Spring has arrived, and boy-howdy are we happy

Winter felt like it would never leave. I can only imagine how folks in the Northeast feel, where some just now are seeing crocus and daffodils, and trees budding.

Here, we're experiencing daytime temps in the 70's. The trees have already leafed out. Viewing the hills shows a patchwork of green canopy ranging from bright to dark. The live oaks have shed & re-leafed, and their flowers have dropped. The first wave of wildflowers are starting to fade - bluebonnets and paintbrushes - and the second wave is coming into bloom: firewheel, "indian blanket", and coreopsis. Around the farm, we also have a couple varieties of native purple sage flowers, daisies, and verbenas.

The hens are laying eggs in abundance. Spring brings the best eggs, as the hens are eating fresh young greens and loads of newly hatched bugs.

The geese have finished their egg-laying season, and are much quieter. We can sleep through the night now without bolting awake due to noisy nest fights or woo-frenzy.

The ducks are thrilled with all the Spring rains we've had, making messes of puddles wherever they find them.

The dogs are no longer napping on the porch; their preferred spots are the grass or the kitchen doorstep (I'm guessing because that's where we store treats).

There's a truckbed full of compost waiting to dress the orchard trees and the veggie beds. Suppose I better get to it!

State o' the Garden & Orchard, Wrapup Fall 2013: FAIL

Tomatoes: FAIL. Blight, blight, blightedy-blight blight. We may have trucked in the disease with the load of compost from a local garden center. Not one decent tomato this year. Nada. The plants could not keep ahead of the blight.

Chickens stalking Emma's food bowl. The garden is too
depressing to photograph right now.

White potatoes and Yellow onions: FAIL. The tops died back within a few weeks of planting this Spring, with only a little bit of root/tuber growth. Being lazy, I left the remainder in the garden bed over the Summer, continuing to water so as to keep the soil microbes alive. Oddly enough, now that the cooler weather has arrived the potatoes and onions both are sprouting anew. Not sure how far they'll get before being zapped by Winter, however.

Lettuce: FAIL. It got too hot, too fast. One lone little lettuce plant survived the Summer's heat & glare. I left it alone, and it is now going to seed. Why not?

Sweet Potatoes: FAIL. Rabbits were our nemesis here, as they'd sneak through the fence when we didn't close it carefully. Sweet potato greens are juicy and sweet, and the bunnies would chow down. The leaves keep coming back, however, so there may be some small tubers to harvest come early Winter, but I'm not counting on it.

Some not-so-failures: the sweet basil went nuts, two plants growing almost four foot tall. The sicilian oregano planted in the strawberry bed (didn't know where else to plunk it) almost took OVER the bed. It will be parted out and replanted come Spring. The strawberries took to the new bed as well, and will probably fruit nicely come next season.

Lettuce gone to seed

Must have left some partial sweet potato tubers in last year's old bed, as there's greens sprouting all over. Last year's crop was riddled with corking, however, so I'm not counting on these potatoes being edible.

[As a side note to my prepper-minded friends: this year's garden failure really hammers home the lessons from our grandparents & great-grandparents, to save/set aside as much as possible during the "fat" times, because the lean times are gonna happen no matter how well prepared we think we may be. I honestly thought this year's garden was gonna knock it out of the ballpark.]

As far as the orchard goes, once all the trees go dormant, we plan to cull a good many of them. The experimental almonds and cherries will go. So will the peaches. We'll probably pull all the fruit trees from the "front yard" as well, as they're not thriving. What DOES work on this property so far: apples, pears, plums, figs, and apricots. Not bad. We may try the cherries and almonds again once we get some soil berms and better rainwater catchment developed.

Spouse has rebuilt the "temporary" greenhouse, making it taller so we can fit the nine potted citrus trees (and other potted plants) under its eaves. Next year, we will really need to build a new greenhouse - the trees will not fit another year.

Onwards and upwards!

State o' the Garden & Orchard, 2013

Where to begin? It's another season of slow progress, due to shoulder issues that continued to haunt from last year. Second surgery completed in late March, and hopefully this is the last one needed.

Fresh compost & new bed for for fig. Geese say, "MINE".

