Garden update - June 25, 2011

The garden is looking good this year, but I have planted too close together again.  The broccoli is crowded by itself and the Kentucky wonder bush beans.  The sunflowers seem like they would like more than the measly 1' of space I have given each of them.  The tomatoes are OK, but I bet I could plant them at more than 2' apart and they would do better.  Time for a quick photo tour:

 The triticale (a wheat/rye cross) is doing well.  The chickens will love it in the winter when they get a handful at bedtime.

Onions in the foreground with flowering cilantro on the right, basil and Greek oregano in the rows, and tomatoes at the far end.

 Row of tomatoes.  Experimenting with ways to hold them up.  The poles on the right are held up by wires, the PVC on the left is bent and poked into the soil.  I have three varieties of tomatoes, plus whatever volunteers come up from last year.

Cukes, a mystery variety of beans, and ground cherries at the far end.  Ground cherries are an annual bush that grows like a weed, is native to PA, and makes abundant little fruits that grow inside adorable little paper lanterns.  The four plants I planted (and the numerous volunteers) are great for snacking and sharing.  People are always amazed when they try one.

Swiss chard, lettuce and a row of mexican sour gherkin cucumbers - they are thumb sized, look like a watermelon, fall off the vine when they're ripe and are sour, like they've already been pickles.  To the right of the cucumbers is an emerging patch of soybeans for edamame.

A row of pole beans without the trellis up yet.  That job is coming very soon...

 Pole beans climbing the twine trellis.  This trellis is suspended from a rope top "bar" which is held tight by posts set in the ground and guy wired to stakes.  One end has a movable knot on it to adjust the tension.

A volunteer sunflower in front of the peas and pole beans.  I had read that the peas die down about the same time the beans really get started so they can be planted in the same row.  We'll see.

 Garlic coming on strong.  I harvested all of the flowers and stalks (called scapes) and made a garlic scape pesto that was fantastic.  Froze most of it, but brought one batch to work.  It was widely enjoyed by my co-workers.

Sunflowers on the west side of the garden.  The tallest is currently over 7', and they're not done yet.

The garden princess squinting into the sun as her doting subject weeds and takes pictures.

I have 1,000 gallons of rainwater in storage right now for the dry part of summer, but that's not here just yet.  rain possible tonight and likely tomorrow.  Glad I got my weeding in while it was still dry.

The Chicken Palace

We recently acquired three mature chickens.  These barred rock ladies give us an average of two large brown eggs per day.  When we first got them they had been housed in a small A frame chicken tractor for a year, with only limited backyard privileges.  When they got there they had the run of the place and were only "cooped up" at night.

Then they started pooping on the back sidewalk.

If they accidentally dropped one while passing by that would be one thing.  No, it seemed like they were saving it up, or hanging around on the sidewalk just in case nature should happen to call.  The poo and the flies led to the Homestead Manager to note that a new approach was called for.  I always do what she says, so I began planning my chicken coop construction project. 

The whole thing is designed around a sheet of plywood for the floor which leads to a 4x8 coop.  Some leftover metal roofing, cheap fence pickets, a batch of 2x3s and a huge number of decking screws and we were in business.  It took two weekends and numerous evenings because I was making it up as I went and I often had to stop and plan the next step.  Carefully.  Sometimes from the sofa with my eyes closed.

For being an ad-hoc project from someone who never owned chickens, I think it turned out all right.  The girls have the top level (penthouse), outside ramp (promenade), lower level (basement) and the run (yard) to enjoy. 

 The front features four feet of floor to ceiling ventilation, the outside ramp leading down to the basement, and the door which leads to the yard.  The basement is well protected from predators with welded wire fencing, just in case we are out late and can't secure the front door before dark.

The back view (during construction) shows the large cleanout door on the left side, the double doors for water, food and general access on the right, the door mounted feeder, and eight feet of ventilation across the entire back.  The whole thing was built under the overhang attached to my tool shed which means I didn't have to protect the north side from the weather.

