Summer Garden Yield

Whew!!!  It has been a busy summer… so busy that I really haven't had the energy at the end of the day to post anything to the blog for months.  Since the last post about putting in the Spring Garden it's been go! go! go! non-stop  To say this year's garden was a much better success than our first year garden is an enormous understatement.

So …. how do you define garden success? - yield, of course.  Countless delicious meals and salads straight out of the garden all spring and summer - and all the yummy food put up in the freezer and canning jars to be enjoyed in the coming months.

Here are a few numbers to shock and amaze:
30 lb. of eggplant
640 lb. of tomatoes
125 lb. of peppers
13 lb. of broccoli
27 lb. of cabbage
42 lb. of carrots
9 lb. of spinach
27 lb. kale
70 lb. onions
32 lb. beets
382 lb. cantaloupes
52 lb. summer squash
34 lb. green beans
24 lb. peas
10 lb. swiss chard
plus absurd amounts of lettuce we didn't weigh
plus mountains of fresh basil, thyme, sage, rosemary, marjoram, oregano

We blanched and froze broccoli, kale, cabbage, peas, basil pesto, and green beans until the freezer was stuffed and we have canned 282 jars so far this season.

1/2 pints:  31 jars
pickled jalapeño slices
tomato paste
caramelized onions
sweet pepper relish
bruschetta topping

pints:  126 jars
beets
baby carrots
sauerkraut
green chile enchilada sauce
tomato sauce
ketchup
bbq sauce
dried tomatoes
diced New Mexico chiles
tomatillo salsa
peas
sweet red peppers
cayenne hot sauce

1 1/2 pints: 32 jars
tomato sauce

Quarts:  91 jars
sweet banana pepper rings
pickled beets
cut green beans
tomato sauce
whole san marzano tomatoes
diced san marzano tomatoes
whole rutger tomatoes
tomato juice
summer squash
dill pickles

The fall garden is going in right now.  We have planted broccoli and cabbage seedlings started back in late June.  We have flats of lettuce seedlings about be transplanted into the garden.  Direct sown peas are growing nicely now and we will plant fall carrots, kale and spinach this week.  Oh - and the sweet potato vines are running vigorously now and will have a crop ready for pulling around Oct 15th.

And to think - we have finished building a new fence along the west property line so next year we will expand the growing extravaganza even more by planting beds of sweet corn, watermelons, pumpkins and maybe some peanuts.

Stay tuned!

Spring Garden

Our first garden last year was a moderate success mixed with  quite a few failures.  The most important part is - we learned a lot.  A whole lot!  This year we have incorporated many of the lessons we learned.

After spreading fertilizer and the wood ashes we collected over the winter and adding compost and shredded leaves

I tilled the garden plot lightly at a shallow depth with our BCS 739 tiller.  1/4 of the garden is fallow this season and was planted last fall with a mixture of wheat we hand harvested last summer and red clover.  The area we are planting this year is 94' x 50'

The entire back part of our property slopes gently down hill.  Last year's garden was oriented according the property lines and although the rows ran essentially across the slope to prevent erosion, the rows still ran just slightly down hill from one end to the other.  This year we tweeked the orientation and skewed the entire garden so the rows run across the slope as before but the rows are level from end to end.

Last year we planted a few rows on raised ridges but most of the planting was done "on the flat".  With our soil and the pattern of rainfall the raised ridges are definitely the way to go, so this year I purchased a Hiller/Ridger attachment for the BCS tiller to make raised ridges and furrows in the entire garden.  19 rows each 94' long spaced from 24" apart to 42" apart.  Last year we did not start out with a drip irrigation system but quickly realized our adequate rainfall did not arrive steadily and uniformly, rather it arrived in sporadic heavy downpours with considerable dry spells in between.  We put in a drip system, which saved the day, then dismantled and stored everything over the winter.  This year we set up the drip system right at the beginning.  Each row is irrigated with 5/8" drip tape with integrated .25gph emitters spaced either 6" or 12" apart depending on the crop planted in that row.

Broccoli on the left and cabbage on the right on their raised ridges with straw mulch in between rows.

Tomato rows are spaced 3 feet apart.  We used the "Florida String Weave" method for supporting the plants last year which worked very well.  The plants are spaced 2 feet apart in the row with a t-post between between every 3 plants.  Baling twine is strung from post to post down one side of the posts and back up the other side to create a narrow slot for the main plant stems.  I'll post more images of this as the season progresses and the string weaving is added as the plants grow.

So far the spring has cooperated nicely for getting the garden off to a good start.  We have peas, carrots, beets, spinach, lettuce, swiss chard, kale, broccoli, cabbage, and onions all in and growing well.  We just planted the 135 tomato and tomatillo seedlings and poked in the green bean seeds.  Next we will plant the squash seeds.  The eggplant and pepper seedlings have all been potted up from 6-packs to individual 3.5" pots and will be transplanted into the garden in a couple of weeks.

Whew!  After some hard work in the garden Kenny has the right idea.  Take a siesta in the perfect country chaise lounge with the warm sun relaxing away tired muscles.

Is it Spring Yet?

There has been enough of this … it's not fun.

OK … some of it is fun

but when it's cold outside there is lots of this going on ….

Ah … but now this is happening ...

So … we are getting ready to, uh … sow

Now if only the ground would dry out enough to plant the early Spring broccoli, cabbage, onions, spinach and peas …

No doubt about it.  It's Spring!

Barn Restoration

This old barn, actually a corn crib with attached shed rows, sits down below the house near the edge of the garden plot.  It was not on the property we bought but clearly belonged to the original homestead.  The discrepancy between the traditional property lines established a long time ago (from this tree to that rock, to the edge of the creek, etc.) and the property lines established by more modern surveys based on iron pins set by agreement among the property owners in the early 1900's meant that the barn was no longer technically on the property, but nobody bothered to move the existing fences until my piece of property was carved out of a larger whole.  My neighbor and I worked out a deal and an additional 1/2 acre of land including this barn was deeded over to me.

You can see the large piles of debris we pulled out from underneath the shedrows.  Some went to to the dump, some into the burn pile and the useful timbers were stacked under the shed rows for some unnamed future projects.

We moved a couple of cubic yards of dirt to fill holes and level the floor on the North side so the lawn tractor and tiller could be stored under the roof instead of under the tarps they had been living under for the past year.

The main peak roofed building is a very sturdy slat wall corn crib that is entirely lined with 1/2" hardware cloth making it vermin and critter proof.  This has been swept out and will be the chicken coop this spring and summer.

South side view.  You can see the shedrows have collapsed on each side the corn crib which will be repaired with rafters, boards and tin roofing salvaged from the old log cabin being dismantled elsewhere on the property.

North side view.  The equipment is all under this portion of the shedrow.  All the rouge saplings and trees growing up all around the barn will be removed next, before the restoration work starts of the structure.

West side view.  Trees need to be removed.  You can see the shed row is in good shape on the North (right) end and is collapsed / gone on the South (left) end.

As the work slowly progresses I'll post more about this project.  Wish us luck!