Basement Progress

Days 3-4: No work over the weekend.

Day 5: Shortening the legs on the oil tank then putting it up on blocks (so when the tank gets replaced someday, the legs aren't stuck in the foundation cement), building forms for the pourings, and unblocking one of the windows so they can get the cement into the basement.

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I'd stopped trimming the tree next to the south side of the house because of a robin nest. Today a fledgling was sitting on the ground. Hopefully it figures out how to get back up there; probably just needs to rest those brandy new wings a bit first.

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Moved the tomatoes into pots after I finally had time to check the companion planting chart and see that brassicas and tomatoes should not be together. Happily leafy greens seem to be compatible with pretty much everything, so kale, swiss chard, romaine, and red leaf lettuce are co-existing in two beds, along with a few onions, basil and marigolds. The chard and the basil are new additions today, the rest was in last week.

Also planted today, Hubbard and Sweet Dumpling winter squashes. They're too close to each other for pure seed harvest, but that's a luxury we don't have this year.

Also put in three clumps of Valerian and a bunch of Jerusalem Artichokes/Sunchokes, where we were clearing by the lilacs a few days ago. The Comfrey is going gangbusters -- my hope is all of these useful but competitive plants will help keep each other in check. I do plan on cutting down a little of the comfrey today or tomorrow and using it for mulch, as they're blooming and I don't want them all to seed this year.

If I can manage it, I'll clear some ground this afternoon and plant a few more things. But that may have to wait, since I have a whole bunch of baby turmeric starts to deal with, that really shouldn't all hang out in shallow trays of coconut coir for the next two weeks. Not happy that a lot of my herbs have to wait until nearly the end of June to go into the ground, but hopefully the most critical stuff will be done by Wednesday morning.

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Also have some dried stinging nettles to process, and then put together a package of stuff to mail to my mom's place -- some stuff for her and some for me. No, I am Not going to bring a back of dried leaf greens onto a plane...

Planted second gooseberry yesterday and pulled up some of the garlic mustard. I know I'm not getting all the roots, but I'll settle for minimizing their seed-making capability for this year. L mowed a lot -- grass is pretty tall so this first time through's going to take a bit, since he's fitting it in the spaces between all the other stuff.

He did get the hole dug by end of day yesterday, so this morning I planted the second elderberry. I'd like to do more planting but first have to clear more ground. Meantime, several of the trees are getting ready to bloom and they're all overgrown, so...this morning I mostly working on pruning so as to minimize having to deal with all the bees, hornets, etc. who'll be interested in those flowers...

Plants I've more or less identified so far: dandelion, stinging nettles, yellow dock, maybe some curly dock, garlic mustard, primroses, strawberries, phlox, poppies, iris (more than one type), daffodils (more than one type), hyacinth, croci, peonies, greater Celandine, blueberries, magnolia (daisy type), sumac, creeping Charlie, pink Lily of the Valley, white Bleeding Heart, a few big yellow tulips, lilacs, thistle, 2 kinds of hosta, a dogwood.

Another plant ID I'm working on, I think is Comfrey. I don't mind it, it's useful and pretty, but there's too much of it. Too much of some of the other stuff too. And the dogwood may have to be cut down because it's too close to the barn, but for now I've just trimmed back the branches that were touching the building.

Lots of work to be done! One of my goals is to spend at least 1/2 an hour per day working with the plants outside, barring inclement weather. Generally when I'm out there I spend 1-2 hours at a time, but sometimes all I have time for is one short job, so at least something gets done. Spent 2 hours outside this morning, and will be going back to work on at least one more thing this afternoon. There's a tree on the border between us and our uphill neighbor that's seriously overgrown, plus the ground under it is covered with garlic mustard. I'll be taking a saw out to take out one of the larger branches that's growing laterally over her property, and then see what needs to be done next.

Plant identification efforts will continue. Some things are native, and some I can tell were brought here but I don't know what they are yet.

Got 2 Lavendars into pots. They're rather large but I potted them in the garden cart so I wouldn't have to lift them into it after the fact...got them over to the lower garden, and then had to water them in the cart because I can't lift them out again. *sigh* The man will have to do that part...

Also re-potted 2 Anise, some of the Sweet Marjoram, and the Peppermint finally. And a small Chamomile. More to go, of course.

Some weeding and watering happened.

On the first mound of Bush Delicata, one has sprouted! More to come...

L's done some more mulching in the garden :)

Mostly, he's been working on clearing chaff out, unloading and stacking bales, and helping in the wagon in the field, which is quite enough, really.

