Oh NOES

Drove by a new nursery I hadn't seen before out in..Kent. Then I had to turn around and see what they had because it looked awesome. Most herbs were $1.25-$1.39 and a great prices on other edibles. Flowers were about equally priced. Finally got my first tomato plants of the season, some zuchini, cabbages, herbs and a few more pretty flowers. I may have to go back, bringing Lacy this time, and buy some bulbs. They had some hyacinths that weren't even blooming yet, and beautiful tulips. Hooray for SPRING!!!

Busy in the Garden...... Finally!

We finally got around to planting stuff. Its been lots of rain around here, and with the new jobs and still getting the house in order I haven't found the time to plant any seeds. But its warming up and we went to the Tilth Spring Plant sale and got some starts. Lacy got a bunch of flowers and some edibles and I got some herbs.
We threw some old peas and bean seeds into the ground but we don't have any confirmed sprouts, yet. The seeds were at least 2009 so it might be too late for them.
The herb bed is taking shape, chickens are happy and healthy and there are more newcomers to our garden this year. We have a new Gardening Partner!!!! We gave her a whole bed which she promptly filled with onion, spinach, and some other starts with all this room we have it seemed silly that she would pay for a pea patch, assuming she could even get one (I hear there are wait lists). Also baby chicks will be arriving in four weeks and ducks soon after. Our NGP (just this afternoon) has become employed so I don't think he will be wanting to lend much time to our gardening efforts, although he has become quite fond of all the fresh veggies and eggs, so he might be willing to help now and then.
Second composter is put together, straw bin is finished all but the lid, which is going to take me some design work and a few more parts. Home Despot how I love thee! And I want to build a potato bin this year. Bought some more worms at the plant sale, I like to think all the other little guys ran free but likely they just dried out, and decomposed. Sad. But Lacy fixed the worm bin by drilling holes in the lid so these guys should be much happier.
Our yard waste (imagine a brush pile the size of your living room) lives on. Plans to borrow Mom's truck are in the works, I just wanted to wait for some drier weather. Moving all that debris to the transfer station in the cold windy rain just sounded like a terrible way to spend my weekend.
All the bulbs planted in the front yard are blooming out and looking beautiful. Its such a nice thing to come home to the last rays of sunshine and your walk up to your door lined in crocuses and daffodils!

rambling, procrastination...or...am I way too late for seeds?!?

We like to garden by starting our own seeds...mainly it costs (a lot!) less but it is also so satisfying to see all those little seeds popping up and growing - they are so cute you can't help but want to garden.  This year with moving, new jobs and a combined 6weeks-ish of being sick I'm wondering if we've run out of time.  Almost every afternoon while in the office I look outside and thing "Tonight I'm going to start seeds!" or "This weekend I'll plant things!"  But there are so many other things that I need to do also - or I'm just too tired.  I've only been working since December and I don't think I've really re-adjusted yet - I know I should but most nights I just want to come home, eat food, take a shower and relax.

So...this weekend I'm resolved - I want seeds in the ground - at least the ones we can plant outside right now. Then I'll evaluate the others and see if I have time/energy/etc...

I'm debating buying starts this year and I keep hearing about the Seattle Tilth Edible Spring plant sale...it's coming up soon and they do have a lot of things I wanted. Doing starts feels a little bit like a failure - especially after carefully saving seeds last year from so many tomatoes, tomatillos, climbing beans and squash.

I'm going to have to do some research this week and see what can be planted still via seed, I'll get out our Maritime NW Garden guide to see what should have been planted the last 2 months and look at our seed varieties and see how long they are going to take...The tomatoes and squash might be OK from seed now if nothing else.

When do you start planting seeds?  Last year Jen started in December if I remember right and we grew just about everything from seed.  This year with all of the herbs and veggies I want I think starts are going to be in the plan. 

I'm also looking at growing a bunch of edible flowers this year - mainly I think it will be pretty but I'm also thinking ground cover.

Pictures, finally!

