I may be slacking, but the seedlings aren't

Exciting times here around the farm! Unfortunately, the Farm Dog is too exhausted from being tricked by squirrels to blog, and now we're behind over here. So without further ado, a brief update of how things are growing by area...


The back garden, called the triangle
Garlic is up and tall! So are the shallots, green onions, and garlic chives. Peas, chard, and spinach were experimentally direct seeded REALLY early because of the early spring, but they just came up and are looking great!
These photos were taken about a week apart. In the last one, from 4/22, you can see the cauliflower, broccoli, and beet seedlings in trays in the foreground. Radish, lettuce, and onions (below ground) planted out next to the garlic. Plus, the richer dirt where compost was added.

The seedlings! Of course, this has been the most exciting part. I was a little slow in getting heat to the summer seeds, so the sprouting was not ideal. As you can see early on, things progressed evenly. But very quickly, an overachiever emerged... Luckily, by the time that zucchini lost its mind, the cold weather seedlings were ready to check out life outside the house, so the zucchini has ventured out as well. Otherwise, the grow lights are just too far away from the tomatoes...

More room for the tomatoes now that the cold weather seedlings live outside 24/7...

Speaking of grow lights, WOW are they great! The last couple of years I have started my seeds in a sunny window, and the difference in growth is just amazing. Hopefully this will also avoid the two week halt in growth that has typically happened while the plants figure out what exactly they were thinking growing so tall once the wind arrives...

So that about sums it up.

More to come on a few riveting topics including:
1) How I listened to the wrong hay/straw guy and am now forced to hang all my hopes on a weird little bag of corn gluten meal.
2) Massive Flea Beetle Infestation, and how [I hope] the farm gets saved by insecticidal soap
3) The Very Exciting reused lumber effort to make the raised beds. And...the hilarity that ensued once we made what we drew up on the plans. [Teaser: Veggies do not require bathtub-sized raised beds to grow.]

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

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)

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.

I Can't Think of a Better Idea

than a Farm on the White House lawn...



This Lawn is Your Lawn - 1 minute version for Climate Matters contest from roger doiron on Vimeo.

Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 41F
Yesterday's low: 26F
Projects remaining: clean stuff up, mulch the strawberries, remove the fence

A Return to Labor...

Family, Friends, Strangers, and Pioneers,

Happy Labor Day! This is going to be a long post, because many things are going on at the moment. I just came back from checking on the farm, and I have some things to catch you up on... First of all, over the last week or two, a number of things have either succumbed to squash vine borers or just run out of steam and needed to be pulled. This includes most of the zucchini, all of cucumbers, and most of the green beans.
Fear not, the tomatoes continue to grow and ripen at breakneck speed. The plants are even making new flowers. I know in the interest of ripening the tomatoes already on the vines that I should remove these flowers stat. But the bottom line is that I don't have the heart to do it, and the plants are already making more tomatoes than three humans could possibly eat in one summer. Here are a few yellow ones I picked this morning, alongside the last cucumber of the season.
About those yellow tomatoes... When I picked the first, gigantic one, I was so excited. And then I took a bite and almost cried. It tasted terrible, and I professed my hatred of yellow tomatoes to my closest friends, but not you people of the internets, because I had put so much energy into growing the things and Worrying my Farmer Worries about whether or not they were growing appropriately. Well, luckily I tried another one a few days later, and I am happy to report that it tasted DELICIOUS! This one was of the traditional size, instead of the first ginormous one, and this one was definitely ripe--I might have cut into the first one a little too early. In any event, I am proud to say that I love yellow tomatoes, and am once again delighted with the Bounty.

Also on the farm, the flowers have sensed they're running out of time and sped things up. Now I'm not generally a fan of flowers, and certainly not posting pictures of them, but I'm a little bit enamored by them this fall...

So here's the sunflower of Green Thumb Sunday fame, but close up:
Some kind of vining flower seed N is growing that we almost mistook for a weed until we figured out what was going on:
The garlic chives flowering away:

Now, we're at the sad part of this post. September has arrived (somewhat unbelievably), and the time has come for me to return to my real career as a graduate student. I never really left it, but I added this farmer gig on top, and as is no surprise to anyone who knows me well, I'm not very good at doing two things I love at once. So this Farmer schtick is getting downgraded to a part-time job, which luckily dovetails nicely with the fact that the farm requires almost no maintenance at the moment. And the Grad Student schtick is going back to it's all consuming ways. I have a giant paper to write, and then several hours of on-the-spot questioning to prepare for this fall, all in the service of showing the powers that be that I am a competent human being. And I'll be collecting my dissertation data. This weekend, I prepared my office for that task, and like the green-ish farmer that I am, I even recycled a little motivation.

What does that mean for you people of the internets? Well, this blog is going to be updated a lot less frequently. But I'm still going to air all my farming adventures, mistakes, and hijinx to the masses. I mean, threat of frost will soon loom over the farm around every turn, and you know I'm going to post all my antics of attempting to cover those wild tomato plants and all of my fretting about whether they are surviving as they should. Oh, and I don't think I mentioned it but I planted lettuce seeds (!!) a week-ish ago to try my hand at a "fall crop" even though I'm not sure if Minnesota can handle it. People, you know I will be fretting about that too. But daily posts are a thing of the summer, not the fall. And you know how I like routine...

