Memorial Weekend, Runs, Dirt, and Pork

The much anticipated Memorial Day weekend got off to a great start at the nursery. I expanded the pen by one third and covered it with chicken wire as the girls would have escaped...I just know it. Mamie arrived to check it out late Friday afternoon, and we then took off for North Yarmouth. Cathy followed later after giving Stoney a walk in Whitaker Woods. I made my Friday evening stop at Bob's Seafood in North Windham and picked up lobsters and clams for Mamie and me. As you all know, lobsters and clams make for a great pre-race load. Can't say they helped me much the next day as Mamie kicked my butt at the Pineland 10K cross country race. Mike and Suzy arrived around 6 pm after a visit in Lebanon, NH with their soon-to-be puppy Lily. Serious gardening took place on Sunday afternoon after Mamie and I completed a 9.5 mile run to LL Bean in Freeport....actually I napped while Suzy and Mamie gardened. Mike played tractorman. We decided to stay an extra night prompting me to make an emergency call to our neighbor Dorothy to water and feed the chicks Sunday night. We left Monday morning as Mike headed out for a run and Suzy and Mamie planned the potato planting.

The plan

You know what I love? A plan. A detailed, color-coded, well-researched plan. I've struggled with the best way to draw up my garden plan, given the limitations of my artistic abilities. Mother Earth News has helped me out, though. Since I'm now a subscriber to the magazine, and, therefore, an official hippy farmer, I found out about their online garden planning tool. I'm totally in love with it. I was able to plot out exactly where I wanted all of my plants, and the tool includes information about when each vegetable should be planted and harvested. It also color codes plants by type, to help with crop rotations for future years of the farm.

Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to directly get the graphic up here, but you can see the plan at: http://gardenplanner.motherearthnews.com/garden-plan.aspx?p=169794.

This weekend, I'm planning on getting almost all of the rest of the seeds in the ground. I'm still undecided about when to put out the tomatoes/peppers/flowers. I was planning on waiting until early June, but it's very warm now, and the tomatoes are getting enormous. I haven't been able to harden them off, though, and we're taking a detour on Saturday morning to visit a puppy (hopefully more on that later!), so I'm just not sure yet if they're going to go outside this weekend, or wait for another week or so. I also get to stop in and see the chicks on Saturday, which will be very exciting. Taperman has a favorite now; she's a barred rock with plenty of personality. Apparently she's the queen bee of the group, and he talks about her so much I have a feeling that I may be getting 19 chickens instead of 20...

The farm is constructed!

Although we didn't have a tractor this weekend (very, very sad), we still managed to get quite a bit of farm construction done. On Saturday morning, we went to the Portland farmer's market to check out seedlings. We were supposed to go to another plant sale after the farmer's market, but I bought all the seedlings that I needed at the farmer's market, and figured that I would only cause myself spacing issues if I went to the plant sale. At the farmer's market, I bought broccoli, cauliflower, red and green cabbage, leek, several kinds of onion, brussels sprouts, and thai basil seedlings. With the exception of the thai basil, these are all supposed to be cooler weather plants that should hopefully survive outside now, so I planned to transplant them over the weekend. Sadly, one of the thai basil plants is already a goner. We noticed yesterday afternoon that it was quite droopy, and this morning I saw that it had succumbed to damping off. This happens to seedlings sometimes, quite quickly, and kills them. As you can see in the picture, it's not pretty. At least it wasn't a seedling that I grew, so I don't feel responsible, although I am the one who selected it at the market...

We also went to the tractor supply store to buy supplies for the fence. We have lots of wildlife near our house, including deer, so a fence is not optional for the garden. We went with a five foot fence, but have been warned that this may not be high enough to discourage the deer. We'll have to see. Mike worked on putting up the fence (I did provide key assistance in keeping the corner posts straight, and wrestling with the wire fencing, but he did most of the actual hard work). I transplanted most of my seedlings, also adding a few that we picked up at Skillins on the way home, because I really do go there every weekend. On Saturday, I managed to get the strawberries, brussels sprouts, onions, and cabbage planted. We were rained out by 5:00, so I couldn't finish the rest of the seedlings. I wasn't too disapointed though, as I've learned over the last few weeks that 1) I'm really, really not very good at shoveling and 2) gardening involves a lot of shoveling. Because we ran out of compost last week, I had to manually get the manure into the remaining beds. At one point, I had to admit to Mike that I wished we had a tractor. Either that, or I need some serious shoveling lessons and possibly steroids to bulk up faster.

