2 gardens are better than one.

Of course both gardens really serve a different purpose in the end. The front garden is where my tomatoes and greens hang out. But in the back yard I have the much more varied produce garden. It has French Fingerling potatoes, heirloom sweetcorn, squash, beans, and melons growing. In fact my corn has just started to put out the first ears of the year. This whole year has just been one giant gardening experiment. I have some pictures that I will be posting soon.

Tomato disaster

So I started my tomatoes inside about a month ago. Which sounds great... but I left them outside at night over the weekend because it got up to 90 degrees here on Thursday.  Well of course Murphy struck and over night it dropped to 36. Of course everyone knows that my baby tomato plants very quickly died off. Well all but two of them did. Lucky for me I have 15 more seeds freshly starting which means that by the time the last frost hits I should have enough ready to still plant them out. I'm looking forward to finding out which of the 7 varieties I'm planting will be the most productive and taste the best.

Better season extension?

I have a feeling this will be a much better system than my first effort. If you can't tell this setup is much more compact and will be mobile when I figure out how I want to finally attach the plastic in a semi-permanent fashion. The down side to this was that the units were fairly complicated in the number of pieces that had to be cut. The upside is that all my crops are still alive. Hopefully this gives someone an idea of what you can do to keep growing crops even after the traditional season has ended.

Pipe dreams

I'm quite certain that I am not the only one who day dreams about the future and what might happen.
These days it seems my woolgathering has been focused more around the farm/ranch that I will eventually open with my dad. I'm not sure if that is because I have already been to college once before or some other reason. What I should really be thinking about is now what could happen but, what is happening currently. That being my GI Bill funding has finally come to an end. What this means is that I'm now back in the position of having to support myself the old fashioned way. Either that or I have to win the lottery. Sadly counting on the second option is right out. The thing that I have found most difficult to accept or even understand is how hard it has been to find employment since I graduated. When forced to reflect on that I would have to say that most likely it has been the result of looking in the wrong area or of not adequately presenting myself. Another element to that is probably that I am looking to support myself not find a job that will be my "career". Out of all the jobs I have had the only two that could possibly even fit into the career category are working in kitchens, and the military. Right now I would say military would by far be the best option. Speaking of that I just found out that I am back within height/weight standards for the Army. My plan for the moment is to go back into the reserves, but I reserve the right to go back on active duty too. I think what is really happening is that I know what to expect from the military life. That and I don't know in the absolute sense how valuable the degree I am pursuing will be in my life. It almost seems like it will be worth it more to go back into the military, get 20 years, retire and then start the family business.

What would that business look like?
It certainly will not be a "commercial farming" operation. It would definitely have elements of that. There will certainly be livestock, cows (mainly for meat), maybe some pigs or goats, sheep, certainly there will be chickens, and I would like to have a few horses (dual purpose, riding and work). We would grow at the minimum a majority percentage of our own feed (51%+). We would have an mixed orchard of peaches, pecans, pears, blackberries, blue berries and maybe even some grapes. There would be at least an acre of garden just for us, everything else would be market stuff. Specialty stuff like honey that we could produce in house, or specialty heirloom produce. We would have solar inputs to keep down electricity costs, we would try to minimize reliance on fuel consuming items, by heating with wood and using large animals for a portion of the work. I would like to have at least 100 acres of land but closer to 200 would not be bad in my book. That way we could have a little land in woods to use and to hunt in too. Not that I've spent any time thinking about it though right?

Does anyone else have something long-term that they have been planning or hoping for?

It looks like fall at home

But it is now officially winter. Today I took, fifteen yard bags full of leaves from around my families neighborhood and they now cover my garden. Mulch is by far my most effective defense against weeds. It is also completely free for me too. If things go as planned I will not have to do any serious amount of weeding to plant my new seeds and transplants this spring.

Pipe exploded

Well one of my outside pipes bit the dust today. In the middle of the day right when the temperature was on the way up to 40 it suddenly was shooting water up into the sky. Lucky for me I have emergency shut off valves for just this reason. So I went to the local hardware store and got an endcap to make the temporary repairs. 65 cents and half an hour later I had running water again. This time I made sure that it was adequately insulated (I thought it was pretty good the first time). Fingers crossed that I don't have to make anymore repairs tomorrow.

