Tomorrow marks two weeks until all of our lucky CSA members are receiving great food every week from our garden, which is busy growing with all of us busy tending it!
Ironically, when I went to post this, I noticed that Thomas must have taken the opportunity of a rainy day to post some photos of his chicken tractor as well! Knowing that I'll never get it done if I don't do it now, I'm going to step on his toes and put this up anyhow.
Here's a photo of half of our wonderful playful kittens, who occupy all and every moment of my breaks in the day. They are unplanned moments when I go into the barn to get something and have to stop to enjoy 10 minutes of 6 kittens piling all over me! Some have names, but the 3 orange ones are consolidated into one and called "Ginga".
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| If you thought two weren't cute enough, check out the background, between the tails! |
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| The caterpillar tunnels are holding up well in the wind; in the foreground there is a buckwheat cover crop, potatoes, beans, etc! |
Glorious lettuce, growing for the first CSA boxes in 2 weeks time!
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| Radishes, tomatoes staked in the tunnel, and lettuce |
If you knew Jon, you'd know he's been waiting all season to do this. We picked up this landscape fabric from a local greenhouse that shut down. It is used for mulching, which is a technique that us organic growers need to use to control weeds. First he lays a strip of drip tape, which is the most efficient way to water when you have a limited supply like we do- the water literally "drips" from the length of hose and permeates the ground all the way to the plants roots- no wasted water due to evaporation or pooling. He lays the fabric on the beds and holds it down by first putting rocks and then burying the edges. THEN (and this is the part he likes!) he heats up his metal-can-on-a-stick with a blow torch and burns a hole to plant though, cauterizing the edges of the fabric so it doesn't fray. Then he plants into the holes: These beds were winter squash, as the corn is in the middle: the squash will grow around the corn, and the racoons detest stepping on the spines of the squash leaves, so they will leave our corn alone (we hope!) And then, because we've just seen our first striped cucumber beetles, we cover the squash transplants with row cover until it flowers. Whew!
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| Yes, that is broccoli! |
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| The main greenhouse, full of tomatoes |
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| Our little house, which I painted as a surprise to Jon when he returned from Calgary. That's not a doghouse inside the fence, it's a duck-house! |
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| Trellising in the field for the tomatoes |
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| Motley! |
If you knew Jon, you'd know he's been waiting all season to do this. We picked up this landscape fabric from a local greenhouse that shut down. It is used for mulching, which is a technique that us organic growers need to use to control weeds. First he lays a strip of drip tape, which is the most efficient way to water when you have a limited supply like we do- the water literally "drips" from the length of hose and permeates the ground all the way to the plants roots- no wasted water due to evaporation or pooling. He lays the fabric on the beds and holds it down by first putting rocks and then burying the edges. THEN (and this is the part he likes!) he heats up his metal-can-on-a-stick with a blow torch and burns a hole to plant though, cauterizing the edges of the fabric so it doesn't fray. Then he plants into the holes: These beds were winter squash, as the corn is in the middle: the squash will grow around the corn, and the racoons detest stepping on the spines of the squash leaves, so they will leave our corn alone (we hope!) And then, because we've just seen our first striped cucumber beetles, we cover the squash transplants with row cover until it flowers. Whew!
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