One tremendous help for both my arm and our little farm: the new-to-us truck, affectionately nick-named "The Beast". It has a big bed, and with a couple of trips were able to haul in enough bulk compost to add several inches to all the orchard trees and the veggie beds.  Saved a goodly amount of money with the bulk purchase as well, and look, Ma: no plastic bags!

Although Spring was not kind to the orchard (a warm Winter and a cold Spring), the fruit trees that were able put out a crop have been doing so nicely. The apricots have come and gone, with 99.9% getting snagged (again!) by the local wildlife because I was too drugged out during recovery to remember to protect the bottom 2/3'rds of the trees. Ah well! The pears, figs and apples are fruiting, and so is one of the plums. The two oldest plums are not, however, so we're now suspecting a mixup at the nursery - these have to be accidental ornamentals. Was thinking of cutting them down & replacing, but a friend suggested pruning back and grafting with non-ornamental plum cuttings. Still thinking about that option.

Figs abundant.

Spouse put in two more raised beds, but instead of creating beds that are angled on the bottom to follow the line of the rocky hillside, he dug out & leveled spots for his 4'x4' forms. He says he won't be doing that again, ahem. We now have a dedicated strawberry bed, and the rest of the beds have combinations of tomatoes, herbs, peppers, onions, white- and (soon to be planted) sweet potatoes. We tried to grow a late crop of Spring lettuces and spinach, but the seedlings were fried in an early heat wave.

"Devil's Claw", a volunteer. Rumored to be a good tomato
hornworm trap. If so, then welcome, little buddy!

This year we're going to experiment with red shade cloth, 30%, for some of the veg beds during the hottest part of Summer. In theory, red shade cloth is supposed to allow more of the light spectrum while also protecting from harshest light of the day, and some folks swear that their tomato yields increase with red shade cloth and/or red mulch. For the shade structure itself, we looped a cattle panel over each of the three upper beds. The panels are a bit too long, look a little Dr. Seuss-y, but it'll work until we decide to do something more sophisticated. I'd like to cut them down a bit, then sew a fitted greenhouse cover for each Winter greens & other foods.

Tiny barrel cactus in full bloom. Beauty. 

Speaking of greenhouses, if we can get around to renting the equipment to level an area, we hope to construct a greenhouse using corrugated panels, like this one. Although the panels don't run the "correct" way, this particular design uses its materials efficiently with very little waste. May need to modify slightly for a solar-powered exhaust fan, as even in Winter the solar gain on our southwest facing hillside can be significant. Oh, and we need the bigger, taller greenhouse because I purchased an additional seven citrus (lemons, limes & satsumas) to go with our current few. They were on sale, and the ones we already had were lonely and needed buddies. That's what I told Spouse, anyways.

Tomatoes and Plums and Limoncello, Oh My!

Pic: "Dirty Girl" saved-seed tomatoes

Two of the seven tomato varieties planted this Spring are already ripe enough to eat. One is the Monster Mystery 'Mater (the volunteer from the compost pile), and the other is the Dona F1 hybrid. The MMM has sweet flesh, but the skin is slightly bitter, which is actually the norm for most tomatoes - still quite tasty. The Dona F1, however, has both sweet flesh AND sweet skin. Very interesting! Will save seed from the Dona, and see if it re-seeds true to its original form next year.

The "Dirty Girl" tomatoes are just beginning to redden. Looking at the plants, I'm thinking this variety is a "determinate": one big harvest, then the plants will give up the ghost for the remainder of the season.

pic: plums with bird alterations

The one plum tree that has kept fruit 'til, well, full "fruition" this season has been noticed by the local birds too. In the mornings, I now pick breakfast off the tree - any ripe plums that are also bird-bitten. The birds eat a few chunks from the ripest plums, then leave the rest. Rather than waste an otherwise perfectly good plum (of which these are absolutely delicious, by the way), I eat around the bird bites, then throw the remainder of the plum to the chickens. We all get a nice morning treat, and no waste. I could go to the trouble of throwing bird-netting over the tree, but the harvest isn't so large as to be worth the time or effort. I am happy to share... THIS year. May have to install a few more white mulberries as birdy food-distraction trees for the future.