So one of the things I got out of working a full day at Goldthread was that working on the ground, even raised beds, was physically way too challenging. Raised beds are higher but you can't necessarily get closer to the plants because these had soil sides instead of boards so they're wider at the bottom than at the top. So I was thinking, wouldn't it be nice to have tables instead? L and I were talking about it at a later date, and figured that for all plants that were smaller than a bush or tree, this could work. Make the tops of the tables be wood frame with hardware cloth on them (drainage) and shaded on the sides. Put your pots/flats on top and mushroom logs underneath. Depending on number of tables you'd also have tool storage space underneath.

I favor the idea of getting/building large flats rather than using small pots because if you have a hot summer the roots will get baked pretty quickly in a small pot. You really need mass to protect your plants. Although with a frame you could also attach posts and put up shade cloth as needed as well... and if it was a really wet summer you could up up a solid cover to give the plants a break from getting rained on for a day or so.

Thought needs to be given to what you're going to grow -- for instance some plants need to go deep, so a table for them would be shorter than for plants that don't need quite as much soil -- otherwise you'd be reaching up to weed. So tomatoes would be on a lower table, and lettuce would be on a higher one.

The other reason I think large flats would be good is that it would be easier to mix in compost and other amendments.

Today I also toyed with the idea of a slanted surface -- only a few tiers (1' deep) and not as deep as a table (3'), but might be handy for sheltering say a cart or similar height item. Just a thought on maximizing small acreage.

L brought more mulch over to the main south garden and opened the bags of soil. I planted slicing cucumbers, summer squash, zucchini, butternut squash, and small blue hubbard. Still to come is bush delicata (seed).

Also planted 28 yellow onion sets from a 6-pack of pots. I have another 6-pack to go.

Finished a second row of Vt. Cranberry beans, all from thinning the first row (which still needs a bit more thinning).

L used the big tiller (pulled by a tractor) to deal with the further grain plot, the little south garden (at the west end) and some bits of the lower garden (other side of house, near barn). Corn and hopefully buckwheat and maybe oats to come.

All 4 Amish Paste tomato plants are in pots now -- 1 to 1+ gallon ones, so they're all set.

Weeding here and there happened.

The peas are pretty happy... I now have a few bean plants by them as well -- a few very young seedlings I'm not sure will make it, but if they do they'll give the peas some shade at their bases, without interfering with climbing the fence, as they are bush beans.

This year I'm using a fish/kelp emulsion in the water to give new plants a nutritive boost. They do this at Goldthread and their plants are gorgeous and healthy, so I figured why not give it a try? Organic stuff, I forget the name at the moment.

MIL has asked for wax beans, so we'll need to get seed for that.

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I put all the slicing cucumber plants in one hill, which might be too many (5). But it got them out of their little pots at least. Maybe someone will want 1 or 2 of them, in which case I'll pot them up for giveaway.

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I have one volunteer lettuce from last year... usually there are more, but the rain probably played havoc with the flowers. Still, it's a very healthy one!

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Picked up stuff I'd left at Goldthread's farm; I think folks were way down at the bottom of the field...

So, quite a few things done today, before the rain.

Monday:
- brought another ginger downstairs, planted 2 gingers
- planted 6 Chinese cabbage and 6 Swiss chard
- re-potted 3 Dill in large pots
- re-potted zucchini and sugar pumpkins in small pots (buying time)
- more weeding and watering
- re-potted something in the herbs but I forget what

Tuesday morning:
- worked on getting another row ready for Vt Cranberry beans

I can't even begin to keep track of all L's been doing, but a few highlights are working on making parts of one of the south gardens and the lower garden bed usable (cutting, digging, tilling, weeding, etc.), mowing some of the lawn, replacing the laundry line, and more.

Because of all the rain last fall we didn't do all our usual winter prep, so the hay field made an aggressive move on the garden. Part of the results from that we're digging out and part of it Lyle's going to use for making a row of hot compost -- we're going to bake those grass roots!

Yesterday morning I mostly just did some weeding, watering, and rescuing germinated pea seeds that the rain had uncovered. Afternoon/evening saw bringing some of the Ginger plants down to the porch and re-potting some herbs into larger pots -- Angelica Arch., Lovage, Lemon Balm, and maybe something else.

This morning was weeding, watering, and planting: 6 Lacingto Kale, 6 Red Russian Kale, and 17 Storage Cabbages. I don't know the proper name for the cabbages, but basically they are winter keepers. Also potted up 7 Chamomile into 2 big pots.