It froze

The whole garden is completely frozen. It is also covered so I'm hoping that some of the tougher greens, like the Swiss Chard will survive. I'll have to wait until its around 30 to know for sure, but fingers crossed.

Adventures in season extension AKA Hoop House ver 1.0

So my hoop houses that I built this Tuesday lasted until yesterday morning. Apparently the combination of cold weather and small amounts of frozen precipitation cause catastrophic failures of low tunnels. At least this is the case with ones made with painters plastic and duck tape.
This is the result.

The worms

So far the worms have survived. Luckily this is despite my best efforts to ignore them. You see my house is kept cold 90% of the time and I fear sometimes that they will suffer from that. But so far so good. I did get some cool pics from the Texas Worm Ranch folks when I took my class. I won't talk about the behind the scenes bits but I think these pics will show that they know whats what about worms. Hopefully in about 6 weeks I will have some worm castings to add to my soil and seed starting mix. That will definitely help me get a head start on things for the spring season.

The lesson

The goods

Last week I was able to get some pretty good stuff out of the garden. I got to harvest red romaine lettuce, collards, swiss chard, spinach, and the last of the carrots. I'm pretty pleased as this is my first fall doing this gardening thing on my own.

Baby it's cold outside

You know season has really left summer behind when you can smell fires in the air. Although we Texans have only had one day were we could see our breath its still time to make sure the garden is protected. I have my first set of hoops up over two of the raised beds that are still producing. I'll finally be able to finish that set up tomorrow with the help of an extra set of hands. We will be stretching plastic over this in preparation for the freezing temperatures set to hit on Wednesday. Additionally I hope to build a cold frame to protect the third raised bed. I have also been mulching lately with leaves, wood chips, and leaves. This helps to maintain moisture and modulate soil temperature. If everything goes according to plan I'll continue to produce greens and perhaps even some root vegetables throughout the winter.

Update. I built a short lived hoop house. Here is the final result while it lasted.

I have my own seed bank

Not in the true sense of the word, but I'm starting to amass quite a neat little collection.

Here is what I do have:
Waltham Butternut Squash
Red Cored Chantenay Carrots
Hearts of Gold Cantaloupe
Cherry Belle Radish x2
Five Color Silverbeet Swiss Chard
Detroit Dark Red Beet
Muncher Cucumber
Dark Green Zucchini
Early White Bush Scallop Squash
Hale's Best Jumbo Cantaloupe
Marketmore 76 Cucumber
Sugar Baby Watermelon
Crimson Sweet Watermelon
Cherokee Wax Bean
California Wonder 300 TMR Pepper
Clemson Spineless #80 Okra
Roma II (Romano Bush) Bean
Early Prolific Straightneck Squash
Chives
Witloof Di Bruxelles Chicory
Spaghetti Squash
Golden Beet
Globe Artichoke
De Pierre Benite Lettuce
Tete Noire Cabbage
Bacalan De Rennes Cabbage
Romanesco Broccoli
Brunswick Cabbage x2
Red Romaine Lettuce
Merveille des Quatre Saisons Lettuce
Florence Fennel
Carob De Maussane Pea
Hairy Vetch
America Spinach
Wando Peas
Laurentian Rutabaga
Purple Top White Globe Turnip
French Sorrel
Russian Tarragon
English Lavender
Holy Basil
Chervil
Burdock
Caraway
Coriander (Cilantro)
Cumin
Red Clover
Lacinato Kale
Tendergreen Mustard
Old Fashion Mustard
Dill
Georgia Collards
Italian Dark Green Flat Parsley
Florida Broadleaf Mustard
Brown Mustard
Zebrine Shallot
Jaune Paille des Vertus Onion
Purple of Sicily Cauliflower
Autumn Giant Leek
Atomic Red Carrot
Charentais Melon
Petit Gris de Rennes Melon
Ananas D'Amerique A Chair Verte Melon
Blue Berries Tomato
Gold Rush Currant Tomato
Black Vernissage Tomato
Green Zebra Tomato
Cherokee Purple Tomato
San Marzano Lungo No.2 Tomato
Roma Tomato


These are obviously not in any particular order. Sadly I don't have the space (at least not yet) to plant all of these. I will however do what I can to keep everyone up to date on what I plant in the future.

