Garlic Layout

Here's the view of miniFarm with the garlic, for reference a few months from now when I've forgotten... [Wild garlic onions in foreground]

New Additions on the Farm

Things are growing away on the farm (photo updates soon), and I have some exciting news. I've wanted to grow garlic since the beginning of the farm, but never quite managed to get everything in order at the right time to do it. I figured last October was my last shot, and at that point, the Farm was in danger of becoming a garage. So imagine my surprise when Suburban Gardener and her Partner in Crime gifted me three varieties of garlic from the St. Paul Farmers' Market (which also sells fresh chicken eggs! I am SO going there this weekend. Anyone interested?) and advice from the garlic farmer who said you can plant them now for smaller bulbs late-summer. Woohoo!!!

So. The Farmer extends Learning Opportunities to garlic. Planted today: Music, Inchelium Red, and Georgian Fire garlic plants. Possibly shallots next. Stay tuned.
And finally, seeds for 5 varieties of heirloom tomatoes were planted today, a little late, but better than never. Seems like the summer push is in full swing.

Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 62F
Yesterday's low: 29F (WHAT???! Farmer had no idea it was supposed to get that cold last night. Luckily, everything looks okay)
Warnings: Farmer better pay closer attention to the lows!
Mood of the farm: Excited about the new additions, and the rain.

Green Thumb Sunday | Farmer Self-Portrait Edition

Green Thumb Sunday | Farmer Self-Portrait Edition

Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 56F
Yesterday's low: 39F
Warnings: Cucumber seeds (indoors) about to sprout!
Mood of the farm: Glad the worst of the storms are over....

Early Farm Glamor Shots

Readers.
There is a serious Threat of Rain for the Farm tomorrow. And not just any kind of rain. We're talking about the one inch (double what we've had all month!) pouring down with thunder and lightning and possibly hail--all the stuff that keeps baby seedlings up with worry at night. Baby seedlings, Farmers. Same difference... Anyway! Since the rain is coming whether I pitch a tent on the farm and tend to the seedlings or not, I thought I would take some glamor shots of the spouts, so we have a pre-storm record. If you are not a farmer/gardener, you might find these pictures boring. I, however, have been staring at them like a new mama stares at her infant. They're beautiful. Just sayin...

Hey look! The Farmer learned how to space since last year's fiasco...

And let's not forget the dainty Farm Dog, caught mid-sniff to her left, just after getting off her leash and ROLLING in a DEAD ANIMAL. And plenty of dirty to go along with it. Good news = she was not hard to catch.


Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 71F
Yesterday's low: 44F
Warnings: Threat of Rain
Mood of the farm: Growing in its own merry way
We're Growin' Up Fast Moment: Baby indoor seedlings to begin the hardening off process...TODAY! Two hours on the shaded, but windy screened-in porch, then back to the comfort and safety of the overprotective, doting Farmer. My babies are growing up!

Learn Something New

Hey, check out today's official weather warning:

".. RED FLAG WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM CDT THIS EVENING...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN HAS ISSUED A RED FLAG WARNING... WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM CDT THIS EVENING."

What, you ask, is a red flag warning? (That part comes at the end of the notice...)

"A RED FLAG WARNING MEANS THAT CRITICAL FIRE WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE EITHER OCCURRING NOW... OR WILL SHORTLY. A COMBINATION OF STRONG WINDS... LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITY... AND WARM TEMPERATURES WILL CREATE EXPLOSIVE FIRE GROWTH POTENTIAL."

Now we know. And we have a new tag to go with threat of hail and threat of frost. Threat of fire.

Consulting Update

Here's the scoop on the new plant consulting job. Yesterday, when I was at the magical place that has cured me of a decade of daily headaches, I noticed a very sad looking plant sitting on the windowsill. Turns out, due to a variety of weird circumstances, Dan acquired this plant in tough shape. He knew it needed new soil, but only had the kind good for a cactus on hand, so I offered to help. Now folks, let's be honest. I make at least as many mistakes at farming as I have victories, but really, this plant was on its last leg anyway, so it seemed like as good a time as any to begin the consulting job. I carefully drove the thing home, and took this hasty (blurry) picture before getting to work.


