Growing

Things really like to grow here! It is quite a joy to walk around our little farm and see things thriving. I can't say we've really put in that many hours of labor, either. We've used some older-than-the-hills seeds (5 years old in some cases) so even when things germinate I've been excited. Hurray for low standards! That's some napa above, with a lone green cabbage plant and some Red Russian kale.

I have two gardens growing, one up by the house where the previous owner had a garden and a plot in the corner of our 3 acre tilled area that was in corn/soybeans in years past.

This is the plot by the house, any bare area you see is where I am expanding for next year. We just planted buckwheat in these areas to act as a ground cover and to add fertility. I wanted to avoid planting in sod. My vision is to make this into a large asparagus and raspberry patch. We got quite a bit of asparagus out of the existing row that has just in the past week gone into the huge healthy fern stage.

I started tomato plants in St. Paul, and my in-laws had some extra plants, so I now have over 40 tomato plants growing here. I might have to take some trips to the farmers' market this fall to get rid of some of them, as they all look awesome, even the pathetic 2" plants I transplanted are a good 3 feet tall already and full of blooms and little green fruits.

We've been eating basil like crazy. And the purslane. Wow, can't eat all of that. Purslane is a "weed" that is super tasty and high in omega-3s. It also looks prehistoric, which is fun.

The other garden plot has been put mostly into buckwheat but we saved this corner for some personal vegetables. We've had some pressure from cucumber beetles - oh how I hate them - and also deer, but I think we've gotten past the point of no return and will end up with some bounty. I think our first zucchini will be ready to harvest tomorrow and we're going to have buckets of green beans in no time. And beets. We had a lot of beet seed.

A rogue red lettuce seed made it into the green beans. Sneaky fellow.

Orange day lilies are everywhere right now. I look out any window and see them so I feel I need to coordinate my paint colors and fabric choices.
Ahhhh, blue skies after a day of rain.

This is our chicken coop, the old milk house attached to the barn. We've let the chicks out for a 1/2 hour or so, but we're worried the dog and cats will bother them, so I suppose we'll have to build a fence. Wonk wonk wonk....
Green!!!