What about the Chickens?!

Oh! By the way, we're taking the chickens with us. I told Tom that it was out of the question not to. He thinks we can haul the coop to our new home on a trailer. I should be getting my first egg any day now...

Big Changes!

So...Tom's family lives down this rural road in Lakeside. They have this community/family compound situation. As a family they own dozens of acres out in the country. They all live in separate houses and own separate pieces of land but the land is joined in one big chunk. About a year ago, Tom and I decided we wanted to eventually move out there and raise our children.

Well, as fate has it eventually became NOW. Tom's mom has been in search of an investment house ever since housing prices dropped. Instead, she found a GORGEOUS house along with a granny flat atop 6 acres just went up for sale down that road. It boarders the property alongside Tom's aunt, uncle, and young cousins.

The timing couldn't be worse for us. We would loose so much money on our current home if we were to sell it now. I am not contributing anything financially because I'm about to enter the Teaching Credential Program at SDSU. We also have spent a good portion of our savings thinking all we had to worry about was our current mortgage.

Fortunately, the whole family is so excited about getting us out there that several family members (especially Tom's mom and step dad) are going WAY out of their way to help us. Our good friends are going to rent our current house for a while and we'll have to find renters for the family compound. As soon as I find a teaching job and the market looks good enough for us to sell our house we'll be back on our feet!

However, with all of these big changes I doubt I'll be doing any gardening projects for a while. When I do, they'll be amazing! I have so many ideas for the new place already! I do feel sad to leave so many of the things I've done in our current house, though. I also feel sad that I didn't get to see many of the projects I had planned pan out. But...no looking back. I'm looking forward to the crazy hectic future!

Gardening in Pictures

Sooo....Maybe I failed as a vegetable gardener for this year; but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy. Here are my gardening happenings in pictures...

Here is the infamous coop that never gets done! We're close to finishing, though!

Here are the lucky ladies...future residents of the soon-to-be-finished coop. They are scratching around in our compost pile. Charming, I know. Here is Ranger...really wishing he could have a chicken breakfast. And here are the chickens...destroying the lawn I've been trying to get started. I think they're in cahoots with the gophers. And here is what happens to your porch if your baby chicks grow up before you finish your coop. Here is my little succulent and cactus area. I planted a few ears of what I think are prickly pear cacti. They've gone crazy! I decided to plant a little forest of them in the lower yard because I neglect to water that area very often.

So here they are...at the very bottom of our property. It's going to be utter cacti chaos down here pretty soon.

I've also planted some drought-tolerant ice plant in that area. It's going to be really pretty when it takes off.

This is the poor old gigantic oak tree we had to have cut down. It became beetle infested and died. It was very sad...the prettiest and largest oak on our property. It was also very sad to say goodbye to the $1200 it cost to have it cut down. The only up-side is that I now have a LOT of wood chips to mulch with, as well as firewood for the next 3 years!

I'm getting a rose garden going. So far I've got yellow, red, purple, and peach colored rose bushes planted. Who would think that squirrels and rabbits like to eat rosebuds? Well, they do. Fortunately, my non-toxic pest repellent seems to deter them.

And last but not least, I've been working really hard on the terraces right outside our house. I've gotten them going with Lily of the Niles, Day Lilies, geraniums, ice plants, Bird of Paradise, Euryops, and some things that already existed (and I don't know what they're called but I'm managing not to kill them).

:(

So...sadly I've fallen off the gardening wheelbarrow. Life had distracted me in dozens of different ways and I have very little to report about things I've grown. Here's what I do have...

A harvest of garlic was very successful. So were the beets which grew to be huge! Potatoes are growing and thriving as well.

The chickens grew out of their little cage a long while ago, but Tom and I are having trouble getting the coop finished. It's about 3/4 of the way done and will be quite the masterpiece when finished; but it's a two person job and we've been having trouble coordinating time to work on it. In the meantime I try to let the girls frolic in the yard as often as possible.

When we were away in New York for Tom's grampa's funeral we had to force our little hens to cohabitate with my father-in-law's chickens so his girlfriend could care for them. Sadly, one of my americaunas was pecked to death. Chickens can be jerks.

I just got three new baby americaunas at the feed store today. Our coop will be able to hold plenty of chickens, so I thought, "what the heck?! why not?" Hopefully my chickens are a little nicer than my father-in-laws. I'm looking forward to plenty of blue-green eggs!

My main focus for the garden in the next couple of months will be landscaping-type projects. Tom and I eventually want to sell our house and move even deeper into the country, so home-improvement projects and landscaping will certainly help. If I have time I'd like to work on gopher-proofing the veggie patch as well. Gopher sabotage may have been the point at which I became so frustrated I neglected the garden....not a very good attitude to have in gardening or in life. I live and learn.