Turns out, the thing was potted in what seemed like dust from an empty lot, with chunks of concrete (yet, you read that right) at the bottom of the pot. Unfortunately, there was not much of a root structure at all, and some of the branches were basically like lawn ornaments, stuck in with not a root to be found. So! I gave it some new, loose soil, removed the unrooted branches, made a cutting for a cup of water and a cutting to plant directly into the soil (not sure which one is right), and here we are. Still really droopy, but I'm hoping it will perk up a little bit soon.

Updates, of course, will be forthcoming.

Also, farm update: another Wando pea seedling is up! And the spinach has finally sprouted! The lettuce, on the other hand, is a Situation. I think the seeds either blew or floated to a low spot in the bed, because I know I spaced the seeds this year...

Acquired my first plant consulting job. 4Runner acting as ambulance for troubled plant in mint family. Details to come.

It Was the Best of Times

(thanks to Mother Nature, the first Wando pea seedling has emerged)


and It Was the WORST DAMN TIME in the Entire History of the farm (thanks entirely to the ridiculous and not forward-thinking farmer).

What happens when your farmer puts you in a sunny windowsill on a windy day.

All the potential tomatoes... You know what this means: Raise a glass, and pour one (or a few) for the homie...

Man Down!

If these two little green onion stems were the only thing big enough to get hit by hail, then this Farmer feels pretty lucky...


In other updates, the wild garlic onions:



Some frost-nipped garlic scallions:


And one slightly less blurry chard seedling (the lettuces are still too small), Now do you see what I've been saving you from having to squint about...


Oh, and look how I didn't kill that flowery thing Suburban Gardener gave me last spring. The fern, on the other hand, is an entirely different situation...

Today's study break farm projects
1.) transplant chard and lettuce to single containers
2.) start (indoor) seeds for: cucumber and possibly some spinach as a test, since it's not really coming up outside at the moment...

Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 48F
Yesterday's low: 39F
Warnings: Heat wave on its way!
Mood of the farm: A little chillier than ideal...
Reason to consider a new career: I had to turn on the heating pad for the tomato seeds yesterday. Really?

Actual Hail

Freak Hail Storm on Farm!


Stay tuned for updates on microseedlings...

What's with the Radio Silence?

There have been requests (no, really. there have been. more than one, even...) for a blog update on what's going on in the Farm. I've been trying to spare you the fuzzy pictures of dirt with a tiny speck of green that is so small my camera can't focus on it. One day I'll get a fancy camera that can capture the the first sprouts, but in the meantime... Rest assured, lettuce and a little spinach, and possibly even the first chard seed are all starting to sprout. Also, it's possible (likely) that the peas are growing below ground... That's all I'm saying about that. SO! A little patience, farm followers, and I'll get pictures up soon. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny, so hopefully there will be plenty of growth after these two days of rain.

In other news, the highs on Thursday and Friday are in the 80s. What.

Also, the very first indoor tomato seedling sprouted. And the tiny tomato is about to get flowers. It's growth left and right around here.


Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 51F
Yesterday's low: 38F
Warnings: The seeds couldn't have asked for a better kind of rain... Slow, steady drizzle. Perfect.

Hey Look At These!

These little things are quickly becoming my favorite thing that's growing on the farm. Suburban Gardener gave them to me last year, and I was sure I killed them in the transplanting process, but apparently not. If memory serves (and I'm almost sure that it doesn't), Suburban Gardener's sister dug these up in the woods somewhere, and they're some kind of forrest elf delicacy... Um, yeah. Turns out I don't really remember what they are. I want to say garlic onions, but that seems weird (obviously). SG--a little help?

Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 67F
Yesterday's low: 32F
Warnings: Everyone's on pea shoot alert.
Mood of the farm: Growing under ground, I hope!