Tomorrow

I'm pretty excited for this weekend. I'll be driving over to Garland, TX to participate in a vermiculture class. Texas Worm Ranch is putting on this worm composting class. What will happen is we will get a chance to learn how to compost using worm bins. This will help me use my kitchen and paper scraps in a way that should help make my soil much better for the spring coming up. As far as I know there are still some slots left people should definitely go.

Chicken coop for Black Friday.

Many people went out on black Friday and bought TV's and other consumer electronics. We instead bought a chicken coop. I am really excited about this new addition to the homestead. All I need to figure out now is what chickens to get, where to get them, and when to get them. Any ideas? Im looking to start out on the easier side for my first go at raising poultry so the lower maintenance the better for me right now. 

The first of the garlic

Last Saturday planted my first round of garlic bulbs. I have three different varieties of garlic that are going into the ground this fall: Lorz Italian, Broadleaf Czech, and Early Purple Italian. I look forward to the summer so I can get my hands on what must be a good haul. I'm something of a fiend for garlic so this will be great. I think this weekend I will plant the second/final round of garlic. And I'm getting a hoop house built. It looks like I'll have it done just in time too as the first frost might hit sometime this weekend.

Fall housekeeping

This is the what happens when a garden bed gets away from you. The good news is that I have finally fixed that problem. At least in part anyway, I decided to let the plant bearing larger fruit to stay until it finally gives up. 

Before

The biggest grasshopper ever?

I found this bad boy this weekend while I was clearing out the old cherry tomato plants. They had finally given up the goose so I decided it was time to clean house and add some compost to get things ready for a winter run of greens and root vegetables. This fine specimen was something along the lines of 3 1/2 inches long. I have a sneaking suspicion that he might have been the culprit for plenty of my pest damaged collard greens.

Small town living

You know you are living the true small town life when the barber you go to hooks you up with some fresh quail eggs. I might even have a continuous stream of the eggs coming.

What is this?

I found this stuff when I pulled off some cardboard that I put down to kill off weeds in one my beds. I have no idea what this is though. Any ideas?

Small fall garden update

     I have fallen behind in my blogging of late. This is due to prioritizing my energy mostly on school work. Chemistry is not a dear friend, (sadly that is just not how my mind works). But on a truly positive note my garden is not so bad as you might think.
     My tomatoes are still going, albeit at a reduced rate. My larger varieties are finally making a decent showing. Squash and I are destined to remain bitter enemies it seems. I've tried three different varieties this year (both summer and fall) sadly they have fallen short of expectations. I got a late crop of Anaheim peppers which is nice. Glad I let them hang around during the summer heat. They will be making a nice addition to some chili here soon if things cool down enough. My spinach didn't work out the way I had hoped, but they are making a showing now. So too are my rainbow Swiss Chard, and Georgia collards. This year my garden has been a lot of error and trial. That is not usually how its said but it is certainly how it feels. The red Romaine lettuce seems to be doing better now that the most of the oppressive heat has past.  I have about three pounds of garlic that will be going in here soon so I won't be running out next year. This is especially good as I hate having to buy garlic in the store. Its too expensive for the quality and lack of variety that you can find. Lucky for me I went with all heirlooms and a few different ones just in case some don't perform as well as I hope.

     I found a source of some free horseshit horse manure which I am really excited about. I should be collecting that in the next week or so. The plan there is to amend the soon to be backyard garden with that for the spring, and still have enough to let it compost over the winter for use when I need it.

     If I can keep my self honest my goal is to start keeping some good records about the goings on here in the terms of inputs and yields that I get starting in the spring. What this really means is spreadsheets, which I do not like, but will hopefully help me keep track of some good metrics going forward. Things like how much of my own produce I actually eat, what didn't work, what does, all that good stuff will be nice to have for subsequent years. 

    On a separate note the backyard re-fencing is almost complete which means...one step closer to hopefully some chickens in the spring. That will be triply beneficial, I get good pest control, I get eggs/meat, and I get poultry litter to fertilize with.

Hopefully I will have some more stuff to share soon,

Ryan