Above from top: Entire garden post-fencing, cauliflower/broccoli bed, start of the herb garden, and strawberry/rhubarb bed

Today, Mike finished the fence, and I put in the rest of the seedlings and was able to plant all of the seeds that I had scheduled to plant this weekend. I had planned out where I wanted to plant everything, and I almost managed to follow my plan - I mixed up my first bed, but got on track after that. I used hot pink string to make rows to follow when planting the seeds, which I'm hoping will help me a bit when I start weeding the beds, so that I don't inadvertantly pull up my plants instead of the weeds. I'm glad that we went with the raised beds, because even though it's rained for what feels like the last two months, the soil in the beds was moist but not soaked, unlike the rest of the yard which has turned into a huge mud pit.

Above from top: cabbage bed, brussels sprouts with arugula seeds, onions/scallions, and leeks/broccoli & cauliflower (I had extra seedlings)

Below - Seedlings taking over the office! The top photo is mostly tomatoes blocking everything else. In the bottom you can see the marigolds, zinnias, peppers, and tomatoes.


Hopefully in a few weeks, we'll start having baby lettuce. It's very exciting to look out onto the garden and see the seedlings and know that I planted seeds - now I hope that it grows! Next weekend I'll plant more of the warmer weather seeds as long as it looks like we won't have another cold spell, and then I'll transplant the tomatoes and peppers and plant my squash in June. We still have to prepare the beds for the squash, and decide exactly where they're going to go, but all of the other garden prep is done. Well, I also have to mulch the walkways in the garden, but it's so gross and muddy in there that I need to wait for it to dry out a bit.

Two Weeks Old

The girls are now two weeks old and have moved three times to bigger quarters. Yesterday after work I removed them from the large cardboard box and inserted a piece of plywood four feet wide by 27 inches high across the nursery room I built. The space was then filled with pine shavings, a larger water dispenser, and another feed container that they like to stand in. I then went outside and fashioned a new bigger and wider roost from a fallen branch. They are growing fast, with new tail feathers and huge feet! When I turn on the light each morning they love to spread their wings and fly all over the place.

Well, Taperman here, reporting that the girls are doing very well. They are a very bright group as you can see in the picture. They now have newspaper, paper towels, and pine shavings in their nursery, as well as a mini roost. Yesterday one of the high flyers actually made it all the way to the top of the water container. Of course I have checked all their little bottoms, and am happy to report there is no sign of the dreaded "pasty butt." I think by this weekend I'll have to double the size of the pen, and lower the temperature to about 80 degrees.

The beds are done, the lawn is raked, the rhubarb is planted, and we're exhausted!

After our long day of farming on Saturday, I took Mike out to dinner at a brew pub. I also brought my farm notebook and seed catalog, so that we could figure out exactly what I'll be planting in my beds. I've been having trouble figuring out how to plan out the beds - I just don't know how much space each type of vegetable needs, versus how many seeds I have. We had an incredibly productive dinner - so much so, that I'm pretty sure our waitress thought that it was a business meeting rather than a date. Now all of the beds are planned out, and I realized that I needed to buy a few more types of veggies and flowers. This morning, I finished planning out the planting schedule, which hopefully will start next weekend, as long as it doesn't rain. If it does, then I'll just be doing massive planting Memorial Day weekend, followed by squash and the other warm weather plants in early June.

We definitely used the tractor rental to the max this weekend. We were up again early this morning, to try to rake the east side of the lawn (where the squash is going to go), and to try to clear out the rocks that prevented us from being able to mow that area last year. I'm planning on covering most of it with squash, but I'd like to be able to mow it before we plant the squash to cut down on bugs, voles, and the general jungle appearance that our yard took on last summer. It was not easy, especially because it rained all morning. But we're tough farmers. With workboots and carhartts. That's right, I now have my very own work boots. I'm still wearing Mike's carhartts, though. Baby steps.

Mike went over the area with the tractor and rake, and I followed along picking up rocks, or helpfully pointing to the ones that were too heavy for me to pick up.Below is our final pile of rocks (in front of our partially completed, totally random, rock wall. We still have no idea what to do with that.). I'm sure that there are still rocks buried out there, but at least we know have the area to a mowable state. We also discovered that the soil out there is really sandy, which was a bit of a bummer for my squash plans. So now I think I'll make piles of manure on top of the sand, and then plant the squash seeds in the hills.

I was so glad that we finished the raking of the east side of the yard yesterday, because we ended up getting quite a bit of rain today, so now that entire side of the house looks like a giant, muddy slip and slide. This actually ended up being fantastic for Mike. We had a delivery of manure this morning, and because of the mud, the dump truck carrying the manure got stuck. So Mike got to tow it out with his truck. I think it may have been one of the best moments of his life. I didn't get any picture of the towing, because I was afraid that would scare off the manure guy and I'm sure we'll need more at some point.

