Gardening

Our 2021 garden: Layout

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Okay, so my last post actually uploaded, so here’s hoping this one works, too!

I mentioned previously that the girls and I have been going over the layout of the grounds we have to work on, trying to figure out where we will be planting things. Today, I worked up a new diagram on the computer, this time keeping the satellite image in the background.

This is what we’ve got to work with; what I call the inner yard.

The long blue lines at the bottom (which is South) are fences. Black lines are around the house, storage house and garage. The one yellow line extending from the house is an important one for us to remember, when it comes time to making our permanent garden beds in the outer yard. There are pipes buried under there; water from the well next to the house, leading to the barn and to water fountains that were used when my parents still had cattle, and the septic pipe that diverts to the septic field, well away from house and barn. Since we plan to build accessible raised beds, and hopefully a polytunnel and/or greenhouse, we need to make sure to keep that area clear, in case we ever need to excavate it for repairs to the pipes.

The masses of green are treed areas. The spruce grove is on the right. The little yellow dot in there is where we will be planting the mulberry tree that will be arriving in the spring. We need to clear away dead spruces and underbrush, but there will be enough mature trees around it to protect it from the elements. Necessary, since it is a zone 4 tree and will need extra protection.

The blue rectangles are existing beds. The two little ones along the spruce grove are where the hard neck garlic is planted. I’ve marked where I will be making a third bed in that area. This is the only place we have soft soil, exposed when I cleaned up where the wood pile used to be. While clearing away the dead trees and underbrush around there, we will also be clearing the space where we are planning to build a cordwood shed to be used as an outdoor bathroom with composting toilet. No pit! The existing outhouse is between those beds and the garage to the south.

The blue next to the house is the old kitchen garden area, with its retaining wall of chimney blocks that we planted cucamelons in, last year. This is a bit of a problem area, overshadowed by two ornamental apple trees. There is also a double lilac, a honeysuckle and some roses in there that we will have to work around.

Then there is my mother’s old garden area!

The existing beds marked in blue are where we grew our squash and potatoes. The two little beds to the right are where the potatoes where. Summer squash were in the larger, North-South oriented beds. The long skinny bed on the north side had birdhouse gourds in it, but those got killed off by frost. The three East-West oriented beds had started out as pumpkin mounds, but when I cleaned it up for the winter, I turned them into larger beds.

The green rectangles are potential new plots. The slightly darker green ones are pretty much decided on, while the lighter green ones are in areas that are probably not worth putting beds in, but we could if we needed to. There is a row of self sown trees to the North of the existing beds that we really should take out; they should never have been allowed to grow there. They split my mother’s old garden area in a way that made a substantial part of the garden unusable. There’s also a chokecherry tree growing, all by itself, in the gap between two light green squares.

There is also a green garden area marked along the fence line to the south of the house. There should actually be two of them, on either side of the person gate, which is near that yellow line. On one side is where we will be planting cucamelons, using the chain link fence as a trellis. The other side will have tomatoes. Hopefully. The seeds have not arrived yet, so that will depend on whether they get here in time to be started indoors.

The bed I will be making next to the hard neck garlic will probably be for our 2 varieties of beets. Either that or carrots, given how soft the soil is there. We have 4 varieties of carrots to plant, so we’ll see.

The garden by the old kitchen will likely have our poppies, lettuces, and possibly the pink celery that will hopefully arrive in time.

The three beds that used to be pumpkin hills are where we will plant our three varieties of spinach. The longer beds on either side will have the bulb onions, likely interplanted with the purple Kohlrabi (onions repel insects that go after plants in the cabbage family). The former potato beds will have the shallots and bunching onions, and will likely have something interplanted with them, too. Possibly kale. We got purple kale as free seeds from Baker Creek, and we seem to be going with a pink and purple theme this year, so … we’ll see.

Speaking of purple, to the left of the existing beds is where we are planning to plant the purple corn. There are areas that can fit potential beds to the north and south. This whole area has to be carefully planned. Where the current beds are now will be permanent garden areas; I’m not so sure that where the corn will be planted will be included. With the horrible plow job that was done before we moved here, the area we’ll be putting the corn is the roughest (another reason we need that load of soil!), but where I’ve blocked off space for the corn is the best part. To the south, there’s too much shade from trees, so if we do make beds there, only shade friendly vegetables can be planted there. To the north, it’s basically lawn, and was never part of the original garden. I’ll touch on those areas, later.

Let’s leap over to the massive area on the right (east). There will be alternating blocks of corn and sunflowers there. We have 3 varieties of peaches and cream corn, and 2 varieties of giant sunflowers. We may interplant our 2 varieties of peas with the sunflowers, which can provide very strong supports for the peas to climb, while the peas fix nitrogen into the soil.

Legumes are supposed to be good to plant near corn, as corn depletes soil of nitrogen very quickly. We have 3 varieties of bush beans and, while I am considering staking them (which is supposed to help prevent fungal disease, rot and insect infestations), they are not climbers, so we won’t be interplanting them with the corn. They will go where I have two long strips near the big block. They are not as long as the block for corn and sunflowers, because of shade from the row of crab apple trees.

The other blocks will be used to plant summer squash, which I want to try staking this year, plus winter squash, gourds and melons on trellises and/or arches. Possibly peas, if we end up not interplanting them with the sunflowers. We have one more variety of corn that will be among those blocks, too.

We have two types of radishes, which will be interplanted with other things. Likely corn. Even though we will be able to buy soil that will enable us to do all this (barring some sort of emergency that takes up the funds), much of this area will later have fruit and nut trees planted in it. Anything we do to break up the soil will make it easier for us to dig holes to plant trees into.