 The view from the cleanout door showing the nest boxes to the left, and birds on roosts straight ahead.  When I tuck them in at night I put a piece of newspaper under them to catch what they drop during the night.  It helps to keep the coop a little cleaner.  The poo filled newspaper gets put into the garden or compost pile.

I figure this house will hold 5 birds comfortably year round and maybe an additional 5 in the summer when they can get outside and stretch their little legs.  Next year we may try raising meat chickens from Tractor Supply peeps. 

The Long War continues

I've been battling rabbits for weeks now.  The electric fence has been effective at keeping out deer and groundhogs, but one rabbit seems to have it figured out.  He slowly hops up to it, waits and hops through.  I don't know if he figured out that the click is the part that hurts, or if he's just trying to find what keeps hurting.  I just know he keeps coming in.

Mostly he just eats the winter wheat which I'm growing as an experiment and a way to get more wheat seeds (pretty clever, huh?).  But there are two problems: first, he sometimes branches out and takes the top off a bean or tomato plant; second, the winter wheat will be matured and cut down soon - and what will he do then?

I've been trying to poke a hole in him with the pellet gun for a long time, but he's very cagey.  He hides in the wheat patch and when he's startled he runs straight out and into a bush.  A lot of rabbits will freeze or run a short distance and stop; they don't live long.  This one keeps his head down and keeps moving, but his day will come.  Anything on the other side of the electric fence is fair game.  Inside the fence is mine.  

Update: the day I wrote this I finally succeeded in isolating and eliminating the one cagey and hungry rabbit that was doing the damage in the garden.  Having won that battle I now return to watchful vigilance as the four legged forces of evil continue to gather in the ongoing siege of the garden...

From the Yucky bug song:
...I agree when you tell me every living thing
Should have a chance to live the way that they wish
But if I go and plant it, why then gol-dernit
If you eat it you’re gonna get squished.

About the Casual Farmer

I'm just a normal suburban guy who has an interest in a very wide variety of things and tries not to let ignorance keep me from trying most of them.  I have a five acre wooded lot which has kept me in firewood for these past 20 years, but it's mostly tree-covered, east facing slope, so there's not a lot that can be done with it without a major investment of time and effort.

Five years ago I started to get the itch.  I felt the need to put down a seed and see a plant grow where I wanted it.  Little did I know where that itch was going to lead me.

I started with four little tomato plants in a 4x8 garden - the groundhog discovered the new salad bar that same afternoon and the Long War began.  Then it was tomatoes again, then peas, lettuce and tomatoes.  Then came the breakthrough - I stopped the small scale work and started looking for how I could really do more.

I have a very simple philosophy: If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing.

With that philosophy in mind I went in for the big garden, but there were two problems: I didn't have a good space for a garden, and I didn't have any proper garden creating implements.  I was fortunate on both counts.  My property borders an unused, former pasture where the owner graciously allowed me to locate my garden.  The equipment was a little more difficult, but I finally found what I wanted: a 1973 Gravely Model L with a rotary plow, rotary cultivator, snow plow, brush hog, tined cultivator and sulkey for $300 (thank you e-bay).  The catch was that the motor was disassembled, but this didn't bother me since I had other plans.

I had to drive 300 miles to pick it up, but that was OK since it was less than an hour from my parent's house.  I got a Gravely and a weekend visit.  The next step was to repower the old beast.  A Gravely Model L is an awesome machine that is made to last many lifetimes, but it just wasn't over-the-top enough for me, so I bought a diesel engine for it.  Now that's overdone.  This beast will plow up, turn over, cut down or push aside anything you care to mention.  I'll brag more about the Gravely another time.

That took care of the roadblocks, and from there it was a simple matter to turn over a small 25 x 50 patch of former pasture land to have a delightful little piece of Western Pennsylvania clay that I could stick seeds in.  And the next year I more than doubled it.  I'm now working a 50 x 60 plot of organic garden with a 30 x 100 patch of buckwheat growing in the lower rock quarry we euphemistically call a field.  The groundhogs are temporarily foiled by the electric fence, but the rabbits haven't all been stopped.

It mostly keeps me amused and my wife bewildered.  It's also a good excuse to buy farming equipment.