One more REALLY neat thing...
My neighbor has goats. They are so awesome! I love them! Three of them were pregnant this spring. I got to see one set of babies right after they were born. They are so amazing. Too bad human babies aren't so self-sufficient at birth. Imagine if human babies could walk around right away. I don't understand how goats do it...they have no opportunity to develop muscle in the womb. Yet they plop out, wobble a bit, then start walking! Now we have six playful kids next door. They are so adorable!

Happy Day!

I'm so happy today for two big reasons:
1. The baby chicks made it comfortably through the night. I feel just the same way about these babies as I did when I was really young. I constantly check on them. I just love staring at them and studying their little behaviors. In fact, Jesus got her name (I know...Jesus isn't a girl's name) because she kept walking through her water dish. She just goes around in a couple of circles, then moves on to other business. I decided she was trying to walk on water and gave her that name.
2. I came inside all bummed this morning because some rodent got into the garage (even though it was closed) and ate up some of my ruby corn and basil seedlings. Completely out of the blue, Tom decided he was going to buy me a greenhouse!!! I actually never really considered having a greenhouse, but once he brought it up and all of the wonderful possibilities took shape in my imagination I was excited! Apparently he has been thinking of buying me one for a while because he knew (off the top of his head) prices and types from different places. He probably felt sorry for me...bringing tray after tray of seedlings inside every night, not being able to eat a meal at the dinner table because it's covered in baby plants, creating a graveyard of starter pellets and pots with seedlings that didn't make it. A husband can only handle seeing his wife go through so much hardship. Haha!

Also, several more zucchinis sprouted today :)

More Learning

Lesson 2: Begin the week long process of getting your seedlings accustomed to the outdoors ("hardening them off") about a week before transplanting them, not upon germination.

Duh! I was throwing these brand new sprouts out in the sun when they were the equivalent of a human newborn. What was I thinking?!

Here's what's sprouting these days...
Ruby Corn
Basil
Snap Dragons
Spearmint
Tomatoes
Peppers
One Zucchini sprout :)

I'll finish this short little blog with the most exciting news...
I finally got my baby chicks!!! Introducing...
Lady and Scarlet (Rhode Island Reds)
Dolly and Betty (Barred Rocks)
Jesus and The Professor (Americanas-These gals will lay blue-green eggs)
They are so cute and very lively! Maybe I'll post photos in a future blog :)

Live and Learn

....or, in this case, garden and learn. In this, my first year as a gardening aficionado, I'm making many newbie mistakes. Here are my latest:

I've lost nearly all of my tomato, brussel sprout, swiss chard and kale seedlings. Since I've never grown brussel sprouts or kale, I figured they were just wimpy little things. Tomatoes however, I've grown before. I was stumped!

Now I'm reading about seed starting in my 672 page Reader's Digest Guide to Gardening. Here is what the book says: "When the same soil is used repeatedly in the greenhouse, cold frame or even with potted plants, eventually it is almost certain to become infested with nematodes, fungi, and other soil-born pests and diseases. They can be destroyed by sterilizing the soil with heat or by using chemical soil fumigants."

There was my problem. I was trying to recycle potting soil. I was also trying to stretch the potting soil I bought by adding my own garden dirt. Apparently that's a "no-no". Gladly, I can sterilize the dirt myself by saturating it with several applications of boiling hot water. Sounds messy, but a heck of a lot better than using fumigants.

The next mistake is not yet a definite. I sowed new seeds just after the average last spring frost date (see March 2nd). Thinking they'd be safe from frost, I left them outside overnight. I'm pretty sure it was too cold for them, though. They should have sprouted by now and most haven't. Ho-hum :(

Anyway...I'll give you the lowdown on what I've sown and planted next entry. Adios!

Seed Planting and Killing

I sure hope my first year as a gardener is no reflection of how my first year of motherhood will go in the future! I'm so ditsy and neglectful! I left all of my seedlings directly in the hot sun a couple of days ago and killed about a third of them! Poor Babies! I still have about 10-15 of each of the following seedlings: tomatoes, kale, and broccoli, beets, and spinach. It's a good thing I planted, like, 50! That gave me a whole lot more wiggle room for mistakes and neglect! Now I've moved the seedlings into the shade. I'm sorry, seedlings!

I went sow-crazy yesterday: thyme, spearmint, beefsteak and cherry tomatoes (to replace the ones I killed), early summer crookneck squash, allsweet watermelon, tutti frutti snapdragons (like normal snapdragons but sort of candy-striped), tuscan sun hybrid bell peppers (I bought quite a few hybrid seeds, later discovering that I won't be able to cultivate their seeds since they're basically lab-created. oh well), and marigolds. Hopefully this time I'll be very careful and actually have 50 seedlings...so many that I won't know what to do with them and maybe have to pawn them off on friends and family :)

I must admit...I no longer make my own recycled seed starting pot-lets. I have succumbed to laziness. Although now I feel a lot less guilty because I've found that I can buy the jiffy seed starter pellets without the whole "greenhouse" ordeal. At the Home Depot across the street from Parkway Plaza, they sell just the pellets. Hooray!

