All In

As of last night, the garden is officially “all in.” There is something in all of the 15 raised beds, the onions, potatoes and beans are going strong and the two projects: chicken coop and squash bed, are complete.

It’s also nearing the end of the “first season,” namely the cold frame season. The greens and spinach are quite tired after multiple harvests. I had my first real issue when I realized that m
any of the early carrots coming up in the cold frame were actually dill plants! I tried thinning them, but now it’s even harder to tell the difference and I’m letting them be until it becomes obvious again.

The first big surprise is that the broccoli is heading! I started them in the basement too early, and the back and forth of very cold and very hot weather might also be panicking them toward early flowering. I planted 12 of them (in the past I’ve planted 4) and already have more started on the windowsill. I’ll probably cut the full heads and leave a few for side shoots to get a second summer season from them.

One thing I did was hill the potatoes yesterday, which also seems early (before June 1?) since I planted them only six weeks ago. The potato bags are a week behind (planted later).

All 24 tomato plants went out yesterday, buried nearly halfway up in some cases. They look much stronger than I thought they would. As usual, the paste tomatoes seem the least sturdy, and the Supersweet 100s look the best. I’m going to wish I planted more cherry tomatoes this season. But I couldn’t resist trying some of the varieties I got seed for from a friend, and a couple unusual and saladette size. So I planted: yellow boy, supersweet 100s, bloody butcher, jet star (hybrid), Cosmonaut Volkov (my fave big tomato), Opalka paste, hog heart paste, Brave General, and two “pleated varieties that I think are much the same: Rosso Italiano and Gezhalte. Yup, that’s 10 varieties. Can’t wait to see what I get!

I planted lots and lots more carrots in the tomato beds. South side tomato bed = carrots.

What was most stressing me out was getting in the new squash bed. I was hoping and hoping and begging and badgering Steve to bring me a couple loads of topsoil and compost from the other side of the farm. Finally he unceremoniously dumped some topsoil that turned out to be very clay-like and unmanageable. I went back to my old method, hauling 40-lb bags of compost and topsoil from Home Depot into the truck and then from the truck up to the garden. 12 bags, or 280 lbs of the stuff. I was close to tears when he came to help by toting the last eight to the garden Sunday and brought in a scoop of compost for good measure.

I made pseudo-raised beds, just piled up good soil mix (compost, topsoil, peat, mushroom compost) and transplanted my various squashes and melons around the border. The vines can grow out over the large patch covered with plastic to keep the weeds out and topped with straw so as not to burn up the vines. This area is a bit shady, but it gets excellent morning sun and we’ll see how it goes. I thought I was done with making new garden beds, but apparently not! This did give me 30 ft of planting, with the plastic the equivalent of 360 more feet of garden space. What with the chickens, it’s really starting to resemble a mini-farm.

The chickens are a constant source of amusement. I can only tell two of them apart, Fred, who had the early mishap with his tail fuzz-feathers, who is mostly white-feathered and actually seems to like me best. He’ll stand at the fence and watch my activities and follow me around in the pen. There’s also “Biggie,” who is the boldest of the bunch, was the first to go outside when they were in the barn and continues to lead the pack.

In the morning when we open the door they trot out and go for a drink of water. Then they go back inside. They are inside as much as out during the day, which I think is hilarious. Hopefully soon there will be some grass/weed cover for them to lie in outside. They don’t know what to do with themselves, though they’re figuring out pecking the ground and they have plucked all the loose pine needles out of the chicken wire walls as high as they can reach. They seem to just enjoy each other’s company, and I feel an affinity with them liking the indoors as I do.