Weekend Update

Here are some classic "before" photos of the farm before this weekend's work-a-thon.
Clearly, the place was a pit. I thought the worst part of all was going to be the thick layer of sludge below those piles of leaves, but once I got all the sludge out, I discovered (Trial of the Farmer #1) the real worst part. Ice! The quarter of the farm beneath 18" or so of grass and leaves was still frozen solid!

(See the ice crystals in the middle???)

Luckily, the rest of the farm was more than ready to be worked, so I prepped all the rest of it except that one area. Based on some very scientific (read fourth-grade-chemistry-set) experimentation, it looks like the pH of the farm is great--right around 6.5. The macronutrients, on the other hand, are practically nonexistant. The consumers and I knew this, of course, and had planned on adding plenty more compost this time around...

So after about 100 pounds of manure and compost,* plus two wheelbarrows full of fresh compost from the neighbor, Chris, the soil was considerably richer in all of the important ways.


(*Note: this makes it seem like Farming in April in Minnesota is No Big Deal. Wrong. Really, we're talking about Trial #2 of the weekend. The longer version of this story is that I pried the compost Saturday off the shelf at the Garden Center, leaving chunks of ice behind, was excited to get started, then opened the bags to realize it was all kind of frozen. So I opened the bags, left them in the sun, and came back to work on this project Sunday. Very frustrating for a farmer who is not as patient as she should be).


Also, in the middle of all of this, the Farm Dog, who looks deceivingly cute in this picture:

managed to sniff out the MiniChuck, which, after a winter of hibernating, is much less Mini and much closer to the size of a cocker spaniel. Fast forward through a flying leap into the farm, tie out ripped from the ground, and a good chase through a couple of backyards, and Maisy eventually gave up on the Chuck. But at one point, she was about six inches away from a mouthful, and then probably an ugly fight. In case you were wondering what a Farm Dog does after such an exciting chase... The answer is sit at attention like this for about 8 hours over two days, staring in the direction of the Chuck sighting. That dog has a one track mind...

And last, but certainly not least... The "after" pictures. Here's the little bit of side farm all cleaned up:
And here's the first 2009 installment of (Mini)Chuck's eye view* from the MiniChuck highway. As usual, you'll have to click on the picture to have a chance at reading the words... You can see in the top left corner of the picture the still-frozen area. That will be prepped later...

*No idea what I'm talking about? Here's the first. (Sidenote: Wow! I forgot what Farming actually looks like when it's underway. Even more excited now!)




Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 58F
Yesterday's low: 39F

A Preview

Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 53F
Yesterday's low: 28F
Warnings: The quarter of the Farm that's frozen better thaw stat or the farmer is going to lose it.

2009 Farm Plans

So I made what may be the worst design specimen in the whole world. However, I think it's a great plan for a Farm! Work starts tomorrow. And better still, PEAS WILL BE PLANTED! This weekend. For real!


Hopefully I'm learning something this year. See how there's a clear path into the Farm? Progress. Also, I've abandoned the rows in favor of beds. We'll see how that turns out...

And finally, in that little stretch of farm that's not actually on the farm... Basil, cilantro, all the onion-ish things that are already coming back up(!), and of course, more beans.

Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 52F
Yesterday's low: 28F
Reason to consider a new career: I'm keeping BOTH of my careers at the moment...

Timing

I should have posted this months ago, but better late than never, right...

INDOORS
Planted March 15th:
Cauliflower

Planted April 5th:
Rainbow chard
Oakleaf lettuce heads
Romain lettuce heads
Cilantro

Planted April 15th:
Tomatoes
Basil

Planted April 21st:
Cucumbers


OUTDOORS
April 12th:
Peas
Leaf lettuce
Spinach
Chard (Rainbow and Rhubarb, from seed)

To plant when big enough...
Lettuce heads (seedlings)
Cauliflower (seedlings)
Rainbow Chard (seedlings)

May 1st:
A second round of spinach and leaf lettuce

May 15th:
Beans
Cucumbers

May 21st-June 1st, depending on temperature
Tomatoes (seedlings)
Zucchini (if N will eat it, and only one plant)