It is with that in mind that we are breaking ground in areas that were never part of my mother’s garden. The area where we will be planting the corn and sunflowers is all grass, as is the strip along the north side. That row of self-sown trees is in the old garden area (my mother had a raspberry patch there, and when she transplanted the raspberries, she left the saplings). The old garden area extended a small plow’s width past them – and they are probably why the plow job on that side is as rough as it is (though it could also be that the person who did the plowing may have been drunk at the time). Planting on that north strip is another area we need to be wary of, as there are telephone lines buried somewhere in there.

There are a few other things we will be planting that are not on the layout. There are no potatoes on there. We are going to try using grow bags, or something similar, for our 4 varieties of potatoes this year. They will likely be set up in the south yard, near the storage house (the building marked off to the west of the house in the middle).

We also have to consider where we want to plant the purple asparagus. It has to be somewhere where they can stay for their 20 years of productive life! We also need to think about where to plant the strawberry spinach, which I’ve learn will self seed! So for those, we need to think about more permanent locations.

As you can see by the dark green lines around the inner yard, we are surrounded by trees. The spruce grove will need a lot of cleaning up, as it has so many dead and dying trees. There are a lot of poplars that are taking it over the south side of the spruce grow, and along the fence to the road, where my parents had planted elms and more apple trees. The apple trees there are too shaded to be able to produce. As I clean up all the little poplars, they will be used to build trellises and arches. As we can, we will plant more spruces in the spruce grove again! :-D Eventually, I want to take out the fence leading to the road – it’s barbed wire, and many of the posts are already rotted and falling over. For now, though, it is needed in case the renter’s cows get through the fence around the outer yard again. :-D

The area on the far right, past the fence line and trees, is a flat area next to the ditch by the road. The north side of that area is going to be prepared for planting a mix of wildflower seeds in the fall. I want to make sure this area doesn’t get taken over by trees, as has happened on the other side of our driveway, which causes a number of problems, so we’ve been mowing it. Which is hard on the mower! Introducing native wildflowers will help solve that problem, while also encouraging native pollinators. That will be good for our future fruit and nut trees.

One of the problems with figuring out where to put things is that it’s really hard to maintain a perspective of just how much space there is, versus how much space we’ll actually need for what we’ll be planting! Things might change quite a bit, even based on how many of what we start indoors germinates. Everything is flexible, but this does give us a general idea of what we have to work with.

Oh, and somehow, we need to keep the deer out of all this!

That will probably be the biggest challenge of all.

The Re-Farmer

Oh, I’m so excited!

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It’s easy to get excited about things today. As I write this, we are at a balmy -18C !!

Okay, the wind chill is at -27C, but that’s okay. We’re at -18C! And our predicted high is -15C! It’s feeling like spring out there!

For my friends in the US, -18C is 0.4F, -27C is -16.6F, and -15C is 5F.

Last night, we did hit temperatures of -33C/-24F with a wind chill of -37C/-35F, so this is a huge increase in the space of about 14 hours. Not only that, but by the 22nd, just 5 days from now, we’re supposed to reach 2C/36F

I don’t know how we’re going to handle all that heat. LOL

Even the deer are happy. I took these shots, after I’d done the morning rounds.

I had seen two deer at the feeding station, but by the time I came back with my phone to take pictures, there were three!

Cabbages was watching them – and didn’t run away when I came close to take pictures!

When I headed out this morning, there wasn’t a yard cat in sight, which concerned me a bit. With the increased temperatures, I expected to see them all over. Then I saw the fluffy white flag in the outer yard! :-D My brother’s dog had come to visit the kitties, and they were all in hiding. They did eventually come to the kibble house, and indulge in some warm water, though.

I’m starting to think that the terrarium heat bulb inside the cat’s house has stopped working. I can see by the red light on the timer that it is still getting power when the light sensor is triggered. However, that spot on the roof where the snow would melt is not clear, even after I shoveled off most of the snow and things have warmed up in general. We have no thermometer inside (something we intend to add, later in the year), so the only way to tell would be by lifting the roof and manually checking the ceramic bulb.

Which is not going to happen, any time soon! Unless the heated water bowl gets unplugged again, we are not lifting that roof. :-D

I ran our van while I was switching out the memory cards on the trail cams. The coolant levels are where they are supposed to be, which is good. It’s still making a whining noise, but I no longer think it’s the cold serpentine belt. I think it’s the power steering, right next to it. Something else to get checked. *sigh*

Trading the locations of the trail cams seems to have worked. When I switched the memory card in the new camera, the display screen inside activated without my having to warm it up with my hands, first! We had a busy day at our gate, yesterday. The older camera, which is set to take only short videos, had 44 files for me to check. The new camera, which is set to take 3 stills, then a short video, had 233 files waiting for me! It did have a hard time with night shots, but it was taking stills with an internal temperature of -25C/-13F before stopping completely. The other camera was still recording, and I finally saw what has been close enough to trigger the motion sensors, but too far for the infrared flash to light up. I could just barely see the shadow of a deer walking though the far end of the driveway, by the road.

So the camera set up is working better now, which is the important thing.

And now for the thing that I’m really excited about!

As the girls and I were pouring over the diagram of the property, our need to buy soil – and a lot of it – is something we just can’t get away from. It’s not even that we don’t have the years it would take to build up the soil, as we originally planned, but that we don’t have the organic material to do it. We just don’t produce enough compost, don’t have enough yard waste, and don’t have access to the amounts of manure and other amendments we need, in the quantities we’ll need.

I’ve tried to find out how much it would cost to get a dump truck load of garden soil through various sites, but I don’t know how much a dump truck would hold in the first place. We don’t plan to have a load spread onto the garden area. We just want a pile that we will spread ourselves, where we need it, as we need it. Most of where we are planting this year is going to be temporary, anyhow, so we will be very selective on where we put purchased soil.

