Summer

Wow.  It's been a while since I've posted here.  Sorry.  We've been massively busy.  Our plant greenhouse has stood up to the rest of the storms we've had.  Here's a picture of the inside, though it's a couple of weeks old.

We've got tomatoes and peppers in the second greenhouse now and the stuff in the first greenhouse is ripening.  In the field we've got onions, radishes, beets, peas and a few other things.

We had our first CSA pick up last Saturday and that went well.  We were able to give them beets, lettuce, green onions, a kohlrabi, rhubarb and some mint.  This week we might have radishes.

I'll get some more pictures and try to do better about keeping up from now on.


 

Good news and bad news

The good news is that the weather is no longer rainy and terribly cold and just plain icky.  Paul and Lucas got a greenhouse covered that was intended to be just for the plants.

The bad news is that the wind came up the next day and tore up the plastic.  The doors were blown off that greenhouse (as well as a door off one of the others) and the plastic is holding down by a few shreds.  It blew for three days straight, if it had gone for a fourth the plastic would have blown completely off.  It's fixable, but it puts our schedule back.

Then the heater went out overnight in the house where we have the bedding tomatoes and peppers.  A below freezing night.  They didn't all die, which is kind of a surprise, but they don't look nearly as nice as they did.  And there are a few varieties that are a total loss.  We've decided not to go to the first Farmer's Market with them because they really need some recovery time.

I'd post pictures of them, but my camera is having battery issues and won't keep a charge.  Aaaahhhhhh!  But that's the third piece of bad luck, so hopefully it's done now.  We could definitely use a turn for the better.

On the up side, none of the plants we're growing to sell as vegetables were harmed.  They've been slowed down, but they're still nice.  So that's good.

Really, really, really crudey weather

I haven't posted lately, but the weather has been so horrid that not much has gotten done.  We've transplanted some of the bedding plants, but that's about it.  The temperatures have been in the twenties, thirties and occasional forties and it's been cloudy, rainy or snowy.  We've actually gotten a blanket of snow twice since my last post (though it did melt the next day in both cases).  This is spring?

The lettuce in the greenhouse hasn't grown much at all, even though we're running the heater at night.  The onions aren't as affected, which is good.  The radishes and spinach are sitting still, they've been at the seed leaf stage for more than a week. 

The forecasters say it will warm up this weekend and we might actually see the sun.  For once, I'm really hoping they're right.

More stuff in the greenhouses

We've got some of the second greenhouse planted to lettuce and seeded to spinach now.  We're staggering our plantings, so as to have produce maturing each week.  Here is the second greenhouse, from the outside and the inside.

Paul is also getting another greenhouse ready for some of the root crops (carrots, beets, radishes). 

Here are some pictures of the progress in the first greenhouse (weeds included).

And an outside shot of the first greenhouse.

Transplanting

Wow, I'm really late on this entry.  I'll be doing next week's in a couple of days.

We did a ton of transplanting last weekend.  We got all the peppers moved up to bigger size plug trays, both the patio pepper and the quarts.  And, of course, the ones we're going to put out in the field or greenhouses.  Here they are after being transplanted.

Quinlan helped quite a bit this time.  Usually he loses interest after half a tray or so, but this time he did about four trays by himself (or with very little help).

Lucas also transplanted some of his herbs.  They don't make the tray look as full as the peppers do, but they had just as many roots.  The herbs usually just take longer to put on top growth.

And Paul put some onions in bigger trays.  I'm not convinced that there isn't an easier way to do onions.  I might try an experiment if I can get him to part with a tray of them.  Here are the transplanted onions.

The chickens are doing well in their new quarters, but we're going to have to get moving on some brooder boxes.  There are a few hens that would happily go broody if they had the right location.  Lucas has priced the wood for them, now we just need to find the time.

Here's the picture I promised of the patio peppers after they were out of transplant shock (and grown on for a week).  They look better, don't they?

We got all the quart tomatoes planted this weekend (except the red grape tomatoes, I still waiting on seed for them).  Lucas was a really, really big help with that. 

Here are the planted trays (there really are seeds in there, I promise).

And here are the ones we planted last week.

And this one is just for the cuteness value.  Though you can see behind Hazel that the onions are coming on very nicely.

Paul and Quinlan have gotten some of the first greenhouse planted.  They've put in onions, lettuce and kohlrabi.  I don't know if you can see it so well but here are some pictures of their hard work.