Sedums to go on the rock wall

garden shed in the backyard

Apple tree, chickens and yard.  The vegetable garden space is against the bamboo fence

chicken run next to the vegetable garden

cardboard put down around the blueberries to sheet mulch - dirt will be put on top...

leftover plants - what are they?

It's SooOOOO fluffy!

more shore pine and ivy to remove...somewhere under all of this is a rock wall and some honeysuckle

the chickens love love love the garden

roses!

blueberry - obviously it needs more dirt over that cardboard....in time, in time...lol

what are they?  Wood hyacinths perhaps?  There are clumps all over the yard like this :)

black bamboo...pretty pretty!

work, work, work

Well....some pruning, no gravel path or dirt by the blueberries.  I dug up some sedums to put in the rock wall and found out that it was basically falling down in one spot...we proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon rebuilding that section.  Now it looks better than it did when we moved in and it won't fall on anyone walking by - hooray!  It looks nice with all the sedums in it too...I wish I'd gotten a before picture of the hole but I only got one afterwards, we rebuilt the middle section on the 2nd picture

sunshine!

Heading outside to work in the garden, I'm going to let the chickens out to roam and do some prunning, I'm going to also dig out a path to the chicken coop and fill it with gravel, perhaps haul more dirt up to finish covering the sheet mulch around the blueberries.


I'm going to take some more pictures and then upload them!

I won a book that I'm excited to read  from the lovely Meg at  http://growandresist.com/ you should check out her blog, she's a much better writer than I am and her garden and chickens are gorgeous!

I've already learned something new I'm excited to try - broccoli likes to be planted with aromatic herbs, rosemary in particular!  I'm excited to try this since we have tons and tons of rosemary and I have not had any luck whatsoever with my 3 attempts at broccoli.

In other news I found out the weirdly pruned shrub outside is indeed a forsythia since the golden yellow flowers have started to bloom.  Also the NGP's mother was down last week (she lived in this house for 30+ years) and said the old pear tree is delicious yellow gold pears and the apple tree is good for cooking though it has problems with scab.  I will plant chives around it asap to help with the scab and hopefully after some pruning both of them will produce lots of fruit this year!  I'm excited to try canning fruit and with apples, pears, plums, peaches, raspberries, blueberries and grapes there should be plenty to experiment with.

I'm thinking if there is a large yeild to have a canning/harvest party.  I'm thinking bbq on the patio and come can, take some home, eat some fruit...something.  I don't know entirely - just the beginning of an idea and fall is a ways away right now anyways.

COLD

so...what do you do when it is only 18 degrees out and the sun is shining beautifully and you want to garden???  I'm thinking up things to cook and reading other gardening blogs!  I think I'm going to make sweet potato baked donuts with cinnamon sugar for breakfast tomorrow and I've been following all fo the craziness that has been going on with the copywrite of  urban homesteading.  I'm also considering pruning a fruit tree or two but I don't think I'll survive the cold whether or not they will...

I've started reading a permaculture design book...all very sensible and good info but it just makes me think "really?!? does it have to be this complicated?!"  Don't get me wrong, everything it says makes sense and the so far it is essentially how I already garden but it wants you to design and plan every single thing that ever goes into your garden!  Where's the room for spontenaity and trying new things? What about the random plant that you just plop in to an available spot to see what happens?  It seems to me that all of that planning takes a bit of the fun out.  I suppose from a large scale commercial point of view it is fairly radical thinking though...hmm...  More thought will be given on the subject at a later date, I have only read 15 pages after all...

pictures!...or not

I finally took pictures!  There was sunshine and warmth and wonderful all day Sunday...then we discovered the camera cord has gone missing, none of can remember where it got packed and we thought the office had gotten unpacked....*sigh* it's just not working to get pictures of the new garden!

