Thursday, June 10, 2010

Mud and rain and such

Well, since the weather seems to think we need even more rain, I went out between showers today and planted. Yep, in the mud. By the time I was finished up, the soles of my shoes were about an inch thicker from the mud (and that's even after scraping them off a few times). So, recently planted are some squash plants and more squash (seed-form) in hills: Burgess Buttercup, Eastern Rise, and a mystery squash ("Gold" or "Sweet Dumpling" or both--a donation from a high school ag department).

The potatoes also went in today. I know... I know... everyone says they should be planted on Good Friday. And this year it was even warm enough on Good Friday to do that! Well, this is one of those unconventional things that I'm doing since it worked before. Two years ago I was a good girl who put in a mountain of potatoes as close to Good Friday as possible. Nothing. I think I got out 20 pounds of spuds from the 20 pounds of seed potatoes I planted. Not a great return. Last year, I bought the seed potatoes, cut them and promptly forgot about them until almost everything else was planted! I threw the 5 pounds or so in the ground (didn't want to spend more on seed potatoes than I spent on store potatoes if they weren't going to do anything!) and HOLY COW--I had tons of taters! Ok, maybe not tons... but harvested at least 20 pounds or more. So, this year I wasn't sure if I was going to plant any or not. (I tend to like planting reliable crops.) Last week decided to go for it. Farmers Seed and Nursery in Faribault still had seed potatoes so had the kids pick up 20 pounds--mix of Red Norland and Red Pontiac.  So, let's hope for the best.

Let's also hope we get some drier and warmer weather. It's too wet to try to weed, so the weeds are really starting to get crazy. Two good days with the scuffle hoe would do some amazing things! 

Monday, June 7, 2010

Strawberries!

This is the first year we've been able to reap the benefits of the hundreds of strawberries plants we've attempted to get started through the last 6 years or so! The reason is because we finally are able to deter the marauding deer that have (up until last summer) eaten every last plant down to nothing. A gardener can fall into the depths of despair when faced with a bed full of stems with no leaves. But, since we put the fence around the garden, and then covered the plants with Agribon spun fabric and straw over winter (further protection since the deer DID jump the fence--in multitudes--over the winter) we are finally getting the first tastes of what seems like 6 years of hard work! :-) This is supposed to be the time before one can expect apples off of new trees, not strawberries off of plants! haha! But seriously, the plants we put in last year are doing quite well and we even planted about 200 more this year so that next year I'm hoping we're swimming in berries!

Our CSA members will be enjoying a taste of these little gems this week, and hopefully next week. We only have 4 good rows producing right now (some are earlier than the others), so we'll see what we can do.

Wow! I LOVE summer!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

CSA nights start next week! WHEEEEEEE!!!

This is some of the amazing lettuce that is coming out of the garden right now!

My family and I spent a lot of fun and satisfying time in the garden this weekend. We are continuing to plant more and more crops as the weather keeps warming up, and getting to harvest some things, too!!! The first crop (as usual) is lettuce--the photo above is actually of THINNINGS we took out of the lettuce beds! That's right--this is just the beginning. The heads of romaine and buttercrunch won't be ready for a few weeks yet. By then we'll be planting more lettuce for lettuce blends. YUM YUM YUM.

We also discovered that some of the strawberries are starting to ripen! The kids and I picked the dozen or so that were completely ripe and promptly ate them (gardeners' prerogative, you know!) We will be sharing with our CSA members, though... don't you worry! This year we planted enough new berry plants to DOUBLE the strawberry patch. I'm so excited to finally have a strawberry patch--this is the first time we've been able to thwart the deer and keep the plants going to harvest. 

I am so excited with how well the garden is coming along this year. It promises to be a bountiful summer!