The limoncello experiment made earlier this year - with Everclear as the base, mind you - has been taste-tested by five different folks now. The initial comment on the flavor after initial sip (then a head-rock backwards, followed by wide-eyed rapid blinking) is a diplomatic "medicinal!" After a few more sips the comments change to "not bad", then a few more sips ends with "hey, this is all right!". I think the later opinions may be influenced in a blood-altered sort of way, and not truly impartial *ahem*, but that's okay. We're all happy by the bottom of the glass, and that's what counts. This particular vintage is being named "10K Limoncello" in honor of @Virgotex's Twitter remark that she'd tried a shot of 10000-proof limoncello at my place. I think a label needs to be created...

Pic: 10K Limoncello. You know you want some of this
head-rockin' goodness, yes you do! 

May: Post Surgery, and Garden Progress

The beginning of May brought surgery to relieve a trifecta of issues: frozen shoulder, bursitis, and a bone spur causing impingement, all in one shoulder. Recovery is still ongoing, and many thanks to Spouse and one of The Aunties for flying out and taking care of the farm and myself while I careened between the recliner, the flexibility (i.e. torture) chair, and the bed while in a drug-induced haze. Sorry, no pictures of THAT.

Sicilian Buttercup hen. Say, is that
a katydid leg sticking out of her mouth?

The earlier work on lawn/pasture seeding is still in question. The millet (which was included in the pasture bermuda mix to shade the bermuda while it grows) is doing well, but the bermuda growth has been slow. Hoping it didn't get too hot, too fast for good growth. A large portion of the lawn/pasture is also still covered in wildflowers: salvias of all types, bee balm, a variety of daisies, "Mexican hats", and more. I love watching the ducks and chickens rooting around between the clumps of flowers in the morning, hunting for grasshoppers, crickets, and katydids. Later in the day, the ducks rest in the shade of these wildflower clumps, quietly waiting out the afternoon heat.

Plums

In the orchard, the apricots ripened early and the trees are now resting for the season. Not much harvest on the apricots, peach & nectarine trees this year, as I forgot to spray the dormant oil until it was too late. On the other hand, one plum is going gangbusters, and one pear and one apple are doing well. The other plums, pears & apples seem to have decided that they did their duty with cross-pollination, and so have taken the season "off". Too early in the season yet to tell for the figs, but almost all the figs have fruit forming, even the small ones we rooted & potted from another tree last year. And of course, the Meyer lemon and Mandarin orange are doing well. Still want to add some regular lemons & limes to the potted tree populace.

Dona F1 tomato, ripening.

The volunteer tomato that was transplanted from the compost pile is an absolute MONSTER. The "Dirty Girl" tomatoes are doing terrific as well. The San Marzano tomatoes are growing surprisingly slow; I may need to do more research on their growing preferences. Maybe it got too hot, too fast? The Dona F1's are fruiting nicely, and I expect to taste ripe fruit in the next few days. All the other tomatoes are chugging along just fine.

The sweet potatoes are looking good, and the beans and corn are growing, but the squash, okra and eggplant aren't quite sure if they'd rather live or die.

Young bunny. I'm ignoring its destructive powers for now.

The brood of newborn bunnies didn't stay in the one tomato bed for long - they grow up fast - but I think one of them is still hanging around. For a wild bunny, it lets me get fairly close, so was able to take a few photos the other day. CUTE!

It's Spring 2012 and All I Got Was a Frozen Shoulder

Pic: almond blossoms

Spring has come early this year, along with a case of "frozen shoulder" for myself. It has made working on the property a challenge. Never fear, determination (sometimes also expressed as "stupidity") is my strong suit, so I will do everything I can to work around the issue and get this place in shape. On the agenda...

1. Permaculture: had a consultant come out and look over the land. At first glance, looks like we're gonna need to truck in a couple tons of soil, and rent big equipment to move it into berms and swales. Living on the side of a hill often means that rainwater runs off before soaking in, so berms & swales will help hold and retain more moisture for our orchard and pasture needs. He's drawing up some plans, and I'm looking forward to further ideas on what we can do here.

