Knee High by The 4th of July

Our popping corn is plugging right along, and if the forecast is correct the next stretch of sun will really help things along!

Happy 4th!

The Definition of an Orchard

The definition of an orchard as spelled out by wikipedia is "an intentional planting of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production." My guess is that my front yard won't look the way it does for many more years. I am slowly replacing ornamental's with plants that give a little bit back. Last fall I planted a 4-way cherry, a 4-way pear and a Gravenstein apple. In years past I put in blueberries, raspberries, rhubarb and strawberries. Everything is growing and looking very healthy (except maybe save for the strawberries, can't figure out why they only want to make pea-sized berries). I wasn't sure I would get anything this season from my fruit trees what with it being their first year in my yard and the flip-floppy weather we're so famous for in the lovely Seattle area. Here is a little peek at my orchard.

The apples are right now about the size of a 'shooter marble' and my mouth just waters when I think of the pie and homemade sauce in my future!

This is on the Bartlett branch, disappointingly no D'Anjou this year (which is kinda the reason I got the tree in the first place)

I have exactly 3 cherries growing this year; have to put up the bird netting soon I would die if birds ate them!

Loads of raspberries comin'; these are the epitome of summer fruit in my mind, nothing better.

Blueberries makin' their way too!

Here are my funny little strawberries, the smallest things I have ever seen (but darn tasty when ripe)! Anyone know what's happening here? I acquired them from a neighbor and his berries were 'normal' - they're Alpine which are a more petite berry, but come on; I'd need 100 of these things to call it a snack!

My Garden Defines Me

So this is the 3rd/4th year I have worked/expanded our family vegetable garden. I started with a pretty foundational love of plants and working in the dirt and have now turned over most of my southern facing side yard to food production. In past years I've grown some family standards and then also thrown a few "hmmmm...that would be interesting" cultivars in the mix. This year I decided to stick with only things I know my family will eat (maybe with a little coaxing). I started everything from seed (mostly using Territorial Seed Company mail order) except the tomatoes came as 3" starts. And cartwheeling greenhouse aside, this is looking like my best year ever (knock on wood). A huge thanks goes out to my dad for opening up the sky for me, with the branches gone my yard and food budget got a great face lift.

This years garden list is as follows:
Dutch Fingerling, Yukon Gold, Red and White Potatoes
Sunflowers (for seeds)
Red and Golden Raspberries
Green, Burgundy, and Yellow Bush Beans
Garlic
Storage Onions
Broccoli
Brussel Sprouts
2 Varieties of Kale
Spinach
Romaine
Salad Mix
Dual Purpose (baking and carving) Pumpkins
Sugar Snap Peas
Tomato's 8 Varieties
Zucchini
Cucumber
Purple Bell Pepper
Purple and Orange Carrots
Easter Egg Radishes
Flat and Curly Leaf Parsley
Popping Corn
Some random squash from seeds I saved from last year.

Photos of above mentioned deliciousness:

Realizing that this photo doesn't really do the space justice this is a  5x17 foot bed

4.5x15' bed

9x17' with 2 foot walkway divider

To put it all in perspective, I have a close-as-I can-get-aerial-shot of the garden. Because this is taken from the furthest perch on my deck the bed against the house is not pictured nor the popping corn rows just behind the tomatoes and wooden raised bed.

As for my goals:

1. I really want to continue to replace and repurpose my existing ornamental beds with ones for food. I am visualizing a blueberry hedge just in front of the apple and pear trees in the front and ripping up more lawn for over-wintering raised beds.
2. I want to save the seeds of things that we loved (just one tomato offers so many seeds!)
3. I want to continue my investigations in succession planting to have a constant harvest.
4. I want to do a cover crop for the first time.
5. I really want to pay attention to what grows well on my plot and what we will eat. I have wild dreams of wheat and quinoa in years to come too. We'll see.

Garden Update

Last night I was able to snip off enough baby spinach for the kids and I to enjoy a side salad with our pasta. Then this morning I was really happy to find little first fruits on my cherry and pear trees!

Garden Plant Markers

I recieved a few beautiful boquets this Mother's Day and those flowers make our home so cheery, I felt very loved. But one boquet in particuflar has been immediately useful outside! These sweet home made garden markers from my friend Jenn went strait out to the garden and have spruced things out there! Thank You, Dear Friend!