Made a trip to the transfer station to drop off trash and recyclables and picked up some empty pots and planting trays (free!).

We picked up some young yellow onions at the hardware store and then retrieved some more Chamomile I'd potted up at Goldthread and then forgot and left them there. Afternoon saw planting 8 Ginger from 6 of the pots into the Ginger bed that Lyle set up so nicely -- very easy to work in :) Also re-potted one of the Elderberry bushes, the mystery bush, a High Top Blueberry bush, and maybe something else... and dug holes to set three of the potted plants into the ground.

Had to water more plants of course -- I picked up quite a few different things this spring and they don't keep the water in the small pots very long in this weather.

Up and outside early in the morning again to do more weeding and plant more stuff. Probably the Chinese Cabbage, something else I bought (no idea at the moment), and some of the onions. I'd like to say all of them but they're multiples packed into 6-packs and I don't know if/how they're going to divide up until I get them out of the pots. I may have to stall on planting the squashes and cukes by re-potting them into larger pots for another week.

The Cranberry Vermont beans are looking good but I only have one row of them -- hopefully we can plant more over the next week, as well as the meal corn (Abenaki Flint), broad beans, and anything else I can fit.

Our first Harvest Home went pretty well, despite weather glitches. About two dozen people, four of them camped. Archery, pila throwing, classes (useful knots, teneriffe, medieval farm animals, bookbinding), schmoozing, and a nap or two. Excellent potluck Saturday evening!

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L's birthday was yesterday, which was pretty much a regular day as our birthdays often are - work, kung fu, etc. But we did go out to Elmer's for breakfast and the staff sang 'happy birthday' while serving the chocolate cheesecake ;) And I helped out a bit with chores and in particular some of the grodier stuff, since he usually does most of those.

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Trying to restrict carbs more, to get the weight-loss going again. Yesterday was a loss of course, what with the cheesecake, but I should do all right today. And we did still have lovely salads and other healthy things, so there's that.

Sugar carbs today will likely just be the bit of honey in the oxymel, and a peach or two. The peach tree is doing well this year, and I intend to enjoy those! Besides, peaches and apricots are high in fiber, not just tasty.

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Kung Fu and fitness in general are progressing. I think I owe my being able to get back up on my hands and knees (from having been flattened to the ground during the adrenalin response workshop), to the strengthening of core muscles. Long way to go yet, but there are some small improvements in how the knees are doing these days.

We finished learning the moves for the first sword form and started the next hand form. There will, of course, need to be a lot of practice, refining, etc.

Yesterday was weapons class but we spent most of it on self-defense practice. There is an awful lot to learn for that, which can't all be covered in just one class a week. Sifu wants everyone to be much better at it, and to have at least some basic moves down to the point they're instinctive.

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The garden is happier for the rain, and peaches are not the only thing needing harvesting!

Well! Still recovering and actually overslept today.... Still haven't started any seeds, but will do so today. Also, we'll be starting to lay out the lasagna bedding in the garden.

Sugaring is slowing down, but still happening as of today. Expect this to be the final week though. I expect at lower elevations or points further south of us, it's already done.

The crocus are blooming now too, so I expect that soon more people will be talking about how "spring" is finally here... I find it a little amusing that the point at which many people declare a season to have arrived is usually around the beginning-to-middle of that season's peak.

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Since we're still not up to major doings, no choir practice tonight. But there's a Share the Warmth meeting today, so we'll go to that. First part is at one person's farm, where he has a relatively new community garden plot area laid out, that we'll look at. Then over to Elmer's for the talking part.

Not sure how gardening and the new workshop series became part of a group on keeping people warm, but there you go. The workshops over the next several months will be on gardening and/or food preservation.

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Farmers Market meeting was Friday night and we made it to that too - laid back group of folks, farmers.... good discussion, research being done by some folks on stuff to help the market will be happening, etc.

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New Future meeting earlier last week, where folks met in person. Don't know when the next meeting is, but interestingly a few folks I've spoken to don't know about haybox cookers. So I guess I need to try out a few things myself now.... there's info out there of course, but a little hands-on at our local altitude would be a good thing.

There's a post on it over at The Archdruid Report, with some excellent info in the comments as well. You might have to do a search for it, as it was a few months back.

Something I've sort of thought about, although mostly on a small scale for personal use, not commercial. 20 years of research on advantages of growing woody food plants instead of annuals.

Woody Ag

I'd still like a little kitchen garden of annuals, but might be some useful info here for the tree side of things...