2. Pasture development: since finances will dictate when & how much soil we can move around, it may be a few months or more before we can develop those berms & swales. In the meantime, this Spring the orchard areas will be developed to grow pasture grasses, despite the strong possibility that it will all get torn up & re-arranged later. It will involve raking back the bulkier layers of cedar mulch, spraying the ground with a soil "activator", then fertilizing, then planting a grazing mix of grasses (mostly pasture bermuda with a handful of other grasses). Over the Winter the poultry and waterfowl have kept the front & side grasses clipped/eaten golf-course short, and we need to expand, like, NOW.

pic: needs more logs, seriously

3. Raised 4x4 Terraced Garden Beds: I've two beds ready to go, and am filling the bottom & deeper parts with old log pieces in a small-scale hugulkultur experiment. It'll be great if the experiment helps the beds to retain more moisture, which is always a challenge during the dry months. If all else fails, it will take up some of the space that would normally be filled with soil, saving us on soil/compost fill needs. I also need to get the remaining beds built, as we've got...

Pic: Tomatoes. Lots of 'em.

4. Tomato seedlings: a boatload of 'em. 57 to be exact. Many to be given away, I'm sure. A small handful of tomatillo, and the rest a combination of open-pollinated paste, slicing, and cherry tomatoes. There's some from saved seed, some from seed catalogs, and two from a local shop that is a looong story, but the seeds are from a once-thought-abandoned line of tomatoes. We'll see how well they do here.

5. Gathering Native Cuttings: a former co-worker and friend has a humungous female native mulberry from which she's generously allowing me to take cuttings this year. The native mustang grapes are also starting to bud, which means I need to hit the backroads and get some cuttings from the roadside fences. Both provide fruit which will be a welcome addition to our poultry forage needs, and for human consumption as well.

6. Get That @#$!! Rainwater Collection Installed on the Coop! *sigh*... self explanatory.

'Taters, 'berries, and more...

Here's the latest photograph of the potato towers:

The plants are about busting out of their towers! One thing I'll do differently next time: either find one big piece of cardboard for the liner, or duct-tape (or otherwise attach) the cardboard pieces together before filling. As you can see, the pieces are shifting. I topped out the compost fill at around 18 to 24 inches high. No wonder the leaves and flowers look so lush...

For a bit of perspective, here's Bandit with Billy-Bob and a couple of the ladies...

The strawberries survived the slapdash planting they received (and the above average heat we've been having), and are putting out flowers. Maybe - just maybe - I'll have some June berries!

In other events around the farm, we've planted another apple, two pear, two nectarine, another peach, two cherry, and two almond trees. Left to go: two more cherries, two white mulberries, two elderberry bushes, and two pomegranates. I've also a bunch of blackberry canes (a wonderful trade with Joy, for goose & duck eggs) and grape vines awaiting their support structure to be built (*ahem*). Oh, and some good old-fashioned rugosa roses, for their vitamin-C packed seed hips.

There has been some non-food planting going on as well. I've given up  trying to get healthy blackberries and grapes to grow in the southwest-facing garden beds in front of the house. The garden beds abut a three-foot high concrete foundation (the house is on the side of a hill), and it gets too danged hot in the Summer. I'll leave the current scraggly vines and canes in place for now, but in the meantime have planted another variegated privet (to match the mature one on the other side of the steps), two "Sangria" esperanzas, and will put in some "Dallas Red" lantana flowers under the esperanzas - all perennials, and all adapted or native to this area. On the northwest side of the house, the Japanese barberry bushes just couldn't cut the combination of Winter's bite and the constant nagging at their roots by the chickens, so I've planted a couple of Texas Sage bushes in their place to match the single Texas Sage in the same garden bed. The dang thing is bullet-proof - geese, dogs or chickens, nothing bothers it.

Whew!

From Sick to "Zoom"

Sick for a whole frakkin' week. Drove me nuts. Allergy-aggravation from forced air heating (and air blown through dirty filters that hadn't been checked before turning on the heat for the first time this season). The usual routine - sore throat, sinus congestion, sneezing, then coughing. The good news is that it DIDN'T develop into bronchitis, DIDN'T trigger asthma, and was over in SEVEN DAYS. A new recovery record! (and the crowd cheers!)

Last Saturday was the first day I felt up to doing chores around the property. The bones of the new 12'x20' tarp shed were up and ready, so decided to finish the job. Spouse helped me move the 4'x8' plywood sheets from the porch to layer on top of the pallet-based floor ("oooh, mice are gonna love this!" he crowed), and then throw the main tarp over the top of the shed (too heavy/cumbersome to do on my own). As I joked to friends, it seemed the writer of the instruction manual for the shed got distracted on the last few pages, as there were quite a few important steps skipped on how to secure the tarp to the frame, but managed to get everything squared away. The shed was finally completed.

