I’ve decided the best thing for me to do is to log in here and blog to you over coffee!  There is almost a guarantee that I will have coffee at the computer every morning, except those days that I don’t ;), and so I figure this would be a good time to go over what I did or plan to do.  Ready? Set? Let’s go!

Yesterday was the first warm day here in what seems like months.  It was too warm in fact, shorts & t-shirt weather if you were outside working semi-hard.   I did just that too really, I was digging, cleaning, hauling and overall doing a lot of walking around too.   It was simply beautiful and I really was feeling motivated to get some things done.

As you may or may not know, we have started working toward fencing in more & more of our land so that the dogs & chickens have more space to sprawl within the confines of the fence.  As a result last year we finally got big enough in the fall to include ALL of our gardens inside the fence line.  Now of course I realize that poses a problem for this spring’s plantings, which is, they are going to be eaten before they get a chance to grow!!!  The chickens are going to eat all of my plants before they even turn into produce!!!  So yesterday I started with the only garden that does not have chickens in it over the winter months, and fashioned a garden fence out of miscellaneous supplies.  I’ve used sticks, branches, driveway markers, a few green fence posts, pallets, chicken wire, welded wire, some lattice & netting to complete the back garden.  I would like a gate, but for now we will have to step over the chicken wire portion to get in.    It should be fairly safe from all but the avid flyers in the group, but I can put a top net on it, if need be.

I’ll be starting back here again today, Sunday, by turning over all the dirt & incorporating some of last years compost creations.   The planting rows will be formed and TODAY, I will plant a few White Onions in open cardboard boxes over the soil.   This way, when the frost & snow come again… I can simply close the top of the box or cover the box with paper, plastic or fabric to protect the plant inside.. I can also fill a 2-liter or milk jug with hot water and place it with the plant overnight for additional protection if it’s going to be bad or long term.   I have never tried this before, and so will report on my success or lack there-of but I am excited to be doing it.   This is why I am only planting a few.

There is also a place for flowers now in each garden bed, as I realized that clearing my landscape of flowers simply meant that the bees & hummingbirds wouldn’t come around anymore.  So now I’m doing a little flower with every garden in hopes to bring back some pollinators.   I’ll be starting some radishes today too I think under soda bottle greenhouse tops.  These are easily removed every day and put back at night if need be.  There will also still be a fair amount of straw available down the middle of each row (keeps us less muddy) to use to insulate & protect.  WINTER IS NOT OVER, but it sure is about 6 weeks away…

I picked up soil yesterday too for getting my starter plants underway.  Friday is the first meeting for the Newport Farmer’s Market and I’m excited.   This will be my first year participating with the market fully and I just can’t wait.   I plan to bring starter plants, eggs & whatever garden extras I can gather each week.  Since the local stores don’t carry starter plants for some of the things that I grow, I hope that others will want some too.  Black beans for instance… they grow WONDERFULLY here but you can’t find a plant growing anywhere at the stores & shops… since that bean is important to me.. I will try sharing that love with others.  I don’t have too much else that is exotic really.. but I can sell some Brandywine tomatoes maybe…  but everyone has those!

I did finish me seed order for the year!!  Hip hip.. HOORAY!  That means that I had to sort through and trash anything old, make lists of what I was going to focus on this year, take last years lessons and really get a good game plan together.  I don’t want repeats of previous years, because we’ve already made those mistakes… no need to do it again.   We had such great success with the sweet potatoes last year, we’re planting two varieties this year.   We will have only 1 big crop of corn, and the back wall of the back garden that I mentioned earlier, is ready with lattice & chain link fence to hold the 12 pickle plants we’re doing.  Lexi & I LOVE pickles.. I need about 24 quarts of them a year.  I only put up 30% of that last year and it was a bummer because we haven’t been able to have many pickles but in a few months that will be all over.   Since pickles are a short crop, I can plant those along the back of the sweet potato garden, and they will be done LONG before the sweet potatoes need the space.  Plus that garden area gets progressively shadier as the season marches on… the trees along the mountainside grow in shading it heavily come July.   Which is bad for pickles, peppers & tomatoes, but GREAT for sweet potatoes.

I also bought an inexpensive grow light to help my seedlings.  The beautiful window we have just doesn’t face the right direction and so only sees late afternoon natural bright light & sun, which is always making my seedlings leggy.  Every year they are almost a total waste.  This year I will use the light to help supplement natural light AND I will try some directly outside, protected & insulated.. again using my cardboard box cover & maybe some old tires.  In this instance though I want to shrink wrap some plastic over the top I think.  I’ll let you know.

Ok.. that’ll have to be enough of an update for now.   I’ll try & post later on the incubation start to my 2nd generation of the Gold Laced Orpington project, because if you check my farm calendar.. that also starts TODAY!  But it’s going to be another beautiful 60*F day and I really want to get outside!