We had to return the tractor by 1, so after much cleaning and rangling of the tractor to get it back on the trailer, we headed off to Windham. On the way home, we stopped at Skillins, to get the final seeds that we wanted, pick up a couple more rhubarb plants, and look into asparagus and potatoes. I was glad that we went there, because after talking with the saleswoman, we decided to reduce the number of asparagus beds from two to one, and to have two potato beds instead. They had about six different kinds of seed potatoes, so we got enough Yukon Golds for one bed, and then decided that for the other bed, we'd do a mix. So we got a few of each of the kinds of potatoes that they had, and didn't write down any of the names. When I go back next weekend, as I'm sure I will, I need to remember to find out what we bought so that we have at least some clue what we're planting.

Then, when we got home, I planted our first crop! My mom brought over some of her rhubarb last weekend, and I wanted to get it out of the plastic buckets and into the ground. I was glad that we had the raised beds, because it meant that while I was walking in our giant mud pit, I was only packing down the walkways in the garden rather than the beds.

Back inside, we re-arranged the seedlings so that we can customize their lights a little better, since the tomato plants are so much taller than the rest. Now we have the tomatoes all at the front of the table, and then the rest are further back so that we can lower the lights for them. I also gave the seedlings another watering, as they were looking a little dry. This next part might sound a little ridiculous, but I also set up a small fan in the office for them. I'm exercising their stems for outside! Finally, Taperman has found his camera, so hopefully we'll all see new pictures of the chicks soon! Hint, hint...

The beds are done!

I am going to be so sore tomorrow - farming is tough! Mike rented a tractor for the weekend so that we could place and fill the beds for the garden, and smooth out the lawn (and so that we could spend a weekend with a tractor). I am so glad that we had the tractor, even though I remain unconvinced that we actually need to buy one.

Mike was up at 6 this morning to start raking with the tractor. I had every intention of getting up with him, but somehow I didn't end up getting out of bed until 8, so I missed quite a bit of tractoring. Once I finally made it outside, we staked out the perimeter of the garden, and carried over the first two beds. Last weekend, it seemed that driving the stakes in the beds into the ground was going to be easy. Unfortunately, that was not true. We used a combination of sledgehammer and tractor to get the corners in, and quickly abandoned any ideas we had about keeping the beds straight, level, or consistently driven into the ground. Luckily, I'm a flexible farmer.

If you're looking at the pictures thinking, hey, that splitting maul technique looks awfully dangerous, well, it looks way more dangerous in person! The end facing Mike's face is an axe. I much preferred the tractor method. Also, the splitting maul ended up damaging quite a few of the beds. We had to use a combination of both methods, since for some beds the tractor couldn't get to all of the corners, and the splitting maul was better at finishing off the corners. One of our neighbors offered us his 15 pound sledgehammer to use instead of the splitting maul, but we sheepishly had to decline, since we're not really strong enough to wield such a hefty tool. Runners....

Once each bed was pounded in, we had to fill it with dirt, using the topsoil that was taken off last week. Then we topped off each bed with a generous 2 inch layer of compost. We're hoping that the compost layer will prevent the weeds from the topsoil coming through. As I was shoveling the topsoil around the beds, I noticed just how much sod was in there. Optimistically, I'm trying to look at it as a great addition of organic matter to the beds, that will be stopped from breaking through by the compost. Realistically, though, I think my full time job this summer will be weeding. Anyone want to come over and weed in July? It will be super fun, I promise.

As part of his master plan to convince me that we need our own tractor, Mike let me take over for a few turns of filling the beds. It was a lot of fun, but I'm still not sure that we need one of our own. I have no plans to lay out beds every weekend, after all.

We have twenty beds in total, so placing, securing, and filling each one took a long time. We realized halfway through that we absolutely had to finish today, because we'll be way too sore tomorrow to finish. Mike has also informed that I'd better really, really like gardening.

We ran out of compost after 14 beds, but we have a delivery of manure coming tomorrow, so we'll either use that to top of the last six beds, or we'll go over to Skillin's and load up the truck with compost. I think we can all guess which open is going to win out....I'd also like to save the manure for my squash (have I not mentioned that the winter squash is going on the other side of the house, and I still have to prep those beds?).