I've got a lot more seeds to sow this month and the weather is absolutely gorgeous! I'm in gardening heaven!

Yay for weeding! Not. Well, it's not too bad on a sunny beautiful day like today. I got a lot done and have a lot more to go. I filled up our entire "green" trash bin this week (that's a lotta weeds)!

I sowed two rows of Burpee's "Kaliedescope" carrot mix right into the veggie patch today. I'm really excited about these because, aside from the normal orange carrots, there are also purple, red, and yellow carrots! They should be really fun! I like things to be a little out of the norm :)

No more brussel sprout or kale seedling casualties and no more gophers in the patch for today...fingers crossed it will stay that way.

Weeding, weeding, weeding. And more weeding to do tomorrow.

A darn gopher got through my gopher labyrinth and into my garden, but stole only one broccoli plant. Bummer, but at least he only took one. I need to better protect my poor veggies!

I planted more nasturtiums today, but the normal variety this time. The directions on this packet said to nick the seeds before sowing, so I did. I wonder if that makes them grow faster. I'm really excited for these guys to germinate and start crawling all over the place! I just love this flower!

I sowed some lavender seeds, also. Two varieties: Lady and True. True is said to have the traditional lavender scent and Lady blooms in the first year. I'm excited to have some perennial beauties in my yard!

Rainbow chard, brussel sprouts, and kale are proving not to be very hardy seedlings. Although I have some brussel sprout and kale survivors, quite a few of the sprouts decide to just wilt and die. I've tried watering them more, watering them less, putting them in the sun, and giving them less sun, but they're just wienie little plants, I guess. I hope I see at least some of them reach adulthood!

A couple of herb seeds sprouted! I can't tell if they're the thyme seedlings or the spearmint seedlings, though, since I put them all in the same bin. Time will tell!

I made some more pungent organic bug spray. Too bad there's not a fabulous organic gopher spray that I know of!

I ate my first homegrown salad today! Yay! Buttercrunch lettuce and carrots from my very own garden! Yay!

Tropically Inspired

After my visit to Kauai, I'm more garden-inspired than ever (it is affectionately know as the "Garden Island").

Right by our front porch, we have nearly empty stone terraces. Our plan has been to fill them with tropical-looking plants, especially because they surround our future jacuzzi area!

Of all places, I found a Hawaiian native plant at VONS! So I bought it, plunked it in one of the terraces, and surrounded it with other compatible plants I already had on hand. The first stone terrace is all done! Yay!

I also sowed some nasturtium seeds yesterday. These particular ones are the "Alaska" variety...same as the normal ones but their leaves are marbled green and white instead of just green. For once, I hope the soil isn't too rich...they won't flower well in rich soil. We'll see...

Setbacks

I left some of my seedlings out in the cold and rain. Unfortunately, out of all the rainbow chard planted, only a little over a handful of the seedlings are still alive :( "Bad Seedling Mommy". I also lost quite a few broccoli seedlings to insects....again, due to a bit of neglect. I really need to make some of that organic insect repellent! I never did. AND I knocked over my herb seeds (spearmint and thyme), so I re-sowed some new ones last night.

So.....note to self: take seedlings in at night and spray for bugs!

On a positive note, The brussel sprouts and kale seedlings are doing just fine. I also just had some of the tomatoes sprout in the last couple of days.

Everything up in the big veggie patch (carrots, buttercrunch lettuce, garlic, beets, broccoli, spinach) is doing just fine. They all loved the recent downpour and have been tolerating overnight frost really well. Now I just need to weed and spray for good measure!

I won't be doing any sowing for the next week because Tom and I leave for Kauai on MONDAY!!!!! Horaaaaay!

In the Last Couple of Days...

Sowed a handful of Thyme seeds

Transferred the only 5 rainbow chard seedlings to sprout so far into bigger starting pots, started doing the same with other sprouting seedlings (broccoli, brussel sprouts, and kale).

Sowed a bunch of beefsteak and cherry tomato seeds

Weeeeeeeeding the big veggie patch! A job never done!

Our house is kind of a mess, so until that's resolved there won't be quite as much work in the garden. However, for sanity's sake, I've gotta spend some time out there!

Transferred some broccoli seedlings up to the big veggie patch and mulched with oak leaves.

Noticed a few bites taken out of the newly transferred spinach. I'll have to brew some bug spray soon (this is a random concoction of garlic, pepper and soap). Maybe tonight? I've also heard that egg shells deter bugs. Maybe I'll separate the egg shells from my normal composting stuff and try mulching with that, too.

