More Transplanting

Early last week, I got busy and planted most of the greenhouse. All the tomatoes are set in. Here we can see some Tangerines and a Better Boy around the onions.

Here's all of row 5, which is all tomatoes, plus the last of the leeks and onions.

Row 8 is a solid wall of Paso peas, but I planted a line of Big Jim peppers on the outside edge. I'm expecting that the peas will be finished before the peppers get very big. There are also 3 Biker Billys at the end of the row, and 2 Cayennas on the endcap.

I put the sweet peppers at the end of row 2, where they get a little shade in the late afternoon. Also, this way they are far from the hot peppers. There are 6 Anaheims and 9 Anchos farther down the row.

I put 13 Biker Billys at the front of row 6.

Here's a nice view of most of the garden, with the chicken pen in the very front. You can still see a pile of empty pots from transplanting.

Even though there are still peas in Row 1, I put a couple of Bidwell Melons on the end of the row.

This is a good example of the kind of interleaving we're doing. The last of the lettuce is intermixed with the pepper transplants. This is the "specialty pepper" area (section 6-1), with four different kinds: Chile de Arbol, Red Peter, Serrano, and Pasilla.

Here we see some Red Thai peppers tucked around the chard on the endcap of row 7.

As usual Rick and Buddy are clowning around.

Rick says: We're gonna win the Salsa Contest at the Saturday Farmer's Market this year.

Summer Planting

It was a busy weekend, so I'm kind of behind. Saturday was Bill and Laura's party. It was a lovely day for it, and lots of folks showed up. We all hung out down by the meadow.

The dogs had fun playing in the water.

We played Cornhole.

Lori was a natural!

We had a whole peanut gallery of fans.

Back at the farm, Rick and Rick plan the irrigation. You can see the sprinkler going in the background, because the plants didn't care that we were gonna have irrigation soon.

So Rick worked hard on the irrigation. He made a manifold with valves for each half of each row. This way, we have a very flexible system that we can reuse each season. We can use the same black tubing we used before, but now we can keep it to 12- 18-foot lengths rather than having giant long pieces.

On Sunday we put up a piece of reed fence. It helps support the roses and provide a little more neutral backdrop.

The cherries are ripening, and drawing lots of birdlife. This colorful fellow is a male Western Tanager.

We also laid some more mulch on Sunday. Rick and I cleared grass, Buddy shoveled mulch, and I crawled around spreading newspaper. Here, the chickens are working the newly cleared area. We got the mulch spread all the way to the playhouse.

Rick caught another gopher. He's quite the gopher hunter!

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Weather Note

The weekend was clear, but it clouded up on Sunday. Monday was rainy most of the morning, but it cleared up by afternoon. Nighttime temperatures are still cold--going down into the mid 40s, but the days are warming up to high 70s or low 80s. Forecast shows rising temperatures, notably nights in the 50s. I think it's about to get hot, so hopefully we've planted just at the right time.

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Monday, after the rain, was perfect transplanting weather, so I pulled all the plants out of the greenhouse and sorted out what could go where. We have the "problem" of too much spring stuff still producing. We don't have room for all the summer crops yet! In particular, a bunch of the peppers are gonna have to wait until the peas quit producing. Fortunately they have room in their pots, and with all the tomatoes out of the greenhouse, they might even get some sun!

Row 5 is all planted in tomatoes now, although some plants are squeezed in around the lettuce and radicchio. We're getting lots and lots of snow peas, at least a colander-ful every day. We're trying to keep them picked so they keep producing. We're also getting the very first of the garden peas. The Maestro peas seemed to do well, but not so much the Burpeanna Early. The double row of Paso peas in row 8 is like a wall of peas! These haven't quite started producing, but they should any day now. The garlic is also thriving, and there's lettuce for the world.

Catherine models her rose necklace.

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What We're Eating

Peas and Maries: Pick a ton of snow peas and dip them in Marie's Blue Cheese Dressing.

Goddess Salad: Pick a ton of lettuce and snow peas, slice a scallion or three and a carrot, and toss with Annie's Goddess Dressing.

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Windy Days

The last couple of days were unpleasantly windy. That kept me inside more than I would have liked. We still went to the farm. The cherries are almost ripe.

The chickens are endlessly entertaining. We call this "farm TV" and yes, we ARE easily amused.