Then there are all the different mixes you can get. Some sites I found offered a basic 3 part mix of soil, compost and manure, while others offered up 4 and 5 part mixes, with additional amendments. Of course, the more in the mix, the higher the cost, but without knowing how many square yards I’m even after, there was no way to figure out how much it would cost. The only thing I really had to go by was how much my older brother paid for loads of soil, but he wasn’t buying garden soil. He was buying things like fill and gravel. Still, it gave me the closest thing to a ball park figure I was able to find.

Today, I decided to call a local company. They have a yard just a couple of miles away from us, and we pass it every time we go to town. I knew they did gravel, but in passing the yard, I could see they had soil, too. Was it fill? Topsoil? Garden soil? I had no idea.

So I called them up and asked if they had garden soil, and was told, yes, they did. Then he began rattling off four of the five part mix they have! He couldn’t remember the last one, but it includes both cow and sheep manure, as well as a type of sand, to make it lighter. I’m guessing the one he couldn’t remember was compost. With the companies I found online, this would be their high end premium mix, but for this company, it’s the only mix they have!

I asked about load sizes, and their truck holds 10 – 12 square yards of garden soil, and we would be charged only $25 a yard.

And because we are so close, that would include the cost of delivery!

A load of 12 square yards would cost about $300. I’m assuming there would be taxes on top of that.

That is about half of what I was expecting it to be.

My older brother happened to call not long after, and when I told him about it, he was astonished at the price. He also wondered if a single load would be enough, but at this price, we’ll be able to get two!

I’ll be calling the company back to arrange delivery around April. That gives us time to figure out where we want to have the soil dumped. If we’re getting two loads, I’m thinking maybe get one for the inner yard, and one for the outer yard, but I really can’t think of where we can place a truck load in the inner yard.

We’re already looking forward to what we’ll be able to plant this year. That we’ll be able to afford the soil is just icing on the cake! We were talking about waiting until we get our tax returns to do this, but the cost is so much lower than expected, we could even be able to do it from our normal budget, even if we’d have to split it between two months – so long as we don’t have anything break down! :-D

I just realized something.

We can get a dump truck full of premium garden soil for less than the cost of getting a cat spayed.

Something seems wrong about that!

:-D

The Re-Farmer

Our 2021 garden: bunching onions started, and sprouts!

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Finally! The last of our onion seeds have been planted!

These were the bunching onions; a variety called Red Baron, from Veseys. They have red root ends instead of the usual white.

Using the dampened blunt end of a bamboo skewer made planting the seeds really easy. I could pick up a single seed at a time (two, if I really wanted to), press it into the growing medium, then cover the seed, all with the skewer. I put two seeds in each cell (though I think I might have lost track and double planted a couple! LOL), which left me with about half a package left over.

Then the trays went into the 20 gallon fish tank. It’s a bit snug, and I’ll likely have to fight a bit to get them out again later, but there is enough room at each end to move them, to get a grip under the tray supports.

This tank has a lid with the light fixture attached under it. I had thought that would be enough, but my daughter has already caught a cat on the lid, reaching through the opening in the back for the filter and hoses. I’m going to have to find a way to block that off, while still allowing air circulation!

Meanwhile…

The first onions we planted, the Norstar bulb onion, now has sprouts large enough to see in a photo. :-D

You can also see how some of the K-cups are drier on the top. I’d already sprayed them this morning, and we’ll likely have to spray them again this evening. The peat pellets, at least, are holding their moisture quite well.

Special note: when using loose peat to start seeds, soak it with water before putting it in pots or cells!

As an aside, I am happy to say that my husband’s prescriptions got delivered today. I had asked for them to call first, so I could unlock the gate, only to get a phone call saying they were already here! So I quickly threw on some boots and a coat and dashed out to meet them.

Of course “dashing out” doesn’t mean the same thing on the farm than it did when we lived in the city! LOL

When I mentioned I had been expecting to be called in advance, so the gate could be unlocked for them, I was told they’d actually tried to call from the driveway, but couldn’t get a signal. They had to drive up the road about a quarter mile before they could get enough signal to call me.

The driver then commented that he recognized me, and he even remembered my name, as well as my parents! Unfortunately, even though we were outside and on opposite sides of the gate, he was wearing a mask, so I had no clue who he was. It turned out he was the principle when I was in school! He even remembered my husband from high school. Small world! :-) I have no idea why he and his wife were delivering prescriptions for the pharmacy, but I was happy to see them. :-)

My husband has gone over the new meds, and it turns out that the changed prescription isn’t for something he’s on right now. Another medication he used to be on years ago has been added back on, which is why I remembered the name when talking to the doctor about it. I’m losing track of them all! There are some very serious possible contraindications, mostly respiratory. With the setting on his CPAP as high as it already is, that, at least, is not as much of a concern while he’s asleep. It explains why the doctor was so hesitant to change my husband’s medications. He’s already maxed out on the doses of most of his other medications. Hopefully these changes, which will continue to be slowly adjusted over the next few months, will finally get the pain levels under control, and his quality of life will finally start to improve!

Among our goals with our permanent garden beds is for them to be accessible. High beds with wide spaces between them. It would be good for him to be able to get out with his walker, among growing things. :-)

There is more benefit to gardening than being able to grow food!

The Re-Farmer

Van stuff, and we have emerged… :-D

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Yesterday, I made a point of running our van and my mother’s car for a while, to warm up the engines.

The doors to where my mother’s car is parked are sagging, so they open on their own unless they are blocked with something heavy. I’ve been using one of the many tires scattered about to do that. The cats have been loving it. Even in the cold we’ve been having, the black rubber gets quite warm in the sun!

Potato Beetle really wanted attention! :-D

The van keeps making a noise, even after it’s been running a while, so I popped the hood to take a look.

