garden – Page 5 – Chehalem Prairie Farm

November 16, 2019November 16, 2019 by Josh

A few months ago, we got to use a hydraulic log splitter to split a bunch of wood we had gotten from arborists. Today, we stacked it along the west side of the barn, probably about 1.5 cords. We don’t have a woodstove, though.

We also reapplied wood chips around the young fruit trees after adding some landscaping fabric.

The sheep have mowed the entire pasture down to stubble, due to our not implementing paddocks. Heather has installed some temporary fencing allowing them to graze the area north of the barn.

We haven’t gotten any chicken eggs for months. But they don’t have a proper chicken coop in which to lay eggs, nor are we giving them any feed beyond table scraps and what they find in the pasture.

Something happened to the carburetor on the John Deere mower and it will barely idle at full throttle. I fiddled with it a bit, then ordered a new carburetor. At about $15 to buy new, they’re hardly worth trying to troubleshoot.

The Case tractor has a rear left tire that loses air over the course of about a week. I need to see if I can remove the wheel so I can take it to a tire store for repair. Otherwise, it’s probably about $100 for a field service call.

We’re still getting some kale from the garden, but the chickens have been escaping the pasture now that we extended it for the sheep, so the kale isn’t going to last much longer.

October 28, 2019October 28, 2019 by Josh

Our squash harvest… not bad for being an afterthought planting.

Info I found said to leave squash on the vine as long as possible, but harvest before heavy frost.

October 10, 2019October 10, 2019 by Josh

We had our first significant frost last night. Frost was in the forecast about a week ago, so we harvested our basil, but it was a light frost.

August 17, 2019August 17, 2019 by Josh

We left the garden in the care of Hannah for a week and came back to find destruction. My newly planted areas are completely dug up with huge holes, and the largest chard plant has been almost completely eaten. I’m guessing it’s the work of our non-egg-producing chickens. No yellow squash were picked all week, so I just had to pick five humungous ones that may be of no use to us.

August 7, 2019August 7, 2019 by Josh

Got my first Mortgage Lifter tomato today.

August 3, 2019August 3, 2019 by Josh

I harvested the last of my peas, and I’m going to remove them from the pods and dry them. I pulled out the plants, too. In their place, I planted (from west to east) rainbow mix carrots, danvers half-long carrots (north), chantenay carrots (south), some marigolds by the tomato plant, bloomsdale spinach (north), cylindra beet (south), calabrese broccoli (north), and chioggia beet (south). I also tried running some twine around my tomato plant on the east end to get some of the tomatoes off the ground. In doing so, we accidentally harvested some green tomatoes.

July 17, 2019July 20, 2019 by Josh

I got my first handful of beans a few days ago. We haven’t been able to keep up with the pea harvest of a pound every few days, so I’ll plant half as many next year. My kale and chard are very healthy and producing well. My Mortgage Lifter tomato finally has some blossoms that have become fruits. Overall, my garden row hasn’t needed much watering.

June 17, 2019June 17, 2019 by Josh

Four days since last picking, and I got 20 oz of peas this time.

June 11, 2019June 17, 2019 by Josh

This my first pea harvest of more than just a few peas that I eat while in the garden. About 4 oz. My pea plants have been growing like crazy. I also got another 4 oz of kale.

Our neighbors’ fields were cut today.

May 21, 2019May 21, 2019 by Josh

The peas that I direct seeded have taken off in the past week. They’re looking great. The beans have been up for a couple weeks. I planted 14 more beans today.

The tomatoes and squash plants have been doing poorly.

May 4, 2019November 18, 2020 by Josh

The NHS plant sale is a dangerous place of you’re wanting to have the value of your harvest exceed the cost of planting. We spent $31. I transplanted dwarf blue curled Scotch kale, Italian silver rib Swiss chard, and Mortgage Lifter tomato in my garden row (all heirloom), plus Delicata squash, yellow summer squash, and spaghetti squash in the row that we planned to leave fallow this year. Grant transplanted a black Krim tomato in that row, too.

Heather transplanted herbs out into the pasture along the fence.

I ran a 1/4-inch soaker hose on my row. It’s not very good. All the water leaks out within the first 15 feet–especially the first 5 feet. I might try a 1/2-inch soaker hose.

April 28, 2019April 30, 2019 by Josh

Frost took out the tomatoes the night after we planted them, and the chickens tore up about a quarter of my garden row.

April 27, 2019April 27, 2019 by Josh

The peas that I direct-seeded have caught up with the transplanted ones, and they’re healthier. Today I planted an Early Girl tomato plant that I got at the Ag Fest, and 10 blue lake bush beans. The soil on my garden row dries out quickly and can absorb a lot of water.

Heather planted a few Oregon sugar pod peas on her row and transplanted two tomato plants of unknown variety from the Ag Fest.

In the back corner of the property, one of our douglas fir trees got mowed down. It was the one that wasn’t doing well anyway. We planted another one in its place that we got at the Ag Fest. We also planted two lodge pine trees that we got at the Ag Fest, and we mulched the trees with wood chips.

April 24, 2019April 24, 2019 by Josh

The Oregon Sugar Pod peas that I direct-seeded on April 14 have sprouted (in the middle of the row in the picture).

April 18, 2019April 18, 2019 by Josh

I transplanted some plants that Heather started. From the end in: kale (dwarf blue curled), chard (mixed colors Swiss), spinach (Bloomsdale), lettuce (cutting mix), lettuce (unknown–the label faded), and marigolds (petite orange). Some of the starts were waterlogged and others were dry, so we’ll see how they do.

April 12, 2019April 25, 2019 by Josh

We planted about half of my garden row with Little Marvel peas that Heather started, two rows with one-foot spacing, and direct-sowed Oregon Sugar Pod peas every six inches down the center of the row.

March 30, 2019March 30, 2019 by Josh

I turned my garden row a second time with the pitchfork. I decided to remove the chunks of sod that I had turned over the first time I worked on the row. I was afraid the grass would keep growing if I didn’t. By leaving it there for the past month, I think it created a good environment for the microbiome to transfer to the manure and wood chips that I added. I saw a lot of worms, so that’s a good sign.

We also mulched between the rows and over garden area that will remain fallow this year but be cultivated into two more rows next year.

March 23, 2019March 28, 2019 by Heather

The radishes that I sowed in the ground last week just sprouted today!

March 16, 2019November 18, 2020 by Heather

Today I planted outside! Josh is stuck inside doing taxes, so I feel kind of guilty. I know he’d rather be outside with me. If he has time today after taxes, I’ll go outside and help with his projects.

I got the radish seeds in the ground. I also planted the pea seedlings that I started indoors back on February 22, 2019.

For the radishes, I took a 2×2 square of ground, turned it over a few times, mixed in some wood chips, scattered the seeds, and lightly tilled them under.

The pea seedlings went into the hugelkultur bed on the south side.

March 10, 2019March 14, 2019 by Heather

Our seedlings are doing well. Each day, for the past two weeks, I’ve put them out on the front porch for some southeast sunshine. Then I bring them in at night.

We’ve had an unusually cold February (third coldest on record), so we’re anxious for March to warm up the soil so we can plant our cool weather crops.