Anyways...back to sunshine and gardening fun...the chickens had a fabulous time sunbathing and wandering through the garden while I cut back dead flower stocks and pulled the dead annuals from last years garden...Jen built one of the two compost bins and we set that up by the vegetable garden.  I scooped up chicken manure-y straw from the chicken run and spread it out over the blueberry garden, then sheet mulched over top of that.  I'm so excited to finally get that project done, I hope the blueberries like all of the extra nitrogen fertilizer :)

We also "dug up" a Sambucus nigra (love these plants!) that had outgrown its pot.. and moved it over behind the chicken run..it should be so beautiful this summer!  It had outgrown the pot so much that the bottom of the pot was completely gone and I had to (um...got to!) break the pot apart with a sledge hammer..that was actually pretty fun. 

Jarett (the NGP!) removed another 4' of ivy from the rock wall and Jen cut down a bit of the shore pine we wanted to get rid of. 

All in all it was a fantastic work day and someday I will post pictures!  Don't worry, there are lots of pictures...they are just stuck on the camera....

I've been reading a new gardening book that focuses on planning for production from a kitcheny-cooking point of view (which does only make sense when you think about it).  It's inpired me to start thinking about this years garden and I want to get started on spring gardening!  I also really want to do some winter gardening this year. 

The book is Homegrown by Marta Teegen - I think my favorite part is the garden layouts designed per person eating and the recipes in the back.  I love learning new things to do with all of that produce!  I probably won't plant by her designs entirely but it was good to get an idea of how much to plant which is something we didn't quite work out last year.  Another thing that I liked is how she rally focuses on soil health as the best way to guarantee a  good crop and one thing Jen & I are good at is making good dirt! 

right now I'm thinking of growing:

garlic
sweet onions
leeks
bell peppers
broccoli rabe
kale
brussel sprouts
purple cabbage
zucchini
cucumbers-pickling & regular
spaghetti squash
green beans
purple potatoes
fingerling potatoes
yams
cherry tomatoes
large sauce tomato
sugar snap peas
shelling peas
thyme
oregano
basil
thai basil
dill
nastursiums
calendula
violas
lavender
rosemary

All of this in addition to the fruit - blueberries, raspberries, concord grapes, green table grapes, peaches, yellow plums, pears and apples!

I'm sure there will be more added later, and that Jen will add stuff but this is the begining of a list in progress.  I may grow some salad greens but I've never had good luck with those in the past so I don't know if I'll bother.  If I do it may be in pots on the back porch (which is just off the kitchen).

 I want to get started on cleaning up the raised beds and getting them ready for some planting!  I will hopefully have time this weekend, I'd like to pull out last years plants that are left over, remove the weed cover (left by the old owner) and inspect the soaker hoses (left by the old owner) and add some of our awesome compost we brought from the old house.  I'm hoping that the hoses have overwintered in good condition and can be used - if so the entire garden will be irrigated!  That will be really nice.

Another thing I need to do is get the pear and apple tree pruned to see if that will help with fruit production this coming year - they are just so awfully pruned right now that I'm not sure what to do with them.

All the sunshine today has me antsy to get started but I remember that it's winter when I walk outside--brr!  A good time to get started on planning.

I can hardly wait to get some photos of the garden, pretty soon it will be light out when I come home from work and I won't have to wait for the weekend. 

I planted my 6 blueberry bushes I brought from our old house...so exciting to get that done, I'm going to spread some of the used chicken straw over that area for some quick nitrogen fertilizer and sheet mulch over top - the blueberries should really love that.

Jen's fancy chickens are ordered and my ducks will be ordered toward the middle of this month...I'm super excited!

new spaces

Its staying lighter out longer - its warmish out...well - at least over 40 usually...I'm dying to get out in our new garden and take pictures and prune trees and get started gardening in the new place!

We rebuilt the new chicken run yesterday - we put a temporary tarp roof on it and a windstorm pulled it all apart.  It is now reinforced and roofless.  The chickens are happier, they really seemed to hate the roof and the humans....well we've decided we'll have to deal with muck. 

On a more fun note though there was a small harvest yesterday as well!  tiny baby carrots and 2 bins of potatoes were discovered in the garden!  They are now harvested and sitting on the kitchen counter waiting to be cleaned and devoured.  Yum! 