The noise is coming from the serpentine belt, which is what I expected, but then I noticed something else.

I was basically out of coolant/anti-freeze. ?!?

I had some in the garage and topped it up a bit, but decided to check under the van to see if there was some sort of leak. The most efficient way to do that, for someone who can’t get down on the ground, is to use my phone to take pictures.

I didn’t find a leak, but when I uploaded the photos to my desktop so I could see better, I did find a mystery.

What the heck is that? This is under the driver’s seat. I don’t know enough about what’s under vehicles to know what that is. I’ll have to look it up.

Meanwhile, I hooked up the OBD II reader and it actually worked this time, so I did a scan.

One thing came up as an issue, code P0404. I looked it up, but what I found really didn’t tell me much. The EGR valve is what got recently replaced, so this could related to what the mechanic told me about how carbon in the lines he couldn’t reach to clean might come loose and cause some stuttering, etc. I’ll have to give him a call.

On the plus side, my mother’s car was running better, so when I headed out to do my rounds this morning, I made sure to grab the keys and get it warming up.

This morning was the first time in a long time where the temperature and the wind chill were both warmer than -30C for a change!

The cats were quite enjoying the comparatively warm conditions! Poor Nosy is still looking miserable, and he really wanted attention. When holding him, he’s actually taken to grabbing my hand and pulling it to his face, for me to scritch his neck.

It’s warmed up enough that I will be switching out the memory cards on trail cams regularly again, though I had to take the new camera inside and switch to warm batteries again. I took the opportunity to reverse it’s location with the older camera. It is now in full sun, which should help with the frozen battery problems.

Once that was done, I used my mother’s car to go to the post office/general store. It’s just a few miles away, so I felt confident it would be fine.

My mother’s car is a hatch back, and always makes rattling noises in the back. It makes a lot more rattling noises when it’s cold! :-D

While getting the mail, I picked up some more coolant/anti-freeze for the van. Once at home, I topped up the reservoir a bit more. Later today, I’ll run it again for a while.

Meanwhile…

It’s been over a week since we were able to get the mail, so we had lots waiting for us. Including…

More seeds! Packed by Emma. Thank you, Emma! :-D

This was from the order I placed as birthday presents for the girls. :-D The purple asparagus crowns and the black iris will be shipped later, just before it’s time to plant them, for our zone. As of now, the only seeds outstanding are from my last minute order from Baker Creek. They have been shipped, so it’s now in the hands of the US and Cdn postal systems. We’re not expecting them for quite a while. I just hope we’ll get them early enough to start the spoon tomatoes indoors!

Last night, I used a satellite image of the property to create a line diagram of the inner yard, marking off where the house, storage house, fence lines and trees areas are. After printing it out, I drew in where we have existing beds and a few other details. The girls and I have been going over it, trying to figure out what to plant, where, and sketching it in. There is going to be a fair amount of inter-planting – especially with the Daikon radishes, which will be used to help break up the soil. I was amused to discover this type of radish is known as “pile driver” radishes. :-D Among the things we need to consider are the permanent locations. The asparagus, for example, can be expected to produce for 20 years, and the strawberry spinach is self sowing. Once we have a better idea of what we’ll be doing, we’ll make a bigger version of the line diagram to consult as time goes buy. We fully expect to change things up when it comes time to actually plant/transplant, but at least we’ll have a general overview.

Another thing we got today was the catalog I ordered from T&T Seeds. This is the seed catalog from my childhood. :-D I’m glad I got the physical catalog, because I find it much easier on the eyes than their website. :-/ There are quite a few things they carry that few others carry. One of them that caught our attention is the Forage Radish. From their website:

Help loosen your soil! Forage Radish or Bio Drilling. White radishes are quickly becoming a popular cover crop, as growers planting them are seeing benefits beyond commonly used cover crops, such as rye and clover. Forage radishes can improve the soil and environment. With taproots that can grow several feet deep, forage radishes bore holes into the ground, loosening the soil, hence giving them the nickname “tillage radishes.” The deep roots penetrate many layers of compacted soil, with the thin lower part of the taproot reaching 6 feet or more during the fall. After the cover crop dies in the winter and roots decompose, open root channels can be used by subsequent crop roots to grow through compacted soil layers.

Which is exactly what we need. They also carry sugar beets, which can also be used to break up soil like ours, though that’s not a selling feature. Plus, if we wanted to, we could actually try making our own sugar. Or just use them to feed the deer. At some point, we will be getting animals, so it could be one of the feed crops we can grow. Just one of the possibilities we will keep in mind, over the years.

In going over our map and figuring out where to plant, it really is hitting home how much we’ll need to actually buy a whole lot of soil. We will also have to find a way to efficiently water plots that will be well away from the house. Our current 300 ft of hose will not be enough! Things like drip irrigation, soaker hoses, or even lengths of PVC pipes with holed drilled into them that we can attach a hose to, are things we’re considering. For some things, just burying plastic containers of varying sizes, with judiciously placed holes drilled into them, next to plants that need deep watering are an option. They just need to be filled with water, which will slowly drain into the soil near the plants. We have already been keeping all kinds of containers that can be used that way, ranging in size from small water bottles to 5 gallon water jugs so, for us, that will probably be the easiest option.

At one point, I was amused by the realization that, while we are planning our garden for this year, we are also already planning our garden for next year… and the years after! We’re having a blast with it, too. :-)

I have one last photo to share with you before I finish this post. It’s completely off topic, but I can’t resist! One of my constant battles with the cats is that, as soon as I get up from the computer (which is frequent), my (very worn out) chair gets instantly occupied by a cat. Usually Cheddar.

Last night, I had this group waiting for me. Beep Beep and her babies, Saffron and Turmeric. :-D

Those faces! They’re like owls. :-D

It’s a lot more challenging to remove three cats, since any one I’ removed jumps back the instant I’ve turned my back while removing the next one!