(whew)

Thank you to all of those that have shown your support in my near catastrophic day Monday. After watching those seedlings under the cloche for the last few days I do believe everything will be fine. I lost a few, yes, but enough survived to have a really nice and plentiful garden. Jen came to help sort out the starts yesterday and to ease my mind; I will be able to eat from my garden earlier than I had feared on Monday.  You know you're kindred spirits when your friend comes to walk along side you and treat your seedlings with such loving care it makes you cry. My zucchini's did make it, and I'm now busily planting them out in my covered raised bed!

Also in other bandwidow garden news I was given another wonderful gift 2 weekends ago! My dad came over once again and skirted 2 more huge firs to give way for more sun, it's made a huge difference already. Thanks dad, you're the best!

before

after

S-P-R-I-N-G

Fun with acrostic's

Can you tell we have gardening on the brain?

Garden Tootsies

The sunshine kept me out in the garden all afternoon, N loved this little patch of sun heated earth right next to my garlic and would slid down the tarp covered mound and do a little jig before doing it again and again.

The Bee's Knees

Gravenstein Apple

4-Way Cherry

4-Way Pear

I like the idea of keeping honeybees, but I'm not ready for the work. Some year I'll take a class, invest in a swarm, give that golden sweetness away to friends and family, blah, blah, blah. But for now I'm trying out Mason bees. They're docile, solitary, and really hard workers. I threw in a small orchard last fall and my trees are starting to bud; it's crazy exciting! I have high expectations for these little saplings and my duty is to help them and by extension me out in every way possible way; water, weed, feed...and now pollinate!

box-o-bees

La Casa

I purchased a small starter house, tubes and matchbox sized cardboard box with 10 cocoons inside (that are now patiently waiting in the back of the cheese drawer in my fridge). Apparently these things multiply like rabbits, and maybe I have a few hibernating out round the yard already, but I wanted to start out with a few mating couples now. This bee crisis seems to grow while the EPA looks the other way, my favorite pastime threatened, and the good food on my childrens' plate in jeopardy, I'd like to say I'm doing my part.

Crown Bee is a local information source check them out. Help out your garden and our food supplies!

Now, if only the weather around here would stop the massive rain showers and warm up a bit, we'd bee in business.

The Beauty of A Crocus

These first brave blooms of Spring are a promise of more color and warmth to come. They push through the frozen earth and I breathe a sigh of relief.

Snow Topped Cabbages

We got over 1/2 a foot of snow during the night, and it never stopped coming down all day. The only thing left visible in my garden were 2 lonely purple cabbages, the chickens have been to 'chicken' to even step one claw outside, and the only thing moving in my backyard at 9am were these 2 clowns.

What May or May Not Have Happened

 

 I got a call on Friday morning saying E and N had been selected from a drawing (which, ahem, may or may not have been so random) of raffle tickets (which, ahem, we may or may not have padded the purchase of) to pick out a pumpkin over at our Rubberneck Farms. What I do know is, that this afternoon we went for a walk so the children could get their beautiful pumpkins. And it was a relatively strenuous walk back home for me with 2 pumpkins and N in the jogger, Molly on leash and E gliding along (not so gracefully) in her new roller skates. Thank you Mike & Melissa!

Garlic in the Ground, Tree's in the Trailer

Stopped by my neighborhood nursery and found a few things that got me out in the yard for most of the day. Inchelium Red Garlic, a Gravenstein Apple tree and a 4-way Combination Pear (Highland, Red Bartlett, Conference, Bartlett, Anjou). I love replacing useless trees with food trees; we took out a few ornamental's that had either died or were driving me nuts and quickly divided up the heads of garlic and planted for some good eating next year!

Trades

Doesn't the world just seem perfect when you can give part of yourself and receive back an equal part from another? This last year we've become friendly with a really neat couple just down the road from us.

Last winter I watched as a sprawling grassy field was converted into a glorious garden! The couple, Mike and Melissa bought the property when it went up for sale last fall and did what I always envisioned for that space. I was always so hopeful that someone would convert the pristine sunny exposed property and use it for its potential.  It happens to be on our every-day driving route and each time we passed there was something new, something exciting! We'd slow each day while passing and exclaim about the covered rows, or drip lines. And apparently we weren't the only ones; so became Rubberneck Farms.

