From Ignorant to Mad Gardener

Lately I've been out of my mind.  For quite a while I've been out of my mind.  I've been down right mad lately, and not in an angry sort of way, but more like a Mad Hatter sort of way. 

And when the gardener goes mad you can see just how mad she's gone by that state of her garden.

The mustard went wild, the carrots buried alive in weeds, the turnips gave up and the lettuce was being taken over by volunteer potatoes.  My artichokes are dying and the asparagus is all but gone.  The kale and cabbage went to seed and the weeds are so bad not even the mint can survive. All a reflection of what's been going on in my head.

But, lately, I've been trying to do some weeding or de-cluttering in my head.  It's a slow painful process, but I'm feeling better, and just like my head, my garden is slowly getting de-cluttered, which is also a slow painful process, but just looking at it after one session of weeding it's already looking a little better.  I've got a long way to go, with my head and my garden, but at least I feel like I've made some progress, which has lifted some weight off of my shoulders.

The lettuce, mustard and carrots were salvaged.  The dead and dying removed and fed to the goats.  A great many weeds pulled, but many more to go.  Just seeing the difference after this give my mind a small amount of much needed peace. 





And a small amount of bounty for the dinner table.

Mustard greens, lettuce, carrots and a few beets. 

Hopefully I'll reap some bounty after clearing out the weeds from my head as well.

http://ping.fm/WtihB

Spring is peeking around the corner

I'm noticing on my morning walks and in my garden that, even in the 3rd week of January, Spring is poking her little head up above the cold dirt.

The Salmon berries are blooming!  I'm hoping I can beat the birds and the County road crew to the berries this year.

 

Daffodils are popping up everywhere and all the plum trees, including ours, are going into full bloom.

 

My apple tree is starting to bud out and it desperately needs a good pruning.  I hope we get another awesome yield in the fall.  My big chore in the garden now, is to get it all cleaned up and ready for the spring, and to decide what I'm going to grow this year and get some seeds ordered.  I'm itching to garden!

Winter

Well, I haven't been able to spend much time in my garden.  It's in desperate need of weeding, no watering is necessary, and thankfully my seedlings are growing right along.  Not much else to share.  So I'll share this picture of the beautiful bloom on my Christmas cactus.  This cactus is a cut off of my great grandmother's plant.  I'm not real good with houseplants, so I've made it a priority to keep this one alive.  I was so please to see it bloom, and at Christmas time no less.

When you're done enjoying the cactus blossom, be sure to stop by Omnivores Delight and read my little rant about American's and there silly New Years Resolutions, and then you can read about my silly New Years Resolution.

Happy New Year.

Winter Garden

Mustard Greens

                                                                             Carrots                      

Oriental Spinach

Chinese Kale

Walla Walla Onion

And plenty of Romaine lettuce that I somehow didn't get a picture of.  

Seed Catalogs are comming!

It's like Christmas all over again!  The seed catalogs are coming!  One of my favorites is Territorial Seed Company.  I can't wait to start picking out what I'll have in my garden next spring.  I hope to post pictures of what I have growing righ tnow by this weekend.  I actually have a vibrant and living garden growing this winter.  Romaine, Oriental spinach, Chinese kale, turnips, carrots, beets, and mustard greens.  All doing pretty well inspite of the several hard freezes we've had.  Cross our fingers they make it long enough to harvest! Pictures to follow soon - I hope!

Crazy Fall

Like I said in my food blog, Omnivores Delight I've had a crazy couple of months.  It's not been a fun crazy, but I keep trying to move forward.  Unfortunately all this craziness has taken a lot of time from my blogs.  I have been busy in my garden though.  I've been attempting to see what I can grow into the winter months here in Humboldt.  So far lettuce and Chinese Kale are thriving well beyond my wildest dreams.  The Oriental Spinach would be if the slugs didn't like it so much.  My turnips and beets are struggling.  The soil just doesn't have the nutrients they need to thrive, but my carrots seem to be doing pretty well.  I just stuck some onion starts in the ground, walla walla's and green bunching onions.  I'm pretty sure this is the wrong time of year to do this, but they seem pretty happy, so we'll see how this goes.  I also have a bunch of mustard greens doing pretty well.  My arugula is struggling, but the seeds I had were pretty old.  I'll have to get some pictures of my garden, as weedy as it is, and keep you posted on the progress.  Hopefully I'll find the  time between now and the crazy Christmas holiday, which by the way we will be enjoying leg of lamb from the lamb we raised ourselves.  I'm so excited about that! 
Happy harvests!