Next weekends project is building a bin to hold the extra straw for the chicken run - we've made a plan and are going to build a hinged box made out of cedar fencing boards...it should be awesome and the result will be the straw can be removed from the front porch and we can clean off the porch - somewhere under all the mess there are porch chairs just waiting to be sat in.  There's so much to do it's hard to know where to start...I am hoping we have unpacked the camera so that I can take pictures this weekend - to get a nice "before"

Question: what is your favorite part of gardening? the process? the result? watching it change and evolve?

I honestly can't decide what mine is...I think watching it change and evolve - but that is a direct result of the process so perhaps the process...hmmm.  Or perhaps it is this moment, right now before we've even begun when it's all just possibilities and dreams...where anything can happen. 

winter and animalses

yes - that's animals-es as in lots of them - and not necessarily ours. It's COLD outside!  We had temps below 20 degrees at the beginning of last week, then a snow and ice storm...now it's clear and slightly rainy but still really cold.  This brings out the animals from the green belt...

The chickens seem to be OK with the cold - we put a wool blanket on their coop and shut them in at night so they would stay warm and they seem to be ok.

Then there's the other animals-es..........yea. 
There are 2 juvenile raccoons living under the back porch but of course not just under the porch...the owner has some sheets of plastic down there to move the rain water away from the house so they of course are living on top of the plastic under the wood...noisy!  They are not to much of a pest though.  What's a  real pest is the possum (yes, I know it's really Opossum) twice now it's climbed INTO THE CHICKEN COOP!!!  when we left the door open after dark.  So that's a small detail, thank god it's a small baby possum.  I was so scared it was going to be super agressive and attack us or something.  We had to get a rake and shove it out of the coop and out of the run, fortunately it just went out, scared of us.  It doesn't seem to get that the chickens are possum food which is really really good :)

The one that really annoys me though is whatever has taken up residence in my wall - right under the head of my bed!  rrr!  I can hear it at night eating and moving about - I guess I should be happy there's only one of it but I can't help but wonder if it's going to eat through the drywall and into my room some night. *shiver* EW.  Have I mentioned I'm happy we're moving out of this house?!?

In other news we are about 3/4 of the way done with the major repairs that have to happen to the new house before we can move in.  We'll finish the upstairs this week which means we can start moving boxes while we finish the basement.  The only other things to happen is getting someone to pick up all of the stuff that was left in the house and to clean it.  I'm sooo excited to start our new garden over there!  Yesterday our friend Ben dug the holes for the new chicken/duck run, it is about 5' longer than our current one which will be awesome.  There are lots of pictures coming - I will have to try to make a point to upload some tonight or tomorrow.  For now, I need to go feed chickens and get a move on - another trip to Home Depot this morning for more primer and joint compound then off to the new house to lay my new bathroom floor and finish primer-ing the upstairs.  WHEW.

gardening progress

Last Thursday we worked in our new yard all day. Jen bought a sawzall and with help from our friend Mo we cut down the huge wall of juniper.  While she and Mo worked on that I worked on pruning the plants around the front porch - cut down 3 rhododendrons to 6-12" so that they can grow back better next year.  They were about 8' tall without any lower branches.  The grapes were also cut down to a framework for next spring and I did some more work on the rockery.  Jen & Mo did amazing work on the juniper and we now have a very large space ready for the new chicken run and a large pile of brush to mulch or burn.  It feels awesome to finally get going on it!

seed saving and winter time

I guess it's officially winter now that the predicted high temp for tomorrow is supposed to be 40degrees!  brr!

Today I did a small amount of garden cleanup by gathering the piles of rotting tomatoes saved and harvested seeds.  I've got the heirloom roma's, the red cherry tomatoes and the yellow cherry tomatoes.  I also sorted the tomatillos that were harvested a last week and cooked and pureed the good ones and saved seeds from the rotting ones.  We read somewhere that the rotting (fermenting) tomatoes are better to save seeds from so we've had piles of them stored outside rotting um...fermenting away. 

In other news our chickens are a bit happier now that we got them some straw to walk on rather than be knee deep in mud (do chickens even have knees???) and no seattle channel show after all which turns out to be fine since we were all sick and couldn't make it outside to clean up the yard anyways. 