I planted some starts in my back yard. Because of the wind, I watered them well, then covered them with pots the first day. On this end, nearest the mandarin, is a hill of three dancing gourds in the back, and a hill of three Boston Marrow in the front.

Next spot over (about 6 feet apart) I put another hill with Galeaux pumpkins.

And on the end, between the apple and the compost pile, I put another hill of three dancing gourds. I've started to get this area mulched too.

First Tomatoes Planted

But first things first. For my Rick's birthday, I fixed him "Fire and Ice Shrimp." Half the shrimp was in a fiery sauce of cooked salsa with homegrown pepper paste mixed with J. Lee Roy's seafood sauce. The other half was in a sauce of sour cream, dill, garden peas, and capers. I also made marinated onions and guacamole. We picked snow peas to go with, and had a feast.

Here we are drinkin beer and noshing on shrimp.

But then yesterday, we started talking about whether it was time to plant tomatoes. The answer was that it was a little too early but not a moment too soon. Based on the weather, I'd like to keep them a week or so longer in the greenhouse. But based on their growth, they needed to be in the ground! The greenhouse is stuffed and the plants are pushing the sides up.

The tall plants already need some support. We planted two Black Cherries in the back.

Rick puts the finishing touches on the first one in.

This is why we couldn't wait any longer: The root structure is deep and healthy, and the plants were already too big for 1 gallon pots.

After the two Black Cherries in space 5-1, we put 6 Principe Borghese in space 5-2. "Prince Borgs," as we call them, are determinate and used for dried tomatoes. I'll plant the rest of the Borgs at my house. Resistance is futile.

Meanwhile, Catherine set us up with a first-aid kit, all neatly packed in a plastic container.

And she communed with the chickens. Rick J. commented that the 10 x 20 space housing the chicken pen is going to produce more food than any other garden plot, and he's right.

I harvested a big bunch of onions. These are the ones I planted from seed in the lettuce box, then transplanted into the garden. We had some on our salad last night, and Rick took the rest to a work potluck.

Rick and Catherine picked a big basket of produce for dinner: snow peas, scallions, and lettuces.

The snow peas are producing like mad and need to be picked every day. They are delicious raw from the garden, or in salads, stir fries, omelettes, pizza... well... just about everything!

Hummingbird

On Friday I made this bread from a recipe in Edible Shasta Butte magazine. Of course, I cut the sugar in half, and it was still plenty sweet.

Here it is sliced. Aren't these plates nice?

Then I loaded the chickens into their tractor. Here's the ladder that Rick made for them.

I put the chickens to work on a recently cleaned area.

And while the chickens worked, I sat around drinking beer and taking pics of the hummingbird sipping from the white irises.

You don't often see one resting. Notice how big the fairy light bulb looks compared to her.

As you can see, the irises are in full bloom and have completely screened the tub.

Cutesy Tree Art

I decided to take some pics to show how big the latest starts are. This is the basil. The Thai basil is the one that hasn't sprouted yet.

This one is Tigger melons (left) and dancing gourds.

Here are the squashes. Look how huge that Boston Marrow is! 1 is Rond de Nice (zucchini), 2 is Gray Zucchini, 3 is General Bidwell melon, 4 is Boston Marrow (pumpkin-ish), 5 is Galeaux (pumpkin)

I'll try to get more squash started today. And here are the last of the peppers I planted, the Sonoras. They're still pretty small, but at least we have some.

I ordered the door and windows from Plow and Hearth, and you gotta admit, they're cute as can be.

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What We're Eating

This is what Rick and I had for dinner last night: Potato leek soup made with our homegrown leeks, fresh homemade rolls, and salad with our homegrown lettuce, homegrown snow peas, and homegrown carrot, dressed with goddess dressing and tossed with sunflower seeds. OMG it was delicious. Rick and Catherine ate homegrown snow peas, stir fried with homegrown onion and garlic, tossed with shrimp marinated in soy sauce. That sounds pretty darn good also.

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The radicchio is getting huge! It's starting to head up.

Catherine worked hard at eliminating nettles. Doesn't she look triumphant? This is an enormous help, because I am very sensitive to nettles, and break out in an itchy rash if I even get near them.

The snow peas are knee high to an ogre.

The rose looks lovely surrounded by borage and lemon balm.