Little apple tree - HUGE apples

My little apple tree produces pretty big apples every year, but this has got to be it's biggest ever:
4 inches across:

This is my giant apple next to an apple that is the size of one you would buy in a store:

A Growing Market

Interesting article for local Humboldt County Farmers with a farm to table concept coordinated by the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) http://www.caff.org.

The new food fighters - Health

The new food fighters - Health & nutrition | GreatSchools

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busy busy

I haven't posted in a while. I've been busy busy. I haven't been spending near enough time on my garden, but I have been scrambling to keep it alive. My daughter is in 4-H and has been raising a sheep to show in the fair. We spent the entire last week working on that, as well as her getting the opportunity to learn how to show animals by showing some goats for a friend the week before. It's been an exhausting and rewarding experience for the entire family. She ended up selling her lamb for $5 a pound and made herself a nice profit. I'm very proud of her and she is of herself as she should be. This is her first year (and mine and her dad's) and it's great that she has done so well. Next week is the last week of summer before the girls are back to school and we're off to visit family. I hope I come back to a garden that isn't demolished, other then by the friends who'll be here to watch it and the livestock. They're welcome to indulge. I just hope the varmints, goats, and elements leave me something to work with when I get back.
Enjoy the last dog days of summer, and may your harvest be bountiful!

Love Your Farmers Market

I just voted in the "Love Your Farmers Market" contest sponsored by Care2.com and LocalHarvest.org to help my favorite market, Ferndale Farmers' Market, win a grand prize of $5,000. I care about promoting fresh, local and healthy foods, and I need your help to get enough votes to help Ferndale Farmers' Market win. Please vote here: http://www.care2.com/farmersmarket/17312?refer=21496.01.1249686504.164956.

Humboldt County Fair Livestock Auction

Cordelia is showing her first sheep at the fair. Be there at 1 pm for the auction to cheer her on or put in your bid.

A Relaxing Sunday in the Garden

Politics of the Plate: Family Farms or “Facilities”? Food Politics: Gourmet.com

A great article from Gourmet.com. All American family farms should make themselves aware of this issue.

Politics of the Plate: Family Farms or “Facilities”? Food Politics: Gourmet.com

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Too sick to garden

I've been sick for over 2 weeks now. I've spent little to no time in my garden. The most I've done is a little watering. I do have lots of pictures though, so I'll post them today, because that's all I have energy to do today.

Oriental Spinach on March 29th

Oriental Spinach on April 26th.

Chinese Kale - March 29th
June 6th - Chinese Kale. We'll be eating this in a couple of days.

Romaine lettuce starts - April 26th

Romaine lettuce - June 6th. That's broccoli behind it.

My roses

My strawberry patch, with makeshift deer protection
My poor little fig tree - trying to save it from the deer this year.
Cecelia's basil starts
One of the hen's taking advantage of the leak in our hose.
My tomatoes! Cross your fingers that they keep doing well.
Apples are coming!
Cordelia's beet starts. Unfortunately something demolished these hours after transplanting.
Our veggie garden on June 6th.

Sheesh what a day!

It has been ages since I've posted. I'd like to say it was because I was busy in the garden, but that wouldn't be entirely true. That has been part of it, but only part. For the last week and half I've been sick with some crap that's taken on all kinds of symptoms. I've been stressing about the economy, specifically our own personal economy, trying to keep up at work, with the girls school work and social life, dishes dishes dishes (remember the dishwasher is broken) and a myriad of other things. I have been busy taking pictures along the way, and have tons to post. Now, where to begin.

Tonight, I'm exhausted. It's day 11, going on 12 of whatever this crud is I'm sick with. I got home today and immediately went down for a nap before the girls came home. I got in an hour, barely woke up to my husband scrambling to deal with some kind of chaos in the field. I crawled out and looked out in the field for him to look back in exasperation and say, "OH Shit! They're on the roof!"

That's the goats he's talking about. I yell back, "OK!" Throw on my crocks ( not the best shoes for the challenge ahead) and run up our slope behind the garage and hope I can lure the goats off without actually getting on the roof. (I'm scared to death of heights.) It worked! But then.....