There's a lot of work to be done before we move-we need to dig up the peach and plum tree and the various roses and flowers we want to take with us and pot them up.  The plum tree might have to be b&b'd to transport it since I think the root system is going to be too big for any of the pots we have.  We have to take down the raised beds and the chicken run...yikes!  Only 7 more weeks to go too.

I guess I'd better get to work - I'm wishing I had my zipcar membership now to rent trucks with, I may have to re-sign up.

whoa!

It looks like our chicken coop is going to be on The Seattle Channels bit about the tool library!  yikes!  I guess that means we're going to have to clean up some of the neglected yard.  Since the move has been planned there's been less maintenance and we've left the rotting tomatoes in the garden to compost...

plans for clean up are being made, fresh straw will be purchased to put down in the chicken run to make it less muddy and cute boots will be worn :)  you know - the important things!

From Vine to Pot

We collected pounds (!) of tomatoes from the garden today. Tonight: making spaghetti sauce
Tomorrow: eating spaghetti sauce, with spaghetti. MmmmMMMMmmmm!

New house & gardening

We went over to the new house this weekend to do some yardwork and see what all we would want to do. There is a LOT of work to be done.  We all came home and made lists of what we want to do - just to start. *sigh* I do love projects but this is a ton.  First there is a lot, no that doesn't begin to describe it - there is a massive amount of english ivy there.  It's growing up and over the back fence and garden shed and must be pulled down before it pulls down the shed.  There's Ivy all over the front  rockery climbing the trees and pulling the front fence down too.  We pulled part of it from the front just by the entry stairs, it's a lot of work. The property is much larger than our current property and has a lot of mature plants onsite including an apple and pear tree!  I'm excited about that and with the addition of our plum and peach tree we'll have a small orchard going!  There are also a few raspberry bushes so we'll have those and our blueberries.

  Then there's building the new chicken coop.  We've decided to make it a few feet longer and wider since we plan to add 2 ducks and a few more chickens (2 I think) and we picked  a space for it.  It will be perfect, right next to the garden and on the opposite side of the house from the BBQ and patio area except there's a full grown juniper there right now...actually 4 of them.  *rolls eyes*  Fortunately they have grown sideways so you can actually walk behind them and cut them down - we'll need to remove 1 completely to make space for the run and we may end up moving them all so we can put the fruit trees there.  I'm so very thankful that we can get a chain 'saw and wood chipper from the tool library!!!  The mulch will come in quite handy. 

Once some major pruning is done, the chicken run is built and the ivy is under control (work party, anyone?!?) we should be able to do some fun things!  Jen thinks a rosemary hedge would be nice on top of the rockery and I LOVE this idea!  Also, I'm hoping to cover the front of the rock wall with some sedums, Iberis and stonecrop.  It should be really beautiful.  We would also like to make the raised beds taller and are considering using cement blocks but most likely we'll end up using the burlap since that will be free.  There are also some overgrown concord grapes that we would like to build a larger trellis for or perhaps an arbor! 

There's lots of list making and planning going on right now, I guess I'm glad to have fall quarter off from school since there will be so much to do...I'm hoping to get some help from classmates though for some of the pruning and perhaps even some plant ID...

We'll going to try to post before and after pictures but things are busy right now so we'll likely be behind. :)

Moving!

It looks like the moving is official.  We'll be moving by the end of October or November.  The new space has lots of gardening and chicken room and already has 4 or 6 raised beds built in!  We'll be able to build a new chicken run first so that the chickens will be easier to move I think that's the only thing I'm worried about. It was so much work building the first one! I guess that means we should be really good at building the 2nd one right?!? lol

There's a lot of planning to be done but we're going to try to move as much of the soil and plants as we can and hopefully the peach and plum tree too!  This is going to be an adventure! Good thing I love adventures ;)

Oh noes, we might be moving...that means all new kinds of gardening adventures. *sigh
I hate moving.

More Harvest and another egg!