They are certainly entertaining. :-)

The Re-Farmer

Our 2021 garden: shallots are started!

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Well, the shallot seeds are finally planted! Yay!

After adding more water and letting it soak overnight, we were left with a sort of peat slurry! :-D No fear of the seeds not getting enough moisture, this time!

To contain any potential mess, I set up inside the under-bed storage container that will eventually be used to hold the beer cups that I will be using as larger pots, when it’s time to start the squash seeds. It won’t be needed for some weeks, yet, and it was the perfect size and depth for this job.

It’s a bit hard to see in the photo, but you can tell why having something under the trays to support them was so essential. The first tray I filled is the slightly darker one on the left. It’s darker, because the cardboard is completely wet! Which means it’s also very floppy. There is no way these trays could be handled, without something solid under them.

When I planted the bulb onions, I was left with about half a package of unused seeds.

Not the shallots! I had just enough seed to put two in every cell, minus 1 seed. :-D

Though the peat was well saturated, I still sprayed the tops, more to settle the surface than for actual watering. When it came time to move the trays, I tipped them side to side a bit, to allow excess water that had soaked through the cardboard to spill off.

To get the trays into the tank, I had to take the light fixture off completely. All the trays fit perfectly, from end to end. If I wanted to, I’d be able to fit pots or egg cartons (dozen size, not 18’s) in the space at the front. That isn’t needed now, but when it’s time to start other seeds, we might find ourselves crowding the space as much as possible.

We freed up an 18 count egg carton this morning, so I checked out the fit in the smaller tank. One carton fits, of course, but only in one direction, and it’s long enough that we would not be able to fit in a second one. So I went back to my stack of flats and picked out two. The trays are 5 x 6 cells, and I cut them down to 5 x 5. That will allow two trays to fit in the smaller tank.

I will be adding a bit more peat to the container to absorb some of the excess water and leave it overnight. Tomorrow, I’ll be able to use the cut down trays and start the bunching onions in the small tank. :-)

Between these and the onion sets we’ll be getting in the spring, we should have enough onions in total, for fresh eating and for winter storage, to last us a year, if all goes well. With the bunching onions, I plan to dehydrate a lot of them, but will probably freeze some, too. We do use a lot of onions. I stopped to figure it out, and estimate we use about 200 yellow cooking onions a year, alone. Those are the ones we buy regularly. On top of that are the red onions, bunching onions and leeks we get more irregularly. We don’t usually buy shallots at all, because they are a fair bit more expensive. So it’s well worth the time end effort for us to grow a lot of onions! We won’t be trying this year, but I am hoping that by next year, we’ll be able to try growing leeks, too.

By the end if this year’s gardening, we’ll have a better handle on whether it’s worth it to keep growing from seed, or to go with buying sets. Growing from seed, for the amounts we’re after, takes up a lot of space, but there are more varieties available in seed than in sets. Either way, it’s going to be a trade off.

As a side note, we had company while I was working on the seeds.

Three white tail deer.

I love that they’re coming around during the day now, when we can actually see them! :-D They are so beautiful!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2021 Garden: preparing to start shallot seeds

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With our bulb onions already starting to show sprouts (so quickly!) I’ve got a bee in my bonnet about getting the shallot seed started, too. With how dry the loose peat in the K-cups are in the middles, this time I wanted to make sure the peat was thoroughly saturated before putting them into the planting trays.

After looking at what we had available that is cat proof, I settled on reusing a container from cheese balls that we would sometimes get at Costco. I’ve been keeping the containers like these, in various sizes, to cut open and use as cloche in the garden in the spring, but they are coming in very handy in other ways! We don’t actually buy these treats very often, which means that at this rate, I’m using them up pretty fast!

At least for this, I don’t have to cut it apart, so it will still be usable when it’s done. Because the peat is so very dry and fluffy, I made sure to scoop quite a bit into the container, filling it to just under half full.

Then it was time to add water. The arrow in the above image is the water line! The peat just floated on top.

It took a while to mix the water into the peat. Even when I thought I was done I’d uncover another dry clump of peat!

Then it was time to cover it, to keep the cats out.

They were very interested in the process. It the few seconds it took me to put the mixing spoon down and pop the lid on the containers, Saffron was pulling at the spoon, trying to drag it away!

Once it was set aside to sit for a while, before we can see if it needs more water or not, I checked the space I had in the big aquarium. How many egg flats would I be able to fit inside? One, for sure, but would I be able to fit two?

Yes!!! Each tray holds 30 eggs, so I’ll have close to the same number of potential seedlings as the seed tray the bulb onion seeds are in.

The next question was, what to put under them to support them when they need to be moved?

Handily, I had a piece of leftover rigid insulation that was large enough to fit both trays. So I cut it in half, and we’ll be able to move them around independently, even after the cardboard has started to get soft.

I don’t have anything I can use as a drain tray that will fit, unfortunately. If I did, I would be keeping them watered from below. Ah, well. We’ll manage!

Since I was checking sizes, anyhow, I checked to see if these would fit in the 20 gallon, for when we start the bunching onions. One tray does fit, but it’s a bit too snug. We would not be able to lift it out again later, without problems.

But that’s okay. When my brother and his wife picked up groceries for us, there were no flats of eggs available, so they got us 2 packs of 18 eggs. Those will fit, plus I have long, narrow scraps of the rigid insulation I can put under them, to support the bottoms when it’s time to lift them out of the aquarium.

This is going to work out rather well!

Also, that magnificent tail in the above photo is Fenrir, sitting on the light fixture. She did not approve of my activities! :-D

For now, it looks like I’ll need to add more water to the peat, so I will probably leave it to continue soaking overnight, and plant the shallots tomorrow.

