Hard to believe it has been 11 days since my last post.  Twelve?  Too long.  I am so busy, not much time for blogging.  Today I went out to the farm and planted the next row of corn.  Yesterday, Kylie and Michelle planted the beans in the first row.  We have corn plants already!  And they were noticeably taller today than yesterday.  They are doing well.

I also planted the next two zucchini plants. I only plan on doing the four, but I might add a couple more.  Those plants are hyper-productive.  The first two are out of the soil with good, strong cotyledons.

Aside from the above, we have a few strong sunflower seedlings and some borage.  I don't know if we have anything else.  All the other seedlings in the beds are either grass, weeds, or could be weeds or crops.  :)

At home, the tomato seedlings are kicking ass, most of the peppers are looking good, and we have onion seedlings.  We have a bunch of marigold sprouts, but they don't look too good.  The corbaci peppers have not sprouted.  Only one of about 9 seeds came up.  I am going to replace the corbaci with more of one of the other kinds.  I'm also concerned about the strawberries, wormwood and chamomile.

The lemon balm are growing, but the leaves don't seem so healthy.  They just feel dry and papery instead of moist/oily, and they tend to go yellow/brown or curl.  But the plants seem vigorous.  Go figure.  The mint and strawberry plants are strong.

All-in-all, a good start to our farming venture.  Challenges of course remain (understatement), and we will have to start figuring out a plan for moving our operations to New York City.

Much Progress

It has been a week since my last post, and much has been done, much has happened.  We now have seedlings of every type of tomato and pepper, with almost all of the tomatoes having sprouted.  Next mission is keeping the seedlings alive long enough to put into the ground.  When we do put them in the ground, we need a windbreak in place, to protect them from the high winds at our garden plot.  So far I would say the only weakness of the garden plot is its exposure to high winds.  It is a real issue that must be resolved in a real way.  Because the winds come across those open fields from the west and can mow down an entire garden of small plants.

Saturday and Sunday we went out to The Farm and put some serious work into the beds.  Two of the main beds are fully prepared with turned soil, the square foot grid, and protective screen.  In those beds, Kylie has planted the sunflowers, carrots and borage.  Everything else is seeded indoors.  On Sunday, I got two of the Three Sisters Mounds dug, and we planted the corn.  I will dig the third one today when I go out there after court.  Kylie planted sweet corn.  I need to see if there is an issue with cross-pollination between the sweet and indian corn and what we would have to do about it.

Pictures!

One view from our garden location.  These views are a big part of the peacefulness we feel out there.  It is a beautiful location.

An Overview.
This shot shows the whole garden area.  That black-clad figure is me.  Behind me is our friend's plot.  In the foreground is the shared excess plot.  That is where my Three Sisters Mounds, Zucchini Mounds, and Potato Patches will go.  In front of me are my beds.  The white square next to me is the water tank.  The farm has a creek and a pond.  My friend pumps the water into the tank, and we use it from there.

The Beds
You can see the grid laid over the soil.  That allows for the square-foot planning.  Those beds will have sunflowers, tomatoes, peppers, onions, carrots, cape gooseberries, strawberries, and the companion herbs (basil, borage, chamomile, marigold, nasturtium).

The Supervisor
What is a farm without a Supervisor keeping everybody in line?  There she is.  "OK, guys!  Keep working!  Make me lots of pretty green things to tear up!"

Fred and Kylie working diligently under the Supervisor's watchful eyes.  In the background are three of the cows my friend has.

The Horses.

The Chickens.
These are some of the lovely ladies who give us our eggs.  Thank you, ladies, keep up the good work!

So there you see the Farm.  Within a couple weeks, we hope to have a bunch of green coming out of that brown soil.  Enough work has gone into it -- and NO CHEMICALS.  No fertilizer, no pesticides, no weedkillers.  Just compost.  It is good soil.  The Ph is right, and it has a good blend of nutrients.  Over time, we will make it into great soil.

Meanwhile, back at Grace House Gardens, last night I put the rest of the seeds in soil.  First I planted the seed starting tray with:

6 Giant Cape Gooseberries
45 assorted Marigolds
3 Chinese Lanterns
9 Calendula
9 Wormwood (absinthium)

The first two will go to the Farm.  The last three will remain here at Grace House Gardens.  Also started were a tray of Gold Princess and Bronze d'Amposta onions for the Farm, and a tray of German Chamomile for both locations.

I forgot the damn wild strawberries!  Grr.  Today I will try to get those planted.

We have had some difficulty with the plants here.  We lost a strawberry plant to wind coming through the window.  The lemon balm are mostly not looking great after transplanting.  Could be transplanting shock.  Could be the high heat we had.  Could be over-watering.  The primrose bloomed and looked pretty.  The other strawberry plants are looking ok.  I think a small animal is going to steal my fruit.  The spearmint looks great.  We almost lost the basil and spinach on our windowsill to heat and wind, but managed to save it.

So that is what is going on here.