Garden 2014: The Beginning

Garden Team StroBickErson is back with renewed commitment and hope for Garden 3.0. Garden 2.0 (last summer) was a bust. The kids and I went out early and threw some tomatoes and potatoes into the plot, then never revisited. Ev ended up putting in sweet corn (and we enjoyed the fruits of his labors!) and we forgot the rest.

This year we're back! We went out a few weeks ago, in the cold and put in early crops: peas, onions, lettuces and potatoes. On Saturday we went out, got a second tilling done and planted carrots, more onions (red this time!), a handful of tomatoes and peppers, one tomatillo, a few cantaloupe starts that Cam picked out and garlic! According to the good folks at Earl May, the garlic is not that hard to grow, so we thought we'd give it a try.

The most important work to get done was the fencing. We put in big fencing in the middle of the garden to support the peas. The kids discovered that pressing their bellies against the fencing created the perfect "six-pack" - no crunches required.  They also discovered the supply of Mr. Freezies in the garage freezer was abundant and needed thinning.

In addition to the internal fencing, we put up a 3-foot high perimeter fence designed to keep out our smaller furry friends: namely the dogs, raccoons and rabbits. For our bigger furry friends (the deer, who find the lettuces so delicious) we'll eventually set up the electric fence. Jamey and JP got out the sprinkling system and pretended to set it up, then prayed for rain.

Coming up next: more tomatoes and peppers. We'll see if our milk-jug experiment pays off! We also need to put in cucumbers and pumpkins. Ev is going to plant some sweet corn. Larisa and I have a poor track record with sweet corn (zero kernels for human consumption) so we're leaving that to the garden master.

Slippy Slides & Spinach

On Memorial Day we planted what I think will be our last plantings (until fall plantings). Here's the tally of things we've planted:

• several varieties of lettuces - we've been enjoying them for close to two weeks!
• spinach: came in spotty, but it seems we're getting a decent harvest
• peas: dismal failure = replaced with more beans
• pole beans
• sweet corn (about 7 inches tall already!)
• cucumbers
• squash
• rainbow chard
• cantalope
• brussel sprouts (had to try them! they're so pretty)
• popcorn (not coming in too well at all)
• tomatoes
• onions (we lost quite a few and had to do a replacement planting)
• carrots (another dismal failure: we did a second planting on Monday with some new advice and hopefully better results)
• peppers
• basil
• red & white striped beets
• sweet potatoes
• regular potatoes: they're HUGE!

It's been so rewarding to eat our lettuce and to share it with our friends & neighbors! I can't wait for the rest of the harvests.

The other addition to the garden scene is the slippy slide. For a mere $40 at Target, this thing is going to provide endless summer entertainment. Will & Willa already had a 'fail or fun' game going on and Cam digs it, too.  To add to the water fun, Ev got out an old water tank. This tank was the original "pool party" for Larisa and her siblings when they were growing up on the farm. Now it's fun for another generation: the Fu-lympics were a featured event in our afternoon gardening session. If only I'd gotten in a few laps to train for the Pig this weekend!

Gardening tip of the day: We are putting crushed egg shells around and in the tomato and pepper plants. Both of these are fast growing plants that strip vital nutrients from the soil. The calcium carbonite in the egg shell is one of the nutrients the plants need.

Waiting for Rainbows

Another beautiful Sunday on the farm. We've been collecting newspaper and grass clippings in an attempt to mulch down our rows and avoid so much weeding. I think we need bigger yards!

In addition to mulching, we did a bit more planting. More carrots and rainbow swiss chard went in tonight. It was so exciting to see itty bitty green leaves popping up through the soil! The beginnings of our delicious salads. Can't wait till these are big enough to cut off and put on our plates!

Will and Willa took over watering duties: rather than fill buckets and carry them to the far side of the plot, they decided to fill the wheel barrow, wheel it over, and fill the buckets from that. It may have sounded good in theory, but I'm not sure it was so great in practice. They did succeed in getting themselves completely soaked. We're still looking for the best solution to watering: the far side of our plot is too far away from the spout to run a hose. Unfortunately, this is where we planted things that like a lot of water.

We topped off the evening on the porch again. Last weekend was a fishing weekend for Jamey. He came back with lots of fresh walleye, so tonight was fish taco night. Larisa and I fried up the fish, squashed a couple of avocados and opened up a bottle of Riesling. It was also Iowa Valley Food Coop delivery week, so I had some fresh spinach and greens, but this meal would have been SO much better with our own fresh greens and cilantro! Soon!

Let the Growing Begin!

This year, instead of renewing our CSA membership, we're going on our own! Well, not on our own, exactly - just without an expert! We're doing a collective garden with our friends, the Bickels and our new friends the Rogers'. Larisa's parents have two acres just outside of town. They're no longer interested in maintaining their large garden themselves, so we're taking over.

So far - SO FUN!

March 30: it only took us about 30 minutes on a sunny Sunday afternoon to plant three long rows of potatoes. It's a week earlier than suggested, but we just couldn't wait to dig in.

April 6: Jamie, Larisa and I, along with our offspring headed out on the school's early out day to plant salad greens, spinach, peas and onions. We're planting in first-year garden area, so there were some clumps to contend with, but we rocked that dirt!

Unfortunately Jamie and her kids had to leave, but the other Jamey (with a Y) and Cam and J.P. showed up shortly after. Terri prepared us a delicious post-planting dinner: homemade pizza pockets, from-scratch sauce and an awesome salad. Larisa pulled out a bottle of wine and some interesting beers and we sat on the porch and feasted. It was such a beautiful evening - good food, good friends, good conversation, (mostly) good kids - I'm looking forward to more of these (and eventually feasting on our own bounty!).