What a fun and cheerful thing to do, to keep us thinking of summer on a cold, cold day! :-)

The Re-Farmer

Wasn’t it supposed to get warmer today??

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Yesterday, we never reached the predicted high of the day, though we did come close. Today, it looks to be much the same.

So much for starting to warm up!

It was -33C, with a wind chill of -39C (-27F and -38F) when I headed out. That didn’t stop the cats from being out and about! Even before I headed out, I saw Rolando Moon in a tree branch outside my window. It was good to see her today. She hasn’t been around for a while, so I was a bit concerned. When she joined me and the other cats, her only interest was in the fresh, warm water! She did, however, allow me to pet her briefly. She is such a snob! :-D

Poor Nosy is just miserable! After I finished with the food and water – which he had no interest in – he let me pick him up and snuggle him for a bit, then I put him on the warm(ish) wooden bench in a sun spot before going back inside.

Just as I started writing this (after many failed attempts, due to our internet still flicking out repeatedly), the weather icon on my task bar refreshed to -29C with a wind chill of -36C (-20F and -33F). The high forecast for this afternoon is now a couple of degrees lower than had been forecast yesterday.

Even the long range forecast has been modified overnight. They’re still saying we’ll reach 0C (32F) by the 22nd, but the rise to that temperature is no longer expected to be as quick and smooth. We’ll be chilly for a little bit longer.

This polar vortex just does NOT want to move or dissipate!

While I will probably go out later this afternoon to run the vehicles for a while, I no longer expect to go into town at all. It isn’t a necessity, but was more about running at least my mother’s car for a while.

I am glad we will be getting my husband’s prescriptions delivered, though it will be on Tuesday instead of tomorrow, because of the holiday (February’s statutory has different names in different provinces). My husband is trying to stretch his painkillers out to last until it comes in. The refills will have his updated and changed prescriptions. Hopefully, that will help him manage the pain better. He’s really struggling right now, and the cold – even though he is set up in the warmest room of the house – is making it much harder to cope. :-(

On the plus side – and I’ll take any positives I can get right now – I have an announcement to make.

Drumroll, please!

We have onion sprouts!

Little bitty sprrrroooooooots!!

I found 2, yesterday afternoon, and a third one showed up by evening. They are so tiny, I didn’t even try to take a photo. They are all in the peat pellets, not the K-cups, which we have had to spray daily, because they’re drying out on the tops. I will be working on the shallots today, starting by saturating the peat completely, before I put it into the starter trays. Which will be the cardboard trays from flats of eggs. I just have to make sure they are on something that will allow me to lift them later on, when the cardboard will be soft and damp. Depending on how long it takes the peat to get saturated, the actual planting of seeds might not happen until tomorrow.

Meanwhile.

We have sprrrrrooooooootttsss!!!

Yes. I am a silly child at times! :-D

So that’s a bit of cheer on another bitterly cold day.

Happy Valentine’s Day. :-/

The Re-Farmer

Frosted!

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Thanks to my dear brother and his wife, I had plenty of kibble to feed the kitties this morning. I would have emptied the bin this morning, otherwise.

Ginger was out and about, and covered in frost!

While the tips of their fur makes them look chilled, when I pet them or pick them up (at least the ones that allow me to!) feel surprisingly warm. Their winter undercoats are doing the job of keeping them somewhat insulated.

Once again, the heated water bowl was almost completely frozen over! I made sure all the water bowls were filled with warm water, before doing the kibble. Their food bowls are full, but even dry kibble must get pretty hard in these temperatures, as they definitely prefer the new kibble, which would be slightly less frozen! :-D The thermometer in the sun room has shown it to be typically half the outside temperature or warmer, so when we are in the -30’s C outside, it’s at about -15C. (-22F and 5F). So everything in there is definitely frozen, but the cats seem to find it better.

While filling the water bowls, I made sure to look into the cat house.

There had been at least three cat in there, but only Nostrildamus is socialized enough to not run off when I come near. I got the picture of him in mid meow! :-D

In the upper left of the photo, you can see the timer the heat bulb is plugged into. It had been propped against some screws in the joist, so that the light sensor faced the window, but it keeps falling half off one of them. I have not tried to put it back, since it just means it will turn on earlier than if it was facing the window, and warm things up. The cats do love sitting in the sun of that one window! What I’d love to do before next winter is find a way to make another shelter for them that takes advantage of passive solar heat. I was thinking of making a smaller version of the kibble house to hold the water bowls. I’m sure we have some old windows in the barn that can be used as a roof and maybe even a back wall.

As I was coming back from putting feed out for the deer and birds, I found Creamsicle Jr had shown up in the kibble house. I only got a brief look at his injured eye, and while the fur is still dirty around it, the eye itself is looking almost normal again.

I did not run the van or my mother’s car this morning, as the cold was already getting to me. I wasn’t up to having to open up both sets of garage doors so I could run the vehicles, in a wind chill of -46C/-51F I’ll bundle up again and head out after I finish this.

Check out our long range forecast!

Look at that!!! Not only are we supposed to consistently keep warming up over the next while, but by the 22nd and 23rd, we’re supposed to be around 0C!! (32F) Things will actually be melting!

Assuming the weather actually cooperates, and this polar vortex doesn’t decide to just hang out even longer. It has messed up the forecasts a few times, now.

