In weather terms

Being outside in this unusual weather makes every day special.  There is never a dull day in paradise. Activities vary with the weather. When it is sunny and hot, there is haying, swimming and lots of weeding to do. When it is cold and rainy, there is mulching, green house work, planting and less watering of the garden. Either way, the weather and the time of year determines the types of projects around the garden. For the past two weeks a lot of things have been happening around the garden. The rows among the beds have almost all being redone. I decided to dig out the paths and put that soil with the old wood chips onto the beds and then spread the new wood chips.  This way, I saved myself from some extra weeding.

Adios snow and welcome dirty fingernails

Picture this... The weather is nice and it is the day when you finally see the last piece of snow/ice melting away. You are walking down the driveway to see a newt make his way across to where ever newts go. The goats are laying down chewing their cud by a grassy area among leaves, raspberries canes, and under the shade of huge hemlocks. Fugee is tied to a tree (otherwise she would take off) laying flat and chewing on the different things that she might find around her. It is time to open windows and let the cool air in the house. You are barefoot and the warmth of the soil in the beds makes you want to transplant this, fertilize this and weed this...you realize...IT IS FINALLY SPRING at Ladeau Road! 

Everyone wants to be active and that means lots of projects to accomplish during the weekend and even after work. Some projects include: 

• Changing the pump from the  water well since it stopped working, we believe that it could have been lightning and an exposed wire. 
• Cutting the huge patch of berries to let more sunlight in the garden and grow flowers in their place. 
• Fixing that old wheelbarrow that held old bee boxes all winter and was useless last season. It just needed a new set of legs!
• Planting shallots and onion sets, peas and radishes. Weeding, moving flowers, planting flowers and fixing old and new rock walls.
• Taking Fugee to the dog park after being closed for late winter/early spring.
• Second or third attempt to grow grass in the front side of the house. Spreading seeds in the patchy areas. 
• Started swiss chard, flowers (morning glory, as a climbing vine), and plum seeds.
• Trying to grow ginger, tumeric and Galangal a gingery root from Costa Rica 

The list goes on and on.  Instead here are some pictures! and more coming soon ! 

Parsnips that were sowed last fall started to sprout

Fugee gets her second run at the dog park after being closed for some time

Asa and Che Che being content and curious about everything we do

Rhubarb coming out and from what I read they are better for you than cranberries

Wild onions or ramps growing by an apple tree, we used the first of these in a salad

Trays that lived inside during early spring can come out and enjoy some sun 

Broccoli, cabbage, carrots, beets, greens and onions

Garlic coming out 

End of the season note

Garlic is in! We planted 60 cloves ! We used mulch hay to cover the row for the winter and planted them in rows of 5 cloves spaced every 6 inches and the rows spaced every foot.  We cleaned around the garden, took all the old tomato plants out and their cages, pepper plants and turned the rye grass in some of the beds. Also, we used the ashes from the wood stove in the beds.  Also, we picked our carrots for storage, we cut the greens and will store them in the root cellar. 

We still have chard and kale to eat for now until the snow comes, and some beets that will can soon!

See you in the Spring 2011!

Preparing the garlic bed

Last weekend, we picked the suckers of a bed of strawberries and moved them to the old garlic bed.  It is recommended that the strawberry bed is moved to a different location every 3 years.  After removing the old strawberry plants from their original bed, we sowed rye seeds and plan to till them in the soil prior to planting the garlic there. I suggest that when you sow rye seeds you cover them with straw.

Early harvest

Garlic drying inside our cabin underneath the 

stairs 

Tomatoes, eggplant and husk cherries 

New potatoes !

Fingerlings, red potatoes and blue potatoes

Potatoes and Tomatoes

Pay attention to the yellowing of the bottom leaves of your tomatoes and potatoes. SO far this season has been warm and rainy and the blight loves that type of weather.  Yesterday, I was looking over my potatoes and they seem to have it, so I cut the plant down to the soil line.  Potatoes are know for keeping sprouting, so I hope they keep growing.  I happened to check on the tomatoes, and since this year I plant them too close, then they could also get fungal diseases.  I picked the bottom leaves, since they had yellow  and brown spots (not a good sign at all).  I also stopped watering, since it doesn't help with the humidity and hot weather this season.  My advice is to keep an eye on your tomatoes and potatoes this season. 
Also, garlic is about to be picked, since almost 5 leaves are dead on each plant ! 

Soft and Hard Neck Garlic

We have in our garden two types of garlic. The hard neck is a larger bulb but the taste is not as strong and the soft neck is a smaller bulb with a strong flavor. We planted ours last year in late fall. We planted 48 cloves of garlic in a bed of 4 ft by almost 20 ft. In four rows, spaced about close to 10 inches. You have to mulch it heavy with hay and cover them for at least 3 to 4 inches. Plant the clove with the root facing down.

If you want spring or early garlic, you can plant the whole bulb in the fall and the next season you can pick the plant from one of the cloves. ( I haven't done that, but my neighbor has).

Last week I cut the garlic scapes of the each garlic plant. Garlic scapes are the flowers of the plant, and you want to cut them so that the plant focuses its energy into the bulb rather than into the flower.

We are so close to pick and dry our soft neck garlic. You will see the plant's leaves wilt and tun yellow and when aprox. 4 or 5 leaves start dying, you should pick the garlic and dry it.

You could braid the garlic or dry it on a rack and store it in a cool place.

We will see how we do !