Sleep is for the Weak.

Sorry I've not posted much in a while. I have been rather busy with work in the garden and at the Center. I will hopefully have some new pictures this week. Everything is green and wonderful. Just planted pumpkins yesterday.

The Frost

Well, you know me. I've already got everything planted and coming up nicely. Apearantly it was to frost last night, however I have yet to assess the damage. I will be going home this evening and will go out and post then. Perhaps I will even include some pictures of how things are looking. Good luck, God Bless, and Get Dirty.

What to do with the permanent installations. With Some Photos!!!!

It looks like we are going to have apples this year. Last year we did not have one apple on any of the trees. Due to the very cold winter and the number of blooms on the trees, I feel safe saying we will have tons of apples. The question will be the size of the apples, because in the past we have had mixed results. I plan on doing 2 major things with the apples this year. One is to make apple butter, the other is to attempt making vinegar. This will be a fun experiment. Next will be the mulberries. We typically have tons of these as well, but no one ever bothers harvesting them because I am gone when they come out. I want to make jelly (mulberry jelly is my absolute favorite) and maybe even try to make wine with them. Tom has a great number of blooms on his pear trees, and if he gets lots of pears I may have to get a few buckets full as they fall and can them. We have peach trees as well, but usually we only end up with tiny, sour peaches. Maybe if they are good I will do preserves.

Violets

Pumpkin Patch

Main Garden, about 30'x100'

Garlic patch

Secondary Garden (10'x30') planted with red onions, potatoes, and sweet peas

Sweet Peas sprouting

The Potting Shed

Apple Blossom

Strawberries

Aloe Sprouts

It is cold again

It was a nice 80 degrees outside a few days ago, now it is down in the 50's again. I took advantage of this warm time to plant some onions sets. In my second garden, I planted red onions and noticed my sweet peas are starting to break though the ground. I may get some peas before I till them to plant a row of corn. My garlic is about 8 inches high already and my chives are already blooming. I have several more onion sets to plant but need to wait until it dries out a bit and gets a bit warmer, maybe this weekend. I will over the bed in newspaper and cover that in mulch of some manner so I don't have to bother weeding my onions over the growing season. It will still be at least 6 weeks until I plant the bulk of the garden, but for now things are looking good. The dirt is turned and tilled, and will be re-tilled every week until planting to help fend off weeds. The apple trees are blooming. Last year they did not bloom, thus we had not one apple. I am hoping if we get alot of apples this year I will try to make vinegar. My neibors pear trees are in full bloom too and I can't wait to swipe some of those.

Shiitake Mushrooms

Ben and I went into the woods this evening to harvest a maple tree for purposes of sporing Shiitakes. We selected a maple tree about 20 feet tall and cut it up into 2-3 foot sections. Ben has started drilling his and inserting the plugs already. Here are some examples of what we are doing.



First, of course, I took the shiitake spore plugs I ordered a few months ago out of the fridge.



As you can see, even in the fridge the mold has started to grow out of the plugs. This is good, and illustrates how fertile these plugs are.



Ben drilled out the holes about 2-3 inches apart in the logs with an electric drill.



He then selected the spores one by one out of the bag. The mold had already grown so much that they plugs were grown together. It was really kinda neat.



He then tapped them in with a hammer so they were flush with the log. Later he is going to put a thin coat of bee's wax over the plug holes to help protect against foreign germs and fungi. Overall this process if fairly easy, but it could take up to two years to see if it works out or not. I am anxious to see what results come of the project. I will be seeding the plugs in the rest of the logs at my house near the end of this week.

Potatoes

Yes, yes, Sunday before the rain sat in I was able to get in my potatoes just in time. I did not plant very many, 3 rows, 15 feet long in my second garden at the far end of the yard. I planted fingerling potatoes. I had looked for weeks and was about to order 2 pounds of seed potatoes offline at a whopping total of 30 dollars after shipping. Before I made this mistake, I was in Krogers on Saturday and ran across the same potatoes for sale (accept as food) for 3 dollars a pound... I bought 2 pounds, cut, and planted those in hills. We will see how they turn out, but I have found seed from the grocery store grows just as well as any other seed. I have even planted pinto beans from the 1 pound bags they often sell at the grocery store and they grew just fine. Considering these were organic potatoes, I guess that makes them organic seed? Ha.



I have also had a few other curiosities happen around the garden the past week. For one, some of the onions I had stored in the cellar for the winter had gotten moist and began to sprout. So, I collected them and planted them in an old porcelain bedpan (don't worry, its not been used in at least 30 years and mom has had it as a planter for years.) They are looking mighty scrumptious to me.



My aloe plants indoors have been dividing and growing rapidly. I will have to give some away. I took the liberty of going out Monday and planting some peas, spinach, and carrots where my corn will go in 2 months. I am not so concerned with getting any peas off the plants, though it would be a nice bonus. I planted them to add some nitrogen to the soil. I have also got some leaves coming out on my Catawba Grape starter I cut in January.

Spring is officially here!

Just got back in from checking on my garden. I have garlic and chives coming up through the ground. It is very nice and I instantly feel wonderful. Just thought I would share.