I’ve been thinking warm thoughts in response. Which has meant looking at the websites of seed companies. I’ve gone so far as to start an account with Heritage Harvest Seed, and have been filling my Favourites list! We don’t need more seeds, and much of what I’ve added are sold out, anyhow. It’s still fun to look. I love the little write ups that come with each item. Half the time, the thing that convinces me to add something to my Favourites is the words “extremely rare!!” I love the idea of keeping rare varieties going. We’ll have the space to do it, as we clean up and prepare more of the property and eventually expand into the outer yard. Even if we don’t necessarily grow things for our own use, they won’t go to waste, and we’ll have the privilege of space to grow them for their seeds. With this company, I can be sure that they will grow in our climate, too, since they are even further North than we are, though we’re in the same zone. From other cold climate gardeners I’ve been hearing from, the company has an excellent reputation.

I will just have to resist the temptation of ordering more seeds when we already have so many, and more on the way!

Our internet connection repeatedly cutting out should make that easier. Most of the time, it means pages don’t load well, or don’t load completely. Oddly, the most common thing that will not load, no matter how many times I try reloading a page, is the “like” button. !!

Now it’s time to see if I’ll be able to publish this post now, or have to try again later! :-D

The Re-Farmer

Our 2021 Garden: First seeds started! Also, I couldn’t resist. Again.

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After having to get creative to prepare our first tray of seed starts, we left the tray overnight to give the peat in the K-cups more time to absorb the water.

I didn’t check it until late morning, and the peat was still dry in the middle! The water was basically staying on top. It was better than before, though, so I went ahead and planted our first seeds of the year!

I used a skewer to make holes for the seeds and sprayed more water into the holes in the K-cups (the peat pellets were fully saturated). Then I poured some of the seeds into a small dish and used the dampened, flat end of the skewer to pick up seeds and transfer them into the pots and lightly cover them. Using the skewer works really well! I ended up using only about half the seeds in the package to fill the tray, and that’s with 2 or 3 seeds each! Then I sprayed the tops with more water – especially the K-cups – before getting a daughter to help me transfer it into the big aquarium.

I am not going to use the tray’s dome to cover them, as the high humidity can promote mold growth. Instead, we will be checking them every day, and probably spraying them daily. The tray is designed to water from below, to encourage the roots to grow downward, so we won’t keep up the spraying for too long. It’s mostly the dry peat in the K-cups that concerns me. I will also be leaving the light on all the time until the sprouts are emerged for a few days, then reduce it to about 16 hours a day. Hopefully, we will soon have a tray of shallots in here, too! Before filling any pots (if I can’t get more pellets), I’ll have to make sure to use a container to saturate the peat in, first, then fill the pots.

Meanwhile…

I’m a suck.

I’ve mentioned that a few times, usually in the context of cats, but it turns out I’m a gardening suck, too.

Last night, the girls and I were pouring over a satellite image of the property. We marked out the current garden beds, and we have been using it to figure out where we are going to plant various things.

One thing is for sure. If we aren’t able to get a load of soil this spring, we’re lining ourselves up for some back breaking labour, and probably a lot of failed growth. Last year, we basically dug small holes for everything we planted, filled the holes with a soil mix, then planted or transplanted into these in-ground “pots” we created. That’s fine for the small garden we had last year, but not so much for this year! The soil is so hard and filled with rocks, it’s difficult to use a spade or hoe. Even sticking wire flags into the ground left me with several bent flags from hitting rocks. We have so few tools here, we don’t want to break what’s left of what we’ve found! My mother still goes on about how we could get one of the tillers fixed and using it, but I’m pretty sure we’d just break a tiller, trying to use it! I couldn’t even use the soil auger drill attachment when we planted all those bulbs in the maple grove last fall. The original plan had been to slowly build up areas and increase our garden size over several years, but… well, then the world went crazy.

We have so many more things we’re planning to grow compared to last year, it’s going to be a huge job. Especially the area where we want to plant the tallest things – 3 of our corn varieties, and the giant sunflowers. We’re wanting to start going into an area that has never been part of the garden before, and has only had grass on it. Two of the reason we grew giant sunflowers last year was for a privacy screen and wind break. We’re still keeping that in mind for this year. Between tall plants, using trellises, and whatever we come up with to keep the deer out, we should be able to make a pretty decent privacy screen. We may be in the boonies, but the main road goes right by the garden. Aside from vehicles slowing down to watch the deer at the feeding station, through the lilac hedge, we’ve got our vandal and his creeping about to contend with. :-/

As we talked about what seeds we have now, and what will be shipped in time for spring planting, we ended up talking about other things we’d like to plant, and I showed the girls some things I’d found on the Baker Creek website. We have a lot of things that are purple (corn, potatoes, sunflowers, beans, carrots…). We had a blast looking up other purple things, and talked about having a purple themed garden. So, of course, I was adding all sorts of things to my wish list.

I really ought to know better. :-D

Yeah, you guessed it.

I made another order this morning!

Thankfully, seeds are still cheap.

When I placed the order, there was a highlighted note telling people that, because there are so many more orders this year, things are taking longer to process. For us in Canada, that means it could take up to 3 months for our seeds to arrive. That would be too late for anything that would require starting indoors, but that’s okay. I’d rather order them now, while they are still available.

So, this is what we’ve ordered (all links will open in a new tab, so you don’t lose your place. :-) ).

Spoon Tomato: this is the one that I really wanted to show the girls – and then we got sucked into the vortex! We are not big tomato eaters; my older daughter enjoys eating them, and we have ordered a mix of cherry and grape tomatoes for her, but when I saw these “micro mini” tomatoes, I just had to show them to her. While they are incredibly small (possibly the world’s tiniest tomato), they’re supposed to be big on flavour. They’re adorable!

Chinese Pink Celery: this is a new variety for Baker Creek, and one that was already on my wish list. I was thinking for next year, but I went for it. These are supposed to be easier to grow than other types of celery, and seem to be well suited for our climate. Hopefully, we’ll get them early enough to plant them this year.