Because we were using the tractor to secure and fill the beds, we ended up packing down our beautifully rototilled soil, so we had to go over each part again with our small rototiller before laying down new beds. We still have about 4-5 inches of good soil under the beds, so I wanted to make sure that my plants can use that room to build strong roots. Mike did most of the rototilling, which he said was only slightly less difficult than driving the stakes in with the splitting maul. I'm taking him out to dinner tonight.

So now my beds are all in place, full of dirt, and ready for veggies! I think tomorrow I'll transplant the rhubarb that my mom brought over last weekend, to get started. Then next weekend, I'll plant my cool weather crops. There are a few plant sales next Saturday, so I'm going to try to find some seedlings of plants that I didn't have space to start, like broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, fennel, and anything else that calls to me.

The fruit trees all also seem to be doing very well. All but one of the pear trees is either flowering, or is just about to (one pear tree is a little behind, but it has leaves and looks healthy). Below is the more advanced pear tree - the flowers are really lovely.

I also talked to Taperman today to get a chick update - they are growing up quickly! He's put in their pine shavings and given them an elevated water dish. He reports that they are all now happily hopping on and off of their roost, and he's had to put chicken wire across the top of their brooder because they're already starting to fly. He still hasn't found his camera, though, so we're all without chick pics for now.

Seedlings at 3 1/2 weeks

I realized that I've been neglecting my seedlings in terms of blog posts, since we've been making so much exciting progress with prepping the garden and getting the chicks.

At three and a half weeks old, the seedlings are doing great. Everyone has survived the first transplant so far, and the stems are getting noticabely thicker, and leaves are becoming much more defined. The peppers are still the smallest plants, but they're making good progress. I have to thin them soon, but in looking at the pots I don't think the decisions will be too difficult.

Above, pepper plant on May 11

Below, marigold on May 11

Above, tomato plants on May 11 - they're huge!

This weekend, we have more grand outdoor plans. We're hopefully getting a delivery of four yards of compost today, and then this weekend we're renting a tractor (no, I'm not at all sure that Mike understands that we need to give it back) to fill in the beds with a combination of dirt, compost, and potentially manure. Mike has to call a manure guy today, to see if we can get some delivered this weekend as well. If we can get all of the beds placed and filled this weekend, I'll be one happy farmer. That will mean that I can plant some of the cooler weather crops the next weekend!

When construction meets farming

Okay you guys, this weekend was pretty huge in farm land. First, we met the chicks on Friday night! We have twenty of them, a mix of Rhode Island Reds, Aracaunas, and Barred Rocks. They're extremely fluffy, chirpy, and adorable, although if you hold one for too long, you will get pooped on. They can't really help it. Taperman has them all set up in the basement, and they seem very happy. I spent a while just watching them. They'll hop around the box between the water and food, and have a tendency to abruptly fall asleep while standing. They also hop all over each other, and have been pecking at the thermometer. On Saturday Taperman expanded their condo, as they're already growing pretty quickly. We convinced the whole family to head back to the farm on Saturday, ostensibly for family bonding, but really just because we were looking for cheap labor to help build the raised beds for the farm. Luckily, they all fell for it.

We had made tentative plans to have the area where the garden is going tilled on Friday, so on Saturday when we arrived we were crossing our fingers that it would be done. And it was! The Danishes and Stoney greatly appreciated the tilled dirt. Winston decided that an especially fun game involved running through the small pond, and then tearing through the dirt (and later, the living room...).

On Sunday morning, Mike and Taperman headed off to procure lumber for the raised beds. We had previously planned out the layout of the garden, and had decided to go with a total of twenty beds - eight 12 x 4 beds, and 12 10 x 4 beds. Have I mentioned that we're not starting small? Clearly, this necessitated quite a bit of lumber, so it was a job for the man truck. For wood, we used pine 2x8s. I know that they'll only last for a few years, but didn't want to go with pressure treated. Hopefully by the time they rot, I can upgrade to cedar.

First, we had to cut down some of the lumber to make the four foot sides of the beds, so we arranged ourselves in a very efficient assembly line of measuring, cutting, and stacking. Then, it was time to start putting the beds together. We decided to put a 2 x 2 angled stake in each corner, to be driven down into the dirt when we place the beds. This should let us square them, and should keep them anchored in the ground.

While Mike, Mame and my mother worked on measuring and pre-drilling holes, my dad and I screwed the frames together.

As you can see, I took a few turns with the drill myself. I think it's important to know how to fix/create the things that I'm going to need, so I tried to learn as much as I could. Taperman was a carpenter in a past career, so it was tremendously helpful to have him for the bed building! Winston also really enjoyed the process, although he may have been confused about what kind of beds we were building.....