That's a six-foot ladder in the back.

Angels sang hosannas, light poured from the sky... I can move all the tools, lumber, garden supplies, fencing, carts & dollies, you-name-it-we-haz-it from the porch and around the property into ONE ORGANIZED LOCATION. All our white-trashy goodness, all tucked away... listen... the angels are singing again!  ♪AAAAAAAAHHHHH!♫ And even more important: it's all tucked away from the ever-rampaging destructo-geese!

Sunday was my first day back at work in the garden center. Sundays are fairly laid back during winter - water if need be, but never any plant deliveries, rarely any customers, and just be sure to cover the plants & turn on the heater in the greenhouse before you leave if there's gonna be a freeze overnight. Six easy work hours, then home. That day, however, I also had to return ten fruit trees, as we've dug about every "easy" hole there is to find near the house, and there just ain't enough holes for all the trees I'd like to plant*. Came home at the end of the day with... two more trees. To be fair, these trees are newly available almond tree varieties specially bred for our area of Texas, so of course I must have them! I'll just have to send back... some other trees. (sigh)

The geese deciding whether or not my
boot is evil. Consensus: yes, evil.

With the remaining credit from the returned trees, brought home the fixings for growing potatoes in buckets**, and making a lighter soil mix*** to fill the new raised, terraced 4'x4' veggie beds. Also brought home bags of pine-bark nuggets to fill the muddy swamp holes the recent rainstorms have created, 50 lb bags of goose/duck chow and chicken scratch grains, plus two bales of hay for the duck and goose egg-laying areas. Loading up the car, then putting it all away, I probably worked harder AFTER work than during my time at the nursery.

*We'll do more test-digs further down the property, but if we do find decent soil down there, it'll mean clearing out brush and trees, as well as trenching and laying water pipes. Maybe next year.

 **Growing medium for bucket potatoes: straw and compost. See this Google Search for plenty of info on how to grow potatoes in a five-gallon bucket. I'll post more as the project begins.

***Modifying a recipe suggested in Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. [I refuse to link directly to his web site because it's completely Flash-based. I'm a geek, I can be unreasonable about bad implementations of tech, lack of accessibility, and those sorts of things.] Oh, the soil mix? A combination of compost, peat moss, vermiculite, and some topsoil. I'm making the soil mixture a bit "heavier" than the original recipe so it won't dry out as quickly in the Texas heat, but still light enough that the veggie roots can grow quickly and deeply. Will also post about that project as it comes along.

Ripening!

I've been trying to get some photos (in good light) of the Hen Haus, but time or rain have prevented. In the meantime, I've discovered that our apricot trees mean business when the fruit is ripe: you either pick the fruit and eat/process that very day, or else the fruit will start decomposing by the next day. Found that out the hard way: picked a bunch of ripe fruit, and left them on the counter while I went out grocery shopping. Picked up a bottle of brandy in which to preserve the apricots, and got lazy, thinking "eh, I'll do this tomorrow". All tomorrow brought were mushy fruit and fruit flies. Yiiick.

I understand better why I rarely see apricots on the market farm tables around here. Too challenging to get out the door in a timely fashion!

Locavorism for the Win!

The co-op through which I sell eggs - the Bountiful Sprout - held a vendor/member/advertising "meet and greet" at our local community center today. There was a free showing of the documentary "Food Fight", live music, face-painting, and hands-on crafts for the kids. The vendors ranged from bakers to herbalists to ranchers to veggie farmers, and members got to meet and talk to the vendors more in-depth about their products and philosophies.

I provided examples of the differences between commercial, caged chicken eggs and pasture-raised chicken eggs. "City" folks and teens were amazed at the difference in yolk color, and most had never seen a goose egg before . "Old"-timers told funny stories about being raised around chickens and geese. Folks who know me, know that I'm pretty shy and don't talk about myself that much (well, except on this blog), but I feel so passionate about local food systems - and my girls, of course! - that I about talked everyone's ear off.

Fell into a discussion with one of the co-op's board members, who is putting together a town-focused social network where folks can skill share and call out for assistance. We talked about how many are craving a sense of community and connection, and that this can be one way of creating a more cohesive community. Especially if the economy continues to tank.