King Tut Purple Pea: This was another one already on my wish list, and since we’re going with a purple/pink theme, I included them. We only have 1 variety of peas right now, anyhow, and I felt it wasn’t enough. I’d resisted ordering more, since we already have so many other things, but… it’s peas. Can you have too many peas? I don’t think so. I highly recommend checking out the link and reading the story included about them. :-D

Merlot Lettuce: lettuce is one thing I had not included in previous orders for various reasons. We’ve tried growing lettuce before, in our balcony gardens, and never had much luck with them. Plus, they just seem to go bad quickly. But as we were looking at the purples and dark reds, these stood out. Not only do they have an amazing colour (they are well named!), but they are bolt resistance and cold tolerant.

Lunix Lettuce: Every time I see the name, I want to say “Linux” instead of “Lunix”. LOL These have such deep, dark red leaves! Bolt resistant, and apparently great for hydroponics and off season low tunnel growing. We’ve been looking at ways to use poly-tunnels to extend our growing season, so it would be good to test these out.

Lollo Rossa Lettuce: This is a very dramatic looking head lettuce! Also noted for its great flavour. I’ve had no luck growing head lettuce before, but maybe now that we have the spaces that we do, we can make it work.

Dishcloth or Luffa Gourd: this one’s for me! We have so many squash already, the last thing we needed was one more but, like I said, I’m a suck! Chances are, we won’t be able to start them this year, but they seem to be having a surge in popularity, so I figured I should get the seeds now, while I can. Young squash are edible and tasty. Left to fully mature, the gourds are dried, peeled, the seeds shaken out, and the remaining sponge is great for washing with. I don’t think I’d use something that size as a dishcloth, but in the shower, they are great for exfoliating the skin. You’ve probably seen them in stores, along with the back scrubbers and such.

Along with these, we will also be getting some free mystery seeds that Baker Creek always includes with their orders.

This really should be the last of the seeds we order, but I’m pretty sure I said that after our first two orders for this season! :-D

I’m pretty excited about it all!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2021 garden: February seed tray prep

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For our Zone 3 area, quite a lot of things will need to be started indoors. While most things won’t need to be started until April, onion seeds are supposed to be started up to 10 weeks before the last frost date. For us, that means late March.

However, all the experienced Zone 3 gardeners that grow onion from seed have been saying onion seeds MUST be started much earlier. They started theirs in January!

Do I go by the seed packet, or by these gardeners?

I have decided to listen to the gardeners, at least as much as I can.

The problem is we don’t really have supplies, and with the polar vortex we’re under right now, I do not consider it safe to drive. I just don’t trust that our van, or even my mother’s car, can handle it. In these temperatures, breaking down on the road is life threatening.

So, I can only start with what I have.

We have two seed starting trays that fit the Jiffy Pellets. We found a box of Jiffy Pellets while cleaning up the house. Unfortunately, there were enough pellets to fill only half of one tray.

K-cups to the rescue!

We used to have a Keurig, but when it finally died, we found ourselves left with boxes of product that expired. Rather than throw them all out, I emptied the contents into the compost and kept the cups, specifically to use them for starting seeds. :-)

Their bottoms fit in the trays, but the flared tops needed more space, so I put the pellets in alternating spaces, then punched drainage holes in all the K-cups with an awl.

We’ve still got peat from last year, so that was used to fill the cups.

They fit rather well, this way.

I have enough K-cups to fill another half tray, with a few left over, but no more peat pellets to fill the spaces in between.

We’ll figure it out.

The tray went into a shallow storage bin, where I filled the bottom of the tray with water. Then, to keep it safe from cats, I put both the dome and the other tray, upside down, over it, then put more stuff on and around it. The cats really wanted to get at that peat!

Remembering how difficult it was to fully dampen loose peat last year, I added more water to the top, the left it sit for a while. I used that time to cut label markers out of a 500g size plastic container.

We have three different types of seeds; bulb and bunching onions, and shallots. I can only start one variety right now, so I decided on the bulb onions. The shallots will be next, and I figure the bunching onions can wait until we can figure things out and maybe get more supplies.

The tray got checked several times, more water was sprayed onto the top, and I finally ended up leaving it overnight. The above photo was after soaking for several hours, and I’d just sprayed more water to the top.

This morning, I took a skewer and checked the status.

The centres of the K-Cups were still dry!

I ended up using the skewer to make holes in the peat of each cup, then used the stream setting on my spray bottle to direct water directly into each hole.

Before anyone suggests that I should be using a potting mix, or a seed starter mix, there are two reason why I’m using straight peat. One: one of my information sources is a soil scientist living in the same zone was we are, and she recently did a video on exactly this. Since every seed has all the nutrition it needs to support itself until the true leaf stage, sterile peat and water are all they need. I would have preferred coconut coir over peat, but we don’t have any. Two: we don’t have any seed starter mixes, nor the supplies to make our own. Some stores are starting to have them in stock, however many of these places do not accept medical exemptions to mask wearing, so I am essentially banned from them. Of those that don’t discriminate against people with medical mask exemptions, they’re a long drive away and I won’t be going to any of them until this polar vortex passes and it isn’t so dangerous to go out. Even curbside pickup is not an option; I’ve already heard from many people who can’t wear masks and have tried to do curbside pick up, only to be refused service because the staff refused to bring their orders to them, outside, unless they wore a mask. Not even shields are being accepted. As for ordering online, shipping costs rule out that option, as well as the current delays in shipping. They’d never get to us in time to use them, assuming they even find us. Which reminds me. We never did get my husband’s FedEx delivery (for something he ordered online in November). As far as we know, the package is still somewhere in the city. We can’t get it ourselves, and they won’t deliver it to us, even with detailed instructions on how to find us. So… yeah. Ordering online is not an option, either.

So we make do with what we have. It will work out.

At this point, I’m just hoping to be able to get the one variety of seeds in today!

The Re-Farmer