I seeded some carrots and spinach along the center of my row. The peas have been giving us a sparse harvest, and the beans are barely surviving, let alone growing. On the other hand, we’re harvesting plenty of chard and kale.
Our garden continues to languish while we see lots of things growing around us.
We did a red cabbage pH test yesterday, and I think we found a major problem.
From right to left, the first four are the rows of our garden from south to north. All rows are too alkaline, especially #2 and #3. Next is soil from north of the barn, where we plan to plant blueberries, cranberries, and raspberries next year. It’s also too alkaline, especially for blueberries. Next is the only good news in this test: our well water is pH neutral! After that is tap water, which is alkaline. Then distilled water, our pH neutral control.
We also bought an electronic soil pH tester yesterday. I can’t get any reliable results out of it.
We immediately went to the at store, bought 50 pounds of granular elemental sulfur, and spread about 10 pounds on the garden rows (including a little on rows 5 and 6). We’ll spread the rest in the future berry patch area later this summer.
Fortuitously, it rained last night and absolutely poured today, so that will help get the sulfur into the soil… but it will still take months for bacteria to concert it to sulfuric acid and lower the pH of the soil. In the meantime, Heather is experimenting with a watered down vinegar solution to see if it helps in the short term.
My replanting of beans is sprouting.
First pea harvest of 2020.
Slugs decimated my beans, so I replanted most of the row today. I also planted a few additional corn seeds to replace ones that got eaten by slugs.
Heather brought home another rabbit today, so we have one buck and two does. This one might be pregnant.
We planted the rest of the garden today:
- Row 1: transplanted two tomato plants
- Row 2: seeded bush beans
- Row 3: transplanted 2 tomato plants
- Row 4: seeded corn, transplanted delicata squash, two watermelon plants, and pickling cucumbers
Grant transplanted a bunch of chives along the north wall of the carport.
Trying to keep up on what Heather has been planting…
The carrots she planted on April 11 didn’t sprout. She replanted today.
Half of the beans that she planted on April 17 didn’t sprout. She replanted today.
She transplanted a gypsy pepper plant today.
Miniature slugs have been eating several of our garden plants the past couple weeks. We have been picking them off and they seem to be diminishing, but not before doing a fair bit of damage to my peas.
Heather’s next adventure: raising rabbits for meat. She picked up two New Zealand rabbits today. They’re about two months old. They can start breeding in June or July.
Today was a big day.
The Case tractor was down for a couple months to fix the clutch. The clutch fork partially broke and no longer worked. I scoured eBay and found a replacement. I also scoured eBay to find replacement oil seals for the hydraulic pump. When we tried to put the tractor back together, we didn’t get the hydraulic shaft splines lines up and warped the clutch pressure plate. After two failed attempted to buy a replacement, I finally got one on the third try for $270. This time, we took the access cover off the side of the torque tube and put things back together very carefully, checking frequently as we went, and it worked. Today, we finished putting all the other pieces back on, and we started it up and drive it around. I considered replacing the clutch disc while we had the tractor split, but a replacement is almost as expensive as the pressure plate, so I didn’t.
Next, we need to replace one of the rear wheel rims, which has rusted out. Our neighbor Jon might be able to find one. We also need to fix leaks in the front hydraulic pump and left brake assembly.
Also today, the bees came. The boys worked hard the past few weeks to assemble the beehive, and today we got the nuc. The nuc cost $120, and we’ve spent another couple hundred on the hive and equipment. We probably won’t be able to harvest any honey the first year.
Heather pressure cooked 50 pounds of chicken and 7 pounds of beef this week. She also dehydrated about a quart of celery, carrots, mushrooms, and onions.
We are considering getting rabbits to breed for meat.
Heather seeded pole beans.
Darla the duck died. Heather propped up a gate panel against the chicken area this morning, and it fell and crushed the duck. Guess we won’t have ducklings soon.
A couple days ago we got a male duck on loan from our neighbors. We might have ducklings sometime.
Heather seeded beets and carrots today.
The peas we seeded on March 25 are starting to sprout.
The kale and chard are a bit yellowish but surviving. I think nitrogen availability must be lower when the soil is cold, perhaps due to decreased microbial activity.
The basil got killed by the cold nights, but most of the other herbs are doing well, especially both types of parsley.
The plum tree is done blossoming, the pear tree is in full blossom, and the young fruit trees are starting to grow again.
I transplanted kale and chard, and I direct-seeded Oregon sugar pod peas, which were really productive last year. This time, I only seeded one row, leaving more room for planting beans later.
Heather transplanted rosemary, parsley (curly and flat), sweet oregano, and Italian basil (with cloches covering the oregano to promote growth and basil to protect from frost).
I noticed chives growing next to the well.
Isaac and Heather seeded the pasture with 25 pounds of all-animal pasture blend. It is supposed to rain off-and-on for the next week, so that should help with germination.
Heather sold the three Gotland-Shetland sheep for $300. It’s time to focus on revitalizing the pasture now.
The chickens have been quarantined in a small dog kennel attached to the coop. There was no other effective way to keep them in the pasture, and we’re about to plant the garden, so they cannot be allowed to escape again.
A few weeks ago, Jon told us about a U-Haul location that was surplussing moving pods for $5, so we picked one up and turned it into a chicken coop. Jon helped us move to the pasture with his forklift. We’ve already been getting way more eggs from the chickens and duck. Today we finished the roof using salvaged sheet metal that Jon found.
We’re still failing at keeping the chickens in the pasture. We have to solve that problem before we plant the garden.
All of a sudden we’re getting duck eggs. We found seven of them yesterday in the sheep shelter. Apparently they sell for $12 a dozen. They’re huge and have huge yolks.
I pruned the grapevines, plum tree, and pear tree. I think the grapevines are starting to look more like they should.
I pruned the pear tree lightly, after a heavy pruning last year that resulted in not much fruit.
I pruned the plum tree heavily this year, trying to open the canopy so lower branches will grow and bringing down the overall height of the tree. We’ll see what happens this year, but last year we had more plums than we could handle.
Today was also shearing day for the three wool sheep. We had them fast from food and water for about 18 hours before shearing. The shearer said it might be better for these sheep to be sheared twice a year to avoid felting. He also said their hooves are looking good and dont need trimming, and they’re not too fat or skinny, but to not reduce their feed. Shearing cost $100 for the three sheep. The sheep look kinda funny now… and not nearly so big and imposing.
The John Deere riding mower died last fall. It would barely idle, nothing more. We replaced the carburetor, but it didn’t help. It turns out the intake valve wasn’t opening enough. So I took apart the crankcase and checked things out. The camshaft lobe that drives the intake valve was worn down to nearly nothing. The hydraulic lifter was also stuck. So I ordered a new camshaft and lifters for $40. Today I put everything back together, and it runs great!
In the meantime, our neighbor Jon found a two-cylinder Craftsman mower for us. It ran but not well. I ordered a tune-up kit and Isaac helped replace the carburetor, filters (air, fuel, oil), and oil. It’s up and running now as well.
So now we have two riding mowers, a garden tractor, a tow-behind field mower, and of course, the Case tractor. The clutch has gone out on the Case, so we’re clearing space in the barn to bring it in, split it, and fix it.