And here's a view from the opposite end of the greenhouse.

Finally got the chickens moved

Well the chickens are finally in a different greenhouse.  They're loving it.  They have lots of dead tomato plants to pull down and scratch to pieces.  And all kinds of different little seeds and stuff in the soil.  They are completely enjoying the change of scenery.  I haven't gotten pictures yet, but I will pretty soon.

We got some tomatoes seeded for quart tomatoes to sell at the market.  Only about nine varieties and some lettuce,  but hopefully we'll get the rest by next week.  

More planting

We transplanted the patio peppers this weekend.  The top picture is how they looked before we transplanted them.  The bottom is how they looked after.  They had also just been watered, so they don't look like they're in very good shape.  Next week I'll post a picture of how they look then.  It's amazing to see the difference.

We also seeded some of the peppers that I had to reorder and more lettuce.  This is the lettuce that the rabbits got.

Lucas's pak choy (pictured below) were right beside the lettuce and the rabbits didn't touch them.  I don't know why, we've tasted them and they're good.  Just not rabbit food apparently.

Our onions are doing well.  Here they are.

And a final picture.  The plants are onions and peppers.  The people are Lucas, Clarissa and my mom, not that you can really tell except for Clarissa
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Farmer's Market meeting

Today is the meeting to pick spots at the Falls Park Farmer's Market (and pay for them, of course).  We'll try for the same spot we were in last year, though we're debating whether to get as much space as last year.  I guess we'll have to make up our minds soon. 

The plants are coming along pretty well, though a rabbit got in and got to the first lettuce.  We're going to have to replant that.  I'm not going to feel sorry for them when the dog or cats catch one anymore.  The whole tray is decimated.  I'll put up some pictures tomorrow.

Not getting the chickens moved

You would think that not moving chickens from one greenhouse to another wouldn't take much effort, wouldn't you?  Wrong.  Paul scooped a bunch of snow so we could loosen the wiggle wire on the side of the greenhouse to get their shelter out (it's actually a doghouse with a chicken wire door on it).  Then he and Lucas realized that a lot of the plastic was stuck down with ice.  So they de-iced for a while.  I'm sure you can see where this is going.  In the end they decided to wait until next week. 

This is not one of the tomatoes we just seeded.  It was a volunteer that came up in a house plant that we repotted after Christmas.   We're going to put it in a patio for ourselves and see what kind it turns out to be.

We started seeding plants for spring on Feb. 6.  Those were patio peppers and peppers to plant early in the greenhouses, some onions (which take a while to get going from seed) and some of Lucas' experimental greens.  He wants to grow them under row covers in an unheated greenhouse.  The double greenhouse effect is supposed to allow some cold season crops to grow even in the winter.  I guess we'll find out.

On Feb. 13 we seeded the peppers that we'll sell in quarts and most of the peppers we'll put in the greenhouses after some of the early stuff (lettuce, cabbage, kohlrabi, ect.) is out.   We did eighteen varieties.  And we started some more onions.  There are a few varieties of pepper that I think we need more of, so I'll have to put in another seed order.

On Feb 19 we seeded the patio tomatoes and the early greenhouse tomatoes.  We also did some more onions and a few of the herbs that take more time (chives, oregano, mint).  Lucas is going to being growing some of the herbs himself this year.  He did a few last year and now he's increasing his production.  We seeded some lettuce and cabbage for one of the early greenhouses, as well. 

Chickens in the greenhouse

  

 We have 11 chickens in one of our greenhouses.  They're fertilizing the greenhouse and disposing of kitchen scraps and providing 3 or 4 eggs a day (though one day we got an egg out of every one of the nine hens).  We're planning on moving them to a different greenhouse soon, probably this weekend.  I have plans for a broody box that can house four hens with clutches at a time (with dividers between each nest, of course).  We'll see how it works, if we get around to getting it made.  Otherwise we'll probably have to use a pet crate for each hen when they start going broody.

First Post

It's getting closer to spring, so now is a good time to start this blog.  We've already seeded plants in the greenhouse for the bedding plants that we will sell at the market as well as the patio tomatoes and peppers and the tomato baskets.  We've got onions and lettuce seeded and a few herbs.  Our 16 year old son Lucas has also started some of the herbs he plans to sell.