What do I do now? I have to somehow get them back in the field.....alone,

I head for the upper gate next to the chicken coop with Sugar Magnolia following in hot pursuit. This could be good or bad. Is she happy to follow or pissed? Turns out she's pissed. As I try to unhook the makeshift gate with my dog nipping at Sugars feet, she pins me, all 150 lbs of her, against the fence post, and proceeds to push harder and harder until the fence post starts to uproot! I'm yelling for my husband to help, I can't move, she's got me pinned. Then I look up to see him walking slowly towards us, in the neighbors field, holding his chest. Oh shit! He broke his ribs, again. He can't help me. I look behind me and Mocha is looking for an in to give me a good butt. I'm getting angry now. I grab Sugar by the horns and to my surprise I've got her under control. Gotta love adrenaline. Unfortunately I can't hold her with one hand and open the gate with the other. Finally I get it open and realize I can't let her in the way I planned. The 4-H sheep are in there and Sugar can't go there. I check on John and head back the other way. The goats follow, not too closely thankfully. Then they attack my apple tree! Now I'm really pissed!

Between John, our dog CB and me we finally get those damn goats back in the field. But to really top off my day, we walk down to the vegie garden and discover that something ate every single ( about 40) beet sprout I had planted the night before. I drug my sick butt out to the garden and planted the sprouts that my daughter started only to find them demolished. A garden day from hell I'll tell ya!

Tomorrow, I'll have more pleasant stories to tell. I have had some successes and I have tons pictures to share.

Next time you're having a bad gardening day, be glad you don't have any goats on your roof.
Happy gardening!

How does your garden grow?

I haven't posted much lately. I've been trying to get busy in my garden. So far I've mainly got my herbs planted. Here's my oregano, plus some marjoram.

More herbs. I love being able to step out my door and grab fresh herbs when I cook! I have basil, dill, Italian parsley, summer and winter savory.
My romaine lettuce starts are going well. We need to get that cold frame set up so I can move them. This is the second round on my milk jug cloches. This is a great way to start seeds.
My amaranth is making a come back.
My oriental spinach, which I started in my milk jugs a few months ago. It's doing fantastic! I happened to notice our local nursery is selling oriental spinach now. I wonder where they got their seeds. Mine came from China Town in Oakland. I've decided that this stuff will grow pretty much anywhere, since I'm having such success with it. We've recently tested our soil and discovered it's low in everything, nitrogen, phosphorous, potash, and everything else, except acidity, which, typical of the pacific northwest, it's high in.

The Chinese kale I started in my milk jugs is hanging in there. It's not doing as well as the spinach. It's probably needing one of those elements our soil is low in. Hopefully it will keep hanging in there.
The artichokes are producing! Yeah!
Well, back to the garden. I stopped at the nursery yesterday and I created more work for myself. Off to go dig in the dirt.........

The Amaranth has Sprouted!

Back in February I posted about my milk jug cloches that I had planted seeds in as far back as January. The Oriental Spinach and Chinese Kale succeeded, but the slugs got to my lettuce, and the amaranth just never sprouted. Now, here it is 3 months later. I went out to clean out the jugs and try replanting the amaranth. I was sure I had done something wrong, since I was completely guessing on how to sprout them. See, the instructions are all in Chinese. I opened up the neglected jug, that had been out in freezing temperatures and not watered, because I assumed there was nothing growing. I opened up the jug and to my surprise the amaranth has finally sprouted! I'm so excited! In fact, some of the romaine lettuce has sprouted as well. So I planted some more lettuce, and put slug bait around it this time. When the sprouts get big enough to take pictures, I'll post some. Right now they'd be nothing but tiny green blurs.

Cold Frames

My husband and I have been talking about building Cold Frames for a couple of years now. Well, he got motivated a few days ago, and so far this is his masterpiece:

It's big! And I'm wondering how we're going to get this through the door out to the yard. This will prove to be a comedy of errors, I am quite sure. I'm not looking forward to helping him move it, but I am very excited to get some plants going.

Stay tuned for the "big move". I'll have to hand my camera over to my daughter so she can document what should prove to be quite hilarious. I sure hope that glass doesn't break between the garage and the other side of the house!