framing fowl -daily living

[hwillm1977]

very nice! everything is so so green, that I'm green with jealousy! My last frost date is in a couple of weeks, so nothing has been planted yet.

Yep, we're in the same boat here too... waiting for June 7th, our last frost day

But for now I can look at these great pics and dream of having my SF garden in later on. The beds look great, and you have so many different kinds of fruit around the yard... YUMMY!

 

[framing fowl]

Speaking of yummy... got a fresh strawberry/rhubarb pie in the oven! So far, the sum total of our harvest has been 25 radishes and 1.5 lbs of strawberries. I didn't get our lettuce in as early as our neighbor so they've been sharing with us! Mine's got about another week.

Here's the weekend garden report: peas are about 18" tall and climbing like crazy. Some have just started to blossom. Beans are starting to get some height to them (about 10" tall or so). Spinach and lettuce should be ready to start harvesting next weekend. Looking good! Broccoli has really gotten in some good growth this week, cabbage is still kinda poking along... I think because I got it in late. Tomatillos that I bought are really starting to take off and get bigger. Peppers that I bought have a couple of blossoms. Onions started to get seed heads so I pinched all of those off. Cilantro is so yummy in my morning omelets with salsa! Some are starting to go to seed already.

My first batch of basil has been transplanted from the greenhouse into the garden, batch 2 should go in next weekend. Hardening off melons, zukes, cukes this weekend to go into the ground Monday. Still in the greenhouse: tomatoes, oregano, and bell peppers. I'd like to get them going in the ground next weekend. Let's see, what else... oh, 6 spaghetti squash the I put in the ground last weekend are doing okay but haven't really taken off yet.

Got the first batch of strawberries last night! Almost tasted like Heaven here on earth! Anyway, we're using old window screens to make an A-frame overtop of them to keep the birds and my dog out... but discovered some slugs so went and got some cheap beer and set it out for them tonight. I ain't sharing my strawberries with any slugs!! Blackberries just started to blossom and the raspberries are really doing well where we planted them last fall and early this spring.

Grapes... I still haven't got around to moving three of them so they're still overcrowded and going everywhere. I have a total of 6 and I've decided to pull out everyother one and move them to a separate area of the yard where they will have a fence to climb on. Then my others will get trellised. Kiwi really took off this week but still has not blossomed. Blueberries have set fruit and are just starting to get a little bit of size.

Well, it sure isn't as exciting as goats, sheep, or pigs, but it's what I've got for now!

 

[framing fowl]

Oh, most importantly... The PEONIES BLOOMED!!!! They're my favorite in the whole wide world and they just make me smile!!!

 

[framing fowl]

Lesson learned from strawberries...

Last year I got about 12 plants of 2 different varieties (quinalt & all star) of strawberries. I thought I was being so smart, read the tags and one said large berries in early spring and the other was large berries throughout the summer. The plan was to have yummy strawberries throughout the season. They grew and filled in a 4' by 20' bed.

This year the early ones were about the size of the tip of my pinkie and they touched the ground so most of them rotted before they even ripened. The ones that I was able to harvest tasted very bland. Both varieties are ripening at the same time.

I wish I would have either
1) experimented with smaller plots of more varieties and then chosen the keepers... or
2) gotten the advice of someone familiar with how to grow strawberries before launching off on such a large investment of time and space.

Normally, I'm of the gardening philosophy to just try it and see if it works, but I think in the future, I'll confine that philosophy to flowers and vegetables, not fruit.

So how do you make up your mind on what, where, and how to plant?

 

[FarmerDenise]

I am not the best strawberry grower, but it sounds to me that the weather created havoc with your crop. And they might need some fertilizer. One thing I have done in the past is to plant alyssum with the strawberries. It helps to keep the berries off the ground and disguised them a bit from the birds too. In my current garden unfortunately, the slugs and snails like the combination also.

You could keep adding new strawberry plants of differnent varieties. I buy new plants every once in a while. This past spring I replanted my strawberries to a new bed and they are doing very well so far. The chickens got into the strawberry bed only once

 

[hwillm1977]

So how do you make up your mind on what, where, and how to plant?

This is what I'm worried about... I'd like to plant fruit trees, but at $50 each, that's a lot of money to waste if they don't work out. We were told that apples and fruit trees wouldn't grow here because an old railway line ran through the yard (coal dust built up in the soil, some of our dirt is still BLACK and not in a good way). The rail line is long gone though, now it's a walking/biking trail.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

So how do you make up your mind on what, where, and how to plant?

honestly... sometimes you just gotta go for it and see. starting small seems to work - a lot of times your skills just need to catch up to your enthusiasm and it might take a couple years to figure out what you can do and what works there. and then you need to get your schedule and routine down.

i'm reading a great book (checked it out from the lib. then just ordered it from amazon) called:

How to Grow More Vegetables and Fruits (and Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops) Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine
~ John Jeavons

even tho its a loooooooong title i really liked that he had garden plans from starting with nothing, including crop rotations, and companion planting. and i like his intensive planting method... so there is a fun reference.

but the best advice is just try it and figure out what works for you. i've been told plenty of times that X or Y won't grow... but container planting and amending your soil can really produce wonders. what you lack in soil you can make up for in imagination...and hard work


ps my peonies are blooming now! i brought them with me from seattle and EVERYONE told me there is no way they would make it. HA - they are up there flowered out and happy. give the haters the finger while you are doing what they say wont work. thats what i do.

 

[framing fowl]

FD- good thinking on the fertilizer, and you are 110% right about the weather wreaking havoc with them. That week was completely rainy and very little sunshine so the slugs were getting some strawberry lovin' and the berries were just rotting basically. This week we've had 80's and sunshine and I tell you what, I don't think I've ever tasted anything as delicious as both varieties... it wasn't the variety, it was the ugly weather.

HW77- are there any orchards near you that you could visit for a taste test before choosing varieties? That is a much larger time and $ investment that strawberries!

OFG- I'll have to check that book out from the library... sounds right up my alley! Do you have pics of the peonies? Mine are just your basic, old-fashioned, pink ones but I love them!

In other news, we just returned from a quick trip for orientation at UIUC in Urbana-Champaign, IL. It's been over 10 years since I've been in college and the thought of returning is both exciting and frustrating. I always thought I was smart enough to beat the system and get through life without some letters after my name... now I'm looking at going to one of the top engineering colleges in the country... not exactly how I thought life would go...

So, now that I've been accepted, we have three months to sell the house, move, and figure out how to support ourselves and pay for college. I can tell this will take some creativity... goes and puts on thinking cap...

 

[TanksHill]

The garden pics are great. College again huh? Engineering even, wow!!!!

g

 

[framing fowl]

Yup, college again. This time I'll make sure I finish though! Engineering... but I'll actually be majoring in computer science and still trying to decide on whether to minor in Russian or Arabic. I'm wanting to go into the security/intel side of things and work on protecting our infrastructure from cyber attacks. Doors are opening right and left for us right now which is how we've always known we were on the right path before so we're just trusting again that this is what we're supposed to be doing even though it's crazy...

We want to have our house market ready by July 1 and we're wanting to market our property as an urban farm. There are hundreds of houses in this market currently that are very similar so we're going to try that approach to hopefully attract from a smaller but more specific pool of buyers.

Has anyone done this or know someone who has? Thoughts or ideas? I know it will definately take the right realtor who "gets it".