While we were working in the garage. Danish was also helping with the garden. Last weekend, I had opened up my perennial bed and added mulch. Apparently, though, I hadn't added quite enough mulch, so Danish decided to assist. I hope these perennials are hardy....

We worked through the morning, and were able to get all twenty beds finished on Sunday! Mame and I were especially relieved, because we didn't want to try to finish them by ourselves today.

I'm so happy with how much we got done this weekend. Meeting the chicks, and seeing the stack of completed beds and the tilled fields makes this whole venture seem much more real. This weekend, we're renting a tractor to smooth out the area where we're planting the squash, and to fill the beds with dirt and compost. Before then, we have to get in touch with our neighbor, so that he can put us in touch with his compost guy. It's good to know people who have compost guys. And to have family members who are willing to help with farm construction! Thanks family!

THE CHICKS ARE IN!

Thursday I picked up the girls at Paris Farmers Union. They are now safe and sound in the basement nursery. Suzy and Mike arrived last night and met them for the first time. You can see that they are bonding quickly. Oh by the way Mike, Mamie and I had a great half marathon this morning at Big Lake. Mike took third place overall, and both Mamie and I improved our times from last October.

The girls have arrived!

Latest updates on the chicks from Taperman. I'll have pictures and much more later this weekend (updated with the first chick pic, above)!

Thursday: I'll be picking them up around 4:45 at PFU. I
have my shoe box with air holes all ready to go. The heat lamp is set at
the correct (I hope) height off the floor of the box, the bottom is
layered with paper towels (no newspaper, their tiny feet can slip on that
surface and cause leg problems) and the baby water dispensor will be
filled. I'm setting up a stool to sit on so I can watch them all evening.
It might even be more interesting than the Red Sox (Do they play
tonight?) If we find the digital camera I'll foward some pics, if not
you'll see them Friday night. Wish me luck!

Friday: They are up this morning. Had a good night in the basement. When I got
down there at 5:10 they were all asleep under the red heat lamp, but they
were not too crowed together or directly under the lamp, so I think I have
the correct temperature and they have enough room to settle in where it's
comfortable. Changed the paper towel floor and gave them fresh water.
Mom will check on them at lunch time. See you tonight!

Transplanting seedlings - it's like pulling teeth

The seedlings are now in their own “big plant” containers, after last night’s transplanting session. We started the night with about 140 seedlings, and ended with 60 of what I hope were the best of the group. After doing a search that yielded a terrifying instructional video on transplanting seedlings that highlighted the dangers and stress that transplanting posed to plants, I felt sufficiently worried enough to get started. Seriously, this video highlighted, at three different points, that seedlings were in imminent danger of death at multiple points in the transplant process. At least I had a dentist on hand - that counts for something, right?

We mixed up a combination of seed starting mix with a potting soil that has compost included, which according to my most trusted book, should mean that I won’t have to fertilize the plants until they get outside. Then, we had to make the decision of which seedlings got to move onto the next round of farm life. For the most part, the decisions were fairly easy. I tried to select straight plants that had thicker stems and a nice set of new leaves. Any that were either tall, skinny and leaning, or seemed to be short and stunted, didn’t make the cut. I decided that for our 60 pots, we’d take 10 marigolds, 10 zinnias, 10 peppers, 10 garden peach tomatoes, and 20 heirloom tomatoes.

Above are peppers and tomatoes (left to right)

Below are peppers, tomatoes, marigolds, and zinnias (left to right)

We experimented with the transplant process a few times on zinnias that we weren’t going to keep, which I highly recommend should any of you end up growing seedlings. The first few did not go well. The potting mix was crumbly, and we tried both attempting to push the seedling out by the bottom (did not work), and then scooping them out with a spoon. According to Mike, the seedling removal process is very similar to extracting a tooth, so I let him do most of the transplants while I filled the pots with dirt.

My book said to plant the tomato seedlings deep into the pots, up to the first set of leaves, so we tried to get as close to that as we could given the depth of the pots. The book says that this will encourage the plant to form more roots and be stronger, to prevent the dreaded transplant stress once they move outside next month.

We also have our expanded grow light setup in place, and it’s now blindingly bright in the seedling room – but it will be worth it if this prevents plants on the far sides of the table from stretching too much to the light. I’ve read that lack of light is a main cause of seedlings becoming too leggy before transplant, so I’m hoping that this will keep the little guys happy.

Lastly, stay tuned for chicken updates! I believe that the girls are arriving at Paris Farmers Union today, and are going home with Taperman either tonight or tomorrow. I’ll have my first visit with them this weekend. Lots of chick pics to follow!