seeds from Johnny's:

So excited for the chard and weird cauliflower (more to come on that) especially. Also! Cilantro seeds to be started this weekend. What!


2. The especially tiny Tiny Tomato plant:

3. The farmer's new nerdtastic glasses (photo before coffee kicked in...). They're bright blue inside, folks.

A Study in Contrasts

The windchill might have been -23F yesterday morning, but today, a little box of seeds arrived in my mailbox from Johnny's. SO excited. I know I abandoned the 2008 review, but I will get a list of seeds for 2009 up soon.

It's hard to imagine walking around without a coat (in shorts and a tank top??) and harder still to imagine having enough time in the day to leisurely check on the farm. Farming 2009-style will clearly involve a lot less frequent Watching My Garden Grow, but hopefully I learned enough last year to compensate.

Oh yeah--remember the Tiny Tomato seed? Well it grew/is growing, but with the short daylight and Arctic temperature in my living room, it still only has 6 leaves. By this summer, maybe it will be big enough to do directly into the ground.

Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 5F
Yesterday's low: -3F
Warnings: with highs this weekend in the 40s, we're in for a slush and mud mess...