Our new hoop house

I’ve been itching to build a hoop house for some time now. This spring I went to a permaculture demonstration on extending the season at David Homa’s impressive home and permaculture site. I based this small hoop house on his design and several of these small hoops that he had set up at his place. It’s not too complicated, cost around $100 in supplies, and took me exactly a day to construct, including digging out the sod to place the raised bed. We’re still sifting the compost to fill the bed, but hope to get some things planted and growing in the hoop in the next week or so, so we can plan on harvesting greens and some other hardy things well into the fall and winter.

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Agriculture, Garden Agriculture, extended garden season, Garden, hoop house

A grasshopper in the tarragon

Yes, they’re a Biblical scourge. And yes, they’re nibbling holes in our plants. But there’s something so lovely and summery about a grasshopper at rest on a leaf.

Garden

Beans climbing in the morning light

I love summer mornings on the farm. Once morning chores are done, I love to just poke around the garden and take in the splendor in the beautiful morning light. Here are some pictures from this morning.

Broilers, finished with their morning grain, looking for more

Bee and mustard flowers

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Garden, Goats, Photography, poultry chickens, farm, flowers, Garden, Goats, Photography

A trio of pattypans

We planted pattypan squash for the first time this year, and now that they’re maturing (in abundance!), we’re not quite sure what to do with them. Do we pick them when they’re small, glossy and still faintly green (my preference)? Or do we wait until they’re matte white and spaceship-shaped (Karl’s)? And how to cook them? We’re looking for ideas, and we’ll also be fiddling around on our own. Check back for our favorite recipes–in the meantime, any tips?

Food, Garden pattypan squash, summer squash

garlic, fresh and flavorful

We’ve begun to harvest the garlic from the garden, despite the fact that we never got any scapes. We’re not sure why we didn’t get any scapes, perhaps it was the weeds or perhaps it was not enough compost or organic matter or fertilizer, but in any case the small compact heads are packed with juicy garlic goodness. It’s a delight to run down and pull up a new head every time Margaret says we’re out of garlic. Nope, not yet.

Garden, Photography

The finished arbor, looking out from the orchard side, with grapes a-climbin’

This weekend we finally finished the grape arbor / gateway to the orchard, and with your help, filled in the last row in the garden. Last year we planted 2 grapes on either side of a place where we imagined building pretty much exactly what you see above… a birch frame and arch, with a ladder up the sides for the grapes to climb up and over the structure, creating an arbor and gateway into the orchard. We got the frame and the first rung of the ladder built a couple of weeks ago, which gave the grapes something to grab on to, but they soon were looking to climb higher. We’ve been working on clearing out the thicket between the garden and the orchard, and taking out a few of these small birches served two purposes, and actually a third, as the goats were happy to munch all the leaves off the upper branches.

Thanks to everyone who weighed in on Facebook with suggestions on what we should plant in the last row of the garden. We actually had an empty row and a half, so we ended up planting 3 half rows: arugula and beets, the popular favorites on Facebook, and also a half row of broccoli raab, a bitter green that we love, and that we’ve had little success with in the past, and want to keep trying to get right.

The answer to friday what to plant question: broccoli raab, arugula and beets.

Garden arbor, birch, Garden, grapes

The last quadrant of the garden, all planted except for one last row. Help us decide what to plant!

For the first time ever, we’ve planted the entire garden! This may not seem like a huge accomplishment, but it’s something that we’ve never, in the five years that we’ve lived on our farm, been able to manage. We always seem to leave a few rows unplanted or overgrown–I call them “Snake Hollows” because they act as a wildlife refuge–and by this time in the season we’ve usually given up on reclaiming them. But as of last weekend, we have everything in, from the leafy potatoes to the creeping squashes to the new, spindly peppers (we don’t have much hope that they’ll be productive, but we’re trying). Everything, that is, except for one final row, sandwiched between the newly planted bok choy and carrots. Any suggestions on what we should plant? Here’s some of what we’ve got for leftover seed, help us choose!

• Another round of radishes
• Broccoli
• Broccoli Raab
• More carrots
• More bush beans
• More beets
• Another round of arugula

Check in on Monday to find out what wins the row!

Garden Garden, planting

Pretty peas

It’s peak pea season in the garden, and we’ve picked, shelled, and frozen at least 5 pounds in the last week. The plants bounced back from the groundhog’s attack last month, and there are still pods to be picked before we tear out the rows and their birch trellises this weekend. A few more rows of broccoli are going in soon, but in the meantime, the goats have been nibbling on the empty pods and the girls have been sneaking as many sweet, raw peas as they can. When we get a chance to cook them, our house favorite is to simply steam them in their own juice with a smear of butter, and toss them with a little parsley.

Garden Garden, pea pods, peas

You know it’s japanese beetle season when…

The garden is doing great these days, something that hasn’t been lost on the pests that also enjoy the fruits and veggies of our labors. The potatoes are being attacked by Potato Beetle larvae, we’ve got striped cucumber beetles on the cukes and zukes, and the Japanese beetles are everywhere.

Every now and then we do get our revenge by squishing, squashing, or, in the case of this almost delicious dessert spotted at a recent July 4th party, baking.

Garden

A weed we love: Our volunteer army of hot pink pom pom poppies explode like fireworks in the garden

From a letter to Thomas Jefferson from his daughter, Mrs. Martha (Jefferson) Randolph, dated July 2, 1792:

“…What I told you of my garden is really true indeed–if you see it at a distance it looks very green but it does not bear close examination, the weeds having taken possession of much of the greater part of it.”

The beautiful magenta poppies that we now cultivate in our garden began as weeds, sneaking in through some undigested bit of goat compost. They surprised us one year with their shock of color, and we now weed around their spiky leaves, letting them bloom where they land. We’re never ahead of the weeds around here, but sometimes their wild tangles yield good stuff. Happy Independence Day!

Garden Garden, Independence Day, poppies, Thomas Jefferson, weeding