So until the next time the farm (or the farmer) does something remarkable, take care of yourselves, and each other.

When you don't have a sign off, I find it's best to use Jerry Springer's. ;)


Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 86F
Yesterday's low: 67F
Warnings: Last day of hot weather, possibly for the rest of the year, today.
Mood of the farm: Worried about all the plants the farmer is pulling...
Reason to consider a new career: Well, I'm a grad student. And I love it. So I'm sticking with that.

Getting Crafty With the Farm

Remember all that cilantro I was mad about because it went to seed? Well, I figured I ought to at least make something good out of the deal, so coriander it is. Also, Rosa and Maisy have been munching on something near the farm that makes them immediately drool and then vomit. Repeatedly. I'm hoping this is the cause, and getting it off the farm with also get rid of the dog antics.

The plants were ready for drying, so I cut them this afternoon, and hung them on my porch on a makeshift line. Yes, I use package wrapping ribbon for all farm projects. It's just a thing with me.

Then, I carefully crafted some highly technical, farm-specific devices to catch the seeds that fell. The one on the left wasn't dry enough to need a catcher (technical term) yet.
Now I just have to hope my neighbors don't think I'm up to some illicit activity and call the cops before these plants are done drying...

Somebody Call a Doctor.

I hope you're sitting down for this, because it's going to come as quite a shock. Not only has the Farm blog been somewhat neglected over the past week, but so has the Farm. The even more shocking part is the reason for the neglect: I have been working. Like crazy. See? I told you to sit down.

Well anyway, I went to the Farm this morning to do a closer inspection of things, and folks, it was not pretty. The zucchini plants have developed an unfortunate case of powdery mildew:



















And not to be outdone by the fungus, squash borers have invaded the stems. I know it mostly looks disgusting in there, but see where it's kind of orange and looks a bit like sawdust? That is where some ginormous moths laid their eggs, which then bored into the stems and now gross grub-looking caterpillars are growing inside and making a mess of things. Rather than gross you out with the details, here's another link you can click on to get a closer look if you're not in the middle of eating. Though I will point out that the "surgery" I need to do on the other plants is kind of like my two dreams, combined into one thing. Surgery! On the farm! It's going to be so much better than Wii surgery, I can't even tell you...



















The powdery mildew, as it turns out, is not that big of a deal for the plants. It mostly slows down their growth, which is not a problem around the Farm because N's taste for zucchini can't keep pace with the plants. What's the solution to preventing it? Surprise, surprise. Spacing, people. Spacing. Mildew doesn't like airflow and direct sunlight.

However, the squash borer situation is more serious, and that plant was in rough shape. Not to mention the fact that it had completely plugged up the entrance to the farm. So if you'll all join me in a moment of silence (see how I placed my flipflop in there for scale?)...



Pour one for the homie.







And now, a farmer can get into her farm without risking death or muscle injury.




















That's not the end of the diseases. The beans, as you can see here, are in rough shape. I'm pretty sure the holes are from flea beetles that used to feed on the unstaked pea plants (do not follow directions on the seed packets re: not staking!), and moved once the peas were staked and later pulled because of the heat. And after a bit of google research, I can tell you that rusty-looking stuff is just that. Bean rust. Yet another fungus.



















At this point in the summer, and since the beans are still making beans, I'm going to leave it untreated. Next time I have a farm, though, I'll have to keep a closer eye on things.


Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 79F
Yesterday's low: 57F
Warnings: We're in a drought, and the average first frost is exactly one month away. *Ahem* if you're a tomato plant, especially one with yellow fruit, please get your fruit in gear and ripen stat.
Mood of the farm: Sickly, much like its farmer.
Reason to consider a new career: Farmer has been earning perfect 10s, except for the occasional dozing-off-deduction, watching Olympic gymnastics, which if you've watched at all, have heard Elfie Schlagel et al explain four million times is no longer possible. If I hear them explain the A and B score one more time, I'm going to kill someone, and I hear it's real hard to get access to farmland from prison.

Projects on the Farm

The Good
Quite a few things have been happening on the farm in the last few days. More things are sprouting (spinach, look far right), first and foremost, which is a nice little boost of confidence for this farmer. Also, the mint apple plant seems to have risen from the almost-dead for good, and after removing some of the almost-frost-nipped leaves, looks pretty good!


The Bad
The woodchuck (aka MiniChuck), on the other hand, has been finding new and inventive ways to bring trials to the life of the farmer. As if the hissing and staring down wasn't enough! Now, MiniChuck has decided to sample the watermelon plants. According to MiniChuck, three plants, three snacks:








The Ugly
Now, let's all get on the same page here for a minute. I know this "fence" isn't going to win any awards anytime soon. Although, I did take a "green approach" by using some of the rocks I found while prepping the area to block some of the gaps in the fencing. *ahem* However, if I'm really lucky, it might just keep MiniChuck from snacking on the leaves. And, more importantly, snacking on the farmer.














(as usual, click for a bigger picture...)








Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 72F
Yesterday's low: 53F
Warnings: None. It's finally sunny!
Mood of the farm: feeling safe and secure with the new fencing
Reason to consider a new career: let's just say my fencing skills leave something to be desired...