Sowed about 13 spearmint seeds (they're so tiny!) in little starter pots (actually they're plastic bottoms from random disposables that would otherwise become trash. Go Recycling!). The directions say to start them indoors and warm the bottoms. So, they're in the laundry room on top of the dryer. Hopefully the heat from drying my delicate loads and loads done on rainy days (all other loads go to the clothes line) will be enough! I don't want to resort to heating pads just yet.

I'm also talking to my mom about getting a group of people together who are interested in purchasing FFA animals (we're thinking a pig and a steer) for food. The positive of an FFA animal is its humane treatment and healthier lifestyle. I know it's a sad thought to bid on an animal who is eventually going to be on your dinner plate. But even more depressing is that most animals who arrive at the same plate rarely (if ever) see sunlight, live miserable lives (mostly in the same 20 square feet atop their own feces), and are fed all sorts of hormones and antibiotics. So, if you're like me and care about your health and the humane treatment of animals (but just can't seem to give up meat) hit me up and we can all go in together on a purchase. The auctions are in May.

!Hasta Luego!

Quicky

Brussel Sprouts, Kale, and Rainbow Chard are all sprouting. I brought them all indoors because of the nightly frost (which I so doubted would come). Alas, the weather has decided to be January (at least at night it has).

Got my Burpee seed order! Yaaaay!

Ignorance is Bliss

Well, maybe not ignorance. I ignored my garden for one day while I was busy celebrating my 2nd year of marriage. Tom and I received phone calls and messages all day wishing us a happy anniversary. Meanwhile, mother nature was busy wishing us a happy day, too! I'm going to take this as a good omen for a happy life with my husband.

The garlic cloves all shot up out of the ground at once. There were a few carrot seeds I had planted in the patch a while ago and almost gave up on. They sprouted. Even a couple of the recently sown brussel sprouts decided to show their faces! I'm in green-thumb heaven. To make life in the garden even happier, my Burpee order should be here any day now! And if that wasn't enough, the rain is seemingly going to coordinate with our weekend away. Mother nature is even going to help house sit by watering my garden for me!

A friend of Popeye

Along with brocolli sprouts, I got many new spinach sprouts!

"I'm strong to the finish when i eats me spinach. I'm Popeye the Sailor man. TOOT! TOOT!"

Take THAT George Bush (Senior)

Lots of new broccoli seedlings popped up this morning! Yay! I love broccoli! This guy doesn't...

“I do not like broccoli. And I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I'm President of the United States and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli.” -George Bush Senior

Lazy Day

I'm having a lazy day today (until I go to work-subbing for a friend), so here's what I did yesterday...

-sowed brussel sprouts, kale, and a few more silver beet (aka swiss chard, rainbow chard, or just plain chard) seeds. Must remember to take brussel sprouts and kale inside at nighttime.

-mulched broccoli and beet seedlings with fallen oak leaves (I feel like I'm getting all of my ideas from Cassie these days-she used pine needles).

-started a new and better compost pile

-Tom's still working on fixing his dad's old rototiller for me to use, so I hacked at the ground with the hoe and pick. Stupid hoe that has a 5 year promise! It's already bending on the forked side. I've had it for two weeks! Maybe it was a 5 year promise for people who don't use a hoe! Grrr! Anyway, I tilled up and weeded a couple of herb terraces and a couple of flowerbed terraces in anticipation of my Burpee seed delivery (just got an email from them saying they've been shipped-whohoo!).

-Started clearing the area around my fenced veggie garden. My mother-in-law advised me a few years ago that critters don't like the smell/taste of marigold plants. A combination of buried chicken wire (surrounding the entire veggie patch) and a marigold border kept my veggie patch critter-free in 2006. I'm also bordering the inside of my current veggie patch fence with various bulbs this year (I read online that gophers don't like the taste of those).
-

January and in the mid 70s...A little worried

This is going to be a quick post. I just wanted to get this thing started. Like my garden knome?

All of the seeds I was planning to sow in January and February instruct you to plant before the last frost or in early spring. Well, it's January 14th and 74 degrees farenheit in the shade. I'm a little worried. In good faith, I went ahead and sowed the silverbeet seeds that came in the mail today. "What are silverbeets?" wonders you... Imagine if spinach made sweet love to a rainbow and had little babies that somehow had beet roots (making the rainbow wonder if spinach was having an affair with the beetman). Yes, they are wonderful :) Tomorrow I will plant some kale and brussel sprouts and hope that they make it through this so-called winter we're having here in Southern California.

Here's what has sprouted and already been planted in the vegetable patch: carrots, onions, garlic, buttercrunch lettuce, broccoli, spinach, beets.

I put a huge order into Burpee's but am still awaiting my seeds. I've got plenty of preparation to do in the meantime!