One day I stopped and introduced myself (Which as many of you know is not typical behavior on my part. I am pretty firmly planted in my comfort zone and reaching out is difficult for me). I let them know we were eager fellow homesteaders up the road with a flock of chickens and a small but hopeful garden. After some sincere conversation it was arranged that for 1 dozen eggs we would take home some of the most flavorful produce you could ever find. Some weeks it's a bag of purple, green and yellow beans, a few zucchini and pound of salad greens. Other days we get to take home a bunch of carrots and tomato's. And I will say that my family eats it with abandon.

This is what drives me to become more self sufficient, this is what I believe it's all about and the thing I earnestly and purposely expose my children to, so that it goes on. We must come back to a place of knowing our neighbors and feeding one another. Not just with food, but with information and empathy. We of course send our texts and e-mails to sync up our trades, but when it comes down to it; when I offer that carton of eggs and they extend their harvest it's putting us out there. We have conversations about our lives, about how our passions have gotten us here. It's what changes my mind about the direction of where our world and country are going, it's what makes my cold and skeptical heart warm a bit; I have evidence: People can be good and can take care of one another.

Backstory

So guys, I'm beat. This homeschooling Public School Alternative Learning Experience Program thing is really rewarding, but man, it's so much work! I've been uncharacteristically excited about the beginning of a new year with E, but with the recent State Legislation changes to our program I feel like I've learned and done more work that E ever will this year, and we haven't even started classes yet! Our first real day will be this Monday and we've got a lot of great stuff lined up and some really exciting changes too. For starters, the Hall family and ours have formed a co-op! I'll be handling Visual Art Appreciation and World Geography over here, and my good friend Jen will be working with the gals on Ocean Studies, and Life Skills and we'll trade World History back and forth each month. E and Kaela are such good friends and Jen and I get along famously.

E will also be logging a few hours at our Homeschool Resource Center each week with: Pottery, Spanish, Problem Solving (math), Plants and Earth, Exploring Cultures Through Literature, and her YMCA gym & swim! Whew! Add all that to the basics I'll also be covering with her individually: Reading, Writing and Arithmetic and we've got ourselves one heck of a schedule. Not to mention the 2 classes I singed N up for this Fall...so all of this to say, I may be a bit absent for a while...until I can catch my breath. D's out on the road again, we're planning for E's 7th (can you believe it) birthday, and the garden is just now starting to slow down. I even had an anniversary a few days back, and couldn't stop to give a little shout out about our 12 years! Thanks for all the e-mail's and calls; "we are here, we are here, WE ARE HERE!" (Horton hears a Who)

I'll be back soon, can't stay away too long!

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Here is a little something to chew on...Happy Anniversary D.

2003

8/14/2011 *and apparently I'm a terrible speller and forget to use the built-in spell-check...bear with me everyone...

Taxi!

Really excited about a new tomato variety I tried this year, big bright & yellow like it's name sake.

Less Tree = More Sun

Remember a few short monthes ago when I posted this? Well my garden is even happier today. My dad came over again armed with a 50 foot lift and a chainsaw on a pole.

Hello sun.

Thank you Dad.

Anyone need free firewood?

Ready, Set, Raspberry!

You would be hard pressed to find a fruit that I love more than a fresh raspberry.  And now I'm growing my own!

93 Days in Jail for Planting a Vegetable Garden

Can you belive a 3 month jail sentence is a posibility for growing your own food in your front yard in Michigan?  Read the article.

Green Egg & Chicken Shoes

You guys, I finally got a beautiful bluish-greenish egg this morning from Ivy, one of my new Aracauna's!  And it was in the egg box, right next to Marigold's big brown beautiful egg (not playing favorites)! How these relatively dim birds figure out where I want them to deposit their precious egg is beyond me. It is so perfect; and the only real reason I got new chicks this year!

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... and it was a double-yolker to boot! Don't you love how the shell is seafoamy green, even on the inside?  So happy!

Also finally invested in some proper coop shoes. I've been ruining my clogs and flip-flops out there and needed some designated 'chicken shoes.'