I was thrilled to talk more with local producers of pasture-raised pork and beef, and made plans to budget money for shares in the upcoming harvest.

Meeting with everyone, making presentations, and seeing people's excitement in what we're doing with the co-op has left me feeling re-energized and re-motivated to push forward on developing our orchard. There's a huge need for a larger variety of local, organic fruits and nuts. Our town also has a small food bank, and it'd be great to have something to give every season. I may even set up a gleaning opportunity if we have enough trees/produce to do so.

One thing I forgot to bring - snacks and drinks. I started to have a sugar crash, and ended up eating a coconut/date macaroon from the vendor next to me, and drinking a cup of organic coffee from the vendor across the way. This means Spouse gets to watch me bounce off the walls for the rest of tonight, lucky guy! ("no, not really" I'm sure he'd say) Think I better find a project to pour this energy into while it lasts.

Free Grounds for Your Compost Pile

I'm not much of a Starbucks coffee gal (well, except for an unhealthy love of their insulated metal commuter coffee cups). I'm more of a 7-11 or Dunkin' Donuts coffee drinker. Or better yet, making a pot of my own at home. Still, I'll get a decaf cafe misto from Starbucks when I know the decaf at my usual places will be nothing more than a burnt glob of sludge at the bottom of an orange-lipped coffee pot.

Getting to the point: Starbucks has implemented a "Grounds to Gardens" program, where they're giving away free (free!) bags of used coffee grounds for folks to use in their compost piles. You don't even have to buy coffee from them. The picture you see to the left? That's about forty pounds of wet grounds I picked up this morning while running errands in Austin. All I did was walk up to the counter and ask. Pretty darn cool! If you don't have a Starbucks near you, I imagine your local coffee shop would be happy to collect grounds for you, just for the asking.

[Be sure to read Starbucks instructions on best ratios of grounds to compost, for optimum pile health.]

First, You Rent A Hydraulic Post-Hole Digger

Texas Hill Country "soil" - if you wanna call it that - is well known for its rocky constitution. Spouse and I thought we could bypass some of the effort of digging out holes for the new trees by renting a hydraulic post-hole digger. We could drill a couple of holes in tight relation to each other, scoop out the original soil, put in the good stuff ($31.00 a cubic yard - ouch!), then plop the tree in. Here's Spouse on the digger - looks like it could do the job, right?



Here's what the soil looked like, barely a foot into the dig. Where the post-hole digger's progress was stopped cold. Notice how the darker soil gives way to rocks?



Below is what a jackhammer looks like. This is what I ran into town to get after the post-hole digger stopped. Here's a tip on using a jackhammer: don't press the weight of your upper-body onto the top of the jackhammer to put more pressure on the hammering. It will rattle your skull like a baby with a shaker toy. Note to self: It's okay to let the jackhammer do the work, honest!



Ahhh, but the wonderful end result of our toils and troubles? Our first planted apricot tree:



We planted both apricot trees fairly close to the house. Apricots do well with a bit of sheltering, and they're in a good space - not too much Winter north wind (blocked by the house), and not too much Summer south-east wind (broken by the cedars). The trees will also provide some much needed shade for our side yard, which will be enjoyed by critters and humans alike. Further down the hill, we planted two plum trees (different types for cross-pollination) and the two pomegranates that had been waiting for transplant since, oh, May? Two more holes were dug: one for the third fruiting cactus, and the other for the third fig.

[Speaking of critters: we've surrounded each tree/bush with a goose/deer/dog-resistant wire cage. I've already a story about the Destructo Dogs and this weekend's efforts waiting in the wings...]

Spouse later took the post-hole digger down to the big flat area of the property where the bulk of the orchard will end up being planted. He was able to dig a whoppin' six inches deep in some areas, and only up to a foot in others - again, rock. Next weekend's digging strategy: skip the post-hole digger/jackhammer combination, and rent a 48" trencher instead.

[By the way, I highly recommend Sunbelt Rentals. Great prices, and if you rent on a Saturday, they let you keep the equipment until Monday with only one day's rent charged (well, they do here - don't know if they do in other locations). They also deliver the heavy stuff!]

We'll be ordering another truckload of soil, and planting more trees as we can afford to bring them in. It'll be a variety of fruits and nuts. I've discovered the term for the type of farming I want to do: Market Farming. But this post has gone on long enough... more on that later.