Tour of Farmer Sis's Farm

This is my garden. I have tomatoes, basil, strawberries, lettuce, eggplant, and okra. The list is not over. We also have parsley, spinach, peppers, chives. That is all of the garden for today.

















strawberries
















okra

















eggplant
















tomatoes



















lettuce





















basil


Farmer Sis's Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 81F
Yesterday's low: 66F
Warnings: lightning
Mood of the farm: drowning

Open Letter to the Farm

Dear Farm,

I miss you. But I am on my way.
T minus 12 hours.

xoxo
Farmer G


p.s. Readers--updates tomorrow of all the New Growth.

Farm Vitals
I'll know soon!

Maisy Likes Rain Too

As everyone knows, Farmers have to pay a lot of attention to rain. Never has this been so evident as during my drive through the middle of the country last week, where puddles in the middle of fields turned to ponds turned to lakes turned to water covering the fields and the bottom half of the farm houses the farther south I drove.

The flooding in Oklahoma is not nearly as bad as in Iowa. But for a state that is usually settling in for a good drought-induced water ban around the middle of June, the rain is kind of startling. Every June growing up, I watched people water their lawns and wash their cars furiously in anticipation of the water restrictions everyone knew were on their way, lawns and cars being especially Big Deals in Oklahoma. But summer 2008 here has seen tornadoes and flooding people haven't seen in a while. For example: average rainfall for the month of June = 4.72 inches. Rainfall on the night of June 9th, 2008 = 3.87 inches. Rainfall for the first 15 days of June, not including last night's torrential thunderstorm = 8.30 inches. Oh, and did I mention they got about 6.5 inches of rain in the last WEEK of May?

Well anyway. You get the idea of what's going on here. The weather is terrible for farming. But I guess on the plus side, Maisy thinks it's perfect for her...

Mud is good for zebra-stripes on your face.



And especially good for running.

Dripping mud post-sprint.

Green Thumb Sunday: Frogs Like Rain Edition

Green Thumb Sunday





Join

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

Weekend Hiatus

Due to a complicated set of circumstances, the farm blog is on hiatus for this weekend at least.

But don't worry, the farm is in the capable hands of H & N, and I listened to a ton of NPR on my drive through the flooded heartland. I'm taking notes on all the stories and call-ins from "Farmer Dumpy" and the like, not to mention surveying that usually boring landscape of rural Iowa and Missouri with a newfound appreciation and understanding of crop rotation, transplanters, and all kinds of other farming equipment.

I'll try to convince Farmer Sis to scare up a post...

Farm Vitals
I have no idea...

Farmer Victory!

It was not the squirrel, Nutz4Nuts, who had a taste for cilantro.

It was this character:












And this one fat one that I suspect ate most of the leaves:



















And two others, just like them. At least, that's how many I've found so far. This farmer was looking for the beasts during the day, when the real trick was to sleuth around at night.

Using my Farmer Resources (aka a link provided by N to the U of MN Extension Service), I believe these are cutworms. The U's picture looks suspiciously like my cilantro-scarfers.















Now if I could only figure out what the problem is with the patio tomato plants (flea beetles??), the pest problems might be under control for one minute. Tentative Theory on the Farm: growing plants outside is better than pretending your screened in patio is a farm.

Ask the Farmer

And now it's time for another installment of "Ask the Farmer." Nutz4Nuts writes in:

As you know, the trees got a late start this year because the weather has been so cold. While waiting for the trees to grow, I blasted through the rest of my buried winter supply of acorns. Bit of a binge, actually... Anyway, now I don't have any food, and I was wondering if you could advise me about where I might find some cilantro and tender, new tomato plant leaves. Thanks in advance!

Well, Nutz4Nuts, I have NO IDEA why you would write to me about this dilemma! I have NO cilantro for you! And I have NO tender tomato plants either. NONE. ZERO. ZIP. Not on the farm. Not on the porch. You should try Iowa. Or Wisconsin. Don't even bother trying my neighborhood! We don't like cilantro OR tomato plants here!!



Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 69F
Yesterday's low: 55F
Warnings: Wildlife alert.
Mood of the farm: celebratory, re: the impending PhD of Anonymous K!
Reason to consider a new career: farmer may not be smarter than the wildlife...